*EUNHYUK’S POV*

I looked away from the TV to Alice as I heard her let out a sigh. She was sitting in front of the working desk, her eyes glued to her laptop with her back facing me, while I was on the queen-sized bed, half lying down and half leaning my back against the headboard. It was close to midnight and we were back in Shanghai, doing another round of appearances just like what we did in Taipei. I was hanging out in Alice’s room after we finished our activities for today just an hour ago. And just like usual, Alice went straight back to work, processing and editing all the photos from today cause the management need to have them by the next day. But judging by how she’s been letting out that sigh every ten minutes or so since she started working, I could tell that she was already exhausted, and I wouldn’t blame her, our schedule started from 9 this morning and while the rest of us can just rest after it, she still has work to do. My girl’s working too hard.

“Jagiya…”

She only replied with a soft ‘hmm?’ but keep focusing on her laptop. That’s Alice to you. Even if there’s a bull parade happening around her, if she’s working even that won’t take her attention off her work. And if it was any other time, I’d just let her return to work but this time I won’t, she’s already too tired.

 “Jagiya, turn your laptop off and take a rest, you’re tired.”

Alice sighed even louder after I said that and finally flipped her laptop shut, giving up. I laughed a little when I saw the look on her face as she was walking towards me. Yes, she’s my girlfriend, and yes, she means a lot to me but oh my god, she looked really tired it’s almost ridiculous! I personally blame her work. But then again, if it weren’t for it I’m gonna be spending this summer without her and that eventually will diminish my already slim chance at dating her. So, yeah, I have mixed feelings about this.

“I literally can kill you right now, Silver.”

I laughed at how contradictive her statement and her gesture were. Even though she said she could kill me for whatever her reason might be, she climbed onto the bed and snuggled up to me, laying her head on my chest just below my chin, and put an arm over my torso as I also wrapped my arms around her. And that was how we usually fell asleep. Ah, I am so addicted to this. At the beginning it only happened accidentally, actually. We were hanging out watching movie one night and then we both fell asleep in the middle of it, only waking up the next morning. And that was why I came up with every possible reason so that I could spend every night with her for the first few days of our relationship. But after that, it just sort of became a habit. Heechul hyung even joked that the manager shouldn’t even bother putting me and him in the same room again cause I’ll most likely be in Alice’s room every night. Then he also said because I just couldn’t take my hands off Alice, he now found out that my suitcase is a better roommate for him than I ever was. And then Alice protested, throwing in one of her best insults collection towards Heechul hyung like she usually did and they’d just end up yelling at each other. I swear, they might as well be a legit pair of brother and sister. I mean, only siblings can be really close yet fight like that. Hell, that’s what my relationship with my sister is like. But then again, no matter what Heechul hyung say, I can’t help the fact that I like falling asleep next to her, and I like it more when she’s the first thing I see when I wake up. I like the little sounds she makes when I woke up in the middle of the night and I realized that she was dreaming. Aish, I’m starting to sound too sappy for my own good. Helloooo me the lover boy!    

“Why did you agree to be my girlfriend, then, if you wanna kill me so bad?”

She just shrugged her shoulder at my question and continued staring at the TV.

“Meh, I might’ve been drunk that night.”

“On Coke?”

“You didn’t know what I drank when I said I left for the toilet, right?”

This girl never failed to amuse me. She looked up at me when she said that, with the sneakiest most mischievous smile I’ve ever seen on her. And even though I knew she was just messing around, man, she looked really convincing! Then I just started laughing at her and poking my index finger on her sides. I knew she’s fairly ticklish so yeah, this can be considered as her little punishment. Predictably, she started squirming and my arms, but I didn’t loosen my grip on her. Then the poking escalated into a full on tickle and the next thing I knew I had hovered over her as she was laying on her back, laughing and screaming all kinds of curses at me as I kept tickling her.

“Silver, do you WANT me to actually kill you??!!”

“How would you do that when you couldn’t even stop me?”

“Oh you just see.”

Then she just stopped struggling and forcefully pulled my head down, bringing my lips to meet hers. I knew I was lost, I just knew it. What guy in his right mind would choose tickling his girlfriend over kissing her? If it were me, I’d choose kissing my girlfriend over anything. What can I say, lately making out with my girlfriend is coming dangerously close to replacing dancing as my favorite activity. And I don’t mean to sound erted or anything like that but that’s the truth! It’s just amazing how Alice can make my thoughts become so unfocused yet so focused on her at the same time as we were kissing. I didn’t even know that it was possible but she managed to do that to me. Alice is something.

