They left the meeting. Chunji and Maddie had left first before the rest of them since they had to go settle some things for the wedding. “Aren’t they such a cute couple?” Maddie’s mother asked Chunji and L.Joe’s.

            “They surely are,” she agreed as the two held hands all the way to the car while the fathers were trailing behind and bonding over business matters. Meanwhile, L.Joe was in the back with his hands deep into his pocket. He didn’t feel like joining any of the conversations, the ones that included gushing over the couple and the other that was probably creeping onto talking about the finances for the new couple. Frankly, L.Joe didn’t want anything to do with them.

            “Sweetie,” his mother called looking back at her son. “Why don’t you come up here and talk with us a little bit?”

            “Uh…” L.Joe said staring at his mother. Surely she understood that him being at the back of the pack meant that he didn’t want to talk, but maybe she was too concerned with the wedding preparations and all of the excitement surrounding Chunji to even notice his existence anymore. It seemed like L.Joe’s permanent job in the family, until after the wedding, was to tell embarrassing stories about Chunji. It was a job that he couldn’t complain about.

            “It’ll only be for a little bit,” she said ushering her son and attempting to slightly pressure him into doing it.

            “Fine,” L.Joe huffed as he quickened his pace to catch up with the two.

            To him, it seemed like everyone was concerned with the wedding. The wedding this and the wedding that. To L.Joe, he was only concerned about Maddie. Images of her kept replaying in his mind after he first saw her walk through the door. It wasn’t that he hadn’t ever seen her before, it was that he hadn’t ever paid attention to her before.

            Whenever Maddie could come over to the house in the past with Chunji, L.Joe was always busy and occupied to give his brother and his brother’s girlfriend the attention that they needed. The formal meeting was the first chance that he got to see his brother’s girlfriend and the only conclusion that he could think of was that she was hot.

            The way that she wore the dress made L.Joe hot just thinking about it. The way that her hair fell on her shoulders made L.Joe just want to touch it and see if it was as soft as it looked. The way that her lips gently pressed together when it appeared in a relaxed state made L.Joe want to just lean over and kiss her. But he knew better than that. He knew that Maddie was already taken by his older brother and that they were going to get married. L.Joe already knew that he was too late to do anything about it.

            “So, what do you think of my daughter?” Maddie’s mother asked L.Joe.

            L.Joe wondered why she would ask such a question to him. He wasn’t the groom. He was the younger brother of the groom. What did it matter to him whether he liked Maddie or not? It was supposed to be what his brother thought about Maddie, and evidently, his brother approved of her or else they wouldn’t be getting married.

            “She’s…” L.Joe began before clearing his throat. There was a lot he wanted to say about Maddie and before he could say it, he caught himself. The things he wanted to say wasn’t anything that he should say in front of Maddie’s mother and his mother. It would just mean the death of him. “She’s a very nice girl and my hyung is lucky to have her,” L.Joe said finally settling on the right set of words to describe Maddie.

            “Great,” her mother said with a beaming smile. “I’m glad that you enjoyed her. She will be your new sister-in-law after all. I’m sure you’ll be seeing much of each other in the future.”

            “I hope,” L.Joe said with a smile and that sentence came from the bottom of his heart.

            “Well, we better get going,” his own mother said breaking up the little party.

            “Oh yes, we wouldn’t want to delay you from the rest of your activities,” her mother said as each set of parents reached their respective vehicles. “We’ll meet again in the future.”

            “Of course, it was nice finally getting to meet you today.”

            “Same here.”

            The two families got into their separate cars. L.Joe piled into the back of his parents’ car as he thought about his brother and Maddie. He wondered what his brother did to find someone like her. L.Joe was jealous, there was no doubt about that.

            “That went over well,” his mother commented as she buckled her seatbelt.

            “It did,” L.Joe said nodding his head since he knew that if he didn’t respond his mother would keep asking the question until someone did.

            “Hey, Byunghun,” his mother said turning around in her seat so that she was faced to face with her son. “Do you think she would like to come to your grandfather’s birthday party later this week?”

            L.Joe wanted to ask his mother why she thought it was a good idea to bring Maddie to such an event. He didn’t even like going to the events and he didn’t know anyone there, so what would make Maddie know anyone there? However, an idea began forming in L.Joe’s head, one that wasn’t necessarily good, but it provoked him on, nonetheless.

