~

     As consciousness came back to Krystal, she wished it wouldn't.
    Pain erupted from different places of her body, from her feet to her head, where an almost unbearable head ache took place, preventing her from opening her eyes. Her nostrils were hurting and whenever she took a breath it would sting.
    She furrowed her eyebrows and mindlessly fumbled around her, her hands meeting with the hard and cold ground and then with a warmer volume; as if finding that as a way to run away from all the cold that was getting to her, she kept on exploring, running her hands over that thing next to her.
    
    "If only you knew where you're touching..."
    
    Krystal froze. It was a muffled sound, but she could swear she heard those exact words, even though they weren't more than a whisper. A tired whisper; a tired, almost suffering whisper.
    Krystal slowly tilted her head to her left as she raised her eyebrows in curiousity. She opened her eyes.

   And could hardly describe what she was seeing. Too much information. What first caught her attention were definitely Amber's brown, deep eyes looking at her, accompanied by some heavy dark circles right below them. Krystal's eyes wandered through the other's face, shocking her the moment after. Despite all bruises on her face and dry blood on the corner of , Amber managed to smile, even if it was only with her eyes, turning them into half-moons.
    Krystal sleepily blinked as she acknowledged Amber's presence, not able to do much more but wonder what the hell had they been doing to end up falling asleep together in a cold and hard ground.
    She was suddenly remembered of the day they woke up on the same hotel bed, the very same day they went to Everland Amusement Park together for the first time. She smiled at the happy memory, at the happy times they spent together either talking in that hotel room or having fun in different rides at the Amusement Park.

    But the mood this day was definitely different from that day.
    Her eyes travelled along her arm to the hand lying over that warm volume that was none other than Amber's chest. Her eyes widened as Amber softly chuckled.

    "Sorry—" She started, shocked by her hoarse voice.
    "Hah, it's okay." Amber shrugged.

    Amber struggled to sit, letting out a few cries of pain. She laid her back against the wall, but regretted the second after as she clumsily retreated, since it was so cold.
    It was only then, after eyeing Amber's movements, that Krystal actually understood that there was something wrong. She glanced around as she sat on the ground too, with a lot less difficulty than Amber had. She frowned.
    She didn't know this place.
    They were in a closed space, with only one tiny translucid window next to the ceiling to iluminate the whole room. Everything was built in some sort of grey-ish mass — that Krystal named it as cement —, with some ocasionally bricks showing. There were a few steps ahead of them, that lead to a closed dark door. Everything was cold... and strange. She slowly looked at herself, still in her school's uniform, and her backpack nowhere to be seen. Her clothes were dirty and smelly, leaving Krystal with a disgusted face as she glanced at Amber.
    Amber was in a worse state. Before she knew it, her disgusted expression turned to a worried one. Amber was shivering, only with a white shirt and her school's skirt on; her shirt had stains and drops of blood, besides being completely dirty; her skirt too. Her blond hair was a complete mess, but Krystal was more than sure that that wasn't even in Amber's to-be-worried-over list.
    Krystal's first reaction was to give Amber her slightly torn blazer, since she had a pullover below, and thus they could both be slightly warm. She mumbled a simple, yet more than grateful "Thanks," as she tried to put it on, failing completely. Krystal reached to help her dress, carefully grabbing her heavier-than-usual and numb arm and somehow inserting it inside the jacket.
    She also noticed her swollen purple-turning-green cheek down to her lips, and Amber's other arm never leaving her ribcage.
    She scowled.
    What—
    ... What happened?
    The furthest in her memories that she could remember was herself speaking on the phone with Jack, on a rather empty and darker street, and... with Amber... inside a convenience store? Yes. She remembered seeing Amber's back to her, as she paid whatever she was buying. She had picked her up from school, and Jack was mad at Krystal because she hadn't noticed him before-hand and so was about to get her... But then—
    
    "I think—" Amber's voice cut through her trail of thoughts. She diverted her attention to a scowling-in-pain Amber. Amber coughed. "—we were kidnapped."
    Krystal raised her eyebrows. "What?" She asked in a tone that clearly told Amber that she wasn't believing at all in her words.
    "It makes sense." Amber nodded and then flinched in pain. "They drugged you and threw you inside a black van. I saw that," she spoke slowly, as she eyed with interest Krystal's shocked expressions.
    "Wha— But—why would they?" Krystal shook her head as Amber shrugged. "And why are you so hurt?" She pointed at Amber's body as the other one dryly chuckled.
    "And you haven't seen my back..." Krystal's chin dropped. "Those guys— Whoever they are, they are absolutely disgusting, and really, really scary."
    "Who?"
    "Those guys that took us."
    "Who are they?"
    "How would I know..." Amber bit her lip, hurting herself even more. "They—They hurt me so—" Her voice cracked. Krystal glanced at her. "—so much... They beat me up so... hard."
    
