Sophie’s POV

“I don’t know where I am,” I worriedly say as I look around for something to tell Daehyun. “It’s all dark; I don’t know where I am.”

“It’s alright, okay? It’s alright,” Daehyun says attempting to calm me down. “Just…do you see lights anywhere?”

“I…I think I do,” I say looking as I cautiously approach the lights. “It looks like a park.”

“Good, now, tell me what types of things you see in the park?”

“The things you normally see in a park, I don’t know,” I say beginning to freak out. “There are trees, a red slide, like five swings, I don’t know.”

“Just calm down, Sophie, okay? Calm down, I’m here and we’re talking on the phone together, alright?” I hear moving in the background on Daehyun’s side. “If anyone comes near you, talk to me and talk about anything you want, you can even talk about what that person is wearing, alright?”

“Yeah,” I shakily say.

“Now, where were you before?”

“I was in the store,” I say recalling the events with L.Joe. “I was buying some groceries for L.Joe and I to have for dinner.”

“You’re with L.Joe?” he frantically asks.

“I was, he was taken, he’s not here anymore, he disappeared,” I frantically say remembering what happened before.

“Why didn’t you say that sooner?” Daehyun asks. “I’ll find you as soon as possible, just keep talking to me, alright? It’ll help you calm your nerves. Let me ask a question, where is all your stuff from your room?”

“What?” I ask as I look around to make sure there’s really no one around.

“Why is everything in your room gone?”

“About that,” I quietly say. “Can’t we just find me first before I answer something like this?”

“Sure, I’m sorry,” he says apologizing. “But I think I know where you are.”

“How?” I ask. Immediately I feel arms around me and I turn around and hit the person as a first reaction.

“Sophie, Sophie, Sophie, it’s me Daehyun,” Daehyun quickly says causing me to stare at him. “You can stop, it’s only me, you’re safe.”

“Stupid, stupid,” I say hitting him, but he holds me closer. “How could you scare me like that knowing that I was freaking out here?”

“I’m sorry,” he apologizes. “But you’re safe now, okay? You’re safe. Let’s go home, okay? I have Jun here with me and we can drive home, alright?”

Daehyun wraps his arm around my shoulder and grabs the bag of groceries that I’ve been carrying this far in his other hand while he takes me to his car. “Daehyun…I…I,” I begin attempting to find the best words that I can say, but I can’t find any words to say.

“Shh,” Daehyun says as he moves my head onto his chest. “You don’t have to talk, it can all wait.”

The ride home isn’t that long and I realize that I wasn’t that far away from the palace, but still, I didn’t know where I was and I don’t know where L.Joe is. “L.Joe,” I mutter. “L.Joe was taken.”

“He was taken by who?” Daehyun asks as he pets my head and my hair.

“I don’t know, I don’t know, he was taken before I realized it,” I say the words just stumbling out of my mouth. “He told me to run and then the next thing I knew was that I didn’t know where he was and then I didn’t know where I was. That’s when I called you because I didn’t know who else to call.”

“Shh, it’s okay now,” Daehyun says in an attempt to calm me down again. “You’re safe now, alright? You’re safe and no one can get you. You’re alright. You called me in time and I’m thankful. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I heard that something had happened to you. I promise we’ll find L.Joe, alright? We’ll find him, I promise you. I’m the prince; I can do whatever I want.”

“Okay,” I say nodding my head. “I just…I just want this all to end.”

“What do you want to end?” he asks.

“All of it,” I mutter as my eyelids start to droop.

Daehyun’s POV

“How is she holding up?” Hyosung worriedly asks as I come out of Sophie’s bedroom.

“She’s sleeping, exhausted,” I say thinking about how she looked as I wrapped the blanket over her. “She seems so weak, I wish there was something I was able to do.”

“You’re doing as much as you can right now,” she says with a smile. “Although, I might want to forewarn you that your scandal may get a little bigger, and not because of Youngjae and me.”

“What do you mean?” I ask turning to her.

“Apparently some people saw you and Sophie out at that park where you picked her up and took some pictures,” she explains.

