Episode 16 #4
Damian checked his messages, responded to Bryce and a couple others.
émeric had given a general report on Jamal and Maleko.
Both bodyguards were being held overnight.
The leader of the agency they worked for was flying out to check on them, but Richard was having them looked after as if they were his personal employees.
Jun started to stir in his sleep. Damian touched his uninjured arm, trying to calm him again. Jun’s head kept moving on the pillow, his legs shifted under the covers with agitation. His heart rate started rising.
“Jun.” Damian leaned in.
Jun’s eyes flew open. He looked at Damian, Collin, and the rest of 5N, then relaxed. He shook his head and mumbled something in Mandarin, then closed his eyes.
A few minutes later it started up again. This time he was saying names. Damian woke him. Jun checked all the faces around him, then frowned, looking at Damian. “Richard? émeric? Artemis?”
“They’re safe. Richard is just talking to some people. émeric’s handling logistics. Artemis is at the Parsonage.”
“Armada?”
“Going to yell at you for getting shot. She and Habibi and Betti and Kimbo are fine.”
“Cedric and Anna? May, Ruby, Betti?”
“They’re all safe.”
“Jaewoong?”
“Right here,” Jaewoong leaned in, waving.
Jun’s hands moved in agitation. “Rei?”
“We don’t know. Ellisandre went to find out.”
Jun’s face paled even more.
“Hyung, you got to sleep, or they’re not going to let you leave,” Su-jin said.
Yohei grunted in agreement.
Jun sighed. He was shaking a little. His gaze kept moving between Su-jin and Collin. Finally, he closed his eyes. Damian sighed and kept stroking Jun’s uninjured side with his hand.
Jun started twisting in his sleep only fifteen minutes later, agitation all over his face.
Damian spoke to him, trying to calm him down. Jun leaned into Damian’s hand for a moment and then went back to mumbling names in his sleep.
“He’s like me,” Collin said. “I wouldn’t sleep until I saw Richard when we were in the hospital. I think he’s fixating on Su-jin and me.” He pulled off his suit jacket and laid it over a chair. “Damian, if it’s okay?”
“Anything.” Damian gestured with the one hand he wasn’t using to try to soothe Jun.
“I thought you might be jealous.”
“I’m not the one he’s having nightmares about.”
Collin toed off his shoes and crawled under the covers. Damian helped move the monitoring line and Jaewoong held up the blankets till Collin was settled. Collin whispered in Jun’s ear, telling him he was there, that they were safe. Jun’s eyes continued to flicker behind his eyelids.
Damian’s tired brain started to put the pieces together. “Su-jin. They threatened to go after you next. And Collin…”
“And I was kidnapped before,” Collin said.
Damian looked at Su-jin, “Would you, could you?”
Su-jin traded looks with Yohei. Yohei stood up and took Su-jin’s spot next to Geun.
Su-jin pulled off his shoes and crawled in on Jun’s other side.
Damian watched the heart monitor. As soon as they were settled, Jun’s face started to smooth out.
His heartbeat came down and his eyes stopped moving behind his eyelids. Jaewoong and Damian exchanged looks.
“Well, that worked,” Jaewoong muttered. “Maybe Geun will let me crash with him.”
Yohei chuckled with barely any energy. He waved his hand at the chair that was now free since Su-jin had abandoned it. Jaewoong joined Yohei beside Geun’s bed.
“Rest, all of you,” Damian looked around. “I’ll find two more chairs and some more blankets so you two can sleep as well.” He nodded towards Yohei and Jaewoong.
Geun was also tossing in his sleep. Damian paused.
“Don’t bother,” Yohei said, standing and shucking his shoes. Jaewoong helped him get under the covers with Geun and settle. A few moments later Geun went lax and still as well. Yohei’s eyes fluttered shut moments later.
“I guess that just leaves us,” Jaewoong said.
Damian pushed Yohei’s abandoned chair towards Jaewoong. “Put the first chair against the wall, your feet up on this one, and wrapped the extra blanket around yourself. It’s good for some sleep.”
“You’ve done this before,” Jaewoong said.
Damian grimaced. “Yeah. Sleep, if you can.”
“What about you?”
“I’ll stay on watch.”
“Wake me if you need to switch.”
Damian nodded, but he knew he wouldn’t. The only ones that could make him close his eyes right now would be Richard or émeric, maybe not even émeric.
A little while later, Gigi arrived with coffee. She handed one to Damian like she was delivering a trophy or precious artifact. “You deserve this.”
“How’s things out there?” Damian asked. Usually, he was the one running interference and errands. It was odd to be left out.
