Author's Note: It's been a while, I apologize for that =_= but it seems that I had written the third chapter a while back and just forgot to post it here on fanfiction,net XD I've actually been wanting to work on this little project again, see where the story takes me. I'd like to think my writing has even improved a little bit since the summer, so I might as well take the rest of Winter Break to my advantage and try to write the fourth chapter...

Anyways, enjoy!


Spring continued to be a bright and colorful season, vibrant flower beds blooming all across the vast green hills of Russia. The lakes and rivers shimmered as the sun's rays cast its light over them, while reflecting in their blue surfaces a mirror of the sky above. Birds with new songs and tunes sang as they flew about, living in the tall dark green trees that towered over the countryside. A foreigner or newcomer would have to take in the atmosphere for a few minutes; after all, Russia was said to be its prettiest in the spring.

A few days had passed since Shun had begun staying at Alice's house. Nothing much had happened of late, and everyday was practically the same; he continued sleeping on her couch in the living room, he continued feasting on delicious Japanese cuisine for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, he continued using her shower and bath, and he continued taking nice long walks outdoors, even nice refreshing naps in the hills, occasionally with Alice herself by his side when she had the time.

But as those days kept passing, Shun found himself enjoying the stay even more; and he owed it all to Alice.

Sure, while coming to the rural countryside of Moscow in the middle of spring with no plans on where to eat or sleep, Alice had been there to offer her best hospitality in her home. Her little house was quite warm and cozy, and was always kept in good arrangement; she was there to make his meals (while discovering in the process that she was the most wonderful cook he had ever known), she was there to wash and dry his clothes, she was there for so many things. His random decision for a vacation in another country had been saved by Alice, and he had a lot to thank her for.

Of course, traveling to Russia unplanned had a deeper reason to it; but he would keep it secret for now.

It had been four days, and Shun found himself lying on his couch bed, reading a Japanese newspaper which Alice had somehow managed to find, and feeling rather disgusting. Despite being able to use her shower everyday, this didn't fix the odor embedded deeply into his clothes; and even though they were washed every time he went to take a shower, that didn't fix the other problem; they were the only clothes he had with him.

Alice had relied on alternatives, such as going to her grandfather's laboratory and bringing back any clothes for him that she could find; which consisted of plaid buttoned shirts, brown khaki pants, leather belts, hard shiny shoes, and white lab coats, all of which were over-sized and too big for him. Shun ended up wearing one of the ridiculously colored button-up shirts for one night while waiting for his clothes to dry, and was shocked that the entire night, Alice didn't laugh at him even once.

That morning, however, Shun was becoming convinced that he was just dirtying his clothes every day, whether or not they were put in the washing machine.

He was busy reading about an interesting mochi recipe when his attention turned to Alice, who was walking out of the hallway. His eyes lingered over her image curiously; her skin looking bright and dewy, her curly orange red hair left down, her brown eyes up and awake. She wore about her a light blue dress with a white leather double-breasted jacket and black boots, a maroon-colored scarf around her neck and a brown leather shoulder bag worn over her shoulder. Shun couldn't help but feel his face grow warm with intrigue as he quickly glanced over her curves, the conservatively-paired clothes pressed beautifully against her flattering figure.

"Going off somewhere?" he asked, looking back at his newspaper.

Alice nodded, smiling. "Yeah, I was about to go shopping, we need some groceries," she explained.

"Oh, okay," Shun tried to say casually, adjusting his elbow back to support himself up higher, although at the same time getting a whiff of a strong stench coming from the sweat stains on the part of his shirt by his arm pits. He scowled, annoyed already.

Alice seemed to notice his grimace and grew concerned. "Um, Shun, do you need your clothes to be washed again?" she proposed.

Shun could imagine himself blushing. "N-No, it's fine," he responded. "I'd probably break your washing machine if they went in there again for the fifth time..."

Alice chuckled, although she still appeared worried. She paused for a few moments, pondering to herself. Shun wondered if even she could smell the awful scent coming from his shirt and pants. He had never become more self-conscious in his entire life, stiffening instantly.

"Hey, Shun..." Alice began, looking almost a little embarrassed.

"Y-Yeah?" Shun managed to say, "what is it?"

"Do you wanna go buy some more clothes?"

Inside, Shun sighed with relief, thankful she hadn't brought up the smell, but at the same time was puzzled by her question. He put the newspaper down, looking over to her. "Clothes?"

"Well, I know it'd be bad if you just wore the same clothes everyday, and my grandfather's clothes are obviously not in your size," Alice explained. "If you come with me to go grocery shopping, we can also stop by the mall and buy you a few things, you know?" She raised an eyebrow. "Would you come along with me?"

