The guitar was out of tune. Strings old. Amber knew she had just enough spare cash to splurge on them right now, or she could wait until her next paycheck to make sure. To get the better quality ones. 

She ran her hands through her short hair, hating that this was even a dilemma. If she waited, she might just stop thinking about it again. She could get the cheap ones now and the more expensive ones later. Either way, she had to start writing again, seriously. There was so much bottled up inside of her. So much she wanted to do and would never get to do if she kept holding off for a little more cash or wasting the few moments she had to herself worrying about things that she couldn't fix right now.

Screwing up her determination, she shoved her wallet into her back pocket, slid on her shoes, and headed out the door, calling a quick goodbye to her mother. 

The sun was bright overhead, helping her mood as she set out early so she'd have enough time to hit the music shop before her shift at Jumping Bean. 

Out of nowhere, she started whistling, feet traipsing lightly over the ground. Today was finally going to be a good day. 

"Today !" Krystal whined, laying her head on her desk as the Professor announced a sudden quiz.  They were only one week into courses, what was there even to be quizzed on. 

As she pouted, she accidentally met eyes with the tall, thin guy who'd tried to walk with her after class a few days ago. 

She quickly schooled her face to stillness and sat up straight in her seat. I'm going to be a professional business woman someday. I can't go around pouting like a little kid. She nodded firmly to herself and calmly pulled out a black ink pen as the professor handed back the quiz sheets. 

"You've got this, Jung Soo Jung!" She said quietly to herself. 

She heard a snicker from the seat beside her and glared straight ahead. You got this!

The scratching of writing tools on paper was all that could be heard for a short time, then they were all handing the papers back in and class continued as usual while the Teacher's Assistant graded their quizzes at the front of the room. Krystal could barely focus for worrying how she was going to do so she ended up missing the opportunity to show off the fact she'd actually read the chapter this time. 

So she was exiting class already feeling dissatisfied when she got the quiz back on the way out the door. A bright red 'C' stabbed at her eyeballs. She shot the TA such a hard stare that he flinched.

"Hey, I see you did pretty bad," the tall, skinny guy who sat beside her said, apparently looking over her shoulder. 

She stuffed the quiz paper into her bag, careless of wrinkles. 

"If you ever want to study together sometime, I'm sure I could be of help. My father is the owner of a few businesses around here and-" 

Krystal flipped her hair as she turned toward him, her hard eyes causing him to clamp his lips together. "Thank you," she said sweetly. "But I already have a study partner." 

"Are you sure, cause-" 

She nodded and shoved her headphones into her ears. Some people! She huffed. 

"No, he's not being super creepy. Just, you know how some guys are." "Yeah." "Right?!" "I know!!" 

Amber wondered if Krystal thought the study room was sound proof. She could hear every single word the girl was saying to whoever was on the other end of her phone call. She'd shown up to the bookstore in a huff and had immediately gone off to her little booth. 

Amber shook her head and kept searching the shelves for a guitar lesson book. After browsing the database, she knew there should be one somewhere, but she had yet to find it. She didn't know if it was because they were all gone, the system was out of date, or she just had some of the worst luck. She finally saw something that looked like the cover she'd seen on the website squished between two copies of agricultural books.

As she'd figured, it wasn't in the right place. 

She bent down to grab it and felt something hard slam into her back. 

She let out an oof of pain and cursed her life which was apparently already cursed, then cursed the tightly packed bookstore. 

"Oh my god!" She felt hands grabbing at her shoulder to pull her up, expensive perfume lightly scenting the air. "I'm so sorry!" 

She turned to find Krystal staring up at her with big eyes and a worried expression on her face. "What were you doing crouched down on the floor anyway?" 

Right. My fault. Amber rolled her eyes, grabbed her copy of Guitar Lessons Volume 3, and headed toward the front desk without saying anything. 

"Wait!" 

She paused and turned. 

"Where's the bathroom?" 

Amber narrowed her eyes, wishing she could curse out customers. She pointed vaguely toward the back of the store and got an icy glare for her efforts. Seriously what's with this girl?! 

Krystal darted into the restroom and splashed cold water on her face to stop it heating up in embarrassment. Once again she'd made a fool of herself in front of this guy. 

"Ugh!" she scolded herself. "He's not even someone you need to impress. Just go out there and apologize like an adult. Like papa says, every positive relationship counts." 

She nodded to herself, tugged her vest tight, and headed to the counter. The guy cocked one eyebrow at her but didn't say anything. She huffed a little breath out of her nose and said quietly, "I'm sorry for banging you with the door. Are you alright?" 

The cashier gave her a jerky nod. "Uhm, yeah. Probably won't even bruise. I should've warned you about the tight spaces in here. Next time just open the door a little more slowly and everything should be alright." 

"Uhm...is that all you needed?" Amber asked as Krystal just continued to stand there. 

She blinked as if coming back to herself and said frostily. "Yes. I'll take your advice!" 

She scuttled back to her little study room and plopped her head on the desk wondering why guys had to be so annoying.