2010 . 03 . 03 – 9:29PM

“Seriously, though, I was wondering what the hell a boy was doing in a girl group.”

The group laughed amongst themselves at their prime target.  The “target” laughed, as well.  “I know, everyone thought the same.”  Amber shook her head.  “Whatever, okay, leave me be.”

Hyuna, a member of the girl-group, 4minute, and a friend of Amber’s, lightly pushed the girl at the shoulder, reaching over to her friend who was sitting diagonally to her right.  “Sure, handsome,” she emphasized.

Amber rolled her eyes, while another friend of there’s, Nicole from Kara, laughed.  “Okay, okay, you’re so funny,” she dryly replied with slight humor.

“Sorry,” Hyuna laughed.  “Can’t help it.”

“Clearly,” Nicole said with a smile.

The girls let a comfortable silence around them take part in their friendly personal time.  Nicole had the Kara dorm to herself and decided to invite Amber and Hyuna over—whom she had met while promoting singles at the same time.  All mutually having some time off from their own individual/group schedules, fortunately enough, they took the chance to relax and spend it with good company.  As Amber recalled it and tells everyone, “she met them by chance.”  Who knew?

“Is your friend still coming?” Nicole asked.

Amber turned to Hyuna, only assuming the girl was talking to her since Amber didn’t invite nor ask about anyone else.  She saw Hyuna nod.

“Yeah, she just had some training to do,” the girl answered.

Nicole nodded while Amber scrunched her face slightly.  “Training?”

“Mhm,” Hyuna said as she reached over to take a sip from her canned soda.  “She’s in JYP.  Has been for a while, actually.”

“Ah,” Amber answered.  “You still see her even if you got transferred to Cube?”

Hyuna nodded.  “Remember?  They’re still under J.Y. Park.”

“To a certain extent, at least.”

The group turned their head towards Nicole’s door as they heard the response.  The girl at the door smiled as she took off her shoes and waved at them.  “Sorry,” they heard her say.  “Hyuna told me you said to just walk in because the door is unlocked.”

Nicole got up and smiled brightly.  “Yeah, of course!”  She greeted the girl with a warm hug.  “Hyuna has been telling me all about you.  I’m Nicole.”

The girl smiled.  “It’s nice meeting you.  My name is—”

“Min,” Hyuna interrupted extravagantly as she got up to go to her friend.  Amber followed suit.  “You already met Nicole; this is Amber.  She’s in f(x),” Hyuna introduced the tomboy with a hand gesture.

Amber shook Min’s hand.  “Hi, it’s nice to meet you.”

“It’s good to meet you, too,” Min said in English.  The tomboy blinked.  She chuckled with surprise.  “You speak English?” she asked in the same tongue.

“Oh, I never told you?” Hyuna said in Korean, turning her head to Amber.  The latter shook her head.  “Min has been training in New York for years now.  They recently transferred back to Korea.”

“Yeah,” Min replied sullenly.  “They screwed me over in New York.”

Nicole pouted with pity.  “How?”

Min shrugged as she took off her jacket, to which Nicole took happily and hung it for her in the closet.  She thanked the girl for the gesture and they walked into the living room.  “They just kept delaying my debut for JYP USA.”

Amber nodded.  “Damn, that .”

“Yeah,” the girl answered.  She took a seat on the floor with the rest of the girls.  She added another shrug.  “I’m here now, though, so I’m excited.”

“Yeah, she’s debuting hopefully this summer,” Hyuna emphasized.

Amber and Nicole chuckled and shook their head.  “Yeah, hopefully,” Amber agreed.  Nicole nodded.  “It’s a b*tch isn’t it?  Not knowing if it’s set or not?  I remember Kara’s debut being pushed back like twice before it got set in.”

Amber scoffed.  “Yeah, f(x) was having some issues with that, too.”

Hyuna scoffed harder than Amber.  “Don’t even get me started—first the Wonder Girls and now 4minute.”  She laughed.  “I win.”

The rest of the girls giggled at the dark positivity beaming out of Hyuna as she relived her years as an idol—her being the highest senior out of all of them.  The girls continued to get to know Min; her dreams, goals, plans so far for her near debut and how it was working out—whether it was good or bad, she voiced what was going on.  She automatically felt comfortable with the other two, already knowing Hyuna for years back in the company.  They watched TV, switching back and forth through the channels—stopping for a moment to watch Music Bank and watch performances.  Min asked the girls for advice on performing and being in front of the camera, to which the girls happily obliged in giving without a problem.

Throughout their conversation, Amber’s phone began to ring.  She fished it out of her pocket and got up.  “Sorry, guys, hold on.  I gotta take this,” she said as she began to walk away.

“You can go into my room if you want,” Nicole suggested.  Amber nodded with a smile, jogging to Nicole’s room.

“Hello?” she picked up.

“Hey, did you get my texts?” 

Krystal Jung.

Amber blinked and glanced at her phone.  “No, why?”

“I was just checking on you.  I’m with Luna.  She came to my house,” the girl answered, slight annoyance evident in her tone.

Amber chuckled obliviously.  “Calm down, princess.  I didn’t know.”

“Har har, Amber,” Krystal replied.

“What’s up with you, though?  How are you?”

“I’m good.  I just missed you; thought about you and stuff.  Nothing crazy.”

“Aw,” Amber elongated.  “Ms. Jung missed me?”

Krystal scoffed, biting back a small laugh.  “Don’t get your twisted.”

