The commotion (well, Stephanie’s screaming, actually) ended when the first of the pizzas came by.

It was the pepperoni pizza.

Lo and behold, the anchovies came in a bowl that accompanied the pizza.

Both Hyukjae and Hyoyeon froze when both dishes came onto the table. Siwon resisted tearing his hair off.

So who shall have it first?

“Alright, since it’s etiquette, Hyoyeon can have it first,” Siwon volunteered.

Hyukjae nodded. A lot. “Yeah, Hyo can have it, I’ll just take the anchovies first.”

Hyoyeon flinched. “No, it’s okay, I’m not starving, Hyuk, you can have it. The anchovies are here anyway.”

Hyukjae shook his head, pushed the pizza in Hyoyeon’s direction. “It’s fine, you can have it.”

Hyoyeon did the same. “No, you can have it.”

“No, you.”

“No, you.”

“No—Alright, I’ll have it first.” Hyukjae gave in and dragged the pizza to himself.

Then he caught sight of the look on Hyoyeon’s face and sighed. “Damn it, woman! I told you to have it and you said no! You said I could have it, then I take it and you give me that look! I mean, what is it with you, man? Do you want it or not?!”

=

The cashier’s hand hovered over the phone once again.

“No, bad promotion for The Pizzeria isn’t going to help. Maybe after the next outburst.”

=

Hyoyeon steeled herself, narrowed her eyes and gritted her teeth. “As a matter of fact, yes, I do want the pizza.” With a strong tug she pulled the whole plate towards herself.

And lo and behold.

The pizza went flying out of its position and right into Jessica’s direction.

Everyone’s eyes followed the direction of the pizza as it went flying, a whole circular piece of dough, right into the part where no one wanted to get pizza on…

*SPLAT*

“Holy pepperoni,” Hyukjae murmured, the most inappropriate statement suddenly becoming the most appropriate one in this context.

=

The cashier decided that maybe a paramedic was more suitable for the situation. So the paramedic’s number went as the second speed dial number.

=

After the resounding splat that resonated throughout the whole pizza parlor, what followed was a different kind of silence. It wasn’t an awkward silence, but an ominous one, and none of them moved even an inch.

A piece of pepperoni slid off Jessica, and Stephanie let it land on her palm before it hit Jessica’s designer jeans.

Not knowing what to do with it, and not being a fan of pepperoni, she handed it feebly to Hyoyeon, who stared it dumbly, her jaw still hanging even after the pizza made its arrival on Jessica’s face.

Taeyeon snitched the piece of pepperoni away and put it in , trying to be as surreptitious as possible. She caught Stephanie’s scathing glare and cowered behind Hyoyeon. “I’m hungry,” Taeyeon retorted quietly.

Stephanie looked towards Siwon this time. Siwon knew he had to act again, because he was the soldier of light and he had to maintain piece—peace. Peace. Not piece. Peace.

“Uh… Donghae, how about you get Jessica cleaned up? There’s a restroom at the back, I think you can—“

Donghae stood up in a hurry and kicked his chair back in the process, almost landing on Kyuhyun’s lap when he lost his balance. He caught the whole table steadily and nodded profusely. “Yes, yes, I’ll, uh, I’ll help you out, Jessica, I’ll, uh, this way, I, follow me, uh, I’ll help you out.”

He took steps that were light, then heavy, then light, and created an annoying rhythm on the ground that Kyuhyun felt almost obliged to incinerate Donghae for.

Donghae reached Jessica and with shaky hands, he found Jessica’s hand and tried to hold her up. Jessica’s legs were shaky, though, not her hands, but her hands were colder than the ice cube Donghae once got stuck to his tongue.

Jessica stood up, as steadily as she could anyway, and allowed Donghae to lead her away.

As the two left the scene, Stephanie looked at the disaster on the table in front of Jessica’s chair and cleared . “I guess, Hyoyeon and Hyukjae have to share a pizza now?”

Kyuhyun sniggered. “Really? You expect any eating to be accomplished at this point in time?”