“That’s alright,” I say sighing. “I want to make sure Sophie is good first before I start questioning her. I don’t want her to faint or anything.”

“That sounds reasonable,” Hyosung sighs as she goes to her bedroom. “I’m going to head to bed now, but take care of yourself, alright, little brother?” she asks as she ruffles my hair.

“Of course noona,” I say smiling at her. “Goodnight.”

I watch her as she goes into her room before I walk over and go into mine. Just what was Sophie doing all day? Was she with L.Joe all day? Is that why they both weren’t in school? So many thoughts are racing through my head as I attempt to sort them out, but it all fails. There are just too many thoughts running through my head from the whole thing with Sophie and now this whole thing with Sophie. I guess it’s only Sophie in my mind.

The thing that Hyosung said earlier comes into my mind as I decide to go onto my computer and look up the pictures that she said are now roaming across the web. As I go to a search site, my fingers automatically type in my name and Sophie’s name. Automatically, many more articles than before appear, now from all over the place saying that Sophie is my original girlfriend and Jieun is nothing to me. While that may necessarily be true, I don’t want anything to necessarily hurt Jieun’s feelings.

I look at my phone sitting on the side table and debate on whether or not I should call her and sort everything out. As I’m debating, my phone rings. “Well, speak of…her,” I say as I answer it. “Hello?”

“Daehyun,” Jieun says. “Have you seen the articles?”

“I’ve seen them,” I say as I begin reading another one. I’m not going to tell he about Hyosung and Youngjae helping me to get out of this wedding mess because of the articles. “Our wedding is being delayed.”

“I’ve heard,” Jieun says with a sigh. Is she happy or sad about that? Obviously she’s sad since she wants to marry me so badly. “But is it true?”

“Is what true?” I ask.

“You and Sophie, were you guys really dating before the marriage was announced and everything?”

I think over what my answer should be, I guess it doesn’t hurt to tell the truth. “No, we weren’t dating when everything was announced.”

“Then why don’t you make a statement and clear everything up?” she suggests.

“I don’t want to,” I calmly state. “Look, this marriage between us is never going to work, so I don’t know why you keep pushing forward with it. Even if it is true that Sophie and I weren’t dating before the marriage announcement, I still like her and that’s not going to change anything.”

“Daehyun,” Jieun begins, letting her voice trail off a little bit, but she doesn’t continue.

“Jieun, please,” I say slightly begging. “Right now isn’t a good time to be discussing these things. There are a thousand other things going on right now that need my attention.”

“Are they Sophie related things?”

“Look, Jieun, just understand alright? Attempt to understand, okay? There are just…there’s just a lot going on and not everything can have my concentration right now.”

“So I’m not important enough,” she sadly says.

“Jieun, I—,” I begin, but she cuts me off.

“It’s alright, Jung Daehyun, I completely understand. I should let you get to the things that matter the most to you.” With that, Jieun hangs up the phone. I pull my cell phone away from my ear and stare at it. Even if I don’t like Jieun, it’s still the second time she’s made me feel guilty. Is it alright for me to be feeling guilty like this?

Turning off my computer, I decide to relax on my bed, it’s the only thing that I can really do right now.

Sophie’s POV

I wake up to the bright sunlight streaming through the windows. I look around and realize that I’m back in the palace after I ran away. Then I remember last night. As I’m about to get out of bed, the door opens. “Oh, you’re up,” Daehyun happily says as he brings in a tray.

“What about school?” I ask.

“The school already knows about your condition and I figured that I would help take care of you. Youngjae is helping, too,” Daehyun says motioning towards the door as Youngjae wheels in a laptop and a whole bunch of equipment on a cart.

“What’s that for?” I ask looking at it.

“We’re going to help you find L.Joe,” Youngjae proudly states.

“You need all of that?” I ask pointing towards it.

“Of course,” Youngjae says giving me a look. “How else are we supposed to find him?”

“Well, I don’t have any information that you guys need,” I say looking at the both of them.

“That doesn’t matter right now,” Daehyun says placing the tray in front of me. “Eat some breakfast and your clothes are at L.Joe’s house, right?”

