2009 . 28 . 02 – 6:52PM

“Amber, you look fine.  Stop looking at yourself in the mirror.”

The tomboy turned around to face her group of friends and pointed to her hair.  “I swear, my hair isn’t cooperating today – can one of you please fix it?” Amber pleaded.

Michelle rolled her eyes and got up from her seat, followed by Jay getting up for moral support.  Michelle’s facial expression became intense trying to decipher her friend’s hair into looking decent.  Jay rested his hand on her shoulder and gave a sympathetic smile.

"This is why you should persuade your stylists into cutting your hair a little shorter for your concept, Amber,” Michelle stated.  She combed the teen’s hair and brushed her fingers through it to make some last and final touches.  She took a step back and nodded.  “There,” she said, “You look better.”

Amber swung back around to look into the mirror and she was able to breathe normally, again.  I look decent, enough.  Right? she thought.

“You look fine,” Eros repeated, as if he read her mind.

She turned his head to him and gave out a feign smile; in response, he chuckled.

“Amber, will you relax?  She’ll like you even if you were crippled,” Erika chimed.  Everyone turned to her and when she saw the weird looks, she apologized with a laugh.  The others laughed, as well.

“You’re really nervous, huh?” Michelle asked.  She sat back down next to her boyfriend, Nick and he smiled.

“Is it obvious?” Amber asked.  Everyone nodded and she groaned in response, putting her hands to her face.  “I don’t know, I just want this to work, I guess.”

“Just be yourself, bro,” Jay said as he walked over to Amber and wrapped his arm around her shoulder.  The others agreed.

Before anyone else could say anything, a figure walked into Amber’s room and was taken aback by the amount of people in one room.

“Uh… hi,” the person said in English with a very noticeable accent as she gave a light bow.  The others greeted with a warm smile as they said “hi” back in unison.

“I didn’t know you had guests over,” Victoria said in Chinese to her bandmate.

“Last minute thing,” the latter responded.  “They’re leaving soon with me, anyways.”

“Where are you going?”

“Café.”

Victoria raised her eyebrow.  It wasn’t often Amber had free time to go to a café, or let alone anywhere for that matter.  She didn’t even know if Amber liked coffee or not.  But with all the thoughts running in the leader’s head, she decided to brush it off and got what she needed when she walked into Amber’s room.

“I was just gonna ask if I can borrow your jacket.  I’m going for a run and your athletic jacket is cozy,” Victoria said with a warm smile.

Amber chuckled, “Sure, go ahead.”  She turned to her group of friends after straightening herself out and beckoned her head towards the door after Victoria got the jacket and left.

“Ready?”

They all nodded and grabbed their things and the entire group started to head out of the dorm.  “Amber,” Erika called out.  Amber hummed a response as she closed their main front door and headed towards the elevator down the hall.

“Are you technically allowed to have friends over at your dorm?”

“No,” she replied nonchalantly.

Nick laughed, “What happens if someone finds out that you’ve been having us come over?”

Amber shrugged and she pressed the down button as they waited for the elevator to come up.  “I don’t know to be honest with you,” she said.  She added a smile, “I guess we’ll have to find out sooner or later.”

On their travel down to the main entrance of the building and in the midst of their conversation within the group, Amber’s phone vibrated indicating that she got a text message.  She took out her phone and checked who the sender was and just when she thought her nerves eased a little, they came creeping back inside her.

Nguyen, Vanessa (mobile)

Received one minute ago

Hey, where are you?  Just wanted to check and make sure that you’re alive; find me waiting at the bench in front of the café (:

“Vanessa texted me,” Amber said, not necessarily caring if she interrupted someone’s midway sentence or not.

“What did she say?” Erika asked.

Amber quickly responded saying that she’d be there in a few minutes and put her phone back in her pocket, followed by shoving her hands inside, as well.  She started to fidget; she didn’t want to keep her waiting.  “She’s there waiting,” she responded.  She face palmed and groaned, “Ugh, I don’t want her to wait for so long.”

“Relax,” Jay said.  “Just go there and just have fun, yeah?  Besides, if she didn’t seem angry in the text message than I’m sure it’s nothing serious to over think.”

“Yeah, so,” Eros began.  They all gave their goodbye hugs and high fives to Amber.  “Just play cool.  Like Jay said, have some fun.  Just be yourself.  Okay?” he said.

