Chapter Four: The Price

Adam stared at the ceiling throughout the entire wake-up routine in his hotel room. He had not slept well due to his mind racing between whatever test was required to gain access to the compound and the impending dread of the deal with Jeong. He brought his hands to his face as the music crescendoed, and he groaned, feeling nauseous with regret.

… Or maybe more than just regret.

He shot straight up in bed as he felt his stomach turn, and his face drained of color… Sprinting out of bed, he barely made it to the toilet as he projectile vomited into the bowl, grimacing in the aftermath at the taste of beer and the chips he had eaten from a vending machine. It took about three rounds of purging for his stomach to feel satisfied. He braced his head over the rim, gripping at the hair at his temples and sitting as still as possible. Perhaps he had drunk a little too much to numb himself from the reality of what he had agreed to, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t that much more than what he was used to. Curling his nose up as he spat saliva that was pooling in his mouth in the toilet, he let out a long, self-pitying moan.

Maybe he could drink before lunch and just let everyone think his drunkenness was – he shook his head. He couldn’t be mentally compromised before going to Joomi, not especially considering he might be tested to even be let in. Likewise, he considered taking some sort of medication to sleep through the lunch, but then he had no guarantee of waking when he needed to … plus, a sleeping Adopted likely wouldn’t appease Jeong and his prospective clients – they needed to see him acting properly and calling him appa. Adam groaned again.

He spent about half an hour on the ground of the bathroom, stewing in misery, occasionally spitting out his acidic saliva and drinking water from the faucet. What stung worse was that he would have expected to be overjoyed at the prospect of making contact with Joomi today. He should have been able to be overjoyed. He grimaced, finally hitting his threshold for self-pity (for the moment), and started getting ready for the day. He made sure to shave his face as close as possible, running the blade over his jaw and neck three separate times. As he set the razor down in the sink on his final pass through, he stared at himself in the mirror for a long minute.

Okay. This was happening. This was the price he was going to pay, and it was going to be humiliating and degrading, but it was only two hours out of an entire lifetime. Less than 0.0001% of his life. Two hours, in a foreign city, surrounded by strangers that he had no reason to think he would ever see again. He lifted and pointed an index finger at his reflection, pushing the tip of his finger forward until it landed on the mirror.

“And this stays between us,” he grumbled to himself in the mirror. No matter what else happened on this trip, this was going with him to his grave. He muscled through the rest of his routine by collecting his portfolio to bring to Joomi, flashing himself a smile as he let himself enjoy the idea that he would meet her today, even if just for a moment. Dressed in his best slacks, button-down shirt, and vest, he took in a deep breath and made his way to breakfast.

Putting in his earbuds, Adam put on music to avoid interacting with anyone. Despite having no reason to think anyone knew about his plans, anxiety gripped his chest, convincing him that everyone knew. Every look, glance, passing comment… logically, he understood it wasn’t the case, but he felt so exposed and uncomfortable. He ate breakfast as quickly as possible, made his usual polite greeting to Ji-won, and booked it out of the hotel.

He didn’t know where he’d go or what he’d do. He had three hours before he needed to meet up. Pulling up his phone, he eyeballed the area… sucking his teeth, rubbing the tip of his tongue on the bottom of a canine, he initially thought to explore the city to get as far from his doom as possible. But, as he stared at the meet-up and lunch points, he had the sensation that he was surveying a future crime scene, and that’s when it dawned on him – he should know the area. Just in case. Stepping over to a sleek screen board, he took in a breath and mustered as much positive energy as he could to greet, “Hiya, Gilly!”

“Hello, Mr. Sharpe,” Gilly responded coolly. “How can I help you today?”

“I’d like a car to - uh - here, please,” he said as he turned the phone to the screen, realizing too late he wasn’t sure she could see it. He scanned for a camera, but a car pulled up before he could finish surveying it.

“Thanks!” he chirped and crawled into the driver’s seat, setting his backpack on the passenger’s seat. He pointed on the map on the dashboard to a location he wished to be dropped off, and after a click of his seatbelt, the car began the journey. Within a few seconds, he looked at the screen.

“Gilly?”

“Yes, Mr. Sharpe?”

