“Jaemi?”

 

She quickly turned away from him.

 

“Jaemi, is that you?”

 

“Get away from me.”

 

“Jaemi…”

 

“I said GET AWAY!” she hollered.

 

“Jaemi, I know. You don’t have to do this alone. I know what you are. I’m— Professor Seon told me everything.”

 

She slowly turned to face him, “You know?”

 

“Yeah, I know.”

 

Before she could answer him, everything turned black and she passed out.

 

 

Jaemi slowly opened her eyes to see herself in her bedroom. She looked around to see Jaesung Jieun’s hair as she sat there teared up. Jaemi tried to sit up from her bed.

 

“Jaemi, you’re awake!” Jieun said running over to her side.

 

“How did I get home?” Jaemi asked.

 

“Kai called Jaesung and said you fainted.”

 

“He knows about him?”

 

“No no, you listed him as ‘my oppa’ and I went to open the door.”

 

“Oh,” Jaemi looked at Jieun, “Why are you crying?”

 

“I was worried! This my first time experiencing your gumiho-ness.”

 

Jaemi let out a chuckle, but stopped when she looked at Jaesung.

 

Jieun looked at the two siblings and wiped her tears, “Well, it’s getting late. I should head home.”

 

Jaesung looked at Jaemi as Jieun walked out the bedroom door. Jaemi lowered her head from guilt.

 

Jaesung continued to look at Jaemi, “I’ll drive you home Jieun,” he said as he turned around and left.

 

Jaemi watched her brother leave her room.

 

 

Jaesung drove up to Jieun’s house.

 

“I’m sorry,” Jieun said, “I know saying this a thousand times won’t change anything, but I am truly sorry for everything today. I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

 

“Jieun, you don’t have to apologize for anything. I’m just happy you were there.”

 

Jieun let out a slight smile and got out of the car. She paused before closing the door, “And Jaesung sunbae…”

 

Jaesung looked at her.

 

“Please don’t be too angry at Jaemi.”

 

Jieun closed the car door and went up to her house.

 

Jaesung sighed and drove off.

 

 

Jaesung went into Jaemi’s room.

 

“So should we talk about what happened tonight?”

 

Jaemi looked down and didn’t say anything.

 

“Well?” he asked.

 

“I’m sorry,” she started, “I know I shouldn’t have gone today; it was dangerous and I know that now. I promise I won’t do that ever again.”

 

“You’re right, you won’t be doing that again because I’m grounding you for the next two weeks and that means you won’t be going anywhere except going to school and to work,” Jaesung declared, “And I won’t tell appa, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

 

He made his last statement and walked out of her room.

 

Jaemi called him, “Please don’t be mad at me oppa.”

 

Jaesung stopped, “I’m not. I’m just disappointed,” he said.

 

 

“Two weeks?” JB repeated through the phone, “At least that means you have more time to research.”

 

“That’s true. Well, I guess I’ll be spending my weekend reading all those books again.”

 

“Want company?”

 

“I wish, but I’m grounded, remember? Which means no friends allowed,” she pouted.

 

“Well you’re lucky he didn’t take your phone away,” he laughed, “You should start reading again. Call me if you need anything.”

 

“Thanks JB. Bye!”

 

She hung up, “Ugh, time for some reading.”

 

 

Six hours passed.

 

“This is seriously hopeless,” she said to herself as she laid on her bed, “I’ll just return the books today.”

 

She went downstairs where Jaesung was sitting in the living room.

 

“Where are you going?” he asked.

 

“To the library,” she answered, “I need to return a bunch of books JB lent me.”

 

“That’s a lot, do you need me to come along?”

 

“No it’s fine, but can you help me carry them to the car? And… can I use your car?”

 

He chuckled, “Yeah, the keys are on the table over there.”

 

Jaemi walked towards the table, but immediately stopped, “Wait, what day is it today?”

 

“Saturday, why?”

 

“OMG I HAVE WORK TODAY!!!” she panicked.

 

He chuckled, “Don’t worry, I asked appa to fill in for you today. You can go back to work tomorrow morning.”

 

She let out a sigh of relief, “Oh thank god. Okay, I’m going to head to the library now.”

 

Jaemi packed all the books to the car with Jaesung’s help. After they finished, he went back in the house as Jaemi got into the car.

 

“First time driving in Korea,” she said letting out a breathe, “I can do this.”

 

She started the engine and backed out.

 

 

Once she arrived at the library, Jaemi took about four rounds before she finished returning all the books.

