Page 11 of Damian & Jun, Episodes 5-8 (The Residency Boys #7)

Good. Jun was expressing a want. Damian could give him quiet, at least for a while. And he was safe in The Residency. Damian could put his whole mental effort into what he was doing.

Ash and Alice arrived hauling backpacks full of laptops and other research tools of their own, including large water bottles. Alice smacked a cold kombucha down in front of Damian. “It’s good for you.”

“She makes me drink them, too.” Ash held up his own, half empty. “Don’t fight it.”

Damian chuckled, opening the bottle. “It is good for you. For future reference, my favorite flavor is blackberry and ginger.”

“Noted.” Alice pulled open her bag, digging out her gear. “What’s the assignment?”

“Jun’s father. He’s only seen him once, and all I have is a last name, but…he was a graduate student at the same university as Jun’s mother and at the same time. We have a full legal name for her now.”

Ash made “gimme, gimme” hands and Damian tapped the whiteboard where he’d already written down known names, years, and the university.

Alice stared at the information until it appeared she’d memorized it. “Perfect. I’m assuming what I can’t read is her name in Korean?”

“Chinese, actually.”

“I thought Jun was Korean.”

“Publicly, yes, but he’s half Chinese and half Korean by citizenship of his parents and ethnicity.”

“Gotcha. We’re on it.” Alice pointed Ash to where he could set up his own gear on the extra tables. “I think we can get pretty far before we have to call Pearsen.”

Ash held up his phone. “He says I can bug him today as long as I text first.”

Damian looked up from jotting down a note. “How is that apprenticeship going?”

Alice sniggered, and Ash shrugged.

“I’m not sure it’s an apprenticeship so much as Pearsen getting a hacker,” Alice said. “Pearsen woke him up in the middle of the night last week.”

Ash blushed. “I’m learning a lot! Pearsen’s cool. And he’s legal. I’m not doing anything wrong.”

“No, you just know the dark web like the back of your hand.” Alice bumped shoulders with Ash, who ducked his head farther down. What Damian could see of his face was pink.

Sometime later, Damian’s watch went off, reminding him to consume food. “Do you two want anything to eat?”

“Yes, please, and no, I don’t know what. I will always take your suggestions,” Alice said. Ash nodded. They were both so into what they were doing that neither looked up.

My reputation precedes me. Alice appeared to have adopted Ash’s stance on always ordering what Damian indicated as good.

“Then I’ll order something for the three of us.”

Damian stretched his legs in the hallway while choosing lunch options.

On New Year’s Day, there weren’t that many, but there was a very decent Chinese place that closed for the Lunar New Year but not the Gregorian New Year.

He put in an order of 北京烤鸭 (Beijing Roast Duck), 宫保鸡丁(The Palace Guardian’s Chicken), and a vegetable dish, (Braised Eggplant), requesting three orders of rice to go with all of it.

If it had been a formal meal, he would have made sure to have one more dish than people present, but this was a working one.

No one was judging his manners, and the portions would be generous.

He jogged up and down afterward a few times to get the blood flowing and went back to his office.

Not long after, the building lobby buzzed him to say his food was ready. Damian checked his app. There was no notification. He pinged his security guy, letting him know to take the food.

A few moments later, his security texted back. The delivery person would only hand it to the person who ordered it. He sighed, stood up, and went out to the elevator lobby on their floor to meet them. They must have a new delivery person.

A man in a broad-brimmed cowboy hat and carrying takeout tipped his head toward Damian as he approached. Damian pulled out a ten to tip the man.

“Thanks so much for bringing it up.” Damian reached for the food.

The man put his hand over Damian’s, both of their hands on the food, and leaned in toward Damian. “The police chief is dead.”

Damian paused, scanning the situation. There was no obvious weapon and no aggression. His security guy was standing right there. “Why tell me this?”

The man took off his hat, leaving the food in Damian’s hands. Long blond, almost white, locks fell down around his shoulders.

“Consider it a personal favor.”

Fuck. This was probably the man who had helped Jun.

He was stunning and—in a vague way—reminded Damian of Collin—if Collin was taller, harder, and older with lighter hair. Perhaps they were both Russian.

Damian forced himself to focus on the immediately important things. “How did he die?”

At the edge of Damian’s vision, his security guy’s hand slid toward his gun. Damian put up his hand.

The blond man tracked both Damian and his security, but he ignored the reach for the gun, turning his gaze back to Damian. “Blunt force trauma to the head and burns. He passed two days ago.”

