L.Joe sat at his desk as he spun around in his chair, it was something that he did whenever he was thinking about something, but for the first time, he wasn’t thinking about Maddie. Instead, he was thinking about Jaerin. The conversation from the airport was stuck in his head and the way that Jaerin was looking at him throughout the whole ride home wasn’t very comforting either.

            “How would I know her?” L.Joe asked himself as he stopped spinning and stared at the carpet. He was racking his brain for possible explanations but he had none. He couldn’t remember a time when he knew a Jaerin.

            “Know who?” his mother asked as she entered the room.

            “Did I ever know a Jaerin?” L.Joe asked looking at his mother as she placed some fruit on his desk.

            “Not that I remember,” she said as she attempted to think of some of L.Joe’s friends as he was growing up. “Why do you want to know?”

            “Just curious,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders. “No particular reason.”

            “Oh, okay,” his mother said with a nod of her head. “Ah, your phone is going off. I’ll leave you be, answer it.”

            “Got it,” L.Joe said as he watched his mother leave his room before he answered his phone. “Hello?”

            “Byunghun…”

            “Maddie?” he asked in surprise as the voice registered in his brain. “Why are you calling this late?”

            “I…I’m afraid of being alone,” she whispered on the phone to him.

            “Alone?” L.Joe asked in surprise. “Hyung isn’t there with you?”

            “No, he hasn’t come home from work yet.”

            “Really?”  L.Joe was surprised that Chunji hadn’t gone back home yet, normally he would always be there at a reasonable time since he knew that Maddie was there alone. It wasn’t like him to be late.

            “You don’t think that something’s happened to him, right?” Maddie worriedly asked.

            “I’m positive, maybe he just has to work overtime or something,” L.Joe said as he thought of any excuse to use when he didn’t know why he would be late. “I’m sure that hyung is perfectly fine. You can go to sleep, you don’t have to wait for him.”

            “But…Byunghun…I’m afraid of being here alone.”

            “O-oh. Do…do you want me to, you know, go over there?”

            “But you have classes tomorrow, I wouldn’t want to keep you.”

            “It’s alright,” L.Joe immediately said. Even though he knew that he shouldn’t go over and stay with Maddie, he knew that it wasn’t right to keep a female in a house alone at night. No matter what had previously gone on between them in the café shop earlier in the night, L.Joe knew that it was the right thing to go over and stay with Maddie in the house.

            “But, Byunghun…”

            “Maddie, I already told you it’s alright,” L.Joe said interrupting her. “Honestly, the university is a little closer to your house than mine. I’ll be over in five minutes, no more. I’m hanging up now, I’ll see you.”

            Without wasting any time, L.Joe began packing his things to go over to Maddie and Chunji’s house. “Are you going somewhere?” his mother asked as she saw her son’s bags.

            “I’m going to keep Maddie company since hyung apparently isn’t home yet,” L.Joe said making sure to explain the situation so his mother wouldn’t misunderstand what he was doing.

            “Really? That’s not like him,” his mother said dumbfounded.

            “I know,” L.Joe said. “She called me and said that she didn’t like staying alone and so I offered myself to go over.”

            “Good, good, I wouldn’t want her to be there by herself and I wouldn’t want her traveling in the night alone.”

            “So, I’ll be over there and then I’ll just go right from there to university tomorrow, too.”

            “Okay,” his mother said with a nod of her head, “don’t get hurt, be safe.”

            “I will,” he said with a nod of his head as he opened the front door.

            After hailing a taxi, L.Joe took it to the apartment. As he arrived at the front door, L.Joe phoned Maddie. “Maddie? I’m right outside.”

            “Okay,” she said, “I’ll come answer the door.”

            “Hey, are you okay?” L.Joe worriedly asked as Maddie opened the door. “You’re not hurt anywhere are you?”

            “I’m not hurt, silly,” Maddie said with a smile. “I was just…afraid. Here, come in.”

            “Mm,” L.Joe said as Maddie moved away so he could enter.

