“You look-”

Krystal chuckled.

“Are you okay, servant?”

“Uh-huh...” Amber’s voice trailed off. Seeing Krystal emerge out her door with a flowy, sleeveless, sky-blue, polka-dot blouse with the front tucked into her blue shorts literally blew her away.

“You don’t look so bad yourself.” Krystal smirked.

Amber opened to blurt something out in retort but closed it after a few seconds because she was unable to find anything to say. She is wearing just her usual get-up---- a black tee, denim jeans, sneakers and her favourite LA cap.

“Uh, so... Should we get going or you'll just keep staring at me all day?” Krystal asked warily. Amber’s gaze on her felt like lasers burning through her skin.

To this, Amber scratched the back of her head and let out a nervous laughter.

“Ahaha! Alright then, princess. Let’s go! You and me on a D-A-T-E...” Amber chanted in a singsong manner.

Krystal rolled her eyes.

“Date your .”

---

It was still eight in the morning and both of them haven’t had any breakfast yet, so they decided to stop by somewhere first to eat.

“Let’s eat at the bakery near the park, princess.” Amber suggested, shrugging off the sly grin Yuri has been shooting her since she found the two going out the apartment together.

“The ‘SHINEE Pastry Shop’? You sure know your way around here, don’t you? Have you been there?”

“I heard you worked there years ago, from Jackie.” Amber replied without thinking.

“Oh.” Krystal replied, some hint of bitterness evident in her voice.

“I...I’m sorry princess. I shouldn’t have said that. I...” Amber knew she made the princess remember, and she doesn’t want her to, not today.

“Look, it’s okay. I’m okay.”

“But you don’t look okay. Let’s just eat somewhere else.”

“No. Let’s go there. I don’t have anything against the place, anyway. It’s just. I would never have worked there if what happened didn’t happen. But come on.”

“If you say so.” Amber replied tentatively.

---

“KRYSTAL JUNG SOOJUNG, LONG TIME NO SEE!” A fashionable-looking guy from behind the counter stretched his arms wide open the moment Krystal pushed the door  and entered the confectionery cafe.

“Hi Key. Been busy at the apartment.” The guy went towards Krystal and enveloped her in a warm hug.

“Still, you should have at least visited once every week. You know Yuri won’t let any of us in your ‘holy’ gates. That killjoy! I missed you Jungie.” Key mumbled under his breath while still hugging the girl.

“Aissh. Such a baby!” Krystal chuckled while patting the guy’s back.

Amber’s hands balled up into fists at the sudden skinship and intimacy between the two.

She loudly cleared .

“Oh, looks like you have company here.” Key released the girl. “And a guy too. My God Jungie, DON’T TELL ME---!”

“He’s a girl key.” Krystal scoffed.

Amber didn’t know why she felt so disappointed. She even hoped for a minute there that she’s a real guy, just to fend off this Key.

“Oh. Girlfriend then?” Key wriggled his eyebrows.

“Aissh. She’s not my girlfriend, she's my----”

“I’m Amber Liu. And you are?” Amber interrupted Krystal from saying any further.

Key chuckled.

“I’m Kim Kibum. But everyone calls me Key.” He extended his arm for a handshake, but Amber pretended to ignore it.

“Yah Josephine! Shake hands.” Krystal ordered. Amber complied uninterestedly.

---

Krystal’s POV

What is wrong with this llama?

Ever since we entered the cafe, she’s been avoiding my eye and acting really weird.

I ordered for us since she looked so disinterested. She should stop annoying me like this or else! Aissh.

She’s not even touching her cupcake. What the hell is wrong with her? She’s merely sipping a glass of water while looking out the glass window.

“Hey Josephine!”

“-----”

She ignored me.

She has never ignored me whenever I call her.

This is making me really annoyed.

“SERVANT!”

She faced me with a bored look in her face.

“What is wrong with you? You should respond at once whenever I call you, stupid!”

“I never thought you’re close with guys.” She replied nonchalantly.

My eyes twitched.

What’s with that cold statement?

I’m really irritated right now.

“So what if I’m close to guys? I’m actually closest to Key, after Sulli, Luna-unnie and Vic-umma.”

“Good for you then.” She shrugged her shoulders and continued sipping her glass of water, again diverting her gaze to whatever interesting lies outside.

“Amber Josephine Liu, what the hell is wrong with you?” I blurted out rather loudly. Other customers had just come flocking in and Key is busy attending to them to even notice the atmosphere between us.

“Nothing.”

“I don’t believe you. Now eat and don’t let my penny go to waste.”

