Daehyun’s POV

“The ball is going to start at six, where have you been?” Youngjae asks coming up to me. I look at my watch and realize that it’s already five. I must’ve taken a long time coming back home. I have a lot on my mind right now.

“Oh, sorry,” I manage to mutter before I walk away, but I turn back to look at Youngjae. “Find a wig.”

“A wig? Why?” he asks completely confused.

“Mom and Dad don’t know that we dyed our hair, well, Dad does, but Mom doesn’t. if you don’t want our identities to get ruined, which I’m sure there are going to be people taking pictures of us there, then I’d find a black wig if I were you and wear it like normal.”

“Oh, um, thanks?” Youngjae asks as I go up to my room.

As soon as I reach my room, I slump onto my bed. I don’t want to go to this stupid ball; I don’t want to do anything that involves it. Why must my mother plan all of these things that I don’t care about doing? Why can’t she just let me pick who I want to be with? Knocking me out of my thoughts, I hear a disturbing knock at the door. “Come in,” I announce.

“Sorry to bother you, sir,” a maid says, “I’m here to drop off your outfit for tonight as requested by your mother.”

“Thank you,” I say as she gently lays the article of clothing down upon a nearby table. It’s still in its bag that it’s kept in. The outfit doesn’t even move except for important events. I guess this one is important; I was planning on going in jeans. Ha, heck if I did that, I would be killed. That’s a nice headline for the papers: Queen kills her own son, the Prince. I wonder what everyone would think of that. “Oh, wait a minute,” I say stopping the maid before she can leave.

“Do you need something, sir?” she innocently asks.

“Can you inform everyone not to say anything about my blonde hair or Youngjae’s blonde hair?” If I want to make sure that my mother knows nothing about it yet, the ni have to take the utmost precaution.

“Of course, sir,” she says as she bows and leaves the room.

I get off of my bed and make my way towards the outfit. It hasn’t changed in all of those years, well, of course it’s changed, it’s been tailored, or a new one’s been made to fit my size. I was only young back then when I wore it for the first time.

TEN YEARS AGO

“Why must I wear this?” I complain as I run up to Mom and Dad.

“Because, you’re the prince,” they firmly state.

“I don’t want to be the prince anymore,” I whine as I sit down on the ground. “I don’t want to wear these clothes.”

“I think it looks good,” Hyosung says with a smile in an attempt to cheer me up.

“But it looks girly,” I say as I point to it. “Look, there are sequins and it sparkles. Guy’s clothing is not supposed to sparkle.”

“You’re supposed to stand out from everyone,” Mom sternly states as Dad looks on. “You’re the prince, do you not understand that?”

“I understand,” I tell her, “I just don’t understand why I have to wear it.”

“This is a very important event, Jung Daehyun, and you better not mess it up, alright?”

“Fine,” I huff as I enter behind my parents.

“Don’t worry, Daehyun,” Dad says coming up next to me.

“Huh?” I ask looking at him.

“Mine has sequins, too and it sparkles just like yours.”

I smile as he points to all of the places that are exactly the same for our outfits. At least there’s someone that’s my friend in here.

Sophie’s POV

“What is this place?” I ask as L.Joe shows me around. It has computers everywhere and there are teenagers everywhere. I’m guessing that this is a place that teenagers like to go and spend their time when they’re completely bored. I wouldn’t mind coming here every once in a while, it looks like video game heaven. Is this like the electronic world that Youngjae was talking about before?

“This is called a PC Bang,” he says.

“A PC Bang?” I repeat after him.

“It’s a place full of computers where kids just come and play each other in computer games. Here,” he says pointing to some computers. I sit down next to him. “Let’s race each other, okay?”

“Sure,” I say with a smile. L.Joe helps me get onto the computer since everything is written in Korean.

“Okay, now, this one is to go, this one is to slow down, and these are to turn,” he says pointing at the different keys.

“Okay,” I say nodding my head as I follow his instructions.

Soon the game starts and even though I’m clumsy at the start, I soon get the hang of it. I start learning what things to push when some messages come up without having to ask L.Joe. I guess it’s probably because the same messages come up every time about something, mostly about me losing to L.Joe. He probably comes here often. It seems like he has a lot of free time to do things.

“See, you’re getting the hang of it,” he says. I look over at him for a brief moment and laugh at his expression. He’s concentrating so hard to win the game that I can’t help but be distracted by the funny faces that he’s making as he turns a corner or attempts to bypass someone. “What are you laughing at?” he asks taking a quick look at me but then quickly looks back at the screen.