“God, we are such a chick-flick cliché. Tickling and then kissing, the whole nine yards.”

I grinned at Alice as she pulled away from the kiss to say that and I just kissed her forehead briefly before I went back to sitting on the bed, leaning on to the headboard.

“Well, you’re the one who started it, jagiya.”

Alice sat up, crossing her legs Indian-style as she sat in front of me, a look of annoyance clearly visible on her face, which I guessed came from me accusing her to start what she called as a chick-flick cliché, and of course because I called her ‘jagiya’. I’m having too much fun with this, really. And yes, I still haven’t told her what that word means and I’ve already told everybody not to tell her. Don’t worry, I’m not being mean by doing this, I have a plan.

“And THAT will be the death of you, Silver, I’m not kidding this time. That’s why I wanna kill you at the first place. It’s been two freakin weeks, tell me already! What. Does. That. Word. Mean?!”

Again, I blew up laughing at that. But before Alice’s stare turn violent, I quickly moved to sit in front of her and took both her hands in mine.

“Okay, okay, I’ll tell you what that means…”

Her face instantly lit up at that.

“But you have to do something for me.”

Aaanddd there’s that violent look.

“You’re gonna torture me, right? You’re gonna make me run around through this hotel’s hallway, huh?”

I literally had to bit my lip to keep myself from laughing again as to not piss off Alice even further. But seriously, the things that came out of , oh my god!

“Uh… as much as I think that would be interesting, no. I mean, if anything, I have the most right out of everybody to see you …”

I was digging myself a hole by saying that. By the look on her face, I was pretty sure that she was gonna beat me over the head with that lamp on the nightstand if I continued talking.

“But that’s totally not the point right now. All I want you to do is just… call me, and all the other guys by our real name, and call us oppa, well except for Kyuhyun he’s younger than you and he totally doesn’t deserve you calling him that. And you also have to greet everyone in Korean. And then I’ll tell you what the word ‘jagiya’ means.”

Her eyes went wide at that. I knew I asked a little too much from her but I just can’t help it. I really wanted her to at least do that cause… well, I want her to move on even if it’s just for a little bit. She told me once that she refused to speak or learn Korean and continued speaking English even when she’s living in Korea cause English is the only thing that she can associate her parents with. And even though she thinks really highly of Seoul because of what it meant for her parents, found new friendships, and eventually felt comfortable to live there, I think a part of her was still holding on to the fact that Seoul is the place where she lost her parents. Hence, her not wanting to break the only connection she has with them. And I’m not holding that against her, it’s just that… I think she probably needs to make peace with that.

“Uh… can I go with running around through the hotel instead?”

Aish, this girl. I thought of a deep and significant symbolical meaning to all of this and she’d rather run around the hotel ? Only Alice can manage to come up with something like that. Not that her being isn’t appealing, in fact it so would but………………….. aish, she really needed to stop saying ‘’, it’s doing some seriously ed up things to my mind.

“Jagiya, come on…”

Alice cringed at the mention of the word that she probably despised lately just because she doesn’t know what it means, and I was absolutely positive that her curiosity had got the best of her. I knew that she absolutely hates being kept in the dark about things that had anything to do with her so I’m really sure she’ll cave in.

“Fine, I’ll do it.”

See? She’s sometimes too curious for her own good. But this time it literally is.

“That’s my girl.”

I leaned in and gave her a quick kiss on her lips which she didn’t reply cause she was still pouting. And just after I pulled away, she mumbled,

“Not for long if you keep doing these stupid bribes on me.”

“Hmmm, maybe I should just never tell you the answer EVER, huh?”

“Gaahhh, okay, fine, let’s do this already.”

So for the next hour or so, by teaching Alice how to say me and by band mates’ real name, how to say hello both formally and informally, and just the basic Korean, I was the one being taught. Yep, I was being taught about what patience is about, because, man, teaching Alice to speak Korean was like pulling teeth! It’s slow, painful, and sometimes gave you headaches. Seriously, during the whole thing I was more and more convinced that the only thing that’s remotely close to indicate that Alice is indeed Korean is her last name. The girl is an American inside out! If it weren’t for the fact I felt she needed this, I’d probably give up and let her speak English all she wants but no, I can’t give up. So then after around one and a half grueling hours, a few tantrums, from Alice of course, which includes ‘ this, I’m done’ and ‘are you ing serious?’, she came up with this…

“Annyeonghaseyo Leeteuk oppa, Heechul oppa, Yesung oppa, Shindong oppa, Sungmin oppa, Siwon oppa, Donghae oppa, Ryeowook oppa, Alice-imnida.”

