She didn’t know when it had started, but her vows to him kept her from questioning the secretive smiles and glances.

She didn’t know when it had ended, but she watched as her heart slowly cracks open every time she gaze upon them.

She didn’t know why, but words refused to escape from her lips as her eyes urged her to turn away from the terrible sights…

And yet she didn’t, and this was the price she had to paid.

“Amber...Hey Amber, wake up,” Victoria shook the younger girl gently, arousing her from the deep sleep she had fallen into the previous night. The oldest of the group scanned the precious tomboy’s face for signs of what happened, and the tear streaks that remained behind told a deeper story than what she had hoped to hear.

“Amber unnie, breakfast is ready…” Krystal peeked into the room, her eyes narrowing in silent anger at the fragile figure of the group’s usual protector. The aforementioned girl tried to keep a smile on her face as she rise from her bed, but the moment her feet touched the floor, she collapsed weakly and Victoria made a grab for the tomboy before she could hit the floor.

The clicking of the front door was suddenly heard, and a somber atmosphere transpired throughout the room as Luna walked in. Slamming the magazine she picked up from the shop nearby onto the table, the main vocal groaned in frustrations, her eyes travelling to the room her unnie is in.

“Unnie…”

“I know.”

“Amber, stop this.”

“I can’t do anything about it anymore.”

“Unnie, you can still go slap him in the face. If you don’t, I will go in your place.”

“Krystal. I don’t need that.”

“But unnie!”

“Silent!” The tomboy’s gaze settled on the group’s maknae that left no room for argument, and the youngest girl stumbled out of the room in fear of her unnie’s wrath. Krystal Jung wasn’t one who usually fear one Amber Liu, but Jung Soojung knew the internal turmoil the older girl was going through and did not want to be in the middle of it when she finally explodes.

“Breaking News! Kim Jonghyun was spotted on a date with Girls’ Day Yura!”

“...Turn it off.”

The immediate sound of the TV dying was heard, and silence once again reigned over the dorm room.

“Oppa, how are you doing today?” Amber kept a distance as she spoke with SHINee’s Jonghyun, someone she had always considered as a brother. Nothing more. Just as a brother.

“Amber ah!” The older man smiled brightly once he spotted the youngest in the makeshift Dino family of SM Entertainment and was about to launch himself at the girl for a big hug, but the icy gaze that she placed upon him froze him in place.

“Ouch,” Key sarcastically commented behind Jonghyun, but made no sign of stopping his idiotic groupmate from embarrassing himself any time soon. Instead, he simply pushed the said man to the side before going up to Amber and quietly embracing her.

“Amber ah, gwenchana?”

“Aniyo,” she replied shortly, burying her face into his shirt without hesitation. “Oppa, it’s not fair. He promised me that they….were just friends…”

At her words, Key glanced down at both of his friends’ hands and the familiar couple rings could no longer be found anywhere. On Jonghyun’s finger, however, was a very different and much-more-decorated cuff ring...the same intricate design he knew Amber hated from the bottom of her heart.

Following his eyes, Amber, too, spotted the change in jewelry and she gripped onto his shirt even tighter before letting go abruptly. Letting out a barely audible sigh, she nodded to Key before passing by Jonghyun without another word.

The moment Amber was out of sight, Victoria walked up to Jonghyun and slapped the man straight in the face. The clear contact resounded throughout the whole hallway, but Victoria made no indication of backing down even as her labelmates gathered around the commotion.

“I told you to never hurt Amber, didn’t I, Jonghyun?” She levelled her gaze at the younger male, her glare at its fiercest. “I told you that the moment a tear runs down her face, you and I are no more than mere strangers. And guess what?” She smiled maniacally, her grin menacing, “She came home in tears. Her shoes were dirty. Her legs weak. Her stuff completely covered in dirt. Her hair looked as though they were ripped out of her head. Listen to what I say, and decide for yourself, Jonghyun ssi. Your new girlfriend wrecked my Amber, and for that, I will never forgive her. The fact that Amber told you about what she did, but you didn’t believe her...that is simply cruel. I guess you are nothing different from the many dirt bags that had hurted Amber before. So if you wish to stay alive, stay away from her.”