A shopping trip. Shun had never imagined himself ending up on one of those. He had never been exactly fascinated by fashion; his grandfather had bought him all of his clothes after his mother, and he just wore them in whatever random match he desired without a second thought. And he wasn't exactly fond of public department stores... But maybe they were different in Russia.

He shrugged. "I guess I could come with you. I wouldn't be a bother for the grocery-shopping part, would I?"

"Of course not!" Alice gave him a stern look. "When have you ever been a bother to me?"

"I was thinking about these past few days," Shun said under his breath, as if hoping she wouldn't hear.

But Alice heard him anyway. She just smiled. "Shun, you've been an amazing guest," she told him reassuringly. "And it's been really fun having you here, I enjoy your company. And as my guest, I must provide the best care I can; whether that be buying you clothes or anything of the sort. So please don't call yourself a bother!"

Shun's heart was already beating a bit faster. She looked so cute like that...

He snapped back to reality. "Uh, right, sorry," he said quickly. He then got off of the couch, folding the newspaper and putting it on top of his blankets. Alice took his jacket down from the coat hanger by the entrance way and handed it to him, which he slipped on.

"Alright, then let's go," Alice said cheerfully as they headed out the door.


Alice led Shun to the nearest train station, which was surprisingly close, despite them being far from the city. They headed inside the Moscow Metro, Alice buying them two tickets and heading off to one of the platforms. They then went onto a train of the cyan line, the Filyovskaya Line, and sat down in two seats by a window; there were many seats available, as the train was not very crowded.

"We'll be stopping at Arbatskaya," Alice explained to him. "Over there and out of the station, there is a nice farmers market, and that's where I typically buy all of my groceries. But since we've been eating Japanese food lately, we'll have to make an extra stop at an international supermarket closer to the city center. That's where I got all the food I've used so far," she added.

"And then after the supermarket, we go to the mall?" Shun asked hesitantly.

"Yes, we'll probably go to Metropolis, since it's currently the most popular mall in Moscow." Alice rested her hand against her chin, thinking hard. "I believe they have mostly new franchises, like H&M, River Island, Zara, Tommy Hilfiger, Mango, Levi's, Esprit... They have a lot of clothes shops there, and they're quite fancy, but there are also some less expensive thrift stores there as well if you're not picky about what you wear. How do you typically dress, Shun?" she asked him.

Shun was reluctant to respond. "I don't really think about it much, my grandfather bought me all of my clothes, so it's mostly just jackets and jeans and maybe some t-shirts here and there. But that's about it."

Alice smiled. "Well your grandfather certainly has good fashion taste!"

"He does?" Shun questioned.

Suddenly, in mere seconds, Alice turned bright red, as if she had let a slip of the tongue get in her way and she hadn't anticipated his question. "U-Uh, w-well," she stuttered, "...t-they just l-look good on y-you..." Her cheeks were turning scarlet. "Th-The clothes, I-I mean..."

Shun found himself blushing as well, and he turned his head away from her, his face becoming pink. "Th-Thanks," he then replied awkwardly. Although inside, he could see himself jumping up and down, happy that he had received a compliment from such a cute girl. He inwardly slapped himself at the thought. Idiot! he snapped. Don't think such stupid things!

The two were silent for a few minutes, but then Alice quickly rose up, still blushing, but she took Shun's hand and pulled him up to his feet. They were at Arbatskaya. "L-Let's go," she said.


The two grocery shopping trips went fairly quickly, as Alice had done the part of the routine several times and thus was very quick with which ingredients to grab. At the end of the farmers market trip, one of the shopkeepers handed Shun an enormous basket carrying the food she had bought, and there was enough room to stuff the grocery bags from the big supermarket inside too. While Alice suggested that they take turns carrying it, since it was a massive load, Shun handled all the work himself and held it about in hand for the entire duration of the trip.

It was also during the trip that Shun began to notice an innumerable amount of people giving him a glances. The Russians probably assumed he was a foreigner and thus were giving him several different looks, but it began to bug him when he noticed that most of the Russians looking at him were teenage girls. He just pretended he didn't notice and did his best to make sure Alice didn't notice either. However, it was only when they made it onto the train to Metropolis that Alice began to see it.

The two were standing, holding the arm rests above, everyone else crowded around them. Alice pressed in closer to Shun as the train got more busy, the two becoming a bit more bashful.

Suddenly a group of three girls began pushing their way through the crowd of people. They were all roughly around sixteen, Shun and Alice's age, and they would shove through people while talking loudly in Russian, although Shun guessed that they were just trying to find a trio of seats in this hellhole.

