Chapter Seven: Fuzzy Feelings

Alice was terrified.

Only being able to hear the sounds of fighting frightened her. Who knows how she would react if she could actually see them fighting.

"Not bad lizard!" Gray pushed Ace back a few feet, but Ace was able to keep balance.

"You shouldn't be taking out Alice on such dangerous trips!" reprimanded Gray. He dodged a few of Ace's hits and nearly fell backwards. Gray glared at Ace and threw some circular object at him.

"Next time, don't take Alice out," said Gray. And with that, Alice felt a soft air blowing and it suddenly subsided.

Alice reached forward. "Ace? Gray?"

Gray turned around and smiled. "Do you want me to take you home Alice?" Alice nodded her head quickly and was grateful Gray came along.

"Yes!"

In the car…

"So what did you do to Ace?" asked Alice. She was curious because they were fighting so intensely land suddenly, everything went kind of quiet after that poof of air.

"I just… used a special technique on him," said Gray. It was suspicious, but Alice didn't question it.

"He's alright, isn't he?" asked Alice. She just wanted to make sure she wasn't riding home with a killer. Boy, she would hop right out that car.

"Haha, of course! I just knocked him out for a few hours using a special gas container. He shouldn't be awake probably until after lunch time," answered Gray. Alice sighed in relief and smiled.

This made Gray frown and he tried to conceal his jealously. A long awkward silence filled the car for about twenty minutes before Gray spoke up.

"So… what happened?" asked Gray. He was curious if Ace did something to Alice.

"Um… nothing much. Besides Ace kidnapping me from the library and taking me out for camping, he didn't really do anything dangerous… I guess," said Alice.

"He kidnapped you?"

"More like took me against my will when I was Julius."

Gray felt hurt when he heard Julius's name. "You were with Julius before all of this happened?"

Alice nodded her head. "Yeah… he offered to take off of work early and walked me to the library…."

"Hmm….. I didn't expect Julius to be the kind that would take off of work so readily," muttered Gray. It seemed like Gray didn't know everything about his so-called good friend.

"Me too… he seemed kind of mean… but he's actually kind," said Alice. Wait…I shouldn't be talking about the others with Gray…. It seems kind of weird since he's also a suitor.

I should clear this up so he doesn't think I'm favoring any one of them…

"Well…. I think all of you are pretty kind, so I have no idea why father put you guys in such a position," laughed Alice. She tried to make light conversation.

Gray raised an eyebrow in amusement and chuckled. "Alice, your father didn't hire us or anything like that. I hope you don't have the wrong idea about any of us."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, we all became suitors because we truly have an interest in you," he state bluntly. Alice blushed profusely and shook her head.

"No…. you're just playing around me…. Are you?" Alice was confused. She knew the guys wanted to be her fiancé, but Alice thought it was because of her father.

"Alice, that night Julius and I met you, we never knew about your father looking for suitors. When I first met you, you really took my breath away. I wanted to know more about you."

Alice looked downwards in deep thought. So… father has been trying to help me this whole time by finding me a suitor? And now I have five guys who have genuine interests in me?

Gray looked from the corner of his eyes to see what Alice was doing.

"Alice, are you alright?"

Alice just looked towards the window. "I'm… fine."

The rest of the car trip was filled with radio music and silence between the two. Gray noticed that Alice was dozing off. He resisted the urge to touch her and kept his hands to himself. Just like a gentleman.

"Alice… we're here," Gray said as he lightly tapped her on the shoulders.

Alice rubbed her eyes and gave a small yawn. "I'm home?"

Gray shook his head. "I thought we should stop by the hospital first. To treat your injury." Alice felt Gray's index finger lightly touch her bruised ankle. She winced.

"I almost forgot about it because of you and Ace…" she murmured. "But… I don't think a hospital is necessary. I can just put some ice on it and just rest. My mother is probably going crazy right now since I didn't come home last night."

"But, I think you just make sure nothing is sprained. I think having a long-term injury would be worse than a short-term injury," noted Gray. He tried his best to care for Alice and hoped that she would listen to him.

Alice finally agreed. "Okay then. I'll go." Then Alice felt shy. "Um… Gray?"

"Yes?"

"Can you help me walk to the hospital doors? I don't think I can get there by myself," shyly asked Alice. She didn't like depending on others, but she had to this time. Her walking stick wasn't with her.

Gray smiled. "No problem."

Gray walked Alice to the hospital doors and even helped her make the walk-in appointment with the doctor.

"Do you want me to go with you Alice?" asked Gray. He was still worried about her.

Alice shook her head. "I think I can handle the appointment myself. You can go on ahead. I can just call home and the driver will pick me up."

However, Gray wanted to be with her as much as possible. "No, it's okay. I'll wait. Your appointment will be in ten minutes. I can get us some coffee while waiting," he offered.

Alice already forgot her previous thoughts about Gray. "Okay then..."

But, for some reason, Gray didn't make it back in time.

"Liddell, Alice! Liddell, Alice!" The nurse was already calling out Alice's name a bit earlier than expected and Gray hadn't come back yet from the café.

"Should I wait?" murmured Alice.

"Liddell, Alice!" The nurse called her name for the third time. Alice shrugged her shoulders.

"I'm here," she said. Alice got up and the nurse put her in a wheelchair, leading her to the exam room.

