secret - lee juyeon

1

it had been years since jieun had returned to korea. after university she promised herself that she'd never return, in case she saw him again.

but here she is, in seoul. she passed the audition for cre.ker entertainment as a soloist. it wasn't her dream company, she had to admit. she'd always dreamed of being in JYP, maybe even BigHit. she'd always dreamed of working with her idols including day6, got7 and stray kids. but she was sure that this was a step in the right direction to getting where she wanted to be in life.

jieun loved kpop, but she only ever really listened to day6, bts, got7, stray kids and txt. she didn't have time to do anything else. why, you may ask? her seven year old daughter eunae, and her job that she worked tirelessly in to get barely enough to get by. she got a degree in japanese and taught korean to japanese students. it wasn't her dream job, but it was enough to support herself and her daughter. but she was really scraping the bottom of the barrel.

she wasn't only concerned about seeing him, because of what happened all those years ago. but because he was eunae's father. but everything ended so quickly. she thought they'd last forever, but lee juyeon had different ideas. he told her to never see him again, not to contact him...not to come searching for him - and jieun really hoped she didn't see him, she would not know what to say.

she had no idea however, how she was going to keep her daughter a secret from cre.ker. she was now officially a trainee but she didn't want her career to end before it had even started, so she had to take every precaution to make sure she wasn't seen taking her child to school, going out with her. and during the day, she was in daycare. jieun wished it could be some other way, but it couldn't be. she was twenty four and running out of time to accomplish her dream. and there's nothing more inspirational to a child than a parent accomplishing their dream.

part of her wondered how he was doing. had he really made it as a kpop idol too? was he a soloist, in a group? what agency was he under? if he hadn't made it, what was he doing? was he happy?

jieun also never extended her kpop tastes just in case he had achieved his dream. in case there was a chance she'd see him.

jieun was about to be introduced to 'the boyz' a group that debuted in 2017. they were around the same age as her, so she had been told, and they'd been active for five years now.

"annyeonghaseyo, my name is jieun. nice to meet you,"

...

it was hard for juyeon knowing he had a son or daughter out there that he had never even met. he didn't know where they'd gone. what they were doing. but he just hoped that they were ok.

not a day went by where juyeon did not regret what he said that day. when jieun was in tears, telling him that she was pregnant at seventeen, he told her to stay as far away from him as possible. not because he didn't want anything to do with her, he desperately did. but because he had passed the audition for cre.ker and him being seen with a child, a random woman, would cause rumors to happen and put them in danger. so he thought it was better to pretend that he had nothing to do with them. but to juyeon, jieun wasn't a random woman. she was the love of his life.

but juyeon regretted letting her go even if it was perhaps the right thing to do. he regretted letting her have a child that would probably be so burdensome as she went through university and got a job. he regretted a lot of things. he just wished he could see her one last time, and their child.

but his wish came true. the new rookie was in fact, jieun. and he couldn't help but think that this was fate. he recognised her immediately, her beautiful brown hair and eyes, her beautiful smile and dimples. and she recognised him too, he could tell by the way her expression faded when she looked to him.

juyeon hadn't changed one bit. not since high school, not since they were kids, not since the day he told her to leave and never come back.

"umm...jieun...how have you been?"