Part 6

Krystal furrowed her eyebrows when she felt something soft on her cheek. She slowly opened her eyes and had to squint when the bright lights in the room burned her eyes.

“Hey,” she heard a husky voice say close to her, “it’s time to wake up.”

Krystal sniffs and slowly sits up, her hair a mess and nose red. She rubs her swollen eyes a little before looking up at the person standing next to the couch.

“Hi.” Amber smiles at the cute face. “Why are you hiding out in this dusty old wardrobe room?”

Krystal looks back down and coughs a little but doesn’t respond.

Amber tilts her head and tries to get a better look at the slightly pale face. “Are you okay? I heard you were sick. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Am phine.”

“What?”

A long sniff. “I’m bine.”

“I don’t think you’re fine. You can’t even say the word fine.” Amber frowns. “You should’ve taken the day off if you’re not feeling well. How can you possibly perform on stage in this condition? Your health should be your number one priority.”

Krystal pouts and pulls her blanket tighter over herself. It seems Amber’s upset at her for showing up for a performance in this condition. But in her defense, the only reason she even forced herself out of bed this morning was because she wanted to see the girl. After all, they haven’t seen each other in person for almost three weeks and Krystal missed the other girl terribly, though she would never admit it.

It’s been about two months since that incident in the practice room with Yunho’s phone and Krystal had vowed to never do something so childish again. Though she doesn’t really need to because she and Amber text each other on a regular basis now. All three of them had grabbed dinner together that night and about a day later, Amber initiated the first text to Krystal. From then on, it gradually grew into multiple texts throughout the day and even video calls. Krystal was pleasantly surprised at how much and how fast they got closer to each other in such a short amount of time. They were complete opposites most of the time, but strangely, it seems to be what made them click.

 Amber’s sigh drew Krystal from her thoughts. “Maybe it’s better if you don’t perform tonight. I’m sure they can have other people fill in during your time slot.”

“Dhey probably could but dhat would be unprobessional of me. I’m not even dhat sick. I hope you won’t be upset if I perborm.”

Amber couldn’t help but chuckle at the cute speech. “I’m not upset. I’m just worried. You shouldn’t even be out of bed let alone performing.”

“I’m phine. Really. Besides, I don’t want to disappoint my phans who habe been looking phoward to seeing me perborm.

“If they’re really your fans, they’ll understand. I’m sure they would rather you rest and recover than faint on stage because you’re exhausted and sick.”

“I’m only perborming dwo songs. I’ll be on and obb stage before you know it.”

Amber sighed and shook her head in defeat. “I don’t know if this is dedication or just you being stubborn...”

Krystal chuckled quietly. She was happy to hear Amber so worried about her. Sometimes, she feels like she’s spoiled too much by Amber’s care that when she travels overseas, it feels empty to not have someone next to her quietly watching and taking care of her without being asked to.

“Alright, well,” Amber looks at her wrist watch, “we’re going on in 20 minutes. Have you taken your cold medicine?”

“Yes.”

“Have you eaten?”

Krystal nodded. “I habe.”

“You habe, huh?” Amber chuckled.

This caused Krystal to hide her face in embarrassment, but not before shooting the older girl a quick glare.

Amber smiled and patted the top of Krystal’s head gently. In the two months that they grew closer, she was able to see many sides of the younger girl. Krystal was funny and witty and despite her cold outer appearance, seemed to genuinely care about the people around her. She also has a lot of determination and dedication, and even a perfectionist side that appears every now and then. There’s always something special about people who work hard and are passionate about what they do that Amber really admires.

But up until now, her favorite was still Krystal’s smile. Amber found Krystal always had the prettiest smile she has ever seen when it was sincere and unforced. It made the girl that much more beautiful and sometimes Amber wished she could take pictures with her eyes to capture the moment.

“Hey...”

Amber looked down. “Yeah?”

“Do you dink you could get me some hot wader?”

