“[So what do you do here?]” the tomboy asked as they walked through the mall’s automatic sliding doors.

“[Um, we usually just hang, walk around, eat, shop, game…]”

“[Oh, I wanna game and stuff!]” Amber said excitedly. Krystal could almost see the tail wagging, and she stifled a laugh at the thought. “[But first I wanna see what you like doing, Krys.]”

“[Well, I like clothes shopping and basically just window shopping for cute things, I guess,]” Krystal said. “[I guess you wouldn’t be into that stuff?]”

“[Pft! Are you kidding me?]” Amber snorted. “[I’m a freakin’ fashion expert!]”

“[Oh yes, totally,]” Krystal agreed as she glanced obviously towards Amber’s hoodie and jeans ensemble. Even though they were simple items, they did suit the tomboy’s looks.

“[Aw come on, Krys. Usually I dress a little better, but I wasn’t exactly expecting to be spending my day with a… uh… a buddy on my first day here. Plane clothes, you know?]”

Again, Amber had managed to catch what she was saying in time. She couldn’t believe she was just about to say ‘with a hot chick’ to Krystal. What was happening?

Krystal stared suspiciously at Amber’s innocent red face before she decided she didn’t want to ask.

“[I’m guessing you’re one of those people who buy at least 50 bags worth of clothes every time they go shopping?]” Amber asked.

“[You guessed right, dork,]” Krystal smirked, “[so if you want to game, I suggest we do that first.]”

“[Oh yes,]” Amber grinned. “[Get ready to lose big time!]”

“[As if, Amber! I’m pretty good at games, you know.]”

“[Yeah? Show me what you got, Princess!]”

The pair were too lost in their own world, ignorant of the fact that several bystanders had stopped in their tracks, watching and smiling at the tomboy and the princess as they bickered playfully in English.

“Ah, aren’t they cute? Such a young couple. She is so pretty and he is so handsome,” an old lady gushed to her elderly husband, who just smiled and nodded. Luckily Amber and Krystal were preoccupied with each other – they would have been extremely embarrassed if they heard what everyone was saying.

“[I will!]” Krystal shouted. She forcefully took Amber’s hand and practically dragged her towards the arcade area. They ran past crowds and up an escalator before they reached the place Amber was looking forward to. The gaming area didn’t even need extra lights as the many glowing bulbs and screens of the noisy game consoles made it bright enough for the eye to see.

“[Alright, ladies first. What would you like me to kick your on?]”the tomboy asked courteously.

“[Keep dreaming, dork,]” Krystal scoffed. “[And ladies first? Is there something you’re not telling me here, Amber?]”

“[Well… Just kidding. I meant Princess first.]”

“[If you insist,]” Krystal shrugged. She led Amber over to the driving games.

“[Nice, I didn’t know you liked this kinda stuff,]” Amber said appreciatively.

“[Well, after those horrible skills you showed on your motorbike before, let me show you exactly how to drive.]”

They both inserted a few coins into the relative coin slots before settling down comfortably and adjusting the race seats to their liking. It was a 4 way racing game, and 2 other guys sat themselves in the remaining seats with the rest of their boy crowd standing behind them.

“[So do you drive auto or manual, Krys?]” Amber asked as she scrolled through the game screen for options.

“[Please, any real driver would race with a manual car, Amber,]” the other replied as she selected her preferred options.

“[Oh, just making sure you know how to drive, Princess,]” Amber smirked.

“Hey bro, how come you’re not using your usual custom car?” one of the boys asked the 3^rd racer. He grinned evilly and nodded his head towards Amber and Krystal.

“I’d feel bad if I smoked these noobs with my hardcore done-up RX-7, so I’m just gonna go with a stock car, since they don’t seem to have their own cars,” he said cockily. His companion nodded and chose a stock car as well.

“[Psh They probably think we’re noob foreigners just ‘cause we’re speaking English,]” Krystal snorted. “[C’mon Amber, let’s kick some .]”

