"Hi baby girl, you've finally woke up." A lady in her mid 40s spoke to Krystal.

"Who are you? What happened?" Krystal asked not knowing anything.

"It's me, omma. Look, I'm here to take you with me." Her mother spoke gently, slowly opening her arms, gesturing for Krystal to go into her embrace.

"O... O... Om...ma?" Krystal asked with a shaky voice as her eyes started to tear.

"OMMA! I'm so sorry! If only you chose to not give birth to me, you wouldn't have died! I'm really sorry! Also... Also... Omma.... I'm sorry for not taking good care of my own belongings, I'm sorry that I've lost your one and only gift to me! I'm so ashame right now... I'm sorry omma..." Krystal poured out her feelings for the first time in forever.

"It's okay my dear girl, you didn't lose it. It has always been by your side, and you just failed to see it that's all. I'm here now and I'll take you with me so we will be able to spend more time together alright? Come. Give me your hands." Krystal's mom approached her slowly.

Just as Krystal was about to reach out to her mom, she heard a faint voice calling for her.

"Appa?" Krystal thought to herself and confirmed her thoughts when the voice got clearer.

"Appa!" Krystal called out and started looking around.

Just when she thought that she could finally reunite with her mother, she vanished into thin air.

"OMMA!" Krystal shot up straight from bed, breathing heavily as sweat trickled down from her forehead. She looked around trying to make up where she was and realised that she was in a hospital ward.

"Omma... Omma... Where are you?" She said in between sobs.

Upon hearing Krystal's scream coming from the ward, Kai barged in and was welcomed by a girl sobbing uncontrollably on the hospital bed, mentioning about her dead omma. Witnessing this scene he can't help but to feel sad for her. How much she must have missed her omma, he wanted to go up to hug her and tell her that everything is going to be alright with him around. But knowing that she might need some time alone now, he decided to go against his will and leave the ward quietly. He sat on the bench outside her ward till she fell asleep before heading home.

Krystal didn't appear in school the next day. Knowing that she is still in the hospital, Kai walked to his class dejectedly. After settling down on his sit, he took out his phone and swiped open it. He clicked on the message button and type a short text to Krystal, "Hey, are you feeling better now? When are you coming back to school? Get well soon alright? We are all missing you already." He was first hesitant to tap on the send button but his instincts told him that Krystal would definitely reply him this time round. In the end, he mustered up enough courage to press the send button. He felt really uneasy after pressing the send button as he scrolled through his texts to Krystal, Krystal had never replied to any of his texts before. That is the reason why he was so hesitant about the text earlier on. Just when he was about to put his phone away, his phone lit up. Seeing that it was a reply from Krystal, he couldn't help but to smile to himself. Wanting to remember her reply to him, he quickly took a screenshot of his homepage, revealing the "You have 1 new message from Princess Krystal" notification. Though he was really happy that Krystal replied, but another part of him was somehow afraid to read her reply.

His actions were all seen by the exo boys who happened to be in the same class as him.

"Just look at him. A reply from her can make him so happy. I mean, I've replied him so many times but I don't see him smiling like an idiot." Tao said with a pout.

"Yah, what's with that pout? You look like an ugly duckling! But you're definitely not gonna become a pretty swan since you've already passed the puberty stage." Chen was being a troll again.

Tao then began chasing after Chen along the hallways while the rest of the exo boys just sighed at how childish they are when in fact they are already 18 years old. Turning their heads back to Kai, they saw how Kai was mumbling to himself as the crease on his forehead started to deepen. Kyungsoo was curious about what happened and wanted to go up to him to ask whats wrong, but Kris held him back.

"No, Kyung. Sit down."

"But... But..."

"No more buts Kyung. Let's just stay at a side and watch." Kris persuaded Kyungsoo.

Kai struggled with his thoughts, he struggled so hard that he thought that his head was going to explode.

"Should I opened it or not?" He mumbled to himself.

