Daehyun’s POV

“Lies? You want me to say that it’s all a lie?” I ask in disbelief.

“Well, they are lies, aren’t they?” Mom asks. “If they’re lies, then we should feel no guilt in saying that they’re lies.”

I take a deep breath as my mind begins racing. I can’t outright deny to everyone that I don’t like Sophie. Sure maybe it’s true that we didn’t have a relationship because we’re best friends. The only way out of this would be to say that it’s the truth, but what would happen then?

“Daehyun, it’s alright, you don’t have to say anything,” Jieun says giving me a supportive smile.

“What if it’s the truth?” I ask looking right at my mother.

“What are you talking about? I thought you and that Sophie girl had no past together,” Mom says. Dad just stares at me. He knows more than Mom does about me not wanting to be in this relationship so he’s probably wondering where I’m going to take this next move.

“Well, you thought wrong,” I bravely say. I see Youngjae’s head immediately turn to look at me and Hyosung’s mouth slightly opens. “Sophie and I, we love each other, alright? When she came here, she knew nothing about me being a prince or anything, I kept everything hidden from her so she didn’t know who you guys were and we didn’t say anything about our relationship, but yes, we’re dating.”

I wait to see all of their reactions. Most of that stuff isn’t really a lie, but the whole relationship thing surely is. However, they could see where the secret would come from in not knowing, but they could also ask more questions. Why am I even doing this again?

Just then, I see Jun come into the dining room with the telephone. “Sir,” he says looking at my father. “It’s for you and it seems like it’s very important.”

Without a second thought, he picks up the phone. “Yes. I see,” we hear him say with pockets of silence before he finally speaks again. “I never thought that I’d live to see the day.”

Youngjae and I both look at each other and Hyosung sends an awkward glance every now and then throughout his conversation. We all don’t know what’s going on, but it seems like Mom might have a hunch. Jieun’s family, on the other hand, really has no idea.

“Live to see what day?” Youngjae asks as soon as Jun leaves the room.

“Daehyun, can I have a private conversation with you?” Dad asks as he gets out of his chair.

“Ah, sure,” I say looking at everyone with a confused expression as I get out of my chair and follow my father. “Where are we going?” I ask him as he drags me down a hallway that I’m unfamiliar with.

“We’re going to a place that you need to see,” he says. This is really the first time that I’ve ever seen this side to him, this sort of serious side. Normally he’s always just quiet and sitting and observing by the sidelines, but today after that phone call, things seem different.

“What place do I need to see?” I ask him as we continue walking down this hallway.

“A very important place that you’ll know once we get there.”

“Does it have anything to do with Sophie?” I ask as he stops by a doorway. “Where are we?”

“We’re here,” Dad says as he turns to look at me and sighs.

“Why are you sighing?” I ask him. “Is everything alright? Is the country in like a state of emergency?”

“Not exactly,” Dad says as he reaches into his pocket and pulls out some keys. After searching for the one he wants, he opens the door. “Go in.”

“What?” I ask staring at him.

“Go inside.”

Not wanting to argue with my father like I’ve been arguing with my mother, I go inside as per his request. As soon as I’m in the room, my eyes immediately go wide with everything that I’m seeing. “What is all of this?” I ask as I stare at the newspaper clippings and other various pictures.

“This is what you’re taking over,” Dad simply says.

“Taking over?” I ask as I turn to look at him. “What are you talking about?”

“This is now all yours,” he says as I begin getting the gist of what he’s attempting to say.

“Dad, now? Of all possible times, now?” I ask in disbelief as I look around the room. “What even is this room?”

“Congrats, Daehyun,” he says as he puts on a big smile. “You’re officially going to be the king.”

Sophie’s POV

“Ugh, I’m so bored,” I complain.

“Then why don’t we go watch television or something?” L.Joe suggests.

“What if Lay’s out there?”

“Then I’ll go look. Stay here,” he says as he gets off of my bed. It takes a moment or two before L.Joe sticks his head back in. “He’s not out there, we can watch television. Do you think they have any channels in English or Korean?”

“I don’t know,” I say as I make my way out of the room and sit next to L.Joe on the couch.

L.Joe begins flipping through the channels on the television as I pay it no attention. Instead, I look around the house from where I’m sitting. It looks like a really nice house, only it has some stuff everywhere that’s used for who knows what, but everyone’s house is messy at some points.

