*ALICE'S POV*

“And when she said those things about my parents I just… lost it.”

I took another tissue from the box that’s been sitting on my lap for the past half an hour and wiped the last remaining tears that pooled themselves in my eyes. I really didn’t want to cry but the things that happened in the past couple hours were just too much for me. I snuggled up closer to Hee and I felt his arm tightened around me as we were both sitting on the couch in his hotel room that he shared with Silver, who was also there with Lee. After everything that went down at the photo studio the four of us left before everyone else and had been holed up in this room for the past couple hours. I couldn’t even begin to say how thankful I was for the three of them, it still surprised me even until now that they cared that much about me.

“I probably should apologize to her.”

“You should, but not until she apologized to you first, baby girl. I’m not saying that what you did was right but… I gotta admit she deserved what’s coming to her after what she did.”

Both Lee and Silver nodded their heads in agreement at what Hee said. These two didn’t talk much for the past couple hours but judging on the torn look on their faces, I could tell that they were just as troubled as I was about the whole situation.

“Hee, what am I gonna do about Nate?”

“I don’t know, baby girl, I really think you’re the one who knows the answer to that.”

I let out a long sigh, realizing that Hee was right. But the problem is that even until now I still didn’t have the slightest idea on what to say to Nate.

“Buster, just deal with that tomorrow. It’s been a long day, you need some rest.”

Lee said, as if he was reading my mind, or something. I could just nod at that and pulled away from Hee, standing up from the couch.

“Come on, I’ll walk you to your room.”

Silver also stood up from his seat and put an arm around me as we both walked out of the room. We didn’t say anything to each other for the whole way to my room yet I was feeling so content being around him, having his arm wrapped around me protectively, as if he did that cause he didn’t wanna see me break down again like before. Lee Hyukjae, why do you have to care this much about me when I don’t know if I can do the same thing to you or not? This is just too much. A few moments later, we finally reached my room. He let his arm go from my shoulder and softly grazed his palm on my cheek.

“You sure you’re gonna be ok on your own?”

I looked at his face when he asked me that and found nothing but honesty there. It’s amazing that he didn’t even have to say he cared about me for me to know that.

“I’ve been that way pretty much my whole life; I surely can manage one night, right?”

“That’s good to hear. So I don’t have to worry about you tonight.”

He said that with the most genuine smile on his face and I suddenly felt the urge to hug him or whatever, just to silently thank him for how amazing he’s been, not just today but also in this past couple weeks. But before I had the chance to do that,

“Maddie.”

I felt my heart sank when I heard Nate’s voice calling me. He was standing a few feet from Silver and I in that narrow hallway with a look of pure misery etched all over his face. It pained me to see him that way but it pained me even more when the memory of what happened today played itself like some overrun movie in my head. Seeing Nate, Silver nodded his head in understanding and silently walked away, leaving me and Nate alone. I motioned my head towards my room, signaling for Nate to follow me in as I took the key card out of my back pocket and let myself in, holding the door open until Nate walked in too. I turned my back on him as I closed the door and was surprised when I suddenly found myself engulfed in Nate’s arms as I turned around.

“What can I do to make you forgive me?”

His voice was so full of remorse and it somehow brought even more pain inside me to hear that. I’ve never heard him like this before and all I wanted was to destroy anything that caused this to him. But how can I do that when we both did this to each other? This wasn’t something that we had to deal with before. For us, saying sorry to each other was a rare occurrence because we never really had a reason to say that, we never hurt each other so much so that we needed to say we’re sorry.

“Why… why didn’t you give me a chance to explain?”

Although it didn’t really have anything to do with what he asked me but that was really the first thing that came to my mind, I just wanted to know why. He let go of me but still keeping his hands holding on to my arms slightly.

“I… I didn’t know why I did it. That’s what makes me feel even worse. Maddie, I spent a good part of my life trying so hard to protect you and fight off anything that even dared to hurt you and now… here I am probably giving you the worst pain of all, I don’t… I don’t know what to do.”