“You’re funny when you play these games,” I say with a smile.

“Funny?” he asks. “Hey, you’re the funny one, you’re losing.”

“I’m only losing to you,” I say sticking out my tongue before I turn my attention back to the game.

After a while of gaming, L.Joe and I see that it’s already growing dark outside. “We should go, it’s dark,” he says gesturing towards the window. After looking out the window myself, I nod in agreement.

L.Joe and I then start the adventure back to his house It’s pretty quiet between us, I guess since we don’t know what to talk about anymore. “Um…thanks for today,” I say breaking the silence.

“Hmm?” he asks turning to look at me as he shoves his hands into his pockets.

“Thanks for today; I had a lot of fun. I’m sure we’ll be experiencing a lot of fun in the future.”

“Of course we will,” he says smiling. “I’m glad it was you who was assigned to sit next to me.”

“Really?” I ask slightly surprised.

“Yeah, I made a new friend today. Normally it’s not easy to make friends with girls, but…you don’t really seem like a girl.”

“Should I take that in a positive or negative way?” I joke around with him as I lightly push his arm.

“I’m serious,” he says looking at me. “You’re…awesome, for lack of a better word.”

L.Joe and I both keep laughing and talking on the way to his house completely destroying the awkward atmosphere that was there moments ago, that is until it gets destroyed. Before L.Joe and I can even register what’s happening, some guys come up and start saying things and L.Joe says some things back in Korean. I have no idea what’s happening or what they want. Are they some sort of robbers? Are they attempting to get something from us? I have no idea.

Suddenly, L.Joe reaches over and pulls me close to him and I’m shocked at the sudden contact. What are these men doing? As soon as they start stepping closer, L.Joe starts beating them up and pushes me into a corner. I didn’t know that he had this sort of thing in him. I watch him as he fights whoever comes after him, one by one. There don’t seem to be that many guys, there are probably three there.

Easily, he takes down the first one with a simple punch. I’ll be honest, that guy looked a little scrawny to be able to fight back. However, the second and third are harder to handle. L.Joe starts struggling against them, but he doesn’t give up, nonetheless.  The two remaining finally retreat with their dragging third one when they hear sirens in the background, police sirens.

“What was that?” I quickly ask going over to L.Joe who is kneeling on the ground.

“I’ll…I’ll tell you later, let’s just get me to my house,” he says in betweens large breaths for air.

“Can you walk?” I ask seeing his state.

“I’ll try.” I watch him as he gets up and starts to limp. Feeling helpless by just standing there, I make my way over and put his arm over my shoulder to help support him. “Sophie, what are you doing?” he asks.

“I don’t want you to fall,” I tell him.

“I’m too heavy for you, I can’t lean on you.”

“No, it’s alright,” I say flashing him a smile, “you saved us. It’s the least that I can do for you.”

Daehyun’s POV

At six, I begin to make my way down to the hall. I don’t see Youngjae or Hyosung anywhere. Hyosung is probably with her boyfriend, but Youngjae, did he actually go to something on time for once?

As I near the room, I see Youngjae standing outside of the door. From where I’m standing already I can see that there are a lot of people in there, particularly young women that my mother hopes I will choose or at least ‘consider.’  Knowing my mom, this thing probably started at five or five thirty and she just wanted to make sure that everyone was there before she announces us like she always has to do.

“Why are you standing out here?” I ask him.

“I have to wait to be announced,” he says looking at the ground. I knew it. “Hyosung-noona and Himchan-hyung are being announced right now. I’m next and then you are.”

“Why are you after noona?” I ask, normally he’s before.

“Because apparently this is our party.”

“Oh,” I say nodding my head. “Nice job on your wig, by the way.”

“Thanks,” he says touching it. “Do you think anyone would notice the difference?”

“They shouldn’t, but then again, I don’t know,” I say shrugging my shoulders. “I’m not a wig expert or anything. Um, I think it’s your turn.”

“Thanks,” Youngjae says looking at the door. “I guess I’ll see you inside.”

I patiently wait outside while Youngjae gets announced to the room. Just looking through the slightly clear doors I can see girls already fawning over him. Is this the type of thing that I’m going to be dealing with all night? Girls coming after me and saying how cool I look? I’d rather just be a normal person than dealing with all of this crap.

“Sir, it’s your turn,” one of the maids says to me gesturing me to the steps. I politely bow in return and walk in the extremely uncomfortable uniform to the stairs where my name gets announced with unneeded extra information.

