Daehyun’s POV

“Excuse me,” I say interrupting him for a moment. “Did you just say that Karp family and the Korean royal family?” I want to make sure that I didn’t hear the wrong thing; did I hear the wrong thing? How is it possible that my family and Sophie’s family planned the demise of Sophie’s family? Is that what they really wanted?

“Yes, they were the ones behind it. The Karp family and the Korean royal family themselves had hired someone to do all of the dirty work for them. They are actually very smart people,” Minseok says. “That statement right there is why some people decide not to believe this, simply because they don’t want to believe that the nation’s greatest families were behind some kidnapping.”

“I…I can see why,” I manage to say. I have to keep my cool, this guy can’t know who I am, I can’t just give it away because of some statement that he said. I need to know about everything, I need to know about what happened that night and figure out if my premonition is right as to who is behind it. Right now, everything is adding up, and I guess my premonition is right, but why? I didn’t expect that my own parents would be behind it, though.

“So, the two forces combined and set the house on fire when Taitao was only five years old and her older brother was eight. It was a stormy night so they used that as their cover. Both sides couldn’t believe the luck that they were having with it. So, they set the house on fire and they used the distraction to kidnap the child.”

“But why would they want to kidnap the child?” I ask. “What had the child done for them?”

“They were part of an organized terrorist group and they wanted to wreck havoc between two opposite countries by framing them with the kidnapping in hopes that Korea could help rise on top with the two out of the way,” Minseok explains. “My father just so happened to be the leader of that terrorist group.”

“He was the leader?” I ask in disbelief, but at least it makes sense as to how Minseok knows all of this.

“At the time itself, I was around nine years old,” he explains. “I remember it very well and on his death bed, my father told me the secrets behind it. He felt regretful ever since.”

“If he felt regretful, then why did he do it in the first place?” I’m not angry at the guy or at anyone, I’m just searching for answers that I don’t particularly have right now.

“He thought that it would benefit everyone, but in the end it benefitted no one. Anyway,” he says continuing, “my father, the Karp family, and the Korean royal family knew that they couldn’t just hide the baby or give the baby up for adoption without someone being suspicious as to where the baby came and they also knew that Taitao’s family would probably DNA search any new baby that came into the orphanage. They came up with a better plan.”

“They were just going to have the Karp family adopt her, right?” I ask. Minseok sends me a strange look. “I read about it, people already know about that part.”

“Well, yes,” he says. “They agreed to let the Karp family take the child over to America where they would give the baby a good life and not even speak of what happened in the past or how the baby got to be theirs. I’m sure that the family had given their daughter some pretty good lies for her to not ask questions about anything for thirteen years.”

“What happened over here then?” I ask. “What did the Korean family do? What did Taitao’s family do?”

“Taitao’s family never gave up searching for her and until this day they search for her, rumors of her return are popping up more frequently than ever now and I’m not entirely sure why, but it is reported that they found her. On the other hand, the Korean family lived their life with their daughter and son until the age of six, one year after Taitao was kidnapped and sent to America, the Korean family sent their son over to America also.”

I am slightly taken aback when I hear myself mentioned in the story. Why would he know about me? But then again, this could be a good place to learn about why I was exactly sent to America. In the mist of everything, I actually forgot about that small detail.

“To make friends with the girl, of course,” Minseok says. “The boy, however, didn’t know. My father had said that the boy even expressed a desire to move away from his household at such a young age and the parents had hopped onto it. His name, Daehyun, he apparently wanted to leave and his parents just pushed him out the door in hopes of befriending Sophie and bringing her back to Korea.”

“Why would they want her to be brought back to Korea?”

“Because of a simple mistake,” Minseok says. “It’s a mistake that makes me pity the young woman. I wonder how she’s doing now and I wonder if she even knows about what happened to her in the past.”

“Excuse me, if you don’t mind me asking, what mistake?” I ask. What mistake would they want me to bring Sophie back for? Was all of this planned by my own mother?

