Krystal had endured many challenges over the last year, but none of them seemed to bring her as much suffering as the current task at hand. As Krystal stood in the kitchen of her parents' home, her face covered in flour, Krystal felt that this would likely be the first and last time she would ever bake a cake with Amber's "help".

Krystal wiped her cheek with the back of her hand and scowled at Amber, who had smeared the flour on her face in the first place. Her hand came away with a thick layer of white powder on it and she wondered how much more flour was still stuck on her face. The younger girl turned an icy glare at Amber, but the older girl merely smiled in return.

"Are you gonna add more chocolate to the batter or not?" Amber asked, extending her flour-coated fingers threateningly at Krystal in case the younger girl refused again.

"You really think putting more flour on my face is gonna change my mind?" Krystal asked in a dangerously calm tone. "That's not how this works."

"Oh really?" Amber rubbed her floury fingertips together with a mischievous smirk. "Care to test your theory?"

"Only if you want to feel my fist in your face," Krystal coolly retorted. "You know I'd do it, and I'd do it with a smile."

"You sadist."

"Takes one to know one." Krystal stood across the table from Amber with her fist raised, daring Amber to try and approach her with her flour-coated fingers.

"Fine, I give up," Amber said meekly even though she knew that Krystal would never seriously hit her with the intention of inflicting pain. Her princess's past fits of physical violence had always been performed in jest, and Amber actually liked that aspect of their playful relationship. Amber lowered her hands with the guise of calling a truce, but in the instant that it took for Krystal to turn her head and reach for a towel to wipe off her face, Amber darted around to Krystal's side of the table with a devilish grin. "Nevermind, I'll risk that punch to the face."

The older girl quickly pinned Krystal's arms to her sides in a powerful, one-armed hug, and then used her free hand to smear more flour across Krystal's previously flour-free forehead. Krystal struggled and squealed and tried as hard as she could to hit Amber like she had threatened, but Amber's defense was impenetrable.

"More chocolate!" Amber demanded with an evil laugh as she ran her snowy fingers over Krystal's face. "Put more chocolate into the batter!"

"Stop it, stupid!" Krystal cried, struggling to free herself. "I'll add more chocolate, just let me go!"

Amber let out a victory cheer as she released Krystal from her hold, but the cheer was short-lived as Krystal quickly pelted Amber in the face with a small handful of flour.

"Hey," Amber sputtered, shaking flour out of her hair. "But you said you'd add more chocolate..."

"You were the one who lied first," Krystal pointed out, sticking out her tongue at the older girl. She steeled her heart against Amber's pitiful pout. "If you want more chocolate, ask me nicely or you get nothing."

"Fine... please, oh glorious Princess-nim to whom I have the honor of serving." Amber bent at the waist and bowed a full 90 degrees to Krystal, who watched the act with an amused smile on her face. "Your loyal servant humbly begs that you kindly add more chocolate to the cake batter." The older girl raised her head slightly and looked up at Krystal with a serious expression. "Should I kiss your feet now or something?"

The younger girl smirked. "A kiss on the lips should suffice." Amber did as her princess asked and the two girls shared a warm kiss. "Was that so hard?" Krystal wondered as she added more chocolate to the cake mix with a smile.

Krystal was acting annoyed with Amber's antics, but in reality she was quite relieved to see that Amber was finally back to her normal self. The older girl had spent much of the last few weeks mourning the loss of her beloved dog, Gongju. Even though Amber had forced herself to continue on through the pain, Krystal could see that Amber struggled at times to move forward. It was only somewhat recently that Krystal could see a more genuine happiness return to Amber's eyes, and she knew that tonight's celebration was helping to increase Amber's good mood.

The cake that they were baking together was for f(x)'s low-key but meaningful 6th anniversary celebration. Victoria was flying back from China at this very moment especially for tonight. It was only naive Luna who was unaware of their anniversary plans, and who was therefore the target of their surprise party. Luna was performing in her musical tonight and the f(x) members hoped to surprise her with the cake after the show ended, bringing the four f(x) members back together for the first time since their successful performance in London.

"OK!" Krystal announced, whisking the extra chocolate into the dry ingredients. "Now we need some eggs."

Amber eagerly jumped to her feet and raised her hand. "I'll help!"

