“Naaate! The movie’s over!”

I called out to Nate who was in the kitchen as I was curling up on the couch with his thick woolen blanket draped over me. After Aunt Grace dropped me off here this afternoon, Nate and I just decided to stay in and watch movies instead of going around Seoul like we initially planned before I got here. In Nate’s defense, he was just too tired from the rehearsals and just didn’t have the mood to go out in public places in the risk of getting caught by reporters. One of his biggest fears is that the media found out about me. No, not because he was ashamed of me or anything, but because he doesn’t want me to become an object for the media to focus on. He succeeded in doing that so far, until now the media has zero knowledge about one Alice Yoon who’s been friends with Nate since he was 7 years old. What’s with all the media and reporters you ask? Well, my best friend Nate here, or Choi Siwon to his fans, happened to be quite a celebrity. He’s an actor and one of the members of this Korean boyband Super Junior since about a few years ago with millions of fans that consisted mostly of screaming young girls, and sometimes older women, I’m not kidding you. But even through all that, nothing between me and Nate has changed, except for the fact that we can’t go out in public freely now and that sometimes I could only see him for a couple of days at a time when I go back to Seoul because of his hectic schedule. During those years we spent most of our time together here in his group’s dormitory, because it was one of the safest places we can be without the media pestering Nate. That’s also how I became good friends with the rest of his band mates, another reason why I always come back to Seoul. Nate’s band mates are probably the craziest bunch of guys I’ve ever met but they’re also just the sweetest.

                “Have you put the other movie in?”

Nate said as he got out of the kitchen and sat beside me, slipping inside of the blanket himself and handed me the cup of hot chocolate. Out of all the people in my life, only Nate who knows how to make me a hot chocolate that’s exactly the way I want it. Not even Aunt Grace can compete with Nate when it comes to hot chocolate-making and can you believe it, when I tried to make one myself I just threw it away cause it doesn’t even come close to the taste of the hot chocolate that Nate makes for me. So it’s safe to say that I only drink hot chocolate whenever Nate is around.

                “I thought you wanna see the ending to this movie first, I can rewind it.”

Nate just shot me a dirty glance before answering,

“And why would I do that when you’ll most definitely spoil the ending for me? I’d watch it myself later.”

I could just grin sheepishly at that because well, Nate was right. There are countless times where I went to the movies with Nate and he’d go out of the cinema pissed off because I ruined the ending for him, talking excitedly to myself, knowing what the character in the movie will do next. I mean, how can I help it? Most of the movies released in Seoul have been released in the States first. So then I gave up in trying to make Nate watched the ending to this movie just cause I know that he wouldn’t budge and just changed the movie instead. We didn’t talk for the first couple minutes of the movie, trying to concentrate on what this movie is about. None of the other guys were around and that was because Nate specifically told them to stay out of the dorm for the whole day. When I asked him why he did it, he just simply say ‘I’m just not ready to share you with them yet’, which actually make sense cause once I met Hee, Fishie Lee and Silver, or Heechul, Donghae and Eunhyuk to you guys, they’re most likely gonna be hogging me for the whole day. Yeah, out of all of Nate’s band mates they’re the ones I’m closest with. Why do I call them with that name, you ask? It’s just I can NEVER pronounce their names correctly so I just call them with those names instead and there hasn’t been any complaints for as long as I know them. Well, even if there is I think I’ve gotten good at ignoring it. :P

                “Maddie, tomorrow’s June 7^th.”

I looked away from the TV screen and looked at Nate after he said that and see the solemn expression that matches mine every time June 7^th comes. We both know what that means and what that date represents to me. I looked away from Nate and took a deep breath before slowly letting it out. I fiddled around with the cup as I felt Nate’s arm wrap around me.

                “Yeah, I know. You’ll come with me tomorrow right?”

The look of expectancy in my face must’ve been obvious as I looked at Nate cause then he’d smile comfortingly at me, showing those obvious dimples.

                “Don’t I always? I’ll pick you and Aunt Grace up tomorrow morning, okay?”

I nodded and smiled back at him. Every single year when June 7^th comes, he’s the one who makes everything just seemed all better. Then suddenly Nate’s phone rang, he scooched over to the nightstand beside the couch and took his phone. One look at his expression and I suddenly realized how special the person on the phone was.

                “You never told me about this one.”

I said with a small smile on my face and he just returned that dimpled smile at me again.