Amber grinned when she saw how determined and bold Krystal was. A competitive Krystal is a hot Krysta… wait, what am I thinking? She shook her head and placed her hands on the gearstick and wheel. She looked to the screen as the countdown for the race began.

3…

2…

1…

GO!

All four drivers simultaneously slammed their right foot down on the accelerator pedals. The first section of the track was simply a straight road, which gave the drivers time to get their speeds up. Amber knew how to drive pretty well and was no easy pushover; however, she was surprised when she saw Krystal pull ahead of everyone else. She glanced out the corner of her eyes and saw Krystal driving with a relaxed, calm posture, but with a certain fiery determination in her eyes.

Amber took one look and decided that Krystal definitely knew how to drive. The timing of her gear changes were perfect – not too slow, not too fast – and it enabled her to reach her car’s top speed quickly. She was no amateur, that was for sure. The other two guys changed either too slow or too fast and were in 3^rd and 4^th position. Amber was only a bit behind Krystal, making her 2^nd place; she had purposely started off a little slow, uncertain of how well the young girl could play, but as she saw Krystal playing the game like she owned it, she quickly realised that there was no need to go easy. Amber grinned, newfound respect for Krystal blooming in her heart and decided she’d go all out.

They were fast approaching the first turn of the track, and it happened to be a sharp-assed corner. Amber knew how to play this, and her right foot didn’t even waver towards the brakes as she clutched in and downshifted to get the car drifting smoothly – without losing too much speed – across the corner. Krystal’s car was just ahead of hers, and Amber watched proudly as the youngest Jung executed the drift perfectly.

She snuck a glance at the opposing drivers’ screens to see that one of them had braked too hard and was falling behind, whereas the other one had ploughed into the wall from turning too widely.

“Hyung! You’re getting owned by a chick!” one of the guys crowed, and the rest of the boys laughed.   

“Shut up! It’s ‘cause I don’t have my beautiful RX-7 baby and I’m using a crap car,” he complained. Krystal snorted subtly at his whining.

Amber was somewhat pleased as she registered the furiously embarrassed players’ faces. She turned to Krystal and beamed. Krystal smiled back as she and Amber raced ahead of the others.

“[Damn, you’re pretty good at this, Krys,]” Amber complimented as she sent her car flying across another curve.

“[Looks can be deceiving, Amber,]” Krystal grinned.

They finished the rest of the laps uneventfully, where Krystal beat Amber’s car by a few nanoseconds.

“[Yeah! I kicked your , dork!]” Krystal yelled, victory and pride evident as she fist pumped the air.

“[Yes, yes you did, Krys,]” Amber smiled. Surprisingly, she was more proud than sad of the fact that she lost to Krystal. She turned around to face the guy after getting a tap on the shoulder. He held out his hand and she grasped it tightly, shaking it as she offered him a smile.

“Good game,” she said in perfect Korean.

“What? You speak Korean?” he asked, dumbfounded.

“Of course we can, no one said we couldn’t,” Amber replied. She casually slung an arm around Krystal as she gave the other guy a sly smirk. “So, I heard you guys were gonna smoke us noobs?”

The air was filled with “oohs” from the boys as they laughed again.

“I didn’t mean it, I’m sorry,” he apologized with an impish grin. “Your girlfriend’s a pretty good driver, bro.”

“Girlfriend?” Amber asked, confused, before she remembered Krystal under her arm. “NO! We’re just friends, man. And I’m actually a girl.”

“What the hell, I look so stupid,” he mumbled. “Well, good game, see you guys around maybe.”

The tomboy took a couple of deep breaths to fight down the blood rushing to her cheeks; she wasn’t sure why it suddenly seemed kind of hot, so she decided to pass it off as the air being stuffy due to the many teens and kids present. The two of them passed the rest of their time by playing random games, like basketball shooting and Street Fighter, with both winning and losing the games. Amber was happy that Krystal seemed like a gamer girl.

