Daehyun’s POV

After the wonderful talk with my mother, I go out to find Sophie, or Iattempt to find Sophie because every person that I pass stops to talk to me. They ask how my time in America was and I keep repeating the same story over and over. It gets tiring after the very first one. I just want to go over and spend my time Sophie. These are exactly the reasons why I didn’t want to come back in the first place.

Finally, I manage to get away from everyone and go back to where I left Sohpie and Youngjae, but they aren’t there. Where did they go? I look around the room again and I don’t see her anywhere. Did they escape? Did Youngjae grab her into one of his plans again? if that happens, I’m sure that the secret isn’t going to be able to stay long.

“Are you looking for someone?” someone comes up and asks me.

“No, I’m fine,” I say turning around. “Noona!”

“Hey,” Hyosung says greeting me. We both hug each other. “It’s been a long time since I saw you little brother.”

“Yeah, it has,” I admit.

“How was life in the States?”

“Good,” I say nodding my head. “How was life here? A nightmare?”

“It was bearable,” she says nodding her head. “You should’ve taken me with you.”

“I offered for you to come, but you rejected saying that you still had to go to high school and then go to college.”

“I’m not that much older than you are, four years isn’t a lot. Plus, I didn’t want to leave all of my friends,” Hyosung says with a big smile.

“I understand. You would’ve made plenty of new friends, though.”

“Still. So, little brother, who were you looking for?”

“I was looking for the person that I came with,” I explain.

“That Sophie girl?” I nod my head. “I think I saw her walk out with Youngjae. Why?”

“That’s what I figured. I hope he’s not making her do anything illegal.”

“Anything illegal?”

“You know how he is.”

“Yeah, but still, if he does something illegal, which he’s never done before, then our family would be able to handle it.”

“They would be able to handle him, I’m not so sure about Sophie.” I look at Hyosung as she sighs and shakes her head. “What?” I ask.

“There’s so much about Sophie that you don’t know.”

“And who do?” I ask pointing my finger at her.

“It’s not nice to point at your noona,” she says with a bright smile.

“Sorry,” I say putting my finger down. “But what do you mean? Sophie’s my best friend.”

“She has to be hiding things from you; didn’t you read the article in the newspaper?”

“Article?” I ask. Then I remember. There was an article in the newspaper with a picture of Sophie’s parents. We both saw it when we arrived here but I just dismissed it and dragged her along with me. “Oh yeah, article,” I mutter.

“Oh, there’s my boyfriend, I have to go now little brother,” Hyosung says patting my head before she leaves.

“Boyfriend?” I ask staring at her.

“Yeah, why don’t you meet him?”

I stare at her as she goes over to meet her boyfriend and reluctantly I follow along. It’s not like I have anything better to do. Who knows where Youngjae and Sophie went. This place is too big for me to find them anyway. I’ll just wait until they come back, that is if they ever come back.

Sophie’s POV

“So, this is your bedroom,” I say as I look around.

“Yup. You can just sit there,” Youngjae says pointing to his bed, “I’m going to go onto the internet to see if I can find this article of yours.”

While Youngjae is surfing the internet, I take a look around his room from where I’m sitting. It’s a really big room, but it’s clean and nice. There are probably people that come and clean it for him since I imagine that he would be the one to leave things lying around.

On his bedside table, I see a picture of who I am assuming is him, Daehyun, and a slightly older girl. Daehyun still looked the same even when he was younger, but what is up with the clothes that he’s wearing? They look really different; well this was taken when they were younger.

“I found it,” Youngjae says .

“Oh,” I say looking at Youngjae. “Is that Daehyun and you in the picture?” I ask pointing at it.

“Um, yeah,” Youngjae says. “That girl is Daehyun’s older sister.”

“He has an older sister?” I ask surprised.

“Yeah, you didn’t know that?” Youngjae asks surprised.

“Daehyun never really talked about his family before. I just never brought it up in conversation and he never said it.”

“For six years?” Youngjae asks surprised.

“Yeah, for six years,” I say nodding my head. “Anyway, back to the article.”

“Right, sit here,” Youngjae says pointing to a chair next to him. I sit down and look at the article with my parents pictures clearly right in front of me.

“That’s them,” I say pointing at it.