"Oh no you don't." Krystal shook her head and pointed a finger at Amber. "No more 'help' from you. Sit."

"Let me help," Amber whined, coming over to the younger girl and nudging shoulders with her. "I'm good at helping."

"Just keep your hands to yourself," Krystal laughed as she walked over to the refrigerator.

Amber responded by placing a kiss on Krystal's nose. "How about my lips?" she wondered cheekily. "You didn't say I had to keep my lips to myself."

"You're being quite bratty today, you know that?" Krystal observed as she opened the refrigerator. "What's gotten into you?"

"Today is f(x)'s 6th anniversary," Amber explained, placing another kiss on Krystal's cheek. "Six years ago, after we officially debuted, I finally let myself believe that I would get to see a lot more of you over the next few years. I imagined all the time we would spend practicing and performing together in the future and it felt like a dream come true. Today's a pretty meaningful day for me."

Krystal turned away from Amber with a smile and pulled two eggs out of their carton. "Did you imagine all the time you would spend teasing me and playing tricks on me, too?" she joked.

"Yeah, I did," Amber admitted, much to Krystal's surprise. "I imaged sitting in long car rides with you to get to our next schedules, I imagined filming music videos and recording songs with you... I even imagined what it would be like to have you fall in love with me and what it would be like to kiss you, Jung Soojung. And I'm grateful that I don't have to imagine any of that now."

Krystal closed the refrigerator and turned to find Amber standing extremely close to her with the most gentle of expressions on her face. The younger girl smiled warmly at her girlfriend, touched by the affection in Amber's words and in her gaze. "You're sweet, Am, you know that?"

"First you accuse me of being a sadist and now you call me sweet. Make up your mind, will you?" Amber joked. She stepped towards Krystal and reached out to pull her into a hug.

"Hey hey," Krystal chided playfully. She stepped back and leaned against the refrigerator. "You promised to keep your hands to yourself, remember? I'm trying to bake here."

"No problem, I don't need my hands for this," Amber whispered in a low voice, gazing at Krystal with a kind of hunger that didn't seem conducive to baking. The hands that had reached out for a hug now placed themselves gently against the wall on either side of Krystal's waist, trapping the younger girl in place without touching her. Amber held Krystal's gaze as she leaned in closer and kissed her softly so that only their mouths touched. With Krystal's eyes tightly closed as they kissed, all she could feel was the warmth and softness of Amber's lips against her own.

The dreamily happy smile on Amber's face as they pulled apart from the gentle kiss caused Krystal to feel suddenly shy and she found herself asking Amber, "What's it like to kiss me?"

"Hmm?"

"You said you thought about kissing me since our debut. Does the real thing live up to your expectations?"

Amber nodded vigorously in response. "The real thing is better than I imagined," she confessed without hesitation. "Kissing you is soft and sweet... like eating cotton candy or biting into a strawberry. Every kiss is just... delicious."

Amber's description of her kisses made Krystal's heart flutter with pleasure. But the sweetness of Amber's words was also quite embarrassing and the younger girl tried to laugh off the comment. "That's so cliché," Krystal scoffed. She rolled her eyes, hoping that her actions would hide her embarrassment.

"If it's so cliché, why are you blushing?" Amber asked rhetorically in the same seductively low voice. She brought her lips to Krystal's jaw line and began to trail kisses toward the younger girl's neck. "Do you ever think about me kissing you?"

"All the time..." Krystal murmured, closing her eyes and enjoying the ticklish sensation of Amber's lips exploring her face. "I'm imagining it even now..."

"I must not be doing it right if you imagine me kissing you while I'm kissing you," Amber whispered into Krystal's ear with a playful smile. "Perhaps I'm not doing it in the right places. Where do you imagine me kissing you?"

"Here and there..." Krystal answered vaguely. She smiled coyly at Amber, allowing the smile on her lips to speak louder than her words. "But not now," Krystal decided. She pushed herself off of the refrigerator and brushed past the other girl. "There's baking to do."

"Awwww, but baking can wait a few minutes, can't it?" Amber complained. 

"Not unless you wanna be late for Luna-unnie's musical," Krystal said, heading back toward the kitchen table. "Bake now, fool around later."

Amber reached out towards Krystal and held her in place with a back hug, disregarding her earlier agreement to keep her hands to herself. "Just one more kiss..."