Page 66 of Damian & Jun: Episodes 1-4
“How? What? I NEVER did ANYTHING!”
Su-jin frowned from where he had dropped into a chair beside Gigi. “But you don’t like girls.”
“I could have been ace!”
Geun laughed in clear disagreement and shoved more food in his mouth. Somehow, he’d made himself a weird bimbap-style roll with breakfast foods. It looked amazing.
Damian pulled Jun into his lap. Jun squawked. No one cared. Damian put his chin on Jun’s shoulder, speaking past him in Korean. “My name is Damian Sathers, attorney at law, from Chicago. Pleased to meet you. Jun is my person.” He repeated himself in English with a nod to Gigi, who clapped her hands. Mi Hi was sitting straight up like a statue, blushing hard, her hands fisted together. If she looked any more like she was going to melt, someone was going to have to draw little heart signs over her eyes.
The guys all greeted Damian. Damian made introductions between them and Richard and mentioned who Mung and the bodyguards were though she and they were not present. Jun just sat in his lap, cheeks on fire.
Damian and Richard were getting along just a little too well with Geun, Jaewoong, and Su-jin. Different parts of his life were crashing together, and he felt dizzy.
Happy, dizzy, and completely lost.
Damian’s arms tightened around his waist.
Maybe he wasn’t completely lost.
Mi Hi rapped her knuckles on the coffee table. “When are we holding the press conference and calling the police? NowNows are going crazy online.”
Another reason to keep Su-jin’s phone from him.
Jun frowned and twisted around to look at Damian.
“We need to get you off the missing persons list, baby,” Damian said softly. “A phone call to the police, immediately followed by a press conference will accomplish that.”
“Phone call, not going in?”
“Yes. I spoke to Yun, my counterpart here, this morning. Mung booked a room here at the hotel in case we decide to go through with it.”
Mi Hi leaned forward. “You need to talk to the NowNows and give them proof that you're okay.”
He’d done hundreds of press conferences but never one without Bak practically whispering in his ear, telling him what to say.
“So, I just… go up and tell everyone I’m fine? Leave out everything else? They’re going to ask why I was missing.”
“I think”—Mi Hi looked around and then pushed on, gathering confidence—“you should just say you were with friends and you don’t know why you were declared missing. The story is you went out to meet friends and never arrived. Damian and Richard are very good friends.”
“Scary friends,” Jaewoong agreed. “You should show your faces.”
Jun blushed. “I’m not using them like that.”
“That’s how I want you to use me.” Damian squeezed Jun with both arms. “And that’s pretty much why Richard is here so whoever is out there knows you’re not alone.”
“I… I don’t know what to say. I don’t want anyone to get hurt.”
Gigi pointed her chopsticks at him, glaring. “We’re helping. No one is freaking selling you on my watch. This isn’t little trouble, Jun.”
The room went silent.
Richard leaned forward on his elbows, his deeper voice soft and powerful. “As Georgina said, Jun, please don’t dismiss the gravity of the situation. What if Bak were trying this with Su-jin or Yohei?”
Anger, so powerful it stole Jun’s breath from him for a second, flashed through him. “Nothing would be off the table.”
“Exactly.” Damian wrapped both arms around Jun. “So how do you think everyone else feels about it actually happening to you?”
Jun collapsed in on himself, hiding his face. “I’m supposed to protect them. I’m the leader.”