“That night of the fire, the night that they kidnapped her, they kidnapped the wrong child.”

Sophie’s POV

I sit there and stare at them. I was told that I was adopted as a baby, but here is my biological family saying that I was taken at the age of five. Which side should I believe? I feel torn and it’s not a good feeling to feel. On one side there’s my parents, the people that have watched over me since I was young and on the other side there is my newly found biological parents, who by science, are really my parents. Which side should I choose?

“Sophie, I don’t know what anyone has told you in the past,” Lay begins, “but you were kidnapped when you were five, I was eight. I remember it clearly; I’m three years older than you are.”

“I…I don’t know,” I say as I look at him and back to my mother. “I don’t know why I was told that, I don’t know anything. I mean, I just found out that I was kidnapped and everything and now suddenly here is my biological family in front of me and I don’t know what to do. Unless,” I say suddenly thinking of a possibility.

“Unless what?” Lay asks slightly leaning forward in the seat.

“Nothing,” I say shaking my head. I can’t think those types of thoughts now, why are they entering my head? I can’t be thinking such a thing.

“Okay, I understand,” Lay says nodding his head.

“Um…if you don’t mind me asking,” I say putting the words together to form cohesive sentences. “Where is my father?”

I see Lay and my mother go tense as they stare at each other. “Sophie,” Lay gently begins. “Do you really want to know?”

“I really do,” I say nodding my head. “I mean, he is my father, my biological father. I would like to know things about him considering that my whole life was a lie before.”

“But I’m not sure if you would like it,” Lay says thinking about it.

“I don’t mind,” I say shaking my head. “Tell me. What happened?”

“He passed away,” Lay says. “A couple of years ago he passed away after a trip to America. He swore that he saw someone that looked just like you when he came back and he passed away a couple of days later due to the shock.”

“He saw someone that looked like me? He passed away?” I ask. The questions and thoughts are going through my brain again and they’re not slowing down. What am I supposed to do now? The one person that I had to yet meet in my immediate family has passed away and I will never get to know him. He will never get to know about me and what type of person I am and he will never know that I am alright and safe no matter what happened in the past.

“Would you…would you like to see him?” my mother offers.

“May I?” I ask her. “I wouldn’t want to intrude on anything.”

“You wouldn’t intrude,” my mother says as she forces a smile. I can see that she’s on the verge of tears and it might be because of the sudden thought about her late husband, my father. “I’m sure that he would like to know about you and see you.”

“Shall we go right now?” Lay asks. “It might be a long trip, I’ll drive.”

“Okay, that’s fine by me,” I say standing up.

I get myself ready to go to the cemetery or wherever my father lies here with them. Somehow it feels awkward, and I’m sure it’ll keep feeling awkward until I get used to this feeling that I have a family and that I was kidnapped. I don’t even know who kidnapped me, but somehow, I think learning the truth might be more painful than what I’m experiencing right now.

Slowly, I’m leaning how to accept everything and I think that learning the truth about everything would only make me unhappy and unable to do anything else. I just want to be comfortable with what I have before I go searching for anything else. Those things still can’t get around my mind, though. It’s still spinning with the announcement and discovery. Sometimes I wish that L.Joe was here beside me and I can’t help but wonder what he’s doing.

“Are you ready?” Lay asks as he sees me come back out into the living room.

“More than ever,” I say giving him a smile as we both walk out together. “Lay.”

“Yeah?” he asks.

“Can you tell me about our father on the way there? I would like to know some things about him, like what type of person he was, what he looked like, things like that. I know that I’m asking you to do a lot for me and I’m sorry, I’m just…curious.”

“It’s alright,” he says giving me a smile. “It’s alright if you want to know everything in the world. Do you want to know why?” I nod my head. “It’s because you’re my little sister. I know that right now we don’t have a brother and sister vibe, but I’m sure we’ll get one when we become more comfortable with each other. Just know that I’ll do anything for you.”

