~

    Krystal was crying.
    In her room. Her grandmother had run to her, and was now sitting by her side, on the bed, hugging her from the side, tenderly patting her back and asking why was she crying; The bodyguards were out buying groceries; Jack was leisurely lying with his back on the sofa, eating some peanuts, with his eyes closed, listening to Krystal's endlessly sobbing, starting to get tired of it.
    When he was the one that started it.


    It wasn't fair, Krystal thought as she stepped in a whole new building, with a whole new uniform on. It really wasn't fair. Why did she have to change schools all of a sudden? Now that she was getting used to it, now that she had found a friend... But that didn't worry her — she had thought of it during the weekend: changing schools didn't necessarily mean she had to break her friendship up with Amber, it only meant that they wouldn't get to spend time together as often as they did... Right?
    Krystal sadly sighed as she looked for the school's office, ocasionally glancing back at the girls (and possibly, future classmates) that were walking, running, standing on the same hall as her. She gave up and turned to one:
    
    "Excuse me, can you tell me where the school office is?"
    
    The girl politely told her, but avoided smiling — Krystal did, as well. At least now she knew how to speak Korean and even if it wasn't the best, it was still understandable, so it made the task easier. She did as the girl said and in no time was facing a new classroom, full of new faces (all of them girls — yes, Jack loved the idea of enrolling her in these types of schools). She sighed as she walked to the back of the class and, for the first time since she arrived Korea, she wished the day would end quickly, because she somehow grew to hate attending school alone.


    "Ayy, come on, it can't be that bad." Amber crossed her legs as she sat on top of her bed and laid her back against the wall of her bedroom.
    "It is, the girls are so cocky, no one talked to me." Krystal whimpered from the other side of the phone. Amber chuckled.
    They were silent for a few moments. Amber closed her eyes, Krystal bit her lip as she laid her back on the bed, ending up staring at the ceiling. Amber sighed.
    "I missed you."
    Amber's simple and shameless statement left Krystal speechless. Her eyes wandered around the whole room as she felt her cheeks growing hotter and her heart quickening its beat. She gulped. "It has only been a day."
    "Three, with the weekend."
    Krystal chuckled and heard Amber shift on the other side of the line. Her unsteady breath told Krystal that Amber was just as nervous as she was.
    "Let's go to the library tomorrow."
    "Why the library?" Krystal got up and, with small steps, made her way to the window on her room, leaning her back against it.
    "For an assignment. And then we can take a walk... I'll pick you up!"
    Silence filled them in as Krystal played with her feet. A smile crept up her features. "Okay." She nodded.
    
    Sure enough, as Krystal got out of school, she spotted a blonde-haired head standing right by the gate. Her lips curled up into a smile as she walked to her. Amber looked up and smiled too.
    There, for a moment, Krystal's heart fluttered.
    Krystal stopped in her tracks, suddenly self-conscious of everything around her. Her heart skipped a beat because of Amber! And she would always blush because of Amber, she would even stutter because of Amber—which impressed her, since she wasn't one to be easily embarassed or shy over things-slash-people.—, just... what was wrong with her?
    Was she...
    perhaps...

    in love with Amber?
    She quickly shook her head. No. That wasn't possible. It was certainly because they haven't seen each other in a while, and so Krystal was missing Amber too much to the point of—
    
    "Soojung?"
    A hand waved in front of her eyes, waking Krystal up from her trance. Amber was looking at her with a confused look. "Are you okay?"
    Krystal slowly nodded. "Yeah." She quickly caught up with Amber, as they were walking to the nearest bus stop.
    
    Hah.
    They haven't seen each other for only four days. Was that really the reason for Krystal's heart to be skipping its beats...?
    ...
    Who was she trying to fool?

    Krystal bit her lip as they were entering the library, and left the library few minutes after with the exact same expression on. She followed Amber's steps from behind, until Amber suddenly stopped walking, making a very absent-minded Krystal stumble over her.

    "Ow." She mumbled as she rubbed her forehead that had been slightly touched by Amber's books in her backpack.
    Amber her heels and her shocked expression told Krystal that she didn't intend to hurt her. "Sorry!" Krystal shrugged and Amber's face and voice tone totally changed as she saw Krystal didn't even get affected by it. "Just... What the hell is wrong with you today?" She asked in an exaspereted tone.
    Krystal flinched at the sudden change. "What do you mean?"
    "Is there something bothering you? Why haven't you been talking ever since I picked you up? It's worrying me—" Krystal was somewhat taken aback by Amber's (at least what it seemed) never-ending speech. She raised her eyebrows. Amber stopped talking to take a deep breath. "And you're always with that same expression on, it's definately driving me crazy." She ended in a soft tone, which told Krystal that she wasn't angry at her or anything, just really... worried.
    
