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

He lay on his back, ink on his fingers, and closed his eyes.

He could see it now, standing on stage, singing these words inside Damian’s church.

No, he was screaming these words. And the music was screaming with him.

I’m not your child, I’m your crime — I’m not your child, not your child, not your child.

He came to with a warm body sitting beside him and the sound of purring. There was a cat on his chest and Damian had lain down beside him. He was reading the words on the pages scattered around the two of them.

“You have to sing this,” Damian said.

Jun blinked slowly. Had he fallen asleep or just zoned out, lost in the haze of rage-fueled creation?

“I’m going to. No more contract, no more Bak; I’m going to sing my own music, my own way.”

“Yes, you will.”

They stayed side by side in quiet for a while. Jun stroked the cat on his chest. He thought about the future, shiny dark bright threads floating outward. They were his. The future was his. Or he’d break them all.

Damian joined him in petting Artemis. “We need to set the room up for tonight’s New Year’s Eve party. Everyone is coming over.”

“Oh, yeah.” Jun sat up, cradling Artemis. “I can help. Just let me pick up these pages.”

Jun

Jun set the tray of cups down by the table at the back of the lounge.

Collin was laying out silverware in shapes.

Damian was counting plates. The room was ready; all they were doing was putting out the last touches on the table.

émeric had ordered in catering. Dinner wouldn’t be served until around ten.

Only snacks and drinks were out for the moment.

Richard and Damian had tacked up streamers and twinkling lights around the windows.

émeric had been in charge of food and designating where it was set up, and Collin and Jun had been running errands for all three of them for the last hour.

It had come together relatively smoothly once Artemis had been quarantined in the main bedroom to keep her from getting tangled in the lights and streamers.

Damian had a small bandage on one hand from getting her out of that mess. She’d panicked.

“There, done, and ahead of schedule.” émeric checked his watch. His phone beeped. He pulled it out of his pocket. “I think those are our first guests. Collin, Jun, would you let them in? Holden has them at the door.”

Why was he supposed to greet guests? He was a guest himself. But it would be rude to point that out, so he followed Collin to the front door of The Residency.

As soon as the door was open, he had an armful of his maknae. Su-jin jumped, wrapping his arms around Jun’s waist and squeezing his hips. “Big brother, we missed you!”

Yohei and Collin both dove forward, Yohei grabbing Su-jin and Collin bracing Jun from behind.

“Su-jin! His stomach!” Yohei scolded, holding his younger band member up by his armpits.

Su-jin’s legs cycled in midair, and then he blinked and went limp in Yohei’s grasp.

“Oh! I forgot! JunJun, are you okay? I’m sorry!”

Yohei set Su-jin on his feet, ruffling his hand in Su-jin’s floppy hair.

Jun pressed a hand to his belly. “I’m fine. You squeezed my hips, not my organs.” He reached out and pulled Su-jin into a hug, holding out his other arm to snag Jaewoong by his oversized sweater.

Jaewoong leaned in, swinging an arm over Jun’s back. “ Hyung , you’re alive.”

Jun squeezed Jaewoong back as best he could and gave Geun and Yohei a grateful look over Jaewoong’s shoulder. “You came. I didn’t know you were coming. I thought I’d see you in a day or two.”

Geun’s eyes narrowed almost to slits with a smirk. He touched two fingers to his lips and mimed sending Jun a kiss,then gave him the middle the finger.

Jun laughed and shook his head. Leave it to Geun to play it off.

Geun stepped to the side, lifting his arm. Mi Hi peeked out from behind him where she had obviously been hiding. “Surprise!”

“Mi Hi!” Jun tried to take a step forward, but Su-jin and Jaewoong were still attached to him.

She giggled. She looked good, better than she had in Seoul. It looked like she’d had several full nights of sleep. How she somehow looked better rested while wrangling their social media blowup spoke to how badly things must have been before.

“Please take your shoes off and come in. I’ll help with your coats.” Collin stepped in as a gracious host. Jun helped, getting Su-jin’s coat off him and shuffling him deeper into the front room so the rest of the crowd could get inside and also divest themselves of their coats.

Collin invited everyone down the hall to the lounge.

Su-jin and Geun went to the windows immediately to look out over the city and the lake.

Which was so not a lake. Jun said as much to Jaewoong, who chuckled and shoved his hands into his pockets.

Jaewoong had a thing about heights; he wasn’t going to be spending a lot of time near the windows.

