She sighed lightly and with a reluctant nod, she passed through the front door. I was beginning to make my way towards my bedroom, when I noticed her steps came to a halt behind me. She was awkwardly standing still in the living room when I turned to see her.
“Why are you just standing there?” I asked, as I chuckled awkwardly.
“I’m waiting for you to get the skateboards.” She responded, as if it was a given.
“We’ve both seen each other completely , and you’re not even a teeny bit curious to see what my room looks like?” I jokingly asked, with a lazy smile.  Her gaze shyly dropped as she scoffed, and as her cheeks became red – totally caught off guard by what I said.
“You – you’re really funny. Very funny.” She nervously said under her breath, as she began to follow me into my room.
“Well, it’s true.” I replied, still softly chuckling. She was being overly shy since she got here, which is pretty unlike her – believe it or not. Like I’ve said countless times before; sure she may seem shy on the outside towards someone she doesn’t know, but she isn’t actually shy, and well… she knows me. Though, it could just be this particular situation – not only new people, but new situations also make her a bit shy. Granted, the situation is pretty awkward, even if you’ve already been here before a hundred times.

I kept trying to find the old Amber inside of me somewhere, you know? To make things more familiar for the both of us – make things less awkward. Nonetheless, we still found ourselves sharing uncomfortable silences in between the bits and pieces of our dialogues. It’s hard to explain what differentiates an uncomfortable silence from a good one. I guess… the uncomfortable ones are the kind where you both want different things, but neither of you say it, and so you also have no clue what the other person wants. It’s hard to read each other -- reach each other, because you’re both staring at each other, but you’re actually just staring at a large and thick brick wall that’s right in between the two. So, you’re left in this really tight, tiny, and uncomfortable as hell spot where you’re continuously second guessing yourself as to whether you should say what you want or not, and also trying hella hard to use some kind of mind-reading superpower to find out what the other person wants, but having zero luck at it. And it seems like there’s no end to it, either. Even with the smallest second, it feels like hours have passed. Now… the good ones – heh… the good silences are the best, and total opposite of the uncomfortable ones. The good silences are the ones where you both want the same exact thing, and you can both read it totally and absolutely clearly from each other, too… so clear to the point of needing to say not a single word – pretty much like a mind sync. This silence, though… the one happening right now… was definitely uncomfortable.

She took one of the skateboards out of my hands, as I stood right in front of her offering her both.
“Well, no… that one is yours…” she said, pointing with her nose at the second one that remained in my hand.
“Oh yeah… I forgot.” I chuckled, as I turned around to place the other skateboard back into my closet. I turned back towards her to see her still standing in the same spot, holding onto the board awkwardly. “So… yeah. There you go.” I emphasized that our transaction was pretty much done and that she could leave now… or speak… or stay… or leave -- I wasn’t really sure if I was ready for either of those things. But… I wanted her to do something instead of just standing there. Gosh…
“Yeah… thanks.” She said, lifting up the board slightly. I nodded slowly as I pursed in my lips. “Your room is a -- umm, pretty colorful.” She randomly said as she began eyeing the bedroom, still standing in place.
“Oh yeah… I collect a lot of useless and colorful stuff, I guess.” I lazily shrugged and began eyeing my own room together with her.
“Like Pokémon cards?” she said with a slight chuckle, as she pointed at my open collection book sitting on my desk.
“Well… that’s semi-useless.” I defended their honor.
“Not entirely useless?” she asked with a raised brow and a teasing tone.
“Yeah nah, not if you’re a Pokémon master like me.” I responded jokingly, but in a very serious tone.
“Gawd, I’m in love with a child.” she said under her breath, this time with her usual fake shy giggle that reaches all the way to her eyes. That’s the usual Soojungie right there.
“That didn’t sound right at all.” I chuckled, while inferring her basically pedo joke.
“The ‘in love’ part?”
“No… the uhh… the ‘child’ part. The ‘in love’ part is fine… or uhh good or…”  I tripped over my words at her suddenly putting me on the spot.
“… or true. It’s also true.” She added to my sentence, her face becoming suddenly serious as she chased for my eyes with her own.
“And uhh, here we also have Mr. Bread.” I quickly moved from in front of her, and towards my plush dolls over my bed. Is she trying to tell me that she’s still in love with me? I mean, it was a joke, right?

I wasn’t ready yet.

