As Krystal turned around to show Victoria and Nichkhun that she was safe, she suddenly felt dizzy. Her legs gave out from under her, but before her body crumpled to the ground, she felt two warm hands encircle her stomach to keep her from faceplanting into the concrete road. She slowly squirmed around in the person’s grasp so that she ended up facing them.

The Angel’s smile was so bright that she had to blink a few times. Dazzled by all the whiteness surrounding them, all she could do was squint through a little gap in her eyelids. All she wanted to do was stare, and stare she did. She traced the Angel’s fine features until she was sure she remembered every detail perfectly. She let her eyes wander all over the other’s hair, taking in each strand like she would never see the Angel again. It was a while before she realised that she couldn’t hear her friends anymore. She made a little motion to get up, but the Angel only placed its right hand on her shoulders to keep her down. Surprised, she directed a questioning look towards the Angel before the Angel started speaking in a low and husky yet feminine voice.

“Soojung, get up. You should wake up now, we’re picking your grandma up from the airport, remember?

“…Sorry?”

“Come on, Soojung, we’ll be late if you don’t wake up soon!” This last comment was accompanied with a few shakes to her shoulder; surprisingly, the voice also started to sound more like her mother’s.

Krystal’s eyes flew open as she felt her shoulders get shaken repeatedly.

“Ah, finally Soojung. Get changed and come down for breakfast, honey. I’ll go wake your sister now,” her mom said kindly.

“Okay mom...” Krystal mumbled tiredly. She stayed on her bed for a few more minutes before she decided to brave the cold and leave her warm little sanctuary. She rubbed her bleary eyes without thought as she got up. Her eyes automatically glanced at the clock mounted on her bedroom wall; it read 8:15am.

Wordlessly, she cleaned up and prepared herself routinely, like she would any other day. She splashed water on her face and brushed her teeth before she headed down to eat.

As the delicious smell of her mom’s homemade pancakes hit her, she suddenly realised that she was extremely hungry. She had meant to eat something the night before, but she had forgotten about food when the headache had chosen to attack her mercilessly.

As she took a plate and stacked several pancakes on it before topping it off with loads of maple syrup, strawberries and vanilla ice cream, she attempted to remember what she was dreaming about; bits and pieces came to mind, but everything else was fuzzy. She was sure that it was about that Angel though – all that white in her dream couldn’t have been anything else.

However, she was extremely irritated at the fact that the most important part of the dream was faint and hazy: the bit where she tried to recall the Angel’s face. She finally realised she was stabbing the pancake too hard when a horrible grating noise reached her ears as a result of the relentless slicing she was performing on her ceramic dish. Her father had also shot her a concerned look, to which she replied with a small shake of the head.

She managed to finish the rest of her meal uneventfully before placing the dirty dish in the sink. She headed up to her room to get changed; after a few minutes of staring into her closet, she chose a simple casual outfit: blue skinny jeans and a patterned white top with a coat on top because the weather was quite chilly.

As she grabbed her handbag and jogged downstairs, her mother asked, “Soojung, are you feeling well enough to go, or do you wanna stay at home?”

“Mom, I’m perfectly fine. I can and I will go.”

Her mother smiled and ushered her out to the car where her dad was waiting.

---

No matter how awake or alert she was, Krystal would always fall asleep on a long car ride; the low music produced by her iPod earphones would help lull her to sleep, and the relaxing feel of the car ride contributed to that. Asleep was exactly the way she spent the one hour long car ride to the airport.

---

Krystal merely stifled a yawn as she waited for her grandma to appear; apparently the flight had been half an hour late. Jessica was standing by her side, a small smile playing on her face as she constantly texted Yuri. Krystal had thought about dozing off on Jessica’s shoulder, but since the older sibling was shorter than her, she would only end up with a neck cramp. Finally, she could hear the muffled thudding of footsteps echoing along the airport’s floor. She quickly reached a hand inside her bag and fished around for her camera.

However, as her hand closed around the familiar rectangular shape, something – or someone – shoved her hard in the back and she felt her handbag fly off her arm. She managed to catch herself quickly so she wouldn’t crash into her parents’ backs, but she looked up to see a stranger dressed in a black hoodie and dark jeans run off with her beloved handbag. As she straightened up, a familiar scream tore through the air.

“SOMEONE, CATCH THAT THIEF!”

