Christmas day was cold. Alice didn't feel like getting up that morning, but she forced herself to for the sake of having a productive day. First she would treat Jackson for some fried chicken for keeping her company for the past week, and then she'd visit Mark and celebrate the holiday with him for a while. And then, there was Jaebum's party. He said it would last all night, and that fact made her heart beat. What if she accidentally falls asleep at his house and spends the night without warning? What if things get out of hand and she wants to go home? What if she gets drunk and does something stupid?
     She shook her head and slapped her cheeks a few times in front of her vanity mirror. The day was long and she had to prepare.        "Haha, we match," Jackson laughed as he saw Alice enter the kitchen to cook breakfast wearing the same snowflake print on her pants that he had on his sleeping robe.
     Alice bumped him out of the way with her shoulder, "Whatever," she said with a grimace. Jackson hopped out of the way.
     "Are you recovering?" he asked suddenly, pouring milk into his cereal.
     "Yeah," Alice thought back to how scared she was at the club, "I'm okay now."
     Jackson turned around holding something in his hand, "Merry Christmas," he said, stretching out a small striped gift bag. Alice looked at him skeptically and then her expression softened.
     "Jackson? What the heck? I didn't get you a present," Alice told him, not wanting to take the present without having a gift for the boy in return.
     "It's cool. You letting me stay at your place is good enough. Besides, I just bought these last night while you were sleeping," he replied, taking Alice's hand and wrapping her slender fingers around the string of the bag. He gave her a childish smile and turned back to eating his cereal. He picked up the bowl and moved to the other side of the counter and sat on top of a tall stool, hovering over his cereal and crunching noisily.
     Alice slowly put the present on the counter, sticking her hand into the bag, only to pull out a hard metal object wrapped in a black pouch. Raising her eyebrow, Alice pulled  away the pouch, revealing a retracted pink mace.
     "What is this?" Alice asked, pulling the mace out with her fingers.
     "It's a stick. You hit people with it if you're in trouble! Here, I'll show you," Jackson grabbed the pink painted mace and stood up, walking into the open area of the living room. He quickly swung his hand out and the mace extracted, turning into a long weapon. Alice shook her head, but was very amused.
     "It's pink! For you," Jackson handed the weapon back and Alice only smiled.
     "Thank you very much, Jackson," she chuckled, setting the mace on the counter and shaking her head.
     "No problem, there's more in there! Check!" he pointed to the bag excitedly and Alice obeyed, pulling out another present.
     "Chocolate?" Alice laughed, holding a small box of truffles in her hand, "Jackson, I thought I told you that I can't eat chocolate too much or I'll bloat," she raised a brow at the boy and he nodded.
     "I know! But these are my favorites," he took the box and opened it, picking out a small star shaped truffle and eating it. The girl in front of him just gave him an odd smile, and boy smiled back happily, chewing on the candy.        It was particularly empty at the ICU because of the holidays. There were three people sitting in the lobby, looking extremely sad for spending their holiday staring at the carpet and wondering how their loved one's condition was. Alice and Jackson walked passed, and both of them could somewhat feel how sad the atmosphere was.
     It was somewhat better with Mark, though.
     "Hey, Mark," Jackson said quietly, sitting down at his chair. It was an hour past noon and Alice wanted to spend her time with Mark after her and Jackson went to eat and before her party with Jaebum. She sadly looked at the boy.
     "Merry Christmas, Mark," Alice whispered near Mark's ear. He had gotten very thin and looked pale. His hair had grown out and was covering his eyes. Alice let her hand wave over his hair, moving it towards the side of his face and away from his closed eyes. She stared softly at the boy's face, feeling as if she knew his face for more than twelve days.
     The last twelve days had been a turning point in the girl's life. Everything seemed like it was going too fast, yet Alice remembered everything that had happened in those days. Mark and the accident, Jackson, Jaebum, and all her other new friends-- they had all become a part of her life quickly.
     And then there were those letters. The story of the sender and his love for his girlfriend Jiah had made tears drop from Alice's eyes many times. Partly because of the emotion, but mostly because she felt something from those words. She remembered things she didn't want to remember. Thoughts that she didn't think were in her mind suddenly came every time she read the letters. And on that day, she would read her last letter. She felt scared at the thought of it. She was scared that more thoughts would appear in her head. But the last letter needed to be read, and Alice didn't know what would be the best time for her to do that.
     "Alice! Jackson! Merry Christmas," Nurse Sun came through the door after she saw the two through the small window in the door.
     "Ah! Nurse Sun! Merry Christmas!" Alice smiled, getting up and hugging the nurse. She wasn't in her uniform though, and was instead wearing a white cable-knit dress with a large striped v-neck and a red hat. The dress rested tightly against her thin body and her black ankle boots made her legs contrast nicely with her outfit.