            “I think that it’d be a good idea,” L.Joe politely said as he showed a smile to his mother. “I think it would be a good way to show Maddie our family.”

            “I was thinking the same thing,” his mother said in delight. “No wonder you’re my son, Byunghun. I’m going to invite Chunji and Maddie over for dinner tomorrow night and we can ask them then.”

            “Alright, fine by me,” L.Joe said with a slight smirk that no one could see as the car started driving.

“Mother, I have a very important conference this weekend, I told you that I can’t go,” Chunji said to his mother over the phone. He looked apologetically at Maddie. “Yes, I understand that it’s my grandfather’s birthday, but I already told you when I found out the date of the conference. Yes, yes, I’ll ask her. I understand. I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.”

            Chunji hung up his cell phone and placed it on the bedside table. “Your mother?” Maddie asked.

            “Yea,” Chunji said as he climbed back into bed. “Now, where were we?” he asked as he began to lightly kiss her neck.

            “Oppa,” Maddie said slightly pushing him away. “What did she want?”

            “You’re concerned about that now?” he asked in a slightly muffled voice.

            “We can’t get our parents upset before the wedding,” she sternly said. “They’re our parents after all.”

            “I guess,” Chunji said sighing as he rolled into the space next to her. “She wants to know if you want to go to my grandfather’s birthday gathering.”

            “It’s your grandfather’s birthday?” Chunji nodded his head. “Then of course I should go.”

            “You don’t have to.”

            “But I want to, I feel like I should.”

            “Why are you such a good person?” Chunji asked looking at Maddie with admiration. He didn’t know how she did it, always managing to want to do something the right way, even if it meant it was a disadvantage for her.

            “I just am,” she said with a giggle as Chunji leaned in and kissed her lips.

            “There’s just one bad part, though,” he said sighing as his fingertips lightly her cheek.

            “And what is that?”

            “I’m at a conference this weekend, remember? You’ll only be left alone for two nights, but that means that I can’t accompany you to the party,” Chunji regretfully said.

            “Don’t worry, I can go alone.”

            “I’m not going to make you go alone. It’s my family and it’ll be the first time that you’re going to associate with parts of my extended family. There is no way I’m going to let you go alone.”

            “Well look who’s all overprotective,” Maddie said as she smiled at Chunji.

            “I’m not being overprotective, I just want you to be safe. I’ll ask L.Joe.”

            “Your younger brother?”

            “Yea, he should be going,” Chunji said getting off of the bed and grabbing his phone again. “I’ll be back in a minute and then we can get back to what we were doing before.”

            “ert,” Maddie muttered with a smile as Chunji left the room.

“You want me to do what?” L.Joe asked over the phone to Chunji who was explaining the situation to him.

            “I want you to go with Maddie to our grandfather’s birthday get-together,” Chunji said as he explained it slowly. “I know you can’t understand complicated sentences or anything, but L.Joe, do it for me.”

            “And why should I do something like this for you?” L.Joe asked as he began to randomly click on the computer.

            “Do you know how many times I had to cover for you during high school? You were always the one that snuck out and I was the one that had to cover your . Think of this as repaying off a long owed debt,” Chunji said hoping that his way with words would be able to convince L.Joe that he should watch over Maddie.

            “But what would be in it for me?”

            “A time of knowing that I won’t come hunt you down?” Chunji asked. “And a time to get to know your future sister-in-law a bit better. You never really talked with her before, have you.”

            “No, not really,” L.Joe said without really thinking when it finally sunk in.

            If he agreed to the deal, then he was going to see Maddie again. If he agreed to the deal, he was going to spend time together with just the two of them. L.Joe knew he shouldn’t agree to the deal just because of that, but it was something hard to ignore with the blood in his ears and the intense pumping that was going on in his chest.

            “Alright,” L.Joe said. “I’ll do it. I’ll help Maddie with our family. Happy?”

            “Yes, thank you little brother,” Chunji said before hanging up the phone. He was happy that L.Joe agreed to spend some quality time with Maddie, but he wasn’t the only one that was happy because of that reason.

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What will happen at the birthday party? Will L.Joe and Maddie get to know each other better? What will L.Joe do about his feelings towards Maddie?

Here's Chapter 1. Hope you enjoyed :D

Frankly, I think I like this first chapter a little more than my other ones. It's not the best, but I'm trying out a new style...well it's a little change than what I did before, but it's probably nothing too noticable.