Page 86 of Damian & Jun, Episodes 9-12
Jun nodded. Noted. Keep eye on kitten. Oops, nope, not kitten. Collin. He didn’t have permission from Collin’s doms to call him kitten yet.
Down the street, the rumble of a large truck approached. Jun squinted through the early-morning light. That looked like the dumpster arriving. This early, no one else was around. Snow clung to the ground, several days old and packed down to a frozen two or three centimeters.
His phone rang. He nodded to Damian and Collin and stepped into the Parsonage to get away from the noise of the large truck rattling up over potholes. “Speaking,” he said into the phone as he shut the door.
“It’s me,” Yun grunted. “Is this too early?”
“I’m already at work. How’d court go yesterday? Did Bak Gyeong show up?” Jun started moving small bits of furniture that he could handle with one hand. It was too cold to stand around doing nothing.
“He did, and he showed a contract for the first time. He’s suing SP4700Y and 5N for lost revenue due to breaking said contract and asking for a hold on the royalties coming to your new bank accounts.”
Jun grimaced. The only surprising thing was that Bak Gyeong showed up himself. “What does the contract look like?”
“I’m pretty sure we’re going to be able to prove it’s false based on when the font was copyrighted. He’s angling for 5N to resign with BBB3. They offered terms.”
“Not a chance.”
“I know.” Yun yawned. “You and Mr. Sathers will have my counter arguments tomorrow. My backup argument invalidates the contract based on BBB3. We can prove they didn’t even keep what’s written in this farce. None of you was ever paid as much as this contract said you would be paid. Either way, whoever is advising this guy is an idiot.”
“Bak probably hasn’t had to do things aboveboard since he got his hands on me.” Jun huffed out a long, cold breath. “What about the murder charges? Is anyone still trying to get a prosecutor to pick them up?”
“No movement one way or another. I still don’t have a name for who was put forward as a witness. I think your testimony was enough to shut down a real investigation. They can blame faulty wiring or a freak accident for the death. I think they’re just deciding if they actually want to do that.”
Jun bit the inside of his cheek. It felt wrong, avoiding a trial because the other side wanted to pretend nothing untoward had happened.
“I guess if Bak is still showing up in court then, then the kidnapping charges are going nowhere, too.”
“Dead in the water,” Yun confirmed.
Jun shook his head and kicked a broken stool towards the front door to be taken out. As long as neither case was picked up, they were in a holding pattern. He couldn’t go back to Seoul without potentially having the case activated and a warrant going out for his arrest, but neither did it seem like he was going to clear his name and get Bak held to account.
“These things take time,” Yun huffed. “It’s been, what, something like a month?”
“Thirty-three days.” Jun growled.
“That’s not very much time in terms of the law. For now, no news is good news, I promise.”
Jun sighed. They ended the call. Jun started dragging the large chair that matched the stool out to the porch. Collin heard him going through the front door and jogged over to help. “Don’t hurt yourself.”
Jun grunted. Right now, a little pain sounded good. But he couldn’t take it out on Collin. He nodded and forced a smile. “Right. Sorry. Thanks.”
“Damian is in the kitchen. We need to get the appliances outside for the pickup.”
Jun checked his pocket for work gloves. “Right. That. Let’s do it.”
They made quick work between the three of them of getting the stove and dishwasher outside. The refrigerator was missing already. All that was left was tearing out the sink.
Damian pulled off his gloves and checked the time. “I have to get to the office.”
“We got this.” Jun stepped in closer. “Tonight though?”
“Tonight, we finish that contract.” Damian’s smile reached his eyes. “May and Anna have the kids.”
Finally. Just because Thaddeus had been arrested hadn’t meant that the kids suddenly had a place to live. Which was one of the reasons they were now throwing everything they had into getting the Parsonage in working order. May, Cedric, and Anna had all started the paperwork for temporary custody, but for now, Damian was still carrying all the responsibility and the cost.
Yohei and Geun showed up an hour after Damian left. They both had work gloves and heavy clothes.
“You didn’t have to,” Jun said, hugging both of them at once.