Daehyun’s POV

“What are you talking about that she was the wrong child?” I ask. This story, it doesn’t make sense.

“Taitao was the wrong child; they were supposed to kidnap Yixing, the heir to the fortune as the eldest son. Taitao was just the second child, she wasn’t the one that was supposed to be kidnapped,” Minseok explains. “Both sides didn’t figure that out until much later.”

“But wouldn’t they have seen that the baby they kidnapped as a girl instead of a boy that they were looking for?” I ask since it doesn’t make sense.

“The reality actually comes down to the fact that they didn’t know that there was an older brother. The two forces did not do enough research to figure out that Taitao had an older brother, Yixing,” Minseok says. “They didn’t know it so they thought that Taitao would be the one that would get all the money as she grew older. Only later did they realize the existence of a son.”

“But I don’t see why Daehyun had to get sent over to Taitao then in America,” I say trying to figure out my placement in all of this.

“Simply said, he was being used. He was supposed to befriend Taitao and then take her over to go visit his parents one day, but he never visited his parents. His parents thought that he was ignoring them and then the fateful day appeared.”

“Fateful day?” I ask but I have a feeling that he’s talking about the day that Sophie’s parents passed away.

“The day that Mr. and Mrs. Karp were killed. They were killed by forces of the opposing side, of Taitao’s family. Secretly, they had been watching all of this time to try and track down Taitao and when they did, they killed her family, ultimately sending her over to Korea and then proceeding with caution to bring her back to China, which I guess is why people are saying that she is alive and well.”

I think about Minseok’s words, that means that her biological family killed her parents because they kidnapped her and also to bring her back home. I debate on whether or not I should tell Sophie about this. Should I tell her about her parents? She would probably be heartbroken to know that her parents are the ones that kidnapped her and because of a stupid mistake she had to experience all of this, but then if they didn’t make the mistake, then I wouldn’t have become friends with her, whether it was with the guidance of my parents or not.

“So they successfully tracked her down?” I ask.

“Rumors say that they have, but I haven’t seen the supposed girl in public and I’m not exactly sure if I ever will, but I’m alright with that if it turns out that the girl is truly Taitao. I will be happy knowing that she is back where she belongs.”

“Yeah,” I say nodding my head, “but actually, there’s one thing bugging me.”

“And what’s that?”

“Why did the Karp family and the Korean royal family have to go through all of this kidnapping stuff? What was the point of the kidnapping anyway? Did Taitao’s family have something that they wanted? Why go through all of these lengths?”

“It can be said that Taitao’s family had something that the other two forces wanted, and especially money. Of course, it’s funny to talk about the Korean royal family and their battle over money, but it was also because of a strategic move. They wanted to take down China as a power, seeing as Taitao’s family had close connections with the government since many of the family members worked within the government, and the Korean royal family were worried about possible threats of China, hence they moved to plan a plot to have other countries fighting instead of their own.”

“Oh,” I say digesting all of it. I can’t believe that my parents went and kidnapped someone with the assistance of someone else simply because of power and money. Do they really have nothing else to do with their lives? “What about the Karp family?” I ask. “What part did they play?”

“They were apparently old friends of the Korean royal family during their stay in Korea before they became a part of the terrorist group,” Minseok says. “They just bonded together with the terrorist organization to bring themselves more power and get themselves more recognition within the country as the saviors rather than the people that were behind it.”

“Well, thank you,” I say standing up and Minseok does the same. “Thank you for telling me everything you know and I believed every word of it.”

“No problem,” he says with a smile. “I’m glad that someone at least believes me.”

“I believed every word,” I say again as we both near the door. “And your secret is safe with me, if you don’t want me to tell anyone I won’t.”

“I don’t mind,” he says shaking his head. “As long as someone believes you, feel free to spread it, it’s what happened.”

