Night Kiss

by E. T. Malinowski

  “Yes, I am gay,” Ki-tae said.

  “And yes, I am the man in that video,” Jin-woo added.

  “Outrageous!” someone shouted. “Disgusting. You should be ashamed!”

  “Why? Because I love someone who happens to be male? When is love wrong? And what business is it of anyone other than myself and Jin-woo?” Ki-tae asked. “I love my fans. I love knowing our songs help them, make them smile, get them up and dancing, and I love Jin-woo. I won’t live my life the way someone else wants me to simply because they have issues with homosexuality. I will continue to write and produce music. I will continue to sing and to perform, and those fans that are truly fans will be in that crowd, cheering us on, making us smile with the joy on their faces as they dance and sing along with us.”

  “Jin-woo,” the first reporter began.

  “I did not give anyone save Ki-tae leave to address me so informally. Either use the proper form, or keep your questions to yourself,” Jin-woo said. The reporter looked shocked, and Ki-tae smiled. His little angel had his fangs out.

  “Jin-woo dongsaeng, aren’t you concerned your relationship with Ki-tae dongsaeng will cause problems academically?”

  “There is a chance it might. However, that remains to be seen,” Jin-woo said.

  “HanYin dongsaeng, you were filmed kissing another man onstage.”

  “Well, it’s more of I kissed him.” Jong-in smiled. HanYin blushed, and Ki-tae couldn’t help his chuckle.

  “Are you admitting to being gay as well?”

  “I admit nothing,” Jong-in said. “I simply am gay. It’s not a confession, although too many people make it out to be some horrendous crime. We were born this way, but it is not the defining factor of our character. How we treat others, how we behave, how loudly our actions echo our words, these are the things that define our personality. I am a sound engineer. I love food, especially HanYin’s steamed dumplings. I love my mother and my sister and my friends. And I am gay.”

  “HanYin dongsaeng?”

  “You make being homosexual out to be some sort of deviation, some abomination that is a threat to your way of life, when, in fact, we couldn’t give a damn about your life,” he said quietly. “We are simply trying to live ours. We laugh, we cry, we live, we die, we mourn, and we celebrate, just like you. The only difference between you and me is the person I love is male. He is a remarkable man who has the most amazing voice and the most adorable dimples. He works hard, driving himself to succeed in everything he does. He cares for his friends and strives to make them smile when they’re sad. He tends to be a man of few words, but his words are meaningful and precious in their rarity. As Ki-tae said, our true fans, the ones that really get our music, will wish us luck and celebrate with us that we have found these amazing people to love and to be loved by.”

  “Cheongul dongsaeng, you’ve remained silent through this entire conference. How do you feel about your bandmates being gay?”

  “Wow, you’re really trying to start something today,” Cheongul said bluntly. “I couldn’t give a damn who they love or sleep with. As long as that person never hurts them, he and I won’t have issues. Looking at the two men they fell in love with, I don’t see that ever happening. You see, Ki-tae and HanYin are my brothers, and I will defend them from all threats to my last breath. That’s the kind of bond we have with each other.”

  “Are you gay as well?”

  “No, I’m not.” Cheongul smiled as he looked at Min-su. “But I am taken by this lovely lady at my side.”

  “Well, damn. There goes that fantasy,” someone female grumbled loudly, causing a riot of giggles from the supporters.

  “How is it that such a large company in the entertainment industry is taking such an open stance, contradictory to the popular opinion?”

  “‘Popular opinion’ is precisely that: someone’s opinion or a group’s shared opinion,” ChenBao said. “And that opinion is slowly changing. Here at BL Entertainment, that opinion has always been in favor of acceptance, tolerance, and understanding. Here we do not care what your sexual orientation is. What we care about, what we focus on, is the creative growth of our entertainers, production crews, and staff. Here we inspire loyalty in our employees because we give them the same. We earn their respect because we treat them with respect, we value their input, and we actively listen. This is what makes BL Entertainment a family, whereas all others are simply companies.”

  “So you won’t be terminating their contracts?”

  “Of course not.” ChenBao laughed. “Not only are they extremely talented, loving individuals, but Bam Kiseu is the highest-grossing band in our family.”

