Ever since the move, I have become more outgoing than I was in Korea. Not only have I met Sulli and the gang, but I also got to know Min and her dance group. I always had an interest in dancing, but since the dance club didn’t want to recruit me in the Korean school, I didn’t have a chance to learn dance. Min was like my friends, very welcoming and would never judge someone by its cover and subsequently, she joined us during lunch as well together with her gang, Fei, Jia and Suzy.

No doubt I enjoy their company in school, but I would still like my “me” time in school and would occasionally take a break from the noisy bunch of friends in the canteen and would head to the school garden to read or to take a nap under the big shady tree.

“I knew you would be here.” Amber said while limping towards me and sat on the bench, sitting next to me. She is also opening up to the rest the past few days, but still remained the shy girl, keeping her sentences short during conversations.

“Yeah, the gang was too noisy, I wanted to let my ears take a break or else I would have gone deaf in another month or two.” I chuckled.

“Thank you.” She said.

“What for?”

“For giving me a chance to make friends. For being my friend. For not making fun of me despite my handicap. For helping me carrying my bag ever since we are friends. For treating me like a princess.”

“Yah! I am not treating you like a princess!” I slapped her arm. “I am just helping you carry your bag because you are obviously in need of that help! And you don’t have to thank me for being your friend! After transferring to this school, I realised that one does not deserves to be alone. So you don’t have to thank me. Nobody deserves to be discriminated or being laughed upon due to a handicap.”

Ever since she warmed up to us, we sort of exchanged addresses and I found out that I was living in the same district as Amber. I suggested that I would help her carry her bags to school and back home and when our classmates and schoolmates saw our act, they started calling her a princess while I am her servant. Even though there are many occasions that I felt like banging all of their hands to the wall, but Amber would always be the one stopping me.

“I got myself injured during a basketball match.” She started.

She heaved a sigh before continuing, “Our school have been champions for the past 10 consecutive years, and I finally made my way into the school team after sweating, bleeding and tearing myself during practices. However, my seniors aren’t satisfied with the line up as I was a junior then. They were jealous and furious that they or their friends didn’t make it to the school team and yet, a junior like me did. They were a lot bigger in size than me, proving that they could actually do better than me. Even though they appealed to the coach, he didn’t approve of it and allowed me to stay in the team. We eventually got into the finals and was close to winning the game. The opponent was two points away from us then and there was a minute left into the game. As I was dribbling the ball, preparing myself to do a slam dunk, I felt a push on my shoulders as I jumped and as I fall and landed, I felt someone stepping on my ankle. It was my teammate, a senior whose friend didn’t manage to make it to the team. And I knew that it was intentional because he gave an extra force on my ankle when he stepped on it. And due to my fall, I lost the ball, causing the opponents to take the chance to score a 3-pointer shot. They won. We lost because of my fall.”

Tears were starting to fall from her eyes.

“Y-you need not continue if you don’t want to.” I said, slightly shocked.

“The school lost the match, breaking the winning streaks. I was blamed by everybody for losing it. The coach who once believed in me started scolding swear words across the court. My teammates started to blame me for falling. And since the students took pride in winning the championships, when we lost it, they took their anger on me. And because of the amount of force exerted on my ankle, I can’t walk properly now, and I can’t carry stuffs that are too heavy. I lost my dream of becoming a basketball player and I would need to lower down my pride every time whenever I asked for help to carry my stuffs. That is why I distanced myself from people. Not only do they look down on me, they blamed me for something that I shouldn’t be at fault of. And subsequently, I wondered if it is really my fault that we lost at the championships. If only I didn’t take the ball. If only I didn’t tried to do a slam dunk. If only I tried to buy time till the end of the game instead. If only… “

At this point, she broke down and covered her face with her palms. I rubbed her back and said “don’t worry, we are here for you. I didn’t have friends too in the past. I was all alone in Korea, and the only company I had was my sister. I feel how it is like being isolated by people and I totally despise that. That is why I am here for you. In fact, we all are. Sulli, Luna, Victoria, Min, Jia, Fei, and Suzy. We are all your friends. Now that we know you are not at fault, in fact, accidents do happen and you can’t expect your school to win the championships all the way. Someday, there would be someone stronger to win you guys. It is a matter of time that happens. And we don’t look down on you, and you know that. Just be you when we hang out and things would be fine.” I ended with a smile.

“Thank you. For letting me see things in a different light. Thank you for being here with me.” she gave a slight smile.

“No problem. Let’s go to the toilet to wipe your tear stained face before joining the gang. Or else they would have thought that I bully you or something.” I chuckled and she let out a grin.

“There you go! You should actually smile more often! You look good when you smile!” I complemented.

“You too! I actually like how you smile. Your eyes curves out whenever you smiled brightly.”

“Heheheh. Thanks!”

Through this talk with her, I got to know more about her and I felt a change in her the moment she finished saying about the accident. It is like… a huge burden off her chest. Like she is lifted off a heavy weight. And I am thankful that she opened up to me because I am starting to see a cheerful Amber from now on. She isn’t all gloomy like she used to whenever we see her.

We headed back to the canteen to join our friends after the trip to the toilet and was greeted by the group of noisy teenagers which are actually our friends. Amber used to give a small smile whenever she joins us and would remain quiet unless prompted by one of us. But this time, she gave the same grin she showed earlier on, while the rest of the gang was taken aback by her change. They still welcomed her though and played along with her before the bell rings for classes to start.

And today, I saw how vulnerable one can be and how cruel one can be.

A/N: i will be finishing this fic by this week because i will be overseas the next, so expect three updates this week!^^