• Because You Sting - JeA & G.O.

Krystal looked in disbelief at the boy in front of her.
How was she going to explain it all?
Would she explain it all?

These questions wandered in her mind, and she remembered the events that had happened.
The events that had led to her heartbreak...

Flashback to two days before.
   
"Soojung-ah! Are you up yet?"
    Krystal peered out of her room after hearing Luna call out to her. "I'm still getting ready. Don't wait for me!" Krystal turned back to face her room and continued in filling her tan-colored shoulder bag with as much as possible. Practices usually lasted for a long period of time, so she wanted to go prepared.
    "iPod, water bottles, hair scrunchies...snacks?" She suddenly looked up from her bag-checking as she reasoned with herself on whether or not to raid the dorm's kitchen. Somewhere outside of her room, Krystal heard the door shut, meaning her members must have gone with her advice and went ahead. That was fine. She could easily catch up.
    Her feet guided her into the kitchen and her hands opened all of the cabinets and pantries. After finding dehydrated food such as spiced squid, sweet potato chips, and a jar of radish jangajji, she finally decided to head out to the company's practicing/training center. Victoria usually prepared food, but these days she was too caught up hanging out with Nichkhun, her ‘husband’ in We Got Married.

    The f(x) members practiced some of their current dance routines, adding in a twist to it here and there by the choreographer. Krystal had caught up with them just in time before they had started. After a few hours of relentless and tiresome practice, they were allowed a break.  The girls sat down near the wall of mirrors as they drank from their water bottles.
    "Ah, I love the taste of water," Amber remarked after chugging half her bottle down .
    Sulli stared at her funny while wiping of the leftover water residing on her lips. "Water doesn't have a 'taste' to it, Amber."
    Luna shook her head to her, ready to speak at any given moment, no matter how tired she was. "But it does. There's chlorine in it, but that's only if it's tap water." Victoria nodded her head, agreeing with Luna. "That's true, that's true! It's to clean it, right?"
    "It is. And I didn't have to look it up," Luna replied with a laugh between her words. "But we're drinking form water bottles that aren't filled with tap water. What does it taste like then?" Sulli had inquired this to her older members with a curious expression. While Victoria and Luna were thinking of a response, Amber answered the question for them. "There's really no taste to it. It's just feeling...wetness." Sulli slowly nodded her head in agreement, which Victoria and Luna did as well.
    "I'm going to use the bathroom." Krystal stood up and headed out of the room, not wanting to be part of the conversation about water. She was not in the mood for this just after having practiced.
    As she was heading out, she heard Sulli exclaim, "Like a kiss?!" She started to giggle as she, like Krystal, had never kissed a boy officially. Luna playfully shoved Sulli while Victoria the mom added in, "Hey, you're too young to know what a kiss is!"
    “Don’t act as if you are an expert!” Sulli exclaimed “I have already kissed!”
    Luna looked at her dongsaeng in disbelief. “It was from a drama! So it doesn’t count...Krystal? How about you. Ever kissed a guy?”

Krystal shook her head and continued her way to the bathroom. The Idea of a first kiss had never meant much; she hadn't paid much attention to the importance of a First Kiss.

    Krystal went farther away from the hearty laughter as she walked inside the ladies' room with a face towel. She washed her face with the running sink water, the coldness of it cooling her down. After wiping some of the water out of her eyes, she gazed into the mirror to a person with a sort of confidence to her. Physically, the girl in the mirror was 5'5" in height, looking pretty slim and fit for her age, and straight black hair that was usually parted in the middle. For practice, she had tied it up. Her eyes fell on the ponytail she had made earlier, then her hands worked to remove the hair tie, loosening her hair out. Better, she thought with a smile.
    The conversation about a first kiss came back into her mind. Her hands absentmindedly touched her lips and she wondered how a guy’s lips would feel like. She shook her head, as if to get the thought out of her mind.

She immediately scolded herself. Krystal! You naughty girl!

    After drying herself with that towel she had brought with her, Krystal walked outside and almost knocked into someone. Once hearing the ladies' bathroom door swing open, that someone turned around.
    "Oh, Soojung-ah!"
    "Oppa!"
    Immediately, a wide smile spread across her face when she saw it was none other than Him. Actually, this has been going on for a while now; whenever Krystal's eyes laid upon Him her heart would do a involuntarily backward flip.
    He walked up closer to her, just leaving a foot or two between them. Krystal was afraid he could see her cheeks blush a bright red and hear her heart beating loudly. Th-thump, th-thump, th-thump. Having always been with her since the day she was born, her heart couldn't decide to betray her. Not now in front of the one, and possibly, the only one who made her heart act in this adolescent way!