Amber nodded and smiled.  She felt her nerves ease a little, “Yeah.  Thanks, guys.”

They all nodded and they said goodbye to Amber once again before parting opposite ways.

Just breathe.

Breathe.

Breathe.

Breathe.

Amber sighed deeply as she continued to walk to the café.  From a small distance, she spotted the recognizable friend sitting—slightly hunched over with her legs crossed in front her.  Amber watched Vanessa fiddle with her phone with one hand, tuck her hair behind her ear and flick the remainder of it to the back with the other, revealing her slender and so it seemed, baby soft neck.  She blinked twice at seeing the small gesture and wiped her face with both hands, again giving a self-reminder to breathe and relax. 

As Amber walked closer towards her date, in the midst of thinking how to greet her, Vanessa looked up sensing someone coming.  She smiled from ear to ear, teeth out and waved.

“Hey!” she said excitedly, “Finally, haha.”

Amber chuckled nervously and scratched her arm, “Sorry,” she said, “something came up back at the dorm.”  Obviously, that was a lie.

Vanessa became somewhat concerned at the statement, “Oh, are your members alright?”

The latter nodded in response, “Victoria just needed help with something in Korean and wanted to borrow my Adidas jacket to go jog.”  Amber punched herself mentally for half-lying once again.

“Ah,” Vanessa replied, “Well, we should head in then.”

Amber smiled and they started walking into the café catching up on passed school work, events, drama, Vanessa being on the volleyball team, Amber’s prep for the debut and etc.  The more Amber spoke to Vanessa, the more she realized how much chemistry they had.  There was never an awkward silence between the two and it was heartwarming.

As the two were escorted to a small table on the left side in the middle of the café, there were already small spoken word performances running, both in English and in Korean.  “I hear their frappuccinos are really good,” Vanessa chimed in with a smile as she sat down, hanging her purse on her chair.

To the thought, Amber nodded and also smiled, “Yeah they are. Jay always gets them and so do the others every now and then. We vary a lot.”

“You first came to Korea, like, a few months ago, right?”

“Yeah, just about.”

“How was that for you?”

Before Amber could answer, a waiter came to their table and introduced himself, asking what they wanted.  The two placed their order, both Amber and Vanessa getting a caramel frappuccino.  Vanessa chuckled at another similarity they had in common upon hearing Amber’s order, to which the latter smiled as the waiter walked away going on about to make their drinks.

“It was different,” Amber replied to the question which was previously interrupted, tapping her fingers against the table continuing to fiddle with them, “It was a huge culture shock.  I became homesick so quickly.”  She added a small laugh.  “I still am.”

Vanessa hummed as a response, “I can definitely imagine.”  She sat back into her chair and turned her head to watch the performer on stage, revealing the same side Amber saw no less than five minutes ago outside.  And yet again, she tucked her hair behind her ear.  “I guess it’s kind of different,” she said.

Amber continued to look at the girl sitting diagonally next to her.  Round tables were always meant to give a bad proportion of seating space.  Vanessa’s hair was straighter than usual and Amber could only assume that she had straightened it before she had left to go meet up with each other.  Her dark grey wool jacket was ed, revealing a small white graphic t-shirt underneath, shared with a two necklaces that had a couple of accessories to enhance her style.

After not hearing a response, Vanessa turned her head back to Amber, only to lock eyes with one another.  Amber blinked at the eye contact, opening slightly.  The eye contact, for the first time, seemed like an eternity.  However, the eternity she was sought to be in, only lasted for three seconds.

“Am?” the girl called.

“Yeah.”

Vanessa chuckled, “Did you hear what I said?”

Another blink.  “I did,” she stated.  “I just didn’t necessarily understand what you entirely meant by it.”

“Aw,” Vanessa said with a feigned pout, “Is Korean fogging up your head?”

Amber laughed, “Hey now, there are times where I wish it did.”

Vanessa laughed with her and just in time, their drinks came.  They both thanked the waiter and he left his way to another table.

“Well,” Vanessa began, stirring her drink with a small spoon to douse the heat, “I meant that it’s different for me because I already have my parents with me.”

Amber took a sip into her drink after blowing into it a few times.  “I mean…you can still be homesick even with your family there,” she brought up.