“How did you know?” I ask.

“You don’t need to know that,” he says shaking his head. “After you’re done eating, I can loan you some of my clothes, or noona can and then we can go over there and get your things and anything else we might need.”

“What would you need?” I ask as I begin to take some bites of the breakfast that was prepared for me.

“I don’t know, is there anything we would need?” Daehyun asks.

“The letters,” I say remembering about them.

“What letters?” Daehyun asks as he sits down on my bed and stares at me.

“That letter that you were handed at the funeral, L.Joe had gotten one, too.”

“He had gotten one, too?” Daehyun asks surprised. I guess it slipped my mind to tell him about how L.Joe and I went through the same thing.

“L.Joe and I, our parents, they were both killed, we both got letters, we both had videos sent by them,” I tell him.

“Do you think you two are connected somehow?” Youngjae asks joining the conversation.

“I’m not sure,” I admit thinking about it. “It’s complicated, but, you know, I don’t know.”

Quickly, I finish my breakfast and Youngjae, Daehyun, and I go to the car with Jun to drive to L.Joe’s house. “Is this the way?” Daehyun asks.

“Yeah,” I say nodding my head. I have to navigate the way since Youngjae and Daehyun don’t know where he lives.

“So, this is where you were yesterday, right?” Daehyun asks looking at the house.

“What?” I ask staring at him.

“You were here yesterday, right? Why did you run away?”

“You…you need to get married,” I softly say. “I shouldn’t be hindering your marriage.”

“Too bad,” Daehyun says turning me so that I look at him. “You already have.”

“What do you mean?” I ask him.

“There’s a scandal going on right now with our names on it.”

“Scandal?” I ask shocked. “What type of scandal are you talking about?”

“People are saying that we were together before the marriage and that the marriage is purely arranged by my parents for the use of the palace.”

“But you have to get married, you have to,” I whisper.

“And why do I have to?” Daehyun asks. “Why do I have to get married to a person that I don’t even like? Tell me Sophie, why?” I have no answer for Daehyun, I just stare at him. “That’s what I thought,” he replies. “Let’s just go inside.”

Youngjae and I follow Daehyun to the front door, only to find out that it’s not locked.

Daehyun’s POV

“Was the door locked before?” I ask looking back at Sophie and Youngjae.

“It was, I swear it was,” Sophie says staring at it.

“Well it’s not anymore,” I say sighing. “Youngjae, stay out here with Sophie, I’ll take a look around inside.” Youngjae nods his head in agreement and Sophie doesn’t put up a fight. Slowly, I walk towards the door and push it open and it moves at my simple touch.

Hesitantly, I make my way inside and see nothing wrong with it. The living room looks completely perfect, well as perfect as it could get for someone living here. Cautiously, I walk around the living room first and the kitchen area to find nothing out of place. Then again, I don’t really know what would be out of place, but there has to be something that would make it look suspicious. Instead, I see nothing.

I then move along to the hallway and spy closed doors, probably three or four doors, which were probably closed before so they aren’t suspicious. I go over and open the first door to see an empty bedroom. The bed looks like it’s possibly a king bed and there are pictures on the table. It actually seems as though this room hasn’t been touched for quite a while, so there’s nothing out of the ordinary there.

I move over and go to the second door to see that it’s simply a bathroom. The next one after that is a hidden staircase leading up to the attic. Calmly, I start walking up the steps and peak my head up to see if something is wrong, but again there’s nothing. If I found nothing so far, then why was the door unlocked?

However, there is one room that I haven’t checked yet, which I’m guessing is L.Joe’s room. Slowly, I open the door and then I find it. I find the mess that was supposed to be in the rest of the house. It looks like someone was raiding the room and looking for someone. I see clothes all over the place, male and female, and can only figure that it’s both L.Joe’s and Sophie’s clothing, but what they were looking for I’ll probably never know.

Without touching anything else, I go out to the front where Youngjae and Sophie are still standing. “So?” Sophie asks. “Is there anything wrong in there?”

“One place,” I say holding up my finger.

