Maddie woke up with her head pounding and in a jumble. Gently she placed her hand on her head as she attempted to sort out her thoughts as she sat up in bed. Her thoughts being jumbled had nothing to do with being drunk, she and L.Joe didn’t drink anything at all, it was because of everything that happened the previous night. It was because of everything that Chunji had said to her and then the kiss…and everything that happened after.

            Slowly, and hesitantly, Maddie looked at the sleeping figure next to her. She couldn’t believe the events of the previous night and everything that happened. It was all because of the emotions, it had to be, there was no other explanation for what happened between them. One moment they were kissing and then one thing led to another and there they were, the next morning, lying in bed together.

            “I can’t believe it,” Maddie whispered to herself as she rethought the situation. “I can’t believe this happened.”

            Quickly she got out of bed and made her way to the bathroom where she sat on the floor with her knees brought up to her chest. The feelings inside of her were just overwhelming and she felt like she wanted to cry. Her engagement to Chunji was falling apart and then she went and slept with his brother. How in the world was she going to face anyone? Surely they would see her as the bad person in this situation, she was sure of it.

            “Maddie? Maddie? Are you in there?” L.Joe asked as he knocked on the bathroom door.

            “Oh, yeah, just give me a minute,” Maddie said quickly standing up and wiping her tears before she went over to the sink and splashed her face a couple of times before going over and opening the door. “Byunghun, good morning.”

            “Good morning,” L.Joe said with a smile.

            “Don’t you have classes today?” she wondered.

            “No,” he said shaking his head, “I’m okay.”

            “Oh,” Maddie softly whispered as she looked down at her hands, letting the conversation get awkward for a moment.

            “Um…are you hungry?” L.Joe asked as he attempted to restart the conversation. “I could go make something or we could order something.”

            “I’m okay. if you’re hungry, I could go make something.”

            “You must be tired. Rest, I’ll go make breakfast. I make some good fried eggs, alright?”

            Without saying a word, Maddie nodded her head and went to go sit on the bed while L.Joe left to go start making breakfast. “What should I do? What should I do?” Maddie whispered to herself as she looked around. She didn’t know what was going through L.Joe’s mind about the previous night, she wasn’t sure if he was even thinking about anything and frankly, she didn’t want to ask him. It would be nerve-wracking and embarrassing to bring up, but Maddie knew that they had to talk about it. It was something that they had to talk about.

            Maddie wasn’t sure how long she was lost in her own thoughts, but before she knew it, L.Joe made his way back to her room to fetch her for breakfast. “Maddie, should I bring it in here?”

            “No, I’ll go out there,” Maddie said with a faint smile as she got up and walked to where L.Joe was standing in the doorway.

            “Let’s go,” L.Joe said with a wide smile as he wrapped his arm around Maddie’s shoulder and walked with her to the table.

            He, also, couldn’t believe the events of the previous night and what it amounted to. Just as Maddie, though, he was also confused about the feelings behind the events. L.Joe wasn’t sure if Maddie felt the same way he did, but when they first kissed, he thought he felt it, that she was putting forth as much feeling as he was. It was hard to tell under those circumstances, though.

            “Ta-dah!” L.Joe said as he showed her the table. “I didn’t do that bad of a job, right?”

            “You call this a meal?” Maddie asked with a chuckle as she saw the layout.

            “Hey, I did my best,” L.Joe said as he attempted to defend himself.

            “You did well, you did well,” Maddie said smiling while looking at L.Joe. “Let’s eat, shall we?”

            Once L.Joe and Maddie began to eat, the air between them turned silent. It was kind of awkward between them since neither of them wanted to talk about the elephant that was in the room. “Um…Maddie,” L.Joe said, being the first one to start the conversation ear the end of their meal. “Listen…about last night…I don’t want you to think of it as something that’s spur of the moment.”

            “What do you mean?” Maddie asked as she looked at L.Joe.

            “I don’t want you to think of it as something that was careless or something that was done just because. I’ll honestly tell you now, Maddie, but I think—no, I know I’m in love with you. I’m in love with you, Maddie. I have been since day one, ever since I saw you with hyung, I’ve loved you and even right now, I love you.”

            “Byunghun…” Maddie whispered as she looked at him, freezing in place.

            “You don’t have to accept my feelings if you don’t want to. I understand if you don’t understand your own heart right now because you know, your engagement with hyung just broke off. I want you to know, though, I want you to know that my feelings are true for you. I just at least want you to know that.”

            Silently, Maddie got up from her seat and went over to gently wrap her arms around L.Joe in a hug. “Byunghun,” she softly said as L.Joe turned to look at her.

            Without saying anything, L.Joe slowly wrapped his hands around Maddie’s waist and leaned his head down so their foreheads could touch one another. “This is wrong,” L.Joe began as he looked directly into Maddie’s eyes. “This is so wrong, but it feels so right at the same time. Why do you want me feel like this?” L.Joe questioned before he leaned down for a kiss.

“You seem…happier,” Hwayoung said as she looked at L.Joe. “Did something good happen recently?”

            “What are you talking about?” L.Joe asked as he took a glance over at her while they were walking around campus.

            “I don’t know,” Hwayoung said stopping in her tracks to look L.Joe over. “But it seems as though there’s something different about you.”

            “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” L.Joe scoffed as he continued walking right past her.