He stared forward, unsure of what he was hoping to get out of her or what he could say to make sure he was covered. He flickered between worrying she would report this and prevent him from getting Jeong’s help, or that she would report him as Goryeo’s first case of being an ‘emotional danger to himself’.

‘Will you report me as a missing if I don’t make it back to the hotel?’

‘Hey, so if I get kidnapped, how long until you send the police to find me?’

‘Is pretending to have maturosis a part of those exceptions to my legal protection?’

“Mr. Sharpe?” Gilly asked, interrupting his stream of nerve-inducing questions.

“I met someone yesterday,” he blurted out, his eyebrow pinching together as his gaze fell to his lap. “An old woman… she had a shrine, with photos of seven adopted family members.”

He paused, expecting Gilly to say something.

“Is that … normal?”

“Yes, Mr. Sharpe,” the robotic female voice monotoned. “Goryeoan culture upholds the provision of care and support as a central pillar of society known as kibun. It is considered a great honor for a family to Adopt those in need and for the Adopted to find care in a loving home, capable of tending to their needs. Many Little families pray for the Adopted as a means of providing where they could not.”

“Okay,” Adam nodded quietly. “Thanks.”

The rest of the ride was silent. Gilly offered to play music, but Adam politely declined, instead preferring to run through every possible scenario he could as to how this lunch might go and plan his responses. Once the car reached its destination, he thanked her and began his survey of the area. All three hours were spent roaming all but the two locations; he didn’t want to be recognized by any staff at either site, which would be fairly easy considering he was a blonde man amongst a sea of black hair. But he did his best to memorize possible escape routes and the nearest Gilly-accessible board at every possible point before the timer ran out on his phone and he went to the meet-up point.

Upon arrival, he was surprised to see it was near a dumpster outside of a restaurant. He sniffed, looking at his phone’s clock, and looked around. After only a minute of waiting, he jumped slightly from a car’s horn, and he looked behind him; a black car, slightly larger in form than the one he rode in, was sitting in the alleyway. The driver’s side door opened, and the smiling face of Jeong appeared over the window as he waved Adam over.

“Get in,” he instructed as he gestured towards the back seat, and the passenger side back door opened automatically. Adam waved to him as he passed by the first door and hesitated at the second, wide-open one. He blinked, staring at the booster seat clearly meant for him to sit in. Jeong sat in the driver’s seat and looked over his shoulder, motioning with his head to the seat and repeated, “Come on, get in.”

Grimacing, he set his backpack down on the floor in front of the booster and climbed up into it as the door to his right shut automatically. Jeong beamed at him as he extended his arm back, presenting a small black box. “Put your passport and visa in here.”

“Why?” Adam asked without thinking as he took the metallic box.

“It blocks city scanners,” he explained as he pointed up and made a circle, apparently trying to communicate ‘everywhere’. Adam made a gasp of revelation – the branding by Gilly at the customs desk must have implanted nanites or something similar. That was how Gilly was always present and responsive to him!

“Everything is in there,” Jeong went on as he gestured to the bag on the seat behind him as Adam slipped his passport and visa into the box and shut it. The Tweener nodded with a grin, then scanned the dashboard of the car and hit a button, causing the windows to darken to a near black opaque. “Go ahead.”

“Go … ahead?” Adam stammered, confused.

“Get changed,” Jeong stated with a wave of his hand, and he pulled out his phone and looked down. “I won’t look.”

Adam squinted at the back of his head, then the windows, and then to the back.

“…In here?”

“Yeah,” Jeong replied impatiently, waving a stiff hand in the air while not looking up from his phone, as promised. Grumbling, Adam swiveled to face the bag and stood up on the seat, pulling at the top to peer in. His eyebrows raised as he surveyed the contents:

· A pair of elastic waist jeans with shallow pockets

· A navy and white striped t-shirt with a diapered elephant holding onto balloons with its snout

· Velcro sneakers and white socks

· A plain blue pacifier with a sky blue clip

· A package of elephant-decorated pull-ups

· An elephant stuffed animal backpack

· An elephant-branded sippy cup and matching bib

“Pull-ups?” Adam wondered out loud, causing Jeong to snort, “Do I look I could put you on changing table?”

