Page 9 of Damian & Jun, Episodes 5-8 (The Residency Boys #7)

It was loud, what with everyone mingling and dozens of new introductions being made.

Jun hung back. It was almost too much. Artemis was nowhere to be seen now, so he didn’t have the cat to hide behind.

Su-jin came over, and Jun grabbed him, putting him in his lap.

Getting used as lap-pillow armor didn’t even slow Su-jin down.

He was talking to Alice about music, and she merely followed him onto the couch.

Dana bounded over and crawled into Alice’s lap, followed by the dog who flopped down, and Jun found himself firmly inside one of the groups forming around the room without even having to talk.

He rested his cheek against Su-jin’s shoulder and enjoyed getting social points without having to move his mouth.

Su-jin was like a big teddy bear, nice to hold on to and safe to hide behind. At some point, the dog came up and sniffed Jun; he freed one arm enough to give the German Shepherd head scratches.

Alice and Dana were called away after a while.

Su-jin bounced off for more food. Jun took the opportunity to grab Yohei.

The other three 5N members picked up on the fact that they were going to talk and followed Yohei and Jun to the guest bedroom on the other side of The Residency.

Dinner wouldn’t be served for another hour.

Jaewoong and Geun flopped on the bed, Yohei took one of the chairs, and Su-jin leaned against the dresser. A moment later there was a knock, and Mi Hi stuck her nose in. “Am I wanted?”

Jun waved her in. “You’re part of this now. I wanted to give everyone an update where we knew it was safe.”

She came in and closed the door, joining Yohei by the window.

As concisely as he could, he outlined what he knew and what had happened.

With everything going on, he hadn’t realized they didn’t yet know the full story of the kidnapping, only the basics and what they’d been there to witness, so he started there, leaving nothing out, and finished with the discovery about his citizenship from a few hours before.

There was stunned silence when he finished.

Mi Hi broke it first. “Well, fuck.”

Su-jin laughed nervously. “Fuck, fuck.”Su-jin pretty much never cursed. His face was a little pale.

Geun raised his middle finger, this time with no humor.Jun snorted and sent his most laconic band partner a grin. Geun smirked back.

Mi Hi drummed her fingers against the table. “No wonder they’re going crazy.”

Yohei was deep in thought, hands folded behind his head, looking at the ceiling. “I want to know about this Russian man, the one who helped you.”

Jun shrugged. “I don’t know. Never saw him before.”

Jaewoong snorted. “Well, I was done with Bak and BBB3, but now I’m even more done.”

“Same,” Su-jin grimaced.

The rest nodded in agreement.

“So, now we have to decide what to do going forward,” Jun said slowly.

Geun shoved himself up on his elbows, looking around the room in a circle. “Go independent.”

The five of them exchanged looks.

This wasn’t the first time they’d talked about this. It was clear on all their faces.The downtime up at the Estate had probably given them a lot of talking time. Jun was the one who needed to catch up.

“Independent.” Jun repeated the word. “We’ll all have to take on more.”

Jaewoong crossed his arms. “Mi Hi and Gigi have been talking. And your friends sent us some numbers when we sent them ours. We can do it even if it has to be small at first. We all have money.”

“I don’t.” It hurt to say, but Jun had to be honest.

“If we have money, you have money.” Yohei gave Jun a long look. “We only have what we have because we’ve had each other's backs. Just because Bak didn’t pay you doesn’t mean you didn’t earn it with us.”

Jun choked up. “You…you all…you have families, parents, siblings…”

“And we don’t have 5N without you.” Jaewoong jumped in. “Who writes our lyrics? Who’s our main vocalist?”

“I…I do when we make our own songs.”

“We like your songs best.” Su-jin grabbed Jun’s hand.

“So do the fans,” Jaewoong added.

“We’ll have to hire choreographers.”

“We can do most of our own work, and Gigi has already agreed to keep working with us,” Jaewoong countered. “We’re all veterans. At our ages, guys are either leaving or leveling up. We have so much more we know how to do than when we debuted.

“We don’t have musicians.”

“Chicago has musicians. The ones you sang with last night were pretty good. And we can create a lot of our own backtracks.”

“Recording studio,” Jun asked weakly. “I…I could ask Damian for space.”

“He has space?”

“This old church complex.”

“That’s big enough.”

Jun drew in a deep breath. “We still have to get out of our contracts.”

Geun stood with arms folded and feet apart. “We will.”

Yohei nodded, giving Jun a long, slow look. If the most steady of their group already believed in the math, then so did Jun. But damn it, it was scary.

Scary and liberating. They weren’t talking about finding a new label; they were talking about being their own. No more managers and no more contracts with shadowy figures.

