“What are you talking about?” Hwayoung confusingly asked as she looked at L.Joe. She hadn’t remembered anything that he mentioned about the past, was it something that he didn’t want her to know back then? If that was so, then why was he mentioning something about it now? It wasn’t like the past had changed, L.Joe was a father, why didn’t she know about it?

            “I didn’t want to tell anyone,” L.Joe said with a chuckle as he fought with himself to keep his composure. The memories that were coming back were beginning to become overwhelming. It took everything L.Joe had inside of himself to not freak out, he was just going to keep acting normal and hopefully no one else had to know anything about it.

            “But still…I don’t remember you behaving any differently because you had a girlfriend,” Hwayoung said as she attempted to digest what L.Joe had just told her. Frankly, it was an even more difficult task than she had imagined.

            “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you then,” L.Joe said as he looked at Hwayoung with regret in his eyes. “I didn’t want to say anything about her. I mean, we both promised that we would keep our relationship secret, so we didn’t tell anyone. I mean, it wasn’t until she got pregnant that her family found out.”

            “But then why did you just remember who she was now?” Hwayoung curiously asked. “If you knew the name, then shouldn’t you have remembered her?”

            “Because her name wasn’t Jaerin back then…” L.Joe said as he sighed. “It wasn’t Jaerin so I didn’t remember. I only thought that she looked familiar. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense, and then it clicked.”

            “But she’s dating your friend now, right?”

            “She is.”

            “So now what?”

            “Nothing,” L.Joe said shaking his head.

            “Nothing?” Hwayoung asked. “What do you mean nothing?”

            “I mean nothing,” L.Joe said shrugging his shoulders. “What is there for me to do? My life is slowly falling apart at the seams and I can do nothing to salvage it, so I’m just going to do nothing.”

            “But you should try to piece it together, I mean, aren’t you curious about your child?”

            “What good would it do? She’s dating Myungsoo, who is my friend. I can’t just come out and tell him how me and his girlfriend have a past together, not to mention a child. It’s just…absurd. I can’t.”

            Hwayoung sighed as she looked at L.Joe. She understood where he was coming from, but still thought that he should at least talk with the Jaerin girl. After all, he could be wrong. “But it…it just doesn’t make any sense,” Hwayoung said sighing.

            “What doesn’t?” L.Joe curiously asked.

            “I mean, why wouldn’t you remember Jaerin by looking at her? And why aren’t you curious about your very own child? Do your parents know about it?”

            “Yes,” L.Joe quietly said, “but it’s so taboo that we don’t talk about it.”

            “They don’t even want to know where their grandchild is?”

            “Let’s just say that my family and her family, after finding out that we were secretly dating and then she was pregnant with my child, did not get along very well. My family was happy, well as happy as someone could get after finding out that their teenaged son was going to be a father, but still, they wanted to keep the baby. Her family, however, didn’t want her to be messing around with someone like me, not that I’m a bad guy, you know that, right Hwayoung?” L.Joe asked her.

            “Yeah,” Hwayoung said nodding her head. “I know.”

            “So, they sent her away, they sent her away to America. As to what happened to the baby, I don’t know. I don’t know if she gave it up, I don’t even know if it still exists in the world. Of course it pains me. It pains me to know that my child might be out in the world somewhere and I don’t even know whether it’s a boy or a girl,” L.Joe said as the tears began b in his eyes. “Of course I want to know, but if I keep spending every day of my life wondering, I’ll never get anything done. I’ll never be able to live my life and I’ll end up wasting my life away. I don’t want that to happen, so I just don’t think about it.”

            “I’m…I’m sorry,” Hwayoung whispered as she looked at L.Joe.

            It was the first time that she had seen L.Joe in such a vulnerable light. He had always seemed stronger, like he didn’t care about anything in the world, but there he was, beginning to dwell in the past. “It’s alright,” L.Joe said as he attempted to show Hwayoung a smile. “It’s the past anyway, I shouldn’t be thinking about it.”

L.Joe hesitantly looked around, he didn’t know where Myungsoo was and he didn’t want to awkwardly run into him, not that it would be awkward anyway, but with L.Joe now remembering how he knew Jaerin, things were going to get complicated. However, L.Joe wondered how or why Jaerin would even remember him, but he didn’t want to think about that. Jaerin was dating Myungsoo, they were boyfriend and girlfriend. Still, he wondered how they got together, and why Jaerin’s name was now Jaerin.

            “Who are you hiding from?” a voice asked as they placed their hand on L.Joe’s shoulder causing him to jump a little bit.

            “Hiding?” L.Joe quickly asked as he was face to face with Myungsoo. “I have no idea why you’re saying that I’m hiding from anyone.”

            “I’m not stupid, L.Joe,” Myungsoo said rolling his eyes. “I’m pretty sure I can tell when you’re hiding from someone or when you don’t want to be caught. Are their girls chasing you again?”

            “No,” L.Joe said shaking his head, “nothing of the sort. I was just…you know, snooping around?”

            “Why?”

            “No reason, just wanted to know what it’s like to be a spy,” L.Joe said with an awkward laugh. “Anyway, let’s get to class, shall we?”

            Myungsoo nodded his head before he began following L.Joe to their next lecture class. He could tell that something was wrong, but he didn’t want to say anything because he was sure that if L.Joe had wanted him to know, he would’ve said something.