It was beyond painful to see him like that, to see my strong Nate looking like he was about to break down any moment now from the guilt that took over him. Even though that deep voice inside me was telling me to let him wallow in his misery like that after what he did to me, after the pain that he had involuntarily planted in me that surely would leave a scar, I simply couldn’t do that to him. As typical as it may sound, I really do love him too much to let my selfish side take over and punish him even further. It’s weird how complicated things could get when the one you love the most was the same person as the one who hurt you the most.

“Just… promise me this will never happen again and… remember how horrible it felt like when we lost our trust on each other even for a little bit like today. I don’t wanna cry over you like this again, Nate.”

“I promise.”

He took my right hand when he said that and intertwined his pinkie finger with mine. I couldn’t help but smile at that and remembered that the last time we did that was when we were 13 and he made me promise that we’ll always be each other’s best friend no matter what before I left for the States. He returned the same smile at me before pulling me in for another hug, softly kissing the crown of my head as he did that.

“You’re so amazing, you know that? I’m the luckiest guy in the world to have you as my best friend. I don’t know how my life would turn out if I hadn’t accidentally met that little girl who got lost 16 years ago.”

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Aunt Grace’s words rang as clear as a whistle through my head when Nate whispered those words to me. ‘If this is the way things are going, maybe it’s time for you to let go’. Those were the words that kept replaying themselves in my head. I had feared this, I was always scared that Nate will never see me as more than his best friend, that little girl he met 16 years ago, because if that’s true, I know he will never feel the same way as I do. He will never love me the way I wished he would. And hearing him actually said that suddenly made it real, that what Aunt Grace said make sense after all. Today I had seen an entirely different side of Nate, the one that I probably didn’t even know existed. When someone you think you know turned into a complete stranger without any reason, you can’t help but think that maybe the things you knew about that person wasn’t really true, which then put me in this horrible crossroad. As much as it might hurt me, maybe it is time for me to go on another road and just let go.

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*EUNHYUK’S POV*

I looked at the digital clock on the night stand and saw that it was nearing 2 in the morning. Heechul hyung had been asleep since a couple hours ago and been snoring like a freakin bear or something, making it almost virtually impossible for me to get some sleep. Aish, why do they have to pair me up with him in the room arrangements? His snores are seriously starting to hurt my sleep cycle and god knows how much I need my precious sleep, especially with this tour going like crazy. I turned off the TV and just decided that I needed to go to sleep no matter what. And just as I was about to bury myself in the warm duvet on my bed, the door bell to my room ringed. Who the hell would visit at this time of day? I looked at Heechul hyung, afraid that the sound of the door bell would wake him up but amazingly, he didn’t even stir in his sleep and was still out cold. The door bell ringed once again and I know now that I have to meet this persistent guest, even if it was to kick his all the way into next week for getting in between me and my beauty sleep. Heh, did I just say beauty sleep? Anyways, I eventually dragged myself towards the door, ready to yell at anyone at the door. I was just seconds away from yelling when I opened the door and found Alice there. I was like, huh?

“Alice, what are you doing?”

She looked like a deer caught in a headlight when I opened the door, looking so surprised, although still didn’t make her any less cute. Yeah, I think she’s cute, what are you gonna do about it? I saw that her eyes were still slightly puffy from all the crying a few hours before so I doubt that she had slept at all.

“Um… I just… need to talk to you.”

Why did she look so nervous? I mean, we’ve been closer than ever this past few weeks so I was just wondering why she looked like she was nervous and hesitant all at the same time.

“Uh… yeah, sure, come in.”

I held the door open for her and she walked in. I closed the door carefully, trying not to make any sound that would surprise Heechul hyung cause he’d be pissed and in a bad mood for the whole day if anyone woke him up in the middle of his sleep. Yeah, sometimes he’s just scary like that.

