a/n: so yeah... sorry for making you guys wait... for keeping you on te edge of your seat beacuse Seirin is Joonmyun's daughter... but yeah.. here it is... the secrets are going to start being uncovered...

A pair of slender arms hugged him from the back. He flinched a bit but relaxes instantly, chastising himself for letting the hope inside him increase for a moment there. He can’t believe how he still let himself hope that she would somehow come back to him.

She would not come back. She had said so on that letter she left after that night. She said that Chen was right; she can’t keep on escaping. She would only be endangering everyone and she’d rather face the fate in stored for her. She said that even if she had chosen to stay, their worlds are really too different and it would only cause for everyone to get hurt.

“Kris… please come home. I’m worried what you will do to yourself now that-”

“Mom… please. I don’t want to talk about it.” Kris interrupted his mother. He felt her squeeze him tighter, her face burred into his shoulder blades. In any other circumstance, he would have shied away from such show of affection, he’s far too old for back-hugs from her mother. But he admits to himself that he needs someone to hold him or he’d break from inside out.

“You know that it won’t do you good if you keep things to yourself. We are a family and we stand as one. We are here if you need us. But we won’t be able to help you if you don’t tell us a thing.” Hyoyeon said.

Kris turned and hugged his mother properly, burying his face into her wavy blonde hair. She smells sweet, of comfort and home, and he loves it. He loves how his mom smell so inviting and comfortable but he longs for another scent.

He missed nuzzling into that different warmth of home. He misses her.

“I’ll be fine. Just give me some time.” Kris muttered.

They stayed like that for a few moments before Hyoyeon sighed. “Fine. But you better come home one of these days. You call this your apartment? It’s empty but for a bed and your clothes! You don’t even have anything on your fridge! Dear God! How are you living these past few days?” she nagged, slapping Kris’ shoulder halfheartedly.

Kris smiled at his mother’s antics, his smile was empty though. Has it really been a week since he had moved out of their home to live on his own? Has it really been a week since he started eating ramen three times a day as meal?

Has it been really a week since she had left?

“I’ve got ramen on my cupboards, mom. And there’s always good takeouts. I’ll live.” Kris reasoned, earning himself another slap on the shoulder for his cheekiness.

“Anyways, I need to go. I only dropped by because I know you’re missing homemade food. I thought I wouldn’t catch you here since you’re supposed to be at work.” Hyoyeon said as she freed Kris from her hug and went to collect her things, pointing a finger at the boxes of food she had brought which were already in the fridge.

“I was about to leave for work.” Kris replied.

“Really?” Hyoyeon arched a brow. “Because the last time I checked with Minseok, you have not come to work for three straight days, about that time you moved out. And for this past few days, you have not been talking to anyone.”

Kris sighed. Of course his mom would know. Of course Hyoyeon would not only drop by to bring food. But also to check up on how bad he was doing at living alone. And his work at the agency. And by ‘not talking to anyone’, she means why he wasn’t talking to Joonmyun.

He knows it wasn’t his father’s fault, and that Seirin had chosen it, but still Kris can’t help but to blame Joonmyun. He couldn’t help but think that if only Joonmyun had used the power he still have even after resigning from being an agent, then there’s a huge possibility that Seirin would still be here. That Seirin would still be with Kris. Because Kris knows that his personal feelings would greatly affect the way he works with his father, he had chosen to avoid speaking to him in the meantime and distance himself. It wasn’t forever, he just needed some time to cool down.

“Mom, stop worrying yourself too much, okay? Everything’s fine.” Kris reassured.

Before Hyoyeon could retort, Kris had pointed out that leaving Tao alone at the school was not good, especially with the big event of ranking their students coming up. He also reasoned that he really needed to get to work before he was actually fired by his own father, and then he was off to work.

To be honest, Kris is not looking forward to be at work, but he needed to. If there was any way he could get news of how Seirin was doing, it would be through their contacts at the agency. Even if it was just about how she had tied the knot with Chen, as long as he still gets to know if she’s relatively doing fine, he’d settle for it.

When he got to work though, the sight of his own father, distressed and clearly agitated and worried about something, picked his curiosity to say the least. Joonmyun always have that serene look on him, a smile always on the ready to greet anyone, and seeing him somewhat in a wreck is something Kris had only seen a handful times before. He wonders what he had missed these past few days that had caused for his father to be acting this way.

