Everyone had experienced “a wrong first impression”: when you thought that a person was extremely quiet but turned out to be the loudest person you’ve ever met, when you thought that this certain person will be your best buddy forever but turned out to be your worst nemesis and when you thought that you would never ever fall for this certain person but turned out to be your one and only.

Just like those things, Key and Amber had “a wrong first impression”. They started out a little roughly. Key, eleven years old at that time was a very naughty kid. He was living with his grandmother but he never ever did listen to her. Amber, a year younger than Key, just moved in Korea. She wasn’t that much happy about the whole moving into a new country thing that’s why she seemed a little rude.

It all started in the groceries near their residence. Key was with his grandma while Amber was with her mom. Key didn’t actually want to come but his grandma told him that she’ll buy anything he wants. Key was ordered to get a bottle of milk. When he got at the dairy product section, there was only one left. Amber was there and was about to grab the bottle but Key just snatched it away from her. Amber, on the other hand, was so furious so she ran after him all around the grocery store. After that little happening, whenever they see each other there, they’ll fight for the smallest thing. Amber didn’ even know how to speak Korean but she was still able to start a war with Key.

They kept fighting for almost a year until one rainy day, at that same spot in the grocery; they stood in front of each other with Key holding the bottle of milk and Amber frowning. Key grabbed Amber’s hands and wrapped the bottle of milk with those tiny hands, “My grandma said it’s wrong to fight with girls.” He said and paused for a few seconds… “Sorry,” he said as he looked at her with his apologetic eyes. Amber smiled; a smile that meant “I forgive you.”

“It’s nice to know that you’re now okay with your grandma.” Seeing as it has been a year since their first encounter, Amber had learned to speak Korean and for that long year, she knew that Key was not on good terms with his grandmother. “I was a pretty terrible grandson, wasn’t I?” Key and Amber walked to the counter together. When they were going home, Key shared his red umbrella with Amber. There, they learned each other’s name, age and even address. Key told Amber how he made-up with his grandmother and Amber told him that those months of nonstop war with Key helped her forget that she’s in a new country, that he helped her lessen her worries even though Key’s all the worry she had in mind.

The next day, the day after the next day and more and more days after the next day, they learned so much about each other. They learned that they have a lot of things in common. They finally decided to consider each other as friends. Amber and Key didn’t consider themselves as best friends since they’ve only talked for couple of weeks but simply being friends was enough.

Another year had passed. Amber transferred to Key’s school. She thought she’d feel much better with “Key oppa” by her side. She just started calling him “oppa”. She kept asking him what the purpose of that word was and that she has no plan on calling him that, “So what if you’re older?” But one accident happened to her. It was after they went to the grocery and their talking about “oppa” again. She was walking straightly ahead not listening to any word that Key was saying, and then all of a sudden she tripped over a rock. Her left knee bled. And her eyes were teary “I’m not gonna cry.” She kept saying that to herself but since she was hurting so, so much, tears started falling from her eyes. “Call me oppa or don’t call me at all.” Key walked past her. Of course, he wasn’t just gonna leave her there but he just wanted to test her. “O…O…Oppa.” And Amber finally said the cue word.

“You’ll never call me oppa, huh?” Key smirked as he carried Amber on his back. He brought her to the closest hospital. “Oh no, the groceries!” Amber forgot that the groceries she was holding dropped on the ground when she fell.  “Don’t worry, oppa’s gonna go get them later.” Key didn’t stop teasing her with the word “oppa” for three weeks but as soon as Amber got used of calling Key “oppa”, Key stopped teasing her and just felt glad that Amber’s calling him that.

After a couple of years, Amber started to dress up like Key. Not in a way that she’s so fond of Key that she copied how he dressed but in a way that she wore baggy shirts, jogging pants, jeans, basically like how a boy usually dresses himself. Well, she wanted to dress herself comfortably and wearing skirts and dresses wasn’t comfortable for her. Key hardly cared how Amber dressed herself; he pretty much sees her on her girly uniform that she hated very much.

There also came a time when Amber had this ultimate crush on one of their classmates. She had no plan on telling Key anything since that was her own little secret and she didn’t really like telling Key anything about boys and her feelings for them. Sooner or later, Key found out. “He’s a jerk. You can like anyone but him.” Key happened to know how that guy acted toward girls. Key had a feeling that if that guy found out that Amber has feelings for him, he would only humiliate and hurt her and Key hates it every time Amber gets hurt physically or emotionally. “It’s just a little crush.” But since Key was her friend and that she trusted him more than anyone in the entire world, she just erased that little crush thing and just stuck with Key.

When they stepped on high school, Amber had cut her hair short. Key thought it was a really stupid idea since Amber looked really pretty with her long hair. Amber laughed at Key though in Key’s words, that was a compliment. She had always wondered how she’ll look when she cut her hair short and decided to keep that hairstyle. “Aren’t you supposed to support your best friend’s decision?”  They finally considered each other as best friends. They had been friends for four years and they thought that nobody knew them as well as they knew each other.

Key started dating that year while Amber was completely loveless. She had another secret crush in school. He was a school athlete—Choi Minho. He’s in the same class as Key and Amber so it was easy for her to befriend him. Key was so busy with his new girlfriend, Nicole, that he didn’t have the chance to give advice to his best buddy but there was nothing to worry about since Amber found out how nice Minho was. But the thing that was worrying Amber was that her best friend wasn’t spending much time with her. There was Minho who made her smile and there was Key and Nicole who made her frown. She was jealous, not the “I love him” kind of jealous but “I miss my best friend” kind of jealous. She wanted to find a new best friend but no one could be as caring and loving as Key. She was used to Key spoiling her—buying all the things she wanted such as chocolates, hats, caps and everything else. But Key hardly noticed her. Even if they went to school together, Key was just talking with his girlfriend on his phone.

Key only realized that his best friend needed him when he saw her eating alone at the corner of the cafeteria. Some of her guy friends were inviting her to eat with them but she just shook her head.

“Can I eat with you?”

“I said n—oppa~”

Key sat beside Amber and shared his home-made dumplings with her.

“What about your girlfriend?”

“My best friend needs me… she’ll understand.”

Ever since that day, Key decided to give time for both Amber and Nicole. He realized that even if he had a girlfriend, it didn’t mean that he had to leave out his best friend.

“Did you miss me?”

“As if…”

“You did miss me.” Key hugged her. He didn’t realize that he missed Amber as much as how she missed him.

The only bad thing was that Key and Nicole started to have arguments that lead to their on-off-on-off-on-off relationship. Key loved Nicole so much that he even risked his own life for her.

Key found out how Amber felt for Minho. It was nonstop mocking. Luckily, Key had nothing bad to tell Amber about Minho because Minho had been a great friend and classmate to Key.

“So you’re one of those girls who chase Minho around.”

“No, I’m not. I’m his friend.”

Key and Amber’s friendship continued until they reached their final year in high school It was vacation and they were getting ready for their senior year.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“I’ll see you when you wake up.”

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Hope you liked the first chapter. it's okay if you silent read just enjoy the story and have fun reading