“What are you so excited about?” Henry asked when he heard a scream from Amber’s room and the sound’s of bare feet jumping up and down on a wooden floor. 

She ran out of her room to her mom and Henry, her face glowing. 

“What?” Henry demanded, getting excited too.

“They want to buy my song!” 

His brows shot up. “Didn’t you audition at SM?” 

“Yes! And they want to buy my song. They said they didn’t have a place for me right now, but they would love to keep in contact if I had more music!” 

He walked forward and put hands on both of her shoulders, holding her in place. “That’s great! But listen, let me come with you or get someone from Antennae to go with you when signing all the papers okay? You don’t want to be cheated out of your name or your money. Make sure your name stays on the track and you get a percentage once it’s produced and distributed. There are a lot of hopeful songwriters out there who get all of their rights of a song taken away.” 

Her eyes turned serious, considering his advice. “I’ll take my music teacher.”

“That JungMo guy?” Henry asked skeptically.

“Yeah. He’s been in the business for a while and he makes good money off of the songs he’s sold. I don’t really want too many people at Antennae to know that I’m looking for work outside of the company. I don’t want them to think I don’t appreciate what I have or the money I make there.” 

He pulled her in for a tight hug, her mom looking at her proudly from the floor. “Alright, just make sure not to share this news with too many people until the contract is signed. There are some companies that don’t like people to know they got their music from a rookie songwriter.” 

Amber smiled when he kissed her on the forehead and repeated the words, “Rookie songwriter.” 

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Jessica and Krystal walked arm and arm through the super market, taking a few samples of cheese and meats. They hardly ever went grocery shopping themselves, but Jessica had said she wanted to prepare a special dinner for Krystal. 

“Are you sure you should be doing this?” Krystal asked. “You remember how many issues you had during your first pregnancy?” 

“Yes. And I also remember how neither light exercise nor bedrest made things better or worse. I just have a terrible womb.” 

Krystal touched her sister’s stomach protectively. “I hope everything will be alright.” 
Jessica agreed. She’d been regretting the pregnancy, but now that a few weeks passed, she hated her initial thoughts. It wasn’t the child’s fault she was in a loveless marriage and treated like no more than a useless trophy. She would love this baby as much as her first born. 

“No way! Jessica!” 

The blood seemed to freeze, then run backwards in Jessica’s veins. That voice. 

“Kwon Yuri?” Krystal asked. “I’d heard you were back in town, but I never thought we’d see you here of all places.” 

Jessica looked at the girl in front of her, much taller than she was, tanned and smiling so wide it seemed the sun came from her face. 

“Yeah. But my mom and I used to love shopping here when I was a kid, so I decided to come here again to buy a few things for the gathering tonight.” 

Jessica jumped when she felt a light touch on her arm. Yuri had touched her lightly to catch her attention. She found herself just staring into fox-brown eyes. 

“You’re so quiet. You never used to be so quiet before.” 

“She’s a little worried about her baby,” Krystal said. “This is her second pregnancy. The first one was so difficult that she can’t help worrying about this one.” 

Yuri’s eyes darted to Jessica’s hand and she seemed to frown before quickly clearing her expression. “Oh, you’re married now? For some reason I imagined you taking over the world at this point. Remember how you used to always draw those little fashion diagrams and had me model your old, repurposed clothes?” 

Jessica nodded woodenly. She seemed not to be able to pull her eyes from Yuri’s face. 

“You were so creative and passionate back then.” 

Jessica’s cheeks flushed red and she clasped her hands together. “That was a long time ago. Things change.” 

Yuri looked regretful when she agreed. “Yeah. Yeah, they do.” She turned her attention back to Krystal. “Well, it was nice seeing you both again. You look good. So tall now. And you grew into that nose.” 

“Hey!” 

Yuri reached out and pinched her cheek. “Bye, Krystal.” She put a hand on Jessica’s arm. “Bye, Jess.” 

Amber and Krystal were having dinner together, but Krystal wasn’t taking the news of her selling her first song as well as she thought she would. 

“Hey, this is important to me,” Amber finally whined. She put her chopsticks down and frowned across the table at her girlfriend.

“I’m sorry,” Krystal said sincerely. “I was just thinking about something that happened between Jessica and an old friend of hers earlier today. I shouldn’t have let it ruin my mood. I’m proud of you. I know how hard you’ve worked for this. Let me know when it’s officially released so I can listen to it, okay?” 

Amber nodded, accepting the apology. “What happened?” 

“Just..I don’t know. The atmosphere was weird. They used to be such close friends and now…well I don’t know. I can’t put my finger on it.” 

“Maybe they were dating,” Amber joked. 

Krystal rolled her eyes. “No way. My sister isn’t like that.” 

Something about the way Krystal said it made Amber uncomfortable, but she shrugged it off. “Okay. Well, maybe they fought over a guy or something. Who knows? I’m sure they’ll work it out on their own. Did your sister say anything about it?” 

“No,” Krystal responded. “She didn’t mention her again once we got home and we cooked and ate in almost silence.” She shook her shoulders as if shaking the entire situation away. “Anyway, back to your song. What sort of song was it? I bet it was a ballad.” 

“Yeah,” Amber said with a happy flush. 

“Will you sing it to me?” 

“Uhm, let me polish it a bit first.” 

“Okay.” She leaned across the table and kissed Amber who’s heart rushed giddily in her chest. “I want to listen to your version and the studio version. Your career is so fascinating.” 

Amber’s entire face lit up, but she joked, “I’m sure one day you’ll have a fascinating career too. It’s getting tiring hearing about you fail one math class after another. If you didn’t have a y tutor, you probably would’ve given up by now.” 

Krystal rolled her eyes. “You better be glad you’re cute.”