“[Well, I do come here a lot,]” the younger girl confessed after Amber commented on her seemingly natural talent at games.

“[Oh yeah, I forgot about that,]” Amber chuckled. “[Well, it’s been a really nice day and I’ve had lots of fun, but there’s one more thing I wanna try with you.]”

“[Which would be…?]”

“[Play me in a round of DDR, Krys.]”

“[DDR? Well, if you want to play something else I’ve kicked in,]” Krystal joked. She took Amber to the DDR area, but they were blocked by a swarming mass of bodies.

“[What the heck is all this?]” Amber asked.

“[Oh yeah, I forgot,]” Krystal said. “[The DDR machines are pretty popular here, and people usually like to have dance battles on them, so I rarely play here. I only play when there aren’t many people.]”

“[You… really don’t like people?]”

“[... I… I just don’t feel comfortable around a lot of people,]” Krystal admitted quietly.

“[Naw, it’s okay, Krys. I told you, you’ve got me.]” Amber gave her the biggest, most charming smile she had ever produced yet and pulled the younger girl into a light hug, gently patting her back. Krystal wasn’t sure how to describe how she felt. She felt all warm and bubbly inside when Amber hugged her and there was no way to express the way Amber’s words seemed to make her feel good.

Meanwhile, Amber herself didn’t know exactly why she was doing these comforting things to a person she had only become acquaintances with in a mere few hours. She was a friendly person by nature, but she wouldn’t have initiated this much skinship towards someone she had just met. The only thing she could think was that it felt right. Krystal felt right.

Their sweet moment was interrupted by a loud roar coming from the bodies surrounding the DDR machines; they both looked up to see a guy with both arms outstretched, reaching towards the ceiling as he shouted victoriously, “Who wants to verse me in a battle?”

The crowd slowly backed away, so Amber assumed the victor was an experienced player who no one wanted to play against. As they moved backwards, she got a clear glimpse of him.

“[Hey, it’s that racing dude from before, Krys!]”

Krystal looked over at him and realised that Amber was right. Suddenly, she felt herself being pulled towards him; Amber had taken her hand and was dragging her up to the machines.

“[Amber! What are you doing?]”

She felt Amber disconnect their hands and heard her say confidently, “Yo, I’ll play against you.”

“Oh, it’s you,” he realised, “that chick from the racing game before, right?”

“Yes I am,” she smiled, mirroring his earlier cocky attitude. She leapt up onto the dancing platform. “I’ll let you pick the song as compensation for that kicking you received earlier.”

A round of laughter rippled through their audience, whereas a few girls screamed when Amber flashed her dazzling smile; their obvious attraction to Amber made Krystal feel a little… strange. It was an unwelcome feeling, something she had never felt before. It made her want to just… do something to those girls, and it scared her.

“Nah, ladies first,” he smiled politely, gritting his teeth. “It wouldn’t be as good if I beat you at my own song.”

Several “oohs” filled the air, but Amber just shrugged it off uninterestedly. “Well, if you say so.”

She cycled through the machine’s songs, rapidly spamming the next button until her ears picked up the sound of a familiar tune.

“Is this too hard for you?” she asked slyly. She had picked “A”.

“Depends. I assumed you’re gonna play on the beginner’s level?” he replied wittily; his comment earned a few laughs here and there.

Amber merely raised an eyebrow quizzically at him. “You may want to, but I’m playing on heavy.”

Everyone went quiet. “A” was not an easy song, and it was pretty crazy on heavy mode. He grew slightly nervous, but tried not to show it.

“Bring it on,” he muttered, confidence wavering slightly; his arrogant demeanour towards her had vanished, but he reasoned with himself that she might have been psyching him out and could not actually play the song. Krystal had a clear view of the screen from where she stood, and she was slightly worried. She knew Amber was good at a lot of things, but she had a few doubts as to whether or not Amber could actually beat him.