“Hey, look at this,” L.Joe says poking me. “They have the news on in English. I didn’t know that they had an English channel.”

“Apparently they do,” I simply say shrugging my shoulders.

“Do you think someone said something about us being missing?” he asks.

“How am I supposed to know?” I ask before something comes across the screen. “Hey…that’s Daehyun.”

“What?” L.Joe asks as he turns to look at it.

L.Joe and I both turn to look at the television with intent eyes as the reporter begins speaking in English. “And breaking news from the Korean royal family,” the announcer says as a video of Daehyun and some other people is before a crowd. I spy Jieun right next to him and they’re holding hands. Somehow it breaks my heart, but at least I know that he got married, but it kind of hurts me knowing that he’s not searching for me right now. I guess I’m in the middle about this whole thing. Half of me wants to leave and half wants to stay. Is this even a normal kidnapping situation?

“What breaking news?” L.Joe wonders aloud.

“Well they’re obviously getting to it,” I say rolling my eyes and softly hitting him on the head as we both turn our attentions back to the television.

“It is reported that the eldest son of the current Korean royal family, Jung Daehyun, will be stepping up to his father’s position as the King of Korea and has subsequently cleared up all rumors involving him and a mysterious girl by the name of Sophie. It is also reported that he will be getting married in three days. Looks like Korea has a new King and Queen to look forward to. Stay tuned for updates as they come.”

“Um…I should’ve changed the channel,” L.Joe says as he quickly changes to a random channel before putting down the remote.

“Ah, it’s alright,” I say staring at the television. I can’t believe what I just heard. Daehyun is really taking the position from his father and their wedding is set in three days. I guess he wasn’t married yet, but he never said anything to me. Was his confession really all a lie?

“Sophie, are you really sure that you’re alright?” L.Joe asks as he puts a supportive hand on my back. I know that he’s attempting to comfort me, but I don’t need comforting now. There are too many thoughts that are racing through my mind.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I say turning to him and giving him a smile. “We’ll that’s one thing down.”

“What do you mean?” he asks giving me a confused look.

“I mean, now I can stay in China without any worries.”

“You’re still on that?” he asks in disbelief. “Why do you keep talking about what’s best for Daehyun?”

“He’s in charge of the country now, he has other things to worry about and other things to do,” I reason.

“Don’t you ever think about what’s best for you?”

“What do you mean?”

“You, do you ever think about yourself? Do you ever think that maybe there’s something out there better for you than Daehyun?”

“Well…lately I haven’t been thinking about myself, why?” I ask. “Who is better than Daehyun?” I wonder.

“Me,” L.Joe says pointing at himself. “Did you ever think that I’m better than Daehyun?”

Daehyun’s POV

I end up sitting in my father’s office, or more like my office now, and take a deep breath. I can’t believe that I just did everything that my parents wanted. I can’t believe that I just wasted the chance that Hyosung and Youngjae gave me to get out of this wedding.

I still don’t understand why I was given this position. Was this the whole reason that my mother wanted me to come back? She did tell me that I was coming back purely to take my correct spot, so is this it? But how could she have known ahead of time? Is this what they planned? So many thoughts are currently going through my head that I don’t know what’s the truth and what’s not.

“Are you okay?” Jieun asks as she enters. She comes in without me inviting her and makes her way over to me. Slowly, she wraps her arms around my neck and leans her head on my shoulder. Instinctively, I immediately get up and far away from her. “Are you okay?” she asks again.

“Why are you in here?” I ask her.

“I just thought that you would want some company.”

“Well thanks but no thanks,” I tell her. “I don’t need any company right now.”

“Oh, okay,” she says as she looks down at my desk. “Were you doing research on Sophie?” I look down and see that the book from my father is sitting there, but how in the world would Jieun know that it has anything to do with Sophie? What part in there has anything to do with Sophie?

“How do you know that’s about her?” I ask looking from Jieun to the book and back.

“Who wouldn’t?” she asks as she flips through the pages. How can she be so casual about this? I’m sitting in here racking my brain in an attempt to find her, but here Jieun is pretending like it’s nothing.

“I’m sorry, I have to go,” I say quickly leaving the room. I have to go get Youngjae to hand over Sophie’s birth certificate. Maybe there’s something in there that I can use, although I’m not entirely sure what.

“Come in!” Youngjae yells after I knock on his door. “Well, if it isn’t the new King of Korea,” he says as soon as he sees me.