“Are they coming for Jun?”

“They may. They have a witness.”

So the man wearing black, the one Jun remembered as 刀 (Blade), was alive.

The man walked away toward the stairs, settling his hat back over his head as he went.

“Boss,” the security guard asked.

Damian shook his head. “Not a threat, for now.”

He looked down at the food in his hands. Should we eat this?

Probably better safe than sorry. And, hopefully, the delivery person was fine.

Forget it. Instead of putting another delivery person at risk, or eating the food, he’d just have security take it away and send his own people to the restaurant to personally order and retrieve a second attempt.

Actually, he’d just have them pick up pizza.

So much for showing Alice and Ash more culinary delights.

“Anyone else available to make a food run?”

“Holden is on standby.”

“Ask him to pick up three pizzas, please, anywhere that’s open but not right nearby, and have him get rid of this food. We don’t know what was done with it.”

Leaving the bags, he went into his private bathroom and banged his head gently against the wall.

The police chief being dead both simplified and complicated matters. For one, a rapacious horror of a human was gone, which was good, but two, the man couldn’t be called to trial or made to testify. And Damian was going to have to tell Jun.

Would Jun be harmed by knowing he’d had a hand in killing someone?

If the man hadn’t threatened Su-jin, Jun probably would have been raped. He wouldn’t have snapped and fought like he had. Su-jin was worth more than any number of monsters like that.

But a witness was a complication. It almost had to be the 刀 man. Jun had said he’d only hit him across the face with a soju bottle, so the likelihood he had been dead had always been low. The question was, who was the man and who did he answer to?

They needed to find out. If this nebulous “they” went the legal route… Damian’s brain clicked over a random statement from Jun days before. Something about how the first leader of 5N, Rei, had disappeared for medical care without really needing it in Jun’s opinion.

He left the bathroom and pulled out his phone to text Jun. I need to ask you a question.

Jun called back almost right away. “What’s up?”

“Rei, your first leader. Bak institutionalized them. That was the story. What was their full name?”

“Rei was his idol name. His legal name is Lee Ha-eon. Why do you ask?”

“The more avenues to explore for evidence against Bak and whoever he’s working with, the better.”

“I’ll put together what I know and what I saw. Is there anything else I can do? Everyone went back to the estate. Yohei, Jaewoong, and Geun were there too.”

Alice waved her hand for attention. “Is that Jun?”

Damian gave her an affirmative nod.

“Can he come here and look at photos? We’ve narrowed it down to three, maybe five, people.”

“Already?”

Alice shrugged. “It’s not that hard.”

“I can come,” Jun said, picking up on what Alice had said. “Whose photos do I need to look at?”

“Your father’s.”

Jun

The office really was full by the time Jun and Collin arrived. Collin perched on the edge of Damian’s desk while Alice and Ash set up their top three candidates on the large monitor for Jun to see.

“The one on the right.” Jun pointed immediately. “That’s him. That’s the man who picked me up at the airport.”

Alice got rid of the other two photos. “His name is Bak Sahyuk.”

Jun nodded, averting his eyes and turning away. “If someone can lend me a computer, I’ll work on getting something together on Rei.”

Damian fetched an extra laptop from down the hall and got him set up. Collin joined Alice and Ash.

“I think Collin needs you,” Jun said quietly as Damian helped him connect to the internet.

“Collin?” Damian glanced over his shoulder at his kink brother. “What happened?”

Jun shrugged, shifting in his chair. “He got a call in the car on our way over. His university doesn’t want him to come back in person next week. They think the risk of having him on campus regularly is too high.”

Damian blinked slowly. “You’re okay if I’m physical with him in front of you?”

“He’s your family. I’ll never know how I’ll feel until I feel it, but he needs you. He’s doing that ‘I’m fine’ bullshit.”

Damian nodded and stood up, crossing the room and approaching Collin. He put an arm around Collin’s waist and pulled him close. “Jun says you got a phone call.”

Collin blinked hard and kept his eyes on Ash’s computer screen. “It’s fine. I’ll figure it out.”

“It’s not fine. I’m sorry.”

Collin rubbed his eyes. “We have bigger problems than whether or not I finish college. Honestly, I shouldn’t care so much.”

“You were practically killing yourself to finish college before we got you.” Damian tugged Collin closer. “This is important. Don’t belittle that.”

Collin blinked furiously but actually turned toward Damian. “I just want to finish. It feels like…” His voice caught, and he cut himself off.