Taeyeon stuck her hand out. “Yeah, I agree with Kyuhyun!”

Hyoyeon threw her arm atop Taeyeon’s head and slammed her head into the table.

“Why not? Only one pizza has been ruined,” Jongwoon reasoned.

Kyuhyun shot daggers at him, then scoffed. “Siwon, this is your idea, isn’t it? What an absolutely horrendous idea, I must say.”

Siwon sighed. “I was just—I didn’t—“

Kyuhyun went on. “You should’ve known, would get real if Hyukjae and Hyoyeon were in the same room, much less around the same table. And me and weird tortoise boy? Self-explanatory, no?”

The same way Taeyeon was a prick, Kyuhyun was, too.

Hyukjae and Hyoyeon looked towards Kyuhyun with scandalized looks on their faces. Hyukjae even made a diva gasp that clearly accentuated how maligned he felt at that moment.

Siwon couldn’t help but agree, but Jongwoon stood up for him.

“You do not get the right to put Siwon down like that! He was doing Donghae a favor! This was supposed to be good. And maybe if you could shut up and not add fuel to the fire, things could return to normal!”

Kyuhyun slammed the table and stood up, causing the pizza to slide further to the edge. Stephanie slid her chair away from the scene of danger.

“Last time I checked, Siwon and I have been friends forever. You? Why are you even here, anyway?”

Jongwoon lunged out at him until Yuri held him back. “Calm down, honey. I’ll handle this.” Then Yuri turned to Kyuhyun. “Mister, whatever your name is, I’m sure that in any case you do not get the right to scream at my boyfriend like that.”

“He screamed at me first!”

“But he’s my boyfriend, so I support everything he does!”

“That’s—that’s so stupid—“

“You do not call my girlfriend stupid!”

Jongwoon and Kyuhyun left their seats completely and went to the front of the pizza parlor, apparently readying up for a fight once again.

“Do you think fifty bucks would solve this?” Hyukjae tried, only earning a very unwanted glare from Siwon.

=

The cashier put the cops as the third speed dial number.

=

Siwon and Hyukjae stood up almost immediately and put themselves right between Kyuhyun and Jongwoon, because that would have helped to settle the fight. Or, well, might have, at least.

Yuri was acting as Jongwoon’s support, ready to provide any kisses or I-love-yous to spur Jongwoon on should the fight put Jongwoon in any weak area.

Stephanie and Hyoyeon stepped in and tried to break the fight, but neither really left their seats, so.

=

The cashier now had to pick between the three numbers.

But, of course, that dilemma stopped when her manager returned through the backdoor, to find the cashier panicking over the phone and the whole parlor empty except for the remaining teenagers.

“Jesus—what in the world happened?”

“Sir!” The cashier flinched and cowered down below the counter, hiding below the tabletop. “I—I don’t know—they—they just started—I—I just—I’m innocent!”

=

Donghae and Jessica stood by the sink of the common toilet, as Donghae picked off each piece of pepperoni that was still stuck on her face. He cringed with each gesture, as though he was afraid that his touch would disfigure her.

“Donghae, right?”

He froze midway with his hand in the air when Jessica spoke up.

“Yuh,” he squeaked in response.

“I must’ve embarrassed myself pretty badly back there, huh,” she continued, her voice full of despair.

Donghae wanted to do something to cheer her up, but all he could do was stare a little too pathetically.

“N—no, you didn’t,” he replied. It may have sounded incredulous to her but he meant it. Because to him, she just doesn’t have the ability to embarrass herself.

“I mean, with the cat and the cow and all… I’m sorry I couldn’t remember who you were.”

Donghae’s inner self aww-ed at the words she spoke. “I… wouldn’t blame you for that. I never blamed you for that, actually.”

“But still, it’s not cool to get forgotten like that, right? So I apologize.”

“You have a point… But you don’t have to apologize.”

“I just got a pepperoni pizza smashed in my face, so I guess the smartest thing to do now is to accept my apology.”

“O—oh. Then, apology accepted.”

