- 'CROOKED', G-Dragon

- 'Line 'Em Up', SuperM

- 'Punch', NCT 127

'Drankin N Smoking', Future, Lil Uzi Vert

'Damage', EXO

'November Rain', Kris Wu

Every time Kris looked at Amber, she'd never fail to fill him with butterflies and warm, fuzzy feeling that made him feel like he was a kid on Christmas morning. It made him realise once more that he was the luckiest guy in the world for having a best friend in someone like her, and even luckier for being in love with someone so perfect. 

Yet his eyes would always move down to the bump on his stomach and the impending sense of dread would sweep over him and the bitter taste of reality would return. 

It wasn't that he hated the fact she was pregnant - 'hate' and 'Amber' could never go in the same sentence for Kris. It was just that every time he looked at her and that bump growing on her, it was as if everything else around him was blotted out, as if he could no longer even think about the rest of his life and future, and that everything was now hinged on the life growing inside her. The life that he helped to create.

He couldn't even begin to imagine how Amber must be feeling throughout all of this.

"So you're going to tell Victoria?" Amber asked as she sat across from Kris on the sofa in her living room, absent-mindedly at her baby-bump as she scrolled through her phone. 

"I'm gonna' do it this weekend, when she's back from Beijing," Kris said, "I think- I think she might actually help us."

"Do you think she'd tell your parents?"

"No - not unless I asked her to."

Kris thought of his big sister, the big, hot-shot in their family business who'd always looked after Kris, stuck up for him with their parents and even beat up kids who picked on him in school back in China when he was little. Victoria had always looked after Kris, even when he sometimes wished she wouldn't. She just did what all over-protective, big sisters did. 

Now I need her more than ever.

"It might go better than you think," Amber shrugged as she sat up on the sofa, shifting in a way that was comfortable for her with the bump, "Once Tiffany got over the initial shock, she was actually super excited."

"What's that? I heard my name?" Tiffany asked in English, poking her head around the living room door. Amber explained how Tiffany was now coming home every weekend from Seoul to look after her expactant sister, which was also convenient considering the money Tiffany was making as an actress on TV. Kris was always a little dumbly star-struck whenever he saw Tiffany, considering he saw her regularly on TV and heard her music on the radio to school. The thought essentially having her as a sister-in-law now was something else entirely.

"Talking about your joy over my little situation," Amber replied in English (Kris always spoke it with Amber and her family).

"You can say baby, Amber, it won't kill you," Tiffany rolled her eyes as she went back into the kitchen.

"I'll be the judge of that," Amber mumbled as she leaned forward to sit up. Kris grimaced at how her movements were slowly becoming more and more difficult, how even sitting up on a chair was something that would eventually take all of her energy and require help. The mere thought of that was enough to make his palms sweat.

Saved by the bell, Kris's phone rang in his pocket. 

"What's up man?" Kris asked down the line.

"Dude, you need to get to Seoul." a panicked-sounding Luhan said in Mandarin down the line.

"I can't right now, I'm with Amber and my parents think I'm at work. What the hell are you doing in Seoul right now anyway? It's a school night?"

"Don't ask me how or why right now, but I followed Chanyeol on a train here and he got beaten to a pulp barking up the wrong tree in some club. He's completely passed out on me right now and his Mom called because he's supposed to be at a family dinner, so I lied and told him he's helping me prepare a Soccer application."

"Holy , where are you now?" Kris exclaimed, standing up to grab his jacket off of the coat rack. Amber looked up at him in concern, understanding some of what he was saying in Mandarin.

"We're at some noodle-bar where the owner let me come in and put ice on his nose." 

"Don't leave. Send me your location. I'll be the in under an hour." He said before hanging up the phone and slugging his jacket on.

"What's up? Is it the boys?" Amber asked in concern as she looked up with Kris with worried eyes. Kris hated seeing her worked up like this.

"Luhan said Chanyeol's in trouble. I have to go get him."

"Well then, let's go." Amber said as she moved to get up from the chair. 

Yet as if she'd overheard the entire thing, Tiffany swooped into the room, moving to sit her sister back down, "You're not going anywhere, especially if there's trouble involved."