At that moment, Amber turned her head and their gazes connected. Amber immediately smiled; it was a soft, assuring smile, and any misgivings Krystal had disappeared instantly. Krystal mouthed “good luck” to the tomboy, who replied with a wink. Several girls collapsed and Krystal just rolled her eyes. Amber grinned mischievously before she returned her attention back to the screen and her opponent.

She entered the options screen where she set her speed to x3, her arrows to hidden and dark. (Note: if anyone doesn’t understand the DDR references, I’ll explain at the bottom.) She then looked across at the other guy, the corner of lifting up so that a teasing smile appeared across her lovely features. “You’re just gonna play normally then?”

He frowned. If he played with the usual conditions, then his reputation would be shattered, but he didn’t like the sound of those extra ones, as those were actually quite hard to play with if one was not used to them. Add that to the fact that the song choice was “A” and you’d be a god. There was a definite possibility of him losing now. He hesitated, but his pride won out and he hastily replied, “Of course not.”

He quickly set his conditions to match the tomboy’s ones and started the song before she could add anything else. Amber casually settled her hands on the bar behind her, watching the dude with an amused smile; his stance was all stiff and she could tell that he wasn’t used to playing by someone else’s rules – in this case, with all those extra conditions, which she had sneakily pressured him into adding.

The first few arrows appeared on screen – this particular song kept a fairly slow starting pace for a while. She lightly stepped on her platform’s arrows to match the ones showing up on the screen. She was very relaxed due to the snail-paced movement of the arrows. She could feel her opponent shaking off his nervousness as he started to relax himself.

And then suddenly, all hell broke loose.

The screen was quickly flooded with dozens of the arrows, all of them streaming endlessly down in cascading torrents as the players pounded heavily as fast as they could all over their respective platforms. An expression of fierce concentration was dominating Amber’s face; she knew the song very well, but even then it was quite a tricky song to play.

Even though Krystal herself was pretty damn fit and good at DDR, she was amazed at how effortlessly Amber seemed to be moving; the fluidity and grace Amber displayed through the movements of her lightning-quick legs was simply breathtaking, and breathtaking it was as Krystal witnessed a few more girls faint from an apparent lack of air. Amber’s awesomeness was simply too awesome for them to handle.

She could see sweat beginning to form under Amber’s hair and she could tell that the dude was getting tired. His moves were somewhat sluggish compared to Amber’s sharp, accurately timed steps. Krystal knew that he was used to weaker opponents than him, not ones who were possibly levels higher in the skill department, though she supposed he could argue that he was tired from his previous matches.

The whole place was quiet, if you could call it that. The footsteps were echoing, music was booming out of the machine’s loud speakers, but it was quiet. Krystal could hardly breathe as she watched the two syncing all their moves – it was as if the two players had taken everyone’s oxygen supply and were using it to fuel their erratic steps and jumps as they neared the end of the song. Everyone watched, eyes wide as the players stomped on the last arrow. The CLEARED title flashed across the screen and the DDR machine revealed the results.

“OH YEAHHHHHH BABYYYYYY!” Amber yelled happily. She had one by a mere few thousand points. The tomboy turned to her opponent and shook his hand before giving him a shoulder bump. “Good game, bro!”

“Yeah, good game,” he chuckled. “I haven’t had that much competition in a while. You’re a pretty cool girl, you know that? You and your racer friend.”

“Why thank you,” she beamed. “I’m Amber, and this is Krystal.”

“Hello, I’m Krystal,” Krystal mumbled shyly.

“I’m Henry, nice to meet you,” he replied as he shook both of their hands. “Hope we meet again sometime, haha.”

“Sure!” And with that, he left with his friends. Amber jumped down from the platform excitedly in front of Krystal.

“[Hey hey, get away from me dork. You smell,]” Krystal said as she pinched her nose.

