L.Joe slowly went downstairs before opening the front door. “Sorry, were you waiting long?” he asked as she entered the house. “Let’s go up to my room.”

            “But won’t your parents wake up?”

            “No they won’t, if you’re loud then yes,” L.Joe said as he slowly began going up the stairs, “but I highly doubt that you’ll be screaming. So, if you aren’t loud, then they aren’t going to wake up.”

            “Oh, okay.”

            “Here’s my room,” L.Joe said opening the door for her. “You can go in.” As soon as she enters, L.Joe quietly closes his bedroom door before turning around. “Jaerin, what are you doing here?”

            “Surprised, right?” she asked a she sat down on L.Joe’s bed.

            “Kind of, I mean, why are you meeting me? I thought you wanted to spend time with Myungsoo since you’re going back in four days.”

            “And that’s the reason why I want to meet with you,” she said. “Listen, L.Joe, we should talk.”

            “What’s there to talk about?” L.Joe asked taking a seat next to her on his bed.

            “We should talk about what happened…before,” Jaerin softly said.

            “What’s there to discuss? I’m pretty sure our parents already said everything that should’ve been said,” L.Joe told her. He didn’t want to revisit the past. He didn’t know why they should talk about that type of thing. It was already said and done, it was already two years, things changed, things happened, and L.Joe didn’t want to be concerned with that anymore.

            “I just…I just want to tell you what happened to me and what happened to the baby during that time,” Jaerin said. “That’s all I want to talk with you about.”

            “And doing that involves you coming over in the middle of the night? I was having a nice sleep until my phone started ringing.”

            “When else am I supposed to? I’m with Myungsoo the rest of the time.”

            “You make it sound as though you don’t like being with Myungsoo,” L.Joe commented. “Is your relationship doing all right?”

            “We’re doing fine, and I like spending time with him, but the fact that I mostly came back for this trip to see you doesn’t really help the situation now, does it.”

            “You came back…to see me?” L.Joe asked. “How in the world did you even start dating Myungsoo anyway?”

            “We have our story, but that’s not the purpose,” Jaerin said as she attempted to get back on track for what she was there visiting L.Joe for. “Anyway, are you willing to listen?”

            “Sure,” L.Joe said with a sigh. “I’ll listen.”

            “I mean, you are curious, aren’t you?”

            “I am,” he said slowly nodding his head. “I was curious the most right after you left. I wondered if you were ever going to contact me about anything regarding our child or how well you were doing, but I heard nothing. I was worried about the two of you the most then, but after I heard nothing, I trained myself to forget. I trained myself to forget about the memories that we shared and the relationship we had together. That’s why when I first saw you with Myungsoo in the airport, I didn’t remember you. Then again, you also changed your name.”

            “It was the suggestion of my parents,” Jaerin revealed. “They thought that I should get a new name and restart my life.”

            “Oh,” L.Joe simply said.

            “Anyway, I did have our child,” Jaerin said as she began shuffling through her bag before she found what she was looking for, a picture. “Here,” she said as she handed the picture to L.Joe.

            “Is this…” L.Joe began as he looked at the picture.

            “It is,” Jaerin said with a smile as she saw L.Joe’s face light up. “It’s our daughter, her name is Jocelyn.”

            “Jocelyn,” L.Joe repeated. “It’s a beautiful name.”

            “Thank you,” Jaerin said, “my parents and I picked it out together when we found out that I was having a girl.”

            “Where…where is she now?” L.Joe wondered.

            “With my parents.”

            “Your parents?”

            “Yes,” Jaerin said slightly smiling to herself as she saw L.Joe’s confused face.

            “But then that means…”

            “Yes, that means that we kept the baby. At first my parents wanted to give the baby up for adoption, but after finding out that it was a girl, I just couldn’t. I begged and pleaded with my parents to let me keep the child and it wasn’t until two months before she was born that they agreed, and thus, I kept her.”