            “So, why aren’t you with Jaerin?” L.Joe curiously asked. He couldn’t help it, if they were dating and if she was only going to be staying in Korea for a short amount of time, then surely the two would want to spend all of the time together in the world before she left again. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like if he had a girlfriend that was so far away from him, he would die.

            “I have classes,” Myungsoo said shrugging his shoulders. “She’s visiting some family when I’m in class and then we hang out together at night.”

            “Good plan, good plan,” L.Joe said nodding his head.

            “Can I ask you a question?” Myungsoo curiously asked as he looked at him.

            “Sure.”

            “What was with the whole thing at the airport?”

            “Huh?” L.Joe asked. He kind of knew what Myungsoo was talking about, but he didn’t want it to be that. However, there was only one incident at the airport.

            “About Jaerin saying something about meeting you again, when did you guys meet briefly in the past?” Myungsoo asked. It was something that he wanted to know for quite some time but didn’t know how to ask, after all, he figured that it might be an awkward conversation between the two.

            “I don’t know,” L.Joe lied as he shrugged his shoulders. It wasn’t like he was going to tell Myungsoo about the past between them, it would break his heart. L.Joe saw how much Myungsoo really liked and cared for Jaerin, he couldn’t just break them apart by stating something that happened in the past. If Jaerin cared and liked Myungsoo as much as he liked her, then she would’ve already told him.

            “Really? I thought you would’ve remembered…”

            “Yeah, I don’t remember anything,” L.Joe said with a half-smirk. “I honestly don’t remember a Jaerin in my life.” That part wasn’t a lie.

            “Okay, it just seemed like she was really comfortable around you, you know?”

            “Yeah, but still,” L.Joe said as the teacher walked to the front of the class. “I don’t remember, maybe it was so long ago that all of the memories have been forgotten. Have you asked her?”

            “No, I’ll see her tonight and I could ask her.”

            “If you want,” L.Joe quickly interjected. He didn’t want to be the reason for the two of them to break up, but if Jaerin hadn’t already told Myungsoo about what happened in the past, then should they be together in the first place? “I mean, you don’t have to ask her. She probably doesn’t remember that much about me.”

            “Maybe, if it comes up, I’ll ask later,” Myungsoo said before the teacher began the lecture.

“I’m sorry I left you alone again last night,” Chunji said as he walked into the house. After putting down his bag, he walked right up to Maddie and quickly kissed her on the lips.

            “Hm, it’s alright,” she said as she faked a smile. She was beginning to grow tired of Chunji never being home, but she understood that it was his work that he needed to do. But she was a person and Chunji was her fiancée. She figured that he could be home sometimes, it was the third night in a row that he wasn’t home and L.Joe had stayed over yet again. She felt very apologetic towards her future brother-in-law for having to spend his time at her house instead of devoting his time to his studies or spending time with his own friends.

            “I promise I won’t do it again,” he said with a smile as he wrapped his arms around her.

            “And what happens if you do?” Maddie pouted as she put her own arms around Chunji’s hips and looked up into his eyes.

            “Then you can punish me any way you want,” he said with a wink.

            “ert,” Maddie smirked before Chunji placed his lips on hers again.

            “I’m going to go take a shower,” Chunji whispered as he gently pulled away from the kiss.

            “Alright, I’ll start making dinner,” Maddie said as she began making her way towards the kitchen. “We’ll have your favorite tonight.”

            “Can’t wait.”

            Maddie went into the kitchen while Chunji went upstairs to take a shower. After a while, Maddie was already letting the meat simmer in the pot before they would barbecue it later when she decided to go upstairs to put away some laundry. Entering her bedroom, she saw that Chunji had left his dress clothes all wrinkled on the bed.

            “Messy,” she muttered with a smile, somehow having him around the house made her smile even more than before, it was simply just his presence that would always set her heart fluttering.

            Grabbing some dress clothes hangers from the closet, Maddie began straightening out Chunji’s clothing before putting it on the hanger. His dress shirt went into the wash basket that was located by the door, since Maddie was going to do a load of laundry, before his suit jacket, pants, and tie went on a hanger that would be hung in the closet. Maddie easily folded his pants before moving onto his jacket. While straightening out his jacket, a slip of paper fell out of the pocket.

            “What’s this?” Maddie asked herself as she looked towards the bathroom door before looking at the paper. She still heard the water running in the bathroom so she knew that he was still taking a shower.

            Slowly she opened the piece of paper, and the words on it made her look at the bathroom door again questioning everything.

Thanks for last night, you were just what I needed.

The piece of paper was signed with a lipstick mark and had a number on it. Not wanting to make anything suspicious to Chunji, Maddie refolded the note and placed it back in Chunji’s jacket before placing it into the closet. Shortly after, Chunji reemerged from the bathroom with only a towel around his waist. “I can start to smell it,” Chunji remarked as he went over to Maddie and back hugged her. “What delicious food are we having?”

            “Makchang,” Maddie replied with a smile, “your favorite.”

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Will Myungsoo find out about L.Joe and Jaerin? What is going on with Chunji? Will Maddie confront Chunji? 

Here's Chapter 7. Hope you enjoyed :D

And my new Daehyun fanfic is up, for all of you people that voted for Daehyun and for Time Travel in the polls, this is what my brain brings you:

The Waiting Period

Check it out if you wish. Goodbye :)