     "Merry Christmas," Jackson also greeted, giving the nurse a smile.
     "Are you going out today?" Alice asked, motioning towards Nurse Sun's outfit.
     "Yep. I have a dinner with my boyfriend and our families! But there will be an intern nurse who will be taking care of Mark today. She's been training for a long time and her final week is this week. She got transferred over here a few days ago! Oh, she's coming now," Nurse Sun informed, looking behind her. A figure appeared behind the small window on the door, and when the door slid to the side, a young girl stepped in. She had a gentle and smiley face. She was very pretty-- her eyes being a deep dark color and her hair being an auburn red.
      She bowed so that she could see her knees, "Hello everyone. I'm Youngji. Please treat me well," she smiled. She had a pink plastic tray in her hands with a new IV and a hair comb.
     Everyone bowed to her, even Jackson who stood up right away when the girl came through, "Nice to meet you," Jackson quietly greeted back. Alice eyed him strangely, but he didn't seem to notice as his eyes were planted on Youngji as she took charge in changing Mark's IV.
     "Well, I leave it to you Youngji! Merry Christmas you guys," Nurse Sun waved goodbye before stepping out of the room and leaving Youngji to take care of Mark. It was quiet for a while until Youngji spoke up.
     "I was reading his file earlier," she quietly said, "It's been twelve days, right?"
     Alice nodded her head, "Yeah. Twelve days," Alice trailed off, staring at the sleeping boy.
     Youngji took the comb from the tray and handed it to Alice, "Would you like to comb his hair?" she asked gently.
     Alice took the comb gingerly and nodded, "S-Sure," she replied. The comb was wide toothed and straightened out the small tangles in Mark's hair. Alice had a soft smile on her face and Youngji noticed.
      "Are you his girlfriend?" she asked innocently, standing with her arms clasped in front of her with a smile. Alice began to fluster and pulled her arm and the comb back.
     "No. I can't be," she replied quietly. Youngji realized that the relationship must have been complicated.
     "Ah, I see," she nodded her head and then looked towards Jackson, who widened his eyes when she did, "Are you his friend?"
     "Yeah, both of us are," he answered, pointing to Alice, who was still staring at Mark.
     "Oh, okay," she nodded her head again. Youngji picked up her pink tray and smiled, "I'll be going now," she bowed, unsure of what to say. Jackson nodded back at Youngji and the girl beamed. When she walked past the boy, he couldn't help but turn backwards, just to watch her a bit more.
     "She's nice," Jackson grinned, looking to Alice, who still had not moved from her previous position.
     She was thinking. Could she ever be Mark's girlfriend? She suddenly thought about the eleven previous letters and what they meant. The whole story seemed so familiar, and when she really thought about it, it made Alice's head hurt. She didn't want to think of them, but she couldn't help it. There was something that was hidden, but she couldn't find out what it was, but whenever she looked at Mark, she felt like she was close to the answer. It hurt her, though. She knew the answer would hurt more than anything she had ever felt.
     "Alice?" Jackson called her name, confused by why the girl was acting weirdly.
     "Huh? Oh, yeah. She's nice," Alice answered back with delay. Jackson just looked to the ground. He knew she was thinking about Mark. He knew that she loved him, but that day, she was going to spend Christmas with Jaebum.        At around three o'clock, Alice and Jackson decided to go back to Alice's house so she could get ready for Jaebum's party. But for some reason, Alice didn't feel as excited as she thought she would be. Even Jackson noticed.
     "You okay, Alice?" he asked her, nudging her in the rib while they were walking up the girl's driveway.
     "Yeah, I'm okay," the girl gave a reassuring smile as they reached the porch. But she wondered herself. Was she really okay?  

     Jackson waited on the couch, watching the television as Alice was changing into her dress. He felt his phone vibrate on his thigh, and he quickly picked it up, expecting a text from his friends back home or his mother. But instead, it was a call from Mark's parents.
     Alice could hear Jackson talking in the living room, but dismissed it, thinking that it was probably his family wishing him a Merry Christmas. If someone called her to say Merry Christmas, she would want it to be her family. But she knew that something like that couldn't happen so easily. Her phone gave a little beep as she was putting on lipgloss, and she leaned over to see that it was a text from Jaebum.
  
     See you soon, pretty. Get here safely, okay?

     Alice's glossed lips curved upwards and she took a short breath and went back to putting on her makeup.        "He's been doing alright. They said that his condition has been stable. The doctor told me that he could wake up soon, but they're not sure why he hasn't," Jackson told Mark's parents. He felt somewhat melancholic to be the one to tell them the news.