“Don’t tell him he’s actually bread, though. He doesn’t know he’s bread, he thinks Bread really is just his last name.” I continued, as she followed me over towards my bed.
“Why can’t we tell him?” she asked with a smile, amused at my dorkiness.
“I dunno. Precaution thing. I’m guessing he’d go into some kind of existential crisis if he found out – Well, I would if I were him. Don’t wanna burden him with that, you know?” I explained, as we now both directed our eyes towards Mr. Bread at the same time.  
“Really? I’d be pretty happy if I found out I was bread.” She pensively said.
“That’s because you’re weird.” I with a smirk, as I looked up at her to gauge her reaction.
“I’d eat myself.” She stated bluntly with a very serious expression, as she looked up to meet my gaze.
“Gosh, why are you so dark?” I chuckled.
“How is that dark? I’d taste really good. My limbs would grow back.”
“Okay, your limbs would not grow back.” I disagreed.
“Have you ever been bread before?” she defensively asked.
“Nnno?” I responded slowly and hesitantly.
“Okay then how would you know?”
“Because limbs don’t just grow back.” I continued my chuckling at how cute she is when she’s being weird.
“Do I go into your fantasies and alter your rules? My limbs would grow back.” She said with sass, as I jokingly face-palmed myself.  “I’m Princess Bread.” She continued.
“You’re not Princess Bread, you’re Krystal.” I corrected her.
“No, I’m Princess Bread.” She insisted cutely, but firmly. 
“Okay, I guess you can be the one to tell Mr. Bread about his condition, maybe you can both eat yourselves together or something.” I said, unable to contain my chuckling, as I began to point at my other stuffed animals. “And this is…” 
“Kirby.” She finished my sentence. I turned over to her jokingly annoyed.
“This is my presentation. Don’t interrupt.” I pointed my finger at her, jokingly reprimanding her.
“I love the Kirby games -- the old ones from the Super Nintendo?” She continued.
“I know right? They should insert a bread power-up into the game, just for you.” I with a chuckle.
“Whatever.” She rolled her eyes slightly, holding back a smirk.
“And this is Perry. I think you’re Perry, but not Agent Perry. You’re Perry in his pet state. That’s you.” I said, as I lifted Perry up to cover Krystal’s face.  

The room went silent for a few seconds.

“I want to make an animal sound, but I have no idea what he sounds like.” She began to laugh lightly.
“He’s mostly pretty quiet, so you did pretty good as Perry.” I laughed with her, as I placed Perry back onto my bed.
“And that one?” she pointed at the Teddy Bear on the bed.
“That… he doesn’t really have a name. He’s just a teddy bear I’ve had since I was a kid.”
“Teddy Llama.” She suggested.
“Hmm. Yeah.” I said, as I pensively looked up in approval. “I hereby pronounce you, Teddy Llama.” I announced, as I used my finger as a sword and touched both shoulders on my Teddy Bear – you know, kind of how they do when a King is knighting a soldier. Krystal held the board in between her knees to free her hands, and began to clap very formally.  I turned towards her and nodded firmly. “Good job, Princess Bread. Good suggestion.” We then busted into a sudden and light laughter, breaking out of our short-lived characters.

The laughter didn’t last long before it faded into shy and soft smiles, and before silence invaded the room all over again…

But one of the good ones.          

We were ourselves again, even for just a moment… and it almost felt like no time had passed at all. It almost felt like we were still back in South Korea standing in her room, right across from her twin bed, right across from her scent infused pillow of French Lavender and Wild Rose… my Green Tea Mint shampoo… the wood… oh, the air – it all hit me, all of it all at once. Every single spec of my senses taken over, and oh, how I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to kiss this Soojung so badly. The one who would never hurt me. The one who would always be there for me. The one who would always let me be there for her. This Soojung that existed before any of these horrible things ever happened.

For a moment…

… it almost felt like she still didn't know how to drive, I still hadn’t written my first song, and we were still sitting in the hallways under dim lights watching “Never Been Kissed” -- her arms wrapped around my neck, and her static lips were pressed over mine because she was too shy to make any further movements.

For a moment… everything was perfect.

“If you’re not in a rush or anything, I could give you a skateboarding lesson so you don’t fall on your again.” I blurted with a chuckle. Oh man, am I special.

There’s so much weight in unspoken words, I legit quivered at the pressure… but it was definitely one of the good ones – the silence? It was a good silence. Everything was perfect at that moment, and I know she felt it, too… but if you can’t handle the kitchen get out of the heat. Right? No, wait. It’s if you can’t handle the heat, get out of the kitchen. So, the kitchen was the moment, and the heat was umm… Look. I couldn’t handle it, okay? Gosh…!

