Amber's hands were shaking as she washed the sugar off her fingers. She wiped the sweat on her forehead with the sleeve of her black shirt. She felt like seven minutes equaled to running five laps around their block. It didn't even feel like seven minutes. It felt like thirty seconds. She got a tray and loaded it with a pitcher of cold water and two glasses. 

When she got back to Krystal's room, the lights were off except for the lamp on the bedside drawer. Krystal was lying on her stomach, her face illuminated by the screen of her phone. She looked more composed relative to the last moments of their game. When she opened her palm for a glass of water, there was a little smile on her face.

Amber sat on the edge of her bed and handed her a glass of cold water. "You've eaten a lot of donuts."

"I was hungry all of a sudden." Krystal downed everything in one go and handed her back the glass. 

Amber drank a full glass of water herself. When she turned back to Krystal, she was facing the other side of the bed, still on her phone, her hair blow dried.

"We should sleep." Amber said. "It's almost two."

"I think we should." Krystal put her phone on top of her bedside drawer and pulled the blanket to cover her stomach. When Amber remained seated on the comfort of her mattress, Krystal faced her, eyebrows scrunched. "Are you waiting for permission? You can lie on the bed."

"Oh. Oh, okay." Amber lied down carefully,  an elbow bent in an awkward angle. She was too afraid and too cautious to get close to the girl beside her that the space between them can be occupied by a third person.

Nothing registered in her mind anymore. In the short span of a day, subtle confessions were given form in a game she had never played before. The awkwardness that followed was more than enough for a change of pace but instead, everything remained in place. And here she was, lying next to Krystal who smelled like flowers and dreams. 

The surreality of everything bothered her. Because this wasn't a dream. 

There was no waking up. 

Well...

What now?

Was this it? All these years of her pent up frustrations about Krystal and everything she stood for end up with the two of them spending the night together? What was the game for, then?

Were they not to speak of it ever again?

Amber saw the emerging pattern.

No.

She saw the pattern that had always been there, her blind eye in its direction for the longest time. In the denial of her feelings, she had missed the little important things. 

They had always been this way. Giving and receiving. Pushing and pulling. 

Tug of war. It had always been their game.

And so Amber was certain they would sleep together again after tonight. In Krystal's room or hers, it didn't matter. 

Krystal would continue to be Krystal. She would always rest her head on Amber's shoulders, would always find joy in making her uncomfortable, would always look at her in ways she couldn't understand. 

And Amber would continue to be herself, too. She would always offer Krystal a ready hand, would always chew her food noisily when she's trying to sleep, would always look at her with a kind of fondness she will never be able to put into words.

"I want to know why," Amber filled the silence after a while, hoping Krystal was still awake. 

Fortunately, she was. But her voice was distant as if she was slowly drifting off. "Why what?"

"Why did you choose my room to sleep in?" Amber continued, staring at the darkness of the ceiling. "Why me? Why not Sulli?"

Krystal turned and Amber was certain of this because the air around her shifted too. And suddenly it felt like she was lying on a bed of flowers. "Don't laugh at me."

"I won't," Amber said. "Promise."

"I miss sleeping with you." Krystal said. Just when Amber opened to speak, she muttered, "You promised you won't laugh."

"I'm not laughing." A smile spread on Amber's face. "So you weren't lying?"

"About what? In the game we played? Why would I?" Krystal sounded like Amber had said something ridiculous. "I just wanted to know if you found out that I snuck in your room... and slept beside you."

"But Krys, we've slept together a hundred times before." 

Krystal's voice came out barely a whisper. "But it's not like that anymore. We both know that."

"Yeah." Amber sighed. "I guess we do."

The atmosphere shifted in an infinite number of ways and somehow everything became simple. It was just the two of them in a little room, spending precious time together. In the silence that followed and in the uneven pace of their breathing, unspoken words remained as they were. 

Amber reached for Krystal's hand, surprised to find it cold and shaking. Maybe they weren't as different as she thought. No one moved for a while. When Amber relaxed her grip, Krystal tightened hers, held her, as if she had never held her hand before.

"Don't," was all Krystal said. She laced her trembling fingers around hers.

"I wasn't going to." Amber readjusted their hands, hers on top of Krystal's. 

Then Krystal's hand wasn't shaking anymore. The stillness lasted for a few moments, the weight on her hand dropped and then all Amber could hear was her shallow breathing. Krystal had fallen asleep. Just like that.

"Good night Krys," Amber said. When Krystal responded with nothing less than her own sighs, she smiled and drifted off.

The morning greeted them with the loud blaring of Krystal's alarm. Amber's eyelids fluttered open the first three seconds. Sunlight filtered through the curtains, and even with the a/c on, it was starting to get warm and hot. She bolted up but was held back by a hand. She turned to see her hand was still intertwined with Krystal's, who was curled in a fetal position beside her, blankets tucked up to her neck. 

Amber reached for Krystal's phone with her other hand, across the other's sleeping figure (felt the heat crawl on her neck because even after several hours Krysta