“And for the first time in six years, his return back to Korea, it’s Prince Jung Daehyun,” the announcer announces as I stand there with all eyes on me. Not only do I feel uncomfortable in this uniform, I feel uncomfortable with all of the stares at me. Taking a quick glance around the room, I already see some girls covering their mouths and whispering at me. I can only wonder what they’re whispering about because I’ll never know the truth.

“So, I’d like to welcome everyone for coming,” Mom says as she stands on the stage in front of the room. “I guess we can continue with this mingling.”

I sigh as I walk around like the good little prince I am. So this is just like a mingling session, it’s basically a session for Youngjae and me to meet girls that are up to my mother’s standards. Gosh she’s so stubborn.

“Hello,” a girl says coming up to me. She’s wearing a semi-formal dress that reaches just above her knee. It’s not something that I would’ve worn coming here if I were a girl, but she’s wearing it so what can I do?

“Hello,” I politely say back to her. I attempt to avoid conversation with her, but she just keeps on talking.

“My name is Sulli. You’re Daehyun, right?” she hesitantly asks. Well no duh I’m Daehyun, I was announced as Daehyun. This is just a ploy to be able to talk to me longer, except I can’t blow up at her. I don’t know who she is. If I blow up at someone important, my parents will have my head. then Sophie will be wondering where I went.

“Yes, I’m Daehyun,” I say as politely as possible without showing my boredom or wanting to get away or just pure dislike of even being here.

“I guess congrats on coming back to Korea finally.”

“You could say.” I don’t want to tell her that I was forced by my parents, now that just wouldn’t be right.

“Are you happy to be back?” she asks. Why is she so curious?

“Maybe,” I say shrugging my shoulders. “It could go either way. Sometimes it’s happy and sometimes I miss the people that I knew for six years there.”

“Must be hard leaving them.”

“A little,” I comment as I look around.

“Are you looking for someone? I could help,” she offers.

“No, I’m not looking for anyone,” I say looking at her and giving a polite smile. No matter how much I look, I know that Sophie’s not going to walk through that door any time soon. She doesn’t even know that we’re doing a party in the first place.

“Well then, I guess I’ll leave you alone. It was nice meeting you, Daehyun,” Sulli says bowing before she leaves.

“Ah, yes, it was nice meeting you, too, Sulli,” I politely say back. Once she leaves, I breathe a sigh of relief.

Saying Sulli’s name reminds me of Sophie since they both begin with us and kind of sound alike, at least to me they do. I wonder what she’s doing with L.Joe. I wonder if he’s going to try to do anything with her. What if he attempts to do something erted? At least he didn’t seem like that type of person when I briefly met him at that street vendor.

But what if Sophie doesn’t like staying there with him? What if she seems uncomfortable? Well, of course she wouldn’t be uncomfortable, she let L.Joe feed her already and they spent the afternoon together anyway. Why am I thinking so much about it anyway? Sophie’s been on my mind a lot lately.

“Boo!” Hyosung yells as he comes up behind me.

“That doesn’t scare me, noona," I say as I turn around to see her standing there with Himchan. “We meet again,” I say looking at Himchan.

“Yes we do,” he says nodding.

“Are you having fun? Why are you standing here by yourself?” Hyosung inquires.

“I was talking to someone before…Sulli was her name,” I say as I think of it.

“Sulli, she’s a nice girl, but I don’t think she’s a right fit for you,” Hyosung says using her girl powers to tell me what girls are good and what aren’t.

“I wasn’t planning on it. Don’t be worried,” I tell her. “I don’t even know why Mom decided to have this stupid thing in the first place.” My eyes scan the crowd as I tell that to Hyosung to see if I can see Mom, but like always, she disappears from sight and I don’t know where she went, but it’s then that my eyes fall on something very familiar looking. “Jieun?” I whisper.

“Who? Jieun?” Hyosung asks immediate to pick up on anything that I do. “Is she the Jieun that you were telling me about earlier?” She attempts to look where I’m trying to look, but she’s never seen her before so she doesn’t know.

I attempt to get a better look as I stare in the direction when I finally see her turn and my suspicions are confirmed. It is Jieun, it’s the Jieun that goes to my school, the one that sits next to me, the one who’s nickname is IU. What in the world is she doing here?

Sophie’s POV

L.Joe and I manage to make it to his house safely. Upon reaching his house, I find it empty. “You live alone?” I ask as I put him down on the couch.

“Yeah,” he says. “The first aid kit is in the kitchen.”

I walk to the kitchen to find it before coming back and start addressing the scratches and the now forming black eye. “Why do you live alone?” I ask as I clean some of the cuts on his arm causing him to tense up. “Relax a little, please?”

