THINGS went back to normal and their trip to Bora because more eventful than he had anticipated. Donghae came up to him with his heart on his eyes one day.

“I did it.” he said almost as a whisper.

“Did what?” he asked between brushing his upper and lower teeth.

“Last night. I did it.” the fool was staring at the mirror like he had discovered the mystery of the universe.

“What? You didn't!” they were in their twenties and Donghae had avoided doing that because he didn't want to get into a scandal and because Siwon has been trying to indoctrinate them against premartial .

Donghae smiled smugly and slapped his back. “I am a man now. Are you jealous?”

“This might come as a shock to you but I had done it with Mai-Mai.” he had kept that a secret to make Donghae feel less like a boy around him and more like an equal.

“You didn't!? How come you didn't tell me?” Donghae exclaimed. It has been years.

“Do you remember when you asked me why I couldn't wipe that smile off my face before?” he pointed at Donghae's own smile.

“That was three years ago! You dawg! Why didn't you tell me?” he still insisted on asking why.

“Because you can't keep a secret. I didn't want Kyunhyun catching wind of it. You know how he is.” he meant their talkative maknae.

“But I would have kept it a secret!” Donghae insisted.

“Like you kept this apade a secret? You are a lot of things my friend, but a vault you are not.” Donghae realized his mistake.

“Well, I didn't tell you who it was.” Donghae tried to salvage his honor.

“I don't have to, I would already assume it's her.” he laughed when Donghae paled. “You are a lot of things my friend but you are no Casanova. I knew that you would only want to do it with someone you love. I am the same way and we are twins, remember?”

Donghae looked a bit more relieved with what he said.

“Just keep it on the down low. If the Janes found out, they would kick your . If you are just going to mess this up, don't. Because Sungmin would kill you. Leeteuk-hyung would probably get the others to roast you slowly over an open fire.” Donghae nodded at the options of torture he presented his bestfriend with.

“God, I thought kissing Mary was bad. You had to go out of your way to make me look like lamer, huh?” Donghae gasped when he found out another secret he was keeping from him. He had to laugh. “I didn't tell you because you might get jealous. But things are okay now. I apologized and Mary is in love with someone else.”

“What? Is this the reason why you have a selca folder of Mary and you in your account?” Donghae was wondering if there were more.

“Yeah.” was all he said.

“Why is it entitled 'Strawberry Mornings'?” he didn't want to answer that so he just gargled and spit. He walked out and joined the others in the veranda. It was time for breakfast and Mary was cooking.

“Yah! You strawberry feind!” Donghae called him from the bathroom.

“DO you need any help?” Eunhyuk came from behind and looked at what she was mixing. She was making soup, korean-style.

“No, I can handle everything. I'm almost done anyway. You can help me by placing those,” she pointed at the untensils and cups, “at the table. Ask someone to get the food from the kitchen. Someone who can carry something heavy.”

He bowed like a bulter and did what she said. “As you wish, chef.” he took the utensils and try that had the cup and walked to the table in the veranda. He saw Siwon throwing a freesbie with Sungmin. “Hey, muscle men, Marj needs your upper body strength in the kitchen.”

He placed the cups to accommodate all of the Suju present and the ladies. He went back to the kitchen to see if Marj needed any more help and found Siwon letting Marj touch his biceps. He cleared his throat and narrowed his eyes at Siwon who looked innocently at him and smiled at Marj before he carried the large pot of soup.

“I thought you are a one-man-woman.” he raised an eyebrow at her.

“He looked so proud of his biceps so I had to oblige him!” Marj laughed. “He's like a little boy who needs constant affirmation. Not my type.” she smiled at him.

“Yeah, you prefer someone who is better with knives.” he .

“You know it.” she laughed and gave him a tray of pancakes to carry. “Be careful not to trip or the gals would kill you. I made a Korean-style breakfast for you guys but they wanted pancakes for breakfast. You trip and they would have nothing to eat.” she touched her shoulder. And tried to rotate it to relax it.

“You cooked all of this?” he asked.

“Yep.” she said matter-of-factly.

“You should have woken someone and asked them to help you. We are not completely helpless you know!” he placed the tray on a table and tried to massage her shoulder. “You are not our slave for you to be doing this much work for us. You are worse than a daughter-in-law during Chuseok.” he was really worried that they were overstepping their hospitality.

“This is Sungmin's place, I just wanted to pay for the accomodations, that's all.” she was not worrying about it and it made him feel silly for being so worked up about it.

“I'm helping you with lunch and so will the other SuJu. We can fry when we need to or barbeque.” he said before taking the tray and carrying it carefully to the veranda. Everyone was already there. And he felt better when Marjorie came in to join them.

Who cares if I can't be with her after all this time? As long as I can be around her and not be a complete pabo. Being friends with the girl you want isn't as difficult as those songs make them seem. She laughed at something that Ryeowook and Kangin said. It's actually worse.