     "I'm relieved. Mama has been crying a lot. She's very worried," Mark's dad informed Jackson, who could just sense the sadness over the phone.
     "Everyone has been," Jackson admitted, thinking about how many days he's stayed up late during the night, worrying about his friend.
     "How have you been Jackson? It's been very long," Papa Tuan asked.
     Jackson smiled a bit, "I've been fine," he answered.
     "I'm glad to hear that! Oh, how has Jiah been?" Papa Tuan gladly asked.
     Jackson's blood froze. "Who?" he whispered, suddenly shutting the television off.
     "Jiah! Mark's girlfriend! They didn't break up, right?" Papa Tuan had a worried tone, but it wasn't too worried compared to how Jackson was feeling.
      He suddenly remembered Mark's girlfriend. Her short hair was brown and she wore pretty dresses in the summer time. Mark was taller than her and she studied with Mark all the time. Her name was Jiah.
     And then he remembered her face more, and his heart stopped.
     Everything at that moment stopped.
     The epiphany he had was enough to make his head hurt.
     Then he thought about those letters and he shakily exhaled, stringing together something that he should have realized from the start.
     But he thought her name was Alice.
     "She's... She's been okay," Jackson answered, swallowing hard and placing a hand to his forehead.
     "Good. She's a good girl. She's probably been taking care of Mark a lot, huh? I can't wait to finally meet her. Mark had talked about her a lot!" Papa Tuan informed Jackson, who had his hand over his mouth, trying not to cry or go insane. He realized why she loved him. She had already loved him.
     "Yeah, a good girl," Jackson whispered.
     "Well, we'll see you very soon Jackson. We'll be there at late at night or maybe very very early tomorrow morning, hopefully," Papa Tuan then ended the call. Jackson let his phone fall on the couch and bounce to the floor. He couldn't believe anything.
     Alice heard something fall to the floor and she walked out to see what it was. She was already dressed with her makeup on anyway. Her dress was a pretty white adorned with lace, and she wore a black cardigan over it with wedged ankle boots to make herself taller. It was nothing too stunning for the girl, but she looked awfully sweet and adorable.
     "Hey, Jackson! Don't sit like that. And your phone," she walked over to pick it up. Jackson looked at her with wide eyes the whole time. She handed him his phone with a grunt, "Don't leave things on the floor," she grumbled, standing up with a pout. She grimaced at Jackson for staring at her for too long. Why was his mouth open like a dog? "Stop staring! Idiot," she hit him on the head and he looked away, holding his head.
     "Ah! That hurt!" he complained.
     "Whatever. I have to go now," Alice noted, looking at the time. It was 3:34 and she didn't want to be late.
     "I'll walk you--" Jackson said, getting up, but Alice pushed him back. She suddenly pulled out the retracted pink mace from her pocket and pulled it outwards. She tapped the boy on the head gently with it.
     "I think I'll be okay!" she laughed. Jackson only sadly smiled at her.         She was able to arrive at Jaebum's house in twenty minutes, but she never knew he lived in such a rich neighborhood. His house was guarded by a large brick wall, and in the center was a black painted metal gate with a small screen and button that acted as a doorbell. She noticed how heavily the security cameras were placed as well. There were two at the corners of the gate and two more hidden in the trees.
     With anxiousness, she pushed the button under the little screen and speaker.
     "Hello. Please state your name and business," a woman's voice answered through the speaker. Alice was taken aback a bit, but answered with a clear voice.
     "Ah! My name is Yoo Alice and I'm-- uh," she thought about what to say for her business, "I'm Jaebum's friend," that was good enough. There was a silence for a couple seconds before the gates started to creak open. Alice backed up a bit, surprised by the big metal doors. When they opened enough for Alice to walk through, she gasped at the sight that she saw. She had never seen such a large estate before. The front yard was wide and had faded green grass every where with trees lining the sides of the brick walls. There was a paved driveway that split into two paths that curved around a large fountain with a marble statue of a Christmas tree in the center. At the end of the path was the front of the mansion. The mansion itself was a pure white with dark cherry brown painted roofs. The mansion was so large that it had to be curved around the front yard. From above, it would look like a very square "U" shape.
     Alice couldn't help but whimper. Why was everything so big? Why didn't Jaebum tell her? The party was probably going to be a big fancy ball and Alice was just wearing a small casual dress with a black cardigan and wedges. She shook herself furiously and wanted to cry, but she walked along the path with her head down. Until she heard a car behind her gaining speed.
    She quickly walked to the other side and waited for the car to pass, holding her brown bag close to her in fright. But the large black imported car stopped in front of her and rolled down it's window.
     "Alice! Hi! It's Yugyeom!" Yugyeom shouted to the girl. Alice's mouth dropped, and her expression turned angry as she marched up to the car in a stomping matter.