“Okay, so,” Youngjae says as he starts reading it. His eyes dart back and forth over the pages to read what was written about them. “Do you want the full version or the summary?”

“I guess the summary is fine,” I say thinking about it. “But just don’t leave out anything that seems important.”

“Then semi-full is alright,” he says not taking his eyes off of the computer screen. “It says that your parents passed away in a fatal car accident in America on yesterday’s date. It says that they were important people of the agreement of governments between China and Korea?”

“What?” I ask looking at the article, but I can’t understand anything so it’s practically useless. “Important people in the agreement of governments between China and Korea?”

“I’m not exactly sure what they’re talking about either,” Youngjae says scratching the back of his head.

“Why should you know?” I ask. “Are you a part of the government?”

Youngjae looks at me with a strange look that I can’t read before he continues reading. “So, they were important people in the agreement between the governments of China and Korea. They risked their lives many times for the safety of both countries and were working on a very important mission at the time of their death. The funeral will be in two days at the Korean palace with many officials and other representatives there to see their passing. Tomorrow, there will be a viewing and a farewell before the funeral in two days. They are remembered by their daughter, Sophie Karp who resides in the United States.”

As Youngjae finishes reading the article, I’m left with more questions than answers. What were my parents doing all of their lives? What are these dangerous missions that they went on? As far as I’m concerned, they were always at home when I was home and we seemed like a loving family. Did they just lie to me and say that they had regular jobs when they were out risking their lives every day? What very important mission were they working on when they passed away?

“Sophie, Sophie?” Youngjae asks.

“What?” I ask looking at him.

“Oh, nothing, you seemed out of it.”

“Just taking everything in,” I say as I attempt to put on a smile.

“Yeah, it’s a lot of information,” he says nodding his head. “Shall we get back to the party? Daehyun is probably freaking out about not being able to find us.”

“Yeah,” I say nodding my head. “Let’s go back.”

Daehyun’s POV

“Meet my boyfriend,” Hyosung happily says as she interlocks her arm with this scary looking guy. I could never imagine him with my noona. He looks scary and angry. Hyosung is happy, cheerful, and very bubbly. Did my parents set this up or did she find this guy herself?

“Boyfriend, awesome,” I say attempting to show enthusiasm.

“Excuse my dongsaeng,” Hyosung says. “He just got back from America. Anyway, time for introductions, Himchan, this is my younger brother, Daehyun. Daehyun, this is my boyfriend, Himchan.”

“Himchan?” I ask staring at him. What type of name is that?

“Yup, Himchan,” he says extending his hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Daehyun.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Himchan,” I say. For such a scary looking guy, his name kind of sounds cute.

“Why don’t we all get to know each other more?” Hyosung asks slightly bouncing up and down. Really, how can she be so happy all of the time? I guess we are complete opposites. How did our parents get stuck with two children that are complete opposites of each other?

“How?” Himchan asks.

“I don’t know, we could talk,” she suggest shrugging her shoulders. I shrug mine in response.

“I’ll start then,” I begin. “How long have you guys been dating for?”

“Two years?” Himchan asks looking at Hyosung who simply nods her head.

“Two years, ever since I was a sophomore in college,” Hyosung proudly states.

“Does Mom and Dad know about this?” I can’t help but ask. I know that before they were strict about dating, at least they were strict with me about dating. I remember never being able to date who I wanted, even though I left early, I had the few elementary school crushes that had to remain as crushes.

“Yeah, they know,” Hyosung says nonchalantly like it doesn’t matter. “Dad approved right away. As far as Mom went, it took some major convincing.”

“I would imagine,” I say as the three of us laugh. “Do you know of her plans with me?”

“Plans?” she asks and shakes her head after some thinking. “I don’t know of any plans. Why?”

“I don’t know. Mom just said that my life was about to change when I saw her. She didn’t talk about anything else except for that. Actually, she also knows about Sophie’s parents, too.”

“Who doesn’t know about Sophie’s parents?” Himchan asks.

“You know, too?” I ask pointing at him. Just how does everyone know about her parents? Am I the only one left in the dark? Well, Sophie would probably be left in the dark, too. What do all of these people know that I don’t know? Granted, I did spend six years in the United States. Something could’ve happened then.