“Hey, don’t call me that, please,” I beg with him.

“Fine, fine,” he says sitting his game controller down. “So, what did you want?”

“Sophie’s birth certificate,” I simply say. “You said you were going to give it to me when we were eating, but because everything happened, look where we are now. Can I have it?”

“Sure,” he says as he gets up and goes over to his desk. “It’s not here.”

“What?” I ask attempting to digest what he just said.

“Sophie’s birth certificate, it’s not here,” he says as he begins rummaging even faster through his drawer. “It’s not here.”

“If it’s not here, where would it be?” I ask as I make my way over.

“How am I supposed to know?” he asks. “You’re the King of Korea now, find it.”

“I can’t command such a thing like that,” I say collapsing on his bed. I just want to scream right now, let everything on my mind go. Sophie is missing, L.Joe is missing, I’m getting married to Jieun in three days, I love Sophie, I’m now the King of Korea. What else could happen? Everything started going downhill when I moved to Korea. Was this all supposed to happen?

And my parents. How in the world would my mother have known that my father was going to get that phone call and give up his position as king to me? Was it something that they both planned? And why did my father bring me to that strange room to tell me? I have to go back to that room. I have to go back there and figure out what that room is about.

After my father told me that I was the king, he just left the room and I had run after him. I didn’t even look around the room that much because I wanted answers, but he didn’t give them to me. The next moment after that I was whisked away and brought in front of the press after properly getting dressed and was given a script to read. It’s not like I even want any of this to happen.

“Are you okay?” Youngjae asks as I open my eyes and see his face hovering over me.

“No,” I reply as I sit up.

“What’s on your mind, maybe I could help,” he offers.

“Thanks, but no thanks,” I say standing up.

“Where are you going?”

“To find my parents,” I simply state as I leave his room. “They should have answers. They should have answers to everything. I mean, they’re the King and Queen, they should know everything, right?”

Sophie’s POV

“What?” I ask looking at L.Joe. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that did you ever think of me as more than a friend, for even a moment?” he asks as he looks into my eyes. He seems to be full of sincerity.

“L.Joe…” I manage to say, but words aren’t forming.

What am I supposed to say in a situation like this? L.Joe has been my friend, my first and only friend in school that I’ve made, it doesn’t help that I’ve run away and haven’t been in school for the longest time and that there’s a language barrier, but he’s special to me. However, with Daehyun’s confession, my vision went astray. I only began living for him. Maybe L.Joe is right, I should live for myself.

“Sophie, listen to me,” L.Joe says as he grabs my hands. “I know that I probably haven’t been acting that way or anything and now probably isn’t the best time to do something like this, but I like you, I truly like you. If for a moment you could live without Daehyun in your eyes and see the world around you.”

The world around me. I’m in China, what else is there to know, but thinking about it…now would be a good chance to start anew. Start a life without Daehyun since he’s going to be married and have other concerns. This would be the perfect opportunity to do something like that with L.Joe by my side.

“Sophie, say something?” L.Joe asks.

I look deep into his eyes and see only the truth. His eyes tell me everything and it’s everything that a girl would want to hear coming from a guy, a secret love and bold confession. Maybe I would be able to find myself loving L.Joe in the future.

“L.Joe, what am I supposed to say?” I ask him.

“I thought so,” he says sighing. “I knew you wouldn’t return the same feelings?”

“Who said I wouldn’t?” I ask him.

“What are you talking about?” he asks me with a slightly shocked expression.

“Look, I don’t know if I really like you or not,” I begin, “but…I’m willing to give it a try.”

L.Joe looks at me in surprise and I just look at him back. “Are you serious?” he asks.

“I’ve never been more serious in my life,” I tell him.

“Thank you,” he says as he immediately takes me in his arms and hugs me.

“No problem,” I say hugging him back. “You just have to win me over with your charm,” I playfully joke as I pull away from the hug.

“The charm is now ,” he says as he winks at me.

“So chessy,” I say rolling my eyes as I gently hit him.

“Well you asked for it.”

“I didn’t know it would turn out like this. Ah, watching the news is boring,” I say as I stretch onto the couch.

“Do you want to go back out?” L.Joe suggests.

“Go back out, but those people might still be staring at me.”

“Don’t worry about them; we can have our first date.”

“First…date,” I repeat.

“Yeah, our first date,” L.Joe happily says. “Sure I don’t have anything planned out, but I mean, we can always have one, right?”