“Fair,” the blonde conceded with a bob of his head, and the corners of his mouth twitched, realizing this may not be as bad as he had expected. He thought to comment that everything being from the same store might look a little weird, but he bit his tongue; he didn’t want to sound like he cared about how to properly dress like a toddler. He took in a deep breath as if he were about to go for a dive, and then released it as he began undressing.

He started with the top half, taking off his shirt and vest, neatly rolling them up and tucking them into his backpack. He ripped off the tags of the striped shirt and pulled it on, tugging it down to smooth out the folded wrinkle. Trying his best to do this quickly so he didn’t think about it too hard, he moved onto his pants and underwear, rolling them up and laying them on top of his shirt. Adam reached in, ripping open the pull-up package, and pulled one out, frowning. He had been glad of it being a pull-up, rather than a taped diaper, but the manufacturer hadn’t skimped on the padding; it was just as puffy all over, as any taped diaper he had seen. His eyebrows pinched as he opened it up, stepped in, and with another deep breath, he pulled it on. The waistband snapped high above his navel, and the leg cuffs gripped mid-thigh; he looked down at the cartoon elephant beaming up at him from right over his bulge.

“Ugh,” he burst out into a sigh, and Jeong laughed, but his eyes remained glued to his phone. It was so … thick. He felt the padding between his legs fold, but even then, there was resistance to his closing his legs. ‘No wonder they always waddled,’ he thought, grimacing. ‘And this is when it’s dry.’

With the worst of it done, the rest was downhill: the toddler jeans, socks, shoes, and the pacifier clip. He stuffed the sippy cup and bib into the elephant backpack, ripping off all tags in the process and tossing them into the bag. True to his word, Jeong didn’t look up from his phone once. Adam looked down at him as he sucked on his teeth before deadpanning, “Ta da.”

Jeong lifted his head and turned around to look; his face lit up.

“Damn, you look great,” he marveled and bowed his head apologetically when he received a glare. “You know what I mean.”

“Do I?” the blonde sighed as he crawled into the booster seat.

“Oh, remove ring,” the Tweener gestured to Adam’s hand, who immediately became defensive.

“Why?” he snapped, and Jeong reared his head back in surprise.

“Adopted don’t wear rings?” he replied uncertainly, despite being certain about the fact. They stared for a moment, and Adam finally grimaced, ripping the ring off dramatically and dropping it into his backpack. Jeong nodded after a beat.

“Ah, one more thing,” Jeong noted as he grabbed a tube wrapped in a towel from the front passenger seat and handed it to him. “This remove hair on your arms and face.”

“What?” Adam baulked as he glared at the package in his hand, then at the Tweener. “You didn’t say anything about that!”

“It’s not permanent,” Jeong scoffed as he pulled up the item description on his phone and projected the translation. “Adopted don’t have body hair.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Adam grumbled as he glared at the translation; he did know that, which was why he had shaved so diligently, but he hadn’t even considered his arm hair. As his eyes flicked to Jeong, he added, “Could have bought long sleeves.”

“Not cold enough,” he excused with a shrug and looked over his shoulder. “You can leave legs.”

“Gee, thanks,” he mumbled sarcastically as he began lathering the stuff on his arm, turning his nose up at the smell. Immediately, he felt a prickle as the hair follicles were being murdered rather quickly, and he wiped off the goop within a minute. If having hair on the face wasn’t a societal requirement by Littles as a feeble attempt to avoid adoption, he would consider using this stuff to shave rather than a razor. Jeong had started up the car and began the drive to the lunch location as Adam lathered the stuff on his face and chin, cringing at the smell and prickling, and wiped it off as quickly as possible.

The car ride was silent, save for Jeong tapping on the steering wheel. Adam stared out the window, noting all the locations they passed that he was familiar with from his reconnaissance. He gripped and adjusted the pull-up a few times, trying to move it around to make it less stiff. The car made its final turn into the restaurant’s parking lot, and Adam swallowed.

“Gwa-so,” Jeong released the equivalent of an ‘okay’ in a nervous sigh, turning off the car and looking back. “Ready?”

