Krystal walked for a couple of blocks first before she called Jessica. She didn't want to wait for her sister right outside of Amber's apartment complex — because that'd be simply unbearable — and she needed some time to calm down and wash her face. Perhaps, if she fixed herself up, her sister wouldn't ask anything...

She stepped into a random restaurant, asking shamelessly if she could use the bathroom. With her ruffled hair, run out make-up and her weird appearance, the young girl immediately directed her to the common bathroom. Luckily no one was there when she entered, so she could fix herself up. She washed all the make-up off her face, so she looked a little presentable again. Her eyes were still red and puffy and filled with the leftovers of her tears because of the crying earlier, but there was simply no way to fix that. Hopefully her eyes had grown back normal when Jessica arrived. 
She changed in one of the stalls out of her dress and back into jeans and a simple tee. With diffeculty she got the dress back in and she wondered how Amber had zipped her bag so quickly. The thought of Amber made her heart ache, and it was almost enough to make her start crying all over again. With diffeculty she blinked her tears away, but she had to calm down for five minutes after that. 
Finally, she was done, and got out of the restrooms. It had taken her at least a quarter, and when she came back into the café, she decided to buy a cup of coffee as a thank you while she waited for Jessica. She paid and took the damping carton cup in her right hand while she dialed her sister's number with her left. It only took only a few seconds before she heard her sister pick up the phone. 
"Can you pick me up?" Krystal asked, a bit ashamed. She gave the adress. Jessica only hummed before she hung up again. 

Krystal decided to get out of the little café, since more and more people seemed to stare at her. Or maybe it just felt like that because she felt incredibly empty right now. Now that her tears were dried, the feeling suddenly hit her how alone she was. Only this afternoon she had been worrying about losing her parents, but at least she still would have the two people who loved her unconditionally: Jessica and Amber. Now she lost Amber but kept her parents. Krystal wished it was the other way around. 
With the cup in her hand she walked out, taking big sips of her drink so she burned her tongue. The pain spread through like something sweet to ban the numbness from her body. It only took ten minutes before Jessica stopped in front of the café. Because it was dark, as well outside as inside the car, Krystal couldn't see her face well. She just hoped Jessica wouldn't see notice anything different about her. 

Krystal opened the door and sat down on the passengers seat. She noticed from the corner of her eye that her sister turned her head towards her, letting her eyes slide over her face to examine every inch. Krystal coughed softly and looked out of the window. Jessica didn't say anything and just started the engine again. She turned up the radio as well before driving away. Quickly Krystal shot a look at the song that was about to play, and she softly cursed herself. 
It had been in vain to think Jessica wouldn't notice anything about her. 
The song was Christina Aguilera's Hurt, the song her sister knew would make Krystal so emotional that she'd spill out everything. Only when nothing was wrong, she'd be able to listen with it and sing along to the regretful words with full confidence. But right after the break up, only the first sentence was able to make her eyes watery again. 

Oh, how much she hated Jess. 

Seems like it was yesterday when I saw your face
You told me how proud you were, but I walked away
If only I knew what I know today

Krystal took a deep and shaky breath, trying to compose herself, but the first tears already started to leak out of her eyes. Jessica drove away from the café and to the highway. Krystal let her head rest against the window, mouthing the lyrics to the song, trying so hard to keep herself from sobbing. 

I would hold you in my arms
I would take the pain away
Thank you for all you've done
Forgive all your mistakes
There's nothing I wouldn't do
To hear your voice again
Sometimes I wanna call you
But I know you won't be there

Oh I'm sorry for blaming you
For everything I just couldn't do
And I've hurt myself by hurting you

It took every muscle in her body to keep her shoulders from shaking and a sob to emerge from the back of . She clenched her teeth so hard that it felt like they would break and her nails digged deeply into her skin. To prevent Jessica from seeing her crying, she turned her back towards her as much as she could and looked out of the window whilst they raced past the other cars. It had started to rain, and the window was covered in little drops. 