            “Anyway,” Hwayoung said taking bigger steps to catch up to him. “Have you and Myungsoo talked yet?”

            “Not yet, although he did ask if we could meet up today.”

            “And what did you say?”

            “Of course I said yes, is that even a question?” L.Joe asked.

            “Alright, alright,” Hwayoung said as she looked at her watch. “Anyway, I have to get going. I’ll see you later.”

            “See you later,” L.Joe said with a smile as Hwayoung went her separate way.

            It had been a couple of days since the events that had happened between Maddie and L.Joe. The two of them weren’t in a relationship and while L.Joe was positive of his feelings, he wasn’t entirely sure what Maddie’s feelings were, and neither did she.

            Maddie was still in the process of figuring out what she felt towards L.Joe and Chunji. Just because Chunji broke off the engagement didn’t mean that her feelings for him suddenly disappeared, but it certainly impacted the relationship she thought they had with one another. And with the events that happened with L.Joe, Maddie wasn’t sure what she saw him as anymore. Sure he was someone special because he was her fiancé’s little brother, but that line was starting to become blurry.

            However, L.Joe had other things to worry about. He was meeting with Myungsoo for the very first time alone ever since he found out about his and Jaerin’s past. L.Joe was sure it was going to be an awkward meeting, but he hoped that they would be able to remain being friends. He hoped that they weren’t going to let something like that destroy their friendship, although it was something big.

            “Hey,” L.Joe awkwardly greeted as he took a seat next across from Myungsoo at the library.

            “Hi,” Myungsoo said as he closed his book and pushed it away. “Listen…I want to apologize for my behavior.”

            “You apologize?” L.Joe questioned. “I should be the one apologizing. I mean, I’m the one that kept such a secret from you.”

            “Well you said you didn’t know a Jaerin and I believe you. I met with her, a day or two ago, and she told me that she changed her name after she left you and she gave me some insight into your history.”

            “Oh,” L.Joe said, slightly shocked that Myungsoo had already met with Jaerin.

            “Anyway,” Myungsoo said lightly shaking his head, “I don’t want this to affect our friendship. What’s done is done and I can’t do anything about it. So let’s just put all the bad feelings behind us and just get on with our lives, alright?” he asked as he reopened his book.

            “Alright,” L.Joe said with a chuckle.

            “But she’s cute,” Myungsoo chimed in as he quickly looked up from his book to look at L.Joe.

            “Who is? Jaerin?”

            “Jocelyn,” Myungsoo said with a smile. “She’s really cute.”

            “Um…thank you?”

            “So what’s been happening in your life lately? Are the wedding preparations still boggling you down?”

            “I actually don’t think there’s going to be a wedding,” L.Joe slowly admitted.

            “Why not?” Myungsoo asked shocked. “Everything seemed to be going well.”

            “There have been some…complications,” L.Joe said as he thought about the right way to word things.

            “Bad enough that the engagement has been called off? It must’ve been something big.”

            “Get closer,” L.Joe said as he leaned his head closer to the table so no one could hear him, although he wasn’t sure who would want to hear what was going on in his life anyway.

            “So what happened?” Myungsoo wondered.

            “My hyung was cheating on Maddie.”

            “Your hyung was cheating? Why would he cheat on someone, especially Maddie,” Myungsoo said as he attempted to wrap his head around it. For the years that he knew Chunji, it didn’t seem like he was that type of person, but if the engagement was off because of it, Myungsoo figured that it was probably something serious.

            “I don’t know, I don’t know the entire story, but apparently Maddie saw him with another woman and she said that it wasn’t the first time, but it was the first time since they were engaged.”

            “So your hyung is that type of person…”

            “I guess. I haven’t been able to talk with him about it, he’s been busy with work. But there’s something else, I have to say, too,” L.Joe said with a sigh as he took a deep breath. After talking with Myungsoo about his brother’s broken engagement and about Maddie, he felt like he had to admit his own wrongdoings as well. It wasn’t like L.Joe was completely innocent in the matter, either.

            “What is it?” Myungsoo wondered as he intently looked at L.Joe.

            “I…I have feelings for Maddie,” L.Joe finally admitted.

            “You have feelings for Maddie? For how long?”

            “Ever since I first formally met her?” L.Joe asked himself as he attempted to remember back that far.  

            “Does Maddie know about your feelings for her?” Myungsoo asked, to which L.Joe nodded his head. “And what did she say about it?”

            “At first she rejected them.”

            “At first? She changed her mind now?”

            “It…it appears to be so,” L.Joe said with a chuckle as he leaned back in the chair. “Or at least she’s thinking about her feelings towards me, you know?”

            “What’s making her change her mind?” Myungsoo asked. He wondered what happened that would make Maddie suddenly change her mind about L.Joe and he also wondered if that had anything to do with calling the engagement off since he wasn’t sure if it was a mutual disagreement or if only one party called it off.

            “You see…well…” L.Joe stuttered as he struggled to find the right words before he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Maddie and I slept with one another.”

            “You did what?” Myungsoo asked in shock as he stared at L.Joe.

            “We slept together,” L.Joe awkwardly chuckled as he shrugged his shoulders. 

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What will be the consequences of L.Joe sleeping with Maddie? Will Chunji find out about that night? Will the wedding be able to be restored? Who will Maddie choose between L.Joe and Chunji? 

Here's Chapter 14. Hope you enjoyed :D