CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

 

No matter how hard he tried to focus on what his math professor was explaining, Jongin couldn’t just understand anything. There was only one thing in his mind that time, and it was Soojung only. He feared that Jin told something to her to make her to rush off of the school like that.

 

At the other side of their classroom, his eyes spot Jinri using her phone under her desk. She then turns to her boyfriend who was sitting behind her, and the latter’s eyes widens from what she just said.

 

Normally, Jongin would just let it go when he sees a fellow student using their own phone at the middle of the class mainly because he’s also like that sometimes, especially when he’s bored and doesn’t feel like listening any longer, just like what he was currently feeling. Pulling out his iPhone from his pocket, he glances over Jinri before sending her a message.

 

TO: Jinri

FROM: Jongin

Did Soojung message you?

 

Jinri was taken aback by the sudden vibration that came from her phone, but replies shortly after anyways.

 

TO: Jongin

FROM: Jinri

Jessica left. She didn’t say where she’s going.

 

Suddenly, Jongin raises his hand, earning the attention of their professor.

 

“Sir, may I be excused? I am not feeling well today.”

 

 

Her brother arrived 30 minutes ago but left shortly after. They both agreed that their parents shouldn’t know about this so Jaejoong decided to investigate himself with the help of his own workers. She wanted to come with him to the airport to check the CCTVs so they can find a clue on where their sister could have gone, but was not allowed to. Before leaving, he tells her sister that everything will be alright and that they will find Jessica soon. Soojung does what she is told to do, like always.

 

Impatiently, she waits for him to come back. While doing so, she reads her sister’s letter a hundred times, if that was even possible. Suddenly, she hears a knock on her door. She stood up, fixing the wrinkled school uniform that she was wearing, hoping that her brother has come back, but she gets surprised seeing her fiancé.

 

“Jongin? What are you doing here?” She glances quickly at her wooden wall clock. It wasn’t even the time for him to come home from school. “Are you skipping class?!”

 

“Says the girl who’s doing exactly the same thing.” He points out. “You replied to Jinri, but not to me.”

 

She looks down. “If you know that I replied to Jinri, then I supposed you know what’s happening.” Looking like that, Jongin forgot about getting mad at her for not answering his calls and just proceeds to hug her.

 

“Are you alright?” The boy asks.

 

“Yeah…”

 

“Are you lying to me?”

 

“Yeah… But don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”

 

After their tight hug, Jongin releases her from his arms. Despite an assuring smile on her face, he felt useless. He didn’t know why he suddenly decided to skip class and lie to his professor when he can’t even do anything to cheer her up. It’s not like his presence would make her sister suddenly come back.

 

“Eh? What’s with the long face? I’m the one who should be looking like that.” Soojung jokes, patting his cheeks lightly.

 

“And yet you’re faking your smile in front of me. You know how much I hate seeing you like this.” He sighs. He then asks her to sit down back to her bed, which she does even though she was slightly confused. “You can cry if you want to.”

 

“Why so sudden?”

 

“I’m not going to judge you, I swear. It will make you feel better.”

 

 “Oh, Jongin.” She chuckles and pulls him beside him. She found it cute that he was concerned and was hoping for her to feel alright, but it wasn’t just that easy when she knows she won’t be seeing her sister anytime soon. “Just seeing you here is basically you saying that you care about me. You just made me feel better, though I am not glad that you have to skip school because of me.”

 

“Pssh, I didn’t leave school because of you.” He looks away from her gaze. “I wasn’t feeling well, that’s why.”

 

“Really? Why are you here then?”

 

“Not because of you, obviously.”

 

Just when he was about to again, her bedroom door opens, startling the two. Jaejoong enters the room with both of his hand occupied as he texted someone on his phone. It was when he lifted his head when he realized that Jongin was there, who was standing beside his sister looking equally surprised.

 

“Obviously, I’m disturbing the two of you-”

 

“Oh shut up Jae and tell me that you’ve found Jessica.”