“No,” Adam answered honestly, and the two stared at each other for a moment before they both shared a grin. Jeong nodded and stepped out of the car. Looking down at the pacifier, the blonde realized he wouldn’t have to talk if he kept it in. He didn’t want to have to fake a baby voice. Just before the door opened, he stuck it in his mouth, blinking in surprise at how big the teat was; he jerked slightly when the door opened, having been distracted by that, and Jeong’s face lit up. Adam shot him a brief glare.

“Let’s go!” the Tweener put on his best parenting voice, though truthfully, it wasn’t very good. He unbuckled Adam and helped him down to the ground, put the elephant backpack on him, and gripped his hand like his life was on the line. Adam raised an eyebrow at him, noting his hand was a bit clammy, and resisted the urge to ask why the hell he was the nervous one. It took a few stops and starts for Adam to get the hang of walking in the pull-up, none of which Jeong was patient about, causing a few silent glares.

The walk from the parking lot was not very far, yet Adam received no less than three Goryeoan gushes and one ruffling of his hair. Of course, he was drawing attention… a blonde baby was bound to be a rarity here. Jeong was on top of the world at each interaction, but clearly trying to rush through it, excusing himself as they pressed on. The two of them walked through a semi-busy restaurant where nearly every head was turning to look at him, and he blushed, tensing his grip on Jeong’s hand. They walked into a private room where Adam was greeted by an interesting scene.

There was a large, round table at the center of the room, and it was already nearly full of large, imposing Amazon men. All of them were wearing suits, but far more luxurious and clean than Jeong’s. A few were smoking something, but as their eyes landed on Adam, they each began to put it out. The two largest men at the table, both in size and presence, looked to Adam. One was taller and had a prominent scar from his ear to the corner of his mouth. He had a heavy brow and wide, frowning lips, and he wore a suit jacket that looked ever so slightly too small to purposefully show off his muscles. The other was heavier set, sporting a reasonable-sized gut, way too many rings, and had meticulously trimmed hair. Despite not having the physical intimidation that the other did, there was something about his presence that commanded the room. As he lifted an arm to scratch at the side of his face, his eyes moving to Jeong, who was bowing and speaking rapidly in their native tongue, Adam noted a flash of tattoos on his wrist. He looked up at the nervous Tweener, whose hand he was still holding, and had a bad feeling this wasn’t a sales meeting.

Jeong gestured to a corner of the room as he suggested something, but the commander of the room denied him and pushed his chair slightly. He patted his leg as he nodded to Adam, his eyes moving expectantly to the Tweener.

“Go on,” Jeong stated as he released Adam’s hand, putting an open palm forward towards the man. “Mr. Hyun wants you to sit with him.”

Adam blinked up at Jeong as he was suddenly extremely grateful for the pacifier, for his tongue nervously ran over it back and forth as he tried to find a way out of this. He looked to the large man, then back to Jeong, remembering the word and quietly saying, “Appa?”

“It’s okay,” he encouraged with a nervous smile.

“English?” the man named Mr. Hyun asked as he raised his eyes, and Adam looked over, nodding. “Come here, boy,” he spoke again, with a slightly rougher accent than Jeong’s, patting his leg.

Adam cursed to himself every slow step of the way, tossing another nervous glance at Jeong, who made a demonstration of a bow. Nodding, he approached the suited monstrosity and nervously gave a bow.

“Good job!” Mr. Hyun laughed as he clapped his hands together, then reached down and grabbed Adam, quickly pulling him into his lap. He didn’t even have time to wince or resist – it happened very quickly. The Amazon’s hand caressed Adam’s stomach to keep him steady, and to avoid anyone noticing the discomfort on his face, he angled it down to pretend to look at the man’s rings.

Mr. Hyun called out to a waitress who entered; her eyes fell to Adam, she smiled, nodded, and disappeared beyond the curtain. There was something both insanely disassociating about losing so much autonomy so rapidly, but also, for his purposes, a strange kind of comforting. He didn’t want to have to act the part or do much of anything to prove he fit the clothes, so as long as everyone was doing it for him, he could just coast.

