Weeks passed by and soon enough, Hyukjae or Eunhyuk became their good friend. He began to hang out, not only with Donghae and Yoona but with the rest of the crew. Although the others still think he’s strange, Yoona would not let him be left out from any group activity at all. It was as if it’s her responsibility to join him in. And slowly, the others were taking notice of this.

One particular afternoon, Yoona and Donghae was at the mall together. Jang Geun Suk, one of their childhood friend, will be holding a party in a few days.

“Yoong,” Donghae called while they were looking at men perfumes.

“Hmmm?”

“What’s Eunhyuk to you?” he looks up and stares at Yoona.

She hesitates before saying, “a good friend.” Seeing as Hae was staring at her, she smiles sweetly.

“Oh.” He answers timidly.

He walked behind her. While she was busy talking to the saleslady, he casually leaned his head on her shoulder and hugged her from behind. “Yoong,” he coos.

“Hmmm?” she answers, tapping his head with hers.

“What am I to you?” he asks solemnly.

Without hesitation, she says, “The bestest friend I could ever have in this whole wide world.” She smiled sweetly at him before turning back to the saleslady.

Discontented with her answer, he unlatches himself from Yoona and decided to just stand beside her, his face still serious.

When Yoona looked up, she notices his weird character. “What’s wrong?” she asks.

“What if he confesses to you? Will you accept him?”

“Haha. I don’t think he’ll do that.”

“But what if?”

“Will you accept him as my boyfriend?”

“I- I-“ he stutters. “Why are you asking me?”

“Cause he’ll have to go through my best friend first. I don’t want to date somebody you don’t like for me.”

“What if I say no?”

“Then I won’t.”

“Even if you like him back?”

“Hmmm. It depends. If my love for him is strong enough to put our friendship at risk, which I doubt, then I will.”

“Okay.” Then after a while, he adds, “Well, he’s an okay guy. At least I know him and he gets along alright with us.”

“Thank you.” She hugs him briefly.

“You do like him, right?”

She blushes, “I guess.” In fact, she really doesn’t know. Eunhyuk has been giving him mixed signals lately. He’s been hanging out with them a lot and seems to always talk to him and Donghae-as if he doesn’t want Donghae and him to be talking to each other alone. In fact, there was a point when he sat between them. She blushed again with the thought of Eunhyuk getting jealous over Donghae.

“As much as me?” he looked hurt.

“Of course not.”

“Good.” He smiles before taking her hand. “I’m still more handsome than he is,” he adds.

She smiles, “Of course you are.”

“And he’s still weird.” He adds before they both burst into a fit of laughter.

However, the topic took a different turn when Yoona was talking with the girls. Her cousin, Tiffany, was in the room with her when her college friends Jessica, Hyoyeon and Yuri came in.

“The crew’s finally here!” Hyo exclaimed loudly.

“Hey Yoong. The guys are downstairs.” They stopped when they saw Tiffany emerge from her closet.

“Oh. Hello.” Tiffany smiled at them.

“Ar- Aren’t you the model? Tiffany Hwang?” Jessica said shocked.

“Oh girls. This is Tiffany. My cousin.” Yoona introduced them one by one.

“You didn’t tell us your cousin’s a model.” Jessica whispered to her.

“Why should I?” she chuckled.

“Oh come on Jess. I’m not even surprised that she has a big-star model for a cousin,” Hyo said. They have recently found out that she had done some modelling in the past but had to stop because of her studies.

“I’m just surprised that it’s Tiffany Hwang. She’s like the best Korean model in the industry” Yuri said.

Hearing their conversation, Tiffany decided to in. “Actually, Yoona is more famous than I am in our world.” Yoona glared at her to stop.

“I wasn’t. Don’t believe her,” she said. “Anyways, are they all here?” Yoona said trying to change the topic.

“Nope. Donghae isn’t around yet. And so are the other girls.” Hyo explained.

“Are you sure it’s fine if we come with you?” Jess asked.

“Of course. Geun Suk said bring all the friends I can bring,” she smiled.

Tiffany chuckled, “He must be thinking that Donghae is still your only friend.”

“Probably.” They both laugh at some inside joke while the three looked at them confused.

“Tell me more about your crew,” Tiffany said. “I was surprised that Donghae, especially Yoona, would join in such a club.”

“Why is that?” one of the three asked.

“Donghae would probably rather do other stuff than dance. And Yoong used to prefer to sit prettily than sweat in activities like that.”

“That was in high school Fany.” Yoona said and Tiffany giggled.

“Hmmm. Well, our crew’s headed by Sooyoung. He have a manager, Heechul. And there are about 14 members in the crew.”

“Are the three of you part of it?” Tiffany applauded.

“Uh, I’m not part of the crew.” Jessica said. “I sing for the chorale.”

“Wow that’s cool.” Tiffany said and Jessica blushed.

“Oh, Yoong!” Yuri said excitedly. “We’re on tonight, right?”

Yoon sighed. “Why? What’s with tonight?” Tiffany asked.

A few days ago, the girls were talking about Eunhyuk and they concluded that he is feeling something for Yoona. Well, with the way he looked over at Yoona was so strange. So they wanted to confirm it. They were going to do it tonight.

“They wanted me to flirt with Eunhyuk.” Yoona said blushing.

“Who’s Eunhyuk?” Tiffany asked.

“He’s the newest member of the crew. He’d been staring, literally staring at Yoona since day 1.” They explained.

“But what about Donghae?”

“Uh, nobody’s telling Donghae.” Yuri said. Just then, the door burst open.

“FANY-AH!” Donghae shouted running towards Tiffany and enveloping her in his arms.

“Hae! Awww. I missed you!” she hugged him back.

“I heard Siwon went ballistic over your latest photoshoot.” Hae said as he chuckled.

“Yea. He broke up with me before that. He thought it was my revenge or something.” Tiffany laughed.

“So you’re still together with him?”

“Of course.” And the three of them laughed.

“Hae, shh! There are civilians.” Tiffany said.

“You guys ready? Everybody’s downstairs already.” Donghae said. He exited the room and the three followed him.

Before Yoona went out, Tiffany pulled her back.

“What about Donghae?” she asked.

“I- I-“ Yoona stuttered.

“What happened to the ‘I’m marrying Donghae when we graduate college’ lines?”

“He doesn’t seem to see me as anybody other than his best friend.”

“Why’d you say so?”

“I think it was in high school. I don’t remember anymore.” Yoona said hurriedly. “Let’s go.” And she pulled Tiffany out of the room.

In fact, Yoona remembers perfectly. It was their 3^rd year in high school. She was with Suzy, one of her close friends back then, when she overheard Donghae telling one of his seniors in the soccer club that Yoona was family to him. Although he was telling this as a threat to the senior so that they would leave Yoona alone, what registered to her was that Donghae treated her as family. ONLY as family. Like a sister or something. Nothing more than that. Here she was, keeping her feelings for him since forever and what he feels is just platonic love-nothing more. From then on, although up until now she is still bound to his charms, she decided to forget the idea of the two of them getting together. They were the best of friends. And maybe that’s the only thing they’ll be.