                “She’s, well… I’ll tell you about her after this, okay?”

Then Nate stood up from the couch and took the call, talking excitedly in Korean to whoever was on the line. The smile I had on my face was quickly wiped away as soon as Nate left the room, there’s no point in pretending anymore once Nate left. I let out a long sigh and brought my knees up to my chest, resting my head on them. 16 years had gone by and this doesn’t get any easier.

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*FLASHBACK*

The little girl looked around timidly at her surroundings, finally admitting to herself that she was indeed lost. She looked to her left and right and truly didn’t remember where she came from. Her bottom lip started trembling slightly; she was in the verge of tears. These high ceilings, big windows and long empty hallways in this building scared her. Now she really regretted why she didn’t listen to her aunt when she told her to stay put while her aunt had to work for awhile. She turned around and was about to run crying to whoever was around so that she can find her aunt when she suddenly bumped into someone. The force from the collision made her topple over and fell down. The frustration of getting lost and the pain from falling down on a cold tiled floor finally got to her and she broke down to tears, hugging her feet and burying her face on her knees. As she cried, she felt a touch on her arm and she looked up and saw a little boy about her age crouching on his knees, looking concernedly at her, apparently the person she bumped into was that boy. Although a little surprised that she could meet a little boy in the building that she observed only filled with adults, she couldn’t lie that she was a little relieved to meet him. But then the little boy started talking in a language that she can’t understand and she suddenly felt like crying again from the sheer frustration. Her lips started trembling again and she could only shook her head at the questions in the foreign language that the little boy was asking, judging on his tone of voice. Seeing the reaction the little girl was expressing, the boy stopped talking and looked curiously at her, wondering why the girl didn’t answer his questions and looked more and more terrified as he asked her why she was crying.

                “You can’t speak Korean?”

The little girl’s face instantly light up as the boy asked her a question in English, the one language that she knows how to speak. She nodded her head timidly at the boy’s question before answering,

                “Yeah, I can only speak English.”

                “Oh, so that’s why you looked like you nearly cried when I asked you why were you crying.”

                “Uh… I got lost.”

The boy then sat legs crossed in front of the girl. She caught his attention right away because of what happened. The way the girl couldn’t speak Korean, and why she was all alone in the office building that his father worked in. He quietly observed her and saw that even though she had some Korean quality on her features, she doesn’t look like the girls he went to school with. Her hair color is jet-black but her eyes were blue and big, not like the black, small and slanted ones that he knew most Koreans have. He’s now more and more curious about this girl.

                “Where’s your mom?”

That’s the first question that the boy could think of because there’s no way that she made it here all alone. As far as he knew, only adults go here and he also only went here if his father took him. To his surprise, the girl shook her head at his question.

                “I don’t have a mom.”

                “Your dad?”

                “I don’t have a dad too.”

                “Then what are you doing here?”

“I went here with my aunt, she said she had to work for awhile and she told me to stay put but I didn’t listen to her and now I’m lost.”

Reminded of the fact that she was still lost, the little girl started crying again. Seeing this, the boy quickly sat beside the girl and patted her on the back, trying to stop her from crying. He felt sorry for the girl because she said that she doesn’t have a mom and a dad while he still has both of his parents and he can’t imagine if both of them aren’t around.

                “It’s okay, I’ll help you find your aunt.”

The girl instantly stopped crying at what the boy said. She felt thankful that this boy was nice because the boys in her school likes to make fun of her because she doesn’t have parents and she looked weird, different from most girls here in Korea.

                “Really? You’ll help me?”

                “Yeah, sure. Um… what’s your name anyway?”

                “I’m Alice. What’s your name?”

                “My name’s Choi Siwon. But you can call me Siwon.”

Her eyes widened when she heard the boy’s name, knowing it’s gonna be really hard to say.

                “I can’t… I can’t say your name.”

                “You haven’t tried.”

Alice hesitated for awhile, battling in her mind whether she should try. She can’t speak a word of Korean but Siwon has been so nice to her and she wanted to be nice to him too.

                “Uh… Ch, Ch, Choooyy… Shi, sheee, um… “

Siwon involuntarily giggled at that, despite feeling sorry for her, because she sounded and looked really funny when she tried to say his name. Alice instantly stopped trying to say his name, afraid that she’ll earn another giggle from him if she tried again.