“Yeah,” Himchan says nodding his head. “Oh, I see my uncle’s friend over there. I’m going to go speak with him. I’ll catch up with you later, okay?” Hyosung and I both say our goodbyes to Himchan while he goes over to speak to someone else.

“Oh, you didn’t graduate high school yet, right?” Hyosung asks pointing at me and drawing my attention back.

I shake my head. “Nope, I had like half of the year left. So did Sophie. Why?”

“Then you guys have to graduate high school first,” she says with a smile. That smile never goes away, at least it’s comforting.

“You’re going to enroll me in school? Then I demand to be put in the same school with Sophie and with the same classes.”

“Can you demand that?”

“I can demand whatever I want, remember?” I ask with a sly expression.

“But Sophie only speaks English, right?”

“Right,” I say nodding my head. “So that’s going to be a problem. Not unless I’m her translator.”

“What are you planning right now Jung Daehyun?” Hyosung asks putting her hands on her hips.

“You’ll see, noona,” I say with a smile. “You’ll see.”

Sophie’s POV

Youngjae and I enter the room together. There are still as many people in there as before. People are doing the same as when we left, it’s like they never change what they’re doing. Do they just stand and talk with each other all of the time? They should really find a new pastime.

“There’s Daehyun,” Youngjae says pointing in a direction. We both walk over to where Daehyun is standing there talking with a woman. “Hey noona,” Youngjae says as we get over there.

“Youngjae, hey,” she says. “This must be Sophie, right?” It seems like she has an everlasting smile on her face. “You have to be Sophie. I saw you when you walked in thanks to my cousin over here.”

“Yes, I’m Sophie, and you speak English very well,” I say impressed.

“Thank you,” she says seeming flattered. “I’m a major in English; I should be good at it.”

“Noona, you’re majoring in English?” Daehyun asks. I’m guessing that this is his sister. They don’t even act alike.

“Yes, do you have a problem with it?” she asks. “Aren’t you going to introduce your friend and me?”

“You already got half of it done anyway,” Daehyun mutters to himself, “but Sophie, this is my noona, Hyosung. Noona, you already know that this is Sophie, my best friend of six years.”

“Nice to meet you,” I say.

“Nice to meet you, too. I heard a lot about you from Daehyun,” she says.

“You did?” I ask.

“Yup, we would call each other once in a while and we would catch up on a couple of things. He always talked about how sweet you were to him. I’m thankful that you watched over him while he was in America.”

“No problem,” I quickly say. I don’t understand why she’s thanking me all of a sudden. I mean, he could look after himself, too. I just befriended him for no particular reason. I thought he was cool and we became friends. End of story.

“Well, this party surely is awesome, isn’t it?” Daehyun asks looking around. I can feel the sarcasm in his voice.

“Don’t blame Mom or Dad,” Hyosung says. “Mom just wanted to celebrate you coming home. I mean you’re Korea’s—.”

Before Hyosung could say anything else, Daehyun quickly went over and covered . I’m not entirely sure why. Youngjae saw the sight and immediately moved his eyes somewhere else. Is there something that they’re keeping from me or is it some deep dark secret of Daehyun’s from his childhood that he doesn’t want to be exposed.

“Anyway,” Youngjae says attempting to get the conversation back on track. “Sophie had me translate the article about her parents in the newspaper.” I see Hyosung and Daehyun stop their bickering to look at us for a moment.

“What was in it?” Daehyun asks.

“A lot of…questions,” I say after coming up with the right word.

“Questions?” Daehyun asks.

“Like my parents were involved in some secret government agreement or something between China and Korea and they were a part of these secret and dangerous missions. They were apparently working on a secret mission when they passed away.” Unknowingly, I become sad again just thinking about my parents and what they must’ve been through. I feel like crying again. Daehyun must’ve noticed him because he comes over and hugs me.

“Sophie, it’s alright,” he says. “I guess there’ll just be more things that we have to figure out. I’ll protect you, it’s alright.”

After a while, I feel better a pull away from the hug. “Thanks,” I whisper.

“No problem,” Daehyun says flashing a smile. “Did they say anything about the funeral plans?”

