EPILOGUE
Eleven months later
“Who the fuck has a brand launch in February?” Tek mumbles as he tries to push himself closer into my side.
“You’ve known about this for months. Why are you making it my problem that you chose to not wear the right jacket?”
“Fine. I’ll rephrase. Who decides to have a brand launch on a rooftop in Portland in the middle of fucking February?”
“My god,” I sigh and wrap my arm around his shoulders. He turns into me slightly and buries his hands beneath my coat. “How are you thirty-five?”
“How did they not tell us—”
“Exactly where we’d be?”
“Shut up.”
“You know that invitation? The one that’s been on the fridge for the past three weeks? The one with the address on it? The thing that’s the reason we knew exactly where to come tonight?”
“I told you to shut up.” With a heavy bottom lip, Tek sulks into my neck. “Can I not just whine and use it as an excuse to get closer to you?”
“So now you need an excuse to touch me?”
He kisses my neck. “Don’t twist my words.”
“Then don’t make them so easy to twist, Oppa.”
Like it has for over a year now, when I say that word just right, it always garners me his full attention.
In the back corner of a downtown Portland rooftop bar, Tek kisses me.
There’s no hesitation, no question or shame, just his half-frozen lips against mine as a few hundred people surround us and music fills the air.
Without thinking, I twist to tug him closer and my hip grazes over his belt.
“Ah fuck,” I hiss, and cower away from him.
He reaches out for me; “Shit, I’m sorry.”
“No, It’s my fault. I keep forgetting.” Pushing my jacket back I lift up the hem of my sweater and undershirt to reveal the brand new trio of dermal piercings that run along my left hip bone. “They’re not bleeding. They’ll be fine.”
Tek presses his hand against the bottom of my stomach and digs his pinkie into the band of my underwear. “I didn’t think you’d turn into such a pin cushion.”
“Are you serious? Even after learning what piercings I already had, you still insisted on me being certified. So you only have yourself to blame.”
“I don’t mind. I could be blamed for far worse things.” With a devious look in his eye, he raises his hand up over my belly bar to flick at one of my nipple rings. “But I’d say the most surprising part is how fucking hot it is to watch you do this to yourself.”
With a beguiling grin of my own, I run my tongue piercing back and forth across my front teeth. “I can’t wait till you let me pierce you so I can feel what it’s like to have a metal bar forced down my throat.”
He tugs on my nipple ring and my eyes roll back. “You know that’s never gonna happen.”
“Why not? I know how much you love all of mine.”
Tek’s eyes go glossy and I can see the bright lights of the DJ booth reflected in them.
It was a hellish four months of recovering, but it didn’t stop Tek sitting across from me, dick out, as he jerked off at the sight of me forcing each of those five cannulas through the skin along the underside of my shaft.
Then, at least once a week, when I’d clean them.
Even now, I’ll know he’s feeling a certain kind of way, when he brings me my kit and cleaners.
It means it’s time to change the bars, and he does it personally.
And, fuck me, if it’s not the most intimately erotic thing on the face of the earth.
“Ah-hem.” An aggravatingly familiar cough sounds at the other side of the standing table, and Tek quickly pulls his hand out from beneath my sweater.
“Nice to see you finally made it,” I tell my brother as I fix my coat. “It’s nice to see you, Jin.”
“Traffic was a bitch,” Eden huffs as he slouches onto the table with his forearms.
“You could have stayed an extra night in town like we did.”
His head tilts to the side and he stares straight through me, that damn spider tattoo of his out and proud like it was a good decision. “Then who would run the shop? You know Saturday is our busiest day.”
I roll my eyes because I just can’t fucking look at him sometimes.
He used to be the most amazing big brother, and whilst our relationship has improved, he still shits me to tears most of the time.
He does treat Jintae like the ultimate prize, though, which is super sweet to see.
And he wasn’t a total pain in the ass when the four of us went to Bali together last year.
I pan over from blankly staring back at Eden to ask Jintae; “Where’s Reeze and Skye?”
“Bathroom,” he says, fiddling with the neon pink band around his wrist. “They put this thing on too tight.”
“C’mon.” I jerk my head towards the entry. “We’ll go get another one.”
Jintae follows me, and we weave our way back through the pockets of other people.