Well, she still sounded awfully like an American but this is getting better. And since I was being patient, I kinda rewarded myself a little bit. I taught her something that she didn’t really have to know but I just wanted to hear her say it.

“And who am I?”

“Hyukkie oppa, nae namja chingu.”

God, hearing her saying my name and saying I’m her boyfriend in Korean was like, super awesome! But on top of that, Alice finally speaks Korean! That’s all that mattered, really. I grinned widely at what I had accomplished, but as I saw how agitated she looked, I tried really hard not to grin that wide again. I have a feeling she might actually break up with me if I did that. And I don’t want that.

“Happy now, oppa?”

“Look at that, you already know how to use it.”

If there’s a time where I should be scared that Alice would break up with me I think that time’s now. Jeez, the look she got on her face was like, she’s ready to kill me in my sleep or something!

“How the can I not? I’ve been saying that word non stop for the past hour! God, I need a drink.”

“What do you mean you need a drink? You should be resting.”

I asked as she stood up from the bed and put on my black Adidas hoodie and her thick-framed glasses, looking like she was about ready to actually get a drink. Oh yeah, I don’t know why but lately she had a knack of wearing one of my hoodies, particularly the black Adidas one. It was always that one every single time. Not that I mind, really, I’ve told you how cute she looked in that hoodie, right?

“Oh no honey, after what you just put me through, a nice stiff drink is what I need.”

Man, she really sounded like she’s pissed. This calls for damage control. I stood up from the bed too and walked over to where she was standing near the working desk as she was picking up her Blackberry and the room key. I hugged her from behind, wrapping my arms around her waist and rested my chin on her shoulder.

“Are you mad?”

Alice quickly turned around, looking at me straight in my eyes, pouting a little. Well, she didn’t need to say it, she looked positively pissed.

“I am. I’m mad because you are evil. You couldn’t just tell me, huh?”

I could only smile at that. I guess now I have to actually tell her why I did all this, she still didn’t get it.

“Think of it this way, now you know that even if you don’t speak English, you still love your parents just the same, right?”

For a second Alice’s face just went completely blank after I said that, it’s like I could see the little gears in her brain started grinding, processing everything I just said. Then slowly, her lips curled up into what I think was one of the most captivating smile I’ve ever seen on her face, making me feel I’m the luckiest guy in the world to have her, and to be the reason for her to smile like that. Without saying anything, she leaned in and kissed me, and there it was, the whole unfocused - focused thing started happening again.

“Thanks for making me see it that way.”

She said softly as soon as we both pulled away from the kiss and I just nodded at that. Then we finally got out of the room, trying to get the drink that Alice so badly needed after what she called as ‘a torture so evil that even the Jigsaw killer couldn’t come up with’, she’s being overly dramatic as usual. But as we walked through the hallway towards the elevator, the door of the room closest to it suddenly opened, revealing an angry-looking Siwon.

“I’m leaving and I won’t come back until you start using that brain of yours to think things calmly!”

Alice and I just automatically stopped walking as we heard Siwon yelled that to whoever was inside the room. And just before he slammed the door shut, we heard Tiffany’s voice, yelling back at Siwon, quickly muffled as soon as the door closed. Whoa, that must’ve been a really huge fight. I personally haven’t seen Siwon that angry before, cause everybody knew how much Siwon always tried to avoid confrontation in any way. So to see him looking really hostile like that was a really rare and kind of disturbing thing. Alice and I haven’t even moved from the spot we stood in when Siwon finally noticed that we were there and looked at us. Then something that was just plain weird happened. When Siwon laid eyes on Alice, his expression quickly softened. It was like to Siwon just seeing Alice was enough antidote for his anger. But as soon as he saw me with Alice, the serene expression he had on his face disappeared almost as quickly as it came, replaced with something that I didn’t quite understand. But at the same time, my gut feeling told me that I wasn’t gonna like it. I know Siwon, the guy I’ve been best friends with for a long time, and I know Alice, and I also know what kind of relationship they both shared so I was surprised that I could even think like that about Siwon, but I really just couldn’t help it. I felt Alice let go of my hand and quickly walked towards Siwon, while I could only follow closely behind her. I still couldn’t shake off that feeling I got when Siwon saw us, even though I was pretty sure that was the first time I ever saw that expression on his face I just felt like I have seen it before, but I couldn’t quite remember when. God, this is gonna be bothering me for awhile.

