“It’s really not what you guys think, he didn’t take advantage of me or anything,” Sulli began to explain as she sipped on her tea, still coddled in Amber’s blanket.

Amber felt the squeeze in her chest relax and a heavy burden was lifted off her shoulders. The dark thoughts she had been too scared to voice weren’t true.

“Then what happened with him?” Kris questioned as he began to rummage the kitchen for something to eat.

“I was a that night. Still am, but he and I did stuff together. I don’t know why I went to him in the first place,” Sulli continued on.

Kris opened the top cabinets but found nothing snackable, all the food consisted of him actually cooking, which he couldn’t do to save his life.

“No, wait; I do know why I did. I just don’t know why I did things with him.”

Kris opened the small fridge and nearly cried when all he saw was more cooking ingredients. Not even a premade beverage was insight.

“No, wait; I do know why I did. I just don’t know why I trusted him so easily.”

Kris huffed out, slightly fatigued with listening to the skinny brunette ramble on and slightly annoyed they had nothing ready-made, of course Amber wouldn’t buy snacks for him.

“No, wait; I do know why I did. I just don’t know why I did this to Minho.”

The giant walked over to the last cabinet and opened the door slowly, praying to Pablo the whole five seconds it took him to do so.

“No, wait, I-”

“I swear to Pablo, if you don’t stop correcting yourself and getting on with the story I will kick you out right now. Amber, why the hell don’t you buy snacks? You know I can’t cook for the life of me yet all we have is food to cook? What is going to happen to this dorm when you’re out doing Pablo knows what and I’m stuck here to fend for myself? This dorm will be burnt to a crisp,” Kris ranted when he opened the cabinet to find nothing but dishware in it and his slow annoyance with Sulli finally busted at the seams.

“Yah! She’s going through something right now, have some compassion!” Amber yelled back as she threw a box of pocky at his head. “You know I keep the goods by the bed so we don’t have to get up to get anything.”

Kris simmered down as he scrambled to pick up the coveted box of chocolate covered goodness. “I’m sorry, Sulli, go on,” he said as he ripped the box to shreds.

“I guess what I’m trying to say is that I regret what I did with Henry. He said he’d call me Saturday and he never did. I spent this whole weekend waiting on a call or text from him and then Monday came around and I found him at lunch. I asked him if I did something wrong and that’s when he told me. He was never interested in actually dating me, he didn’t know I even existed until I practically threw myself at him that night and all he wanted was to use me then leave me,” Sulli continued on sobbing and shaking her head. Amber moved closer to her and pulled her in to her chest for comfort.

“So, he didn’t try to do anything against your will?” Amber asked gently just for reassurance.

“Not at all, he was a gentleman, but there is something most of the girls agree with that makes them shut up about the experience…” Sulli trailed off mindlessly. “I may have not done anything with him beyond… certain things,” she blushed a violent shade of tomato red as she spoke, “but I can say he’s… not blessed.”

“Not blessed?”

“Puberty didn’t serve him well.”

“Puberty didn’t what?”

“For crying out loud, she’s saying he’s small in the male department,” Kris cut in. “I knew something was off about that man.”

“Oh Pablo,” Amber gaped as she looked at Kris with a puzzled face.

“Some girls had told me before that the with him wasn’t good and when people ask, they shut up about it because he really is a nice guy and they don’t want to ruin his reputation,” Sulli explained. “But he’s not nice! He lead me on and just used me for his satisfaction, I can’t even look at Minho without feeling ashamed for being so easy.”

“Well, take a look at it from his stand point,” Kris cut in with his weird male logic, “did you get cuddly afterwards and ask him if he liked you?”

“Yes…”

“Then was there a long pause before he answered?”

“Maybe…”

“Ah, then he said you were a cool girl and he’d call you sometime to hang out which you took as ‘he likes me!’ and gave him your number then left. All while he is drunk and ,” Kris finished as he walked over to the shared nightstand between the two beds and opened the drawer to reveal snacks beyond the chocolate covered sticks.

“Aish, you’re right. I set him up for this. I was sober, I threw myself at him, I got my one night of memorable unmentionables, and I did it all because no girl has ever caught him,” Sulli mumbled on as she sat straight up on the bed. “It’s always been a fantasy of mine to catch the womanizer and turn him into a one-woman man.”

“You’re like twelve,” Kris said as he looked at the young girl on Amber’s bed, shoving a handful of chips into his vacuum cleaner of a mouth.

“Yah!” the two girls yelled at the giant.

“I’m way older than that!” Sulli defended herself.

“Beside the point, he shouldn’t have made a promise like that if he knew it was going to potentially break your heart, but you did corner him so I guess that night should just be left behind,” Amber concluded.

“And that’s why I was crying in the bathroom! I felt like Henry betrayed my trust and I felt terrible for doing the same to Minho…”

“I can fix that,” Kris stated in plain English with an American southern accent.

“Real hick of you,” Amber shook her head then left the bed to retreat to the kitchen.

“Korean please,” Sulli stated quietly. She too left the bed and followed Amber to the kitchenette. “Thank you so much for listening and helping me through this all, I don’t really have anyone else to turn to besides Minho.”

“Aye, make me a sammich please, ma?” Kris interrupted.

“Bite me, son.”

“Well, stick your arm between two slices of bread with some mustard and I’ll do it.”

“Make your own sandwich, it doesn’t require actual skills.”

“Anyways,” Sulli cut in before they could continue on bickering, “I won’t tell anyone about your secret, Amber. Just… how am I going to get out? Girls aren’t allowed in boy dorms?”

“You’ll just have to jump out the window,” Kris said with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Nah, I got a way. We just have to sneak around Key.”