On our way to the bouncer we stop off at one of the display tables laden with t-shirts, hoodies, socks, and hats, all covered with Tek’s designs.
Characters from Korean folklore, to dancheong patterns, and hand drawn text.
Even the dick shark version 2.0 makes an appearance.
That random guy from Oregon I’d forced Tek to take a meeting with last year, had turned out to be Tony Cassoulet, one of the biggest self-made streetwear designers of the last fifteen years.
A borderline recluse, he releases sporadic collections, has virtually no online presence, and doesn’t believe in traditional marketing.
It took a lot of convincing, but once Tek was promised he would always retain complete ownership of all his designs, he jumped at the opportunity.
Jintae runs his fingers over the gold embroidery of his brother’s signature on the brim of a cap. “This is so insane.”
“I know. Bodega and Culture Kings are here.”
“The fuck?” Jin’s eyes go wide and he slowly puts the hat back down in exactly the same place he found it, then moves it slightly to where he thinks it looks better.
“Tony said they sent out three-hundred invites. And when we arrived, there were already more here than had RSVP’d.”
Jin steps back from the table and rises onto his toes, trying to get a better look of the crowded rooftop. “Surely they can’t fit three-hundred up here.”
“They can’t. There wasn’t any buzz when they booked the venue. Then Tek and Tony went AWOL one night last week. A whole lot of illegal graffiti later, now every retailer on the East Coast is here. The capacity caps at two-twenty-five, so you guys are lucky you showed up when you did.”
“We can leave if they need more room.”
“Don’t be stupid.” I put my hand on his shoulder and guide him back towards the bouncer. “Tek wants us all here. Besides, if people find out Zumies were turned away at the door, it’ll just create more buzz.”
Once we’re at the entry, we wait for the bouncer to check the next group of guests in. And when he’s free I tug Jintae forward then lift up his wrist and push back his jacket sleeve.
“Can we get another one of these?” I ask with a smile. “It’s a bit too tight.”
The bouncer looks at me with a steely glare but I just push my smile even wider then bring Jintae’s wrist to my mouth and bite the polymer band off.
“Oops. Guess we really do need a new one. Unless you don’t mind losing your license because you allowed someone under twenty-one to slip through the cracks.”
The bouncer's glare intensifies, and he stands up from his stool like the few inches he has on me are any kind of intimidation.
“Look. If you really don’t care, we’ll just take one of the green bands instead. That way he can just go up to the bar and get the drinks himself.”
He takes a step towards me, and whilst Jintae shuffles back, I don’t move.
“I feel like you’re making a much bigger deal out of this than you need to be.” Letting go of Jin's wrist, I start straightening out the lapels on the bouncer's collar. “We all make mistakes.”
“Is there a problem?” Still refusing to move, I glance to the side and see Reeze and Skye in the doorway.
“No problem here.” I smile back at the bouncer, then tap his chest with both hands.
His eyes twitch and I can see that he’s contemplating whether or not putting me in whatever he thinks my place is, is worth losing his job over.
In the end, I just roll my eyes, step to the side, and have a little chuckle to myself about how truly fragile some men’s egos really are.
Reeze isn’t much bigger than me, but there is a certain presence that comes with age.
He steps closer to the bouncer and raises the clipboard that had been in his left hand the whole time.
“Reeze Akana, and Skye Knox,” is all he says, and when the bouncer begrudgingly hands him a pink wrist band for Skye, I quickly snatch it and jump back.
Within seconds I dragged Jintae back into the crowd.
“I could have just put up with it. It really wasn’t worth it.”
I look back at Jin. “You’re the one with my brother and you think that wasn’t worth it?”
“What’s so funny?” Tek asks when we’re back at the table.
“Just the fragility of a toxic ego.”
Nodding slowly, he lets out a deep exhale, because without needing to explain a thing to him he already knows what just happened.
“Do you have a death wish?” Reeze asks as he and Skye approach.
“Not at all. But I do find a lot of joy in taunting authority.”
“D’you think you’ll ever grow out of it?” Eden asks.
“You didn’t.”
He shrugs as if to say, true.
“I don’t want you to ever change.” Tek’s hand makes its way back beneath my coat as he pulls me to his side, avoiding my new piercings.
“The new renovations look really good,” Skye says, speaking for the first time. “I bet it feels great to finally have a room where you can work.”