They got back to the party in time for dinner to be served. Su-jin and Jaewoong ended up in a tight circle with Alice and Ash. Dana came over with her food and sat next to Jun where he’d settled with a place.

She pointed to his face. “What happened?”

Jun looked around, but Damian was over at the buffet table getting food, and no one else was looking their direction.

Should I lie? But he’d hated it when adults had lied to him.

Well, here went nothing.

“Someone tried to make me do something I didn’t want to do.”

Dana’s face creased up. She lifted her finger, giving him lots of time to say no, and touched the edge of one bruise on his cheek. “Did you do it after they hit you?”

“No.”

“What did you do?”

“I fought them.”

Dana breathed out slowly. “You’re like Alice.”

Jun looked over his shoulder toward Collin’s sister. She had her head down over a cell phone, sitting shoulder to shoulder with Jaewoong. “Really?”

“She shot the man who tried to take us away.”

“She’s brave.”

Dana nodded. “I don’t know if I’m that brave.”

“It’s easier to be brave than to be scared.”

“Why?”

“People who want to hurt you will always hurt you, over and over again. They say they’ll do something big and terrible if you fight, but even if you don’t fight, they’ll keep taking, bit by bit, until you don’t have anything to fight back with.

Once someone proves who they are, you have to take the risk. ”

“What risk?”

“Whatever they’re threatening you with.”

“Like getting shot?”

“Like getting shot.”

Dana was quiet for a long moment. She kicked her legs. Maribel came over and sat near her. She ranher fingers through the dog’s fur. “Did you wait?”

“Too long.”

“And the bad thing, did they do it?”

“They tried.”

“And you fought them, like Alice.”

“I fought them. What’s the worst they could do?”

“They could kill you, like they killed Mama.”

Jun’s blood ran cold. Mama, Ni zai nar? (Mama, where are you?)

Dana wrapped herself tighter around her dog.

Jun reached out, showing his hand. “I lost my mother a long time ago.”

“Did someone kill her, too?”

“I don’t know.”

Dana gazed up at Jun. Some might have said she had old eyes, but they weren’t old. They were those of a child wrestling with something beyond them. It was like looking in a mirror. Except Dana wasn’t waiting. She knew.

Dana took his hand. “Aunt Linda says we collect people who need collecting. One, and two, and three. We collect people we need.”

“Who have you collected?”

“Maribel, Aunt Linda, Alice, Auncle Ellisandre, Uncle Richard. Uncle émeric, Uncle Collin, Ash, Uncle Damian. My teacher Ms. Riley. Have you started collecting?”

Jun looked around the room. The only person he could think of collecting who wasn’t present at that very moment was Gigi. She was somewhere in New York dancing a show. “Yes, I have.” He pointed out his bandmates and Damian and paused, looking at Richard.

“I think I’m collecting your Uncle Richard.”

“That’s good.”

“Why?”

“Because he already collected you.”

“He did?”

Dana nodded sagely. “That’s why he left all of a sudden with Uncle Damian to go get you!” She looked at him like he was seriously being slow.

Jun smiled, his cheeks tingling. “You’re right. They did come to collect me. Is it okay if I collect your other uncles, too?”

She looked over at Collin and émeric very carefully. “I think so. They like you.”

“How do you know?”

She grinned. “I just know.” She bounced off the bench, leaving her plate behind, and ran toward her Aunt Linda. Maribel woofed softly and got up, trailing her human across the room.

Jun picked up his plate and drifted through the party.

Geun and émeric were discussing places they had both been in Japan.

Geun’s English was weaker than his Japanese.

He switched as Jun approached, and émeric followed him effortlessly.

The fact that someone had drawn Geun out of his silence was a true feat. Jun left the Frenchman to it.

Ellisandre, the enigma, was sitting alone, looking out the window, one leg crossed over the other. Jun approached. “May I join you?”

Ellisandre flashed him a smile and waved toward the nearest seat. “If Yohei returns, you can fight him for it.”

Jun shook his head. He looked back toward the buffet table. Sure enough, Yohei had gotten distracted by something on his phone while on a hunt for more food. “We don’t fight.”

“But you’ll fight with someone else.” Ellisandre looked him up and down.

Jun shrugged.

“I make you uncomfortable.”

Jun looked at them straight on. “You do. I don’t know the rules.”

“The rules are simple. Don’t drink the last of the eggnog before I’ve had a glass.”

“Noted.”

Ellisandre grinned. “I’m told you look edible in a skirt.”

Jun blushed. “So do you.”

Ellisandre smirked. “I look good in everything.”