     "Yugyeom! You scared me! Why'd you have to drive so fast?" she scolded, hitting the boys with as much strength as she could. But Yugyeom only laughed at her attempts.
     "You should get in. It takes too long to walk up there," Yugyeom informed, unlocking the door. Alice looked to the front of the mansion and realized that there was more than about thirty meters for her to walk. She scowled before getting in the car with Yugyeom, pushing him so she could fit in the backseat with him.        Yugyeom was unexpectedly dressed very maturely. Alice figured his parents made him dress like how he was. He wasn't wearing a leather jacket and skinny jeans with high-top Vans like he usually did. Instead, he had a white dress shirt under a soft geometric patterned sweater. He looked like a typical rich boy, and Alice could only giggle about it a bit.
     The two entered the house after Yugyeom talked to the guards who were at the door-- another thing that surprised Alice. There were two big and buff security guards in front of the large door of the mansion. They wore earpieces and suits, like how they're seen in movies.
     "Oh my god," Yugyeom sighed, shaking his head, "I forgot something, let me get it, okay?" he told Alice, jogging down the steps of the mansion and back to his car, taking something from the backseat. That left Alice all by herself near the guards. Looking at them nervously, Alice only bowed to the both of them, unsure of what to say. They bowed back and Alice smiled a little. "Sorry about that!" Yugyeom exclaimed, running back the steps up to Alice's side.
     "No problem," Alice saw that he was carrying a small gift bag.
     "Let's go inside," Yugyeom proclaimed, walking in as the guards opened the doors to the mansion for them.
     "Merry Christmas," Alice bowed once more to the both of the guards and scurried off after Yugyeom. The two guards couldn't help but smile. They softened once they realized that Alice was the girl Jaebum always talked about.        The front of the house was quite barren, as only some people were standing around,  looking at decor or paintings or talking while holding drinks. There was a large stair case in the middle of the house that led to the second floor and a hallway that stretched past what the walls showed.
     As Alice had thought, most of the guests were wearing fancy dresses and suits. One woman was wearing a satin red dress embroidered with beads. She had her hair tied up with a green ribbon, and once she saw Yugyeom enter, she gasped.
     "Yugyeom!" she cried, running along the tile floor, her heels clicking like crazy.
     "Hello, auntie," Yugyeom greeted. Alice only stayed behind him the whole time as Yugyeom began greeting everyone who saw him. It seemed like he knew everybody. It was a while before the other guests noticed Alice and asked Yugyeom about her.
     "Who is she?" they would all wonder.
     "She's Alice," Yugyeom would happily reply, and with that, they would suddenly nod their heads, mouths open with astonishment. Yugyeom finally walked back to Alice who was standing near a large vase with a plant in it. "Well, we should go see the others now," Yugyeom told her, walking up the stairs with Alice following him.
     After walking to the third floor of the mansion and taking two turns around the hallway and passing by countless of doors and entrances to other hallways, Yugyeom and Alice finally stopped at one large door near the end of one hallway.
     "This is Jaebum's room," Yugyeom pointed to the door, and then pointed to three more, "and so is that one, and that one, and that one. But this is his favorite room, so I'm pretty sure they're all in here," Yugyeom chuckled, opening the door without knocking and just heading right in. Alice silently followed in to see that Jaebum's room was gigantic. It was about the size of the entire first floor of her house.
     Jaebum, Jinyoung, and Youngjae were all sitting on Jaebum's large couch, watching the television, and Alice could tell that it was a variety show from the corny jokes and following laughter.
     "Ah! Yugyeom, you're here!" Youngjae looked up, high fiving the boy with a smile. All four of them were smiling, until Jaebum looked over to the door to see Alice standing by herself in amazement.
     "Alice! You came, too," Jaebum softened, standing up and smoothing out his blazer.
     "Of course, I said I would, didn't I?" Alice smiled back, her eyes curving upwards sweetly. It charmed Jaebum to an extreme extent, but then again, everything about the girl did.
     When Jaebum was in high school, he had a few small flings with very willing girls, but he'd break them off in a heart beat once he found out that they only liked him because of his wealth. College was the year he decided that he wouldn't focus on troublesome girls and instead his own education and career. He had came close to not thinking about romance at all one point in his life since his heart had too many wounds in it, until he met Alice Yoo.
     Jaebum had always dated glamorous girls with voluminous hair and curved bodies, but those girls always hurt him in the end. But Alice Yoo was sweet, like bubbles and cotton candy, and she had an awkward charm. She was easily enticing without meaning to be. And she didn't know Jaebum prior to when they had first met by bumping into each other in the hallway. She didn't know about his family or his dancing or his wealth. But she was s