But then he felt two sausage-like fingers dip into the back of his pants and pull back the waist of the pull-up to peer in, Adam instantly regretted considering any part of this a comfort; he swore he felt his penis and balls shrivel up and die.

Mr. Hyun made some sort of comment that caused the table to chuckle, and he gestured to a glass of water. Jeong, now seated at the table, replied as he pointed to Adam, who felt a tug on his back. Looking at his shoulder, he saw the largest man at the table was pulling at the elephant backpack, unzipping it. The Little blonde looked up as his eyes fell on the scar, and the man looked down at him with a stern and piercing look in his eye. Adam looked back down at Mr. Hyun’s rings and even touched a few.

The waitress returned with a kid’s menu and crayons, placing them down in front of Adam with a wide smile. The mountain of a man to Mr. Hyun’s left handed her the elephant sippy cup, and she filled it with water, setting it down next to the crayons. The Amazon, whose lap he occupied, scooted his chair closer to the table, and Adam grabbed the crayons, immediately setting to task at ignoring the table and hoping he could go into a meditative state to make this lunch go by faster.

It sort of worked. It was easy to ignore the conversation when he couldn’t understand it, but Mr. Hyun didn’t make it easy. Within ten minutes of coloring in a dragon, the leg upon which he was sitting began bouncing. Adam couldn’t help but toss a glare up at the man, which caused him to burst out a laugh, and explain to the table, who all also chuckled. He blushed at the laughter as he looked back down at the dragon, rubbing his tongue against the pacifier teat; he hadn’t been annoyed that the coloring was ruined (which it sort of was), but that the movement had forced him back into the reality of the moment. He tried once again to zone out into the coloring, but again, Mr. Hyun had other plans.

Less than five minutes after the leg-bouncing incident, the waitress returned with a tray of clearly alcoholic drinks. Adam flashed his blue eyes up only once, recognizing the glasses as highballs, and glued his eyes back down to the mat. As the woman set down Mr. Hyun’s glass, he had an exchange with her. Something in her giggling made him freeze, his red crayon pressing into the scaled body of the dragon, and just as he started turning his head towards her…

“Ora-ora-ora!” she squealed in delight as her fingers burst forth to dig into his sides. He exploded into helpless laughter as he collapsed on his back (crushing the elephant backpack) in Mr. Hyun’s lap, flailing wildly, barely registering the rounds of laughter this elicited from around the table. Slapping the table with glee, Mr. Hyun called off the assault, and the waitress bowed in appreciation to him as she retreated, beaming the entire way out of the room.

Adam stared up at the ceiling as he breathed heavily, his face beet red, first from the tickling, quickly followed by raw embarrassment. He hadn’t been tickled since he was five, and even then, it didn’t come close to the level of overwhelming pressure caused by Amazon strength. His vacant stare seemed to amuse Mr. Hyun, who took a large gulp of his drink before grinning down at him. He picked up the pacifier that had fallen from his mouth and slipped it back in, which Adam immediately sucked on; then the Amazon effortlessly readjusted him upright so he could go back to coloring. The red crayon that had gone flying in the exchange was back on the menu, and he tossed a glance to the large Amazon to his left before tentatively picking it up; he shared a brief look with Jeong before returning to his meditative work and was finally allowed to zone out for another twenty minutes, this time disrupted by the arrival of food.

Adam’s eyes went wide as he took in a huge whiff of the dishes nearest him, which were Mr. Hyun’s and the large man’s. He sat up as much as he could to get a good look at them. The one directly in front of him was a red stew of some sort, with a center of bright greens. It smelled spicy but looked amazing. Craning his neck at the one to his left, he was not surprised to see a plate full of meat; they were nearly steak-sized cuts (Little-sized steaks, that is) glazed in a dark sauce with small scatterings of greens across them. That dish was difficult to smell over the powerful aura of the spicy stew, but Adam recoiled in embarrassment when he realized everyone had been watching him with stupid grins on their faces, like they were watching a baby smell food for the first time.