            “She’s so big,” L.Joe said. He couldn’t take his eyes off of the picture and the feelings that were surging through him were just too much to handle. It was his daughter, his child and even though it was only a picture, he still couldn’t believe it. He was a father to a baby girl named Jocelyn who was currently living overseas.

            “I’d like for you to come visit her one day,” Jaerin said breaking L.Joe out of his trance a little bit.

            “Visit?” he asked surprised.

            “Yes, visit,” Jaerin said nodding her head. “I talked about it with my parents and they said that they think that Jocelyn should know who you are, that you’re her father. She’s at that age of questions.”

            “Then why would they separate us in the first place?” L.Joe wondered. He wondered what the reason her parents had for separating them if they were only allowing him to reenter her life, and to enter his daughter’s life.

            “They’re doing it for Jocelyn, they want her to have a father,” Jaerin plainly said.

            “I’m assuming Myungsoo doesn’t know about it, right?” L.Joe asked.

            “He’ll know, one day in the future I’ll tell him,” Jaerin said with a nod of her head. “I’ll tell him when I’m ready.”

“Why were you so spaced out today?” Hwayoung asked as she and L.Joe were walking back from classes that day.

            “Tired,” L.Joe simply commented as he shrugged his shoulders and stifled a yawn.

            “What were you doing that required you to be so tired?”

            “Nothing, just stayed up all night,” L.Joe said. It wasn’t like that was an entire lie and as much as he wanted to tell Hwayoung about the possibility of him going to meet his daughter, he felt as though he should keep it a secret until it was certain that he was going to go. After all, Jaerin’s parents could take back what they said before about him going to visit.

            “L.Joe, L.Joe!” Hwayoung yelled attempting to get his attention.

            “Yeah?” L.Joe asked as he looked at her.

            “Your phone is ringing. You were too spaced out or sleepy to even notice.”

            “Oh,” L.Joe said as he quickly dug his hand into his pocket to bring out his phone. “Mom?” he asked as he picked it up.

            “Byunghun, Byunghun, where are you?” his mother asked frantically.

            “Mom, why are you so worried?” he asked as he stopped in his tracks. Hwayoung turned to look at him, but L.Joe simply shrugged his shoulders.

            “Byunghun, do you know where Maddie is?”

            “Why would I know where Madde is? Isn’t she with hyung?” L.Joe asked.

            “No she isn’t, he said that he hadn’t seen her since last night. And apparently she wants to call off the wedding.”

            “What?” L.Joe yelled, a little bit too loudly causing others to turn to look at him.

            “Do you know where she is? Do you have any idea where she might’ve gone?”

            “I…I don’t know, but I can try to find her, okay? Don’t worry, Mom, I’m going to try my best to find her. Where are you right now?”

            “I’m out trying to find her, Chunji’s out trying to find her, too.”

            “Alright Mom, I’m going to start looking for her. I’ll call you if I find anything.”

            “Thank you,” his mother said before he hung up the phone.

            “Maddie’s gone missing?” Hwayoung asked as soon as L.Joe got off the phone.

            “Yeah, she apparently ran away and said that she’s calling off the wedding.”

            “Why, did something happen?”

            “I have no idea,” L.Joe said shaking his head. He didn’t know why Maddie would want to call off the wedding. She and Chunji were so happy together, he thought, but now it doesn’t seem as though everything was so perfect anymore. “But I have to go find her.”

            “I understand, do you want me to help?” Hwayoung asked.

            “You don’t have to, especially if you have something else that you have to do.”

            “It’s alright, it’s alright,” Hwayoung said. “I want to help you find her.”

            “Thanks, let’s get going,” L.Joe said as he quickly began to walk.

            L.Joe attempted to think of places that Maddie would go, places that Maddie liked to visit frequently, but he couldn’t really think of anywhere. He didn’t know where he could go or where he should look. Sometimes Maddie was such a mysterious person and it always seemed as though she always hung out with the family that she wouldn’t have that many friends. L.Joe was confused where to start.

