• Miss You - SM The Ballad

Krystal really needed to get rid of that extra energy that was fuming in her ever since she witnessed the kiss. Though she did not know exactly how to get rid of a heartache, she knew she had to do something. She needed to talk to someone, she decided, but who? Her members? No, it would be too embarrassing. When she had problems before, it was either Him or her members that Krystal would confide to, but the situation right now was unique and different than her other ones. Who was she going to ask? Her manager? No, they were very conceivable gossipers. Her teachers? Didn’t keep in touch. Stylists? Gossiped worse than the managers. Just when her mind was blank, the image of a boy appeared in her head. The boy who had witnessed her cry her eyes out. Judging from his reputation, he was the type to be able to keep his mouth shut.

Taemin.

Krystal fumbled with her phone, trying to find his number. She should have his number since they had trained together. Though they were not close, they were friendly enough. He seemed to be on the top of the list of Best Listeners for her right now.

The theme park was very crowded. It was considered one of the most popular theme parks in Korea since tourists flowed inside in numerous crowds every day. Lotte World was also conveniently situated right inside Seoul, perfect not only  for tourists, but also to the city’s inhabitants, who came regularly.

Taemin was waiting in the inside area of Lotte World known as Adventure Land, where it almost seemed like a miniature world with streets representing different countries. Because it was so crowded and mostly filled with tourists, he wouldn’t have a problem blending in. Often, people were very oblivious to their surroundings.

He was roaming one of the gift shops, waiting for someone to arrive at their rendezvous point. His delicate hands picked up an ornate-looking crystal snow globe, which had a silver star lodged inside. He shook the snow globe and smiled as he watched the synthetic snow fall down. He did this a few more times, then finally noticed that the shop keeper was staring at him. He straightened himself up, bowed, and apologized. In the end, he decided to buy it.

As soon as Taemin walked outside, he carefully placed the wrapped snow globe inside his knapsack. When he looked forward, he could see the person he was waiting for: she was wearing a style that suited her.
Krystal came up to him, gripping her shoulder bag, and looked ready to scold him. “Yah! I told you to wait over there, near the carousel. I’ve been looking for over a half an hour!” Taemin’s eyes widened at this realization. “But I thought we said to meet in front of here.” He pointed up to the shop’s name which he had just exited out of. Krystal looked and read it aloud.“Harmony Carousel Gift Shop.” She laughed when she noticed his silly mistake.

“Ah, never mind. Did you want to ride that?” Krystal pointed to the carousel in the middle of the area.

Taemin’s eyes followed where she was pointing, then looked at her as if she was joking. “Isn’t that for kids?”
Krystal examined him up and down with her eyes. “You’ll pass,” she remarked jokingly. “If it helps, I’ll go on with you.”

The line wasn’t long, so they were on in less than two minutes. They both took a pair of horses adjacent to each other. Taemin had some trouble getting onto his horse, but succeeded with a worker’s help. Krystal turned her head away when this had happened, not wanting to show she was trying to hold in her laughter.
After thanking the worker, he looked at her and said suspiciously,
“Hey, I know you’re laughing!”
She turned to look at him with a casual and innocent face.
“Hm? What did I miss?”
He gave her a serious look, which made her laugh even more. “Wow, I can’t believe I’m still able to laugh.”
The ride started up. Krystal was sitting on the horse that was more outward than Taemin’s, so she gazed out and watched the spinning picturesque. Taemin kept glancing at her, recalling the previous day’s events when he had found her in the dressing room.

Is she really okay now?

After their CF recording was over yesterday, Krystal had been smiling to the staff, looking as if nothing was wrong. He wondered how did she get rid of her puffy eyes....everyone got puffy eyes when they cried. He decided that he would ask her later, since that wasn’t what was important right now. He had to admit; she was quite the actress. Even though she looked okay to everyone else, he knew she wasn’t. He, Taemin, also knew the true purpose of this day. She must have thought about Taemin’s offer and decided to confide her troubles, whatever they were, to him. Somewhere in him, he felt proud that she felt she could trust him, because he had received a text message from her.

He took out his phone now, one of his hands still gripping the pole sticking out of the plastic horse, and looked for the message in his inbox.

Subject: (no subject)
Sender: Krystal-ssi
Are you busy tomorrow? Can you come to Lotte World with me? I need to distract myself...I can understand if you don’t want to. If you decide to come, I’ll meet you by the Carousel.

Without hesitation, Taemin had text her back, saying he would definitely go. Somehow, they both acted as if they were very close friends, yet the two of them would only greet whenever they used to pass by each other. Because she preferred to skip over the initial awkwardness, he had decided that he would do the same.
Now, he was doubting himself. He didn’t even know Krystal very well. Taemin was hoping she could rely on him to help distract her, but could he even do that?

The rest of the day was spent with both of them being as carefree as possible. Even though they were the only “big kids” riding in the bumper cars, they enjoyed knocking into each other, apologizing to any glaring parents when they knocked into the parents’ children.

Krystal enjoyed both the Gyro Drop and Gyro Swing, although Taemin had to sit out for a while after each one. However, they both were scared out of their minds while going through The Haunted House, but came out laughing.
“Did you see your face when it popped out? It was HILARIOUS!” Krystal clapped her hands together and covered while laughing.
“No way! You were grabbing onto my arm and almost made me fall.”
“What are you talking about?! I was...trying to help you!”
“Sure. You were trying to help ME...” He chuckled then stopped because he could hear music playing somewhere. After following the sounds, they found a Castle Street Show, which had just started.
“Oh! Let’s watch, Krystal!”
Taemin found them both seats and watched the dancers flowing to the music. In the middle of it, he noticed that she wasn’t paying attention. Like she was zoning out.