Vanessa smiled, “That’s true.  Unless you wanted to get away from there in the first place.”

The latter opened to say something as Vanessa anticipated her rebuttal over their miniscule debate.  Not being able to come up with anything, however, all Amber could do was laugh and look down into her drink and shake her head.

“Ah, I caught you there,” Vanessa teased, reaching out for her date’s hand.

Amber froze at the soft touch, her thumb, index and middle finger grappling onto the handle of the mug, the other two still.  Vanessa’s hand was still a little cold from being outside but Amber caught the sense of warmth.  It was genuine.  It was a feeling she didn’t remember too often and it made her heart skip a beat.

She stared at the hand, seconds only passing by—Vanessa seemed to not have minded as she turned her head to watch the performances running through, listening to the snaps of the fingers from the audience every now and then.  Amber imagined how it would have felt to respond to the action, agreeing to the touch—what would’ve happened then?  She mentally kicked herself for realizing how much of a baby she was being over such a small thing.  People in Korea hold hands all the time, she thought to herself.  But if it was nothing, why wasn’t she moving?

Amber had a feeling that she did it on purpose, somewhat expecting a response back.  And she was right; Vanessa turned back to Amber, noticing the tomboy looking down at their hands.  Automatically, she took her hand away and expressed sympathy.

“I’m sorry,” she muttered, “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

Amber looked up at the girl who was a little hurt.  Subconsciously, she reached over and took Vanessa’s hand into hers, bringing their touch now into the middle of the small table.  “Don’t be, Vanessa,” Amber reassured.

“I didn’t want to seem like I was moving too fast,” Vanessa explained.

Amber shook her head, “It’s fine.  Really.  If there’s anyone that should be apologizing, it’s me.”  Vanessa scrunched her eyebrows to the weird explanation.

“Why should you be saying sorry?” she questioned.

“Because I just mentally pushed you away by not holding your hand back.”

Vanessa eyes slightly widened at the latter’s response.  She looked down to their hands, to which Amber was holding firmly yet tightly at the same time.  She looked back up to the tomboy who continued to share the eye contact.  She also soon began to realize how much eye contact they’ve made with each other in one setting and she liked it.  “It’s not your fault,” she said in a gentle tone, using her other hand to hold the remaining hand unoccupied.  The latter obliged with a smile.

“It is,” Amber said a little saddened.

“Hey,” Vanessa called out.  She smiled, “We all have people who have hurt us in the past, but we learn from them.”  She caressed Amber’s hands with a small thumb rub on each one, “They make us who we are today.”

Amber sat back in her chair and nodded, “Yeah,” she let out, “you’re right.”

“When am I not?” Vanessa said with a playful tone and stuck her tongue out.  The tomboy laughed and shook her head at the cuteness that flowed from her date.

Out of nowhere, her phone started to vibrate in her pocket, to which she let go of one of Vanessa’s hands and apologized briefly for.  Vanessa told her not to worry about it with a smile as Amber fished out her phone only to be greeted with an unexpected call.

Krystal, Amber thought.  Her thumb hovered over the shining green button but only stayed.  She hesitated to answer her phone and she questioned to herself why.  It’s only Krystal, she thought to herself once again.  Her BlackBerry continued to vibrate in her phone, displaying a bright, luminescent photo of both her and Amber goofing around in the image.

Krystal. Krystal Jung is calling you.

Before she could choose between the green and the red, the ringing stopped, obviously putting the other one at the other end to a voicemail.  That wasn’t normal.  Amber continued to question why she didn’t answer the phone automatically.  Looking at the screen, it showed a small notification of a missed call that she knew very well she purposely did not answer.

As she was about to exit the notification and lock her phone, her phone vibrated once again, notifying the owner that she had just received a text message.  She slightly grimaced to herself upon reading it.

Jung, Krystal (mobile)

Received one minute ago

Hey, Am, you okay?  My filming schedule for the commercial I told you about ended early so I wanted to see if you were around to hang out.  You’re probably sleeping for all I know, haha, I’ll drop by your dorm and wake you up.  See you! <3

“Hey, everything okay?” Vanessa asked curiously, noticing Amber’s expression.  The tomboy cleared and shook it off emotionally, exiting the text without an answer, followed by locking her phone.

“Yeah,” Amber said with a 180 degree change in facials, “Everything’s perfectly fine.”