~

Jack rubbed his hands on his face before letting out a frustrated sigh. "Actually... It's not our fault Krystal hasn't been in contact with you."

Amber reacted almost instantly, "What do you mean?!"

"God, can't you girls just wait for my explanation? Why are you all the same?"

Amber squinted her eyes at Jack; he did the same.

"Tea and cookies baked by our Lady's grandmother."

Johnny walked in the living room with a tray on his hands. He sat on the head of the long table, as Krystal's grandmother would do, and gave Jack and Amber each one a steamy tea cup and placed a plate with home-made butter cookies in the middle of them, walking back to the kitchen the second after. Amber couldn't hide her laugh when he saw that big man wearing such girly apron, but didn't forget what Jack and herself were discussing before Johnny came, so she switched her expressions and looked at Jack.

"You were saying it wasn't your fault, then who is it? Why can't I see Soojung?"

"You see—ow! it's hot. Uhm. So, hm, she asked me about the reason for all, uh, for everything that happened, and— and I told her." Jack bit a cookie and looked away from Amber's piercing gaze.

"Yes, and...?"

"'And'?"

Amber nodded, "Yeah, what then? What happened to her so that she doesn't even pick up my calls?"

"About that..." Jack shook his head as he propped the rest of the cookie into his mouth. Silence filled the room as he ate the cookie. "Even I would like to know." 

Amber slowly frowned and squinted her eyes at Jack. She stayed silent for a while, eyeing every movement of a very carefree Jack eating cookies, trying to see behind that aspect. She saw hints of heavy wrinkles on his forehead, maybe too much for a young man, probably caused by worry. But who was she to know that? Nobody. She shook her head. Jack's gaze was locked ahead of him, on the cookies. Amber slowly stood up. 

"Where is it?"

"On your right, last one on your left."

Amber nervously opened the sliding door that would led to the bedrooms and closed it as she stepped inside the corridor. She still heard Jack shouting from the living room, "She locked herself, you won't be able to open it!". 

Reaching the last door on the corridor, she stopped. She breathed in and raised her hand, already thinking her visit would be in vain. If, as Jack said, she locked herself inside and doesn't open to anyone, would Krystal open to Amber? Amber hoped so, that's exactly why she was standing there, but... It wouldn't be a lie if I said her hope was slowly disappearing, giving its place to anxiety and uneasiness. 

Nonetheless, she knocked hard twice.

"Jung Soo Jung. You better open your door."

And before Amber could even blink, Krystal opened it.

"Amber!" She threw her arms around Amber's shoulders, while she stood dumbfounded. Was it going to be this easy?

"H-Hey," 

Krystal pulled her inside and locked the sliding door again, with a stick that interwined both rings that served as door handles. She then turned to the standing Amber and happily smiled.

Amber awkwardly stood in the middle of the room. It was dark, the blinds were closed and no light, except the one that came from inside the home, was seen. 

"Why are those closed?"

"Uh? Oh, the window?" Krystal quickly made her way to the window and lifted the blinds, immediately covering her eyes because of the sudden brightness that invaded the room. "I just woke up, I didn't even have time to..."

But Amber wasn't listening to her just-made-up-excuse. Amber looked around the messy room that could perfectly pass by a very cozy room, if someone didn't feel so stuffy inside. The bed wasn't done, and its sheets were pretty unsettled, as if carelessly thrown over the bed. There were a few clothes scattered around the floor, but what really caught Amber's attention was a picture on the carpet, accompanied by a few disarranged pillows, as if someone had been lying on top of them not long ago. Her eyes then travelled to Krystal's broken phone, not far away from the door and from where Amber was standing, with its battery purposely detached from the phone. Amber squatted to grab it. She glanced at Krystal.

"I'm sorry, the room is so messy," She let out a tired laugh and tried to clean up some of the major mess by picking up the clothes around the room and then slipping them into the wardrobe.

Amber eyed her for a while. "What happened?" She approached Krystal and showed her the broken phone. Krystal looked at her and bit her lip.

"It—"

"Don't make up excuses, what happened?"

"—fell. Okay, no. I-I just got tired of it." 

Krystal ran a hand through her hair and turned her attention back to the wardrobe. No. Lies. She turned her self back to the wardrobe, not her attention. Her attention was all over Amber now, and even though she felt somewhat relieved Amber actually came to see her, she suddenly started to feel scared.

Krystal flinched when she felt Amber's soft hand on her shoulder.

"Soojung..." She said, half-whispering, half-begging for the other one to tell her the truth. "What happened these days? Come on, tell me."

Amber strongly grabbed her shoulder. Not a strongly that hurt, but a strongly that said "I am here, you can tell me everything". And suddenly, Krystal's shoulders dropped and she broke herself into a very, very sad cry. Amber wasn't expecting it, so it took her a few seconds before the current scene to actually enter her mind, and for her to understand what was happening.

Krystal was feeling sad, she needed company, she needed someone she could rely in, that could spend time with her, that could give her attention and listen to everything she had to say, even irrelevant matters. She had already suffered too much, everything has been hard for and on her ever since she first arrived to Korea. It's too much for her. She's not strong, she managed to hold it in until now, but... but not anymore. We can keep things to ourselves, we can live like that, we can escape reality, we can build up our own world far from everything that bothers us, but those are finite, those cannot stay with us forever; nothing can. And in the end, we get sad, we get depressed, we may even consider suicide because we can't keep up with the harsh reality, because we ran away from those who cared for us, thinking they didn't, and then regret it because those are long gone.

But Amber was there, willing to be with her forever, willing to understand everything about Soojung, willing to understand why did she always seem so happy when she was holding an enormous sadness inside of her, and willing to understand the source of that sadness; Willing to suffer with her and for her, if it was necessary; Willing to listen to her even if she wasn't feeling like it; Willing to never leave her alone, and she meant it!; Willing to be happy and to make her happy; Willing to live for her, without hoping to receive anything in return; willing to love her right, as she deserved and willing to become her home, in its whole meaning.

And the hug and kiss that followed came to seal that promise she made inside her head: to be with her forever, despite what may happen.

And Jung Soo Jung nodded, mentally agreeing with Amber Liu as she buried her crying face on Amber's chest, hugging her back tight. 

A/N: Do you know what this is?

Please don't kill meee

Epilogue to be posted in a few hours!

Thank you to all of you that read and expressed their opinions by commenting <3