Krystal had the small pleasure of seeing the man stumble slightly; it looked like Jessica’s ear shattering scream had some effect on him. Krystal sincerely hoped his ears were wrecked to some extent. She quickly took off at a hard sprint in hopes of catching up to him; she knew she couldn’t rely on Jessica, for her sister was unfortunately quite un-athletic. She shouted for help as she ran, but the surrounding people’s reactions were too slow. They looked on, dazed, as she flew past them. She was not deterred by this fact; she merely increased her speed further. The thief seemed to be as fast as her though, if not faster.

The path ahead was clear, with only a few random people walking about. She looked past the thief for a second, and she saw a lone man step out from behind a wall. She quickly filled her lungs with as much air as possible, and expelled it all in one great burst.

“HELP ME, STOP THAT GUY!”

She recognised the split second expression of surprise on the stranger’s face, even past his sunglasses, but he quickly took action. As the thief threw a quick glance behind him, possibly to check how close Krystal was to him, the man grabbed an item from his pocket and hurled it with amazing precision towards the thief’s head; Krystal saw a glimmer of metal catching the light as a small ring of keys flew through the air. The thief turned his head back to the front as he caught the sound of the keys jangling, the metals clinking on each other. She heard him yell out as they struck him in the face quite hard.

Quick as lightning, the man took advantage of the thief’s momentarily distracted state. He lunged forward and Krystal winced as she heard the loud noise of bones crunching – the man had tackled the thief to the floor, and they skidded across the marbly ground for a few metres before stopping.

Warily, the man stood up, brushing his clothes as he patted them out while eyeing the thief, whose body lay on the ground, crumpled up. His arm appeared to be bent at an awkward angle and the man himself could only groan helplessly.

Several security guards rushed onto the scene and upon seeing the thief’s injury, proceeded to call an ambulance. Two of them carried the thief to an office while the third one finished the call. He hurried away after giving the man a quick ‘thank you’.

He crouched down and picked up the handbag. When he saw that Krystal had reached his side and was taking considerably quick breaths, he held the bag out.

“I believe this is yours…” he said slowly. Krystal took her bag back and bowed gratefully before she quickly stuffed the camera back into her bag.

“Thank you,” she murmured before standing upright. She had finally managed to catch her breath and gave him a small smile. He was wearing a black hoodie, an LA cap, black jeans, a pair of Nikes and sunnies.

“Oh, it’s okay,” he replied. His low voice sounded rather familiar, but she could not for the life of her remember where she had heard it before. However, she was able to detect an American accent in his words.

“[Do you speak English?]” she asked.

“[Yeah!]” he replied enthusiastically, the relief evident in his tone. “[I’m actually from USA. I’m surprised you speak English, uh…]”

“[I’m Krystal Jung,]” she supplied when the other paused. “[I used to live in USA as well, actually.]”

“[Aw, no way! I lived in LA! Where did you live?]” he asked excitedly, revealing a rather charming smile.

“[San Francisco,]” she replied, flashing him a bright smile of her own.

“[Oh, that’s nice,]” he said. Unconsciously, it seemed, he lifted up his cap and swept a hand through his brown hair, which Krystal noticed had some blonde stripes in it. Something tugged at the strings in her memory. She had seen that hair somewhere… but where? Maybe it was from a famous idol, but with hair that noticeable, she’d remember the idol.

What was it about this stranger that made it seem as though she had met him in a different time?

“[Um… are you hungry?]” she asked.

“[Just a little. The food I had on my plane wasn’t exactly… the best,]” he said, playfully letting a frown grace his features. Krystal involuntarily felt the corners of lift up; he had a cute frown.

“[Then let me treat you to some food as a thank you,]” she suggested.

“[Well… you can never really say no to food. At least I know I can’t,]” he smiled. “[Others find I have an excellent memory when they owe me food.]”

Krystal laughed. It was really easy to talk to this guy, and she liked it. She was never really able to talk to anyone like this outside of her group of friends.

“[So, um… what’s your name?]” she questioned him curiously.

He looked up in surprise and let out a small chuckle. He took off his sunnies smoothly and tucked them away into his shirt pocket.

The instant their eyes met, Krystal’s mouth went dry and her heart starting racing at an unhealthy pace.

As soon as the sunnies were off, the memory of the ‘almost-accident’ hit her, hard.

The second Krystal’s eyes traced the other’s face, she realised that she had already met this person.

She recognised those delicate, handsome, yet girlish features, for they had been etched into her subconscious with astounding clarity.

She knew this person.

Such was her realisation that she had unknowingly taken a step away from him.

He – or rather, she – held out a hand with a brilliant, yet dorky, smile stretched across her face.

“[Amber. My name’s Amber Liu. It’s nice to meet you, Krystal.]”

---

A/N: KryBer finally meets! They were supposed to meet much later, I think... ;A; crap.