“[Aw what, I don’t even smell that bad, Krys,]” Amber pouted. Krystal had to look away; the sight of a hot, sweaty Amber made her feel lightheaded.  “[I didn’t even sweat that much…]”

Amber quickly lifted her arms and pretended to sniff her armpit before laughing at the grossed expression Krystal had. “[I’m kidding Krys. Let’s go for a walk.]”

They wandered around the gaming arcade, occasionally playing a few games here and there before Amber decided that most of the people should have gone somewhere else now. She still remembered that Krystal disliked large crowds of people. They headed back to the DDR machines, where they saw that the surrounding area was largely vacant; Krystal assumed that the crowd had lost interest in DDR after watching Amber’s intense matches with Henry.

“[So, would Princess like to play a game of DDR with me?]” the tomboy grinned.

“[Yes, I’ll play with you, stupid,]” Krystal smiled. They both stepped onto their metallic platforms, where they spent at least the next half hour playing random songs on hard levels and generally just having fun with each other.

Slowly, the crowd flocked back to watch the two hardcore DDR players, but Krystal was too busy enjoying the moments with Amber to really notice the bystanders gaping at their amazing skills. Amber felt a strong sense of accomplishment when she saw Krystal playing so freely, uncaring of the fact that many teenage boys were gawping at her; Amber actually wanted to tell them to stop staring, but felt that it would be rude. Besides, she knew that she would probably be staring too, but the moment she thought this, she tried her best to get rid of the thought.

To Krystal, however, the only person who existed at that very moment was Amber.

---

After their awesome DDR battles with each other, the pair just whiled away their time at the mall by meandering aimlessly through the many shops the mall had to offer before Amber decided it was time to go home.

They were now standing in front of Krystal’s house, with the tomboy waiting patiently as the younger girl unlocked her house door. As she pushed the door open, she turned to Krystal. “[Would you like to come inside, Amber?]”

“[Are you sure?]”

“[Of course!]”

“[Then I’ll take you up on your offer, Princess,]” Amber smiled. She stepped inside, eager to get her first glimpse of Krystal’s home. It was a two story house, the walls a luxurious, creamy white colour. Amber decided it looked very artistic and elegant; there were simple, yet intricately detailed framed paintings hung on the walls, and the house itself was furnished in a very modern sort of way.

“Hi mom!” Krystal said happily as she greeted her parents. Amber waved at them.

“Oh, Amber!” Mrs. Jung exclaimed. “You’re just in time for dinner. Come eat!”

“Oh wow, I don’t mean to impose on you.”

Mr. Jung popped his head out from the kitchen. “Just think of it as a thank you for bringing Soojung home safely, Amber.”

“No worries sir, I only did as I was expected,” Amber bowed again. She entered the kitchen and saw Krystal’s grandma seated at the table.

“Hello, grandma,” Amber said respectfully and Grandma waved cheerily at her. Amber turned to the bench top, where all the food was being made.

“Go sit down, Amber, we’ll prepare the food,” Mrs. Jung ordered.

“But-“

“You are the guest! It is only natural that we provide the food for you,” Mrs. Jung smiled.

“Okay, Mrs. Jung.”

She sat down at the table, where she struck up a conversation with Grandma and watched Krystal move around the kitchen, helping her parents as they made dinner. A few minutes later, they were accompanied by Jessica.

“I’d help them cook, but I’m not exactly a good cook,” Jessica confessed.

“Oh high five, unnie,” Amber laughed. “I can’t cook as well. I just figured that it was polite to offer help, but your mom made a smart move in refusing me as an assistant.”

They engaged in casual banter and watched as the table slowly filled up with food. The Jungs certainly knew how to make dinner, and Amber eyed the scrumptious side dishes hungrily. Dinner passed with light conversation, but Amber just observed Krystal, only joining in if she was required to talk. She watched the way the youngest girl ate, ever so elegantly. She saw the way Krystal reacted when Jessica , and she noted that Krystal seemed to be taking the jokes better now. All through dinner, the adults made subtle digs at them, but Amber knew they were just kidding around.

