Sophie’s POV

I wait outside of the house at eight just like Daehyun told me to. I don’t see him yet and am about to go wait inside when I see a figure running up the sidewalk. “Sophie, I’m sorry I’m late,” Daehyun pants as he puts his hands on his knees.

“That’s alright,” I say sighing like I don’t care when I really do care. “What did you want to talk about?”

“Why did you leave me?” he asks. “Why did you just leave?”

“What? What do you mean?” I ask confused.

“The day that we went into L.Joe’s house, you just disappeared once we came outside. Where did you go?” he asks.

“I…I was taken,” I tell him. “I thought the car was yours so I went into it and then I was taken here. I didn’t go anywhere…that time at least.”

“What do you mean that time?”

“I ran away from you before, the first time, the day before L.Joe’s house. I ran away from you.”

“Why?” he asks.

“Is that why you wanted to talk to me?” I ask. “So you could ask me questions about why I left you?”

“Maybe, I don’t know, I just wanted to talk to you. It’s been a month since I last saw you and you just happened to be in the place that I didn’t think you would be. Yes, I’ve been looking for you and I’ve been trying to figure everything out.”

“What do you mean everything?” I ask wondering if there’s more things that I don’t know about.

“I know all about your situation right now, the kidnapping, the DNA, everything and I’ve been researching on it for the past month.”

“How?” I ask. How could Daehyun know about that stuff when I just started learning about it? “You already knew?”

I see the realization come upon his face. “Sophie…” he quietly says.

“So you knew and you kept this from me? How could you keep something like this from the person that it involves? How is that possible?”

“Sophie, by the time that I figured out, you were already gone,” he says. “I had no way of telling you anything. You left, gone with the wind and I was alone and I had no choice but to marry her. I didn’t want to marry her.”

“But you had to and I couldn’t interfere,” I told him. “You were becoming in charge of a country, I just couldn’t barge in and say that I disapproved of the marriage.”

“But I would’ve worked with my parents to get me out of it, but you didn’t stick around. What was I supposed to say then? Oh the girl that I like is currently unavailable and missing?” Daehyun asks. “What was I supposed to tell them if I wanted to get myself out of the marriage?”

“That’s the whole reason I left,” I tell him. “I left so you could get married.”

I see Daeyun’s face turn from confusion to understanding and then possibly anger. I don’t know what he feels right now and normally I do. I guess that’s the effect of not seeing him for a month. L.Joe and I probably know each other better than Daehyun and me right now.

“Daehyun,” I say sighing. “I don’t like you. Those feelings before, they were just something of the past. I’m done now, you have to live your life and I have to live mine and figure everything out. Like I told you over the phone, this is goodbye.” I don’t feel like dealing with Daehyun right now, I don’t have any feelings for him anymore; he’s just a thing of the past. As much as it hurts me to never see Daehyun again, it’s probably good for the both of us. I don’t know what I’m searching for in life right now and I have to start a new life getting to know my biological mother and my biological brother and learn everything new. Right now, there is no more time for Daehyun.

“Sophie, wait,” Daehyun says grabbing my wrist before I can go inside, turning me around, and kissing my lips.

“Daehyun!” I yell as I immediately detach ourselves and somehow I end up slapping him, much to the shock of both of us. “Daehyun, you’re married, I have a boyfriend, why did you do that?” Seeing how he’s not answering me, I turn around and go back inside, but not before I look at Daehyun for one last time. “Get a hold of yourself Jung Daehyun,” I whisper to him. “You’re not yourself right now. Why are you even doing this?”

With that, I make my way inside leaving Daehyun outside. Heading right towards my room, I go to L.Joe who is lying on his stomach on my bed and hug him. “What’s wrong?” he asks as he slightly turns around so he can face me, but I don’t say anything. I just need to hug someone right now. “Sophie, are you okay?” he asks as the tears start to fall.

Daehyun’s POV

I stare at the door. Why did I do that? Why did I kiss her? Now she’s definitely not going to come back to me. It wasn’t even like I ever had her in the first place. Maybe I had her for a short moment, but then soon after she lost my grip. Why am I like this? What happened to me? Less than a year ago I was living a normal life and now I’m living this life of chaos where nothing makes sense anymore.