Amber chuckled. Krystal’s speech was just too cute. “Sure thing. I’ll be right back.”

Krystal watched Amber leave the room before lying back down on the couch. She placed a hand on her cheek and felt it burning up. Even though she was sick, she knew it was warm for a different reason.

“Ah, why do I still feel like this?”

She and Amber have grown quite comfortable around each other but there are still plenty of times Krystal finds herself in situations where her body reacts strangely to Amber’s touch, her heart beats faster at Amber’s words or caring gestures, her eyes mesmerized on the older girl, and many more. At first, she thought it was because they weren’t close but even after they’ve gotten close, these strange feelings still persisted and she hasn’t been able to figure out why.

“Here.”

Amber’s voice interrupted Krystal’s thoughts and she looked up to see Amber holding a cup with steam rising from it. She must’ve zoned out for much longer than she thought.

Krystal sits back up and takes the warm cup from Amber. “Dhanks.”

“No problem.”

They sat in silence for a while as Krystal slowly sipped the water.

“Hey, are you sure you don’t want to skip out on this performance? Even your manager is worried for you. I don’t think he’ll mind if you decide not to perform.”

“You dold him?”

“No. But I ran into him when I went to get you some water and it’s obvious he knows you’re not feeling well. Heck everyone can tell. How do you think I found out?”

Krystal smiled. It’s a nice feeling to know people around her are worried about her. Her stylists, makeup artists, backup dancers, and managers – she wouldn’t want to trade them out for anyone. After all, they’ve been working together for at least 5 years now. She considers them like family.

“I’ll be phine. I dook medicine, drank lots of wader, ate some soup, and rested up until now.” Krystal sniffs a little. “Two songs, dhat’s it.”

Amber sighs. Krystal’s determination was borderline stubborn and Amber knew if the girl has made a decision, there’s no way to talk her out of it. Even if Yunho wasn’t overseas, he wouldn’t be able to change Krystal’s mind. Unless, maybe if he forcefully dragged her back to her apartment. But then there’s no guarantee he’ll be coming back out unharmed.

“Stubborn,” Amber muttered loud enough for the girl to hear.

“Says the equally stubborn one.” Krystal stuck out her tongue.

