*EUNHYUK’S POV*

I looked over to my side and saw that Alice still hasn’t had anything to eat. All the guys, the girls from SNSD and a couple of our managers had been here in this restaurant for dinner for a good half an hour now and all she had done was just playing around with her food, pushing them around but didn’t actually eat anything. Then suddenly Alice looked up at me, probably realizing that I was looking at her for quite some time now and gave me a small shy smile. I’ll give you a heads up and say that this would sound incredibly lame of me to say, but for the sake of my good lord Jesus Christ, I have to confess that I’ve always liked that smile on her. I don’t think she even realized how cute she looked when she smiled like that.

                “Aren’t you ever gonna eat?”

                “I will. Just…”

                “Not in the mood?”

                “Not really. But…”

                “Not hungry?”

                “Quit finishing my sentence for me!”

Yep, just the reaction I was looking for, the feisty Alice is back now. I just flashed her a big grin and she lightly laughed and playfully punched my arm, making me laugh also. Another thing I gotta admit, which I think is pretty obvious from what I had admitted previously, is I kinda… have a thing for her. I couldn’t really pin point when I started feeling that way towards her, all I know was that I was suddenly so excited when Siwon told us that Alice’s gonna be spending this summer with us.  When me and the guys first met her she was this… shy and introverted girl that we know as Siwon’s best and oldest friend, almost like a sister, even. Even through her quiet demeanor, from the get-go, I’ve always known that she was different. There was something about her that’s really… unique, I think. Whether it is from her jet-black hair that contrasted with her bright blue eyes, making the Korean and the American quality on her face kinda contradicted each other, hence her looking racially ambiguous. Or maybe from the way she chose not to speak Korean when she’s practically surrounded by Korean-speaking people, those tattoos of a Latin phrase on her back just below the nape of her neck and also the pair of small angel wings on her lower back, the kind of music she listens to, the things she likes, how refreshing her and her attitude are compared to these cookie-cutter girls I’ve gotten so used to be around with. I mean, I should know how cookie-cutter they are; I’ve dated a couple of them. You know what, I can name a lot of other things I realized about her but it all boils down to one thing; it made me notice her. And then it led to me wanting to know more and well… you kinda can figure out the rest.

                “Agh, I’m losing my patience with you.”

I said as I realized that even though Alice said she’d eat soon, she still hadn’t touched her food. This called for drastic measures. I put down my knife and fork and took hers from her hands, cutting a small portion of the baked salmon in front of her, stuck the fork in it and I pretty much held it in front of her face, waiting for her to open so she can eat it.

                “Eat. Now.”

Alice was looking at me like I was insane as I did and said all those things. But to my surprise, she actually did what I expected her to do and let me feed her with the little piece of salmon I cut for her.

                “There. That wasn’t so hard now, was it?”

She chuckled and once again punched my arm playfully as I said that.

                “Silver, you’re absolutely crazy, you know that?”

Yeah, crazy about you, maybe. And of course, I mentally slapped myself in the forehead as I thought of that. God, I seriously need to get a grip. I mean, she DID turn me down when I asked her out so I didn’t know why I still couldn’t shake off this thing I got for her and instead get drawn to her even more. Especially since this past couple of days I saw that she was shifting back into her old introverted self, keeping to herself and was suddenly M.I.A whenever we hung out, which was weird because even though that’s what she was like for the first couple years that we knew her, she gradually become a lot more livelier and comfortable around us as the years went by. So you could see why I think that something is seriously wrong with her, right? I mean, people don’t just switch back into their old self with no apparent reason. I had tried asking her this but she just flat out told me that nothing’s wrong and changed the topic of the conversation in record-quick time. I even asked Heechul hyung about this since she seemed to confide in him a little more than she did to us cause they were actually quite close but even he had no idea about it. I know I should’ve gone to Siwon cause he IS her best friend and if anyone should realize that something’s wrong with Alice, it should’ve been him but, I don’t know, he just seemed like he was too busy with Tiffany whenever I tried to talk to him about this.

“So… I’m the one asking you this now, are you gonna finish your meal or are you just gonna sit there waiting for me to finish mine?”

Alice asked, with that adorable questioning look on her face. Okay, insert another mental forehead-slapping right here. But seriously, every time she asked anyone a question she always had the same look with her eyebrows slightly frowned and the faintest pout and it was just, well… cute. Aish, I’m like a complete and total fool for this girl. Damn you for being that cute, Alice Yoon. Well not damn her, cause I think there’s nothing about her that should be damned, in fact it was quite the contrary, her existence is a blessing but… okay, I’m gonna stop. Seriously, it’s for my own good.

“You know what, that’s a good idea though. Since I notice that you haven’t made any progress from the teenie piece of salmon that I had to practically shove down your throat, I’m not gonna eat ANYTHING until you finished a whole set menu.”

I put aside my fork and knife and pushed my plate away from me, crossing my arms over my chest to show Alice I meant what I said. She looked at me, her eyes grew as big as possible as if she was still trying to make sure whether I was serious or not.

