Three Wise Men

by Connie Bailey

College friends Joon, Tae, and Sangsun parted ways after an aborted attempt at a threesome. Ten years later, life has carried them down very different paths, but Joon misses his friends and decides to invite them to his home in South Korea for Christmas. He believes they belong together, but convincing the others to defy tradition and try again will take faith, hope, and a lot of talking—especially since all three of them are still in the closet.


A story from the Dreamspinner Press 2014 Advent Calendar package "Celebrate!".

Genres: Holiday, Short Stories, M M M, Contemporary, M M Romance, Christmas, Menage

29 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 30, 2014

About the author

Connie Bailey is a Luddite who can’t live without her computer. She’s an acrophobic who loves to fly, a fault-finding pessimist who, nonetheless, is always surprised when something bad happens, and an antisocialite who loves her friends like family. She’s held a number of jobs in many disparate arenas to put food on the table, but writing is the occupation that feeds her soul.

Connie lives with her ultralight designer husband at a small grass-strip airfield halfway between Disney World and Busch Gardens. Logic and reality have had little to do with her life, and she likes it that way.

Reviews

[Serena Yates · Rating 4 out of 5]

Missing one man you love is bad enough, but missing two must be worse. Living in South Korea, the three college friends in this story never really stood a chance ten years ago. Not only is being gay against tradition and totally unacceptable to the majority of society, but them living in a triad is at least as unthinkable. When one of them takes the initiative to invite the other two to spend Christmas together, he is hoping for more, but he knows it won’t be easy. All three now have careers to lose as well as their reputations, and with the success they have each achieved, how likely is it for them to give up all of that?

Joon is clearly the peacemaker of the three, the one who links them all together. He is a teacher now, but the emptiness he feels on an emotional level is getting to him. Tae is a tough soldier, but he also feels lonely; the hookups he can get in the military don’t compare to what he wants, and what he can have with Joon and Sangsun. Sangsun is probably the hardest nut to crack. He is a VP In his father’s company and while he has worked very hard to get there he has everything he could ever want—as far as material possessions go.

All three men have woven a web of lies and self-deceit around themselves in an attempt to believe their own propaganda. They can’t be gay, and they are certainly not in love with not just one but two men. It takes quite some talking between them for them to start seeing the truth again. Admitting vulnerability doesn’t come easy to any of them, and it was fascinating to see them struggle and grow as they all realized the only possible solution for them to be happy was to accept a new beginning in every sense of the word.

If you like emotional stories with the gradual emergence of self-knowledge, if three men struggling to find balance in their lives sounds interesting, and if you’re looking for a read that is touching and ends in a great happy-for-now, then you will probably enjoy this short story.


NOTE: This book was provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews.

[☆ Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three Wise Men, or as I like to call this one ménage à sticky rice . (If you don't know what sticky rice is, look it up.) : )

This short story is about Joon (a teacher), Tae (a soldier) and Sangsun (a business executive) who are all closeted gay men that used to be best friends 10 years ago.

Joon:


Tae:


Sangsun:


The day before Tae was leaving to join the military, their first 'first time' happened, freaking Sangsun out and effectively dissolving their friendship.

But after 10 years of pining for the other two parts of his whole (sorry, no pun intended), he contacts Tae and Sangsun and talks them into spending Christmas with him.

The story is fairly slow burn, to be only 29 pages long, as the friends open up and bare their souls regarding their incomplete, but successful, lives.

It's glaringly obvious, very quickly, that their past connection is still alive and well, so things progress from there.

One of the funniest parts of the book for me was once 'things' began, Sangsun blurts out to Tae:

      “Are you going to hog all the Joon?”

All of their angst and drama occurred off-page in the past 10 years since their separation, so the book only really dealt with their coming together again (sorry, slight pun intended that time) and deciding to move forward as one.

It was a well thought out story and the single ménage scene was pretty hot, in an innocent second 'first time' way, so I'd recommend giving it a read.

3 1/2 stars, rounding up because Goodreads still doesn't have half-star ratings and the ending put me in a good mood. : )

[My reviews can also be found on MyFictionNook.com.]

[Chris, the Dalek King · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not so much a case of "the lady doth protest too much," as it is "the lady barely protested at all before flinging up her skirts and yelling 'get over here, big boy!'"

Seriously, while I enjoyed the bits of Korean culture in this short story, these guys went from 'we can never be together' to 'yay! gay orgy' in the amount of time it took them to drink a beer. And even if I cannot claim extensive knowledge of Korean culture, I would think that it would take more than just few comments to combat the societal and familial expectations these men will have to deal with for not only being gay, but being in a three-way relationship.

Also, you have no idea where those asses have been in the last ten years, so for gods sake, put a fucking condom on!