 

She placed the last set of books down, “Woo, that was some arm exercise.”

 

Jaemi wiped her forehead with her arm and headed out until she noticed an odd book lying next to the stack of books she returned.

 

She looked at the front cover, “Can I check out this book?” she asked the librarian.

 

“Actually that book doesn’t belong to the library. It has been sitting here for the past few weeks, but no one came to claim it. We were about to throw it out, but if you want, you can keep the book,” the librarian offered.

 

“That would be great, thanks.”

 

Jaemi walked back to the car and looked at the book again, “Hopefully I’ll find some answers here.”

 

 

L.Joe barged into the office, “Hey Jaemi, I—”

 

He stopped and bowed to apologize, “I’m sorry Vice Chairman Um. I thought your daughter was here.”

 

“It’s fine, but she’s not here today. She should be back tomorrow.”

 

“Thank you sir,” L.Joe bowed again and left.

 

“Why isn’t she here today?” he asked himself.

 

L.Joe took out his phone to call Jaemi, but stopped. He put his phone back and went back to work.

 

 

Jaemi woke up the next morning.

 

 

She happily walked to work, excited for no apparent reason.

 

Once she reached the hotel, she walked through the lobby to see L.Joe walking across the second floor. Coincidentally, he was also wearing a light blue denim-like color similar to Jaemi.

 

 

She watched him walk from below as a smile unknowingly creeped upon her face.

 

“Jaemi,” a voice called.

 

She took her eyes off of L.Joe.

 

“I’m glad you’re back,” said Chairman Lee, “I’m actually working on something for you to do next week, but for now I don’t have much for you. Feel free to stay if you like. I’ll get back to you next week.”

 

Jaemi nodded her head, “Since I’m here, I might as well stay. I’ll be in my father’s office in case you need me.”

 

She went up to the office and sat down on the couch, “Might as well take a quick nap.”

 

She laid down and fell asleep.

 

 

Jaemi was at the school’s rooftop sleeping on the bench with her eyes red and puffy from crying a few moments ago.

 

She could hear footsteps coming near her and even though she was asleep, she could see and sense everything around her. She looked at their shoes, trying to figure out who it was. The person bended down to face her and placed her hair around her ear, “I’m sorry,” he said. He slowly leaned in and gently kissed her. He pulled away and Jaemi could finally see his face. L.Joe’s face.

 

“AHHHHHHHHH!” Jaemi sat up screaming, wiping her lips.

 

She stopped and touched her lips, “Oh my god,” she said to herself.

 

She lightly smacked her head a few times, “Why are you dreaming about that! I mean, L.Joe of all people! Kissing a ram would be better than kissing him.”

 

Jaemi wiped her lips again, “Gross gross gross.”

 

The door swung open, “Are you okay? Why were you screaming?” L.Joe barged in.

 

Jaemi jumped up and suddenly started to burn up, “Uh… nothing. It was just a spider.”

 

“A spider? You made the whole building think you were dying. Where is it?” he asked walking in.

 

“No, it’s okay! I got it!” she said pushing him out, “Nothing to worry about. Tell everyone I’m fine.”

 

She shoved him out and closed the door, “Close call,” she said fanning herself with her hand.

 

 

L.Joe stood outside the office door after Jaemi shoved him out. He turned his head, smiled and walked down the hall.

 

 

Now that Jaemi was fully awake, she took out the book she got from the library and started to read it.

 

A few moments later, Jaemi got a phone call from JB.

 

“Hello?” she answered.

 

“Hello Ms. Screaming Gumiho.”

 

“Huh? Wait, how did you—”

 

“I was on the phone with my father earlier,” JB said laughing.

 

“Ha ha, real funny.”

 

“Anyways, any luck with the research?”

 

“No,” Jaemi sighed, “I returned all the books yesterday. However, I did find this one strange book that I got for free, but so far there isn’t much useful information in it.”

 

“Well, we could try looking at an older library. Maybe they’ll have something useful,” he suggested.

 

“Maybe,” Jaemi said as she turned to the next page.

 

She stared at the page, “Uh JB, I think I’ll have to call you back,” she said hanging up.

Jaemi looked at the page careful, “Oh my gosh…”

 

---

I'm sorry for taking so long to update! I thought I would have time to write during college, but I seriously barely have time to do anything. Since it's the Labor Day weekend, I finally got the chance to write, so now I'm guessing I will only have time to write and upload on holidays/breaks. I hope you understand for my lack of updates. I tried to make this chapter long, so please enjoy! ^^