“Great. So, back to just now… I really embarrassed myself, didn’t I?”

“No, you didn’t, absolutely not, not at all, I mean, really, you didn’t, you look great, you’ve always looked great, I mean, the pepperoni was a disaster but, you look great, I swear, really.”

“Alright, so I still look great!” She took pride in this sentence, completely ignoring the fact that there were still pieces of pepperoni stuck on her face.

Donghae smiled. “Always have, always will.”

“That’s so sweet of you,” she gushed, grabbing his hands in hers, effectively stopping him from pulling the pepperoni off.

He froze up again.

“Why haven’t I met you earlier? I could always use such a sweet guy in my life, y’know.”

She stared at him in the eyes. “Not to mention, you’re kinda cute, too,” she added, a little grin playing on her lips.

Donghae willed himself up and tried to shake his jelly limbs away as subtly as possible. Please don’t faint, please don’t faint, please don’t faint, please don’t faint…

“Th—th—th—th—th—th—th—th—th—th—thanks.”

“I’m starting to remember our past encounters already,” she rejoiced. “We sang at the party! You sent me home and I think I kissed you on the cheek. Then… You were the one who bought Krystal all the milk. Ah, so you’re Lee Haedong.”

“Lee Donghae,” he corrected, a little too meekly, considering all that she had just said.

Jessica freaking Jung was remembering him already.

“Oh, Donghae, silly me!” She giggled.

He couldn’t help but to chip in the laughter too. When the last of the pepperoni was removed, he dragged toilet paper out from the empty cubicle and handed it to Jessica.

“Um, the pepperoni’s all off, but… I think you still need some cleaning.”

“I’ll have to go home and wash everything off,” she responded, her sadness evident in her tone. “How am I going to go home in this state?”

He looked at her pepperoni-drenched designer shirt and bit his lower lip. “You can have my jacket,” he offered. “It should be enough to cover up the stains on your shirt.”

“Wouldn’t your jacket be dirty, then?”

“Nothing some detergent can’t take care of.”

“That’s splendid. Thank you, Hae—“

“Donghae.”

“No, I think I’ll stick to calling you Hae. We can do without the Dong, right?”

“Absolutely, Dongless-Hae it is,” he concluded, a happy edge to his voice because Jessica freaking Jung was giving him an alternative name.

Through it all, he wondered where he lost his stutter, and the wonder brought a smile to his face.

“Well, I guess we can get going now.”

=

Returning back from the restroom, they wandered into the dining area where the big table was all but occupied.

“Where are they?”

The whole parlor seemed to be emptied out, until a silhouette came springing up from behind the counter.

“Sir! There’s two left here!”

A fire extinguisher peeked out from behind the counter as the manager struggled to get up from his hiding position. “You two, freeze, or I’ll extinguish the crap out of you!”

Donghae instinctively took on a defensive position before Jessica and stuck his hands up, as if surrendering. “Woah, we don’t mean any harm. We just want to know where our friends are.”

“Oh, so you’re part of those bunch of nutcases? They’re all gone!”

“What happened?”

“A fight broke out.”

Donghae didn’t seem to understand his response. So he went on.

“At The Pizzeria, we only eat, we never fight,” he said, an authoritarian tone resonating loud and clear.

“So they got kicked out?!” Jessica exclaimed.

“No, they were sent off in horse-driven carriages with a pumpkin cart,” the manager responded.

When Jessica didn’t seem to understand that, Donghae decided to try his own.

“So… They got kicked out.”

The manager took a deep breath before slamming the fire extinguisher down onto the counter. “Do you know who else will be kicked out in due time?”

Donghae shook his head.

=

Hyukjae and Hyoyeon sat by the side of the alleyway, where the rest of the gang were.

Kyuhyun and Jongwoon were on opposite ends of the alley, with Taeyeon and Yuri by their sides respectively.

Siwon stood in the middle, veins popping from his forehead. Stephanie was beside him, struggling not to let her stomach grumbling get too loud.