 

“Good afternoon, Jaejoong hyung.” Jongin bows at the older man, in which the latter does the same until he noticed that the two were wearing their uniforms.

 

“Wait a minute, isn’t it a little early for you two to come home? Did you skip-”

 

“Yes, yes we did. But please scold me later for I just want to know if you have news about my sister.”

 

Before answering, Jaejoong runs his hand through his hair. “We’ve check all of the CCTVs at Incheon Airport this morning but she wasn’t seen in any of the cameras.”

 

“Wait, then… she didn’t board a plane?” She frowns. “Oh my god, she’s not with Donghae, is she? She’s not in Mokpo-”

 

“That’s not our problem right now, sis.” Jaejoong cuts her off. “I hope you thought of an excuse while I was gone, because just when I was about to go upstairs, I was informed that father has arrived.”

 

 

“Father! You’re home early.”

 

Mr. Jung has just wore his coat and was about to leave when he hears his son’s voice. He turns around to look at the staircase when he sees Jaejoong coming down of the stairs, followed by Soojung and Jongin, who all bowed down when they reached him. He was happy to see them of course, but he couldn’t hide his surprise when he saw them, especially when he saw Jongin.

 

“Why, Jongin! I didn’t expect to see you here.” The older man says, patting his future son-in-law’s back. It was obvious that he has a liking to him. “Here to visit my daughter?”

 

“Ah, yes. She wasn’t feeling well so I decided to see her.” Jongin nods along even though it wasn’t completely true. He did visit her, but she wasn’t feeling sick.

 

“But I’m okay now, father. You don’t have to worry.” Soojung fake smiles. “Are you going to stay for dinner?”

 

“Actually, I just went home to get some files. I won’t be home till midnight, and I doubt that your mother would come home early so go have dinner with Jongin and your brother.” His father advises. He was about to leave again when he suddenly asks his children, “By the way, I received a message from your sister this morning. Nobody told me that she’s leaving for Paris.”

 

Being the great actress that she is, Soojung didn’t make a reaction and still had her smile on her face while her brother’s eyebrow automatically raised. Jongin was the one who looked most nervous though. He was constantly glancing at the siblings as Mr. Jung continued with his story.

 

If he only knew that he wasn’t the only one.

 

 

Hours have passed when Soojung received the latest update of her sister from Jaejoong. She was currently waiting for dinner to be served with her friends coming along after school to cheer her up (Sehun was somewhere around the mansion, talking to Youngji, of course).

 

TO: Soojung

FROM: Jaejoong

 

Checked the CCTVs thrice and Jessica wasn’t in the flight in Paris. I've hired a private detective to follow her, if she’s really in France. Don’t worry too much. You can come to the house and sleep over. Catherine and I would love to have you.

 

“Everything okay?” She feels Jinri placing her hand on her shoulder.

 

“There is still no news of Jessica.” She sighs.

 

Seeing Soojung was like that, Jongin was started to get affected as well. He hated how he could only look at her when she’s worried like that. He sees her get up to hug her best friend, and that’s when he glances away to look outside by the window.

 

“I should be having that expression on your face, Jongin.” He hears her voice and later realizes that she has gone to stand beside him at the other end of the window.

 

“You don’t, because you’re hiding it.”

 

Soojung smiles a little. “I am worried as hell, but at the same… I’m quite glad.”

 

Confused, he looks at her again. “What do you mean?”

 

“At least my sister could have her baby away from the judging eyes of our family and the people around us, right?” She looks at him back. “By the way, thank you.”

 

“What for?”

 

“I feel like I’ve said it before, but I’m going to say it once more. It’s really strange that you’ve been acting so nice for the past months, but I like it. So thanks for that. Thanks for being the person that I could lean on, literally.”

 

“Well, I am your husband.”

 

“Future husband, Jongin.”

 

“Same thing, wifey.” He flicks her forehead, causing her to groan. “By the way, are you going to give me a cute nickname when we get married? I want to hear you say ‘honey’ once-”

 

“You guys, dinner is served!” Sehun’s head suddenly pops in Soojung’s room, ruining their moment once again.