    Which made Krystal even more uncomfortable.

    She slowly shook her head and then smiled. "I'm okay."
    "Really?" She approached Krystal and closely searched her face for any signs of 'I'm not okay'. Krystal pushed her away as she placed her hands on Amber's shoulders. She chuckled. "I'm alright!"
    Amber squinted her eyes before believing Krystal's words and settling everything down. "Right." She clapped twice as she started walking. "Shall we get something to eat? There's a convenience store right around the corner and I want to make sure you taste this really good snack!"
    Krystal walked beside her. "Is it reaaaaally good?"
    Amber nodded. "You'll love it."

    As Krystal stepped into the convenience store in the corner of a rather abandoned street, her mobile phone tune was heard. Desperately looking for her phone in her pockets to stop the annoying song, she sent an apologetic look to Amber as she stepped out to get Jack's call.

    "Wha—"
    "Where are you?!" Jack's harsh tone cut her annoyed greeting, and was so loud that Krystal had to pull her phone from her ear, shocked... and scared.
    She frowned. "At the convenience store—what's wrong?"
    "What the hell are you doing there, you haven't told any—"
    "I'm with Amber."
    "—one you were going out! Who gave you permission to be with that blond tomboy?!"
    "Hey!" Krystal was about to answer him back in the very same angry tone, but somehow the rustles of cloth and the sudden sound of a car door closing coming from the other side of the phone made her stop.
    "Stay where you are." Jack's nervous tone managed to contaminate Krystal. "I'm going to track your phone and in no time I'm picking you both up."
    "Jack, what's wrong?"
    "Don't turn off the call." The roaring of the engine and Jack ignoring her question were about to drive Krystal crazy.
    "Jack, I demand—"
    "Is there anyone beside you? You better be in a large crowd, Soojung." His threatening voice gave an impulse for Krystal to lie. She looked around the empty street, noticing how it was already sunset and there were no evident lights around.
    "Yeah, there are a few people." Krystal glanced at Amber inside the store and waved at her. She heard Jack screaming and raging against other cars and couldn't help but feel nervous herself. She took another glance at Amber, but she was with her back against her, probably searching for something in the shelves of the store. She sighed. "Can you please tell me..."
    "I'm almost there, don't move."
    
    Sure enough, a few seconds after Jack's nervous statement, a black van turned at the end of the street and stopped right in front of her. She took a few steps behind, and frowned— That surely wasn't Jack's car. Before she could even blink, two men came out running from the van and grabbed Krystal. She squealed and tried to free herself from their grip. Useless move. was covered with a white cloth, leaving her unconscious the second after. Her phone fell on the hard ground, making Jack's screams for her completely in vain. She was dragged by the two men in black to inside the van just as Amber was leaving the store. Shocked, her only reaction was to run to them to help Krystal and throw whatever was inside the black plastic bag that she had just bought. She screamed as she jumped to one of the men and tried to break his arms from grabbing the unconscious Krystal, failing miserably. One of them gives her a punch, making her stumble and fall back.
    Despair took over her. She saw how Krystal was carelessly thrown inside the van, she saw how the men were in a hurry but still had time to laugh and mock the situation... She saw, not clearly, between the growing tears in her eyes, how Krystal was about to be taken away by some weird people and no one was there to help. Except her. She was no fighter. And she had no idea as to why was this happening to Krystal. To her Soojung.
    Her right cheek was throbbing and she could feel a warm liquid coming out from . It was hurting her so much that she suddenly wanted to stop everything and just sit still. Nonetheless, she managed to stand up and run once again to them, jumping, biting, doing everything she could to stop them.
    Out of frustration, the van driver also got out and screamed to the other two, "Leave her to me!". With another white cloth in his hands, he desperately grabbed Amber from behind and covered her whole face, making her body a heavy weight on his arms. He took a glance at the street before throwing Amber over Krystal, as if they were nothing, scum.
    They hurriedly managed to take off without grabbing anyone's attention and without leaving any hint behind for Jack, who arrived a few minutes after, and looked absolutely devastated as he grabbed Krystal's smarthphone from the ground, gripping it afterwards and running back to his car.
 

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/waves

/bites her lip

/hides

...

hi...?

Yeah, I'm sorry it took so long ;___;