Hyukjae turned to Hyoyeon. “Do you want to talk about us?”

“I don’t know, do you want us to get kicked out of an alleyway as well?”

“Okay, sheesh, no talk, no talk.”

Hyoyeon sighed and threw her hands down. “Alright, I’m sorry. This whole thing is stupid. If I didn’t overreact and stuff, none of this would’ve happened.”

“But it’s not your fault… It’s my fault. If I wasn’t such an idiot—“

“You’re not an idiot. I am.”

“Well, I guess we both are.”

Hyoyeon smiled a bit. “That, I have to agree. We were fighting even over a goddamned pepperoni pizza.”

“Which, by the way, didn’t look that appetizing, so I guess it was perfectly fine for you to kill it,” he comforted, a silly grin showing.

“Oh, you.” She shoved a hand in Hyukjae’s direction, knocking him off balance. She giggled a bit at how easily he stumbled out of equilibrium. “Well, we really are idiots, aren’t we.”

“Yeah, we are. And the last time I checked,” Hyukjae struggled to get back up into balance, “idiots belong together.”

That caught Hyoyeon off-guard.

“So what do you say?” Hyukjae stuck his hand out.

“I say this time, we’ll be smart idiots,” Hyoyeon agreed, smiling while putting her hand into his.

=

Siwon furrowed his brows.

“Are we really going to stay here and wait for Donghae and Jessica?” Stephanie asked.

“Well, I guess… I mean, no one’s moving,” he gestured to the general crowd around them.

“I think they’ll make their way home together.”

“You think so?” Siwon turned to her, eyes showing all the exhaustion he had inside of him.

Stephanie wanted to hug his exhaustion away.

“I do think so,” she responded.

“Well, then…”

Siwon clapped to get their attention.

“Guys, I think… It’s time to go home now.”

“What about Donghae and Jessica?”

“They’re neighbors, they’ll make it home themselves, I guess.”

“Alright then.”

Siwon watched as everyone started leaving their positions. Yuri and Jongwoon left together, Hyukjae and Hyoyeon—Hyukjae and Hyoyeon?!—left together, and that left Siwon with Stephanie, Taeyeon and Kyuhyun.

“Well, I guess we better make our ways home, then.”

=

Donghae was walking at a steady pace, slowing down to meet Jessica’s pace. His jacket was already around her, and she snuggled up tightly inside it.

“I never knew how warm it’d be to be in a guy’s jacket,” she gushed. “This is so comfortable.”

“Thanks?”

She giggled. “You’re adorable, Hae.”

“…Thanks?”

Please don’t faint, please don’t faint, please don’t faint, please don’t faint, please don’t faint.

After a while of walking, Jessica tilted her head a little. “It’s weird how I’ve never seen you at all when I come home.”

“Oh, uh, you’re usually out pretty late for cheerleading sessions, and I’m already at home, so I guess that’s why.”

“You know I have cheerleading sessions?”

Busted! “I, uh, I see you coming home in cheerleading outfits usually, so…”

“And you know what time I come home?”

“My study table’s right next to the window. I occasionally look out for some greenery, it’s good for my eyes… And, uh, to check if there are any baddies around. It’s not safe for you to come home alone like that every night. Plus your parents are rarely around, so…”

Jessica giggled. “I can’t believe someone knew so much about me.”

He blushed. “I, uh, it’s just… Yeah, it’s just that.”

After a while more, they reached their houses. Donghae stopped walking first, and watched as Jessica took the last remaining steps into her house. Suddenly, she turned and headed back for him.

“Um, the jacket, you can keep it,” he ventured, wondering if that was why she wanted to talk to him.

“I was planning to,” she joked, a bright smile on her face. “But other than that…”

“What else is there?”

“I just wanted to thank you for today. The pizza part of the outing may have screwed up, but it’s nice to know that I’ve made a new friend. A new friend who’s a really sweet, really cute and really adorable guy.”

Yep, he was going to faint.

And just when he thought things couldn’t get better, they did.

She tiptoed a little and gave him a peck. On the lips.