Page 10 of Damian & Jun, Episodes 1-4 (The Residency Boys #6)

Cheonggyecheon Stream was a beautiful place of impermanence, a natural stream that ran below the level of the buildings, streets, and corridors around it.

In previous decades, it had been paved over, but with the revival of the surrounding city, the stream had been given back its bed, updated, structured, beautified with art, and allotted a space in which its waters could once again bring life to the city.

In the summer, as Damian had often seen it, birds and fish were in plentiful supply, and some sections had small water grasslands while at others the cement steps of the meandering park built on its banks dropped all the way to the lip of the water.

Old men fished quietly and children crouched on the edge of the water, pointing to things below the surface.

Women in sandals made their way across the water, moving from one cement pillar to another, while the water flowed beneath them, their tops solid steps on the very surface of the stream that still allowed free movement of everything aquatic.

Cheonggyecheon was no less beautiful if less obviously populated during December. The sun had just set, and colored lights and Christmas decorations accented the cooler beauty of cool stream and pale stone bridges.

Gigi stood at the end of one of these bridges, arms crossed under her bosom.

She was as dark as Damian himself, but dressed in loose white hip-hop pants with extra belts.

They were done up in drawstrings at the ankles, making them billow out over her matching white sneakers.

Her top was black and cropped, and she wore a leather harness over it, threaded with sparkly white shoe strings through a variety of grommets.

Her puffy cropped coat hung low around her shoulders and open all the way to the waist where the zipper barely held it together.

Her hair was braided to her head in two thick Dutch braids starting at the center of her forehead and rolling back to either side of her neck behind her ears.

A white knitted hat hung off the back of her head.

Small silver hoops in her ears reflected back the festive lights, changing color with each movement she made.

She saw Damian almost as fast as he saw her.

It wasn’t like there were a lot of people who looked like either one of them.

“You do look like your LinkedIn profile.” She sauntered up to him, thumbs hooked into belt loops, and looked him up and down. “Damn. Are you single?”

“Gay.”

“Damn it again. Why are all the good-looking ones taken or gay?”

“Maybe you’re looking in the wrong places.”

“Naw, just not looking. But I can look .” She raised her eyebrows suggestively.

Damian shook his head, and she grinned. They fell into step with each other, keeping it moving along the water. In a somewhat quieter area, away from fishing grandfathers and nosy kids, Gigi paused. “Do you know where Jun is?”

“Yes.”

“Why did he disappear?”

“Bak’s trying to force him into sleeping with someone.” There was no point in beating around the bushes. Gigi didn’t have that vibe, and her future was probably on the line in some form or fashion either way if 5N crashed.

She digested that for a moment, not questioning, just pushing her fingers through more belt loops and scuffing at a leaf on the ground.

She squinted up at Damian after a moment. “What are you to him?”

“He hasn’t put a label on us. I consider him my person.”

“So, what do you need me for?”

“Bak is holding Jun’s passport. Without it, I can’t get him out of the country. And if Jun stays…”

“Bak’s real chummy with the chief of police. They’re like old schoolmates or something. Yeah, I see the problem.”

Looking up as if the sky had answers, she huffed and shoved her hands deep into her pockets.

“There’re only two places they’d hold it unless Bak is keeping it with his personal papers.

I’m not into all the goings-on. I’m just a contractor.

There’s this girl. Her English name is Julie.

I don’t know her Korean one. If she knew she could get a job elsewhere, she’d probably be willing to help us.

Let me invite her to lunch.” Gigi whipped out her phone and shot off a text. “We will have to lie to her.”

“That’s fine.”

“Then let’s get our story straight. How much time do we have?”

“I don’t know. Bak gave Jun until the first of the year.”

“And today is the twenty-sixth though it’s almost over. But now that he’s missing…” Gigi trailed off, staring off into the distance. “Yeah, if it wasn’t for the kids, I’d have kicked this gig a long time ago. Worth it.”

“BBB3 bad place to work?”

Gigi snorted. “God-awful. I get by by playing the dumb American card. And they think I’m kinda weird. I mean, I am, but…I can cosplay human when I want to.”

Damian chuckled like he was supposed to.

She smiled back. “It’s a good thing that I’m worth what they pay me; otherwise, they’d have fired my ass. But the fans love the shit I put out, and my idols always give me what I want, you know, so…the boss boys put up with me when I don’t put up with them.”