“He didn’t make you pay for your order. It’s his penny you’re talking about.”

Urgh.

Why is she being like this all of a sudden?

I don’t like it one bit.

Could it be?

No. Never mind.

---

“Thanks for the breakfast, Key. We better get going now.” I approached Key on the counter, with Amber trailing behind.

“Aren’t you gonna say hi to the others? They’re busy baking at the back.”

“No. I’ll just come visit another time when they’re not at it. I don’t want to disturb them.”

Key walked out the counter and hugged me close again.

Aissh, this guy and hugs are really inseparable.

Amber’s POV

She’s hugging Krystal again. How can she be so lenient to skinships with a guy!

The whole time she’s hugging Krystal, Key looked at me straight in the eye with a mischievous grin.

I badly want to punch him in the face.

I firmly but gently pulled Krystal away from his tight grip and encircled my arm around her waist.

“If you don’t mind, MY princess and I need to go.” I squarely said.

I felt Krystal went rigid under my touch.

She released herself from my grip and briskly walked out the door without saying anything.

---

“You’re too obvious Miss.”

My brow shot up. I was about to go after Krystal when Key grabbed my wrist.

I faced him and gave him a glare.

“You like her, don’t you?” He asked.

“I’m a girl.” I told him.

“So? Jealousy is written all over your face. And what if you’re a girl? I’m a guy and I like guys. I’m gay.”

What. The. Hell.

“And don’t worry. Your secret’s safe with me. Hahaha. But it’s better if you tell her, you know.” He ruffled my hair and went back to the counter to entertain a customer who just walked in.

I wasn’t jealous.

I wasn’t.

Was I?

---

“Princess.”

Amber sat beside the landlady in a bench at the park. She had been so worried as to where Krystal might have gone off to. Fortunately, she found her here and she didn’t go that far from the pastry shop.

Krystal didn’t answer.

“I’m sorry about earlier, princess. I was just---”

“What took you so long servant? Come on!” Krystal stood up, grabbed Amber’s wrist, and dragged her towards the subway station.

---

Another grim discovery Amber found out during this day is that Krystal is a total shopping maniac.

The two spent the entire day at COEX Mall, one of the largest shopping complexes in Asia, as Krystal told her, and it wasn’t how Amber pictured their ‘date’ to be.

The landlady’s shopping mode seems to be inexhaustible. The two went through shops and boutiques of female apparel here and there, and Krystal exploded with so much energy the whole time.

Amber is totally exhausted. Holding all the shopping bags and following Krystal all around is seriously draining the life out of her. The only time she was able to stay still was during their lunch at a Chinese restaurant, and Krystal was even speed-eating that time because she seemed to want to visit all the shops in the building, much to Amber’s dismay.

“Servant, does this look good on me?”

“How about this one?”

“The material in this dress is really nice, don’t you agree?”

“What do you think about this wedge, Josephine?”

“This one’s better, isn’t it?”

“Do you think I should get this one? Maybe not.”

“But it’s a must have, right? I guess I should.”

“Gosh these accessories are to die for! Come here, Josephine. I want to see them on you.”

“Wow you look really weird with it. Bwahaha!”

“My God, there are plenty of new arrivals here. I haven’t shopped for ages! Shall I look over there?”

She’s having a terrible headache with all these nonstop questioning and blabbering about girly stuff.

“Princess ...” Amber tugged at the hem of Krystal’s blouse to catch her attention.

“But I like this one more. It’s just that it’s too expensive.”

“Princess...”

Again the tomboy is ignored completely.

“Princess Jung Soojung.”

This time Amber is annoyed.

“I should just buy this one, right Josephine?”

“KRYSTAL!” Amber finally couldn’t take it anymore.

“Yah! Why are you calling me Krystal? Have you forgotten about the contract?”

Amber heaved a sigh. “I’m exhausted, princess. You said you’d tour me around Seoul, but you’re only in the mood for shopping the whole day. My arms will fall off any second from now.”

“--------”

“Princess?”

Amber looked at the dumbfounded Krystal.

The landlady looked like she had seen a ghost. The three-inch pumps she’s holding fell from her grasp with a loud thud.

“Hey princess, you okay?” Amber asked worriedly.

The buzzed-up Soojung had vanished and in front of her stands a pale lady whose spirit seemed to have fled away from her body.

“Amber...” Krystal mumbled silently. She’s looking at something or someone from a distance, her eyes widening in some sort of recognition.

“What princess?” Amber followed her line of sight to see a blonde woman looking at some racks at a shop on the opposite side.

“M-my sister...”