  “Aren’t you afraid there will be a drop in sales?”

  “We know there will be, but we will continue to produce Bam Kiseu because there are people out there who love them, some who may even need them to get through the day, and we won’t abandon those people any more than we will abandon these fine young men,” Soon-joon answered.

  “And you’re on board with their… proclivities, Soon-joon-nim?” that first reporter asked, his face less smug and more frustrated. He wasn’t getting the conflict he had been hoping to instigate.

  “I am more than ‘on board’ with it,” Soon-joon said as he looked at Hyun-jo before they too brought their clasped hands into view. Ki-tae smiled. Soon-joon’s timing was impeccable as usual.

  “My God, this is disgusting. This company in infested with abominations,” a man railed from the back, his shirt spouting anti-LGBT slogans. “We’ll put you out of business. You won’t get a cent of our money. We’ll see this den of perverts brought low.”

  “Sir, you are welcome to try,” ChenBao said, standing her full height. “I have faced down better men than you in my day. I have defended my family and my friends from those who would see them destroyed, and I will do the same for the people of this company. We are BL Entertainment. We are a family, and we are strong. You face not just one of us, but all of us, and we will not back down. We will not surrender. We will not be coerced or manipulated into denying the very core values we hold dear. You, sir, can keep your hard-earned money and all that comes with it. We do not want it.”

  Ki-tae rose, bringing Jin-woo with him. Soon they were all standing strong with ChenBao, presenting a united front to those who would attack them. He hoped Mei was watching, because then she would know, in part, what she was facing. If she retained any sort of sanity, which he seriously doubted, she would quit now, but Ki-tae knew better. She wasn’t going to stop until she either had Jin-woo, was in jail, or dead. And option one was no option, as far as he was concerned.

  Seung-gi

  IN OTHER news, two-thirds of the highly popular K-pop band Bam Kiseu came out today, identifying as gay at a press conference earlier this afternoon. Ki-tae hyung, the lead rapper and main sound engineer for the band, also introduced his lover from the notorious video leaked to the internet during Bam Kiseu’s spring concert. Sources close to the two men say they are very much in love.

  “Alive! He’s alive!” Mei shrieked as she stared at the television screen. “How is that possible? I made sure it would hit him. I waited up there all through that horrendous noise to make sure I got him. How is he still alive?”

  “Mei-ya?” Seung-gi stared at his niece, concern and fear lacing his voice as he took in her words.

  “No. No! I won’t allow it. I won’t! I won’t! I won’t!”

  “Mei-ya, honey, calm down,” Seung-gi said gently as his sister-in-law backed away from her ranting daughter. He moved closer, trying to take her arm. “Everything is going to be all right. Just tell me what’s wrong?”

  “Didn’t you see it? He’s still alive. That… that thing is still alive!” she hissed, turning on him. “He can’t have him. I won’t allow it. He’s mine, do you hear me? Mine!”

  Before he could take another step, Mei bolted, and the front door slammed against the wall with how hard she yanked it open.

  “Mei-lei-ya, call the police,” he said
quietly.

  Then he went upstairs to his niece’s room. Until now he’d never entered Mei’s room without her permission, but he had a suspicion it was high time he did. When he opened the door, his stomach twisted. Photos of Jin-woo covered almost every available surface. The floor was blanketed with shredded papers, and a huge map hung on one wall. Pinned to it were the rigging plans for Eumak Nabi Theater.

  “Oh, Mei-ya, what have you done?” he whispered, a tear sliding down his cheek. Then he pulled out his phone and dialed Soon-joon-nim’s number.

  Jin-woo

  JIN-WOO WALKED down the aisle of the campus auditorium, Kyung-soo next to him, alert and tense. Ki-tae insisted Shin-bai accompany him while Jin-woo insisted Shin-bai should be with Ki-tae. They compromised with Shin-bai staying with Ki-tae, and his second-in-command, Kyung-soo, going with Jin-woo. Jin-woo chuckled. If Ki-tae had his way, he would be surrounded by bodyguards anytime he was out of Ki-tae’s sight. While a bit annoying, it was also very sweet.

  “Seonsaengnim?” Jin-woo called as he reached the stage. “Are you here?”