It was then that one of the girls didn't spot Shun and accidentally bumped into him, her head hitting against his chest. She scratched her head while still looking down and muttered something irritably in Russian, before looking up into Shun's face and her expression changed altogether. The two other girls saw him and gave the same look, staring at Shun; and he was beginning to guess, much to his chagrin, that it wasn't just because he was a foreigner.

The girls began talking rapidly to Alice in Russian, their words flying at her, while the one who had bumped into him began trying to talk to him as well. Her tone sounded quiet and unstable, almost dreamy, her eyes narrowing softly as she looked into Shun's eyes. Alice was flustered from the two other girls talking to her, while Shun just tried to awkwardly respond back to the other girl in an attempt to tell her he couldn't understand her.

"I-I'm sorry," he kept repeating slowly, "but I don't speak Russian." But at the sound of his voice, the girl seemed to become even more enamored with him.

Oh god, what have I gotten into... he thought sadly to himself.

Then, finally, the train stopped at Voikovskaya, which was where Metropolis was. Shun and Alice, along with several other people in the train, filed outside into the station, getting away from the group of girls. Shun ducked his head down in case if they followed them.

When they got to the front of Metropolis, the enormous futuristic-looking shopping center, Shun pulled Alice aside near one of the trash cans, so they could catch their breath. It seemed all the other people who hadn't gotten off the train with them were also heading for Metropolis.

"Well that was crazy," Shun grumbled.

"Yeah, it was," Alice replied.

"What even was that, anyway?"

"What?" Alice asked.

"What were those girls telling you in Russian?" Shun asked. "They sounded sorta enthusiastic, I suppose."

Alice seemed to grow a bit silent. "It's not really important," she said quickly. "They were just asking if..."

"If what?" Shun asked.

Alice looked away, embarrassed, shaking her head. "If... if you were 'taken'."

Shun was confused. "Taken?" he repeated.

"You know, like, if you had a girlfriend or something like that," Alice explained hesitantly.

"Oh." Shun understood why she looked embarrassed. He scratched his head awkwardly. "Hmm. Wonder why."

"Yeah..." Alice then perked back up. "Well, why don't we go inside?" she suggested. "There's a cheaper Korean store which sells a lot of clothes for guys, maybe you'd like the clothes there."

Shun nodded. "Okay. Let's go."

The two walked into Metropolis, and found a guide that led them to the store, trying to pass through all the big groups of people who were shopping together. They passed a McDonald's, a KFC, a Burger King, and many other fast food restaurants, before they found their way to the store that Alice had mentioned, and which, thankfully, did not appear to be too crowded.

The store was called Yesstyle, and it was a pretty big store. Unlike most shops, the men section was just as large as the women section, with just as much variety. Alice showed him there and began picking through the clothes.

"And there's a changing room here too," she added. "So if you wanna try on some clothes, you can do it here."

"Well, what should I get?" Shun asked, picking up a long-sleeved black asymmetrical zip jacket from one of the racks and inspecting it curiously.

"That's cool," Alice noted about the jacket, before answering his question. "Well, I explained to my grandfather the situation overnight, and he sent me his credit card number and told me to spend however we want to. But, I think we can suffice with 13,000 Russian Rubles."

"But that's a lot of money," Shun protested. "Are you willing to spend that much?"

"Well, the clothes here would look good on y-" Alice abruptly stopped herself, turning as red as a tomato like before on the train to the farmers market. "I mean, they're nice-quality clothes and you should get as much as you like," she corrected herself.

"Okay then." Shun sighed, picking up a black hooded vest next.

"Uh, would you help me pick some stuff?" he asked Alice, who was looking through some t-shirts on a separate rack.

"Of course!" Alice replied assertively, seeming to look more excited about it. "We'll then send you off to the dressing room with some clothes to try on." She then began sifting through the hoodies.

Believe it or not, the ordeal took two hours of shopping. Shun was fairly indecisive about picking clothes, but Alice would take both options, hold them up to her eye, and add them to their cart. The cart filled up quickly: printed t-shirts, vests, jackets, hoodies, jeans, shorts, sweatshirts, sweatpants, tank tops, hooded tops, socks, underwear, scarves, hats; Shun had never seen Alice ever becoming so impulsive. The cart was practically filled to the brim with clothes.

Not only that, but Alice had made Shun try on pretty much all of them in the dressing rooms, to make sure they were the perfect fit and size. She would stand outside the hallway for the men's dressing rooms and question him on the fabric, the comfort, the maneuverability, everything to make sure each piece of clothing was perfect. And every time Shun put on some of the clothes and looked into the mirror, he felt as if he was looking more and more like a K-Pop star.