Kris is practically dying to know what was bothering Joonmyun but he can’t just go inside his father’s office and demand to know what the reason was.

Minseok came and asked Kris if he could hand some documents to Joonmyun. Kris readily agreed and left before Minseok utter another word, leaving the older bewildered but shrugging off the strange behavior anyways.

Kris knocked at the door and walked inside with Joonmyun’s approval. He handed Joonmyun the documents and as expected of Joonmyun, he immediately stopped Kris from leaving instantly.

“Are you mad at me?” Joonmyun asked.

Kris didn’t know how to answer that be cause he was disappointed at his father but he was not angry with him since he had done nothing wrong in the first place. It’s hard to express how disappointed you are of someone who you had looked up to your entire life.

Joonmyun sighed. “I’m sorry. If it makes you feel any less angrier towards me, know that I’m practically killing myself for not doing everything I can to keep Seirin.”

Kris looked at his father, noticing how he sounded so forlorn at the mention of Seirin’s name. He felt a little guilty for ever blaming his own father.

“Dad… I’m not angry. I’m just…” Kris let out a deep breath. “I just hope that you had done more to stop her from leaving. Where were you that day, dad? I told you about what happened, about her grandfather, about Chen. I told you that I needed you, but you weren’t there. Where were you?” Kris sounded bitter, but he just couldn’t help it.

Joonmyun sighed, slumping into his seat. Kris frowned, and slightly alarmed, when a single tear fell from Joonmyun’s eye.

“I… I was busy trying to piece everything together… but when I did… there was no getting her back.” Joonmyun covered his eyes with a palm, his free hand clenched tightly his knuckles turning white. “I was already too late. Again.”

Kris is confused. “What do you mean you’re too late again? I don’t understand.”

Joonmyun stayed quiet for a while. Then he reached for something on the bottom drawer of his desk. He put a picture on his desk along with a piece of paper. Kris looked at the picture and noticed that it was the one that Seirin had shown Joonmyun on that day she met him, that day that felt like a lifetime already instead of being just a couple of months ago. And then his eyes went towards the piece of paper.

“DNA results? Why would you have something like this?” Kris asked, picking up the paper and reading it. His eyes went wide when he finished reading. “Dad… you mean…”

Joonmyun smiled bitterly, eyes trained on the picture on his desk. “I loved her. Even if we were worlds apart, I loved her. Mariko… Seirin’s mother.”

Kris felt his knees grow weak. He sat on the chair in front of Joonmyun’s desk, he’s not sure if he would handle his father’s story standing up.

“I was on a case to break Raijin, a feat many would have avoided readily. But I was one cocky fool who thought he could take the world. I was young and inexperienced, the glory of being one of the top agents of the country seeping inside my head just enough to make me think that I have a chance of ending Raijin. So I accepted the assignment, along with another agent. But the easy task I thought I would be doing in a stride turned out to be the most difficult thing I’ve ever done.

A few days after going undercover, I met her. And we fell in love. I promised to take her with me, to leave that life she did not deserve. But before we could even start putting my plans into action, we got caught. Kurosaki Satoshi was supposed to kill me, and he would have gladly ended my life there. But Mariko stopped him. She had bargained with him. I was sent back home while she promised to never set a foot out of Japan, or even try to communicate with me in any way, that or they’d kill me fore sure.

I was nearly dead when I arrived here and it took me months to get myself together. The first thing I did after recovering was to go back for her. But I was not able to even lay my eyes on her. She was off limits. And do you know what had caused me to stop and accept the fact that getting her was hopeless?” the look of bitterness on Joonmyun’s face worsened. “It was my partner. The one who I trusted my life with. He betrayed me and Mariko. He was the one who sold us out to Raijin. He was the reason why we got caught.”

Kris took calm breaths to steady himself, his mind trying to cope up with the information he had just heard. “So… Seirin is your daughter? How…?”

“Mariko was pregnant when I left. She never told me a thing. And because I was not allowed to see her, much less hear something from her, I didn’t know. I only had the DNA test when Seirin had told me that her mom never got married and that Mariko never told her about me. When Seirin told me her birthday, my suspicions got even stronger, but I couldn’t have been sure. Thus, the DNA testing. And…. That’s the result.”

They sat there, silent. Kris was trying to process everything his father had just told him. So that is why Seirin is unconsciously close to his father, because she was Joonmyun’s daughter.