Mr. Hyun chuckled, pulling his dish to the side to leave room to continue coloring, but the larger man gestured to the sippy cup and said something in Goryeoan. It took Mr. Hyun tapping Adam’s stomach for him to realize the words had been for him; blinking up at Mr. Hyun, who gestured to the other, then to the larger man who once more gestured to the sippy cup. Adam swallowed. He had intended to go the entire lunch without drinking anything, lest he find himself stuck in a situation where he needed to use the pull-up, but this beast wasn’t relenting. He saw Jeong staring at him in his peripheral vision, and he took in a breath as he reached out for the cup. He pushed the pacifier out with his tongue and leaned back against Mr. Hyun’s bulging stomach, staring up at the man as he began to drink as slowly as humanly possible. The persistent Amazon flashed a smile and began to eat his meat, leaving Adam to really take in this dude’s appearance.

There was something different about him. Besides the scar, the muscles, and the height, of course. Something in his eye shape was different than the others. His nose, too, looked uncommon.

“This is Mr. Zhang,” Mr. Hyun explained to Adam, who craned his neck up at the man, then made eye contact with the beast known as Mr. Zhang, who inclined his head. The blonde felt a shiver run up his spine as his eyes widened in realization…

He was Yamatoan.

Adam tried to recover, blinking through the panic and digging deep within to do the one thing he had hoped to avoid: act the part. He flashed a smile and released the cup with one hand to wave. Mr. Zhang grinned down at him, and Adam’s heart skipped a beat. Did he know? Did he see that familiar Little fear in his eyes? Or was this man genetically unsatisfied until a Little acted like a baby instead of just dressing like one?

He didn’t know why it mattered. He had been convinced to do the one thing he never wanted to do by a Goryeoan, so why encountering a Yamatoan meant anything to him, he wasn’t sure. But he suddenly felt extremely vulnerable in a way that was beyond words. He felt the urgent need to get away from these two, and Jeong wasn’t even glancing at him; the bastard was too engaged in animated conversation with those around him. He felt the sippy cup tilt upwards suddenly, and, of course, Mr. Zhang was at it again; he put a finger on the bottom of the cup and angled it upwards, staring down at Adam as he chewed.

“Sok,” the deep voice resonated out, and the Yamatoan looked across the table and followed up with a question of some sort. Glancing towards the Tweener, who flushed and stuttered a response. The Yamatoan nodded knowingly… Adam had a bad feeling about whatever exchange just happened, but he focused on drinking the water. Finally, Mr. Zhang removed his hand from the cup and picked up his chopsticks.

‘Do it, man, just fucking do it,’ Adam both chided and encouraged himself as he swallowed his pride and kicked the attitude into high gear. He looked up at the friendly Amazon and held up the half-empty sippy cup to him.

“Done?” Mr. Hyun asked, and the blonde nodded and mustered a proud smile. As soon as the cup was out of his hands, he reached for the coloring menu and crayons. He was hoping to shimmy down off the man’s lap and continue his toddler masterpiece on the floor, but the Yamatoan thwarted him with an offer of food. A smaller cut-up piece of the dark, glazed meat was suddenly in front of him, held up by chopsticks, and he inadvertently licked his lips; now he could smell it, and it smelled amazing. Briefly glancing at Mr. Zhang, who nodded encouragingly, he opened his mouth, and thus Adam Sharpe, a fully functional adult wearing an elephant pull-up diaper, was fed by a Yamatoan Amazon… and it was delicious.

He accidentally let out a moan from the foodgasm, which was so good that even the condescending laughter at his expense went ignored. It was savory, rich, and the meat was a perfect cut and cooked to perfection, as it melted in his mouth like butter. He savored it as much as he could, unsure if there would be more, but Mr. Zhang delivered a second piece. Adam melted against Mr. Hyun’s stomach. All in all, he was fed six pieces of Mr. Zhang’s meal, for which he decided it was best to practice his Goryeoan.

“Thank you,” Adam piped up in his best Goryeoan, and Mr. Zhang raised his eyebrows in surprise. He inclined his head, likely about to reply, but Mr. Hyun took the moment away through his gushing. He drew the table’s attention to Adam, who felt his face redden as all eyes turned to him, and the Amazon grinned down at him. Nervously looking up and back to the table, he repeated the words. The table broke out into applause, the two nearby men patting Jeong on the shoulder as if he had anything to do with it. He wanted to sigh; he had thanked many people on his trip already and received similar looks of approval, but put on a diaper first, and suddenly, everything you do is the most amazing thing you’ve ever accomplished.