Stunned into silence, the crowd automatically parted like the Red Sea the moment the f(x) members walked through, with no one’s eyes daring to land on any of the female even though their minds were plagued with questions. However, the 2 youngest girls of the girl group were as equally dazed as the rest of the spectators even though they followed their unnie without words. They didn’t know what had came over the oldest for her to behave like this, especially when she showed the signs of having forgiven Jonghyun much more than the rest. They had expected Krystal to be the one to hit Jonghyun. To torture him. To make him suffer like what he made their best friend go through, but their leader was the one who bursted instead.

“U-Unnie. Victoria unnie!” Krystal and Luna simultaneously called out as they tried to keep up with her, but once they came to the end of the hallway in a secluded corner, Victoria stopped and turned around, grabbing both of the girls by their shoulders.

“It’s not fair. It’s not fair that Amber has to suffer like this. She treated him so well, she loves him, and yet this is how he repaid her?!” Victoria shouted in frustrations, her eyes welling up when she thought about the numerous pains the rapper had to go through before him. “...I thought he would understand and love her for who she is. I thought he would at least be there to support her when she needs it...Why is it so hard for Amber to find a genuinely good guy? Didn’t she already go through enough…?” Victoria’s grips loosened, her eyes downcast as she let her arms fall back to her sides.

“...I tried to warn him, unnie. I really did,” Amber suddenly appeared, her smile seeming as though she had already give up. “He promised me things that no one had been able to grant me before, and I was foolish enough to believe him like the naive person I am. I tried to keep out of his businesses when he started to get cozy with Yura. I ignored the aching of my heart when I saw him with her alone. The logical part of my mind screamed at me to confront him, but like the fool I was, I chose instead to keep silent.”

“Amber unnie, you don’t have to do this,” Luna interjected, not wanting to make Amber bring up the past if it hurt her that much.

“And then 2 nights ago, as I was waiting for him to pick me up at the cafe where we had our first date, she purposefully came in with her arms hooked around him, refusing to let him look at me as she guided him to a candlelit table. There was red wine and red rose. It was their one-month celebration…” Amber’s hands trembled as she recalled the moment, “...but it was our 5-years anniversary. And…” Her voice broke as she looked at her group members and closest friends of 9 years, “I ran. Unnie, I ran. I ran away from that cafe. From that reality. I ran until my feet hurt. Until I didn’t know where my heels were. And I had taken care to dress up that day for him too. What kind of fool am I, unnie? What did I ever do to deserve this treatment? Have I ever done someone so wrong that they had put such a terrible curse on me?” Amber chuckled, frighteningly calm as she gazed from one person to another. She looked up at the last second and her eyes landed on the figure of a lone man.

“Tell me why I don’t deserve to be love.”

“Amber ah…” The deep, husky voice that she used to love called out, but instead of the joy of her leaping heart, all she could feel was the plummeting of the million pieces as they simultaneously stabbed at her heartstrings. A sad smile relayed upon her face, but she made no movement at the sight of him, and that honestly scared him more than he ever thought possible. Someone once said that love and hate are mutual feelings that belong to the same category, but indifference was something that proves just how worthless one’s presence is to another. And at that moment, that was how he feels.

“Am-” “What do you want?”

“I-” “If it’s about you and your new girlfriend, Jonghyun oppa, I don’t want to hear about it.”

“But I have to tell you! I didn’t know that Yura was doing all those terrible things to you. If I have known, I wouldn’t ha-”

“What difference does that make, oppa? Do you really think I didn’t see the way you look at her? The way she purposefully smiled at you with those narrowed eyelids and brushed your arms accidentally as you walked by each other? Do you really think I’m that blind?”

“No, Amber, that’s not what I meant. I-”

“Stop it. She knew you were taken, but she kept on making a pass at you. You knew you had a girlfriend, but you led her on. And now, guess what? My heart is broken, and even though my love  should have turn into pure hatred, I...I have no more tears left to cry over you, oppa. So I think it’s time.” Amber suddenly stepped closer to Jonghyun, and he unconsciously stepped back. Standing right in front of the man she had grown to consider as someone she relied on to someone she could no longer trust, her hand swung upward and…

“Goodbye, oppa.” Her breathless whisper made his eyes widened with shock as she caressed his face one last time before placing the ring he had taken great care to pick out back into his hand.

The date was enscripted as 11.08.2011. The day he lifted her off her feet. And the day she plummeted to the ground like a fallen angel.