Minho popped out of the giant cake; arms spread wide, smile spread wider.

The cake read ‘Prom?’ across the final tier, and had been delivered to Krystal during the lunch wave that day. Confetti littered the ground and Minho was smiling so brightly that it was almost frightening.

It was as though the world was waiting for Krystal’s response due to the hush that covered the cafeteria. Krystal sighed. “No.” She said, so bluntly.

The cafeteria continued to buzz, most tables gossiping about Minho being rejected by Krystal yet again.

“What!? Do you know how much this thing costs!?” Minho exclaimed.

“Don’t care.” Krystal said.

Onew and Jonghyun laughed at Minho, who looked even more pathetic than usual, as he sulked in his giant prom cake.

Amber laughed as well, but she stopped as soon as she felt the bitter cold of Krystal’s glare. Amber cleared and they watched Onew and Jonghyun roll Minho away in his cake.

“I guess he really wants to go with you.” Amber said, pulling out a package of Korean pastries from her back pocket.

Krystal’s nose flared but Amber didn’t see. She never noticed anything, no matter how many hints Krystal dropped. She didn’t get it when Krystal showed her all of the prom princess crowns her family had collected over the years, she didn’t react when Krystal told her that she’d bought a very y prom dress, and she didn’t question when she caught Krystal shoving a prom flyer into her locker. Krystal blamed Amber’s inattentiveness on her bone-headed guy friends.

But prom was approaching, and no matter what kind of hints Krystal gave, Minho was the one asking instead of Krystal. She’d rejected him about three times already, and he was still trying, and Amber was still observing.

Amber was lucky that Krystal found her so adorable, because if she didn’t, Krystal would have screamed at Amber in frustration by now.

Why were people like this? What she wanted she couldn’t have, and what she didn’t want was always right in front of her. She just didn’t understand it.

~

In art class Krystal sat with her friends Sulli and Luna, who both had been asked properly by their respective crushes.

“Onew Oppa asked me by writing on my car.” Luna said. “I said yes because he told me he’d wash my car.” She giggled with Sulli.

 “That senior guy who plays badminton asked me. He has a mustache, but I’ve decided to ignore that.” Sulli said, laughing again with Luna.

Krystal was completely silent, intent on the sketch pad in front of her. She wasn’t really drawing anything but dark lines, one overlapping the next in a spastic pattern. Luna and Sulli looked at Krystal expectantly, and finally Krystal said “No, she didn’t ask yet.”

They left it at that, sensing a dome of ice around Krystal, not wanting to push her any further.

Coincidentally Minho walked into the room, an assembly of people dressed in white trailing behind him. Krystal almost snapped her sketchpad in half. By the over-confident smile on his face, she thought: This is going to be absolutely horrific.

The assembly stood in two straight lines and started singing, harmonizing, and they even had a miniature harp. Once they were finished, Minho held out a bouquet of roses.

The card in the roses said: ‘Prom? Please? I’m running out of money and ideas!?’

Krystal tossed the flowers back to Minho. “No.”

“What! Why?” Minho, Luna and Sulli said, perfectly in unison.

Krystal left the room, afraid of her own anger.

~

The dress was long and pale pink, with a dangerously deep v-neckline. It was the dress Amber had actually picked out in a catalogue that they’d looked through together, about a month before the prom.

“I think you’d look great in that.” Amber had said, pointing to the dress shyly. Her cheeks had burned in that way Krystal loves.

“That? You ert.” Krystal had teased.

Amber had laughed uneasily, looking at Krystal with starry eyes and burning cheeks, and Krystal thought: There’s really no one else but her.

Krystal couldn’t imagine spending prom night with anyone but Amber. Sure, her friends would be there and she’d have fun with them. But sometimes, when she wasn’t with Amber, she felt lonely and incomplete.

Krystal tried to fight that feeling as she stood in that pale pink dress at prom, accepting her title as prom princess. Everyone was clapping for her and she thought she was smiling but she wasn’t sure. The dress became heavy and she felt over-exposed. She closed her eyes and hoped, wished, prayed for Amber to appear. Usually things like that didn’t work, no matter how hard she squeezed her eyes.

But when she opened her eyes, there Amber was, standing among the crowd in a tuxedo. Her cheeks were burning and her eyes were gleaming, she looked absolutely perfect.    

Krystal was supposed to be dancing with the prom prince, but she went straight to Amber almost instinctively when the slow music began playing.

Other couples took to the dance floor but Krystal couldn’t see them, she only saw Amber and Amber only saw her.

They danced, bodies pressed close together. Amber wrapped her arms tightly around Krystal’s thin waist, and Krystal rested her head on Amber’s neck. They were so close and so in sync that their steady heartbeats matched each other, and they became one.

Krystal asked, very softly, “Why didn’t you ask me?”

Amber answered, “I thought we were already going together.”

“Without talking about anything?”

“Isn’t that the relationship we have? There are tons of things I think about when I’m with you, but I never tell you everything. Because most things, you should already know.”

“Yeah, but…”

“What?” Amber asked gruffly, gently taking Krystal’s chin into her hand.

“I still wish you’d asked.”

Amber giggled before planting a sweet kiss on Krystal’s lips.

Epilogue:

Minho sulked by himself outside of Krystal’s house at the after party. Krystal had once again been taken away by Amber, but he found it hard to really hate his friend for it, because Krystal and Amber did look good together. Even though he was the prom prince.

“Whatever.” He told himself, taking a much needed swig of alcohol. Even though he’d emptied his pockets and virtually spent half of his emergency money, he was okay with Krystal and Amber being together.

But that didn’t mean that he was going to stop trying.

The music bled out of the house and it was comforting to Minho, because it was like he was separated but still apart of the party. He downed his beer and went to reach for another when a girl walked out of Krystal’s house.

“Hey, have you seen Krystal?” It was Krystal’s older sister, Jessica, in all her burning hot glory.

Minho nearly salivated. “Krystal? Who’s she?” He asked as he his lips, surveying Jessica up and down.

New target. Jessica Jung.     

Wow. Well, I wrote this a while ago and I didn't really like it, so I didn't post it up. But... I guess it's pretty okay, right? heh (:

<3 Thanks for reading <3