Some days I feel broken inside 
but I won't admit
Sometimes I just wanna hide
'cause it's you I miss
And it's so hard to say goodbye
When it comes to these rules

Would you tell me I was wrong?
Would you help understand?
Are you looking down upon me?
Are you proud of who I am?

There's nothing I wouldn't do
To have just one more chance
To look into your eyes
And see you looking back

...

If I had just on emore day
I would tell you how much that I've missed you
Since you've been away
Ooh it's dangerous
It's so out of line
To try and turn back time

It took a few more seconds before the song ended, and when it did, Krystal was holding in her breath to stop herself from sobbing, but the tears flowed freely over her cheeks, down from her chin and onto her clean blouse. Jessica turned off the radio. 
"Nice song, isn't it?" she asked. 
"O-oh, fu-fu- you," Krystal spat to her. She turned around to shoot her sister a foul look, but she reckoned it would have little effect because she was still crying. Krystal sniffed. Jessica kept looking at the road. 
"What's wrong, Krystal?" Jessica asked seriously. Her voice had grown more tender. 
Krystal looked up and whiped the tears off her face, but more kept falling and falling. She kept sniffling. When she tried to speak, all that came out was a little whine. So hard she tried to control herself again, but it took  her at least ten minutes to recover from the song before she was able to answer Jessica. By then, her sister had already figured out. 
"Amber and I-"
"You broke up," Jessica answered for her. "Did she break up with you?"
For a moment, Krystal wished Jessica was right. It would've been easier to deal with that Amber didn't like her anymore, or cheated or just simply had grown bored of her. That way she could recover quickly and stronger than before, knowing that Amber didn't deserve her love and that she needed to find someone better. 
But it wasn't like that. She had broken up with Amber because of the fear that Amber had betrayed her. And perhaps she had told her father that she loved her or perhaps she hadn't, there simply was no way of knowing. Krystal wasn't the kind of woman who gambled, especially when it was about her own heart. She had spent years protecting it and she wouldn't let someone break it so easily. 
Krystal shook her head. Jessica frowned. 
"Mom and dad aren't worth breaking up for," her sister replied. Krystal shook her head again.  
"I-it's not because of mom and dad... well, not about mom anyway," she muttered. The older sister lifted one of her eyebrows and frowned afterwards. 
"Then why did you break up with her?" she asked. Krystal took another breath and ran with her hand through her hair. For a moment, she closed her eyes and let her head rest against  the car  window again. Once she had them closed, she felt how tired she actually was. She had no energy left to explain it all to her sister. 
"Don't bring me home, Jess..." she muttered against the glass. 
Jessica remained silent as they drove on. The radio stayed off. The only sound that accompanied them was the purring of the engine, the honks of the other cars and the rain drippin on the roof. Krystal kept her eyes shut, in fear that she would start crying again. 

The drive to Jessica's appartment seemed endless. Neither of them had said anything since the ending of their converstaion. It was well past midnight when they finally stepped into the small apartment. The familiar smell of her sister's parfume mixed with her latest cooking creations entered her nose. Krystal straight went to the bedroom, already undressing herself in the hallway because she wanted to step immediately into her sister's large bed. 
Jessica's room was messy, which was a surprise because her sister usually was very clean. She heard her call for her from the living room but Krystal didn't reply. Instead she stepped out of her jeans and pulled the covers from the freshly made bed. The sheets still smelled like soap, she noticed. Her sister came after her but Krystal had already to her side, with the covers pulled up to her chin when she entered the bedroom. She heard Jessica sigh and walk off again. 
A quarter later her sister joined her in the bed, carefully lifting the sheets and getting in. Krystal was far from falling asleep, but when Jessica told her good night, she didn't react. She just squeezed her eyes shut and hoped she would not dream of Amber that night. 