Nervous at the prospect of this getting out of control, he grabbed the pacifier and slipped it back in his mouth. He didn’t feel like entertaining a room full of men by poorly imitating their language to condescending applause. He leaned forward to continue coloring as the table was cleared, resigned to being stuck on Mr. Hyun’s lap until they left. He was able to color the river below the dragon before, but without warning, he was lifted from the leg and set down on the ground between the two. He looked up as Mr. Zhang was sticking the sippy cup, menu, and crayon in the elephant backpack, and Mr. Hyun smiled down at him, waving. He waved in response to him, looked to Mr. Zhang, and waved to him, then heard Jeong call out to him. He took a step back, almost walking around the table, but thought better of it and darted underneath the table, to the chuckles of the Amazons. It also gave him the freedom to roll his eyes before popping out the other side, where Jeong held his hand out, beaming down at him.

“Say bye-bye,” Jeong instructed as Adam took his hand, and he turned, waving to the table.

“Bye-bye,” he said, careful to keep the pacifier in his mouth. Most of the table gushed in response, but just before losing sight of them, he saw Mr. Zhang lean to his right to whisper to Mr. Hyun.

The reversing journey from that hellish room was not much different, as all within the restaurant and immediately outside of it marveled at his blonde hair, touching it and pointing out his blue eyes. Unfortunately, Jeong had not been in the same hurry to leave as arrive, and basked in the attention, only speeding things up when Adam dug his fingernail into the Tweener’s palm. Once outside the car, Jeong lifted him into the booster seat, and his eyes fell to Little’s crotch, looking tempted to check it.

Adam ripped the pacifier out of his mouth and hissed, “You don’t fucking dare.”

Jeong jumped slightly and nodded a bit too many times as he buckled him in and shut the door. The blonde let out a massive sigh of relief, slamming his head on the back of the seat. The Tweener burst out into a victory laugh as soon as the door shut.

“We did it!” he cheered, slamming his palm on the steering wheel.

“Please drive,” Adam deadpanned, looking around the parking lot nervously. “I’d like to get out of these clothes.”

“Yeah, yeah!” the Tweener grinned, starting the car and quickly whipping out of the parking lot. “You did great!”

“No encores,” the blonde grumbled as he began removing the velcro shoes.

The hour-and-a-half car ride was rather quiet, despite Jeong’s excited energy. He was grinning the entire time, while Adam struggled to undress and redress within the confines of the booster seat. The last twenty minutes of the car ride were outside of the main city and amongst more open roads and greenery. Adam was gratified to see that the scenery matched what he had studied in the photo, but as he reflected on the lunch, he glanced at Jeong.

He wanted to warn him about Zhang, but he also wanted to put him on blast for lying to him about the nature of the meeting. All of the subtle lies or “missed” details, waiting until it was too late to tell Adam about certain things … either Jeong was a masterful manipulator or an inexperienced one who had gotten lucky. Hoping it was the latter, he looked back out the window.

“Hey, Jeong,” he spoke up after a long consideration. “Have you ever seen Joomi?”

“No,” the Tweener shook his head.

“And… how do you know where she lives?”

“I made deliveries,” he replied casually, glancing down at his phone.

“What kind of deliveries?”

“Eh, whatever the boss said to do,” he shrugged, tossing her a curious look over his shoulder at him.

“Who’s that? Mr. Hyun?”

“Yeah, or whoever beneath him who give order,” he explained as he made a turn onto a dirt path.

“Mm,” Adam nodded as he let that thought linger before he took in a sharp breath and sighed, “You don’t have any more info on this code or test thing, do you?”

Silence.

“No,” Jeong admitted after a long pause, keeping his head straight forward and his body stiff.

“I … hate you,” Adam growled as he crossed his arms over his chest. The Tweener laughed awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“I’m sorry,” the Tweener sheepishly responded as he slowed the car down. “I wanted to make sure you’d show up.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“But… hey,” Jeong swallowed as he stopped the car and sheepishly smiled back at him. “We’re here.”