  “This is suspicious,” Kyung-soo said as he rolled his shoulders. “We should leave.”

  “He may be backstage, and it’s difficult to hear anyone out front,” Jin-woo said. “Let’s just check quickly. If he’s not there, then we’ll leave.”

  “Very well,” Kyung-soo said. “I do not like it, though.”

  “I’m not too happy about it either.”

  Someone snaked a thin arm around his neck as they walked back toward the front of the auditorium after checking backstage, and Jin-woo immediately began to struggle. They tightened their arm, cutting off his air, but Kyung-soo had already turned. Then he felt cold metal placed against his temple.

  “Make one move, and I will kill him,” Mei said, her voice higher than usual and strained. “He’s mine, and I will not let that monster take him from me.”

  “Ki-tae is not a monster. He would never hold a fucking gun to my head. He would never threaten the people I love. He would never harm other people the way you have. You’re the monster, Mei, not him.”

  “Shut up,” she hissed.

  “Clearly she is not mentally stable. Perhaps antagonizing her while she has a 9mm semiautomatic pistol to your head is not a wise idea,” Kyung-soo said in a perfunctory voice.

  “We’re going to leave, and you’re going to let us,” Mei said.

  “I’m afraid that is not possible,” Kyung-soo said. “It is my recommendation you put the weapon down and turn yourself in. This will not end well.”

  “Now who’s antagonizing her?”

  “I am stating fact.”

  “No, I have a better idea, a more fitting idea.” Mei giggled. “Call him. Call that thief. Bring him here, and we’ll end this once and for all. Bring them all here, and I will show them Jin-woo is mine and mine alone.”

  “Okay, I think that is a very bad idea,” Jin-woo said.

  “Very well,” Kyung-soo said as he held up his cell phone, showing the active call screen. “They are already on their way. I must warn you, however. Ki-tae dongsaeng is very unhappy, and that is never a good thing.”

  “Don’t say that name! Never say that name in my presence.”

  Jin-woo resisted the urge to chant Ki-tae’s name, but just barely. The gun was still against his head, and as much as she wanted him, he figured she might pull the trigger on impulse. He felt slightly hysterical, not sure what to do, but not wanting Ki-tae anywhere near this crazy bitch. He had to try to keep Ki-tae away.

  “Ki-tae, you damn well better not come here!” he yelled.

  “Cheongul dongsaeng says he and Min-su dongsaeng are already gone.” Kyung-soo shrugged before switching his attention to Mei. “I advised against this course of action.”

  “Don’t forget Jong-in,” Mei hissed. “He has to be here too.”

  “Now that is highly inadvisable,” Kyung-soo said. “If harm comes to Jong-in dongsaeng, that will anger HanYin dongsaeng, and that is even worse than angering Ki-tae dongsaeng. You are a very suicidal woman, I think,” Kyung-soo said.

  “They won’t do anything as long as I have my precious Jin-woo.” She laughed. “I will eliminate them one by one by one, and then nothing will prevent us from being together.”

  “Don’t you get it? I’m gay! I am not sexually attracted to women. I never have been, and I never will be!” Jin-woo said angrily. She tightened her arm around his neck and pressed her cheek against his, sliding the barrel of the gun along his neck in a disturbing caress. Revulsion raced through his entire body. “I wouldn’t respond to you, not now, not ever.”

  “There are ways around that, my sweet Jin-woo, drugs I can use, and you won’t be able to resist me.”

  “Over my dead body.” Ki-tae’s voice echoed through the auditorium.

  “That’s the plan.” Mei giggled again, the sound grating against Jin-woo’s ears. He frantically searched the auditorium for Ki-tae, zeroing in on him as he stepped from the shadows by the entrance doors. Joy and dread surged through him.

  “No matter what you do, no matter what drugs you give him, you’ll always know, won’t you, Mei?” Ki-tae’s voice was low, sibilant, and Jin-woo could see his silver eyes. He walked with his hands in his pockets, casually, as if he didn’t have a care in the world, but Jin-woo could sense his anger, his agitation, and his urge to charge them.

  “What are you talking about?” Mei said haughtily. “He’s mine.”