“But that means that the one who sent Seirin to you knows that you are her father. And didn’t Seirin say that that guy said he owes her mom, that’s why he sent her to you? Could that person be your old partner?” Kris suddenly piped.

Joonmyun frowned. “I… I don’t think so. I never heard of him either after I left Japan for the second time. And he stopped reporting to the agency around the time Mariko and I got caught. For all we know, he could be dead already. He was an agent after all and living in that kind of world would have done him no good.”

Kris nodded. They went into another lap of contemplative silence.

“How…” Kris started, not bearing to keep his thought to himself any longer. “How did you live all these years… knowing that she could have been waiting for you to save her… but you just couldn’t do it?”

A rueful smile appeared on Joonmyun’s face, a single tear falling from his eye. “I left her a huge part of me, and all these time, only your mom and you and Sehun had kept me from dying. Hyoyeon saved me, and I do love her. Maybe it isn’t the same with Mariko, but no one would love two people in the same way. And although I would think of Mariko and what could have been if I pursued looking for her, having Hyoyeon, Sehun… and you… it had kept me from crumbling from the inside out because of the guilt and the hurtful memories. And I am thankful that I have such a family. In those times I doubt myself, you are always there. And I am really thankful that I’m lucky enough to have you.”

Kris smiled warmly at his father. “No, dad. We are thankful that we have such a good father like you. And I thank you for taking me in even if you didn’t really need to.”

Kris could still remember that cold winter night when he arrived in Korea along with other rescued passengers from a cruise ship that had sunk while on its way to Korea from China. He lost his parents, his biological ones, on that tragic accident and just when he had lost all hope, Joonmyun had came to his rescue.

Joonmyun was still an active agent by that time, already married to Hyoyeon, and Sehun being only a few months old. Kris had been a kid at the tender age of four, orphaned from the accident, no immediate families since his grandparents had long since been dead before he was born, his parents having no siblings of their own.

Kris had never thought that when Joonmyun had offered to take him in for a few days until the investigation was over or until someone claims him, it would lead to being adopted by the family. He still remembers how he had cried himself to sleep that night in Hyoyeon’s arms. He could still remember how the family had reached out to his battered heart and made him whole again. And for that he is really thankful.

“We are both lucky, I guess. I get to have another son, and I am glad it is you, Kris.” Joonmyun said.

“And now, you have Seirin.” Kris replied. “Don’t you think that this could be the time when you could redeem yourself from not being able to save her mother back then? Maybe now is the chance to turn things around. Please, dad. We can’t just leave her there. She might just be waiting to be rescued… like how her mom would surely have felt.”

Joonmyun contemplated and sorrow and regret was evident in his brown eyes. “Didn’t Seirin left you that letter? She said she didn’t want-”

“That’s the reason why her mom had sent you back here. To save you. Seirin doesn’t want us going after her because she doesn’t want us to get hurt. Well, I’m sorry to tell you thins, dad, but I won’t live all my life thinking of what ifs. I guess that’s where we differ. I won’t give up on her dad. Even if I had to spend my whole life trying and failing, I won’t stop.” Kris replied determinedly, fire burning in his eyes as he looked at his father straight in the eyes.

Joonmyun stood up, a renewed vigor and determination being spurred to life by Kris’ words. Taking the picture of him and Mariko, he run a finger over the face of the woman who was once the love of his life. “I guess… you are right, Kris. It’s time to correct my mistakes.” he looked at Kris and let out one of his devilish smiles, a sign that he was being the daredevil of an agent he used to be. “It’s time to take back what’s mine. And to make my family whole once again.”

Kris smiled. “Yes. It is time.” he agreed.

Kris went to Lay’s club later that day, asking the latter for help. At first Lay was reluctant to give any information, but Kris persuaded him, telling him that if he was really Seirin’s friend, he would help in rescuing her. Lay was torn, Chen being more of a brother to him as well. But Kris’ wouldn’t take no for an answer, and he managed to plead Lay into giving the needed information.

A couple of days after a whole lot of briefing and tactical discussions, Kris and Joonmyun were on their way to Japan.

It’s time to crash some wedding.

a/n:  i am dying to read your comments... and btw, i'm caught up with school and such so i won't be making this fic very long.. jsut another couple of chapters and i'll be wrapping it all up...

...but of course, Mr. Bratty Ghost's sequel will be up soon and as i'll try to update Siwon's wife... so please be patient with this fail of an author and anticipate... thank you, my darlings!!!