            It wasn’t the first time that L.Joe had been in their house before, but he never really visited frequently since he really had no reason to. After L.Joe had put down his bags, they both took a seat on the couch next to each other. L.Joe thought that the atmosphere was slightly awkward after what had happened in the café, but he wasn’t going to let their relationship be awkward forever. They were going to be related to each other soon, there was no reason for them to be awkward every single time they saw it each other, it would make people around them feel awkward.

            “Maddie, aren’t you tired? Shouldn’t you be going to bed?” L.Joe asked as he slightly turned to look at her. “Isn’t there some wedding preparation tomorrow?”

            “Well…yeah…but isn’t there some for you, too?” she asked. “You have university, what time is your class tomorrow?”

            “It’s alright, it’s alright,” L.Joe said with a smile. “I’m going to sleep here on the couch anyway, you can go to your room and sleep.”

            “What about you take the guest room?”

            “I’m comfortable on the couch, plus there’s still some homework that I still have to do,” L.Joe said with a smile. “But it’s nothing major, don’t worry.”

            “Oh…okay,” Maddie said as she got off of the couch and began making her way to her room, but not before turning to look back at L.Joe.

            “I’m sorry for calling you this late and making you come over here.”

            “No, it’s alright. You’re going to be my sister-in-law soon,” L.Joe said with a hint of regret and sadness in his voice. “As your brother-in-law, it’s bad for me to leave you all by yourself when I know you’re by yourself.”

            “Thank you, Byunghun,” Maddie said with a faint smile before she went into her bedroom. “Goodnight.”

            “No problem, goodnight,” L.Joe said as he watched her bedroom door close before starting to do his homework.

“Are you okay?” Myungsoo asked as he stared at L.Joe. They were eating lunch together and he noticed that L.Joe seemed off, that there seemed to be something on his mind and as a friend, Myungsoo was worried about him.

            “Yeah, I’m fine, why?” L.Joe asked as he stopped looking out the window and turned to look at Jaerin and Myungsoo sitting across from him.

            “You don’t look fine,” Myungsoo said.

            “I’m just…stressed,” L.Joe said coming up with an excuse that they would believe.

            “That happens when you’re in university,” Jaerin said. It was one of the few sentences that she said as they were sitting there. She had come with Myungsoo to the university since she wanted to see how Myungsoo spent his day, but she was simply there as his cousin. She already knew about how Myungsoo didn’t tell anyone about his girlfriend and was okay with that since from the moment she stepped on campus, it was clear as to how popular the two boys were.

            “I guess,” L.Joe said with a shrug of his shoulders. “Anyway, I have a class, I guess I’ll just see you guys later, alright?”

            “Okay,” Myungsoo said as he watched L.Joe get up and gather his backpack and jacket. He wanted to talk to L.Joe privately, but he knew that he couldn’t with Jaerin sitting right there. He figured that if L.Joe couldn’t say what he was worried about before, there was no way that he was going to with Jaerin sitting right there.

            “Oppa, why don’t we hang out today once you’re doing your classes?” Jaerin asked once L.Joe had disappeared.

            “Sure,” Myungsoo said. “It feels like forever since I spent time with you.”

            “It has been,” she joked a little.

            “I know this good snack shop, let’s go there once I’m done,” Myungsoo said as he looked at Jaerin with a smile and then back out the window.

“Is there something wrong?” Hwayoung said as she looked at L.Joe.

            “Why is everyone asking me that today?” he wondered aloud as he rested his head on the back of the tree that they were sitting up against.

            “Because it seems like you’re out of it today,” Hwayoung said. She and L.Joe had been friends ever since they were young. They went through their school years together, but they went to different universities. Whenever they have free time, they still meet up with each other. Despite the time that has passed since they were in school together, Hwayoung and L.Joe still knew each other pretty well.

            “I guess…maybe, just my mind is on a bunch of things,” L.Joe said with a shrug of his shoulders as he closed his eyes. “Ah,” he said as he suddenly opened them and sat up, “Hwayoung, do you remember a Jaerin?”

            “Jaerin? A girl?”