Alice brought the cart to the cash register and somehow, the total was at 13,000 Rubles. Shun was speechless when he saw the amount of clothes they had bought, all getting wrapped in plastic bags. It was then that Alice called a delivery service and asked for the clothes to be taken to her house, as they would be clearly unable to carry the amount.

They left the mall when it was evening, and Shun was exhausted. Alice, however, remained happy and enthusiastic, amazed they had been able to find so many clothes that suited Shun.

"But where am I supposed to keep all of those clothes?" Shun asked exasperatedly to her.

"Don't worry, I thought that out already," Alice assured him. "There's a spare closet in one of the former guest rooms, it's where my uncle and aunt used to keep their clothes until they moved out a while ago. It's a really big closet, so we'll just keep them in there, and you can go and get dressed in the room too."

They took the train back to Alice's house, where they found the delivery truck had left all of their bags at the front door. Shun picked up five at a time and carried them into the former guest room, which to be used for storage, while Alice organized the closet once all his new clothes were inside, once having put all their groceries in the kitchen.

Shun just heaved a hefty sigh as he jumped onto the couch in the living room, landing on his back and propping up his head with his hands behind it. Alice seemed to have gone back into the kitchen and was now preparing dinner. He could already smell something delicious coming from there.

Speaking of smells, he remembered his smelly clothes. Maybe I should change, he thought. There's fresh new clothes in the closet, after all.

Shun pulled himself to his feet off of the couch and headed to the former guest room, where he opened the closet and looked through his options. For once in his life, it took him a long time to make a decision related to fashion. He considered several different tank tops, different t-shirts, different hoodies, different sweatshirts, different pants, and it took him about 30 minutes to come to a final decision. Perhaps Alice was influencing him after only one day.

Just when Shun took off his shirt, the door opened and Alice came into the room, her apron on and her hair tied back. "Shun, I'm just gonna keep organizing your closet-"

Alice gasped and leapt back when seeing Shun with his bare chest. He felt his cheeks turn a bit pink in embarrassment. Alice was blushing even worse than him, turning bright crimson once again.

"I'm so sorry!" she cried out. "I didn't mean to disturb your privacy, please forgive me!" Her voice was pleading and desperate, and looked away to the side.

Shun paused, watching Alice freak out from the sight of finding him shirtless; he found it oddly amusing.

"Well, you don't need to be sorry." He itched his right shoulder. "I mean, it's not like I'm really hiding anything under here."

Alice stared at Shun in surprise, although she didn't seem to be reacting to his assurance, but more or so to his body, her eyes looking up and over him. They looked over his chest, his pecs, his abs, as if looking at every single centimeter of him. Her gaze then lowered to the floor.

"You know," she murmured, "you attracted a lot of girls in one day today..."

Shun cracked a smile. "They weren't attracted to me. How would they even be?"

Alice smiled at the floor, blushing. "Maybe it's because you're really..."

"What?" Shun asked.

Alice looked away. "N-Never mind."

"Really what?"

Alice then tucked a bit of hair behind her ear. "You're a lot of things, Shun. You're kind. You're smart. You're quick. You're talented. You're calm. And you were always looking out for us... Especially Dan, because he got in so much trouble." She laughed a little, Shun did the same.

"The girls were actually telling me that they wanted to kiss you," Alice then blurted out. "They weren't just asking if you had a girlfriend..."

"Kiss, huh?" Shun then looked over to her. Suddenly he lost control of his thoughts, and the words came out to his own shock.

"Do you want to kiss me?"

Before he realized what he had just said, Alice made a small gasp, staring into his eyes, surprised at his question. There was a few seconds of hesitation, but then she stepping forward, her face breathing on his neck. Her hand reached out, and her fingers brushed over his lips gently. Shun could feel himself warming up. Her fingers were really soft.

Her fingers then gripped his right shoulder, feeling his skin under her palm, and just when she was about to lean in...

The alarm from the stove went off.

Alice seemed to realize this, and she reluctantly took her hand off of him. "I-I have to go," she said quickly, averting her eyes from him, before leaving the guest room and heading back out to the kitchen, leaving a sad Shun wanting her even more.

I want to kiss you too, Alice.


Sooooo that was that! Let me know what you guys think; I know I promised a new chapter by September or October, but maybe I'll make up for it by writing the next chapter this week. Maybe it'll even finish the story; you'll have to find that one out...

Any reviews, favorites, or comments are greatly appreciated, and as always, thanks for reading!