“Is this boring you?”

She jerked a bit, surprised at his voice, and turned her head to him. “Huh?...No! Not at all...” He tilted his head to examine her closely. “Then what is it? You can tell me anything.” He raised his right hand up, as if citing a pledge.

“I, Lee Taemin, will promise to never tell anyone anything about what you’ll say next.”

She gave him a half-hearted smile, then sighed. Even though she didn’t know him all that well, she felt she could trust him. Krystal opened , then closed it. Her fingers were clasped tightly together on her lap. It was silent for a while between them. Taemin decided to be patient and let her talk when she wanted to. He watched the next performers come out and do a dance battle. When she finally spoke, it surprised him because he had been so into the show.

“Taemin-ah...Did you know I...used to...like someone?”

He looked over at her, a little shocked. He thought out of all of the people he knew, Krystal would be the last person to fall for someone. “R-really?” He watched in mounting disbelief as she nodded her head, not looking at him.
“Do I know him?” He probably did, considering that they were both from SM. Who could it be? He was very curious on which type of guy could steal her heart.

“That person....” Krystal wondered if she should tell him the name. “Can I....not tell you the name? For now.”
 

Taemin almost fell out of his seat. “Uhh...okay. That’s fine..”

Even though he was dying of curiosity inside, he respected her decisions. And then there was the part where he saw her crying the other day. ”This man is the reason you were....?” She nodded her head again, but slowly this time. It was silent between them again, the music no longer reaching their ears.

“Ah, eottoke. (What to do.) I feel like using the bathroom. I’ll be right back.”

Taemin watched as she got up from her seat and headed to the ladies’ restroom, knowing full well what the real reason was for. He saw her casually twirl her hair with her fingers, but she couldn’t hide the teardrop  that she had just wiped off her cheek.  As he watched the show alone, but couldn’t pay attention to it anymore, he noticed that ever since they sat down, he hadn’t seen her smile. A true, genuine smile. Not  even once. 

“Ppali, ppali!” (Hurry, hurry!) Krystal ushered him out onto the rink.
“Yah!! Don’t push me!” He held onto the side of the rink, watching ice skaters zoom pass.

They were currently in Lotte World’s skating rink, which was open all year round. It was Krystal’s idea to go ice skating and Taemin didn’t have the heart to refuse.

“I thought you didn’t know how to ice skate. Why did you want to come here?” He looked behind him and saw that Krystal was trying to skate without the railing’s support.
“Didn’t you know? This skating rink was used for set in Stairway To Heaven,” she replied, referring to a popular Korean drama back in 2006 that she enjoyed watching back in her trainee days. “And I DO know how to ice-skate! It’s just been a while.”

She skated alongside with the other ice skaters. Taemin circled the rink with his hands gripping onto the railing. After that music show had finished, Krystal had came out of the bathroom, smiling, but it didn’t fool him. While they had headed to the rink, all he had thought about was how Krystal had told him so much, yet he couldn’t do anything back.

“Taemin-ah!” He snapped out of his revere and saw her coming towards him, skating like she had been doing this all her life. ”Here, grab my hand.” She helped him move away from the railing and supported him when he was in danger of slipping. “Whoa, how did you adjust so quickly?”

They moved slowly and carefully, trying not to crash into the other skaters. “I guess I’m a fast learn--AH!” She slipped, but caught herself when Taemin tried to hold her up.

“Are you okay?” He asked between laughs. “Good thing I was holding her hand, right?”

Krystal glared at him, but in a teasing way. She sighed and suddenly recalled a past conversation she had with her sister. "You know, Jessica once told me that if two people are holding hands while skating, that means they trust each other." Taemin thought about that and decided it made sense. If one fell, that would drag the other down. In other words, both relied on each other in not falling. They skated around and eventually picked up speed. They didn’t let go of each other’s hands until they were off the ice.

It was dark now. They called up one of the company cars to pick them up. On the way home in the car, Krystal looked out of side window while Taemin was busy talking to Key.

“I’m coming home now...Yeah, I know I was supposed to be back sooner, but...some things came up....What?....Okay! I’ll be there soon!...I have to go. Bye!~”

He quickly ended the phone call, hoping to give Krystal is full attention until she was back at her dorm. Then he noticed that Krystal was staring at him. “You don’t have to worry about me. I’ll be fine. You did what everything that I asked from you” He blinked his eyes, realizing how right she was, but it still felt like he hadn’t done much.

“By the way, thank you for today. It helped a lot. I really appreciate it.” She gave him a warm smile that made his chest clench for a mere second, then she turned back to the window. Still, he wished he could  do more.

Then he remembered something. Taemin opened up his knapsack and took out the bag with the wrapped snow globe inside. “Tada! Here. This is for you.” He handed Krystal the crystal snow globe, still in its box. Krystal looked at him and the box curiously. “You bought me something?” He nodded his head and placed it into her hands.

She opened the box and the gift was revealed. Examining its beauty, Taemin told her to shake it. “Here! I’ll show you!” He gave it three shakes and handed it back to her. “Isn’t it awesome?”

She knew how a snow globe worked, but this one seemed to have a special meaning to it. Somehow. Was it the star inside it? Or the silver lines etched on the base?

“Whenever you fall, you can always get back up. Kind of like...a fallen star! It turns into someone else’s wish when it falls, but it can always be reborn.”

Krystal looked at him with admiration. Did Taemin just say that? “Where did you get that from?”

He simply grinned at her, quite surprised at himself too,  then settled back into his seat. “You’re tougher than you think. Did you know that?” He said this real softly and was referring to how she would try to comfort herself or act like nothing was wrong. However, Krystal hadn’t heard. She was busy shaking the globe, smiling at the falling snow. And this time, it was a real smile.