“Are you in’ insane? A whole set menu will be like, an hour-long and by then this place will be closed and you won’t even have time to eat!”

“Your call. You wanna eat or you wanna let me starve tonight?”

“What the f… How does that even make sense?!”

“This place closes at 10 PM, it is now 9.05 PM.”

“God, you are unbelievably crazy, stubborn, absurd…”

“It’s 9.06 PM, Alice.”

Alice shot me one of those deadly glares that would surely made anyone think twice before crossing her and huffed, grudgingly picking up her knife and fork and continued to eat. Yay, mission accomplished! I could just stifle a giggle as I saw her practically assaulting the salmon with her knife with such force that I was surprised that plate didn’t break from the way she was abusing it. I kept my eyes on her all the while she was doing that, quite amused at that, to be honest. She glanced over to me and saw the amused look I was sporting when I saw the way she ate and she slowly but surely broke into a giggle, covering as she did so cause there were still some food that she was trying to chew and she was obviously trying her hardest not to choke. That triggered me into finally breaking into a giggle too. I didn’t know what was so funny about that situation but I just felt like laughing and apparently she thought the same too. Her shoulders shook slightly as she giggled and tears of mirth started falling down from her eyes. Then without even thinking, I reached out and wiped the tears on her cheek with my thumb, it just felt like it was the right thing to do then. And so help me god, I might have had my hand touched her cheek for awhile longer than normal, but I just couldn’t help myself. Her giggle somehow subsided right after I did that and… was that a blush that I saw appeared on her face?

*DONGHAE’S POV*

Man, I’m seriously so close to laughing my out and started hollering at the love-sick puppies sitting across me right now if it weren’t for the fact that we’re having a dinner in a rather crowded restaurant and I’d look pretty damn stupid if I do that. But oh my god, the sight in front of me is PRICELESS. Alice and Hyukjae were like so wrapped up in their own little world that they didn’t even realize I was staring at them the whole time. First it was the whole episode where Hyukjae suddenly started feeding Alice and I was completely taken aback when Alice let him do that. Seriously, Alice? Where did the I-can-do-everything-myself-and-I-don’t-need-a-man girl go to? Letting a guy treated her like that is so not like Alice at all. But then again, that quirky girl never failed to surprise me, considering how unpredictable her actions can be. After the whole Hyukjae feeding Alice and everything, they started laughing together and was pretty much oblivious to the fact that half the table were looking at them, then Hyukjae touched Alice’s face or something like that and I could see that obvious red tint started rising on both her cheeks and all they could do was just smile shyly at each other. Oh come on man, Hyukjae, screw everything and kiss her already! God, I wish they would’ve cut the and just admit that they’re totally smitten with each other. Well, I know for a fact that Hyukjae is totally crushing on Alice, but the question now is trying to figure out what Alice was thinking. When Alice and I had that little talk about her and Hyukjae when she told me that he finally asked her out, she was pretty much on the fence about going out with Hyukjae so I didn’t really say anything to Hyukjae about what Alice told me. Truth be told, I wasn’t even supposed to tell Alice that Hyukjae liked her but I just couldn’t help it! I love my best friend and all, but the fact that he had the hots for Alice since, like, I don’t know, a million years ago and did absolutely nothing about it kinda bugged the hell out of me. But then awhile ago, Hyukjae came to me, looking like his house just got on fire, or something just for the fact that he looked totally miserable, and told me that Alice had turned him down. This was totally weird because seeing the way Alice is acting around Hyukjae, it’s pretty obvious that there’s at least some spark there. So, really, what’s holding her back?

                 “Couldn’t wait for them to just get it on already, huh?”

I shot a shocked look towards Heechul hyung who was sitting beside me as he whispered those words to me, covering his mouth with his palm as he did so and motioning his head towards Alice and Hyukjae.

                “Hyung, you knew?”

“Psh, isn’t it obvious? I mean, even Yesung out of all people noticed, and we all know he never really cared about anything like that.”

                “So Alice told you, then, about why she wouldn’t go out with Hyukjae?”

“That’s the weird thing, though; she just flat out remained tight-lipped about it when I asked her about what’s going on between them and just said that they’re friends and nothing changed. I was, like, yeah right just friends, my . Her cheeks and ears turned beet red when I asked her that.”

“What’s Maddie embarrassed about?”

Both Heechul hyung and I turned our heads towards Siwon, who apparently had sat on my left hand side. Whoa, when did he get there? Last time I checked, Tiffany was the one sitting there. Aish, I’ve been paying too much attention on those lovebirds there. *cough*Alice and Hyukjae*cough*

                “Who said anything about Alice?”

 “Well, when Maddie gets embarrassed her cheeks and ears would turn red simultaneously, but only her cheeks and ears. No one else does that around here.”

Heechul hyung looked like he was as amused as I was when Siwon said that matter-of-factly, answering Heechul hyung’s question. It was if he was saying that the grass is green and the sky is blue. I guess having the same person as your best friend for pretty much your whole life kinda does that to you, huh?

“Yeah, well, she was probably THAT embarrassed when I asked her about her and our Hyukjae there.”

