Amber’s P.O.V.

“Here Yiyun, you can wear Sung-ha’s old hanbok. It’s meant for a man, but I think you will look very beautiful in it.” I graciously accepted the clothes from the older woman, blushing slightly at her words.

“Thank you Grandmother.” Krystal’s grandmother had insisted I call her Grandma just like the rest of her family did, she said that they were my Korean family and I should treat her like my own grandmother. I appreciated her friendliness towards me, Krystal had warned me that her Grandmother could be quite harsh with people she didn’t like, and I was glad that she had started liking me especially after her scolding me when we first met.

“You’re welcome Yiyun, get dressed quickly and I will teach you about charye, okay?” I nodded and the old woman exited the room. She liked teaching me about Chuseok and I didn’t mind, it was really quite interesting to learn about the holiday, I wondered what else she could teach me about Korea that I didn’t know. I considered this as I started changing into the Hanbok that she had given me. I didn’t mind that she had given me the male hanbok, really I was relieved that she didn’t give me a skirt, I would have of course worn it if she had given it to me, I wouldn’t want to be disrespectful, but I was glad that I didn’t have to.

I was struggling with the strap on the top when I heard the door of the room slide open. I looked up and gulped as Krystal walked into the room in her hanbok. She looked stunning in the flowing green skirt and I temporarily forgot about my outfit as I took her appearance in. She giggled at the expression on my face and I flushed. “Do you need help?” She asked, but she moved towards me taking the strap from my hands without waiting for my response.

I blushed more as she moved her hands around my waist, securing the thin strap around my midsection with ease. She brushed her hands lightly over my shoulders, dusting them off as she adjusted the collar and smoothed out the top. I held my breath, my hands balling into fists at my sides. I never knew what to do when she got this close to me. I mean I should be used to the skinship by this point, but if we weren’t pushing each other or joking around I didn’t know how to act.

I had always found it hard to be intimate with others, it’s not that I didn’t like it, I just didn’t know how to initiate these kinds of things, and I always felt nervous. I felt grateful that Krystal never commented on my awkwardness, she just accepted it and silently guided me into the appropriate responses. I don’t know how many times she had eased herself onto my lap and guided my hands around her waist. Or how many times she had wrapped her arms around me and waited patiently as my arms finally unstiffened and wrapped around her back in response.

As if reading my mind, I felt Krystal her small fingers over the knuckles of my balled up right hand. I slowly unclenched my fist as she wrapped her soft hand over mine, smiling gently at me as she did so. I blushed, gripping her hand lightly in mine as she started to speak. “Thank you for being so nice to my grandma Amber. I know she’s probably boring you to death with all of her history lessons, but she really likes you, so thanks.” I nodded.

“It’s okay, I think she’s really interesting. She’s tough, but she’s also kind and really passionate, and smart. She kind of reminds me of you.” It was Krystal’s turn to blush, and I smiled at the flush on her cheeks. “Krys?”

“Hmm?”

“Thank you for inviting me to this.” She nodded before pulling me out towards the living room where they had set up a large table with all of the food we’d prepared resting on it. When I entered the living room, Grandma Jung smiled brightly at me. She quickly rushed over to me patting my cheeks lightly as she spoke.

“Oh you look so beautiful Yiyun!” I blushed at her words, it wasn’t very often that someone called me beautiful, handsome I got all the time, but beautiful? That was rare. “Doesn’t she look beautiful Soojung-ah?” I looked over at Krystal who seemed to be amused by the interaction between me and her grandmother. She nodded before speaking.

“She looks gorgeous Grandma.” I blushed even deeper at that and Grandma Jung chuckled.

“Look at you all red like a ripe tomato! How cute!” Thankfully Grandma Jung pulled me to the side shortly after so Krystal wouldn’t notice how crimson I’d turned. She moved me to sit by the small children as she explained charye to us. Charye was what they did during Chuseok, they carefully laid out specially prepared food items and paid respect to their ancestors. Grandma Jung explained that the reason they did this was to wish for a good harvest. I nodded along with her explanation and watched on as the family paid respect to their ancestors.

 My eyes focused on Krystal the whole time. It was no secret that I had a wild crush on the younger girl, well… I mean … it was a secret, but apparently I was so obvious with my crush that the only one who didn’t know about it was Krystal herself.  This was part of the reason I was so hesitant to come along to her family gathering. As much as I wanted to spend the six day holiday with the younger girl, the thought of her family realizing my feelings for her scared me immensely. It was bad enough that Jessica had found out, and threatened me several times about it, I didn’t know what I’d do if her whole family knew.

After the memorial service was finished the family started to pass around some of the food items from the table. Grandma Jung made sure that I had at least one of each item from the table, watching my face carefully as I ate the items, and smiling happily as I grinned and gave her a thumbs up indicating that I thought the food was delicious. After eating my fill I was going to get up and join the women in cleaning the dishes when I felt a strong clap on my back.

I flinched and turned to see one of Krystal’s older cousins grinning back at me. He pulled me towards the circle of men in the room and motioned for me to sit down. I hesitantly followed his direction, looking around for Grandma Jung or Krystal to help me.

