City of Secrets | kpop mafia au

Chapter 6

As soon as Maddie hung up, Izzy allowed herself to let out a massive sigh and flop back onto lush black sofa which she was sitting on. Like her sister she had forgotten the time zone difference and had therefore completely forgot about results day.

Back home in England, A-levels were the most important exams and often dictated the next steps of your life. Izzy had worked her butt off for her own exams 3 years earlier and had reaped the rewards with her 3 A*'s allowing her to have spent the last 3 years studying in the best university in England.

However, this left a sense of guilt with the now 21 year old, as her amazing performance had led to her parents having equally high expectations of Maddie. All that pressure and stress was probably the reason why she had spent the majority of the last couple of years rebelling instead of working. But Izzy had spent the majority of her late teen years chasing after Maddie, trying to shove food down her throat or keep her from doing stupid things, and Maddie hadn't accepted any of her help, she knew that leaving Maddie, giving her some space would only allow her to go off the rails more but Izzy couldn't waste her youth trying to pick up the pieces of someone else's ruined life. She also knew that her being away from home hadn't done anything to help her fathers temper and harsh words.

Izzy, couldn't help but feel slightly bittersweet, was naturally a little bit excited that her sister would be joining her in Seoul as she knew that Maddie would love the city's vibrant culture and shopping opportunities and it would be nice to get to see more of her sister, but there was a part of her that couldn't really enjoy the idea, she'd fought so hard to be allowed to leave, she'd nearly broken her already fragile relationship with her father for the sake of being here in the city, and Maddie was being forced to go, it didn't sit right with her. Since she'd been away from home she'd seen very little of her baby sister and did miss her a lot.

Once again guilt racked Izzy's body as she thought back to last summer when her sister had begged her to stay in London with her or do her summer course somewhere closer to home, like Germany, but she had instead selfishly flown out to South Korea for a summer programme at Seoul National University. Maddie had begged her multiple times with tears in her eyes not to leave her when she was at her most fragile. The course had gone so well that she had been invited back to study post-grad after finished her degree in the UK this summer. She was ecstatic as it meant she now got to study Law at one of the best universities in the world while getting to live in a country she had grown to love over that summer, which wasn't an opportunity she was willing to let slip through her fingers.

A sudden crash sounded from the kitchen telling Izzy that Namjoon was causing havoc followed by Jin's yelling and one of her favourite sounds on earth. Jungkook's laughter was like music to her ears, and she could visualise the expression on his face as he reached peak happiness. Izzy found her face in a stupid, goofy smile just thinking about him.

He had come into her life without warning and completely changed it from the moment she lay eyes on him. Maddie was right in saying that he was part of her decision to move to Korea for her post-grad, probably a bigger part than she would care to admit. The only member of her family who knew about Jungkook was her mother, she'd wanted to keep it secret from her sister and father knowing both had enough to deal with. But after over a year together, it was safe to say she was so in love with that it sometimes scared her.

Izzy couldn't help but think back to the first time they met last summer, as she leaned back against the couch and closed her tired eyes.

Izzy was close to tears, staring at the map of the subway desperately racking her brain for its basic knowledge of the Korean language as she tried to find the line that would take her back to her aunts house. Her phone was close to running out of charge and she had lost the phrase book Maddie had bought her as a parting present.