Siwon had a dumbfounded look on his face when Heechul hyung said that. He actually had asked that to me awhile back but since Alice was still pretty reserved when it came to Hyukjae, I really didn’t think that Siwon should know back then. Plus, Alice DID threatened to cut my balls off and feed them to her dog if I told anyone so I chose to keep my mouth shut. Seriously, if I know that girl as well as I think I do, she’ll actually make real of what she said, that psycho chick.

“Well, stating the obvious, Hyukjae has had the hots for Alice for quite some time now and I guess if nobody knows about this back then I’m pretty sure everybody had figured it out by now, seeing as they’ve been kind of close for the past few days, acting like two love-sick puppies around each other.”

“Which I think is good for Alice, she’s been looking kinda depressed since a few days back and she’s not telling anyone why.”

To my surprise, that dumbfounded look on Siwon’s face only became more and more apparent as Heechul hyung put his two cents into what I said. Does he have no clue about what we were talking about?

                “Siwon-ah, don’t tell me that you don’t know anything about this.”

It shocked both Heechul hyung and I when Siwon shook his head to what I said. And to think that this is coming from the guy who can give us an exact description of how his best friend acts when she’s embarrassed.

*SIWON’S POV*

It really did kill me a little inside when I had to shake my head to what Donghae and Heechul hyung said about Maddie, signaling that I honestly didn’t have any clue about what they were talking about. I realized that these past few days, I haven’t really spent much time with Maddie. Maybe I was just too excited of seeing my girlfriend that I kinda… forgot that Maddie was around. Oh wow, Siwon, way to go, and now you really seemed like an ignorant when you admit that. The thing that made the whole thing about me kind of abandoning Maddie is a little bit awful is because deep in my heart I know she would never do that to me. I mean, she had a few boyfriends in the past but that didn’t make her completely oblivious to any other things that were happening to me. I instantly looked over to where Maddie was sitting and I saw that she was talking animatedly with Eunhyuk, laughing every once in awhile at what he was telling her, and she honestly looked happy. Although it did kinda bummed me out to see that she was THAT happy and I wasn’t even involved in it. Hhhh, maybe it was just my protective side over her that started to talk again even though I can’t really help it. Being so protective around Maddie just really felt natural even when I was a kid and there were kids in our school whose only goal is probably to always hurt her whether it be verbally or physically, which then led to Aunt Grace sending Maddie to the States, making me feel like I didn’t even wanna get out of the house knowing that I won’t be seeing her everyday at school. Man, when I found out about what those kids did to her, maybe that was the first time in my life where I nearly killed anyone. Speaking of caring about Maddie, judging by how Donghae and Heechul hyung were fussing over her relationship with Eunhyuk and the fact that she was looking kinda down, I guess it’s safe to say that over the years my band mates had grown to care about Maddie too, which is a good thing no matter what, although maybe the kind of care that grew on Eunhyuk towards Alice was entirely different than the ones my other band mates have. Why do I keep talking about that, anyway? I quickly looked away from Maddie and Eunhyuk and picked some random spot behind them to stare at but it was pretty dang useless cause my eyes just kept wandering back to them. What the hell is wrong with me? It’s a good thing that they didn’t even realize me staring at them since they were so caught up with each other to even notice what was going on cause if they do, I’m gonna have a lot of explaining to do.

                “Babe? Siwon? Oppaaaa?”

                “Huh?”

I didn’t know how long Tiffany had been trying to get my attention, all I know was that when I finally looked at her, she was already pouting at me, obviously bugged.

                “Why are you suddenly so distant, oppa? You were clearly fine when we came.”

I could only laugh lightly at the beautiful girl sitting beside me and put my arm around her, kissing her forehead softly. Even though I know she’s a little bugged, can I just say that she looked really cute when she’s acting that way?

                “I’m fine, babe, don’t worry.”

                “Then why do you keep looking at Alice and Eunhyuk oppa?”

I totally forgot that my girlfriend had the eyes of a hawk when it comes to things like these, especially when it comes to Maddie. Lately I’m starting to think that she’s having a hard time to accept the kind of relationship I have with Maddie although I actually have told her from the beginning how close Maddie and I are.

                “I just… think that they look really happy, that’s all, and I’m glad for that.”

I let out a sigh as I saw Tiffany boldly rolled her eyes at what I said. I didn’t think that she’d reacted this harshly, honestly. I edged closer to her on my seat and planted a kiss on her temple while she still had that irritated look on her face.

                “Babe, are we gonna go through this again?”

                “Yes we will, oppa, if Alice continues to run around the place like she owns you, or something.”

                “Owns me? Babe, it’s not like that at all, we’re just… really close, you know that, right?”

*TIFFANY’S POV*

I can’t believe how blind my boyfriend could be. One look at that loser Alice the first time I met her and how displeased she was to see me, I already could easily tell that she wanted him. I’m seriously sick of her.

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Ah, I feel like having a little Alice-Hyukkie moment so there you go... :P And... uh oh, is Tiffany gonna stir something up? Beautiful AFF peeps, please make me happy, you know what to do right? *wink* kekeke :P