“Will you be all right?” Jun asked, pointing at him.

“As long as I don’t have to be right at the edge and can pretend it’s just a pretty landscape. The windows don’t open, right?”

“No windows open and no porches. There’s only a small section of the glass that can be cracked open for airflow in the back against the wall. We never open it for fear Artemis will jump out,” Collin said. He offered Jaewoong a cup of sparkling cider.

“Who’s Artemis?”

“Our cat,” Collin grinned, then paled. “Who I forgot to let out. I’ll be right back.” Collin practically fled.

“That’s Damian’s brother?” Jaewoong asked, watching Collin leave.

“It’s complicated.”

Damian strolled over. “Collin is my mentor’s partner. He’s my chosen family.”

Jaewoong nodded, as if he understood any of that, then grinned. “So, I heard someone here speaks French. Who is it?”

Jun pointed out émeric. Jaewoong practically vibrated. “Introductions, please.”

There were a lot of introductions to make, but fortunately, Jun didn’t need to make them all by himself.

His bandmates already knew Richard and Damian.

They only needed to meet Collin, émeric, and Artemis.

Artemis seemed to have chosen Jun as her person for the night, though.

She followed him around and sat on the back of any seat he chose.

Thirty minutes after his bandmates arrived, there was another call, and Collin ran off to let more people in.

Jun tagged along. This time, he was no help at all except for grabbing coats.

Coming through the door was an entire horde of people he’d never met and only heard of.

Collin made quick work introducing him as everyone freed themselves from the requisite Chicago winter gear.

The first was Alice, a sharp-looking woman barely out of her teens, who Collin introduced as his younger sister—actual blood sister.

Holding Alice’s hand and looking shy was a young girl in a red frock coat and an old-fashioned hat in black felt.

Collin called her Dana. She asked where Uncle Richard was and took off running down the hall to find him with Alice right behind her.

Jun was left contending with a person of no discernible gender, wearing pure white hair in braids and a long black coat in brocade.

They took it off and handed it to him, revealing suit pants, a corset, and a dinner jacket with a high-low skirt that swirled around their thighs and the backs of their knees, although it barely covered anything in the front.

They extended their hand to Jun. “Ellisandre. I’ve heard about you. ”

Jun shook it, feeling muted. “Gang Junseo. Pleasure to meet you.”

Ellisandre smiled and then moved on, letting the last two people of the party inside so they could close the door.

One was a woman in her forties, though she could have passed for younger, in a smart, comfortable-looking beige pantsuit and gold jewelry, and the other was a teenage boy with dark-red hair wearing wide-legged black jeans and a skintight purple sweater with a rolled turtleneck.

He had both of his ears pierced and was wearing gold studs.

A beautiful German Shepherd followed him on a leash, but who was walking who was up for debate.

The dog certainly didn’t need direction.

Jun touched his own ears. Maybe he could wear something more daring. Bak had always been against it, but this person made him envious. He wanted something more than studs or whatever a fashion magazine wanted him to model.

“Jun,” Collin said, motioning to the lady, “This is Linda, Richard’s younger sister, and Ash. Ash is…Ash. He helped me do research for you and Damian when Damian went to get you.”

Ash narrowed his eyes at Collin. He turned to Jun, hands in his pockets. “I’m the stray. Collin thinks I need to be civilized.” It came out almost like a joke and a dare all at once.

Dana came flying back down the hallways to the front. “Ash! Ash!”

The dog’s tail waved wildly, and Ash unclipped the leash, letting the dog catch the full force of the child’s rush. The dog sniffed her over, bracing her, while the child talked in tandem with expressive hands. “I want to show Uncle émeric our cookies!”

Linda laughed and opened her purse. “Walk! Or they will get broken.”

Dana took the glass container with both hands, eyes wide. “I’ll walk, promise. Come on, Maribel!”

The dog took off after Dana, and they disappeared down the hall. Ash edged sideways as if to follow them.

Jun extended his hand without touching the prickly stray. “Thanks for helping Damian.”

Ash shrugged and nodded. He ducked his head. He didn’t shake hands.

Linda offered her hand instead. “It’s good to meet you, Jun. We’ve all been waiting for Damian to find his special person.”

Jun blushed. He shook Linda’s hand and mentally shrugged off Ash’s obliviousness. He was apparently not yet well socialized. There was a story there, but no one else seemed to think Ash was odd. They all moved back toward the lounge, Linda and Collin carrying the conversation.