Page 39 of Damian & Jun: Episodes 5-8
He hadn’t been able to fight a nothingness that was everything, twisting around his arms and legs and coiling around his own throat, threatening to choke him as surely as Jun had been losing his fight to live.
In the waking world, Damian lifted his hand and traced over the marks on Jun’s face, the healing cut on his mouth, and the bruising across his shoulder. He stroked Jun’s hands and parted the robe, touching the bruises on Jun’s belly.
Jun was alive. Jun was healing. Jun had fought back. Damian had fought for him. They had won for the moment. They were going to win. Jun was going to be free.
He hugged Jun, leaning his forehead against Jun’s shoulder. “I was watching you die.”
Jun hugged him back. “I’m alive.”
“He was killing you.”
“Who?”
“My father. And his friends.”
“They don’t get to kill me.”
Damian laughed. He leaned back to see Jun’s face.
Jun was grinning. He blushed and shrugged. “I have standards. I won’t let them. And you won’t let them. And if they even tried, Richard…”
They laughed at the same time.
“He’d tear them apart,” Damian said.
Damian and Jun dressed in a mishmash of sweats pants and T-shirts from Damian’s dresser. Together, they put the living room back to rights. Jun took the dishes to the kitchen, and Damian made more coffee. Jun passed on a second round of coffee but rummaged in the pantry for one of Damian’s instant milk tea kits.
“I need to catch up on things,” Damian said as they finished making their drinks.
“I’ll be around.” Jun motioned to the hallway. “I should work out a little, at least stretch.”
“Let me know if you need anything.”
Jun bit his cheek. “How about paper? Maybe something to record with?”
“For music?”
Jun nodded.
“There’s a recording app on the phone you have. I’ll get some paper and pens. Do you need anything else for your work?”
“Eventually, a keyboard and a computer with music software. One of the ones where you can hook the keyboard to the computer. It’s not necessary right now. Bak will try to claim anything he thinks I’m creating.”
Damian grimaced. “He’s not getting even one more song out of you.”
Jun smiled, shadows in his eyes. He held his hand out and fist-bumped. “Agreed.”
Damian made a note in his head to reach out to Mi Hi and get her to question the other 5N members about what exactly Jun preferred to use. The vagueness in Jun’s voice and the careful shrug were dead giveaways that Jun was trying not to ask for too much. Damian didn’t have the liquid cash to go buy Jun a music studio on a whim, but a keyboard and laptop and some software was something he could do.
Damian set up in the living room. Jun wandered down the hallway. He was probably going to hang out in the lounge. Which was good.
Within moments of opening his computer, Damian was deep into emails. Yun had been busy, but so had Bak’s lawyers and the police in Seoul. Mi Hi had also forwarded him messages. By now, word had gone out that Mi Hi was 5N’s communications agent, and she was getting contacted left and right. Thank all the gods and goddesses that she already knew her role. She’d sorted information by type and urgency and summarized each with personal suggestions as to how to respond, and then she’d run the appropriate chunks by Yohei before even sending anything on to Damian.
Jun only had text messages on his phone, not even email yet, so Mi Hi was sending everything to Damian directly. Fans were split whether or not Jun was dating the American, but almost all were horrified by the bruises and cuts the cameras had captured at the restaurant and during the shopping trip. It was buying a significant amount of sympathy. BBB3 was not faring well.
They should probably get Jun some sort of social media presence, but with so much legal shit hitting the fan, it was probably best that everything filter through Mi Hi. She had firm control over what the other four were posting already, and it was going well. Damian took a quick look at Su-jin’s social media. It was tasteful. A short recent video showing Su-jin curled up with Geun on a couch with the caption “Finally getting some rest. Big brother Jun says he’s doing well.” It was marked for the day they had arrived at the estate. The next day he’d posted: “Big sister Mi Hi makes good cookies, but I’m too sleepy.” And then that morning he’d posted: “Not where I thought I’d be for the last day of the year. Are you where you thought you’d be?” There were several hundred replies, and he’d responded to more than fifty of them, just being a good human and trying to encourage fans in their lives. The messages asking Su-jin if Jun was gay had been ignored.
Damian smiled. He looked at the other three’s social media. Geun wasn’t very active, but he’d liked a few things, reposted a video about a frog, and left a picture of himself giving a thumbs-up on another K-pop band’s page for the announcement of a comeback. Yohei was active, posting a more official-style note that he was traveling over the holidays and wished everyone well and asked them about their goals for the new year. He listed his own as “make awesome music with kick-ass people” and “love life” and “be a true friend”. Jaewoong was somewhere in between Geun and Su-jin. He’d posted a picture of himself with deer in the background.