"But they're our friends!" Amber complained as her sister gently forced her back down onto the sofa. 

"And if they knew about what state you were in, they'd want you at home where your big sister can take care of you!" Tiffany said firmly as she reached to grab a glass of water and handed to Amber.

"She's right," Kris sighed as he went to stand by Amber, "No one else knows about- about-"

"The baby," Tiffany interjected.

"Yeah," Kris gulped, "And if Chanyeol's in trouble that means it could be bad. I'm just surprised it's not Baekhyun for once."

Amber shifted uncomfortably in her chair at this, but Kris could understand why - all of them were worried about Baekhyun. Even for someone like Amber who never got along with him, it was worrying to have seen him go to juvie, only now, everyone was concerned with how normal he was being. Yet as Luhan said, if it was Chanyeol in trouble...

"I'll keep you updated. I'll be fine, I promise." Kris reassured Amber as he leaned down to kiss Amber goodbye on the forehead. 

Yet as he left the apartment, there was part of Kris that was honestly glad to have a moment away from Amber, and a moment away from his new brutal reality.

*

"Look, kiddo, you can take it or leave it. I've got plenty more customers than the likes of you idiots."

"But- but please Tao!"

"It's hyung to you Jungwoo," Tao rolled his eyes at the middle school-Juniors who'd been trying to haggle with him for the past 10-minutes. Kim Jungwoo was a neighbour who'd lived across the road from Tao ever since he got to Korea, and his little buddy-boy-friends Jaehyun and Winwin both looked like nervous wrecks. 

The three of them stood in a derelict parking lot on the south side of town, in the industrial areas, after Tao got a text on his burner phone asking to meet there. Little did Tao know he'd be met with these complete and utter rookies who had no idea how to buy drugs, and probably no idea how to use them either.

"Fine!" Jungwoo groaned, "How much do you want?"

"Well, how much do you want?" Tao asked, "I can't tell you my prices until you specify how many grams you want."

Jungwoo, however, looked completely clueless.

"Well- how much do you recommend then?" the more confident of the trio, Jaehyun asked.

Tao couldn't help but laugh at their complete and utter idiocy. 

Everyone has to start somewhere. 

"Between the three of you?" Tao looked over them for a moment, "About seven grams."

"How long would that last?" Jungwoo asked.

"For me, I'd get through that in a week - tops. For you losers? A couple weeks, maybe more if you guys are super lightweight."

"Alright," Jungwoo nodded eagerly, we'll-"

But he was cut off by the sound of Tao's main phone ringing in his pocket.

"Kris, what's up?" Tao asked in Mandarin, what the boys always spoke to each other.

"I need you to get to Amber's now. Luhan and Chanyeol are caught up in trouble in Seoul."

"Can't you drive?"

"No you - my parents have decided to lock me up and they think I'm working all night. My car's at home. Can you get here fast?"

"Of course, I'll just finish off ripping off these losers and then be there."

Hanging up, Tao looked up to see the three teenagers looking at him expectantly - except the quiet, doe-eyed Winwin, who was looking at Tao with a look of sheer suspicion.

"You're ripping us off?" Winwin raised an eyebrow, asking him the loaded question in Mandarin.

Apparently the other two didn't understand a word. Tao smirked, "Not you. Just which ever of these two idiots you want to make pay."

Winwin grinned devilishly, "It's a deal." he announced in Korean, "Jaehyun give the man his money."

"What?" Jaehyun asked, his eyes widening in slight shock, "But I-"

"I've got places to be kiddo," Tao groaned, "Or you can buy somewhere else?"

"No, no I've got the cash." Jaehyun then held out the wad of cash that Tao so ungracefully demanded off of the unsuspecting teen, Winwin trying his hardest not to grin too much from behind his friends.

"Right, scram losers, I've got places to be." Tao announced as he handed over the bag of grass. Selling to new customers was always like a mix of this brotherly, menacing behaviour, as well as feeling like a proud father; in Tao's mind, he was helping this boys take their very first steps into a much greater world.

I'm like Obi-Wan Kenobi! For sure...

Yet as Tao went to get in his car, the trio didn't seem so eager to let him go.

