Amber blinked at her girlfriend. “Of course we’re different people now. It’s been six years…”

“Funny. You seem the same as you’ve always been. Holding me at arm’s-length, living a different life in California that you pretend don’t exist anymore when you meet me.”

“I discuss all my projects with you.”

Krystal scoffed. “You only tell me what you’re going to do. You never ask for my input because you have someone else there that you can bounce your creative ideas off of.”

Amber was surprised. Krystal had never let on that she was upset over that. “I thought you just liked hearing about my work. I never knew you wanted to be part of it,” Amber murmured.

“You never even considered it, and that’s not the worst part.” She in a shaky breath. "You've been treating me like a side project ever since you got back-"

"I've been giving you every ounce of my attention!" Amber exclaimed. "I've been here. I've been here for THREE months or didn't you notice?"

Krystal’s brows shot down over stormy eyes. "Don't lie! It’s been in the back of my mind for a while. You don't want to be with me anymore. I can tell. You haven't slept with me, we never spend the night together-"

"Are you trying to find excuses to break it off?!" Amber demanded. "Just because we don't have ? We've spent nights just holding each other. What's wrong with that?!"

None of that seemed to be getting through to Krystal. "Are you with someone else?!"

Amber stared in shock at the woman in front of her. How could she possibly even think that? How... "What?"

"You don't talk on the phone in front of me. You won't sleep with me. You're treating me like a pet you're going to slowly put out of its misery. Then you leave it up to me to decide what to do about the rumors so you can just leave blameless?"

Amber felt a lump in the back of . "Is that what you've been thinking? When we were in Italy and ever since we got back to Korea? You think I've been trying to figure out how to leave you?" Her head twisted in denial as Krystal laid out all that had been hidden in her heart.

"Isn't that why you've been careless on our dates? Why you won't discuss anything with whoever keeps calling you from LA in front of me? Why you sleep at Henry's house instead of with me? You want me to be the one to end it since I was the one who started it and because you've never made a single move in our relationship. I pursued you. I made love to you. I -" she started crying, fat tears running down her pale cheeks. "I'm the one who cried for weeks on end missing you over the years. The one who wondered if the voices in the background of our phone calls were girls you were loving instead of me. The one who tried to rely on the trust I have in you, but thoughts kept crowding in. Months would go by and I would lose myself in work and I was fine, then I would go home and start to think and wonder. I was so glad to see you the few times you came back to me over the years that I told myself none of that mattered-"

"Why are you just bringing this up now?" Amber asked. She'd apparently been having fun by herself with her plans while Krystal was suffering. Did they know each other? Despite years of being together, they'd spent very little of that time in each other's presence. Phone calls were completely different, and relationships squeezed into short meetings were often flames built on kindling. She'd been hoping to make something stronger. Make it feel like they were starting over, but it seemed like Krystal was at the end of her rope and tired of dangling on it.

"I know. I know I've always loved you and wanted you more than you've loved and wanted me. And my career is on the line with our relationship, Amber!"

Amber wanted to spill her thoughts but as always, her tongue twisted on emotion and she said little. "I'm sorry. I know."

Krystal grabbed her hands. "So, what are we going to do? What should I do?"

Amber's shoulders slumped. They were still two foolish women who had no idea how to really be with each other. "I should've just been upfront with you like all my friends said," Amber lamented. "I don’t know what you should do. What we should do. I thought we were in a different place than we are. On a different page…”

“Amber?”

The older girl bit her lip, struggling to be strong. She was hardly ever one to ask for what she wanted. She always felt better giving the other person what they wanted since it was what made them happy and therefore should make her happy, right?

Krystal could feel her heart starting to break. She really wants to end this?

She felt Amber squeezing at her hands and realized that Amber was trying to pull her thoughts and feelings together. So she waited. Hoping against hope that there was something to salvage. That Amber would say what she wanted to hear.

Liquid brown eyes met hers after what seemed an eternity.

“I came back here to make things different with you,” Amber said. “I wanted to slowly get to know you again. Who you are now. The top actress and model who can make friends more easily.”

“I had to,” Krystal whispered. “Nearly everyone I used to know moved somewhere else and my family has their own lives. I needed one too.”

“Even the way you reach for things is different. You don’t look like you’re trying to sneak it away. You look so bold and elegant.”

Her brows lifted to her hairline. Amber had never spoken to her like this before.

“I also…I sold my apartment in California and I sold my apartment here too.”

“What?! Why? Is business bad? Are you running low on money?”

Amber took in the genuine concern in her eyes as well as the love she could see there. The censure and the support.

“No. My company is going well. We have a few new music videos to shoot over the next few months. I just decided to be hands off for a while so that I could be with you. But I think…I don’t think you should tell the press that we’re dating.”

Krystal’s heart dropped to the pit of her stomach. It was over. They were over.

“Krys-Krystal, look at me.”

Krystal tried to see her through her tears.

“I’m sorry I’m so bad at explaining myself and showing myself to you. I’ll do whatever you decide, but I don’t want to hide anymore. I don’t want them to know we’re dating because then our relationship will be on display. If we keep it as it is, where all they can do is speculate, we can still have some privacy. Like we’ve been doing the past few weeks. Not being super careful. Being affectionate.” She tucked Krystal’s hair behind her ear. “Krys?”

“What?”

“I would never cheat on you. I thought you would know that about me by now.”

Krystal nodded. “You can know things and still think things. You always seemed to be having so much fun with other people, then you would come back to me and we’d only spend the days hiding out in one hotel room or another.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to change. I’m sorry I’m so stupid when it comes to romance, but I wanted you to realize slowly that I’m with you and I’m not going to leave. That I want to get to know you more and be seen with you and be more present in your life. I just haven’t slept with you because…well, for the past few years it’s one of the few things we do together. We don’t play with each other. We desperately clung to each other for the few days we would have together.”

“Oh, Amber,” Krystal sighed, falling forward into her arms. “You’re an idiot. You could’ve just said so.”

“We’re both idiots if you really believed there could be someone else.”

“Then why are you staying with Henry?” Krystal demanded. “And why are you being weird about your phone calls? Why did you sell your apartments?”

Amber chuckled and her hair and back. “I was hoping that if things went well, we could finally decide something very, very, very important.”

“And what’s that?”

“Where we could start our lives…together.”

Krystal pulled back and looked intently at Amber. “You mean-“

Amber put a finger to her lips. “I don’t want to ask yet. Not now when things are still rocky. It won’t fix things.”

Krystal still squealed and dived into Amber so hard they both fell back on the bed. She kissed Amber’s face all over. “Okay. Whatever. Let’s date right in front of those judgmental people’s eyes. But you are moving out of Henry’s apartment immediately. It smells like corn chips and alfredo sauce.”