“I appreciate everything, thank you,” I say bowing once again before I make my way down the street. I don’t know where I’m going or what I’m doing, but I know that I now know the truth. The only question now lies in whether or not I should tell Sophie about it.

Sophie’s POV

The car ride is long just like Lay said and I fell asleep while he was telling me about our father. I don’t know how much later he wakes me up. “We’re here,” he gently says.

I get out of the car and look at the cemetery. It is honestly nothing that I imagined; I never thought that it could be so beautiful. The graves are evenly spaced apart and they have beautiful writing on them. Somehow I feel like I’m not worthy to be in this place.

“Over here,” Lay says as he guides me towards a direction where our mother is already walking. It still feels weird to call her my mother considering the lack of words that we’ve said to each other, but I’m sure that I’ll be able to confidently call her mother soon, I’ll get used to it. I mean, everything just hit me at once and I don’t even know what I’m doing anymore, but I’ll get used to it. I have to.

After a couple minutes of walking, we finally stop in front of a grave. I can’t read the Chinese on it, but it doesn’t take a genius to know that this is the final resting place of my father. The three of us stand in a moment of silence as we stand there observing the grave. I don’t know what they’re doing, but still, I pay my respects to him by speaking to him through my mind. I hope that he has the ability to hear me, even if he never heard me before.

I guess I’m your daughter…I want you to know about me, I want you to know that I’m alright even if I just found out about me being your daughter. I’ve read that the Chinese regard family very highly and I hope that I’m not a disgrace for you and I’m sorry that I didn’t know about you before, but I’ll make you proud. Even if I’m a tad late, I’ll make you proud of me. I’ll become a proud daughter.

I watch as Lay and our mother do the traditional things while the only thing that I can do is just stand there. I don’t know what’s going on and I don’t know how to do anything, I only know how to stand there and I feel useless.

I don’t know why I’m feeling that way, maybe it’s because this is my father, the one that half of my DNA is from. He passed away and here I am, just standing here unable to do anything while they’re doing everything. I don’t know if I should offer to do something or whether or not they’ll actually give me something to do. Honestly, I don’t know, so I just stand there and watch.

As Lay lights the firecracker, it seems like everything is done and we make our way back for the long journey back home. Somehow, it seems like even though our stay was short, that I have gotten close with my father, despite never knowing him. Somehow I wish to know him and wonder what life would be like if I were never kidnapped. It would most definitely be different, but then I would’ve never met L.Joe or Daehyun. Would Daehyun have had a different live living without me and would L.Joe have, too?

As we’re driving back, I’m fully awake now with our mother dozing off in the front seat while Lay drives. I stare out the window until I feel a vibration in my pocket. I pull it out and see that it’s a text message from Daehyun.

Meet me in the café down the street from where you live tonight at eight.

I stare at the message. Why would Daehyun want me to meet him at the café? Does he want to talk again about why I left him? I have no more things to say about that, it’s over, it’s done with. I don’t know what else I could say about it.

Why?

I simply reply as I send it and wait for his next text message to arrive. It doesn’t take long, less than a minute, for my phone to vibrate once again.

Please, I just need to talk with you. I’m not going to talk about anything in the past, that’s the past. I just want to simply talk with you, is that too much to ask?

I sigh again and I can see Lay looking at me. He’s probably wondering what’s going on. “Sophie, are you alright?” he asks.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I say as I stare out the window before I type Daehyun back another simple reply.

Fine, but it better not take long.

“Are you sure?” he asks. “You were sighing an awfully lot back there.”

I figure that I have nothing to lose. Lay is my older brother and he said that I could trust him for whatever I wanted or needed. “Can I ask your opinion on something?” I hesitantly ask.

“You can ask my opinion on anything.”

“What would you do if you were curious about something but were too afraid to know the truth?”

“Is this related to something I know?” he asks.