Sighing, I figure that I’ve ruined my chances of ever doing anything with Sophie ever again. It’s a stressful time for her and it’s a stressful time with me. I guess things like this just aren’t a good mix. It’s not a good mix at all.

Defeated, I take out my phone to call Jun. “Hey, can you pick me up?” I ask him as I attempt to read him the address.

“Okay, I’ll be there in a little while.”

“Okay, thanks,” I say hanging up the phone.

If Sophie wants to live her life, I’ll let her, but that won’t stop me from figuring out the story about her. I’m curious as to why my parents have all of this information on her and I can’t have anything. Maybe they’re a part of this? Or maybe they don’t know anything about it and left me to do their dirty work. Whatever the reason is behind my parents, now I’m determined to find an end to this so we can all live peaceful lives.

Suddenly my phone rings and I take it out of my pocket to see who’s calling. It’s just the person that I wanted to talk to. “Mom,” I say picking it up. “Why did you call me?”

“I heard that you went to China with Jieun. I just wanted to see how it was going.”

“Look, I’m not going to love her, no matter what you say or attempt to do, it’s not happening,” I straightforwardly say. “There’s nothing that you’re capable of to make me love Jieun, I just married her because I was forced to. I feel no sort of attraction to her whatsoever.”

“Daehyun, how could you say that?” she asks.

“I can say it because I can,” I tell her as I see Jun’s car approaching. “Anyway, I have to get going, I have important things to do that don’t involve Jieun.” I hang up the phone and go over to the car to see Jun just staring at me.

“Was it your mother?” he asks. I nod my head. “She called me, too.”

“Why?”

“I guess she wanted to know what you were doing,” he says sighing. “She’s quite a nuisance sometimes.”

“She is,” I say nodding my head as I get into the back of the car. And that’s exactly why Jun is my most favorite person.

I arrive back at the hotel and go to the room to find Jieun watching television on the couch. “Hey,” she says as she smiles when she sees me. “How were your things today?”

“It was alright,” I say sighing. “Just one thing led to another and I have to go somewhere tomorrow. I know I said that I was going to make it up to you in China, but can it wait one more day?”

“Sure, I understand your needing for figuring this out.”

When I look at Jieun now, she doesn’t seem so forceful as she was before she got married. I know she was slightly mean and aggressive, but it seems like all of those qualities have disappeared. Somehow, I feel regretful towards her knowing that she had to marry someone like me and it turned out like this, even though she was the one that was so happy about this marriage in the first place.

“Jieun,” I say sitting beside her, “are you really okay with me looking up all of this information about Sophie?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” she asks adjusting herself so that she’s no longer looking at the television and looking at me. “Sophie and you have been friends forever and I know that you like her more than you like me.”

“Look, Jieun, I’m sorry I’m like this,” I apologize to her.

“No, I was the one that was forcing you into the marriage; I was the one that didn’t budge away from it. So Daehyun, don’t apologize.”

“I just feel like I have to do it, though,” I confess to her.

“That’s because you’re a nice guy, you’re a really nice guy and you care about everyone whether you want them to know it or not. That’s why everyone likes you, you’re caring and considerate about others feelings.”

“Thank you, Jieun,” I tell her as I lean over and kiss her cheek.

Sophie’s POV

I wake up in the morning and stare at L.Joe who slept beside me. He insisted on keeping me company throughout the night after I explained to him what happened with Daehyun. Thankfully, we don’t have classes today. I don’t feel like going even if we did have it.

“You’re up?” L.Joe asks as he opens his eyes and stretches.

“Yeah,” I say nodding my head.

“What do you want to do today?” he asks as he sits up in bed.

“I don’t know,” I say shrugging my shoulders. “I was thinking that maybe I would talk to Lay and see if I can learn out some things about myself, I mean, now that we know that I’m actually their daughter and related to them, there are plenty of things that I can ask them to learn about myself.”

“You want to do that?”

“I think so,” I say nodding my head. “I mean, what can I lose by it?”

“What if you suddenly become angry because of something they say?” he curiously asks. “Are you sure that you want to figure it out so soon?”

“They’re my family; I can’t just suddenly ignore them after finding this out. I want to know some more about them. I’m curious.”

“Okay, if that’s what you want. I’ll probably go out today then.”

“Are you going to get something?”

“Maybe,” L.Joe says shrugging his shoulders. “I just figure that I should do something and let you guys have the house to yourself, unless you decide to go out somewhere with them, but I’ll probably end up going out to do something.”