While she was attempting to tame her heart, He opened his mouth and casually asked, "You girls are still practicing? Not tired yet?" He wiped his forehead where sweat had gathered. It appeared his band had a rehearsal today as well. "Yeah, we're actually taking a break now." She rubbed the back of her head, unsure with what else to say.

    Ever since she stopped denying the feelings she had unintentionally gathered for Him over the course of her training years, Krystal would tend to feel awkward in his superior-like presence. This was one of those moments.
    However, not noticing anything peculiar, he continued the light conversation. "We're finishing up too! Oh, that reminds me. Do you want to eat later? You can invite the rest, if you want. My treat." Krystal tilted her head to the side, looking over his facial expression. Nope, he was serious with the offer. She straightened her head, beaming at the thought of having dinner with him. Plus the members if they were planning on coming, but that would throw away any uncomfortable atmospheres between the two. "Sure! That sounds good. I'll ask them now."
“ Ok then, how about the Japanese restaurant right by SM? At...7:30 ish?” Krystal couldn’t erase the smile from her lips as she nodded with enthusiasm.
    They parted back into their practice rooms with the same blue sky wallpaper with its white clouds. Krystal was ecstatic, but she was aware of him not being out of earshot just yet. She resorted to wringing her towel to contain her excitement, then went to tell her members of the invite. However, practice was starting up again. The choreographer called for her to hurry up and catch up with them.
    Every moment, Krystal could hardly contain her excitement at the thought of something as simple as having dinner with Him.

Krystal’s eyes were glued on the clock. Time ticked away second by second.

The choreographer taught moves and gave lectures, but Krystal could only hear the sound of her heart beating to the rhythm at the count of each second.

Aish, time goes by sooooo slowly!

Practice had ran for another hour. Like the other f(x) members, Krystal was worn out, even with the small breaks they had in between. But when she thought of her planned evening, she could feel energy tickling into her, right up to her fingernails and down on toes since she couldn’t contain her excitement.

Now, Krystal was picking what she hoped would be the perfect outfit for tonight’s “special event.” She stood in front of the full-body mirror in her room. One hand held a sky blue and turquoise halter dress with floral design; the other held a white tab-sleeved blouse that you could tie at the waist. The latter one seemed to fit her image more, and He had once told her that he liked it when she dressed in white.

Luna appeared behind her and looked upon Krystal’s decision-making, then made an empathetic face. “I don’t think any of us can come with you. Is that okay?” Krystal looked at Luna’s reflection in the mirror still absorbed in choosing her outfit, then turned her head, realizing what Luna had just said. “What do you mean?” Luna sat down on Krystal’s bed and explained. “Victoria is going out with Nichkhun again. Sulli has to do her live hosting for Inkygayo. Amber and I have...plans.”

Krystal understood Victoria and Sulli’s excuses, but what about Luna and Amber’s? She narrowed her eyes at her as she sat (dangerously) close to her unnie. “What plans could you two possibly have?”

Amber suddenly came in and looked at Krystal as if she were stupid. “Don’t you get it? We don’t want to be the light bulbs for your date!”

Krystal just stared at the two of them. They...were doing her a favor.

“You two have to come with me though, please...it’s going to be awkward with only me and him. Please.”

She looked at both of their faces and tried relentlessly in getting them to go with her, but they wouldn't  give in to her protests. In the end, she decided to go by herself. After all, it wasn’t a ‘date’ if there were more than two people...right?

Krystal arrived at the restaurant with a pair of sunglasses, not wanting people to recognize her. Now that f(x) was gaining more and more popularity, tabloids had started to follow her around. Getting Him to start avoiding her was the last thing she wanted.

She saw a pair of hands waving at her and she smiled as she recognized the owner. Krystal walked over to him, but her smile froze at the sight of his group mates.

So he did not mean it as a romantic date then. Krystal said this in her head. Even though she didn't mind having more people join, she couldn't help feeling disappointed.

She nodded politely at them and they responded by nodding back at her.

This was going to be a long night...

Krystal turned her head sideways on her pillow and stretched comfortably in her bed. The events from the previous evening came to cloud her memory.

Sure, she knew that they weren’t going out, but somewhere in the back of her head, she had hoped that he had invited her to a one-on-one romantic date or He would introduce her as his girlfriend, but the evening couldn’t have been any more...plain.

She’s my dongsaeng. She’s my dongsaeng...Dongsaeng.

That was His response when someone asked Him who she was to him. Always.

“Krystal! Time to eat breakfast!” Vic shouted from the kitchen, as the aroma of egg and bacon filled Krystals nostrils and she felt her stomach growl in response.

