June passed quickly with little other event. Alfred and Yong Soo hung out often, at which point the Korean would beat the pants off of the American at video games, but the American would almost always beat the Korean in roughhousing.

"Since when did you get so strong?" Yong Soo asked, strained, in a headlock.

"Since… puberty?"

"Well, aren't you kinky?" Yong Soo smirked devilishly.

"You wish!"

Alfred smothered Yong Soo's face into the beige-ish shag carpet of the Im house.

"Geseki!"

Of course, the Korean was eating beige fiber, so it sounded more like 'hhmmghhghm.'

The scorching beginning of July happened, along with Alfred's birthday, on the patriotic Fourth. The hot morning of the American's sixteenth, the dynamic duo of dynamite stood staring at the lump of rust Alfred decided to call Liberty.

Yong Soo was confused. "The hell is this?"

"A Camaro, dumbass."

"Sure it is."

Alfred sighed hastily. "Yeah, she's a fixer-upper, but once I do that, she'll be good as new!"

"Not gonna help."

"Coomeee oooooooon! Won't you help out a friend?"

"Friend?"

"Oops. Best friend. Bee-Eff-Eff."

"What?" asked the Korean loudly, surprise in his dark brown eyes.

Alfred was confused. "Huh?"

Yong Soo breathed frustratedly. "What do I mean to you? We constantly flirt! We kissed! Twice! But you still have the nerve to call me a friend? WHAT KIND OF A LAME-ASS BOYFRIEND ARE YOU?" His voice wasn't angry, but more spiteful.

"B-boyfriend? Yong, I, uh, I didn't know you felt that way about me. I'm sorry, I-"

He ran off before Alfred could say another word. "Neoruel Miweoha!"

Alfred stormed back into his own house and up the stairs, ignoring his bewildered mother as she asked, "Do you like the car?"

How could I be so stupid? He thought to himself, plopping down onto his bed. We even kissed. Twice! I still didn't know how he felt about me. I know Matt's always telling me how I need to learn how to pick up on others' emotions, but I always thought he was just being an ass. I'm terrible. How could I do that to him? And it won't matter to me whether we're friends or boyfriends; I couldn't care more about anyone but Yong Soo.

Alfred was so caught up in his inner monologue of girly emotions that he didn't even notice the tears bunching up in his eyes.

After that day, Alfred put all his energy into fixing up Liberty. And he had a lot of energy. First, there were problems with the engine that took a little bit of assistance from his dad. The rest was all body work. He sanded and scrubbed and sprayed until it fully returned to its former glory. It had taken two weeks, but he was certainly glad that it was done and sparkly.

After he had finally finished his work, Alfred laid limbs askew in the middle of the living room. His older-by-thirty-minutes brother shuffled in and kicked Alfred's side

"Stupid Alfred," Matthew deadpanned, "Stupid, naïve, can't-read-the-air Alfred."

The younger scoffed. "You're just jealous because I got a car and you only got a toy ice cream maker."

Matthew raised an eyebrow. "Am I?"

"Okay you win."

"So," began the elder twin, "you really think your 'sweet ride' is going to get you the girl? Boy. Sorry."

"Yes. Yes, I do."

"Good luck."

"Was that sarcasm?"

"You bet it was, bro."

"You know, bro," Alfred rolled over onto his back, "You are uncharacteristically asshole-ish today."

"Was that sarcasm?"

"You bet it was, bro."

The Im-Wang house was a few blocks north of the Jones house, and a few blocks larger as well. Apparently, Yong Soo's mom or step-dad or grandmotheror whoever owned a construction company and was therefore really rich. The house did have to be kind of big, to hold all five children, both parents, ¾ of the parent's parents, and a cousin from somewhere in Asia who was studying in America.

Yes, it was never boring there. It wasn't ever quiet, either. And there was very little English-speaking, since half of the family spoke Korean, the other half Chinese, and the cousin Japanese. Alfred snickered, remembering the cousin's English.

He pulled up to the large house, contemplated honking, but decided that the place had as much noise as it was, also that honking was generally not very respectful, and more than a few visits to the Im-Wang place had let Alfred learn his lesson about disrespect.

He parked on the street, rolled up the manual window, hopped out of the car and stepped nervously up to the front door. Ding-dong-ding-dong, ding-dong-ding-dong, rang the fancy door bell. Yong Soo's younger step-brother opened the door with a fire cracker in one hand and a cantaloupe in the other.

"Well, well," greeted the Chinese teenager, "If it isn't Alfred Jones, the ignorant thap who made my thtep-brother cry."

Alfred always had to resist bursting out laughing because of that lisp.

"So, uh, Hong," he began, "I need to see your cousin. Kiku."

"Why do you want to thee him and not Yong Soo?"

"I need to ask him for advice about Yong Soo."

"Alfred Jones, you are thtupider than I thought."

A light bulb lit up above the American's head. "No, wait, I need to see Yao."

Hong Wang raised a thick eyebrow. "He told me you were weird, but I had no idea you were thith retarded."

"That's offensive."

"You mad?"

Alfred made a face that could only be properly described as "Kannada letter Ttha, underscore, Thha (ಠ_ಠ)," but followed Hong into the house despite the Chinese's similarities to a certain girly-haired twin. Alfred took his shoes off, because that's just what you do when you enter the Im-Wang household.

The snobby 9th grader had left Alfred in Yao's room, the feminine Asian turning around in his desk chair.

"Alfred! Ni hao ma?" He asked, happy to see the American.

"Uh… Wo hao. Ni ma?"

"Da hao, xiexie. What do you need, Al?"

During their conversation in simple (and most likely botched by Alfred) Mandarin, the two had seated themselves on Yao's bed, facing one another.

"I'm having relationship troubles." Alfred sighed deeply.

"I know. I heard your boyfriend crying with no stopping all week!"

"He's not my boyfriend!" Alfred took a deep breath, "Well, I didn't know that he thought of us as that, was all."

"So you're saying that you like Didi to the point where you would not mind if he was your boyfriend and you were his?"

"Man, I think I like him enough to marry him! It just… surprised me."

The college freshman paused, closed his eyes, and breathed for a few seconds.

"Now go say all that to him."

"Huh?"

"You heard me. Zaijian, Ai de Shagua." Yao Wang shooed the bewildered American out the door.

Alfred stood as still as a statue in the upstairs hallways of the Im-Wang residence. His breaths were shallow, his face pale and clammy. Yong Soo's door was just across from Yao's. He took a deep breath, follow by another, and then another. He knew exactly what he was going to say to his love: a calm, rational explanation of what happened, and why Alfred and Yong Soo should continue their companionship of awesomeness, but as boyfriends. There was absolutely nothing that could go wrong.

He reached for the doorknob with shivering hands, eyes wide like a deer-with-contacts-in-headlights-under-a-magnifying glass.

The door swung open with a gust of air, revealing a Korean in pajamas, poking away at the buttons on his DS.

"Alfre-"

"IM YONG SOO, WILL YOU MARRY ME?"

Not as planned.

Chapter six is 2% finished. I have two weeks of school left yay! Neoreul Miweoha,I am pretty sure means I hate you, and Ai de Shagua means love's fool. (Or at least I hope it does!) Not much else to say. Oh and Hong Wang and Mei Wang are HK and Taiwan, respectively. Just saying. North Korea is represented in this fic, but she is only mentioned indirectly (in one of Norway's lines last chapter "The [sister] that actually leaves her room", and the Im-Wang family having 5 kids). For the record, it goes Yao Wang, (Kiku Honda), Yong Hyeo Im, Yong Soo Im, Hong Wang, Mei Wang.