She accepted my offer, but not before saying 'stupid' to me under her breath. I soon found myself sitting on the floor reaching under my bed for my ankle braces.  She stood next to me, lazily leaning onto my bed frame, and spinning the wheels on her board as she stood it upright next to her. I could feel the uncomfortable silence creeping up on us again…

“So, why exactly had you been here for a few weeks, and didn’t come see me before? How did you even know where I lived?” I asked.
“We were filming a short reality show as part of our schedule, and our last stop had been here in Los Angeles. That’s why I couldn’t come see you sooner; I had to wait until the filming was over.” she explained, and then pensively paused for a moment. “I wanted to see you sooner… much sooner, actually…” her voice faltered for a second, as if she was trying to stop it from shaking before she spoke the next word. “… but I realized you had changed numbers, and I had also misplaced the company e-mail that had any other additional contact info, so I had no way of giving you notice that I would be here… I’m sorry for that.” A reality show in Los Angeles? Damn it. That sounds like fun. I can’t believe I missed out on that… also, it makes sense why she couldn’t come before… I really was being an idiot.
“It’s okay, that didn’t really… bother me. Well, it did… but I was steamed up. So, not really. But still, you haven’t told me – how did you know where I lived?”
“Well, I do have the ‘Jung’ at the end of my name as you’ve said before. I pulled some strings with the manager to get your current home address.” She said with a proud yet held back smirk.
“Isn’t that info… confidential?” I spoke, as I looked up at her.  I was almost done setting up my braces, as I began to reach for my Jordans.
“Exactly why I had to pull some strings. Are you going to sue me?” she asked as she looked down at me, with a much more evident smirk this time and a raised brow.
“I might…” I responded lowly, as I held back a smirk. I turned towards her knees noticing her bandage still there. “Are you sure your knee is okay enough to get back on that board?” I asked.
“I think so.” She responded, as she attempted to bend her knee a few times with no issue.
“Why were you even on it if you had no idea how to ride it?” I asked curiously, already knowing her answer was going to be amusing – a smile peaking at the corner of my lips.
“I honestly did not think it would be that hard. I was supposed to glide up to your door all cooly, and knock… and…”
“Impress me?” I finished her sentence, as I stood up and found myself face to face with her suddenly.
“…Yeah…” she responded, a bit caught off guard.  My smile finished forming, and as we were about to enter into another state of good silence, I noticed a piece of paper peaking out of her back pocket as the bed frame made pressure against her pants.
“What’s that?” I pointed at it, tilting my head in its direction. Krystal was confused for a moment, as she then turned her head towards her pocket.
“Oh… this is a…” she pulled it out, unfolding it in front of me. “… a script.” She finished.
“For the reality show thingy?”
“Umm, it’s for a sitcom. It’s stupid, I know. I just wanted to try it out – acting.”
“No, no… not at all. That’s amazing, actually.  It’s really good. I can’t wait to see it.”  I felt proud. I was... proud of her -- a feeling I hadn’t felt in quite some time, and a feeling I didn’t think I could ever feel again towards her. Anyway, it’s about time she realized how much more talented she is than she thinks. I tried to lock eyes with her so she could see that I was sincere. She tends to not believe me and thinks I’m just being bias, but she truly is amazing. 
“Well, I don’t have the part yet. I’m auditioning for it. So… I’m going to be the niece of one of the characters…” she lowered her gaze slightly, and nodded shyly as she pursed in her lips. Is she nervous at how physically close we are, or just ashamed at her small role in the sitcom?
“You don’t sound too excited about it, though. I feel like I’m more excited than you.” I and chuckled softly.
“I am.” She said, as she folded up the paper once again, and placed it back into her pocket. “I guess I just -- I would have wanted the role of like… a strong woman, or a psychopath.” Her eyes shifted to the side, ashamed at her confession, and ashamed at her own smile that peaked at the idea. 
“Psychopath. I’m actually really not surprised, weirdo.” I laughed lightly, as I removed myself from in front of her to go grab my board. “Let’s go.” I said, as I began walking out of my bedroom door and queued her to follow.
“So, you think I’d make a good psychopath?” she asked as we walked.
“Oh gosh, yes. You’d giggle people to death.” I .
“Stupid…” she murmured in a giggle. “It’s called ‘More Charming by the Day’, the sitcom.”
“Yeahp, that is definitely cheesy sounding, but hey, you gotta start somewhere.” I said, as we laughed.

“Okay, first thing first… you need to learn to stand on the board.” I demonstrated it first myself. “You gotta find your balance. See how I’m standing sideways?” I explained. “Try it.” She was standing across from me where I was able to fully see her figure. She was wearing her baggy T-shirt stuffed into the front of her jeans as usual, her black flats, and her loose hair always blowing into her face as she continuously it back, in that way that only she knows how -- and in that way that only she knows how to blow me away...
“Easy enough.” She said proudly to herself.
“Okay that’s good, but your right foot needs to be on the back -- on the elevated part of the board.” I clarified, but she wasn’t placing it right. I got off my board, and walked towards her.
“Ohhh. So serious, teacher Amber.” She teased me, as I was walking towards her.
“I’m serious? I’m not serious. This is just my focused face.” I chuckled, feeling suddenly a bit self conscious. I bent down and placed my hands right above her short sock, and my thumb instinctively and gently brushed over the skin of her ankle as I moved her right foot to the correct position. It was the