It has been 15 minutes after Krystal's reply, and Kai was still struggling whether he should read her reply or not. He was about to put his phone away when it lit up again. It was another message from Krystal. Two replies in one go, is this a sign that Krystal wants to talk to Kai so eagerly? The weight that he was feeling on his chest was lifted off and seemed to vanished, slowly he tap on the message notification. Immediately, he regretted it.

"Yah where are you?" Kai managed to squeeze his words out in between pants.

Turns out that those replies were sent by Jessica.

"To whoever you are, Krystal is missing right now, I'm her sister, Jessica."

"If you know where Krystal is, would you please tell me? My father and I are very worried about her. We can't afford to lose her, so please tell us immediately if you have her whereabouts." 

This were the replies he received. When he read the replies, he jumped out of his seat and in the speed of light, he ran out of the school gates towards the hospital. He searched high and low around the hospital but couldn't find her. He was so worried, Krystal hardly steps out of her house, where can she have go to? Kai had no idea where she would go to as she only steps out of her house for school or business events which her father will force her to go, other than that, there's basically no other place that she would go to.

"Wait, the playground."

"It's my last hope. Please be here." Kai prayed.

As he approached the playground, his head was full of negative thoughts.

"What if she was kidnapped? What if she got into an accident? What if she's never coming back to me? Please don't let anything happen to her."

All his thoughts were immediately thrown away, when he saw the back view that was often facing him. Without wasting any time, he ran up to her and hugged her tightly from the back.

"Where have you been?" Were the words that greeted her followed by a back hug from him. She tensed upon his touch but did not struggle. They stayed like this in silence for around 5 minutes. Kai swore that this 5 minutes were the best moments in his life, he just hoped that time would stop moving so he can hug her like this forever and never let her go. Kai broke away from the hug when he heard Krystal coughing.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm good. Why are you here?"

"Shouldn't I be asking you that? You left the hospital without a word! Everyone was worried sick! Your appa, your unnie, me and...."

"U.. Un... Unnie?" Krystal was shocked that Jessica would actually be worried about her.

"Ye...a..h..."

Unknowingly, Krystal smiled. Partially because she heard that Jessica was worried for her, and partially because she saw how Kai was so awkward after mentioning that he was worried about her when she went missing.

"Do you know how cute you are when you smile?" Kai said while looking at Krystal, totally mesmerized by her smile as he secretly took a picture of her first smile he ever saw with his eyes.

"Yah. Stop staring at me like that. Bring me home, ."

"Yah! How dare you call me a ? I ran all the way from school and thanks to you I wasted 4 hours of my time looking for you."

"Whatever. Give me a piggyback ride home. Hurry."

Without any complaints, he squat down and Krystal jumped on his back. On the way back, Krystal fell asleep on Kai's back.

"You still have yet to answer my question Krystal. Why were you at the playground?... Krystal? Yah!" Sadly, he was only replied with Krystal's snores.

"Don't every run away again, alright? If anything happens to you, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself. Sheesh, just look at how tired you are!" Kai said as though Krystal could hear him with a smile plastered on his face.

Dear Diary,

I dreamt about omma yesterday when I was in the hospital, I was finally able to see her. I can't express how happy I was, but guilt still came over me at the thought of my missing musical box. I must find it back no matter what it takes hence I ran to the playground t0 look for it without letting anyone know because I knew that they would surely object. Sadly, I couldn't find anything. Then I heard a familiar voice followed by a hug. A really warm one. I've never received a hug before and didn't know how comfortable it was until today, all thanks to Kai... I'm really not sure of my feelings now. I'm suppose to be cold to him, but after everything he has done for me, I just couldn't hide these feelings anymore. I started opening up to him today and even requested for him to piggyback me home! Surprisingly, he didn't even complaint. Sheesh, sadly I couldn't explain further because I fell asleep on his back hehehe. Appa's calling me for dinner! Bye!

Signing off,

Krystal.

4th January 2012