“Okay,” I say nodding my head. “I should tell Lay about what I plan to do.”

“You should, it’ll be good to give him a heads up.”

“Yeah,” I say getting off the bed. “I’ll go tell him now.”

“And I’ll go get ready to go out,” L.Joe says as he gets up with me and goes into his own room.

I go into the living room but Lay’s not there. I have no choice but to go to his room. I’ve never been in his room before and I wonder what it looks like. He seems like a mysterious person that never really talks about himself. Maybe he already wondered if I was related to him in the first place, was that the reason that I was brought here? Did they know?

But Lay was the person that translated the letters before, did he already know about us being related to each other or did he have an inkling because of the letter? Whatever the reason, someone around here probably knew about us being related, but kidnapping? I would’ve never thought in my life that I was kidnapped. Did my parents even know that I was kidnapped? They probably didn’t know, they couldn’t have own, they were agents, but if they were agents, then they would probably know everything.

Slowly, I knock on the door. “Lay? Lay?” I ask knocking on it but I don’t hear anything from the inside. Slowly I open the door to take a peek inside, but quickly close it with an accidental loud bang.

“What happened?” L.Joe asks running out of the room.

“Nothing, I just went to see if Lay was up,” I nonchalantly say.

“Then why did you slam the door?”

“I was just shocked,” I say. “He was shirtless.”

“Oh,” L.Joe says nodding his head.

“What’s this racket?” Lay asks as he scratches his head and leans on the doorframe still without a shirt. My hands cover my eyes immediately and he must realize it because he disappears until he comes back out wearing a shirt. “Sorry about that.”

“No problem,” I say attempting to show a smile.

“So, do you guys need something? I thought you didn’t have school.”

“We don’t,” L.Joe says. “I was just going to go out. Sophie, on the other hand is going to stay here,” he says as he heads towards the door. “I’ll see you guys later.”

“Why aren’t you going out?” Lay asks.

“I wanted to talk to you,” I tell him. “Can you tell me about my family? I want to know some more about where I come from,” I hesitantly say. “Can you tell me about them?”

Daehyun’s POV

In the morning, I set out to look for Kim Minseok. I wonder what type of information this guy will be able to offer me even more so then the other. Is there something about this guy that helps to unlock the mystery?

I arrive at a ragged looking house that’s somewhat set in the back of nowhere. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” Jun worriedly asks.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” I say nodding my head. “Don’t worry about me. I can find my way back anyway, I want to walk.”

“Okay, that’s fine,” Jun says. “Just be safe.”

“I will be,” I say as I get out of the car. This person doesn’t know that I’m the King of Korea; we’re going with the same name that I first enrolled into the school with, Daejae. That’s who I’m going to introduce myself as.

I walk up to the doorway and knock on the door. It doesn’t take long for a guy to come and answer it; a guy that I am guessing is Minseok. He’s younger than I imagined, I thought that he would be an older guy, probably a grandfather by now, but this guy looks like he’s in his twenties. What type of information could I possibly get out of him?

“Who are you?” he asks looking at me and speaking in Korean.

“I’m Jung Daehae,” I say telling him my name. “I was wondering if you could answer a couple of questions for me.”

“It depends what those questions are about.”

“I’m writing a report for school, I go to the international school over there,” I say pointing in the general direction of the school that L.Joe and Sophie goes to. “And I was wondering if you would be able to answer some questions about a kidnapping that had happened in the past.”

“What kind of kidnapping?” he asks with curious eyes.

“The kidnapping of a girl named Taitao,” I begin and I see his eyes fill with recognition. “You know it, right?”

“I do, why would you want to know information about that?”

“I’m simply curious.”

“Well, come in then, Daejae,” he says. I follow him inside to the living room. Surprisingly, the inside is much nicer than the outside. “Sit there.” He motions towards the couch. “I’m already expecting that you know my name, Kim Minseok.”

“I do,” I say nodding my head.

“I know information about the kidnapping, but I myself did not partake in it.”

“Then how do you know the information?” I curiously ask.

“It’s a long story.”

“I have the time.”

“Well, the kidnapping of Taitao is very famous in itself. It has a lot of mysteries that were never solved and will probably never be solved, but I have the answers to the things everyone has ever wondered about it.”