And indeed, she didn't dream of Amber. Krystal had slept so deeply that she felt even emptier when she woke up, as if the night had drained her from her energy even more. 
The curtains had already been opened by her sister, causing the too bright morning sun to shine into the bedroom, irritating her already after a few moments of waking up. Krystal growned and covered her face with the sheets. The sunrays were so strong that they even shone through the white covers, causing Krystal to eventually throw them off of her and get out. She sighed and stretched before walking over to her sister's closet. Since they had roughly the same size, Krystal just took one of Jessica's sweaters. She was lucky her sister had even some ready, because Jessica wasn't exactly the kind of person who wore over-sized sweaters, not even to bed. Unlike her younger sister, Jessica was always fashionable, whilst Krystal often liked to just spend days in a row in just her pyjama's if she could. 
The sweater just covered her bottom, which made her sigh in annoyance again. Jessica was smaller than she was, causing her clothes to be tinier too. Unlike her own sweaters, who reached well past half of her upper legs, her sister's stopped at the beginning of her legs. She felt bare, almost which obviously contributed to her ty feeling. 
Krystal had never experienced a broken heart before. Yes, she had dated before but it had always been her who had broken up with them without a hint of mercy in her eyes. Boys had been something to pass the time with; to practase her kissing skills; to prepare for the first person who really made her feel like she was flying. That's why she wasn't prepared for the painful aching in her chest. She had always thought that a broken heart was just mental pain, but it felt physical too, as if her heart had trouble pumping the blood through her veins now that Amber was gone. 
Her limbs felt heavy and walking was diffecult, despite having slept for ten hours at least. Her mind was cloudy and her body felt empty, like she was just some air trapped by skin. A walking balloon.  
She was not hungry, as balloons could not be hungry. Neither thirsty, or feeling the need to even live today. 

Krystal realized she had been staring outside when Jessica called her over from the kitchen. 
"Krystal, I know you're awake, come here to get breakfast!"
She snapped out of her trance and cleared , before walking off. Perhaps she should get something to eat. It'd make her feel alive again. 
Jessica was stirring in a pan when Krystal entered, looking up with a tender smile. Krystal forced herself to smile back, but she felt how the muscles tugged at the corners of , almost pulling them down instantly again. The fact that she couldn't even fake a smile anymore felt like a slap in the face. Never had she know that one person could affect her so much, let alone someone like Amber. Even when the worst things had been happening to her in the past, she had always been able to lie and smile. Now even that had been taken away from her. 
Krystal sat down at the kitchen island. Jessica immediately put a plate with fresh toast and scrambled eggs in front of her. With some diffeculty she took her fork and knife and started. The food tasted like wet paperboard, and that wasn't Jessica's fault for a change. 
"Are you still going to tell me what happened?"
"There isn't much to tell," Krystal answered. "We broke up."
Jessica snorted. 
"No, you broke up with the person who might as well be the one. I saw you looked at her during the dinner, like nothing and no one could match Amber's beauty. You love her and you broke up with her. I know you, Krystal, you do not break up with someone you love. Even when we fight you only stay mad for a day at most and then you return to me with your tail between your legs to apologize. Amber means more to you than I do. So I can't possibly imagine what must've happened between you in that short life span that would make you break up with her."
Krystal had stopped eating and was now staring at her sister. Had she mentioned yet that she hated her sister? More precisely, her sister's intelligence. 
"She betrayed me. With dad. They complotted against me," she said coldly. Quickly she gave her sister a summary of what she had heard last evening, the conversation with her father and Amber. She also told her that she had confronted Amber, and that Amber had lied again. She didn't tell her that there might be an equal chance that Amber had spoken the truth, but that she was too much of a coward to risk anything. 
Jessica stayed silent during the story, frowning a little bit and her hand in front of . Only when Krystal was done and put another bite into - the food still tasted like paperboard - she took her hand away from her face and sighed. 
"You're stupid, do you know that?" she muttered. "You could've asked dad the truth, you would've known if she was lying or not."
Krystal snorted. "As if I didn't think of that. Do you believe father would ever tell me the truth? If he would, he'd also admit plotting against me, to set me up with someone he ha approved of, of controlling my life. Perhaps that was acceptable twenty years ago but we live in 2017 now, Jess. He can't do that and otherwise I even have the authority to turn him in if I want to. And daddy would like his perfect image to be smudged now, would he?"[/i] she mocked bitterly. [i]"He'll never tell the truth. So there's no way of knowing if Amber told the truth or not."
Jessica huffed, rolled her eyes and shook her head. 
"You're still stupid," he hissed. "So what dad won't tell you the truth? There's a 50/50-percent chance that she did tell the truth. Any smart person would choose the 50 percent that'd make them happy, which in your case would be staying with her. And yes, perhaps she had lied to, there is a chance she did, but you can just believe not to. She isn't going to tell you if she did, so you can choose to believe the lie she told you, if it's a lie at all. Only a stupid person would choose for something that'd make them unhappy."
"Thanks for pointing out I'm stupid so much," Krystal grumbled. Jessica chuckled. 
"Well, you are."
"Fine. But what if I make myself unhappy? It has never been about me being happy. It's about honour. And no, I won't go back to Amber just because there's a chance that she isn't lying. The chance that she is lying is too big and if she really is lying, I'm twice as stupid. So no thank you," she replied. 
Her sister rolled her eyes. 
"You know, Krystal. I'm your sister and I care for you and I'd love to take you in for a couple of weeks, but you're being childish right now.  I do not support you in this decision. You're unnecessary causing harm to yourself and that poor girl. I believe I know the reason why they call us our father's Ice Princesses now."
Jessica flashed her a small smile, before turning around to walk off towards the bathroom, leaving Krystal with an empty, regretful feeling in her stomach. Was her sister right?