“Sure,” L.Joe says as he does his best to relax from the stinging pain that he’s probably feeling. “My parents are like yours.”

“What do you mean?” I ask confused.

“Dead,” he bluntly says. “They both passed away.”

“Was it when you were here or in Oregon?” I wonder.

“It was when I was here, like right after we moved here,” he explains.

“I’m sorry,” I say looking him in his eyes as I stop cleaning for a moment.

“I’m sorry, too,” he says. “You lost yours. I guess we both know how the other one feels.”

“Yeah, we’re like the only ones,” I mutter.

“I know,” L.Joe says nodding his head. “I just don’t understand though. Some random people came to my school and told me that they’re dead, I didn’t get to see their bodies or anything to confirm it and then their funeral was held at the Korean Palace where a whole bunch of people came to visit them and I had no idea what was going on.”

“You, too?” I ask surprised as I point at him.

“What do you mean me too?”

“The same thing happened to me.” This feels too unreal, how did the same thing happen to L.Joe? “The same thing happened,” I repeat. “Did you get a video left from your parents?”

“I did,” he says nodding his head, “but it was in a language that I didn’t understand. It wasn’t English and it wasn’t Korean. Do you think those guys that we saw when we were coming home have something to do with it?”

“I don’t even know what they said,” I admit. “I don’t know how to speak Korean.”

“Right,” L.Joe says nodding his head as I sit next to him on the couch after I’m done taking care of the damage that he got from the fight. “Well, they were telling us to give them something, but I don’t know what they were talking about. Then they proceeded to say that we did so know and then that’s when he said that he was going to hurt you until we handed it over. Hence, I fought them, but let’s not talk about this anymore. Frankly, it’s slightly depressing.”

“Right,” I say nodding my head. “And it’s confusing.”

“Confusing,” L.Joe repeats after me. “Then I guess we can skip on the school work for tonight.”

“Do we have homework?” I ask as he gets up off of the couch.

“Some, but not too much.”

“Then when are we supposed to do it?”

“Never.”

“But that’s not good,” I say.

L.Joe sighs as he comes back to the couch. “I guess we can do the homework, but only the homework. I’m too tired to teach you anything tonight. Is that alright?”

“Perfectly fine,” I say giving him a smile. “You are the one that saved me anyway. This can be your repayment.”

“I can deal with that,” he says as he starts getting books out of his backpack. I follow suit and get the same books that he took out of his out of mine.

“I can read Korean you know,” I confess to him, “I just can’t understand it and it takes me a while to actually read it in the first place.”

“At least that’s a start.”

For about an hour or two, L.Joe helps me with my homework and helps me understand it, even after he was done his within a half an hour. By the time that one of us looks at the clock, we see that it’s already late. “We should get ready to go to bed. I’ll sleep down here. You can sleep up in my room; I’ll show you where it is.”

“But you’re the one injured,” I say pointing at his injuries. “You should sleep on your bed.”

“But you’re the girl and you would probably think that I was doing something erted,” L.Joe says as he takes me upstairs.

“No I wouldn’t,” I confess. “You seem like a really nice person. Even if I did just meet you today, you’re helping me like this. I’ll feel guilty if you sleep on the couch. I am the one that invaded your house anyway.”

“Then you’re suggesting that we’re going to sleep in the same bed?” he asks as he stops outside of a door that I can only assume is his bedroom.

“Wait, I never said—,” I begin, but get cut off by L.Joe.

“Okay then, you can get washed up first. The bathroom is right across the hall, there.” I look at it and look back at L.Joe and nod my head. I guess this is the reality that I have to accept.

As soon as I come out, L.Joe goes in and quickly, we’re both ready for bed. We’re both wearing lounging pants and a t-shirt. “Um…where do you sleep?” I awkwardly ask as I look at the bed.

“Here,” he says as he climbs in. “You can sleep there. I have extra pillows in my bed, too. Feel free to use the one that’s already there.”

“Um…thank you,” I say as I lie down keeping a distance between us.

“Am I really that scary?” he asks after he turns out the light. “You’re far away from me. What if something happens in the night?” Slowly, I move closer to him until our arms barely touch. “There we go, that’s better,” he says with a light chuckle.

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What is Jieun doing at the ball that Daehyun and Youngjae are at? What is the mystery surrounding L.Joe and Sophie? What did those men demand from L.Joe and Sophie? What language was the video that their parents left in?

Here is Chapter 11. Hope you enjoyed :D