 

 

A Choi Jinri birthday party is never complete without the A-lists celebrity guests. When she turned 8, her father invited the then rising actor Gong Yoo, much to Soojung’s delight. She was very much starstrucked and wasn’t able to speak when she was introduced to the actor. The only difference now is that Jinri herself is the one who invited her celebrity friends who were mostly their age as she had recently entered the industry.

 

“ man, is that Li Yifei?” Sehun’s eyes bulges out after seeing the Chinese actress. He elbows Jongin so he could fanboy with him, but his friend didn't display any sign of interest.

 

“Dude, don’t even dare flirt with her.”

 

“Why the hell not?”

 

“She’s dating a Korean actor.” Jongin tries to warn him, but Sehun has already passed his glass of wine to him.

 

“Good, that means she could probably understand Korean.” Before he disappeared to the crowd of celebrities, he flashes his friend a smirk. “Oh don’t give me that look, Jongin. Stop judging me and look for your girl.”

 

With the mention of ‘your girl’, Jongin was suddenly reminded of Soojung, whom he didn’t go to the party with as he went there with Sehun. She did mention that she was going to be a little late to the party so instead of their initial plan of picking her up to go all together, Soojung had told both Sehun and Jongin to go first without her.

 

He lays out the two glasses of wine, both his and Sehun’s, at a nearby table to search for Soojung. It wasn’t that hard to look for her, really. He easily spots her at the table, eating a macaroon. It took her 10 seconds to finish it, and another 10 to look around her surroundings to make sure that nobody was watching her finishing the plate of macaroons. But before she can take a bite of the blue one, Jongin sneaks behind her, startling her and making it drop to the floor.

 

“You made me drop my macaroon!” She punches him lightly as he chuckled. She then looks at the floor where her precious macaroon was and says sadly, “Ah, now I can’t eat it.”

 

“You do know that you can just grab another one, right?”

 

“Yeah but I have eaten seven, and if I finish them all I will feel bad.”

 

“Wow, what a pig.”

 

“What did you say?!”

 

Jongin doesn’t reply, but instead he just smirks when he saw her raising her fist to punch him again. “Are you really going to punch me in front of all these people?” Soojung freezes as he continued, “I could just shout something and everybody’s attention would be on us.” Slowly, she presses her lips together and smiles. Instead of punching him, she pats him cheeks not so lightly.

 

“Ah, just the couple that I was looking for.” The two hear someone say. Jongin doesn’t need to turn to know that it was his older cousin’s voice that he heard. “Good evening, kids.”

 

Upon seeing Heechul, Soojung immediately removes her hands from Jongin’s face. She turns to him awkwardly, not knowing what to do after being caught having skinship with his younger cousin. In the end, she just bows to the older man.

 

“Heechul hyung, please off.”

 

“Why, I missed you too, my dear cousin.” He says sarcastically, putting his hand on his shoulder in which the younger one removes. “I received your wedding invitation last week, and may I just say that it’s the cutest one that I’ve ever seen.”

 

Soojung was the one who reacts with a short but sweet thank you. But knowing Heechul, Jongin was a little suspicious. “Okay, what do you want hyung?”

 

“Nothing! Jeez, I just want to compliment something related to you and yet you don’t believe it.”

 

“Well, you are Kim Heechul. It’s not normal for you to do that.”

 

“So how’s Jihoon?” Soojung asks, preventing Jongin to say another insult to his cousin. “Did Jongin give the plushie that I bought him?”

 

“He sleeps with it every single night ever since he got it from his Uncle Jongin. You should visit him sometimes.”

 

“Oh, I would love to!” Her eyes shine from the thought of seeing the youngest Kim again.

 

“I haven’t seen Mingyu around. Is he afraid of seeing me now?” Jongin asks, smirking a little.

 

“I doubt that. Though from what I’ve heard from Jinah, he is still pissed by the fact that you just beat his team.”

 

“Speaking of Jinah unnie, where is she?”

