Fifty Six
On The Rooftop"Who is she?" Lani finally had the guts to ask. Her voice was no louder than a whisper and she stared down as she fidgeted with her fingers.
"Who is who?" L.Joe asked, confused by her question.
"Who is she?" Lani repeated, her jaw clenching as she tried to hold back her anger.
"I don’t know who you're talking about!" L.Joe exclaimed, frustrated and clueless.
"THAT GIRL! THE ONE YOU WERE SHOPPING WITH! THE ONE YOU BOUGHT SHOES FOR!" Lani lost her cool, snapping at L.Joe as rage filled her eyes. Chunji's jaw dropped, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He found it odd that L.Joe had insisted on ending practice early the night before, but he didn't know that was the reason why.
Suddenly everything made sense to L.Joe, "Lani," he softly chimed, "this is all a misunderstanding."
Lani glared at L.Joe, she wasn’t going to sit there and listen to his pathetic excuses. "I saw you with her. I watched you buy her shoes."
Instead of responding, L.Joe got up off the bed and left the room, leaving Lani and Chunji speechless. He returned moments later with a box in his hands, he passed it over to Lani and encouraged her to open it. She was hesitant at first, but lifted the lid when L.Joe insisted. Inside the box was a beautiful pair of blue satin flats with a silver rose accenting both; a pair she had seen the day before on the woman L.Joe had gone to the store with.
"I was planning to give them to you tonight," L.Joe stated as he sat in front of Lani. He took one shoe out of the box and gently grabbed her foot, carefully putting the shoe on her. L.Joe smiled in content, "it fits perfectly." He looked up at her with sincerity in his eyes, "that woman, she's one of our codi noonas. I found out she had the same shoe size as you, so I asked her to help me out."
Lani didn't know what to say, she felt so stupid for even thinking that L.Joe would cheat on her.
"I'm sorry..." Lani whispered. She was too embarrassed to look L.Joe in the eyes, and just continued staring down.
L.Joe moved the box from her lap and placed it down on the bed next to her, he reached out towards her and embraced her in his arms. "It's okay baby, I would've reacted the same way too." He her hair as she returned the hug. "I'm sorry too," L.Joe said to her, "you must've gone through hell last night."
Just then someone knocked on the door. "Hyung," Niel's voice called out, "how's Lani's hang over?"
L.Joe's stare shot to Lani as he stared at her with disbelief and worry, "hang over?" he questioned. "Lani, did you drink last night?" he demanded.
Without looking at him Lani nodded in response.
"Yah! Good going Niel!" Chunji called out.
"W-wae?" Niel stuttered.
"Why don’t we let Niel explain what happened last night?" Chunji suggested.
"Niel?" both Lani and L.Joe said in unison.
"I was with Niel...?" she questioned. At the mention of his name, she started to remember bits and pieces of the night before, but not nearly enough to make sense of what happened.
"Wow you must've been out cold last night," Chunji slightly chuckled earning a glare from L.Joe.
"Right now isn't the time to be joking around," L.Joe sternly stated. "Niel get in here!"
"Oh..." Niel said once he opened the door, "I didn't know you were here L.Joe hyung..."
Niel hesitantly advanced forward and took a seat on the edge of the bed. He began the story from the moment he found Lani, of course leaving out exactly where that was since he didn't want the others to know about the shed. He explained meeting the two Infinite boys at a food stall and drinking together. Lani didn't seem to remember much from beyond the point of seeing Woohyun and Sungyeol.
"How did I get here...?" she asked, there were so many unanswered questions that she had.
"I carried you to the building and we met CAP hyung. It was either we brought you here or to a hotel. But it didn’t seem like a good idea for you to be waking up alone in a hotel room with a hang over..."
Lani felt embarrassed. She couldn't believe that she passed out the night before and Niel had to take responsibility for her.
"I didn't do anything... you know... bad, right?" she questioned, scared of what the answer may be.
"Hmmm, no. You passed out before anything could happen. But I remember you kept saying 'L.Joe nappeun namja'," he said as his gaze traveled to his hyung sitting on the other side of the bed.
L.Joe continued questioning Lani and Niel, as they all tried to piece together what exactly happened the night before. L.Joe couldn't help but be a little upset at Lani; he hated it when she drank, but he knew he couldn't blame her, she was heart broken because of him. He apologized once again for the misunderstanding, feeling guilty for the state she was is, and Lani easily forgave him. Chunji interrupted the group when he remembered Lani still hadn't eaten her soup. He warmed it for once more and when he returned, CAP had also come home. It didn't take long for the maknaes to find out what was going on with all the commotion down the hall, and they joined the rest of the members in CAP's room. They all just joked around and talked, and were happy to finally spend time with Lani again.
Thank you so much for waiting and being patient D:
I haven't been on good terms with many people lately, so I've been feeling really down. I'm sorry for not updating eariler. I wrote this chapter in pieces so it may not flow very well. I just needed to post something so you guys wouldn't be waiting for too long D:
I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter anyways~
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