The Mansion of Men

Easy to see

Big sees the signs, long before he realizes what he's looking at. Porsche is popular from the moment he walks through the door. The boy who defies Khun-Kinn. The boy who speaks to Khun-Korn. The one who makes demands.

He's astounding. Audacious. A shiny, new toy.

He's in every, new story, somehow. He gets in so many fights that it's almost impossible to escape him in real life, or in the fictional world. He's fascinating, like that. Easy on the eyes, but grating on the nerves.

At first, it's only that. It's just that. Porsche, a character that's distinct from Porsche, the real man. At first, his rendezvous with other employees, and their favorite bosses are something to be read on paper.

Then, the lines start to blur. Because Porsche, the real Porsche, starts to move like the character. His life starts to form like the character's. And it's not so funny anymore. Not because he gets punished. Not because he gets put in his place.

But because Big sees other things, too. Khun-Kinn's attention. Khun-Kinn's words. Khun-Kinn's time. Porsches sucks them all up like the character that takes every space that he walks into.

Khun-Kinn doesn't call for escorts anymore, but Big still has to buy condoms and lube. Big knows why.

It's hard to read about Khun-Kinn and Porsche, now. They're not fiction anymore, they're real. And Big hates to read about the desperation Kinn feels anytime the disobedient bodyguard walks by him.

But he can't help himself. Because even as it hurts, it gives Big insight that he never had before. To read about Khun-Kinn and Porsche, and watch them manifest before his eyes. To learn how Khun-Kinn folds his entire life and personality around his feelings for Porsche to the point that Big just knows that extracting Porsche would be detrimental to Khun-Kinn's health.

Which is why it costs him nothing to take that step. They're in the warehouse and Khun-Kinn isn't there yet. But Big is. And Porsche is lying over him. Porsche is trying to keep Big safe. But Big cannot imagine the devastation that Khun-Kinn will feel if he arrives to find Big alive, while Porsche is dead.

So Big takes the bullets. Without question.

Because if Porsche holds the key to Khun-Kinn's happiness, then there's never been a choice as to whose life mattered the most.