 

“She’s in Shanghai for a fashion show. Sooyeon isn’t here either, is she?” Heechul asks the girl, who could only blink by the sudden mention of her sister. She has almost forgotten that they were friends as well. Before she could even think of a lie, her fiancé beats her into it.

 

“She’s currently with her husband, unlike you who has left his wife all alone.”

 

“Oh .” After remembering that her wife was waiting for him to bring a glass of whisky, Heechul panics. He looks around and grabs a glass from a passing waiter’s tray. “If you'll excuse me, Mrs. Kim is waiting for her drink.”

 

When Heechul finally leaves, Jongin pats Soojung’s head. He wasn’t sure if she was affected by the sudden mention of her sister as she was still smiling at him. He doesn’t say anything but she gives her a nod anyways.

 

“May I have everybody’s attention please?” Chanyeol’s voice suddenly echoes throughout the room, raising his hand for everyone to see him. Beside him stood the birthday girl, their arms tangled together with Jinri looking magnificent in her long white Givanchy dress. “Yes, thank you.”

 

“What the is he doing?” Jongin hears his fiancée mumble.

 

“I have no idea but I hope it’s something stupid.”

 

“As you all know, Jinri and I have been dating for a long time now. We had our ups and down, fights and breakups, but in the end we always find a way for us to come back to each other. The people around us also play a huge part on that-”

 

Soojung nudges Jongin. “He’s talking about me. I’m the one who helped them in their relationship. I’m amazing, right?” She smiles, feeling very proud of herself.

 

“Did I ask?” He glances at her, but quickly looks back at Chanyeol and Jinri once he sees her turn around to glare at him.

 

“Wow, what a jerk.”

 

“So I’m a jerk now? I’m just saying that I don’t care, Soojung.”

 

As the two started to bricker silently so the people around them wont notice, Chanyeol continued with his little speech on how much he loves Jinri, as the latter displays her small and flustered smile. Unfortunately on both Jongin and Soojung, they missed out the important part.

 

“Jinri, I love you a lot. You know that. But starting from today, I don’t want to be your boyfriend anymore.” People start to gasp and that’s when Jongin tried to look back at the pair. Because Soojung was squeezing his cheeks, he glances at them with difficulty only to see his best friend kneeling on one knee.

 

“Holy ing .”

 

“What now- Oh my god.” Thanks to Jongin who forcefully made her look in front, she sees Chanyeol, now with his diamond ring out, and Jinri who looked equally surprised as everyone in the room. “Jongin, hold me I think I’m going to faint.”

 

“Now why would I hold you? Go fall into the floor.”

 

“Jinri, will you be kind enough to accept this ring so I could call you my wife?” Chanyeol asks to his teary eyed girlfriend. Soojung tried her best not to squeal so she just pressed Jongin’s hand very hard. She thought that the proposal was very cheesy, but still very Chanyeol like.

 

“Hey, how come you never wear the ring that I gave you, Soojung?”

 

“Oh, shush Jongin!”

 

“Yes, yes I do!” Jinri accepts, pulling her now fiancée to kiss him. The crowd uproars into cheers as the people closest to the two surround them to congratulate the couple.

 

Meanwhile, at the other side of the room, Jongin and Soojung were still dumbfounded by what just happen and were still having problems processing what was happening. They exchange looks, and then look backed at their now engaged best friends at the same time. Without saying anything, they both approach them.

 

“You’re lucky that we’re standing in the middle of all of Jinri’s celebrity friends because I would be strangling you right now.” Soojung pretends to brush something off Chanyeol’s shoulder so she could mumble to him. “Jinri just literally turned 19, freaking 19 Park Chanyeol! She’s too young! And so are you!”

 

“You do know that you’re younger by a few months than us and yet we’re getting married, right?” Jongin points out, and she pretends not to hear.

 

“I don’t get why you’re like this, when you’re literally the one who inspired me to propose.” Chanyeol says, scratching his head. “I mean, this is what you meant when we talked… right?”

 

Soojung buries her head into her hands. “You stupid little , I never said anything about proposing. I just wanted you to get back with her!”