Amber couldn’t help but chuckle at the cute and dorky face.

~~~

With each step she took, Krystal felt more and more light headed. The music that was blasting through the speakers all around her sounded so far away, almost as if she was standing at the end of a long tunnel. Her intensified sense of smell also contributed to the nausea as Krystal swore she could smell every single drop of sweat from her backup dancers around her. It was so thick she felt suffocated and wanted nothing more than to get off the stage.

But she couldn’t. Not when she was in the middle of a performance in front of thousands of people.

Krystal shook her head in an attempt to focus on the choreography but ended up stumbling a few steps as her vision began dimming. Luckily she was lip-syncing today so she didn’t have to worry about trying to sing the song so long as her lips were moving. But even that proved to be hard as Krystal found it difficult to breathe.

“Am...ber...” Krystal turned her head, searching for the older girl. She could feel her body giving out as her legs grew weaker and weaker. Her eyes moved from dancer to dancer but Amber was nowhere in sight.

I don’t think... I can... go on much... longer. Krystal had completely stopped dancing at this point. She could barely see or stand. It felt like she was in some kind of a bizarre lucid dream.

And then she just fell.

Her body went limp and everything around her moved as the ground came up to meet her.

Then darkness.

Amber, who was keeping an eye on Krystal after noticing her sluggish movements at the beginning of the second song, leapt forward to try to catch the falling girl when she noticed her losing balance. However, she was a second too late as Krystal’s body hit the floor with a loud thud that echoed loudly through the microphone.

Soft gasps could be heard in the audience as the music stopped moments later. Amber quickly but gently picked the girl up and carried her off stage as the rest of the backup dancers followed closely behind. It wasn’t rocket science that Krystal was skinny and light weight but Amber was surprised at how much lighter the girl was then she originally thought.

The staff and managers were all in a panic as they rushed up to the two. The ambulance was called and somehow through all the chaos, Krystal was safely transported to the hospital.

“There are no signs of anything serious. Her body simply shut down from exhaustion and fatigue. She will be fine after proper rest, sleep and food and water intake.” The doctor reassured the staff members in the room. “However, she did suffer a minor concussion from the fall so please refrain her from doing any strenuous activities for a while. Make sure she gets plenty of rest and if she experiences headaches over the next few days, take some pain relievers. If that doesn’t help, come back and see me.”

Everyone in the room bowed and thanked the doctor who nodded and left the room.

Amber, who was among the staff members in the room, breathed a sigh of relief as people started leaving one by one. She walked up next to the hospital bed and stared down at a sleeping Krystal. Luckily it wasn’t anything serious. Yunho is so going to kill her when he finds out about this though. After all, she was supposed to watch over Krystal’s well-being when he’s out of the country.

“Hey,” Amber felt a pat on her shoulder and turned to see one of Krystal’s managers standing next to her. “Thanks for reacting so fast.”

“Not fast enough though. I should’ve caught her before she hit her head.”

“You were the farthest one from her yet you were the first one beside her. She’s fine so don’t think too much about it. Go home and get some rest.”

Amber nodded. “If it’s okay with you, I would like to wait for her to wake up before I leave.”

The manager pursed his lips in thought for a moment before deciding it was okay. He knew Amber and Krystal were close friends so he didn’t see any harm in that. “I’ll be outside making a few phone calls. Come get me if you need anything.”

 The soft voices drew Krystal back to consciousness. She slowly opened her eyes but had to close them again when it felt like everything was spinning. was burning and her body felt awful. The last thing she remembered was a pair of sneakers rushing towards her.

“Hey, you’re awake.”

Krystal didn’t have to open her eyes to know the gentle voice belonged to Amber. She smiled inwardly to herself despite her condition. After a while, she eventually opened her eyes and slowly took in her surroundings. Her vision still had black spots floating around.

Ah. So I’m at the hospital. Krystal thought to herself as she tried to push herself into a sitting position. Her body still felt weak and unbalanced.

Amber noticed Krystal struggling and quickly stepped forward to help the girl.

“Thanks...” Krystal mumbled softly, extremely dry.

Amber heard the hoarse voice and immediately moved to the side table to pour Krystal a glass of water.

Krystal gratefully took the glass and sipped the water. The cool liquid eased her burning throat and she sighed in relief when she removed the glass from her lips.

“Better?” Amber smiled in amusement.

Krystal nodded. Her head was still spinning a little so she closed her eyes to rest them for a bit. There was light shuffling and she felt warm hands on her shoulder.

“You should lie down and get some rest. Doctor says you need plenty of rest.”

Krystal was too tired to respond so she let Amber help her lie back down. When she was settled nicely under the covers, she opened her eyes to see Amber turning to leave. Her hand unconsciously reached out to grab the end of Amber’s jacket.

Amber felt a slight pull on her jacket and stopped. She turned around to see what it was, thinking it might’ve caught something only to find Krystal holding onto her jacket.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Where... are you going?” Krystal didn’t meet her eyes.

“Hm?” Amber tilts her head, slightly confused by the question. “Home?” Wasn’t it obvious?

When Krystal didn’t say anything, Amber became slightly worried. “Are you not feeling well? Want me to get the nurse?”

At that, Krystal shook her head a little.

Amber pouts, not sure what was going on. “Is something wrong?”

“No, but...Can you... stay with me?”

“Stay with you?” Amber was surprised by the request. “Are you afraid to be by yourself? Manager oppa is right outs—”

“No, not Oppa,” Krystal shook her head again. “I want you... to stay with me.”

-----

End of Part 6.

For those of you waiting for the 2nd part of "Maybe One Day", I'm currently working on the 2nd part.