"The doctor will be in shortly. Meanwhile, his assistant will come in and take your vitals," said the nurse.

Alice nodded her head. "Thank you."

A few minutes passed and the door suddenly flew open.

"Sorry! I thought I was going to be late!" It seems like a young man burst through and opened the door really hard, startling Alice.

"It's okay," said Alice. She gave a hesitant smile to the direction of the young man's voice. The young man looked at the medical folder.

"Oh! You're blind," he said. Alice then frowned and already had a bad first impression of the doctor's assistant.

Oh great… another person who's going to pity me…

She felt him waving his hand in front of her face. Alice sighed. "I can feel that."

The young man quickly pulled back his hand and apologized.

"Sorry! Just curious. First time meeting a blind person since my residency here at the hospital," said the young man. Before Alice could say anything, the young man continued speaking.

"Whoops! I didn't introduce myself! I'm Boris Airay! Even though my title is doctor's assistant, I'm still in my third year of med school and I'm on residency right now," he explained.

No wonder he sounded really young….

"Well, why don't we get started on—" then the door opened again.

"Alice Liddell?" It was the doctor. He closed the door and made a gasping noise.

"Hey! I know who you are! You're that girl!" It was Elliot. "How are you?"

Alice recognized his voice but didn't know his name. "I'm… alright. But who are you again?"

Elliot smiled. "Sorry, didn't introduce myself back then. I'm Elliot March. Nice to meet you." Then Elliot looked at Boris who was just standing there. "Hey. You. Did you check her vitals yet?"

Boris gave him a smile. "Uh… not yet?"

Elliot wacked Boris on the head with his clipboard. "Geez, always leaving it up to me! What's the point of having a doctor's assistant?" Elliot sighed.

"Well, I'll do it, just prepare the x-ray machine next door," instructed Elliot.

Boris nodded his head and went out the door.

"Now, shall we check out this ankle?"

Elliot pressed in several spots and Alice winced.

"There?"

Alice nodded her head. "Yeah. That spot."

Elliot scribbled down a few notes and put down his clipboard.

"We'll take an x-ray just to make sure there aren't any broken bones, but it's most likely just a sprained ankle."

Elliot wheelchaired Alice to the x-ray room. As Alice lay down on the table, she asked Elliot a question.

"Hey… Elliot?"

"Yeah?" Elliot was standing behind the glass window as he x-rayed part of Alice's ankle.

"How do you know Blood?"

"Met him after he got into a car accident."

"Car accident?"

"Blood doesn't like to talk about it. But I think he'll be open to you," said Elliot. He walked out from the other side of the glass window.

"You're all good! Just a sprained ankle. I'll wrap it up and you'll be good go!"

Alice sat herself up. "Did you know…?"

Elliot gave her a warm smile. "About what?"

"Did you know about Blood becoming one of my suitors?" Alice tried her best and looked straight up at Elliot.

Elliot, however, looked away. He couldn't say it to her face.

"I….it's none of my business," he said. And that's all he said. Alice thanked Elliot who helped her out of the hospital and led her to one of the waiting benches outside.

"Are you sure you'll be fine outside?" asked Elliot. The kind man didn't want to leave her out like this.

"I'm fine. Thanks for everything," said Alice. Elliot shrugged his shoulders and left her.

Alice sat under the shade and felt a cool fall breeze flow through her hair. It's been so long since Alice had this much attention. She didn't know what to make of it and Elliot wasn't answering any of her questions about Blood. And Gray said that they were all acting out of their own interests. No one was controlling them. Purely emotional.

Love.

Alice closed her eyes.

What is love? Lately… I've been thinking about…

Alice felt her chest tighten and it was uncomfortable.

"Hey you okay?" Alice jumped. "Who's that?"

Boris laughed. "It's me silly!"

Alice gave him a half-smile. "You kind of scared me…"

"Well, you did look like you were about to have some kind of heart attack, the way you held your chest like that you know?"

This guy seems really weird… but oddly familiar… why is he acting so causally with me?

"It's nothing… my chest just kind of tightened up…."

Boris leaned forward. "Want me to check?"

Alice backed up. "N-no! It's fine! It's just…." Alice paused. "Can you make any diagnoses with just descriptions?"

Boris pondered for a moment. "Hmm… kind of. There are plenty of diseases that share similar symptoms, but I can give it try. It's all part of the training!"

"Well…" Alice started. "It's this warm feeling in my chest. It's kind of fuzzy. And sometimes, it doesn't go away for hours and one time, it lasted for a whole day. I don't know. I kind of felt happy, but I don't think it's healthy…"

Boris listened and smiled. "I don't think anything's wrong with you."

Alice gave him a look. "Huh?"

"I think you're experiencing an emotion called 'love'."

This chapterrrrrr... took me forever to write! Well... probably cause it's super late at night (or morning I should say hahaha) and I'm half delusional still writing this LOL. So sorry about the grammar or spelling errors then! I was writing up some ideas for new HnKnA fanfiction! And I have a few stories I think that you all may like :) (Well, I hope so!) I fixed some of the spacing between sentences and dialogue for previous chapters in Shining Brightly. Now I kind of understand why many of you told me that it was difficult to figure who was saying what. I'll be more careful next time ;)

Thanks for reading and please review! ~Seo Hyunee