            “Why don’t we go to your house to think of a plan first?” Hwayoung suggested. “Then we can put down our backpacks instead of having to run around with them.”

            “Good idea,” L.Joe said as he pointed at Hwayoung. Even though he wanted to start looking for Maddie right away, he figured that it wasn’t going to help anyone if he was confused and baffled right at the start.

            “Where do you think she could’ve gone?” Hwayoung asked as they were nearing L.Joe’s house.

            “I don’t know, I don’t know where she could run to,” L.Joe said as he attempted to think.

            “How about to your house?” Hwayoung asked.

            “What do you mean?” L.Joe asked looking at Hwayoung before he looked forward and saw Maddie sitting on his front porch. “Maddie, what are you doing?”

            “I think I’ll leave you two alone,” Hwayoung said as she slowly began to back out. “I’ll catch you later, alright?”

            “Okay, I’ll talk to you later, Hwayoung,” L.Joe said as he watched Hwayoung leave before going up to Maddie. “Maddie, what are you doing here? Don’t you know that you’re scaring everyone?”

            “I was waiting for you,” Maddie said as she stood up. “I was wondering when you’d return and I was wondering if your mother would see me first, but I figured that she was probably out looking for me. The same probably goes for oppa, am I right?”

            “You’re right,” L.Joe said. “They’re looking for you and I was just about to. We have to tell Mom and hyung that I found you,” he said as he began to take out his phone.

            “No, don’t,” Maddie said as she immediately latched on to L.Joe’s arm to prevent him from finding his phone.

            “Why not?” he asked.

            “Because…can’t we just go somewhere before we tell them?” she suggested.

            “Where would you want to go?” L.Joe asked. “But my mom and hyung, they’re still searching for you.”

            “Please let them continue searching and right after I’m done having a conversation with you, then we can tell them. If we call them right now, I might not be able to talk with you since you know that they’ll just immediately come back.”

            “That is true,” L.Joe said as he thought about it.

            “So please, just talk with me, alright?”

            “I…I guess,” L.Joe said feeling as though he had no other choice. “Where shall we go?”

            “I’ll tell you the reason for everything,” Maddie said as the two of them sat in a café, the same café where Maddie told L.Joe that she didn’t like him. It was L.Joe’s first time back to the café since that incident, but he pushed those thoughts out of his mind. They were there talking about Maddie, not about his past problem. Still, though, L.Joe couldn’t lie, he had feelings for Maddie still. Feelings weren’t something that were just pushed aside after being rejected, they had to fade over time.

            “Why did you leave? Is it something that you did? That hyung did? Was something not working out between you two?”

            “What’s with all the questions?” Maddie asked with a light chuckle before her face turned serious again. “It was…oppa.”

            “Hyung?” L.Joe asked. “What did hyung do wrong?”

            “I think…I think he might be cheating on me,” Maddie declared as she looked at L.Joe.

            “What?” L.Joe asked in surprise.

            “I think that oppa might be cheating on me. I saw the note that was left with him and last night he came home with a girl, well the girl dropped him off, but still, she kissed him on the cheek.”

            “But are you even sure that he’s actually cheating on you?” L.Joe asked. He didn’t want Maddie to jump to conclusions and thus hurt herself and Chunji.

            “I’m not sure, but I’m sure in what I saw.”

            “But are you really not going to go through with the wedding? I mean, you’ve already planned so much already.”

            “I don’t know, Byunghun. Honestly, I don’t know.”

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Will Maddie and Chunji get married? Will L.Joe be able to visit his daughter? Will Myungsoo find out about Jaerin and L.Joe having a daughter together? 

Here's Chapter 9. Hope you enjoyed :D

And I'm sorry that I kept you all waiting for a really long time, but currently I'm in my summer break, so hopefully things will get updated more frequently. Thanks for sticking around with me for this long.

So have a good morning, good afternoon, or goodnight. And I'll see you all soon :)