Amber chuckled.  “Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Who are you with, anyways?”

“Nicole and Hyuna,” Amber answered.  “Oh, and Hyuna’s friend, Min.”

“Min?”

“Yeah, she’s debuting some time later this year.”

“Oh, know what kind of debut?”

“She said that they’re working on a 4-girl group.”

“Oh!  You mean like the JYP sisters or something?  I saw an article about that.”

Amber laughed, hearing the younger girl’s slight excitement.  “Yeah, that’s them.”

Amber heard Krystal sigh through the phone briefly.  “I wish I could have gone,” she said.  “It would have been nice.  Maybe I could’ve seen Jiyoung, too.”

“Yeah I know what you mean,” Amber replied.  She paused.  “I’m thinking about telling them.  Well, not Min, but Hyuna and Nicole.”

“Telling them what?”

“About us.”

There was silence on the other end.  Amber bit back a sigh, sensing how uncomfortable the other girl was feeling through the phone.  She took a seat on the floor and leaned against Nicole’s bed.  “Babe,” Amber started, her hand to her head as she began to feel a small headache appear.

“I can’t, Amber.”

“Why not?”

She heard Krystal scoff.  “I’m not like you.  I can’t just be open right away about it.”

“I’m not asking you to be open about it—I’m just saying that it would be nice to actually have someone to talk to about us and not worry so much.”

“About us?” Krystal asked.  Sh*t, Amber thought.  “What about us?”

Amber shut her eyes.  “Anything.”  She added a sharp exhale through .  “I hate being thrown back into the closet,” Amber confessed.

“You don’t think I know that?” Krystal asked.  “I’m trying here, Am.  Can’t you be patient?”

Amber stayed silent.  Krystal had a point.  It really has been only two months of dating for them—Amber didn’t really have the right to complain.  But nowadays, she just found herself being so excited and ecstatic about being with the girl—it was so hard to hide it often.  It was hard for Amber—she knew how hard she fell for the girl and to not be able to share it with the world without any problems was a problem all on its own.

“It’s hard to be,” Amber replied.

“I know.”

“Don’t expect me to lie if I get asked, though.”

“Amber!” Krystal screamed through the phone impatiently.

Amber clenched her teeth and could feel anger fuel in her.  “What?” she dryly asked.

“You have to.  Can’t you just get this already?  We spoke about this.”

“Yeah and it was about Jessica—not my friends.”

“My sister and your friends are completely different.”

“Exactly,” Amber said.  “Your sister is a better candidate than my friends here with me.”

“Oh don’t even—” Krystal paused.  “Wait, where are you?”

Amber rolled her eyes.  “Relax,” she said.  “Nicole let me inside her room to answer this phone call.”  She shook her head after hearing silence on the other end coming from the girl.  “I don’t get why you’re so scared.”

“Excuse me?” Krystal asked immediately with offense.  “You don’t get why?” She scoffed.  “Wow, Amber.  Just—wow.”

“Jessica could’ve tried to understand!” Amber raised her voice.  “She’s your sister for God’s sake!”

“My sister is not like your sister—you need to remember that,” Krystal spat back.

Amber rubbed her face with her free hand out of frustration.  She sighed roughly.  “Whatever,” was all that came out.

“Whatever?” Krystal repeated in a mocking manner.  “I can’t believe we’re really doing this right now.”

“Okay, so then we won’t, .”

Krystal let out a high-pitched groan of frustration.  “What else do you want me to say, Amber?!  This isn’t easy!  You should know—you’ve been in my spot.”

“Exactly,” Amber answered.  “Been.  Past-tensed.”

“Oh my god,” Krystal replied.  “I can’t.  I can’t right now.”  She let out an exhale through .  “Go be with your dumb girl friends.”

“Really, Krystal?” Amber said roughly.  “Now you’re being too much.”

“I’m being too much?”  She heard another scoff.  “Sorry for seeing how popular you’ve gotten with the ladies, ma’am, my bad.”

Amber got up from her sitting area on the floor and sharply inhaled.  She clenched her teeth.  “Wow,” she gave out.  “Whatever then.  I’ll just talk to you later.  I’m not dealing with this anymore.”

“Fine,” came the reply. 

Amber opened to say one more thing but was interrupted with the line cut short.  She exhaled slowly, hoping her frustration would come out with the air.  She threw her phone into her pocket and rubbed her face with both hands, running them through her hair, as well.  She breathed deeply one more time before exiting the room and walking back to the living room.

“Hey,” Amber called out.  She took a seat next to Min on the floor.  “What did I miss?”

Min shook her head.  “Nothing—I was just telling me about my friend, Amy, who’s coming to Korea in a bit, too.”

“Yeah, they met in New York,” Hyuna said.

Nicole passed the tomboy Min’s cellphone, which displayed a picture of the girl.  Amber blinked.  Damn, she’s cute, Amber thought with guilt.

“She’s pretty,” Hyuna said with a genuine smile and awe.

Min laughed.  “Yeah, that’s her—Amy.  Amy Lee.  She told me she might be working with Wheesung.”

Amber whistled and nodded nonchalantly, still trying to glance at the picture, at which Min took back at this point.  She sighed quickly to herself as the rest of the girls continued their conversation, moving onto a different topic.  Amber stuck to her thoughts.  She bit back another sigh and quickly shut her eyes.

I need to fix sh*t with Krystal.