“You prepared food with the women, and now you will drink with the men!” Her cousin clapped my back again as he handed me a bowl of a milky white substance. I looked at the drink curiously. “It is makgeolli! Very delicious, drink.” After looking around once more for a savior and finding none I sighed and lifted the bowl up to my lips and drank the murky white liquid. I was surprised with how sweet it was, it didn’t even really taste alcoholic. Krystal’s cousin grinned at me knowingly. “Delicious?” I nodded and he laughed, filling my bowl again.

I quickly stumbled to the other side of the table filling up Grandpa Jung’s bowl before moving back to my seat. After the first round of drinks the men informed me of all the drinking traditions in Korea. Apparently being the youngest of the group meant I had to make sure everyone’s glasses stayed filled except I wasn’t allowed to fill my own glass. I also had to turn to the side when drinking my drink, I was a little intoxicated at that point, so when I messed up none of the men took offense they simply chuckled at my fumbling. They’d also taught me some drinking games that I had lost horribly in.

“Yiyun!” I nodded, my head rolling to the side as I tried to remember the name of the older man who was addressing me. I think he’s Krystal’s uncle?

“Yesssir?” My words slurred as I answered and the older man just chuckled, clearly forgetting what he was going to ask me. I smiled goofily in response and the rest of the men broke out into laughter at my grin. I was about to say something when I felt a heavy hand on my shoulder, its thick clumsy fingers rubbing carelessly over my collarbone. I frowned looking at the hand before redirecting my focus to the person attached to the hand.

“Yiyun you look good in my hanbok.” I blinked a couple times trying to get Sung-ha in focus as he spoke. “You should try on more of my clothes.” He leered at me and I felt uncomfortable under his stare. I was about to respond when I heard a yell behind me.

“YAH! JUNG SUNG-HA!” The older boy jumped at the shout and quickly removed his hand from around my shoulder. I looked over to my savior thankfully. “Yiyun, come to the kitchen, leave these men to their drinking.” I nodded and stumbled over to Grandma Jung who gently placed an arm around my waist guiding me into the kitchen. I sat on the chair offered to me and Mrs. Jung giggled at my drunken state.

“Oh Amber sweetie! I should’ve warned you about that, those men will drink all day without a care in the world.” I smiled at the older woman.

“Issh okay. Makki lee ish good.” All the women laughed at my slurred response and soon Grandma Jung slid a cup of hot tea into my line of sight.

“Soojung-ah, why don’t you take Yiyun to your room? I think she should rest a little.” Krystal nodded and came up to me, helping me up from my seat and guiding me to the other room. She helped me to the bed and sat me down before turning and reaching for my bag.

“You really shouldn’t have drank so much Amber, I know you were just trying to obey my grandpa, but still, you’re going to be really sick later.” She sighed as she routed around my bag for a moment. “Okay, take off the hanbok, you should change into some pajamas and sleep the alcohol off.” I nodded and stood up unsteadily. I removed the hanbok quickly, picking the items up from the floor and starting to fold them neatly as Krystal turned around. “Here this should be go-oh my god!” Krystal blushed furiously and turned around quickly.

“Amber!”

“Yessh?”

“Why aren’t you wearing anything?!” I frowned and looked down at myself, I was wearing something, boxers.

“I has boxerz.”

“I mean why did you take off your clothes!” I frowned again.

“You tells me to.”

“I meant when I left the room! Okay just… just put this on!” Krystal held out some pajamas over her shoulder. I nodded and stumbled towards her losing my balance as I approached her and stumbling towards her back. I fumbled around, trying to keep myself upright as I held onto her back tightly. “Amber!” I watched as a blush colored Krystal’s neck, her head still refusing to turn towards me.

I smiled enjoying the way her flushed skin started to match the red tint of her hair. I reached out running my hands over the exposed skin of her neck and she shivered in response. “A-Amber…. Wha-what are you doing?”

“Yours skin ish matching yours hair.” I giggled and used my other hand to brush over her red locks of hair.

“Y-Yah! Just change into these clothes!” I nodded taking the clothes from Krystal’s hands.

“Yesh princess.” I changed into the clothes quickly. “Okay Ish done.” Krystal turned around hesitantly and sighed in relief when she saw me fully clothed behind her. I waved at her and she just chuckled at me.

“Okay llama face, come lay down.” I nodded and laid down on the bed looking up at Krystal curiously for further instruction. I felt my eyes getting heavy but I resisted sleep, wanting to follow all of my princess’ instructions before falling asleep. “Are you feeling sick at all?” I shook my head. Krystal reached over and her hand through my hair for a moment before nodding. “Okay, well if you feel sick at all I’ll leave this garbage pail for you okay?” I nodded.

“mmOkay princessh.” She smiled at me and leaned forward placing a small kiss on my forehead before speaking again.

“Go to sleep stupid, I’ll come wake you up in a bit.” I nodded letting my eyes slip close as Krystal’s fingers drifted over my short hair for a couple of moments. I sighed at the sensation, wishing I could fall asleep like this every day.