“Quiet. It’s either the middle of the night or really early.” Gigi leaned against the wall and held up her own drink, a frothy mocha, wiggling it carefully for attention and nodding at the cup in Damian’s hand. “I had to pull strings to get these.”
“Thank you.”
She waved him off. “Worth it. I wasn’t going to bring you that cheap instant stuff from downstairs. Pretty sure your palette would be allergic.”
Damian made a face.
Gigi sucked down a quarter of her mocha and gave herself a little shake. “Mi Hi and I are going to get some sleep at the hotel. Call if you need anything. Mi Hi says to try not to talk to anyone for now.”
“Will do.”
Gigi looked at the Jaewoong in the chair and the two hospital beds one more time. “This really got me fucked up, you know. I want some boring stuff after this, just for the record, for whoever might be listening.”
Damian offered a hug and she leaned in, soaking it up.
Richard arrived a little later. “I was going to collect Collin and make him sleep, but it seems you got to him before me.”
Damian shook his head. “Jun kept having nightmares. Specifically ones about Su-jin and Collin. They were going to medicate him if he didn’t bring his heart rate down.”
Richard absorbed that, eyes thoughtful and sad. “We’ll get through this.”
Damian let his dom grip him in a full hug.
He closed his eyes and leaned into the familiar embrace and let it be everything for a moment.
The thought of just being Richard’s Pup, of going down on his knees and letting the world become small and simple, was alluring.
But not yet. Not until Jun was home safe.
He hugged Richard back one more time and stepped away, knowing Richard wouldn’t let go until he’d signaled that he was ready to stand on his own again.
Richard gave him a long, searching look, then nodded with approval. “I’m going to corral émeric and make him sleep, that way we can take over in the morning. Message me when Collin’s awake. The hotel knows to let us in via the loading dock. There’s too many reporters and fans out front.”
Jun
Jun frowned at the doctor. “What do you mean, no exercise?”
The doctor wagged a finger at Jun. “No dancing, no performing, no gym. Gentle walking. For at least a month.”
“I have concerts scheduled.”
“Then unschedule them. Young man, you are here and not in ICU because of a bulletproof vest. You were hit by a bullet. Bang! Small metal object, moving very fast! Soft, soft human. Bad.”
Jun glared back. “It’s just a bruise.”
“Just a bruise.” The doctor made jazz hands and rolled his eyes. “Mr. Gang, you have a bruise to rule bruises. Your insides are soft. You are squished croissant. You are peeing blood, because you got smashed so hard things inside of you went pop!”
Jun glared. “We have fans.”
“Yes! You have fans. Very important. I’m sure they want to see you many times, not just once, yes?”
“You’re enjoying this too much.”
The doctor smiled, showing his teeth. “You are very good idol, Mr. Gang. I like your music, your new music. Some of the old stuff, too…young for me. But you are not immortal. In this case, you are very mortal, very normal. You will have to heal like the rest of us.”
Jun growled and stood up. “Can I at least go home?”
“Are you going to be stupid?”
“He’s not going to be stupid,” Damian said. He was leaning against the door, arms crossed.
Geun had already been discharged and was on his way back to the hotel with Su-jin and Yohei.
Collin had been ordered back to the hotel by Damian and Richard so he could get more rest. Jun had been able to get Jaewoong to go back with him, mostly by pressing the point that Damian couldn’t go with and Collin needed to be looked after.
Never mind that a bodyguard had been there for both of them.
Jaewoong had been too tired to think of that argument.
Silly JaeJae. He’d spent hours sleeping upright in a chair.
Jun growled at the doctor. His head hurt. People kept being difficult, and the people he cared about were in too many places, or at least it felt that way. No one was saying anything about Rei and Sevastyan. Ellisandre had disappeared.
Mi Hi poked her head around the door. “JunJun, we can always reschedule the concerts. Everyone knows why. All the news stations are talking about how you got shot. There’s even pictures of you and Geun in the ambulances.”
“Pictures?” Jun stared at her, mouth falling open.
Mi Hi grimaced. “No one is going to be surprised we have to reschedule.”
Jun groaned. “We knew it could have been dangerous. We shouldn’t have even put this many concerts so close together.”
“Doctor, excuse us for a moment, please,” Damian said. “I’ll take personal responsibility.”
The doctor looked between Damian and Jun and humphed. “The dark one is the smart one. I’ll leave instructions with the nurse. You can leave if you come back tomorrow.”
He walked out, proving to be even shorter than Mi Hi in her heels as he passed her.
“That…” Jun cut himself off before saying something ugly. “His bedside manner is non-existent.”
“He’s trying,” Mi Hi said. “And he’s right. You were planning on being stupid.” Mi Hi leveled a glare of her own.