I stare at L.Joe. Is he serious right now? I mean…a first date right now? Right after all of this happened, we’re having a first date?

“Look, you’re bored, I’m bored, let’s go do something fun,” L.Joe says interrupting my thoughts. Before I can even react, L.Joe pulls me onto my feet and out of the door. “Let’s go do something that will get both of our minds off of the world around us and let’s just concentrate on life, right here, right now, okay?”

“I…I guess,” I say nodding my head. “Having fun sounds like the best type of medicine right now.”

“It’s always the best medicine, I should know.” I stare at L.Joe like he’s crazy. “Just…forget about it. Let’s go find something fun like an amusement park.” I nod my head and follow L.Joe out the door. Going to an amusement park sounds fun and I could use fun in my life right about now.

Daehyun’s POV

“Daehyun, how are you holding up?” Mom asks as I enter the familiar place where she and my father are.

“Not well,” I tell them.

“Are you not adjusting to your new position as king very well?” she asks concerned.

“Why now?” I ask. “Why now of all times?”

“I think we should sit down,” Dad simply says as he moves over to the area where there are various couches and chairs.

My parents sit on one side and I sit on the other facing them. A thing like this hasn’t happened since I told them that I wanted to go to the United States, it just doesn’t happen very often with my parents, but I was overseas for the longest time, so I guess it makes sense.

“What do you want to talk about?” Mom asks.

“Why did you make me king now?” I start off. “Why did Dad bring me to that random room and tell me that I was king? Who was on the phone? Why is all of this happening now?”

“We can only answer one question at a time, what was the first one?” Mom asks leaning forward to hear me closely as some of the maids set down some tea. Why did they have to bring in tea? I don’t like it, but apparently my parents do.

“Why did you make me king?” I ask starting from the beginning.

“Because you’re our eldest son, is it not an answer in itself?” Mom asks like it’s the most obvious thing in the world, well, it is, but still that wasn’t what I wanted to say.

“Look, why now of all other times? You told me that I was coming back to take my proper position, did you know something that I didn’t know?” I ask her.

“I knew that danger was looming,” Dad responds simply. This is one of the rare chances that he’s actually speaking up during a conversation rather than just sitting there.

“Danger? What danger could possibly be looming?” I ask.

“Danger for everyone,” Mom says. Great, so they both know and I know nothing. That seems to be happening quite a lot lately.

“What danger?” I ask, but they both stay silent. “Fine, if you won’t answer that question, answer this one. Who is Sophie Karp?” I ask them.

“We don’t understand, Daehyun,” Mom says.

“Who is she? Who are her parents? That book that you gave me,” I say looking at my father, “that book means nothing. I haven’t figured anything out; I’m still in the dark.”

Mom and Dad look at each other before looking at me. “Go back to that room that you were in when I told you that you were going to be king. That room is full of your answers,” Dad simply says.

“I don’t remember where it is,” I honestly confess.

At the snap of Dad’s fingers, a butler comes and there’s no explanation needed to say that I know that he’s to me to the room. Silently, I follow. “Here you go, master,” the butler says as he opens the door for me and gestures to go in.

“Thank you,” I say as I silently enter the room and turn on the light switch.

The room illuminates and I look around at everything. I go over and look at the newspaper clippings and the pictures that look like they’re spying on something or someone, rather. There are pictures of houses, of people that I don’t recognize, of things that I don’t know, and a whole bunch of other things.

“Helpful my ,” I mutter to myself as I make my way around the room, but I stop when I start seeing some handwritten notes. “Handwritten, strange,” I say as I reach out to touch them and to read them, but my eyes go wide as I read over a familiar name. “Sophie Karp,” I say as I start reading the paper. “Location in the United States. Age is at seventeen. Living life as a normal high schooler.” That’s not what shocks me the most. What’s located at the bottom of the paper does.

Kidnapped. Found. Jung Daehyun to watch over her. Mission start.

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What does the note on Sophie mean? What will Daeyun do now that he found out more about Sophie? How will Daehyun react when he finds that his parents were going to send him to America anyway? Will Sophie end up developing feelings for L.Joe? How will Sophie and L.Joe's date go? Where did Lay go? What will happen in China?

Here is Chapter 21. Hope you enjoyed :D

I think there might be an ending soon to this fanfic...maybe before the 30th chapter, but I have no absolute ending chapter number set in mind, just forewarning that the ending is approaching.