“No,” I lie. “It’s not related to anything you know. I was just curious. Would you want to live the life that you’re currently living or would you want to know the truth even if the truth meant that you might leave your old life behind forever?”

“I don’t know,” Lay says shrugging his shoulders as he thinks about it. “Despite living the life that I live now, I think I would want to know the truth to live a better life. At least that’s what I think.”

Daehyun’s POV

I sit at the café at eight and wait for Sophie to show up. She said that she was going to show up and I can’t help but wonder where she is. After much debating about whether I should tell her or not, I figure that I should tell her. She’s probably wondering about the whole story and now that I know it, I should tell her. But what if she never forgives me, would I be able to deal with the consequences?

The bell rings on the café door and I look up to see Sophie standing there and making her way over to me. “Make it quick,” she says, “I have something to do.”

“Does that something involve finding out the truth as to why you were kidnapped?” I ask without even batting an eye. Just like I predicted, she would be searching for answers herself.

“You don’t need to know,” she says crossing her arms.

“Yes I do,” I say looking right at her, “I know the truth. I know the whole truth as to why you were kidnapped.”

“No you don’t, you don’t know anything,” she snips back.

“I know more than you right now,” I slightly yell at her. I don’t know why I’m picking a fight with her, but I guess her sensitivity is up too since everything is just new to her in this situation. “Look, if you want to know I can tell you,” I say calming down, “but I can’t force you into anything.”

We both sit there in silence with Sophie looking out the window and me looking at her. Somehow I wish that I didn’t yell at her like that. She probably already had a stressful day full of events that I don’t know about and just me yelling at her probably put her over the top.

“Just tell me,” Sophie says as her voice starts out as a soft whisper. “Just tell me something.”

“I’ll tell you anything you want,” I tell her. “I won’t tell you any lies or sugar coat anything, I’ll tell you everything how I was told.”

“Before I ask you,” she says looking at me and I can finally see everything that went on to her in her eyes. She looks so stressed, so tired, and so worried about everything. I hadn’t realized it until now and why? Normally I notice everything when it comes to Sophie. She’s my best friend, despite not being on contact for the longest time, she will always be my best friend and no one can ever change that. “Tell me something.”

“Like I said, I’ll tell you anything.”

“Where did you get the information from?”

“From a very reliable person,” I tell her. I don’t want to tell her the person that I got it from, maybe it’s best if she doesn’t know that bit of information. “I promise you that the person I got the information from is a very reliable individual and I know that his words are true. Now what did you want to know?”

“Tell me that my predictions aren’t true. I’ve been thinking about it all day and something that I was told doesn’t make sense.”

“What were you told?” I ask wondering what someone would’ve told her.

“I was told that I was adopted when I was a baby, but then my biological family tells me that I was taken when I was five. Tell me that my parents aren’t the one that kidnapped me.”

And there it is, the thing that I wanted to tell her that she ends up saying herself. I know that I shouldn’t break her heart even more after knowing that her parents are dead and died because of the fact that they kidnapped her, but I told her that I’d tell her everything that she wanted and she wants to know this.

“Daehyun, please,” she says looking at me in the eyes. “Please tell me that they aren’t the ones that kidnapped me.”

“I…I’m sorry,” I whisper as I can’t even look into her eyes anymore. “I can’t tell you that.”

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So, I have determined that the next chapter will be the last chapter of this fanfic and then the one after that will be the Extra Stuffs chapter filled with trivia about the story and some songs that I consider to be sort of like a soundtrack to the story. 

And since the next chapter will be the last one, we will have a time jump of like...7 or 8 years? I know it seems like a lot, but it's just enogh to put our characters at age 25. So, what do you think happened within the 7 or 8 years? Have things stayed the same? What happened to the friendship of L.Joe, Sophie, and Daehyun? What about Jieun and Daehyun's relationship? Will any of the four be parents in the future?

Those are the types of things that you get to look forward to in the last chapter.

Here's chapter 27. Hope you enjoyed :D