She quickly got up from the bed, thinking, We have something scheduled today?

That was when it hit her! They had a commercial to film today! And it was with Him and His group members! Surely, she wouldn’t miss it for anything in the world!

Krystal promptly jumped out of bed, threw on a a pair of jeans and a red plain shirt, then proceeded to brush her hair.

The day couldn’t have been worst. She accidentally jabbed her mascara in her eyes, making her wince in pain. Then she poured her milk on her t-shirt and almost missed her drive to the filming site.

Worst of all, she kept on making mistakes in her lines during the shoot, and though no one got angry at her, she could feel their exasperated looks on her back. Fortunately, He seemed to be in a decent mood and encouraged her through her mistakes.

After hours of filming, they had finally finished a Eithitoo commercial. At least Victoria, Amber, Luna and her were done. Sulli still had a few lines she needed to do. But the director issued a break.

Krystal smiled contently, glad that the filming was finally over, and turned to her group members. Sulli looked worried as she walked all over the place, searching under coats and bags.

“Sulli, did you loose something?” Krystal asked. Even though they were almost the same age, Sulli was like a little sister to her, despite Sulli being older. Her cute little pigtails made her the most adorable girl Krystal had ever seen. Their friendship had started from their trainee days, and Krystal hadn’t hid her delight when they were assigned to be in the same band. It was no doubt how close there were.

“My scarf! I can’t find it anymore,” Sulli whined. “It’s my favorite pink scarf!

Sulli had a tendency to loose her stuff. Sometimes she would be looking for her phone, other times her rings, or her shoes. Though she did not know the origin of the scarf, Krystal knew the importance of it to Sulli; Sulli had carried that scarf around with her for almost a whole year. She even slept with it by her pillow.

“Where did you last see it?”

“Well, let me think. I still had it in the elevators and then we went to get our makeup done, then the stylist unnie picked our outfits.....Oh! I took it off when I tried on a sweater. It’s in the dressing room right beside the props rooms!”

“SULLI! Get over here now. It’s your turn on camera!” shouted their manager hyung, and he sounded pissed....Did he have another fight with his wife?

“Krystal, please, can you go get my scarf for me? You’re done anyway.” Sulli had started to put her aegyo into action. No one could refuse her demands when she stared at them with her eyes wide and her lips forming a pout.

“Fine,” Krystal gave in; she had nothing else to do at the moment anyway.

She hummed her way to the stairs and wandered a little in the hallways. Krystal was mesmerized by a painting hanging on the walls, when she remembered the real purpose of her little escapade. Oops. She ran to Sulli’s dressing room, looking for the scarf. And as predicted, it was lying there, by the dresser. She quickly picked it up and felt her phone vibrate. Probably Sulli asking for news on her scarf; she was an impatient little girl.

“What are you doing here?”

Krystal had been about to leave when she had heard His voice somewhere out in the hallway. She decided to go and say hi. Mistake number one.

Maybe she would scare him? So she opened the door silently and crept outside. Mistake number two.

She was about to turn a corner, but what she saw made her freeze. She couldn’t see their faces clearly, but it was Him...with a girl....kissing....on the lips.

END of flashback

“Gwaenchanayo?” (Are you okay?)

“Krystal...Gwaenchanayo?”, asked the voice again, but softer this time.

Krystal looked up, clearly shaken by what she had witnessed just moments ago. How would she explain to Taemin? She didn’t even know him very well enough to talk about personal matters.

“I’m fine, don't worry.” That was all she could mutter before feeling her tears swell back into her eyes.

She was His dongsaeng, and He had the right to fall for whoever He wanted. So why did it hurt do much to see Him kiss someone else?

“Hey, is there anyone in here?” She instantly froze when she recognized the voice. There was a knock on the door. “It’s just me, hyung!”, answered Taemin. Krystal threw him a grateful look. They heard His footsteps get fainter as He left in a different direction.

“So now can you tell me what’s wrong?”asked Taemin, sitting down on the floor, and looked at her with concern. Yet Krystal didn't make eye contact with him and stayed quiet.

Where would I start?

“It’s fine if you don’t want to.” Taemin added in. He stood up again, not wanting to force her.

When did Taemin become so caring? Though she did not know him well, Taemin had always seemed to be the one taken care of, seeing that he was the cute maknae of his group. But right now, Krystal wanted to be by herself.

As if reading her mind, Taemin left the room. “If you need anyone to talk to...." His words were quiet and drifted off, but he gently (just like his words) closed the door behind him. It was quiet for a moment. Just the way she wanted it to be. Krystal held her knees close to her chest, hoping she would wake up already from this nightmare. As she closed her eyes, causing another tear drop, she realized that she never would.