On the tenth day since Mark had been in the hospital, Mark's doctor and Nurse Sun came by to inform Alice and Jackson about Mark's family.
     "We have informed Mark's parents after intense hours of finding their contact information. They're planning to fly in from California in the next few days," the doctor said, holding his clipboard as he always did.
     "Hopefully, Mark will regain consciousness by then," Nurse Sun added as she changed Mark's IV. Alice sadly looked at the plastic bag of glucose. How could anyone survive off of a bag of sugar? She wanted Mark to wake up, just so she could feed him real delicious food, like chicken, grilled meat, or fried pastries from the street vendors-- anything except for a bag of glucose.
     Jackson bowed and Nurse Sun followed the doctor out as usual. Alice was spaced out the whole time.
     "You look dead," Jackson deadpanned as he sat back down. Alice scowled.
     "Oh, haha," Alice blandly laughed. She pulled out her textbook and journal from her bag to study. That would be the only thing to get her mind off of Mark.        "I have an outing with Jaebum in an hour," Alice was combing her hair and applying perfume to her wrists as Jackson stared at her in horror. 
     "You actually agreed to going with that kid? Gross," he said it in a joking matter, but when he thought about the possible relationship between Alice and Mark that Jaebum could ruin, he wasn't joking.
     "He said he wanted to show me something. He's an intriguing guy," Alice shrugged her shoulders. He was also charming, handsome, and caring. But Alice didn't add that for the sake of Jackson, so he didn't have to puke at the nonsense he was hearing.
    "He's also sneaky. Be careful," Jackson grumbled before going back to surfing the web on his phone. He was looking up local dance showcases and it looked like there was one happening that day, and it looked interesting enough for Jackson to want to visit. "I guess I'll be going out, too," he said, standing up with a smirk as Alice set her comb and perfume in her bag. She sadly looked at Mark. If Jackson left, Mark would be all alone, but Alice doubted anything would change. But Jackson took notice of Alice's sad stare towards Mark. Despite the dance showcase being in a couple of hours, Jackson sighed and wiped his smirk off his face. "Or maybe I'll stay for a while," he whispered casually, sitting down and looking out the window while setting arms on the armrests of his chair.
     Alice gave Jackson a slight smile and he only grimaced at her before she left the room to meet Jaebum at their prep school.        "I hope you didn't wait long," Jaebum appeared from the corner of Alice's eye with a smile, and the girl returned the look.      "No, I didn't. I just got here a while ago," Alice replied, standing up, "So where are we going?"       Jaebum grinned wider and took Alice's hand in his. The sudden action made the girl silently gasp and suddenly blush. "You'll see," he charmingly said with a small wink. Alice followed closely behind the boy, very flustered with the warmness their hands were generating by being together.          Jaebum surprisingly brought Alice to a dance club. It was located in the city so the train ride was longer than usual. Since she slept the way there, she was somewhat groggy, but nevertheless, she was awake enough to be amazed by the large stage and lights that were shining neon shapes that were bouncing along the walls of the dark room.       "This is a night club called Encore," Jaebum told Alice, holding on to her since there were quite a bit of people already gathering around the stage, "Today, there's a dance showcase called '-25' for all aspiring dancers under twenty-five years old."       Alice nodded her head, "Oh, so you wanted to show me this?" She was somewhat confused, but somewhat had an assumption that Jaebum wasn't just going to leave this surprise at just this. He didn't seem the type to not want the spot light on himself.       "Yep. But there's more. And I have to go get ready okay? I'll see you soon so just sit here," Jaebum directed Alice to a small table, and surprisingly, Yugyeom was there. "I'll meet up with you later, Alice," Jaebum cupped the girl's cheek and then jogged off somewhere else to a door behind the stage.       Yugyeom was already sipping an energy drink and his friend next to him was smiling at Alice.       "So, you're the girl Jaebum talks about all the time," the boy said. He had blond bleached hair and a beaming complexion, very much like a performer or professional model. He had a smiling expression and Alice didn't feel any threat from him. He seemed friendly enough.      "Oh," Alice was caught off guard with finding out that Jaebum talks about her with his friends, "I'm Yoo Alice." She introduced herself with a short bow of her head.       "I'm Choi Youngjae. Nice to meet you," Youngjae bowed his head back.       "Youngjae is one of Jaebum's close friends. They've known each other since highschool!" Yugyeom informed Alice, smiling at the fact. Alice nodded her head in an amazed fashion.      "I heard you're friends with Wang Jackson as well, Alice. How is he doing these days?" Youngjae asked, folding his arms over the table.      "He's been well. He's been staying with me the past couple of days. He jokes around a lot, dances around a lot, laughs about dumb things a lot," Alice grimaced as she remembered when Jackson was laughing really loudly while watching something on the t.v. while she was trying to catch some sleep.      "Yep, that sounds like him," Youngjae and Yugyeom smiled at each other, "but how do you know him? Is he close to you?"      "I thought he was living in Seoul. Why'd he come down here to Busan?" Yugyeom added.       A thought of Mark crossed her mind. Without the accident, she would never had met Jackson Wang. It's because of a terrible accident, she wanted to say. "Ah, he's just here to visit friends. That's all. I know him because--" she tried to think of something, "I know him because he's friends with one of my close friends," she bit her lip.       "Oh, okay. Connections," Youngjae understood and nodded his head.       The three then were silent, unsure of what topic to pick to start the next conversation, so nothing came up. Alice just sat at her seat looking around a bit while Yugyeom and Jaebum drank their drinks.       But they all noticed as the crowd in the club began to split as soon as Jinyoung appeared. He made his way to the threes' table and he pulled up a chair casually, sitting down.      "Hey," he greeted his two friends and they nodded back at him. "Hi Alice," he smiled at the girl and she smiled back.      "Hi Jinyoung," she bobbed her head.       "Jaebum invited you, didn't he?" Jinyoung asked.      "Yeah, he did," Alice answered, looking around once more.      "Merry Christmas, by the way. I didn't get to say that to you at the market a couple of days ago," Jinyoung said, noting that Christmas Eve was the next day.      "Oh, yeah. Merry Christmas to you guys, too," Alice smiled. Christmas was a relatively fun time to most, but to Alice, she never really celebrated it like everyone else did. Yes, there was a small tree she set up on her kitchen counter with a lights and star on top, but there was something that held her back from getting into the spirit. In fact, the holiday brought the girl a strange sadness when it ended and a pain in her heart.      "What are you doing for Christmas, Alice?" Yugyeom asked suddenly. Alice's eyes widened.      "I'm not sure. I'll just spend it alone. I'm sure Jackson has friends to see himself," Alice replied, her tone saddening despite the slight smile she wore.      "Oh, wait," Youngjae piped up, "Are you and Jaebum dating already?" he asked out of nowhere, his eyes wide. But Alice shook her head furiously.      "No, no way! Not right now," she replied in a fluster, and the boys took that as suspicious.       "But you still like him right?" Yugyeom asked, in a somewhat teasing manner despite Alice being older than all of them.      "Huh? I don't know," she replied back quietly. And honestly, she didn't know. 
     "You will later," Youngjae winked towards her and the boys kind of just chuckled to themselves, but not in a bad sense.       "Oh, shoot. We should be getting back there, too," Youngjae cursed, looking at his watch and standing up from his chair. Alice looked alarmed as Yugyeom and Jinyoung followed suit.       "Where are you going?" Alice inquired, her voice getting smaller with the thought of being left all alone at the table.       "We have to get ready to perform," Jinyoung informed the girl. After giving her a pat on the shoulder, Jinyoung followed his two friends through the door Jaebum had went to earlier, giving people high fives when they asked for them on the way there. Meanwhile, Alice was shrinking in her seat as she felt like everyone was watching her.         "Ugh, Mark. Wake up already," Jackson whispered, sitting close to Mark and staring at his face. He grimaced at his good looking friend. It had been ten days since he had been comatose, and Jackson was surprised he could survive so long just being asleep. There were so many things Mark could wake up to, but Jackson didn't know why he just wouldn't.       There was good food besides an IV. There was school, family, friends, and Alice. Jackson knew Alice loved Mark. The way she sometimes whispered to him words of encouragement while she thought Jackson was asleep said it all. And the way she clenched his hand and looked at him while she softened out his bangs. They were symptoms of falling in love, according to Jackson.       But while he thought the relationship between the two was sweet, it was also tragic. The fact that Alice loved Mark who had been in a comatose condition and didn't have a clear time of when or if he was to wake up scared Jackson. What would she do afterwards-- if Mark woke up or if he didn't? And there was also that background of Alice's that was mysterious. Before the incident happened, Alice didn't seem to appear in Mark's life at all. She just randomly popped up one day, claiming that Mark was her mailman and she felt the need to be with him as he healed. Was that normal?       While he thought with his head in his hands, Nurse Sun came through the door and Jackson looked up to see her.      "Oh, is Alice studying at school today?" she asked, closing the door behind her, carrying a small plastic bucket and a soft loofah. Mark needed to be bathed and Nurse Sun was scheduled to do it.      Jackson shook his head, "Nah, she's out with a friend," he wanted to bite his tongue at the word friend.       Nurse Sun frowned, "You should go out, too, Jackson. It's the holidays. Or are you just sitting here, watching Mark?"       "Kind of. I had a plan but I'm fine here with Marky Mark," Jackson smiled.      "Well, you go do what you want. I'll be here so you don't have to worry about Mark," Nurse Sun smiled. With her cleaning Mark and the room, Jackson would have to wait outside by h