Amber leaned forward trying to hear. “What?” 

“I thought you were a guy,” Krystal said a little more clearly, feeling foolish. 

Silence.

“You thought…I was a guy?” Amber finally spluttered incredulously. 

“Well, you sort of look like-your chest isn’t…I mean, well your shoulders and your voice“ she ran a frustrated hand through her hair, trying to find the right words. “Just listen to me, please?”

Amber put Krystal’s feet off of her lap and folded her arms, waiting.

“I think maybe I was seeing what I wanted to see,” Krystal continued, watching Amber’s face carefully. “Your voice, your body, your face, it’s all so neutral. And my friends said that you were a guy so-“

“What? When?” Amber interrupted. 

“When you used to work at the coffee shop. They brought me there so I could see you.” 

Amber looked even more confused so Krystal tried to explain. 

“You were apparently considered a campus attraction because you were so cute, and since I was new, they wanted me to see the cute guy at the coffee shop…err girl…” 

“They thought I was a guy too? For the entire time I worked there?” Amber thought back, starting to realize why so many of them had openly flirted with her.

Krystal nodded. “And the bookshop too.” 

“So you came all this way just to tell me you thought I was a guy so you broke up with me when you found out I’m not?” 

Krystal tried to find a better way to say it, but that pretty much summed it up. 

“That’s…I guess…I can’t even…” Amber cleared . “What about the pictures?” 

“Pictures?” 

“From Germany?”

“You got those?!” Krystal asked, breaking into a smile. “When that old lady told me you’d moved I thought maybe they’d gotten lost. I’m so glad they reached you.” 

“The postman here is an old friend. He gave them to SunYoung for me.” Amber picked at a loose thread on her jeans. “Why did you send those to me?” 

Krystal rested a hand close to Amber. “I was thinking about you, but I didn’t know what to say.”

Amber tugged at a loose string on her hoodie until it broke. “You were thinking about me?” 

“Yeah.” 

“You’re so selfish, Jung Soo Jung,” Amber whispered. “I was getting around to getting over you.” 

“What?” Krystal asked, leaning in.

Amber rocked up to her feet and stood over Krystal. “So what does this mean?” She asked, her hands on her hips.

Krystal stood up slowly, her feet still aching. “I wondered…if maybe…we could be friends.” 

Amber’s eyes narrowed incredulously. “Friends?!”

“I miss you, and I want to talk to you, and-“ her phone chimed, alerting her that her driver was waiting. 

Amber peeped at the message. “Let’s go. I’ll walk you to your car.” 

Krystal grabbed Amber’s elbow, but she shook her off. 

“Please, Em? I need someone to- I need-“

Amber turned away from her to leave the room to protect her own feelings, but Krystal grabbed her, burying her face in the curve of her back. Amber felt anger melt, resistance melt, sense and reason and hurt all melted. 

Her heart stumbled in her chest.

She rested her forehead against the door while Krystal continued to clutch at her.

“I can’t just forget the things you said to me when you broke up with me or how you left me,” Amber told her.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry about that, Amber.” 

“Or the way you used to touch me or want me to touch you.” She turned, her hands on Krystal’s shoulders. The girl looked up at her with so much confusion in her eyes. Amber couldn’t even say that she was mad anymore. Her heart hurt, but Krystal had been given a bit of a shock in a very intimate moment. To think you’re about to have for the first time with your boyfriend, the be confronted with a pair of s, no matter how small, had to be a bit discombobulating. She could even find a little bit of humor in being human clickbait, even though she hated the state it had left her and Krystal in. 

She ran her fingers through Krystal’s lightly curled hair, lingering a bit in the gentle waves.

Amber wavered, but she took Krystal’s hands from around her waist. “Come on, let me walk you to your car. Do your feet feel better?” 

Krystal nodded, slipping her shoes back on, a little lightheaded from Amber’s touch. She followed Amber silently through the Park household, bowing to family members they passed, and back out into the maze of alleyways and down the giant hill that led to the street. 

“Can I have your new address?” She finally asked when they reached her car. 

Amber scuffed her toe on the rough rock paving the street. “I don’t know. I can’t really sort out how I feel right now.” 

Krystal nodded in understanding. “But your number is still the same?” 

Amber put her hands in her pockets. “Yes, but please don’t use it for a while? Or don’t expect a message back for a bit. I need to wrap my head around a few things. I don’t know if we can be friends. We’ve never really been friends with each other.” 

“We were friends,” Krystal said, her brows crinkled. 

“No. We weren’t.” 

Krystal looked at her and realized she was right. They’d never been friends. The attraction had always been there. Was still there. 

“M’am, it’s getting late,” Krystal’s driver reminded her, peeking his head out of the car. 

Standing there with her short hair blowing in the wind and her shirt pressing against her flat stomach, Krystal just wanted to hold Amber again and make everything she’d done to her disappear, but she knew that wasn’t possible yet. 

If she hugged her, what would happen? If she could find the right words… Krystal wanted her arms around her again so badly. 

“I could really use a math tutor,” she said softly. 

Amber’s lips twitched into a smile and she looked down at her feet. “Give me time…” 

“Okay. Just also…promise to give me a chance? Work out what’s in my head?” 

Amber considered it for a moment, then nodded. She wouldn’t pretend or play games. She liked Krystal and wanted to see if they could be something again, but she also wanted to protect her heart.

Krystal reached out her hand and Amber carefully took it, holding her breath. That weightless feeling of being exactly where she was supposed to be came over her and she knew she had to figure out the source of the resistance she had to the attraction she had to Amber and other women, because Amber was someone she wanted to spend more time with, explore, and learn more about. Maybe she just wasn’t open minded enough and had a prejudice she’d never known she’d had. She didn’t feel like things could ever be right if she didn’t work to understand herself better, and give what was between them another chance. 

“Bye, Amber. Thank you for coming to find me.” 

“Thank you for still sending me photos from your trips. I really loved the ones with you in them.” 

Krystal smiled shyly. “Can you update your Instagram a bit more since we probably won’t be seeing each other for a while?” 

“Alright.” 

Krystal didn’t want to release Amber’s hand despite the growing impatience of her driver. 

“Good night, Em.” 

Amber passed the back of her thumb gently over Krystal’s knuckles. “G’Night, Krys.”