Joo-hyun felt numb. Her mother meant everything to her. She was funny, understanding, had a great sense of humor and above all she was all hers. No one could replace Lauren. No one. Lauren did have a knack for attracting a lot of attention; not just because of her looks but because of her easy going and welcoming personality. Her mother’s job shined because of it. She was an actress and she was just starting to make a name for herself.  If she were still alive her fame would be growing.

FLASHBACK

“Seo Joo-hyun will you stand still. I’m almost finished with your hair,” her Mom was brushing her hair into a ponytail

“I’m sorry. I’m just practicing my lines. I can’t wait till you see my performing today at school for show and tell. You and Daddy are going to be there right?”

“We wouldn’t miss it for the world,” she kissed her daughter

Joo-hyun arrived at school in her typical attire; a pretty summer dress and her hair in a ponytail and always she took her seat next to her best friend Kai. He looked at Joo-hyun today and it took his breath away. He truly loved this girl. He’s loved her ever since he met her two years ago in the 1^st grade. She was the only girl he wanted to be near. She was sweet, funny and sometimes mischievous.

“Joo-hyun you look pretty as always,” she smiled sweetly at him

“Thank you Jong-in. Are your parents coming?”

“Yes they are here already,” he pointed to the two attractive people in the back

“What do they do for a living?”

“My Mom stays at home and my Dad is a producer,”

“Oh so he works with my Mommy,” she got excited

“I’m sure she’s worked with him before,” he smiled at her

Just then Joo-hyun’s parents entered the room and Joo-hyun ran to her parents wanting to introduce Jong-in to them. Once Kai’s Dad looked at Lauren, he and his wife joined in.

“Mommy and Daddy this is my best friend Kim Jong-in,”

“Well we have heard so much about you Jong-in. it’s nice to meet you finally,” Lauren smiled at the young boy

Kai was mesmerized. Now he realized where Joo-hyun got her beauty from.

“It’s nice to meet you too. And these are my parents,”

They all exchanged handshakes and smiles. But Lauren and Kai’s Dad wouldn’t stop looking at each other. She started to blush which Kai’s Mom noticed. She quickly looked at her husband who wasn’t paying attention to her. Joo-hyun noticed her mother and Kai’s Dad encounter with each other but being a young girl she didn’t think anything about.

END OF FLASHBACK

Joo-hyun slowly wiped her eyes and stood up and thought about what Kris had just told her. He was protecting her because of what her mother and Kai’s Dad did, but what did they do. She needed answers. By this time it was lunch time and she was going to try and talk to Kris.

All her friends including Kris and Kai were in the cafeteria.

“Joo-hyun over here,” said Tao, she looked at him and shook her head

“What’s going on?”

“I’m sure you’ve heard that Kai and Joo-hyun are a couple,” said Jessica

“What? I’m sorry I didn’t hear about that,” he eyed a pissed off Chen

Chen was really trying to be supportive of Joo-hyun but he found it extremely difficult since he hated Kai with a passion and the fact that his new girlfriend was all over him he suddenly became insecure which he hated to be. Even when he with EXO, in the group he the most insecure since all the other boys had so much confidence and all the girls loved them. He finally got one of the prettiest girls in the school and she convinced him of this plan of hers which he hated.

“Yup but it’s a lie,”

“What are you talking about?”

“She’s tricking Kai to get info from him,”

“To make a long story short she found out that Kai and Kris are brothers and Kai has been acting real shady so she dating him to get info from him,” said Hyo-yeon

“How did she find out that deep dark secret?” asked Lay

Both of the girls looked at Chen who was embarrassed, “A slip of the tongue,” he said as he started blushing

“Well I’m glad someone has balls to get in his business. One thing I remembered about Kai is that he doesn’t like people getting in his business. He will be sweet and cool with you but once a person starts snooping around; he is a different person,” said Lay

The girls became worried for their friend who made a beeline for Kris.

“Kris,” all eyes instantly went to her

He got nervous. He looked at her face which was swollen; probably from crying which he felt terrible about. Believe it or not, he truly cared about her. He still loved her but with her now knowing that he and Kai were brothers things could get dangerous and she had been through enough.

“Yes, what do you want Joo-hyun?”

“I need to talk to you,” he stood up

“I have nothing to say to you,” he started walking away from her and she grabbed him. Kai got up to take care of his girlfriend

“Honey what are you doing? Let’s have lunch,” he finally looked her face, “Have you been crying? What did Kris do to,” he turned to his brother and gave him a evil look

“You better control your crazy girlfriend,” said Kris as he got out of her grip

“I’m not crazy. You’re crazy, telling me those lies,” she didn’t care if Kai heard

“What lies?” asked Kai

Kris looked into Joo-hyun’s eyes and pleaded with her not to say anything. She quickly remembered what her goal was: to get info from Kai, not to die while doing it. She remembered Chen’s warning to her about being careful and she also remembered what Kris said to her in the bathroom about Kai not wanting people in his business.

“He told me that you didn’t love me,” Kris breathed a sigh of relief

“This is crazy Kris. Stop trying to break us up,” he took Joo-hyun back to their table

Kris went back to his table with Yuri all over him questioning him but he chose to ignore her. Jessica and Hyo-yeon looked at Joo-hyun then at each other.