“He’ll be taking clients starting next week,” Tek says, and I can feel how proud he is radiating off of each of those seven words.
It was a hard slog getting the shop renovated.
Obviously I needed to get my certification first, then came the discussion phase.
When it was just Tek and Eden, I know my brother would have agreed to just about anything as long as he didn’t have to be the one to organize it.
But now that Reeze is a partner too, things need to be more meticulous.
And add onto that how imperative it is to still operate a fully sterile environment while also renovating, and you realize why it took so long to add an extra ten feet onto the back of the shop.
“Ahhhhhh!” A high pitched squeal makes me jump, and one second later Liv’s body is barrelling into the side of mine.
“Watch my hip,” I warn, but before her squealing dies down I’m already lifting her up and spinning her in a circle, her own upper cheek dermal piercing catching the light as we turn.
“The fuck is wrong with that bouncer?” Austin says, still looking back over his shoulder.
Reeze picks up the drinks menu from the middle of the table. “He was challenged by some surfer kid and he got his feelings hurt.”
“That checks out,” Anaise smiles, approaching me to place a kiss on my cheek before moving onto Tek.
“What the hell is a Joseung Saja cocktail?” Reeze asks.
I look at Tek, and warm happiness flushes my entire body.
He shrugs nonchalantly. “I dunno. The organizers just asked for some names inspired by the collection and said they were gonna handle the rest.”
Eden leans over Reeze’s shoulder and his brow instantly rises. “Cali boy? Eternal sunshine?”
I lean onto the table from the other side. “Your jealousy’s showing.”
“I’m not jealous.”
“Then go order yourself an Eternal Sunshine and cheer the fuck up.”
“The life of a muse is hard,” Anaise jokes, and pulls on Eden’s huge arm so he turns to face her.
With her tiny hands around his biceps, she tugs him down to her eye level.
“Tonight isn’t about you.” Her tone is kind, but perhaps the most authoritative I’ve ever heard.
And it has the exact same affect on Eden as it does Tek.
Liv quickly pulls Jintae and Skye in front of the DJ booth to start their own dance circle.
Eden, Reeze and Austin all head off to the bar, but Anaise holds back.
She looks at Tek and I with the eyes of a proud mother, and we stare straight back at her.
“She’d have been so proud of you,” she says, with tears in her eyes, then throws herself against us, arms wide. “I’m just so proud of you, too.”
After a few seconds I slip out from the hold and let her hug Tek with both arms.
With her bangs buried into his chest, she composes herself, then holds his face, just like she was doing the first time I ever met her.
“I’m so happy you found someone who loves you just as much as she did…
” She glances at me. “Maybe more…” She looks back to Tek.
“This past year has been so big for both of us. For all of us. For this entire crazy, mad house little family we’ve created.
For so long I never thought I’d see you smile again and actually mean it.
But even more than that, you’ve finally got life back in your eyes.
You’re doing things for you, and not everybody else.
And apart from me, you might just have the best boyfriend in the whole world. ”
Anaise reaches out to me, and I take her hand. She stares at me deeply, then sniffles, and shakes her head like she’s trying to rustle out the last of her tears for the evening.
Unwrapping the same giant scarf she had worn to the trivia night at The Black Cat from around her neck, she playfully loops it over Tek’s shoulders, then walks backwards until the crowd swallows her.
Taking one side of the scarf, Tek holds it out, and I melt into his side as he wraps it around both our necks.
“I love you so much.”
He rubs his nose against mine. “I love you so much more.”
“So what happens if you become a millionaire from selling socks and bucket hats?”
“Then we’ll upgrade the van to one of those giant motorcoaches.”
“They aren’t exactly the best for navigating hidden beach roads.”
His nose traces along my jaw line. “Then I’ll buy you a house on the beach.”
“In Bali?”
“In Bali,” he whispers in my ear. “And in Costa Rica… And Fiji… And…”
“And?”
“The last one’s a surprise.”
“Is that so?” I smirk and grip his jaw hard as I jerk his head back in front of me. With a heady huff, his eyes roll back and he grips my good hip to steady himself. “Cause I’ve got a surprise for you, too?”
Tek gulps, and his Adam’s apple bobs against my palm. “Have I been a good boy?”
“You sure have, Oppa.”
The End.