 

“Aw, you actually talked to Chanyeol so that we could get back together?” Jinri asked in an amused tone. “That’s so sweet of you, Jung!”

 

The shorter girl just pouts, whining to her much taller best friend. It’s not that she was not happy by her boyfriend’s sudden wedding proposal, she’s just afraid for some reason. She wasn’t quite sure if it’s because she fears that once Jinri gets married, she won’t have time for her anymore, which is kind of ironic considering that she about to get married first. Soojung seems to forget it all the time.

 

But she wasn’t the only one.

 

“So does this mean that we’re going to see little Chanyeols running around the mansion soon?” Jongin asks cheekily.

 

“Oh, Jongin. Have you forgotten that you’re going to get married before us? We literally just got engaged. I bet we’re going to see mini-versions of you first.” Chanyeol says, his eyebrow raising. It shuts him up as he turned red.

 

“H-Hey! You really want me to kill you here, don’t you? Stop talking about nonsense!”

 

“Sorry Soojung, but I’m just stating the facts.”

 

“Why aren’t you saying anything?!” Soojung hits Jongin for him to speak up and defend themselves but he doesn’t do anything at all and just stood there, trying to stop her on hitting him by holding her wrists.

 

“That’s because he’s probably looking forward on doing it with you. He is a teenage boy after all.” Chanyeol continued to tease them.

 

Jongin and Soojung look at each other once again, this time with panicked expressions on their faces. He immediately lets go of her, who was blushing harder than he was. She looks away from him and faces Jinri. “Let’s go.”

 

“Go where?”

 

“Somewhere without these idiots.” She states, grabbing her wrist away from their fiancés.

 

 

“Sir, Miss Soojung wants to see you. Should I let her in?”

 

With the mention of his sister’s name, Jaejoong briefly stops writing. He had expected her to come a lot to his office, considering that their sister has gone missing, or rather, has gone away. He honestly thought that it was a bad timing since he was busy, but knowing how lonely she might be feeling, Jaejoong just nods to his secretary without meeting her eyes.

 

He didn’t even notice her enter, as she didn’t really greet him. Instead, Soojung just hugs her older brother from behind, peeking on whatever he was doing, which he hides immediately. She doesn’t ask what it was, mainly because she’s already know it’s something related to his work.

 

“I’m sorry I suddenly came here without telling you.”

 

“Shall I rent a club just for my little sister?” Jaejoong looks up to her and presses the bridge of her nose. “So that she won’t be lonely and forget about her sister for a while?”

 

“It’s not that. I’m not… lonely. It’s just-” Soojung sits at the chair in front of the table before continuing, “I was just… wondering...”

 

“Wondering about?”

 

“That time when we we’re in London.” She was speaking, but she wasn’t looking at his eyes. For some reason, she was a little nervous on what she was about to ask. “Remember when you asked Jessica and I to spend more time with father? What was that supposed to mean?”

 

“It means what it’s supposed to mean – that we should spend more time with father. What more should I explain-”

 

“Are they going to divorce?” She suddenly asked, eyes still glued on her figitening fingers. He noticed that she looked like she was about to cry soon. “Last night, I came home later than usual. I heard mother crying and screaming, but I didn’t know why.”

 

Jaejoong was unable to reply immediately after seeing her like that. Instead of giving her an answer, he just walks closer to his younger sister to hug her. “There’s nothing wrong in our family. Don’t worry.”

 

 

As everybody on the party expected, Jinri and Chanyeol’s engagement were very much talked about in the news, probably even more than Soojung’s and Jongin’s, mainly because the latter couple weren’t much known to the couple unlike the first two. Chanyeol wasn’t an A-list celebrity but he has been known for writing songs for some singers and he has released some singles in the past years. Same goes to Jinri, whom despite having celebrity parents, she is still starting in the entertainment business so this news was really shocking.

 

Most comments weren’t really good, but Jinri didn’t care. She was happy. Chanyeol was happy. And it was all that matter. She didn’t care about who left comments or who even reads the articles where she gets mentioned.