Amber’s request to wash the dishes was refused defiantly by Mrs. Jung, who quickly stood over the sink before Amber could do anything.

“You’re a polite young woman, Amber, and that’s really what makes it alright.”

Amber sighed, defeated, and glanced over at the clock which took up residency on the Jungs’ kitchen wall. It read 8:27pm.

She bowed to the adults. “Sorry everyone, but I have to go home now. I have a few things to take care of at home.”

“Oh, is that so, Amber? Then I expect you over for dinner sometime soon again, okay?”

“Yes, Mrs. Jung,” Amber grinned.

“I’ll come lock the door for you,” Krystal offered. Amber nodded and they walked towards the front door. However, before Amber could step outside, Jessica came up behind them.

“Amber, can you come here for a second? I’d like to talk to you.”

Amber shared a quizzical glance with Krystal before she followed the older Jung up the stairs.

“Yes unnie?”

“Amber… I just wanted to say thank you.”

“Eh? You’re… welcome?”

“This is the first time I’ve ever seen Krystal so relaxed and happy in a long time. She used to be like this all the time with her friends, but as time went by, she began to get a little… depressed, shall we say. I think her spending the day with you is the thing that has made her happy, so yeah… thank you, Amber.”

“Oh, wow… no worries, unnie. I like spending time with Krystal too, you know. She’s a fun person to be around, and I’m glad she was the first person I met in Korea.”

They smiled knowingly at each other before Jessica offered to swap phone numbers just in case. Amber willingly complied and bid farewell to Jessica as she jogged back down the stairs.

Krystal and Amber both walked outside into the cool, dark night. They just looked at each other before Amber took Krystal’s hand in her own. “[I just wanted to say I had a really fun day today, Krys, and it’d be really great if we could do something like that again.]”

“[Y-Yeah, I’d like that, Amber…]”

“[So, guess I’ll see you sometime, Princess?]” Amber said, to which the youngest Jung nodded.

Amber walked to her bike before she heard a shout. “[Wait!]”

She turned back towards the owner of the voice. “[Yes, Princess?]”

“[So what’d you talk to my sister about, Amber?]” Krystal called out.

Amber looked back at her and grinned as she hopped onto her bike. “[Oh don’t worry, Krys. We were just talking about cute things.]”

Krystal could only stand there, bewildered from the cryptic response as Amber happily sped away.

---

A/N: Yes! Finally, that’s the whole chapter 5 done, woohoo!

Anyways, to those of you wondering about those DDR condition things:

-x3 just basically speeds up the arrows; it doesn’t make the song faster, but it generally spreads the arrows further apart, which is a great help if it’s a really hard song and the arrows are all bunched together, but it’s preferable to leave it at x1 speed if it’s anything higher than 200bpm.

-Hidden is the setting used to make half the screen invisible, so the arrows show and then disappear halfway – this method is preferable because it uses memory instead of Sudden, where the arrows appear right above where you’re supposed to hit it and requires fast reflexes. Hidden actually helps with my timing LOL

-Dark is so the guide arrows disappear – this mode makes you rely on your rhythm and timing skills entirely, as you won’t have a guide as to when to hit the button.

-Lastly, I know “A” is a hard song. I’m actually a fairly competent player on the computer (keyboard) version of DDR, and I play all my songs with those conditions. I must admit that I like crap when playing the actual DDR with legs and all, so anyone who can play “A” heavy mode (hardest mode unless there’s a challenge mode) on actual DDR with the above conditions would be considered a freakin’ God to me haha.

I hope I’ve explained it fairly well, and if I haven’t, I’m very sorry ):

Hope you enjoyed this update! Comments, subscribers and constructive criticism would be greatly loved!