“Why?” I ask. “Why would you have the answers and not say anything?”

“No one ever believes me,” he says shrugging his shoulders. “They say that I just make up these types of theories by myself and they don’t pay them a second thought.”

“Well, I’ll believe you,” I say nodding my head. “I’ll believe every word you say.” I’m sure I’ll believe him, it’s not just words I’m saying in order for him to tell me the story. He seems like a trustworthy guy and I’m sure the things he says are probably going to be true anyway.

“Why would you believe someone like me? You’re a student.”

“That’s why. Since I’m a student, I can distinguish between the truth and a lie better than an adult can,” I tell him. “So, you may proceed with your story.”

“Um, thank you?” he asks staring at me strangely. “Anyway, I was only a young boy when this happened, the kidnapping, I wasn’t that old. The kidnapping happened when the girl was five and may people were behind it.”

“Why were they behind it?” I curiously ask wondering why people would want to kidnap Sophie.

“They didn’t want the family to have the power anymore, so they took the most vulnerable thing, the girl. Of course, the Karp family and the Korean royal family were smart people, they hired other people to do it.” Did I just hear right? The Karp family and the Korean royal family?

Sophie’s POV

“What do you want to know?” Lay asks as we all sit in the living room. He brought his mother, or shall I say our mother, over so we can all have a family talk. I guess that that’s what I should call it.

“Everything,” I simply reply. “I mean, I’m curious to know what you’re like, I’m curious to know what my biological parents are like. I want to know why I was adopted, but I guess I already know the reason for that is because I was kidnapped, I mean, I just have so many questions that I don’t even know where to start. Half of me feels betrayed but the other half feels relieved because I found my parents.”

“Well, you’re my younger sister,” Lay begins, “Taitao, and I’m Yixing. I’m two years older than you are and I’m a somewhat quiet person. Sometimes I dance in my spare time.”

“I’m quiet, too,” I say. “But I don’t dance, I’ve never attempted in my life. Well, that’s a lie. I meant that I never really like did an actual attempt. I always just danced for fun.”

“Well then I’ll have to teach you sometime,” he says giving me a smile. Is this a brotherly smile that I’ve always heard people talk about? It feels weird having someone that I can call a brother or even a sibling since I grew up as an only child. I guess this will need some definite getting used to.

“This…this feels weird,” I say with a slightly awkward laugh.

“What is?” he asks looking at me curiously.

“The feeling of having an actual mother, not saying that my adoptive mother wasn’t a mother, but I mean, seeing the people that I’m related to flesh and blood, it feels strange, yet I like it. Plus I’ve never gotten to experience what it’s like having a brother. I grew up as an only child.”

“Well, I grew up as an only child, too,” Lay says with a comforting smile. “We can do sibling type things together now. I always wanted to see you. Mom always told me stories about how you were when you were little.”

“If…if you don’t mind me asking,” I say as I start a bit hesitantly. “At what age was I kidnapped?”

I look at Lay and then back at my mother. Is it okay to address her as my mother? She is my mother, but would it be slightly awkward between us if I were to say something like that since we aren’t very close with one another and this is the first time that I met them?

“You were taken when you were five,” she says.

“Five?” I ask in disbelief. “I was taken when I was five?”

“Yeah,” Lay says speaking for her. I guess it’s because she doesn’t really want to talk at a time like this or with the current situation that we’re faced with. “Why? Did someone tell you something differently?”

“Um…I was under the impression that I was adopted when I was quite young,” I honestly admit. “At least, that’s what my adoptive parents told you and they even had a lot of pictures when I was a baby. Are you sure that I’m your child?” Doubt starts to fill my mind on whether the person that they were searching for is actually me.

“We’re positive,” Lay says. “The DNA test says it all.”

“Then something doesn’t add up,” I mutter.

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What does the Karp family and the Korean royal family have to do with the kidnapping of Sophie? Why was Sophie told that she was adopted when she was a baby when she was kidnapped when she was five? What is the real story behind her kidnapping? Will Sophie learn how to get less awkward with Lay and her biological mother?

Here is Chapter 26. Hope you enjoyed :D

There may be 2 or 3 more chapters until this fanfic coments to an end. I was originally thinking that there would probably be 2 left, but after some of the more questions that were located in this, there may be 3 more chapters until the end.