2.5 stars

[Kat · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 to 2 stars.

It's just too short. The guys go from "no we can't be together" to "let's be a threesome and have sex" in 0.5 seconds... there's only a bit of talking and all the drama and angst happened off page somewhere in the past. Also the Christmas part is missing... the story takes place at Christmas but that's all, it could have happened every other time of the year too.

I'm starting to get really disappointed with this year's Advent Calendar stories...

[Love Bytes Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 star review by Roberta

This is wonderful little Advent story is just so short and sweet.

Joon, Tae and Sangsun were really good friends back in college and they’ve not seen each other in 10 years. This is the first time that they’ve seen each other and it’s Christmas time. There are feelings, strong feelings that have frightened and held on through the entire 10 years of separation. Joon is a schoolteacher, Tae is a soldier, and Sangsun is a businessman. Sangsun took over the family business and has been working and trying to live the life that’s required of him. Joon has lived a celibate life. Holding out for the two men who hold his heart. Tae has lived his life as a soldier and has hasty meetings with guys in the service.

This is a story of second chances. These men are content-ish with their lives, even knowing that there is something, well a couple of something’s missing in each of their lives. I really liked how these men decided to FINALLY take the chance to being together. It’s hard enough as just a gay couple, but as a ménage??

This sweet story had my heart melting as I watched these men finally acknowledge that they want each other. I love that this book gave 3 different men the second chance to find happiness and love.

I was really sad for the story to be over as with any good story…you want to know how it ends.

A copy of this book was provided in exchange for an honest review. Please visit www.lovebytesreviews.com to see this and many more reviews, author interviews, guestposts and giveaways!

[Morgan Skye · Rating 3 out of 5]

The blurb pretty much says it all. When they were young, the three men were close and attempted to form a threesome, but Sangsun got scared and ran. In the 10 years since then, Joon has remained a virgin, Sangsun has been only with women and Tae has been with men, but only very casually.

Joon decides he needs the threesome to feel complete, so he calls the other two and invites them for Christmas. With only a little bit of talking (the whole story is only 20 pages) he convinces them to give up their very traditional and closeted lives to be together in a threesome/triad relationship, and they have sex.

**
I know that you have to judge short stories with a different metric than a novella or novel, but there are ways to move a story forward in a way that makes sense even with only a few words or pages. This story does not do that. One second they are all discussing their lives and bemoaning the fact that their traditional Korean lifestyles do not mesh at all with being gay, much less in a threesome, the next they are getting naked.

To me this felt like a long fantasy rather than a developed short story and it just didn’t feel authentic or remotely plausible. The “Christmas” part of the story was also felt forced and again emphasized that this was a fantasy disguised as a holiday short story.

I give it a 2.5 of 5 hearts

[Andrea Goodell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This 10 page novella is about three Korean friends that experimented ten years pervious got scared and ran away. Ten years later they are meeting up for the first time and start reminiscing of old times. One is a teacher, one a soldier and the last help runs his father’s company. All are convinced you cannot be openly gay in Korea. As the night where’s on the teacher asks if any have tried with men since that night and the discussion quickly turns to religion and marriage.
I found this story a little confusing, it was like to author wanted to put more story into ten pages so instead of just going with one or two dialogues/themes we took on several. But it was well written and the concerns seemed all valid.


I was given this novella in exchange for an honest review by Crystals Many review

[Caroline Brand · Rating 3 out of 5]

REVIEWED FOR PRISM BOOK ALLIANCE

This was just a little too short for me. Tae, Joon and Sangsun had been at college together and had been unsuccessful at a triad relationship. A decade later and Joon decides he wants to see his friends again and invites them to stay with him for a weekend. There is reminiscing and alcohol and although Sangsun is quick to deny he is gay and certain that they can’t turn back the clocks there is a very sudden shift of opinion when they all end up naked.

[Sadonna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting story of three guys who were friends when young and perhaps something more - but they haven't been together for years. Joon has invited his two friends Tae and Sangsun to his home for the first time in 10 years - since Tae had joined the Army. There has always been something between these three but they haven't acted on it in all this time. Joon feels like he is hollow inside though and has to at least try. This story is short, but kind of sweet and hopeful.

[Angel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too short for the themes visited and contradicting to boot. Also, it is implied they had a relationship, then suddenly only two of them had had sex. Confusing in the extreme especially considering the traditional Korean setting. It seemed as if Christmas/advent was just a means to an end.

[Katy Beth Mckee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is the reconnecting of three friends who might have been more but the story really ends in a way that might be a hint of more but is very uncertain.

[Meggie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This shorty was disappointingly boring for me. We got one threesome sex scene. What a hardship to write such bull.

[Roclaf Alter -Ego · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cute M/M romance set in Korea. Involves a three some as a twist.