    Amber's shivers started again and Krystal wondered if they were really caused by cold. Tears formed in Amber's eyes and quickly fell, wetting the jacket Krystal had given to her. She didn't even bother herself to wipe them, or to hide them—damn, she couldn't even stop them! Before they knew it, Amber was sobbing and Krystal looked over at her helplessly.
    A lot of questions were filling up her mind as she saw Amber breaking down. She dragged herself closer to the crying one and carefully hugged her— what if she hurted her more than she already was? Her hands travelled down to Amber's waist and weakly grabbed her as she rested her chin, followed by her healthy cheek, against Krystal's shoulder, seeing no end of her sobs any time soon.
    
    "Why would they do that...?" Krystal whispered, her voice getting lost against Amber's body.
    "I don't— know... When I woke up thet—they started doing some w-weird questions and I— I had no idea o-of what to answer." Amber buried her face in Krystal's shoulder and hair as she tried to calm herself by breathing.
    Krystal softly patted Amber's back, trying not to hurt her, as her mind went through all the questions that eventually formed inside of her. "What questions?"
    "I don't remember." She sniffed. "Something about Jung. Jung—Master Jung. I—It's your surname." She cleared and tried to look at Krystal, but Krystal pushed her head back to her shoulder.

    She was not the brightest person in earth (no, definitely not.), but having a few facts regarding a certain subject, even the dumbest person could somehow connect them and thus, lead himself to a conclusion.
    Her mind travelled through a few of the chats she had had with Jack — putting away all the childish bickering and spotlighting all the important stuff.
    She was being followed when she was in America, which was mainly the only reason for her to be now in Korea. Stalking, was that the word Jack used? She couldn't be sure at the moment.

    She could only be sure of one thing: she was definitely regretting not having asked Jack why the hell was she being followed and not having insisted Jack in telling her more about what was happening.
    Because Jung— Master Jung wasn't something that unfamiliar to Krystal, and only if her memory was failing at her, she could swear she had heard that name-slash-statement or whatever before.
    Putting on a serious expression and making sure Amber was still there with her by hugging her tightlier and burying her face within her messy blond hair, Krystal went through her memories and lived flashbacks until finally getting to where she wanted:

    Sunny day. San Francisco. Somewhere between the streets next to her High School, Krystal was walking until getting to a near McDonald's, always closely and discreetly followed by her bodyguards Johnny and Joe. Entering a crowded McDonald's, Joe quickly made his way to get an empty table as Krystal eyed the menu. The moment she started her pace towards the balcony, she heard those words. She had no idea of how did she end up hearing them, through that much noise everyone was making, but something had somehow caught her attention:
    
    "Dunno, Master Jung is getting weirder, he's so whiny nowadays—"
    "Think it's menopause?" One laughed.
    "Nah, menopause hit him long time ago, that guy's probably in his 80's." Both laughed. "I bet it's because he hasn't done it in a long time!" They kept on laughing, not minding if they were too loud.
    
    Krystal was disgusted at their chat and blamed herself for eavesdropping to such none-interesting conversation. Directing back her attention to the menu, she was once again distracted from it. She noticed how their laughter came all too suddenly to an halt and she was not exactly happy when she felt something bump into her, wetting her skinny jeans. She glanced over at them and then at her clothes. Shocked, she turned to them.
    
    "What. The. Hell."

    But she wasn't able to do much more than being y over the happening, since Johnny covered her and Joe made his way from the empty table he had eventually found to them. She remembered she took a second glance at them, jumping into the conclusion that it was not the first time she had seen them.
    
    Coincidence?
    She didn't think so. Well, not everyone walks around in the peak of the summer dressed in all black... right? She saw them next to her school too, that very same day, a few hours before meeting them in the fast food restaurant. She wondered if, when Jack told her she was being stalked, it was that what he was refering to.
    But they seemed so... not professional...

    She shook her head.
    That wasn't relevant at the moment.
    What was relevant was that she had indeed heard that name before, and that quickly lead her to the conclusion that whatever was happening wasn't something unplanned but, yes, something that had been planned for a long time now.
    She scowled.

    Jung.
    Jung Soo Jung.
    Jung... Min Jung.
    Jung Mun Hee.

    No.
    She shook her head. That wasn't her grandmother's maid name; as far as she knew it, her grandmother's name was Kang Mun Hee before marrying to her grandfather, someone who she had never heard of before.
    
    Her grandfather.
    Someone she had never heard of before.
    Jung.
    Master Jung.
    "probably in his 80's."
    
    Krystal shut her eyes tight as she carefully gripped her arms around Amber.
    
    It all made sense.
    And it seemed too much of a coincidence for it to not be true.

A/N: Because I love you, yes, you who is reading this and has never given up on this story. Thank you so much. I couldn't feel more thankful than I am right now :)

Also, welcome new subscribers!

Thank you for putting up with me.

Hope to see everyone commenting! Opinions are always more than welcome :)