“Nate, what happened? You’re scaring me right now.”

And there it goes, the serene expression on Siwon’s face came back again when Alice asked that, which again stirred up that weird feeling inside me.

“Nothing, Maddie, Tiffany and I just… well, we had a fight.”

“Uh… yeah, dude, we kinda could hear it.”

Without realizing it, I took Alice’s hand in mine again once I got to them and said that to Siwon. I just… felt like I had to, for some reason.

“You guys are always fighting these days.”

Alice’s face scrunched in worry when she said that, not really directing it to anybody. The way she said it, it just seemed like it was just a random thought she had. But Siwon smiled at that nevertheless, even though it wasn’t a happy smile whatsoever. It really did look an awful lot like he smiled because Alice voiced her concerns, no other reason than that.

“Yeah, I guess… we’re just going through a rough patch, you don’t have to worry.”

Siwon said, looking only at Alice when he said that.

“Hey, why don’t you come with us, get your mind off things for awhile, we’re gonna go down to the bar and get some drinks.”

I saw Siwon contemplating about what I said for a little while, before finally shrugging his shoulders and followed Alice and I into the elevator. A couple minutes later, we were already at the bar. Siwon and I were having the bar’s specialty cocktail while Alice already downed a Tequila double shooter excitedly, and started signaling the bartender that she wanted a glass of beer.

“Aish, jagiya, slow down, we still got work tomorrow.”

“Oppa, stop saying that word until I finished what I have to do, okay? , now I can’t get that ‘oppa’ word out of my mind. I blame you.”

Seriously, I could never get enough hearing Alice call me that and could only grin again. But as I looked over at Siwon, his eyes were so wide they looked like they’re about to bust out of the socket when he heard what Alice said.

“Eunhyuk-ah, did… she just…”

My grin grew only wider when Siwon said that, stuttering from the shock.

“Yes Siwon-ah, she just called me ‘oppa’.”

“But… how could…”

“Oh, that’s not the only thing I can do, Nate.”

Alice interjected between me and Siwon’s conversation, or more like me talking and Siwon stuttering from shock. She then coughed a little, dramatically preparing for what she’s gonna do next.

“Annyeonghaseyo Siwon oppa, Alice-imnida.”

Alice smiled proudly at me when she finished saying that and seeing the look of pure shock all over Siwon’s face, giving me a high-five.

“Maddie, you’re… you’re actually speaking Korean.”

“Yeah, I am. I didn’t get how therapeutic it is to do that until ‘someone’ knocked some sense into me and forced me to look at it differently.”

I smiled at Alice’s exaggeration on the word ‘someone’ while she looked at me and smiled back. I put an arm around her neck and pulled her closer to me and kissed the top of her head.

“I’m so proud of you.”

“Oh yes, you should, you distracted me from work to teach me some of the hardest in words known to man, I’m seriously gonna torture you if you’re not proud of me.”

I just laughed at what Alice said as she went back to the glass of beer that the bartender had put in front of her earlier, gulping down nearly half of it in one go. Siwon was missing from all the excitement though, he only sat there observing me and Alice, still with that shocked expression on his face, mixed with the expression that I saw him supporting just before we went down here. I carefully studied Siwon’s expression one more time, and that’s when it finally hit me. I knew when I had seen that look before. The memory brought me back to the day when I had asked Siwon would it be okay with him if anything were to happen between Alice and I, long before she was officially my girlfriend. That’s when I saw that look for the first time. At that time, seeing that look, I was almost sure that Siwon would answer ‘no it’s not okay’ or anything similar to that to keep me from actually going with my plan to date Alice. So yeah, I was relieved when he said it was okay because I just felt like I need his blessing or something like that to make a move on Alice just because I know how much Siwon means to Alice and vice versa. But now, looking back at it, and seeing that look on his face again, I was starting to wonder whether or not he was telling me the truth when he said it was okay. And even if he was indeed lying back then when he said that, I’m just curious about why he felt like it’s not okay for anyone to be with Alice. I didn’t like this realization. I didn’t like it at all.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I finally updated! Yay! I didn't realize it had been so long since I updated when I look at the date on the 'last updated' on top of the foreword. -_-" Anyways, I hope nobody forgets that this story existed and that everybody still enjoy it. Love you all! :*