"Come back home..."

Amber's hand shot out from under the warmth of her blankets and hit the snooze button, effectively turning off the music for another five minutes. She knew for a fact that the snooze button would be hit another few times had it been any other day. It was a good thing school hadn't started . Her university opened later than others, thanks to the system it is under. She had no more than two weeks to start changing her sleeping and waking pattern so she could get adjusted to school hours again since all she had been doing all summer was sleeping.

But today was a special day, and she stretched out her legs before rolling out of bed. Yawning, she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

"Amber, I don't care if it's your birthday, I will use the shower first if you don't hurry up!"

Of course, Amber's first decent morning all summer would be interrupted by her older sister, and on her eighteenth birthday no less.

"Coming," the younger girl called back, hurriedly gathering her things and running into the bathroom she shared with her sister Jackie. Amver slammed the door in her sister's face before anything snarky would come out of the elder's mouth, and she started to wash up for the morning.

Thirty minutes later, Amber emerged from the steamy bathroom, towelling her wet, short hair.

"Jackie! Your turn," she yelled down the hall as she went back to her room.

She stood in front of her closet, contemplating what to wear. But there wasn't much to choose from due to her dislike of shopping and small variety of clothes. So, she just threw on some jeans and a shirt, completing the outfit with a snapback.

Completely dressed and ready for the day, she made her way into the kitchen, where her father sat at the dining table reading the newspaper. Her mother was cooking breakfast.

"Morning, Amber. Happy birthday," her father said, looking up from his newspaper and giving her a warm smile.

Her mother put two bowls of seaweed soup on the table before enveloping her younger daughter in a hug.

"Happy birthday," she beamed. But when she pulled away, Amber could have sworn she saw a worried look in her eyes. But then again, Mrs. Liu seemed to always be worrying about something or another.

"It's alright, mom. I won't make any bad decisions," Amber reassured her, flashing a wide smile.

Mrs. Liu gave her a long, searching look before smiling brightly again, wiping traces of worry from her face.

"If you say so, Amber," she replied, going to get another two bowls of seaweed soup.

Amber spluttered at her dubious tone as Mr. Liu coughed to hide his laughter, clearly using his newspaper to cover his face.

"What's so funny?"

Jackie walked in, freshened up and confused at the scene she came upon.

"Nothing, let's eat," Amber grumbled, sliding into her seat. Jackie sat on her chair, as did Mrs. Liu once she placed all the food on the dining table.

"Well then, let's eat!"

Mrs. Liu clapped her hands and gestured for everyone to eat up.

“I'm so tired,” Krystal huffed as she collapsed next to Sulli on Amber's couch. It was soft and comfortable, and Krystal had fallen asleep on it multiple times.

“Oh, c'mon, Krystal. We barely did anything today.”

The said girl pouted at a laughing Amber, but it quickly turned into a smile when faithful Sulli spoke up.

“Let her be, Amber. Bowling alone was a tiring two hours.”

“Yeah, I guess,” was Amber's reply as she sat down between the two girls.

Looking at the oldest girl through her peripheral vision, Krystal couldn't help but worry for her. She was smiling so much right now from having celebrated her birthday by going out with her two best friends, but once the prophecy was set into motion, it was hard to tell if anyone would ever see that cheerful smile again.

“Krystal. Hey, Krystal. Krystal Jung!”

She snapped out of her thoughts when Amber called her by her full name, and she turned to the other two with raised eyebrows.

“We just wanted to know what movie you wanted to watch,” Sulli said serenely, giving Krystal a knowing look. She knew exactly what Krystal was thinking, and she'd be lying if she said she wasn't thinking the same thing.

“Oh, uh, Alice in Wonderland.”

It came out as a question, and Krystal shrugged, emphasizing uncertainty. She was never one to be decisive unless it was completely necessary. And she didn't really deem a movie all that important.

Amber pulled up the movie Krystal had asked for, and the three girls settled back on the couch. Krystal shot Amber one last worried look and caught Sulli's eye. She gave Krystal a soft smile as though to assure her everything would be alright. But Krystal's concern did not diminish as she turned half her attention to the movie.

A/n: Prologue is up, sorry for the delay. I've been caught up with family stuff and was dragged out by friends and family. This will no longer be a oneshot, and will be chaptered. I have most of the story written out, so I'll update hopefully everyday if I can get internet connection.

Also, Kcon ticket info's out! And I'm buying for two (hopefully) but I'm hella broke. If anyone got any good online job ideas, feel free to send them my way. I need fricking $900 by the 27th like "kcon is for fans" more like "kcon is for the cha-ching"

Ugh.

But yeah, hope y'all enjoyed this super short update, the next one will definitely be longer c:

And please please please, if you have any good ideas for earning money online (I ain't got no transportation and I hate talking to people okay OTL) please send them my way. I'm hella desperate. Thank you!