  “No, he’s not.” Ki-tae chuckled. “He’s mine in every sense of the word. I know him intimately in a way you never will, and even if you drug him into oblivion, even if you manage to get him to perform for you, you’ll always know, in the back of your mind, that Jin-woo loves me, desires me, has given himself to me freely and with abandon. I have heard his moans. I have felt his caresses. I have watched him come apart in my arms, screaming my name in his pleasure. I have heard his joyous laughter, felt his kisses over every inch of my body, and you will never know the ecstasy of his love, of knowing his heart is yours… because it is already mine.”

  “Shut up! Shut up! Shut Up!” Mei screamed.

  It really does happen in slow motion, Jin-woo thought. He watched her swing her arm away from him, felt a shove send him stumbling to the stage, the barrel pointing toward Ki-tae, and the flash as it fired. He hit the ground with a thud. Hysterical screaming filled the air. And then Ki-tae was at his side, pulling him into his arms, and the safety of it engulfed him. The screaming continued, and when he looked over, Jin-woo saw Min-su sitting on top of Mei, pinning her hands above her head.

  “I swear to God, if you don’t stop that screaming, I’m going to knock you unconscious, bitch!” she growled. Then she turned to look at Jin-woo. Her eyes were blazing red. “Are you okay?”

  He nodded, leaning into Ki-tae’s arms. “I am now.”

  Before anyone could say anything else, police flooded the theater. Behind them came Soon-joon, Cheongul, HanYin, and Jong-in. Then ChenBao entered, and Jin-woo could feel the tension and menace rocket upward. She was not a happy Dragon. Min-su hauled Mei to her feet and shoved her at the police officers.

  “Kyung-soo hubae!” Shin-bai’s voice was sharp with concern, and Jin-woo pulled his head from Ki-tae’s chest. He spotted Shin-bai holding Kyung-soo at the end of the stage.

  “I am sorry, Boojang-nim. I shouldn’t have allowed her to put hands on him,” he said, his voice strained and his hand clutching at his upper chest, over his heart.

  “Nonsense,” Shin-bai said. “You did your job well, contacting us immediately, and she is no longer a threat to Jin-woo dongsaeng and Ki-tae dongsaeng.”

  “I had to stand by, helpless to act.”

  “Shhh, Kyung-soo dongsaeng.” ChenBao sat down next to him wrapped her arm around his shoulders, and kissed his temple. “You have always done your job well.”

  “He needs an ambulance,” one of the officers said. “He’s bleeding pretty badly.”

  “They are on their way
.” Jin-woo didn’t see who spoke, but he didn’t care. He hurried over to Kyung-soo.

  “You did great,” he said with a watery smile.

  “I am sorry, Jin-woo dongsaeng.”

  “No, no apologies. She could have just dragged me off, but you kept her here. You wouldn’t leave, and you tried to get her to give up. That’s more than anyone could ask for.”

  “I am faster than she is,” he said. “I could have disarmed her.”

  “But there’s a chance she would have shot me, and you knew that, so you did the best thing.”

  Kyung-soo closed his eyes and sighed. For a second Jin-woo panicked, thinking he was watching such a brave man die, but then his chest rose again. He looked at ChenBao, and she winked at him. She had put Kyung-soo under.

  “He will have to go to a hospital,” she said. “But we have our doctors in every hospital in every city we travel to. It has nicked his heart, but he will be okay.”

  “How can you be sure?” Jin-woo asked, tears blurring his vision. She just looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “Right, forget I asked.”

  Jin-woo rose and turned toward Ki-tae with a smile. The shriek filled the auditorium, and he barely caught Min-su’s “Thank you, God” before he was shoved out of the way again, and she launched herself off the stage. As he rolled over, he saw Min-su’s fist slam into Mei’s face as Mei rushed the stage, officers chasing her, a nausea-inducing crunch echoing through the air, and Mei collapsed to the ground.

  “God, that felt good,” Min-su said with a wicked smile. “I’ve been waiting to do that for months!”

  Cheongul walked over to her and pulled her into his arms. “You’re giving these nice officers nasty impressions of you.”

  She shrugged. “I’m just being honest. Even before she went batshit crazy, she was annoying.”