“Jumping out of windows is so much fun, I do it every time a girl turns me down,” Kris threw in.

“So, every day? That must be tiring,” Amber shot back.

“Wait, do you know which room Minho is in?”

Amber and Kris both shrugged at each other nonchalantly. “I bet Zelo knows,” Kris said as he pulled out his phone and texted the younger.

“Thank you, I just need to make things right between us.”

“Yeah, I get that…”

         *               *               *               *               *               *

“You know, Key played it up like Henry was some criminal, I wonder what his motive was there,” Kris said two nights later as he and Amber sat at a café finishing their review for their first test on Friday.

“Minho also made it sound that way in the closet at the party,” Amber mindlessly responded.

“I wonder how things worked out between them two.”

“Sulli said they’re back to being friends but he’s mopeier because of knowing what happened between her and Henry.”

“I get that; I’d be the same way.”

“Wait what?”

“Yeah, if the girl I liked did stuff with another guy, I’d be hurt a little. Especially if she knew I liked her and did it anyways just to be part of a crowd.”

“Oh,” Amber responded a little disappointedly. “Understandable.”

         *               *               *               *               *               *

“Okay, I know it’s a very short notice, but Jonghyun invited us to his house tonight for game night,” Kris said as he sat down at the lunch table that Friday.

“You’re friends with Jonghyun?” Amber interrogated.

“Probably.”

“So, you’re cheating on me?”

“Babe, you know you’re my main.”

“Talk to the lawyer, I want a divorce.”

“We can’t divorce, what about the children?”

“What children?”

“These children,” Kris gestured to their small group of friends sitting at the table with them. Luna glared at Kris but Zelo and Krystal cracked up laughing.

“I’ll take full custody, I can cook and clean.”

“Wait, what if I want to visit dad?” Zelo piped in.

“Son, you can visit me whenever you want.”

“May I have a word with mom?” another voice asked that didn’t belong to anyone at the table. Everyone simultaneously turned their attention to Henry who was standing beside Amber with a grin on his face.

“How’d you know I was mom?” Amber asked lightly as she rose from her seat.

“Just a lucky guess.”

Everyone watched as the two walked off to a more quiet area away from the crowds of people. Henry seemed to radiate enthusiasm, but Amber was still a little sore from the whole Sulli incident and felt rather awkward in presence.

“We haven’t talked much since last Friday night,” Henry stated.

“Very well spotted.”

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t meaning to get drunk so quickly and especially around you,” Henry admitted shyly as he looked down at his feet.

“Eh, Kris gets drunk at every party, it’s no big deal,” Amber played it down.

“Yeah, but I know you know about Sulli… I saw you two walking back to the dorms after school Monday. I don’t know what she told you, but I can assure you I wasn’t meaning for anything to happen between us, I wasn’t even interested in her…”

“Hey, way of the road, it be like that sometimes,” Amber responded calmly. “Our experiences shape us into who we are, you learn from it.”

“Yeah, haha,” Henry looked at Amber sheepishly. “Still, I won’t do it again.”

Amber felt a mixture of happiness and still hurt in her veins as she sat with Henry. She wanted him to like her but at the same time, he was a womanizer and it wasn’t her fantasy to turn him into a one-woman man. Granted he was drunk, she couldn’t trust him to not just use her for his satisfaction then leave her behind like every other girl.

“It’s in the past, let’s move on,” she stated as she stood up. “I should go finish my lunch, Kris and I were just getting started on our bickering.”

“Ah, you’re right. Hey, if you want, we could hang out tonight.”

“Thank you, but I’m going out with my friends, maybe another time?”

“Yeah, I’ll text you,” Henry gleeful accommodated. Amber felt her heart skip a beat but heavily still.

“It’ll just be us five, Jonghyun, Taemin, Jinki, and a couple of other people, nothing big or fancy like last weekend he said,” Kris was explaining as Amber approached the table.

“Hi mom, do you want to go to Jonghyun’s tonight?” Zelo asked as she sat down in her spot.

“Sure, it’ll- Yah! Kris!”

“I didn’t do it.”

“Half of my food is gone, you pig!”

“You were gone for like ten minutes, it was getting cold.”

“That doesn’t mean you can flirt with my food!”

“I did you favor, that rice was rather undercooked this time.”

“But did I ask?”

“What a shame I’m still hungry.”

“Because all of your food and half of mine wasn’t enough.”

“Are you gonna finish all of that?”

“I’m so close to poisoning your dinner one of these nights.”

“That’s lovely, but tonight! We feast at Jonghyun’s palace.”

“You never did explain why he invited us so randomly to one of his get-togethers,” Krystal pointed out as she shoved her plate full of uneaten food towards the bottomless pit of a man called Kris.

“Oh, right. Well, he saw Amber dancing that night and Taemin still wants to talk with Amber so Jonghyun talked to me in chemistry class about coming over and just hanging out so we can all get more acquainted then we went on about how Jonghyun really isn’t as social as people think he is and I asked if you all could come too and he said he’d be happy to get to know you guys and so BAM! We made it in the big leagues.”

“Jinki is going to be there?” Luna questioned with a small smile on her delicate face.

“Maybe this time you two can talk more,” Krystal prompted on.

“You don’t think Key is friends with Jonghyun, do you?”

“That glitter loving diva? Probably not.”

“Stranger things have been known to happen.”

“What did you and Henry talk about?” Krystal asked out of the blue.

Amber paused for a second when she felt Kris tense then began to explain it was nothing when he relaxed. Kris became distant and lunch ended before they knew it, leaving Amber no time to see what was up, but she had a feeling.

-----------------------------------

A/N: another 84 years but I’m semi back and ready to roll!