“Something is wrong,” said Jessica

“Yea my girlfriend just got some latest information and it doesn't look good,”

Everyone spit their drinks out on poor Chen. They were surprised that Chen and Joo-hyun were a couple.

“Sorry,” they said in unison

Joo-hyun couldn’t focus on her lunch or Kai for that matter.

“What’s going on with you and Kris? Is he harassing you? Do you need me to get rid of him?” she snapped out of her daydream and looked at him. The way he said get rid of him sent chills up her spine

“No, don’t. He’s not a bother,”

“He seems like a bother to you. I can deal with him,”

“No he’s not a bother. I think he’s just jealous of our relationship,” she kissed his cheek to reassure him

The end of the day couldn’t come fast enough for Joo-hyun. She quickly ran to her car with Chen waiting for her.

“What no Kai?” he sulked as he got in the car

“I’m not in the mood Chen. It’s only been one day,” she started the car

“I’m not in the mood either Joo-hyun. I can’t even count on my fingers and toes of how many times you’ve kissed Kai today. It almost seems as if you like it,”

“How the hell do you know how many times I’ve kissed Kai? Were you spying on me?”

“I have my ways,” he was mad

“Look I’m sorry but I have to do this,”

“NO you don’t. You just think you have to do this. You’re not Nancy freaking Drew you know. Just let the cops do their job,”

“But there is no evidence. If I can get some then I can point the cops in the right directions,”

“Do you even know if Kai is responsible for the killings?”

“No I don’t but he’s acting strange. And certain things that Jessica has told me and the disguise voice charger I found in his locker today are some clues,”

“There has to be better proof than that otherwise it just seems to be that you just want to have an excuse to be around Kai,”

She had had it and she said the one thing that would send him over the edge, “You are so insecure,” of course it was the truth but a real man didn’t want to hear his own girlfriend say it

“I’m not speaking to you for the rest of the day,”

“Fine,” she pulled into the driveway and left him in the car to sulk

Min-soo was at home reading his newspaper. Joo-hyun came into the house like she was caught on fire. She went upstairs and slammed her door. Shortly after Chen came into house to come face to face with Min-soo.

“You guys fighting already?”

“It’s her time of the month,” Chen said sadly as he went to his room

Joo-hyun was so frustrated. Could she ever have a normal day at school? Most of the days were filled with angst and sadness. She thought she would take a quick nap to calm down. By the time she woke up it was 7pm. She went to look for Chen to apologize but her dad said he wasn’t home. Which was fine since this gave her an opportunity to finally talk to her Dad about her Mom. Since Lauren was a delicate topic for her Dad she decided to do it over dinner which they tried to have together at least 3 times a week.

“How was your day?”

“Interesting,” she took a bite of her chicken, “Daddy I was having a moment today. I was thinking about Mom,”

“Me too,”

“Well I remembered something that I never thought about before and it got me thinking,”

“What was it?”

“Remember back in 3^rd grade with I had my show and tell thing at school. Do you remember meeting Kim Jong-in’s parents?”

“Yeah,” he was trying to figure out where she was going with this

“I’m curious since Mom was a actress and Kai’s Dad was a producer. Did they ever work together prior to meeting each other that day?” Min-soo chocked on his food, “Dad are you ok?” he took sip of water

“Yea I’m fine. Why do you want to know that?”

“You know how there are some things you see but don’t pay attention to and then you think of something or someone and then that thing will become clear. Am I making any sense?”

“Sort of,”

“I was thinking about that thing today and they seemed like they knew each,”

“I don’t know honey,” he avoided eye contact with him

“I’m sorry Daddy. Am I making you uncomfortable?”

“No honey,” he gave her a weak smile

“Wait but they have worked together right?”

“I believe so,”

“What was the name of that movie he produced with her in it?”

“I don’t remember,” of course he remembered but he wasn’t going to tell her that. Joo-hyun started thinking but could think of the title, “Sweetie don’t worry yourself with things of the past ok. Let’s focus on the future, like which colleges you’re going to apply to. Senior year is almost here,” they finished their dinner and she went upstairs to do some research

She was determined to find the title of that movie. She went on google.com and typed in her Mom’s name. So many articles on her death popped up. Joo-hyun had to focus on her search and not get caught up. After 5 minutes she finally found the title of the movie Lauren and Kai’s Dad worked on together.

“So that’s the name of it: Summer in Paris,” she was satisfied

She was then curious about the connection Kris told her they had so she searched their names and the results that popped up startled her.

“OMG,” she heart dropped

She was so immersed into the article that when her cell phone rang it made her jump. It was Hyo-yeon calling her.

“Hyo-yeon hey,”

“Are you ok?” she was worried

“No I have something to tell you,”

“Well let me go first,”

In all the years Joo-hyun has known Hyo-yeon she has never sound so serious. Joo-hyun got real nervous.

“What’s wrong?”

“Are you sitting down?”

“No just tell me. Hyo-yeon you’re scary me,” she started crying

“It’s about Kris. And it’s not good,”

Here is the update I promised. Enjoy