EIGHT YEARS LATER
—————————————————————————————————————————

Krystal's inauguration, that's what they called it. 
She had succesfully graduated from the university, obtaining her degree in economics. For four more years she worked at Jung Internationals, to build experience. Starting off as a simply intern, then slowly moving over to jobs which required more skill and more leadership. Of course, she didn't earn them the way the other employees did, but her father did want her to go through almost every single job in the company to know what his — and soon her —  employees were up to and how diffecult their jobs were, so that she could be the kind of CEO later that listens to the plights of her people. Krystal started off as the coffee lady that fixed her father and her father's clients their drinks during a meeting, and she wasn't at all bothered by that. 
Finally the four years had passed and it was time for her to shine as her father's vice president, his right hand, his second, the one who takes over when something happens. And even though she hadn't been bothered by making copies for everyone, faxing the details or getting someone coffee, she preferred to be the one who gave the instructions instead of realizing it. 

Her father was a man who was rather generous with his money, especially when his children were involved. Nothing stopped him from throwing her some sort of welcome-party in the enormous hall of the Jung Internationals head quarter when he had finally announced to the media that his daughter would follow him up. He already was a man well in his fifties and he said it wouldn't take long before he'd retire. A few more years to let his daughter get used to her position, then he'll leave the company in her hands, content that he had brought up his daughter so well. 
Her father wasn't only a generous man, but also very cocky. He liked to show off with everything he has got. The latest sport's car, buying another extra house, getting his friends and family the latest gadgets... But his favourite thing to brag with was his daughter. 
From the moment she was born he loved to show his daughter to the world, almost like they did with the birth of the little lion cub Simba in the Lion King. Whenever she made a nice drawing as a child, he praised her. When she got another A in class, he bought her a present. Her father kept her grades framed in his office to whenever one of his clients noticed the small list of A's, he'd ask him about his daughter, giving Mr. Jung another chance to brag with his child. Krystal hadn't noticed that until she was a year of fifteen, when it started to become very obvious that a lot of father's clients knew about her prestations at school. They congratulated her on her excellent list when she hadn't even showed it to them. She didn't like it at first, that people whom she didn't know knew about her grades, but her father promised her that he only showed her grades to other people to brag because he was so proud of her. The older she became, the less interested she became in what people thought of her. 
Amber Liu had learned her that, mostly. With her bold attitude and often an expression on her face that she wouldn't even give a damn even if the world would be desroyed in a few minutes. You shouldn't be afraid of anyone when it comes to showing who you really are, even if that meant breaking old relationships and forming new ones to become happy again. Krystal had hid her uality, but was nowadays open about that sensitive part of herself. The United States was quite open when it came to uality, especially when she was "only" biual, meaning that she was still able to date men and fit in the heteronormative society. It had bothered her a couple of times that people thought that way, because she had always been the kind of woman who preferred the same gender more than the opposite gender, but knowing that she would not be accepted in the higher classes, she had never called anyone out upon it. Because claiming "Hey, I like the same gender actually more han the opposite gender" was almost equivalent to being a lesbian, and she neither was that.  Even though she had worked upon becoming the person she really wanted to be, and had completed that, she still was hiding a part of her uality. 
