Page 94 of Damian & Jun, Episodes 13-16
“I think it’s awesome, what you and Yohei are doing, having dance classes for the neighborhood kids.”
“We want to give back. This is our home now, isn’t it? Su-jin’s doing that whole sister classroom deal with the school and his sister’s school. Geun’s fixing up Aunt Josie’s place with Alice and Ash. We all need a place, right?”
“You don’t have to,” Jun gripped Jaewoong’s arm. “You do so much here, with the Parsonage, and Habibi, and all our 5N stuff. You’re basically our mixer and producer now.”
“And you do most the writing, and spend hours up here with me, putting it all together, and doing all the PR with Mi Hi, and the accounting. Yohei is our negotiator. Geun’s our artist. Su-jin’s getting good with being a front man. We all have jobs.”
“Ack, accounting. Do not remind me.”
Jaewoong grinned. “Still in court with all that stuff?”
“I’m not sure we’ll ever be out of court. It’s going to be years. The forensic accountants say they’ve barely started in, what with all the new records that were recovered in the raids.”
Jaewoong shook his head. “Sorry, man. I don’t know what to say. I’m just glad I’m only dealing with some of that.”
Jaewoong put Habibi up on his shoulders. Jun put the little guy’s water bottle in the pocket of Jaewoong’s cargo pants so he wouldn’t lose it, and they parted on the bottom steps.
Collin was just inside the old foyer space, signing off on product demos with contractors. Jun left him to it with a nod of his head and wandered into the sanctuary. He already had new music videos planned for when the space was finished. Currently, it was in total chaos. Most of the floor was gone, only a few old sections being left on purpose in their ruined states. Plywood had been laid down between support beams here and there for walkways. Everywhere else was open to the floor below, exposed beams, pipes, and wiring on display. Steel framing had been set down, some of it all the way into the ground below the foundation to support the new floors that would be the base of the performing space. The structure for green space columns that would punctuate the performance space were already in place. It looked like all the structural elements were finished, or nearly finished. Jun peered up at the ceiling, now closed with glass and grinned. They were so, so much closer.
“Thought I saw you.” Jun looked up to see Collin jogging towards him. “Damian’s downstairs.”
“Should I go through the side door, or can I go through here?”
Collin nodded to the sanctuary. “Just stay on the plywood path and wear this. Actually, follow me. I’m going that way.”
Jun took the hard hat and put it on. “How’s it going?”
Collin smiled a little, looking tired but satisfied. “The sanctuary should be open for the winter holidays. Only the sanctuary, but we’ll also have the new upper level entrance open and the lower foyer will be closed except for the elevator section. So we’ll be that far.”
“Don’t downplay it,” Jun looked around. It looked nothing like a space almost ready to be used, but if Collin said so, he was going to believe him. He’d been right about pretty much everything else. “Just this space alone is a massive piece of work.”
Collin grinned, bashful and tired. They made it to the other end of the sanctuary. The side door to the grass was open. Richard, safety gear wrapped around his face, was pulling pews apart just outside the door. He had a pile of old nails in a coffee can beside his feet.
Jun shoulder bumped Collin gently. “There’s your master. I’m going to go find Damian.”
“He’s with Jackson and Rory.”
Jun raised an eyebrow. “Perfect, I’ll get to meet them, finally.”
Jun jogged down the stairs behind the old altar space. He passed one locked door as he navigated the basement. Nondescript, but closed nonetheless. He paused, staring at it. Should he? If he touched it, he knew it would be locked. Likely triple locked.
Jun swallowed and bowed his head for a moment. Today wasn’t the day to try again. But he would, soon. He went past the door and into the warren of half demolished old classrooms and hallways with their overhead exposed to the construction above.
Two unfamiliar men were with Damian, right in the middle of it all. A lot of the walls had been pulled down as they’d checked the supports for the levels above or sank in new ones. Jun kicked a bit of dry wall out of the way. They really needed to finish clearing out the last of the old walls and carpeting.
Damian leaned against one of the new support pillars, hands in his pockets, listening to the man with shoulder length dirty blond hair. The man had a Stetson in one hand and looked like someone who worked out and worked with his body for a living. As Jun approached, he turned. His eyes crinkled up into a warm smile above his neatly trimmed mustache. The man beside him had darker hair, cut into shorter, tousled lengths. Like the other man, he wore jeans, but instead of a vest and button-down shirt he had a band T-shirt and a double looped leather bracelet with buckles. Spicy friendship indeed.
“Jun, this is Jackson,” Damian said, straightening up and waving towards the man holding the Stetson. “And his submissive, Rory,” he gestured to the darker-haired man.
Rory blushed. Jackson offered his hand. Jun shook it, giving as firm as he got. The man was strong but he didn’t try to overpower. Jun offered his hand to Rory. The darker haired man blushed and accepted, shaking with the same firmness, if less eye contact.
“We’re talking about the dungeon,” Damian said.
“I figured.” Jun waved at the space around them. “Otherwise, I’d be worried. This place has really been trashed all over again.”
“The bin comes tomorrow. It’ll be cleared out soon.”
Jun nodded. “So, what are the ideas?”