            “Of course it’s a girl, silly,” L.Joe said as he reached his arm out and ruffled the top of her hair. “Anyway, do you remember?”

            “Not…really,” Hwayoung said as she attempted to think about whether or not they knew someone by that name. “Where in the world would you get that type of name from?”

            “It’s one of my friend’s girlfriends,” L.Joe frankly said.

            “Don’t tell me that you’re trying to steal your friend’s girlfriend away,” Hwayoung slightly scolded.

            “I would never do something like that!”

            “Just making sure,” Hwayoung said with a chuckle, but she knew that even if she didn’t say it, L.Joe wouldn’t do something like that. He was too kindhearted to be able to steal someone else’s girlfriend.

            “Anyway…she said some things, like when she first saw me and even before I introduced myself, she called me by my name. She called me Byunghun, which is strange. I mean, I’m pretty sure that if Myungsoo, her boyfriend, talked about me, that he would refer to me as L.Joe. but Byunghun? That’s strange.”

            “I guess it is strange…”

            Hwayoung and L.Joe sat in silence as they both were enveloped in their separate thoughts. L.Joe was still thinking about the connection to Jaerin and about Maddie while Hwayoung was wondering if it was only Jaerin that was bothering L.Joe. She was positive that there was something else, but she didn’t entirely know.

            “Hwayoung,” L.Joe said suddenly breaking the silence in between the two.

            “Yeah?” she asked as she turned to look at him.

            “If I tell you something…do you promise not to tell anyone else or freak out?”

            “Sure, I’m your friend, I won’t freak out,” Hwayoung promised. She was curious as to what L.Joe might want to tell her. She never really knew what was going through that mind of his and always did wonder what he thought about.

            “You promise that you won’t tell anyone my secrets?”

            “Your secrets? I promise I won’t. Should we do our handshake?”

           “Sure,” L.Joe said as he stuck out his fist. It was a handshake that they had created when they were younger, it was one to signal that whatever was spoken after doing the handshake would only stay between them. It was a secret handshake that only they knew how to do.

            “Up, down, pound, pinky swear, and stamp,” Hwayoung said as she and L.Joe did the handshake. “Now do you believe me when I say that I wouldn’t tell anyone anything?”

            “It’s not like I never believed you in the first place,” L.Joe joked. “Anyway, there’s two things that I have to tell you…possibly three.” L.Joe didn’t know why he wanted to tell Hwayoung those things, but she was the one that he trusted the most, not that he didn’t trust Myungsoo, but he just felt a little more comfortable around Hwayoung. He also felt as though he needed to get the things off of his chest, he felt as though he just needed to tell someone.

            “Two…things…possibly three, okay. Go.”

            “First, I…I have feelings for Maddie.”

            “Maddie?” Hwayoung asked shocked. “Your hyung’s fiancée?” L.Joe didn’t say anything and simply nodded his head.

            “But…don’t worry,” L.Joe quickly said, “I’m starting to get over her. She rejected my feelings and I’m starting to get over her, don’t worry.”

            “I wasn’t worrying,” Hwayoung said showing a supportive smile. “Anyway, what are your second and possibly third secrets?”

            “I remember Jaerin.”

            “You do?” Hwayoung shockingly asked. “How?”

            “She…she was a past girlfriend that I forgot about. It was a couple of years ago, probably two.”

            “But then why did you forget about her?” Hwayoung curiously asked. She had no idea about Jaerin being L.Joe’s girlfriend and she wondered why, it was a part of his life that she had no idea about.

            “After we broke up, I enveloped myself in things that had nothing to do with her. I made myself forget about her and after she disappeared, it was easier for me to do it.”

            “Why did she disappear?”

            “Her parents,” L.Joe said as the unwanted memories flooded his mind once again, “her parents forced her to go away…because she was pregnant with my child.”

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What happened with Jaerin in the past? How did she end up with Myungsoo? What happened to the child? What will happen with Maddie and Chunji?

Here's Chapter 6. Hope you enjoyed :D

Sorry it took so long to update, but now it's my spring break! So, hopefully they'll be more frequent updates in the future.