 

And in the other side of the city, the students of Ehra High were talking about it as well. Jackson, who was never interested in news or rumors, has been influenced by Namjoon on reading them. He even bought his laptop when he was on duty once to read the news. Thankfully there was just one costumer that time.

 

After their football practice, he and his friends sat at the corner table of the café to read one of the articles about Jinri and Chanyeol’s engagement, with Namjoon the only one standing up behind them. He seemed like the only who isn’t very surprise about the topic, reasoning that Jinri and Chanyeol has always been into each other for a very long time already.

 

“I mean, Choi Jinri is the only one who is always screaming whenever Park Chanyeol touches the ball on our matches together. And then they would always kiss after every match. This isn’t really surprising.”

 

“But still, Namjoon. The fact that these two have the same age as us but are about to get married is really shocking.” Jin exclaims, scrolling down the article to read more of it. “Wait a minute, Soojung’s also engaged isn’t she?”

 

“Rich kids are so ing weird. I can’t imagine myself getting engaged when I’m this young.”

 

“That’s because you’re single, Taehyung.”

 

At the corner of his eye, Jackson sees their only customer get up, making him get up as well so he could say his goodbye. As soon as the café’s door closes, he goes back to his seat. He then nudges Mark beside him, “Go clean it up.”

 

“Taehyung, you clean it up.”

 

“Eh? Why me?”

 

“Because you’re the newest one out of us three.”

 

In the end, none of the three workers of the café cleans the meal that the customer has left. They went back on reading more articles about the students of Imperium Academy but Namjoon had enough of reading about. He then excuses himself to get some ‘fresh air’ but everyone knows that when he says that, he meant that he wanted to go out and smoke so nobody stops him.

 

There were a lot older people when he went out of the café so he decided to smoke in the alley instead. There he finds a man - he was pretty sure it was the same guy who ordered in the café a few minutes ago. When he catches Namjoon’s gaze, he immediately puts out his smoke. Namjoon didn’t know why, but he didn’t care. Just when he was about to light up his cigarette, he realizes that he has forgotten his lighter. He was about to head back inside when the older man offers his own.

 

“Thank you, mister.” He gives the lighter back and bows slightly, though he was a little confused on why he just did that. Either way, he just looks away so he could smoke when the man spoke.

 

“Say, kid... Are you close with Jung Soojung?”

 

The sudden mention of Soojung’s name sparks an interest to him, since she was not really much of a topic to commoners. Sure she was from a wealthy family and all that, but people tend to talk about her siblings more than her so he got a little surprised. He looks at the eerie looking man in front of him. He doesn’t look like he could be working in one of their companies, nor did he look very trust-worthy.

 

“It depends on your definition of close.”

 

The man chuckles, “It seems like you don’t want to say anything about her. Don’t worry, I’m not here to cause a ruckus. I just wanted to know.”

 

“Well, no old man. You’re a stranger who just randomly asked me about her. No wonder I’m sceptical about answering.” Namjoon thought to himself. “We’re not friends, if that’s what you want to know. We have hanged out a lot of times before, but that’s it.”

 

“That’s good enough.” The stranger smiles and pulls out a card from his wallet. “Listen carefully, my boss is offering a huge amount of money for someone who could… talk about Jung Soojung, if you know what I mean. And you seem like the perfect person to do it. Here’s his card.” He then hands it to him and continues, “Do not mention this to anyone. You have two weeks to decide if you want to do it. Two weeks, kid. He’s waiting.”

 

More confused than ever, Namjoon watches him walk away from him. He takes another puff on his cigarette before reading the business card that he just gave.

 

Lee Jin

CEO of LJN Enterprises

Hong Kong - Seoul

author's note: 

okay so this chapter took me a lot longer to finish... lmao. this had like 4,700 words but the next one will be a lot shorter than usual. maybe it wil contain around 3K words only??? and idk if y'all are gonna like and i'm actually already nervous bc of it. also, i reached 500 subs??? i'm like??? i never thought this would happen to me tbh. thank you all so much TT_TT

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