“They said that there’s a viewing tomorrow open to the public and then the funeral is two days from now,” I explain.

“Oh,” Daehyun says nodding his head.

“Yup, they said it’s in the Korean palace. Is there such a place?” I ask.

Once again Youngjae turns his head to the side to look somewhere else while Daehyun stares at Hyosung and Hyosung looks like she’s about to speak.

Daehyun’s POV

“Noona, can I talk to you for a moment?” I quickly ask before she can do anything. Before she objects, I drag her away and out of the room where there’s no one around.

“What was that for?” she objects. “Why did you prevent me from saying the things that I wanted to say in there? Is that any way to treat your noona?”

“Look, noona, I’m sorry,” I say apologizing. “I just don’t want Sophie to be scared by our lifestyle.”

“You mean you haven’t told her?” Hyosung asks in shock.  I shake my head. “Did she ever know?”

“No,” I say. “No one in America ever knew and if they did know, do you know how much of an outcast I would be? People would think of me differently over there. I wouldn’t be popular, I’d be dumped on,” I explain.

“But why don’t you want her to know now? The truth is bound to come out sooner or later.”

“I’d deem later,” I say. “It’s already close enough that we’re going to be living here.”

“Sophie’s living here with us?”

I nod my head. “Yes, but I told her that this is Youngjae’s house.”

“So she thinks that Youngjae is the prince?”

“No, she doesn’t think anyone is the prince. I’m not even sure that she knows that there even is a prince or princess or king or queen in Korea.”

“Then what did you tell her about the house?” Hyosung asks.

“Nothing. She doesn’t know what Youngjae’s parents do and she doesn’t know what we do. I plan to keep it that way.”

“But the funeral is going to be held here,” Hyosung says pointing at the ground. “What are you going to explain to her when she goes to the funeral and she doesn’t move from this property? She’s going to know that this is the Korean palace. Then isn’t she going to think that Youngjae is the prince?”

“Not if I just say that we live here,” I say attempting to come up with any excuse in the book.

“I’m pretty sure that Sophie is not that stupid,” Hyosung says. “She’s going to figure that if we live in a palace that someone has to be royalty.”

“As long as it’s not me, I’m fine. We could just even say that it’s called the Korean Palace but it’s not really a palace.”

“Has she seen either of our parents yet?” I shake my head. “At least that’s good.”

“And it’s good that she can’t understand Korean because then she doesn’t know what people are saying,” I add. “Look, she’s just lost and if someone doesn’t speak English, she doesn’t know what they’re saying. If I have things my way then she’s not going to figure out anything, okay?”

“Whatever you say,” Hyosung says crossing her arms. “You are the prince, anyway. As much as you don’t want to admit it, it’s your title.”

“Thank you,” I say. “Now, keep this a secret? Youngjae already knows.”

“Fine,” she huffs before we go back into the room and meet up with Youngjae and Sophie in the same exact place.

“Sorry about that,” I state, “I just had something urgent to say to noona.”

“Oh, that’s alright,” Sophie says not even blinking an eye. Is she questioning my movements in her head? I’ll just ask her later about it. “So, does a place like the Korean palace really exist?”

“Of course,” I say with a smile. “Where do you think we are right now?”

“What?” she asks her eyes getting wide.

“You know you were amazed at the size of the house when we first arrived. It’s because this is a palace.”

“You guys live in a palace? Then someone has to be like royalty, right?”

Youngjae, Hyosung, and I all look at each other. Youngjae probably doesn’t know what’s coming and Hyosung probably has an inkling.

“Nope,” I say shaking my head. “Sadly no one is royalty. It’s just called the Korean Palace because it’s so big.”

“Makes sense,” Sophie says nodding her head. “I mean I would believe it if you guys said that this was a palace.”

Youngjae, Hyosung, and I give off an awkward laugh with Sophie. She has no idea how true her thought is.

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So Daehyun is a prince, when will Sophie find out his secret? How will she react to hearing it? What is Daehyun's plan for school? What were Sophie's parents working on? What did Sophie's parents do for a living? What is going to happen to Daehyun's life?

Chapter 4 is up. Hope you enjoyed :D

Oh and I made a Twitter. In case you care. Click here to go to it.

Here, I found this Daehyun gif :)