“Let’s just talk outside at the balcony, okay? I don’t wanna wake Heechul hyung up and have him kick my once he does.”

Alice just giggled softly at this and walked away towards the glass sliding door that led to the balcony. I followed after her, grabbing one of my hoodies that was lying around on the couch in the process. It was quite cold outside and I saw that Alice was only wearing her tank top and some PJ pants, she’ll freeze to death out there. By the time I reached the balcony and slide the door closed behind me, Alice was already standing leaning her back on to the railing.

“Put this on, you’ll get cold.”

I said as I handed her my hoodie, and she just gave me a small smile at that before doing what I say and put on my hoodie. My good god, she looked even cuter wearing my clothes. She’s actually not really tall, about half a foot shorter than me to be exact, and even though she has some curves she’s still considered to be quite petite, making her look like she was drowned beneath the hoodie as it reached just over her mid-thigh and the sleeves were too long too. Man, did she look SO cute. Okay, I seriously should stop.

“So… what is it that you wanted to talk about that just couldn’t wait until tomorrow?”

“It’s 2 in the morning, it’s technically tomorrow, you jackass.”

She said with a soft laugh as I also stood and leaned my back on the railing beside her.

“Yeah, well, tomorrow schmorrow.”

I shrugged my shoulders when I said that and she just smiled and shook her head at that.

“Well, I just wanted to ask you something.”

“Shoot.”

Suddenly she went from looking at my face into being so weirdly interested in her fingernails. Seriously, what is wrong with her?

“Um… you remember that day in Phuket? When you asked me out?”

My body was suddenly filled with excitement when she mentioned that moment in Phuket, the one where I asked her out. God, where was she going with this?

“Yeah, of course I still remember.”

“Uh… well, actually, I was, um… I was wondering if that offer still stands.”

Even though she was stammering, no doubt from being nervous, she looked back at my face when she said that and I literally could almost feel something warm burst inside me, further escalating that excitement that I mentioned earlier into an even higher level. Am I going to get what I want, after all?

“I’m… pretty sure it still does. Why?”

“Then I’d love to go out on a date with you.”

Then it was almost as if a group of choir appeared out of nowhere and began singing the Hallelujah chorus. God loves me, He really does. Her voice literally sounded like music in my ears when she said that and I could barely contain my excitement. If it weren’t for the fact that the girl I like is currently standing in front of me, I’d probably be jumping up and down like some kid having a sugar-high.

“Uh… I know it’s hella soon and I don’t know where this would take us but… I just wanna see where this could go, and...”

I know that I had cut her off from whatever that she was trying to say but at that point I just didn’t care. I pulled her into my arms and even though I could tell that she was surprised at first, I felt her body gradually relaxed as she slowly wrapped her arms around my waist.

“I think Christmas just came early for Lee Hyukjae.”

She giggled and looked up at me after I said that, although still keeping her arms around my waist and her body so close to me.

“That’s just a little over-stretching it, don’t you think?”

“Nah, for this one I don’t think so.”

She laughed lightly and pinched the tip of my nose affectionately before resting her head back on my shoulder, nestling her face on the crook of my neck. I smiled to myself at that. Alice Gwendoline Yoon, this is where you’re supposed to be, in my arms, hopefully for good.

*ALICE’S POV*

I guess this is the first step of me letting you go, Nate. I wouldn’t say that it didn’t hurt for me to finally admit that you’re never gonna be mine, but I know that it’ll pass in time, and you’re still my best friend and the most important person in my life. Even though I know I wouldn’t instantly stop loving you but at least it’s a start. I breathed in Silver’s natural scent generously as I nuzzled even closer to the crook of his neck and I smiled. I think I’m about to really open up my heart for the first time in years.

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I am currently sulking due to the absence of a certain Korean guy in a show that's gonna take place in the country I live in... *cough*Siwon*cough* Which weirdly enough coincides with the content in this chapter :P Anyways, hope everyone is still enjoying this story... :)