L. Joe’s POV

A week has gone by so fast. All the documentation and student visas were all done. It was time. It was time to send her off… This was the last night, I would spend with Noona before she left. She already packed. My plan of getting Junhyung and Jiyeon together… worked only for a couple of hours. Guess I wasn’t that much of a genius… It was probably Noona. She’s always messing things up.

I decided it was finally time to tell her the truth. The truth about our relationship. I told Aunt to keep it a secret until I thought it was the right time. This was the right time. I touched my locket and prayed that Jiyeon wasn’t going to hate me after she knows. All the secrets have been revealed but one. It was time. It was time.

“Noona, do you have a minute?” I asked as I knocked on her door.

She was already in bed but not asleep. She was reading. She sure was studious. Probably to stop herself from thinking about Junhyung… I sighed as I sat at her bedside. I took the locket around my neck off and placed it in her hands. She looked at the locket in confusion. I knew she had no idea what she was looking at.

“What is this?” she asked.

“Open it” I commanded politely.

She looked at the family portrait of my mother and father with me in the middle.

“Is this how our parents looked like? Is that you?” she giggled.

“The man in the picture is my father. She’s our mother. I was only about five years old when Mom fell ill and passed away. Don’t you ever wonder why you were given up and I was not?”

“I did wonder but… I know now that I wasn’t unwanted. I was wanted. The rest… it just doesn’t matter”

“You fear, don’t you? You fear that there is more disappointment if you knew. Right?”

She looked at me puzzlingly.

“You always know me more than I do… am I missing something?”

“There is no disappointment. I was the one abandoned and neglected. In Mom’s eyes, you were her baby… I was just… a nuisance”

“What are you talking about kiddo?” she asked playfully as she ruffled my hair.

I fixed my hair and straightened myself.

“The reason why you were given up was because… you were the child of Mom’s previous relationship with a college student. They dated before she married my father. We do not have the same fathers” I stated.

“Your father was a poor student on scholarship. Grandfather did not approve their relationship. He forced Mom to give you up so that she could marry my father who was from a better background. Mom died from depression and suffered cancer later. It was all because… of me…” I stuttered.

I was about to break down in tears before Noona embraced me. I wasn’t expecting any