Page 49 of Damian & Jun, Episodes 13-16
Yohei coughed and looked away, shoving his hands in his pockets.
They only had three days before the contractors would be in the sanctuary setting up for the floating floor. Before then, all the scenes they wanted to shoot in the space had to be done and the birdcage cleared out. To meet the timeline, the set pieces for “Haunted Doll” had been kept simple. They’d set up an old-fashioned speak-easy in the basement and hired a couple of actors to play old, large men bartering to buy Su-jin dressed as a doll, complete with a white Victorian dress and overdone makeup that enlarged his eyes and made him look luminous.
Everything was going to be filmed in order of sequence because Su-jin’s dress had to be destroyed by degrees. They were dancing on the edge of censorship. Halfway through, he was going to “die” at the bottom of the birdcage, falling dramatically from the swing and then singing to his death in sawdust at the bottom. Then the rest of them would come in and bring him into their ranks of discarded dolls haunting the men who had sold and used them. Except as they descended on their abusers, they would find only shriveled hearts. Su-jin would burn them all and join them in the flames only to be reborn as a winged angel standing in fire at the front of the church.
The fire was the hardest part. With money Jun had gotten access to through the court case against his father, he’d hired a stunt director and fire safety professionals. They were going to do a controlled, short burn with Su-jin dressed like the archangel Gabriel, great white wings, white armor and a long white sword.
It was massively ambitious, though there was less dancing in this video. The stage production was going to differ greatly from the MV.
“Don’t get too crazy,” Jun said. “Our schedule is tight.”
Su-jin flung his arms around Jun. “Whatever you say, daddy.”
Jun groaned and pushed him off.
“Nervous?” Jaewoong said.
Jun grimaced.
Geun slapped Jun on the shoulder. “We got this. Su-jin, let’s get you in makeup.”
Su-jin jumped up and ran after Geun. Yohei pinned Jun with a look as the two of them disappeared towards the foyer where their “backstage” was set up. “Hyung?”
Jun pressed his lips together. “We’ve never cross-dressed in one of our videos.”
Yohei nodded, then let his head fall back, looking up towards the top of the cage. “It’s an archetype. Picking Su-jin was perfect. I thought you’d pick yourself.”
Jun shook his head. “He’s better for it.” Su-jin sold fragile strength in a way none of the rest of them could.
Damian
Damian shot off one more email to his assistant and courtesy copied Eleanor. His eyes were blurry from working since five-thirty that morning. It was—Damian squinted at the little square at the top right of the screen—six forty-five. He’d been traveling the day before, meeting with prosecutors from Canada to arrange for the arrest of known Canadian Merchari agents. They’d signed on, agreeing to the wait and the secrecy. They hadn’t wanted to, but when promised the criminal supply chain was going down, they’d agreed.
The Mexican law enforcement had been helpful in getting them to agree. It was a mess, though, working with only pieces of each country's departments, easing their way around known bad actors and compromised officials. It left everyone operating in slight limbo, dotting their i’s and crossing their t’s. And it meant that whenever Damian was in his office, he was pulling double the hours. He couldn’t appear to have an entire second job. The last three days Jun had been filming, so he’d been no better at keeping sane hours than Damian. He’d been sleeping at the Parsonage.
A knock came at the door. Damian looked up and rubbed his eyes. It was Collin, dressed in one of his work suits, looking suave and classic like he always did, hair brushed to the right, his fade short on the sides. Someone had been to the barber recently.
Damian ran his hand over his own head. When had he last gone himself? No, it still felt short enough.
“Hey,” Collin said.
“Hey.” Damian blinked back.
“Ready to get out of here?”
“Uh…”
“Jun’s done filming. He’s asking for you to come down to the Church.”
Damian looked back at his computer. Could he leave? Were there any fires he couldn’t put off to tomorrow?
Collin sauntered into the office, smelling like Richard and fresh baked bread. He leaned over Damian’s shoulder. “What’s left?”
Damian groaned. “I don’t even know.”
“Move.” Collin pushed Damian and his office chair to the side and leaned over his keyboard. “Any sensitive client information if I check your email?”
“Um…probably.”
