“Hey Amber, you sure you’re not coming with us?” Onew turns around before heading towards the door and asks Amber once more who is busily editing her photos in the computer while sipping her half emptied iced latte.  

Amber lifts her head up and looks at Onew. “Yeah. You guys go ahead. As soon as I finish this, I’ll go home straight away.”

Onew nodded and smiled. “Alright suit yourself. Just don’t go home very late okay?” Onew picks up the studio key that is lying on his table and tosses it to Amber. She catches it with one hand and places it on her table next to her phone. But before Onew continue to walk towards the front door, he turns around again. “And enough of the coffee, you have insomnia. I don’t want you to look like a zombie bro.” He said jokingly as he playfully spins his car key on his index finger.

 Amber shakes her head laughs. “I’m just gonna finish this.” She pointed the cup and looks at the window on her left. “Yah, just get your out of here! The others are waiting for you. Don’t be like a girl, Onew.” Amber jokingly said.

“Arraseo, arraseo.”

“You guys have fun!” Amber shouted and Onew just waved his hand and smiled.

As soon as she saw Onew left the building, she immediately gets her bag and picks up her hard drive. It was the most important hard drive in Amber’s life. She is very careful about it. She is very careful that no one touches it even her closest friends and family. Only her. As soon as the contents are loaded in the computer, she clicks the only one folder existing in the monitor. That folder contains many other folders, and every folder has a designated date as its name. She scrolls down and clicks on the latest date on the folder.

She smiled as she view every photos in it and because a new set of photos will be added on her collection. She loaded the printer with glossy photo papers and begins to print her photos. She decided not to edit it because the pictures came out nicely. When the printing is done, she gets a brown envelope and carefully places it all inside. She packs her things right away because she didn’t want to wake up late tomorrow on her errand. She turns off her computer and her blue lamp shade. She picks up the key and checks out the office one more time before heading towards the front door to lock it.

The next morning, Amber wakes up on time and she praises herself on that. Good thing she had a good sleep and her insomnia didn’t visit her last night. She makes her daily routine and check on the things she needed before she will leave her apartment. She decided not to cook breakfast because it will just take her time so she will just grab something on a drive thru.

She clicks the remote of her car and opens the back door of her SUV. There are four pails of paint, different sizes of paint brushes, some wood, nails and hammer, light bulbs, wires, some old but working Christmas lights, and other stuff. She places the remaining things on her hand before hopping at the driver’s seat.

Amber left her apartment at dawn because she didn’t want to beat the traffic later. It’s better to leave at this hour she thought. It’s gonna be a long drive from Seoul going to Daegu. She stops by to a nearby twenty four hours fast food and orders some heavy breakfast to fuel her up for this day. Along the way, she unconsciously turns her radio on but she suddenly felt annoyed because of the song that is currently playing. She immediately ejects the cd and she saw that it was one of Krystal’s favourite bands, CN Blue.

“Ugh.” Amber mumbled and she places the cd recklessly at the front car drawer. She gets her ipod instead and connects it to the radio and listen to other non-CN Blue songs. Aside from doing photography and advertising, Amber is also a song writer. Krystal didn’t know about this. For Amber, composing some songs is just for her leisure time. She bobs her head into the beat of the music and later she knew that she finally reached her destination. She gets out of the car, stretches her arms and inhales the fresh air of the countryside of Daegu. This is one of the most favourite places of Amber because this is her hometown. Her and Krystal’s hometown. They are neighbours so they are best friends since then. This is where they grew up together before their families decided to move at Seoul.

She went straight ahead at the back of the Liu’s and the Jung’s house where you can see a tree house not far away from a small river. She gets her things and starts on renovating the tree house. It became bigger than before. It became bigger that it has one room that you can sleep on. Amber was so immersed in working that she didn’t notice the time.

“Hey come down here, I bet you’re hungry.”  Amber heard a voice coming from the outside. She went to the window and looks down. She smiled as she saw a familiar person smiling back at her holding a tray of food on her hand. As she saw the food, she heard her stomach growling so she quickly went down.

“I knew you will be here because I saw your car parked at the front of your house.” Amber walks towards her and envelops her for a hug. She is one of the important persons in her life, the one who understands her and accepts her for whoever she is. “Aigoo look at you all sweaty you might get sick!” She said as she places the tray on a nearby table.

“Oh grandma, I’m not a baby anymore.” Amber whines but Grandma Jung knew that Amber is only joking. Grandma Jung is Krystal’s grandmother, eventhough she and Amber are not blood related she still treat Amber as her own grandchild like Krystal.

“Amber, I don’t want you to get sick! I need you to be healthy so that you can take care of my Soojung.” Grandma said as she places a towel on Amber’s back and gives Amber a cold water to drink.

“Grandma, she has already someone to take care of her. She doesn’t need my best friend duties anymore... well a bit but not like before.” She said sounding a bit sad as she jugs down the water bottle.

“Amber my dear, I still like you for my Soojung. I see you two grow and I know from the start that you really love my grandchild and I thank you for that.” Grandma said as she patted Amber’s shoulder telling her that she will be always there for Amber no matter what.  She accepts Amber for her grandchild even though they are both girls because she saw that Amber is sincere and she has good intentions and she will not let Krystal to be hurt.

Amber smiled at Grandma. Grandma suddenly looks at the tree house above them. “Wow, you’re doing great Amber. It looks big now and very beautiful.”

“Thanks Grandma, it’s gonna be finished soon. I’ll just let the paint dry a bit and it is done. Do you want to look inside?”

“Oh sure Amber, I would love to.”

Amber assists Grandma Jung in climbing the stairs and by the time they reach the top, Grandma was so surprised that she covers with her hands. The old, small and dusty tree house before is now big, lively and colourful. Grandma walks towards the big white wall where it was filled with Amber and Krystal’s photo together since they were kids up until now. It is like a timeline of pictures that you can time travel just by looking at them.

“You look so thin and Soojung is a chubby kid.” Grandma said as she scans each photo.

Amber chuckled. “I used to call her a hippo and she used to call me toothpick.”

“You guys are so cute.” Grandma looks at Amber and smiled back. Then Grandma came across a picture of Krystal and Minhyuk together, it was their first picture together after being separated for a long time. She stops and looks at Amber. “Why did you put a picture of him here? I thought this will be only you and Krystal”

“Well...” Amber scratches her head “Minhyuk is part of Krystal’s memory, he is her first love.”

Grandma Jung sighed. “When are you going to tell Krystal about this?”

Amber looks at Grandma for a while. She gets the brown envelope and a tape from her bag. She picks up a photo and sticks it on the wall. Grandma walks over to look at the picture that Amber just posted. It was a picture of Krystal back hugging Amber while taking a picture with wacky faces.

“She will never know.”