Especially when Kai was with her. 
Kai: her boyfriend; her fiancé; the son of one of her father's clients; handsome as hell in a suit; an intelligent and deep mind; has a generous, free, funny personality; her ideal match. 
At least, that's what many believed. Her father had given him his blessing the moment Krystal introduced him as her boyfriend. Obviously he did, because he had been the one who had introduced him to her. 
At the moment she first met him, she had promised to herself to not let her father win and date this man. Lateron, she had accidentally broken that promise by sleeping with him on a drunken evening. After that, he was just too sweet to turn down. With guilt in her lower belly, Krystal had started a relationship with him and had not ended it ever since then. Four  years she had dated him until he finally asked her hand in marriage. Krystal had said yes. 
But she didn't love Kai. 
At least, she didn't love Kai the way she had loved Amber. That name still caused her heart to twist painfully in her chest and a frown to appear on her face. But she tried not to think of her at all, that made it easier. She knew she was pathetic to hang onto someone so long, but since their break up no one had been able to stir her as much as Amber had. It was hard to fall in love again when no one made her belly twist and her heart jump up in delight like Amber. 
Kai was a sweetheart. He was a true gentleman. Making her breakfast in the morning, doing his chores in the house perfectly, bringing her flowers, occasionally buying her beautiful jewelry for no special reason, holding the door for her, going out with her at least once a week, treating her like a true princess. It was sweet, but she didn't need someone who was like that. She needed someone who would fight back and accidentally hurt her but would always apologize after. She needed someone who made her desire stir up and make her fantasize about in places other than the bed. She needed someone who wasn't like her or brought up like her but could show her another side of the world than just the upper class. He was too innocent. The world had been delivered to him on a silver platter. Krystal needed someone different than Kai. 
But the wedding was in a few weeks. She had already shopped for a dress and all the arrangements were made. Her father had promised that as soon as she got married, she would be perfect. To him, his daughter would only be complete with a man at her side. 

Jessica waved her hand in front of her face to make her snap back into reality. Krystal blinked a few times and looked up at her sister. She hung on the arm of her handsome boyfriend, that she — contradictory to her — did love truly. She knew how happy her sister was and this was the first time she had brought him to a formal party. He looked handsome in his suit. 
"Earth to Krystal!" chuckled her sister. "Your husband is looking for you."
"He's not my husband," she replied coldly. Jess knew she hated it when she called Kai that way. It made it even scarier to marry him. Nevertheless, her sister shrugged. 
"He's at the bar," said Jessica. Krystal gave her a small smile and nodded, getting up from her chair to walk over to the bar. 
The speeches had already been made and everyone had been served food. By now, only the people who really mattered stayed to have a drink with each other. It seemed more like an ordinary party now than it had a couple of hours ago. But Krystal was glad Kai was at the bar, because she really needed a drink too to ban out her melancholic feelings. 
While she walked towards the bar, she looked down at the ground, not really paying attention. She could've known she'd bump into someone, but she still looked up angry when her shoulder hit someone else's hard. With a look of deep annoyance on her face she looked up, at first noticing the fancy black shoes and tight black pants around well-formed, muscly legs. Expecting to see some son of one of the CEO's of the bigger companies, alongside Jung Internationals, she had already opened to hiss that he should look out where he was going. Only, she realized, it wasn't a male. 
But she was a daughter of one of the CEO's.