“Where?” she asks as she attempts to look inside for herself.

“L.Joe’s room,” I say. “It’s the only place in the whole house that’s messed up and I don’t know why.”

“Well I wouldn’t know why,” Sophie says shrugging her shoulders.

“Is it safe to go in?” Youngjae asks.

“I believe so. No one’s jumped out and gotten me yet,” I say.

Youngjae and Sophie come with me into the house and Sophie sees for herself how everything is just picture perfect. “There’s the letters,” she says pointing to the table as she picks them up to examine them.

“So then they didn’t want those,” I say.

“I don’t know why they would want letters, though, but they both have different messages and we had them translated,” she explains.

“Oh,” I say nodding my head.

“Do you know of anything else that L.Joe had in here that someone would want, especially in his bedroom?”

Sophie shakes her head. “I don’t know, at least I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary whenever I went in there.”

“Do you think he was hiding something?” I ask.

“Why would he be hiding something?” Sophie questions.

“I don’t know, I’m just trying to answer all possible questions,” I say attempting to think of something else. “We never know why someone might come after someone else.”

“True,” she says sighing as she looks at the letter. “Maybe the letter could be a clue, though.”

“Why?” I ask. Sophie hands me the letter and I read it. “People are looking for his blood?” I ask shocked as I’m finished reading the letter. “This has really gone past normal expectations, not that it ever was normal, but, you know,” I say as I begin to ramble. “What did your letter say?” Sophie hands me the letter and I read it over. “People are looking for you, too? We have to get you somewhere safe.”

Just then, the phone started ringing and all three of us froze to look at it. “Who’s going to answer it?” Sophie asks. “Should we even answer it at all?”

“I will,” I state as I walk towards it.

Sophie’s POV

As Daehyun answers the phone, I’m slightly nervous. I don’t know who’s on the other line or what they want. The couple of times that I’ve spent with L.Joe here at his house, no one has ever called him before.

Youngjae and I watch as Daehyun answers the phone. I’m guessing that Youngjae can understand him since Daehyun is speaking in Korean. I just stand there unable to do anything and can only attempt to figure out what they’re saying since I’m utterly confused. After what seems like forever, Daehyun finally puts down the phone.

“What was that about?” I ask right away.

“I…I actually don’t know,” Daehyun says as he attempts to rethink it over. “The person just kept telling me that they knew I would come into the house and it would be a perfect time to take me, but they were just going to wait. They also said something about something being in the mailbox outside.”

“Mailbox?” I ask. I turn to look and see Youngjae already walking inside with a package.

“This was inside of the mailbox,” he announces.

“What is it?” I ask as I look at it.

“How are we supposed to know?” Daehyun asks looking at me.

“Sorry,” I apologize.

“First, let’s get out of here before we open it,” Daehyun says taking the package from Youngjae. I don’t object because this place is honestly starting to creep me out.

“Wait, my stuff,” I say turning to go back into the bedroom.

“I will,” he announces. “It’s not safe for you to go alone.”

“And it is for you?” I ask.

“Fine, Youngjae and I will take you out to the car where you can sit with Jun and then we’ll go back in together, are you happy with that?”

“Sure,” I say crossing my arms.

Daehyun, Youngjae, and I walk back out to the car where I climb into the back. “See, no harm done, right?” Daehyun asks.

“Yeah,” I say looking out the window. “But don’t forget to grab the original letters, too. Those are the translated ones that you have. We took them to this guy named Lay, he apparently works at a university or something,” I explain to them.

“No problem, we’ll remember and we’ll get him back,” Daehyun says giving me a smile as he closes the door.

“I hope we do,” I mutter to myself.

“Miss, are you ready for the ride?” a voice asks.

“Huh?” I ask looking up, but I don’t see Jun in the front seat.

“She’s ready,” another voice chimes in as everything starts fading to black.

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What happened to Sophie? Where did L.Joe go? Why was L.Joe's room ransacked? What does the envelope from the mailbox contain? How are Youngjae and Daehyun going to react now?

Here is Chapter 18. Hope you enjoyed :D