"Tao- hyung!" Jungwoo called out as the three of them ran up to Tao's car.

"What?" Tao groaned.

"Can- please can you roll it for us?" 

*

"What took you so long man? I smoked three cigarettes waiting for you!" Kris complained as sat inside Kris's car, shutting the door next to him.

"I just had to roll four grams worth of dope in ten minutes," Tao moaned, as he waited for Kris to buckle up, "Why don't you try beating that record?" 

"How the hell did you manage that?" Kris asked, looking vaguely impressed.

"Don't ask, I'm just never selling dope to Junior-High kids again," Tao grumbled, thinking back to the three, idiotic 15-year olds he just had to give a crash course on rolling joints for, "What's up with the guys then?" he asked as they began to drive through town.

Kris explained the panicked call he'd gotten from Luhan, how Chanyeol was currently beaten up and waiting in a noodle bar for them to come get him.

"I don't get it, why don't they just go to a hospital?" Tao asked as they drove through central town, all the bars starting to open up for the night and restaurants taking in their last orders. 

"I guess because his Mom will find out," Kris shrugged, "Given Chanyeol's past history, I don't blame her for freaking out."

"He's sure gonna' have a hard timing explaining his battlescars when he gets home. Maybe we'll have to make up some bull story about him getting injured at the warehouse or some like that." Tao scoffed as they waited a traffic light. 

Tao had been worried about Kris to say the least. Ever since Kris's parents had gone crazy and taken him out of school and made him get a tougher job, Tao was seeing him far less; apart from when Tao would visit the Chinese restaurant for dumplings, or when he texted Tao's burner phone to get him to buy cigarettes, Tao hardly saw Kris. Since becoming friends in September last year, the two were mostly inseparable, and Tao really looked up to Kris in some ways.

As he began to make the journey out of town and onto the motorways, Tao figured he'd ask Kris a couple questions that had been on his mind lately.

"Hey, Hyung," Tao asked, "What- what's the deal with you and Amber these days? You don't seem happy like I thought you'd be."

A loud sigh immediately escaped from Kris's lips, "Where do I even begin..." he trailed off, looking out the window where countless other cars were whizzing past them, "You- you can't tell anyone about this, alright?"

"Of course," Tao assured him. His loyalty to Kris was anything but wavering. 

"Amber's knocked up..."

"What, like - pregnant?" Tao choked, the word sounding and even feeling weird to say.

Kris nodded, his eyes grave. 

"So that's why she stopped going to school..." Tao trailed off, "Is she far along?" 

Kris nodded again. 

Tao pitied his friends at the very least. Everyone seemed to make Amber out to be some mouthy, opinionated know-it-all when he'd met them, but she soon turned out to be exactly the opposite for Tao once they'd gotten to know each other. She showed him cool tricks at the skateboard park and helped put him in touch with her brother's friends for his budding drug-dealing business. Amber was probably the most delightful girl he'd ever met. 

In fact, Tao couldn't think of a better person for Kris to have knocked up. 

"I think that's awesome." 

"You're kidding right?" Kris scoffed.

"I mean, obviously a baby is a pretty big responsibility," Tao said as he moved the car into another lane, "But- you love her, don't you?"

"Of course I do," 

"Then as long as you stick together, that baby is going to be the most loved baby this side of the border." Tao said, a warm smile making its way onto his face at the thought of a mini Kris or a mini Amber running around town.

If I play my cards right, I can be Godfather!

Yet, as emotionally un-intuitive as Tao was, even he could tell that Kris was beyond uncomfortable and stressed out right now. He needed to distract him. 

"Oh, I asked around about those drugs you wanted me to find out about," Tao said, "The ones that made Sulli go crazy?"

"That's a bit of an understatement - she did go to rehab afterwards." Kris pointed out.

"Yeah well, I got some friends to ask around about the drug. It's this experimental drug that's been on the scene for the past year or so. They say that some people hallucinate like crazy, others they just black out."

"Sounds about right," Kris said, "I thought my brain was gonna' collapse that night on Halloween, and I didn't do nearly as half as much as Baekhyun."

"Yeah well turns out, the guy who cooks it can't s