Her phone twittered, and she thumbed the screen. “Okay, Julie is down to hang. I told her to meet me at this café near her place. You up for a bit of a walk?”

A bit of a walk was more like fifteen minutes. Richard texted he was at the hotel. Now they just needed Jun to make it there as well.

* * *

Julie was a slim, shy-looking woman with waist-length hair and the kind of face that would probably look forever young with puffy baby cheeks and wide eyes made even larger by lash extensions and makeup.

Dressed in a skater skirt and light sweater, she was clutching her purse on her lap, and her hair was up in a ponytail.

Her coat hung over the back of her chair.

“Gigi.” She jumped to attention as soon as they stepped through the door of the café.

Gigi waved hello and greeted Julie with a hug. “This is my friend Damian.”

Confusion crossed over Julie’s eyes. Gigi leaned in and whispered, “He has a problem, well, he’s solving a problem, and I think we can help him. Let me go order something. Oh, he speaks Korean.”

Damian made a bow for a person on the same social level as himself and then held out his hand. She bowed back and shook with him, briefly, her hand small and barely curled as if she’d never learned how to do a Western handshake. She probably hadn’t.

She gestured at the table and sat down, smoothing her skirt as Damian took a seat. “You’re American? Like Gigi?”

“From Chicago, yes.” Damian set his briefcase down between his feet. “Gigi says you might be able to help me resolve some issues quietly.

“What kind of issues?”

“Tax issues. My boss owns a lot of property, and we have to file taxes in different ways depending on how those properties make money. Right now, I have three different official ID numbers filed for one of the performers that came through. They don’t match.

I need to resolve who these numbers are assigned to and come back with proof. ”

Julie frowned and glanced toward Gigi. “Why not contact the office?”

“Well, I have, but I’m getting ignored, and I need to resolve this before filing season starts on the first of the year, so I reached out to Gigi, here, to see who I should talk to.

I think maybe I have the wrong contact info.

I was here anyway and was hoping to get this resolved.

We’d love to invite 5N back, of course. Their last tour was lucrative, but I can’t do that if we don’t have the paperwork filed properly. ”

“You’re talking about…taxes?” Julie’s voice spiraled up. “I don’t do taxes. I don’t understand taxes. I just pay them.” Her hands clutched around her purse.

Gigi dropped into the third chair, three drinks in her hands, all of them covered in whipped cream. She pushed one toward Julie and the second to Damian. “I hire someone to do my taxes. Try getting paid from five or more countries each year in different currencies.”

Julie shuddered. “I just do travel documents and flights and other stuff like that. That’s hard enough.”

Damian chuckled. “It’s complicated. I agree.

That’s why I have several specialized degrees.

I’ll make it very simple. The easiest way to resolve my tax filing problem would just to be able to sit down and look over the Korean passports and visas for 5N and Shockwave.

Then I could have definitive proof of which numbers belong to whom. Five minutes, I’d be done.”

Julie glanced between Damian and Gigi. “I just don’t know why you’re asking me?”

“Because the office is officially closed right now, and I want this to get resolved so the next tour can go into negotiations.”

Gigi knocked her knuckles on the table. “Like I said, Damian’s tried the official channels. I don’t know why BBB3 is giving him the runaround.”

Julie dropped her eyes. “I mean, there’s money problems.”

“What kind of money problems?”

Julie blushed. “That’s private. I’m not supposed to be talking about it.

Just…” She sighed, fingers fluttering over the outside of her drink, “I think I might need a new job. I don’t think…

” She let out a long sigh and glanced around.

They were alone in the middle of the café since most of the patrons had opted for booths along the edges with better views.

She leaned forward. “Gigi, Jun’s missing.

And Bak…Bak says if he doesn’t come back I have to find a new job. The whole office will.”

She blinked hard, forcing back tears. “That would go for you too, Gigi. I’m worried.

I mean, I like Jun, and I hope he’s okay, but…

if I don’t have a job next month, I can’t renew my lease…

” She looked away, pulling her emotions in around her and stuffing them down.

She turned back, shoulders tight. “I’m sorry, but I think you should find another contract. ”

Gigi put her hand over Julie’s. “How do you know this? I saw Jun just a few days ago.”