~

"No."

"Oh. Please?"

"I said no."

Krystal ran to Jack's side and shook her upper body as she cutely blinked and begged, "Pretty please?"

"What the hell?! Fine! I'll do it with the promise you won't ever beg me something again, like that." He threw his arms in the air and stepped back from Krystal. "Now go tell your little friend and pack—"

"YES!" Krystal jumped around, a bit too excited, but couldn't care less. She paused on her little on-her-own party and turned to Jack. "I already did."

"What?"

"Told her."

"How did you know I was going to let you?"

Krystal shrugged and tried to hid a smile, but not for long as she erupted in a hearty laugh. "You're so easy!"

"YAH!" Krystal ran away from the suddenly angry to inside the house. "You're not going!" He shouted as he took his phone from the pocket of his suit.

"What?! I'm going to tell on you to father!" Krystal reappeared in the path, with her arms crossed and a very evident frown on her face. 

Jack sighed. "Stop being so childish and hurry up packing."

Krystal did a Korean celebration with a fist bump in the air that Jack had never seen before and ran back inside the house, leaving him and her grandmother's white dog alone in the small garden in front of the house. He sighed again. 

He lost her to a girl.

How shameful was that? He shook his head. It was horrible, but, once again, who was he to stop them? No, more important than that: Who was he to Krystal? Someone that would always put her in danger, like it happened so many times in these past 17 years of Krystal's existence. He didn't deserve her and he had no right to take her away from her source of happiness.

But he also didn't deserve having to ride them to a freaking amusement park and having to stay there for a week — especially when it's an amusement park they had been once (Everland Resort, they went there, remember? For a... pair work assignment for school... that one assignment that they spent more time playing around than actually doing it, you know what I'm talking about.). Krystal kept on complaining that they didn't have enough time to visit the whole Everland, since it's huge, and that she wanted to return again, so Jack agreed with it.

Anything for his little princess.

Things were going well with Frank, Krystal's father, too.

Thanks to Jack, he found out that one of Krystal's bodyguards, Joe, had been giving out a few informations to the enemy, resulting in Krystal's and (even though unplanned) Amber's kidnap. They settled things well with Joe by inserting a bullet right in his temple — don't blame me! That's how they do it... They also inserted a bullet in Krystal's grandfather, who had been seeking to hold Krystal as a trap for Frank to appear. Too bad Frank's actually intelligent and has been in this since his early teenage years. And to think this cold war between these two huge American gangs (even though one started as a Korean... guess who) actually started just because of a small robbery that didn't go so well, since one gang messed with another, and left the Korean leader very, very angry. The rest... Well, I have my own story, but I'll let you readers use your imagination to make it yourselves!

But that didn't exactly mean absolute peace, just... they could be, let's say, a bit more carefree now.

Krystal eventually grew closer to her grandmother after knowing part of her past, and after thinking over how lonely she must have been before they arrived to that house: no husband, since she demanded a divorce decades ago, no daughter, since she left this world because of that very same husband, no friends because she rarely went outside, only to the grocery shop — well, you could consider those workers her friends...; maybe if she was a bit more talkative she could conquer her neighbour's friendship, a lady around her age who sadly turned widow a few weeks ago. Krystal was hoping for that. Her grandmother deserved it.

On a completely different matter, Krystal also hoped people would stop looking at her in a disgusted way just because she walked hand in hand with Amber. Oh, and when they would share a kiss, even the slightest peck, people would shoot daggers at them; if they could, Krystal was sure they would want to arrest them or something, for displaying such affections. Well, I guess homouality is still a very difficult subject for some. Krystal couldn't talk, even she had had some doubts about it... But those times are long gone, right? 

Her friends at her first-ever Korean school (to which, by the way, she returned to, after days of proper begging to Jack), Jin Ri and Ji Eun, were very happy with her return to their class and with the great news of Amber and her dating. The word spreaded inside the school: some were happy, some were indifferent, but some were angry and even jealous; well, guess  what? Amber was indeed very popular between girls.

But that didn't mean anything to their relationship, nor did it even affect it. They did have a few quarrels, yes, (come on, everyone has, don't tell me you're an exception!) but that never made them grow apart from each other. I cannot guarantee you much, but that... yes, that, I can.

The End

Thank you.

If any of you ever get to know me in real life, you'll see the type of person that I am. Besides having many other characteristics, I'm someone who always has a "thank you" or a "I'm sorry" on the tip of my tongue to say in any situation to avoid further conflicts; even said when unnecessary, but I always have it.

However, though, I can count with my fingers on my right hand how many times I actually meant those words, and this is definitely one of those times. Thank you so much to those who read, subscribed, commented, in short, to those who put up with me for all this time, even when I promised something and didn't really comply with that promise (so many times, how shameful of my part...), even when I announced I was editing my story because of a review I had received that really, really hurt me, and didn't even touch the story for so many months, only picking it up around in November, even when my English is not the best one and the way I put up my words is sometimes confusing... I could actually write a whole paragraph full of 'evens', but it would be a bit bothersome for you to read. But even so, even with so many flaws from this confusing story and from myself, you didn't give up on me.

That 'thank you' above, also goes to the designers and reviewers that shared their talent and services with this story. Always searching for a way to make the exterior look better, when it's actually the interior that needs to be a lot more worked.

I have been working on this story since February 21, 2012 (yes, I took note of the date I first wrote a sketch about this story!), and since then a lot of things happened with me life, including growing up. I can say with 100% of sure that this story helped me seeing things with another eyes. That's one of the greatest things about storytelling: you actually learn with what you write. I did learn, yes, and I'm hoping to learn a lot more in the future!

I will be around. For those who are unaware, I opened a Drabbles Collection (click!) about my favorite-ever (and yours, probably?) couple, our lovely girls Amber and Krystal, and I have thoughts of a new fanfic with them too, but this time I wanted to try something more mainstream, in a high school environment, with normal people, normal pasts, normal lives... We'll see how it turns out hahaha :)

Until then, you can find me here, working on other stories, or reading perhaps your stories, or just really spending my time. I'd love to keep in touch with all of you, all of you that made '집 - Home' what it is today, so I hope we see each other soon!

(you can also follow me on twitter, I'm always there :) — click!)