                “See? I can’t say your name.”

Siwon was still recovering from the giggle as he wiped the tears of mirth from his eyes. Seeing the saddened expression on Alice’s face, he decided to just keep the laughter inside, for some reason he just didn’t want to see Alice cry again.

                “Sorry I laughed, you just sounded a little funny to me.”

                “I’m sorry.”

                “Don’t be. Let’s go find your aunt.”

Alice looked up expectantly Siwon stood up and extended his hand for her to hold, he’s being so nice to her and now she felt bad that she couldn’t even say his name. Nevertheless, she took his hand and stood up from the floor, walking hand in hand with Siwon as they walked around the building, searching for Alice’s aunt.

                “Uh… if I can’t say your name then what should I call you with?”

Siwon scrunched his nose and furrowed his eyebrows as Alice asked that, thinking hard. He really wanted to give Alice his name because he really felt like seeing her again, something about her just interested him, but how can they go on and being friends if she couldn’t even call him by his name? He started scratching the back of his head in search of some name that she can call him with but he was just clueless.

                “Uh… I really can’t think of anything, Alice. What do you usually call your mates?”

                “Nate? Who’s Nate?”

                “Huh? What are you talking about?”

                “You asked what do I usually call my Nate, I don’t know anybody with that name.”

Siwon started giggling when he realized what was going on. Because of his thick Korean accent when speaking in English, Alice must’ve heard him wrong.

                “I was saying ‘mate’, with an M.”

                “Oh, sorry about that.”

And then Siwon thought of a brilliant idea. He looked at Alice with an excited expression on his face.

                “You said you don’t know anyone named Nate, right?”

                “Well… yeah.”

“Now you do. Call me Nate, that way you’ll always remember me cause I’m the only Nate you know.”

A big grin appeared on Alice’s face, matching the one on Siwon’s face as they looked at each other excitedly, finally having something to call each other with. And as they turned around a corner, they were suddenly met with two rather familiar pair of eyes. Alice’s aunt and Siwon’s father quickly came over the two of them, then Siwon, her aunt and his father started talking quickly in Korean. Her aunt looked like she was apologizing to Siwon’s father, judging by the way she was bowing down repeatedly. But Siwon’s father, who looked really nice in Alice’s eyes didn’t even seem to mind and waved away her aunt’s apology. A part of Alice was glad that she finally found her aunt but does that mean she won’t be seeing Nate again?

                “You scared the life out of me, Alice. Don’t ever do that again.”

Alice looked up at her aunt, scared that she might be mad at him, or something. But all she saw was worry.

                “I’m sorry, Aunt Grace. I won’t do it again.”

Siwon’s father, who had been talking to Siwon the whole time, turned his head towards Alice and her aunt, and with a warm smile on his face he bent down in front of Alice. But then he started to speak to her in Korean and Alice could only cast a worried look towards Siwon, silently asking for his help. To Alice’s surprise, Siwon looked like he understood it right away. He just smiled at her and spoke to his father, probably telling him that she doesn’t understand a word of Korean. A look of realization spread across Siwon’s father’s face.

                “Why didn’t you tell me you can’t speak Korean?”

                “Uh… I’m afraid you’ll be mad at me.”

                “Why would I, my dear? If I am, I think my son’s gonna be mad at me too.”

Alice looked at Siwon and back to his father, stifling a giggle. She felt comfortable talking to this man already, he’s so nice.

                “So, we’ll be expecting you in our house soon then, Alice.”

Siwon’s father stood up with a warm smile on his face and beckoning for Siwon to follow him. Alice didn’t get it, why would he want her in his house? Then suddenly Siwon pulled her by the hand and whispered to her,

“I told my dad that you’ll be spending a lot of time with me from now on because you’re my new best friend. I think you’re really cool, Alice.”

Then he smiled at her and waved as he walked away with his father. Alice felt like something warm washed over her as Siwon said that because she knew that she felt the same way too. She never had someone being as nice as Siwon was to her and she thought that Siwon was really cool too. And on that very day, at just 7 years old, Alice Yoon knew that the boy she just accidentally met was the one who will always have her heart and will always be the love of her life.

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 Yes, I'm dropping a major hint about where this story is gonna go... Hope everybody enjoy reading it as I enjoyed writing it... =]

Aaaahh, the object of my obsession himself... How many packs of gummy worms do I need to exchange to be that apple? :P