Krystal’s P.O.V.

“Oh my god! I’m so sorry Sung-ha!” The older boy held his jaw as he groaned in response. I had to stifle my laughter Amber had just punched Sung-ha in the face! That was priceless, it wasn’t that I didn’t like my cousin, it was just… okay I didn’t like my cousin. Amber helped the boy to his feet. “Are you okay? I’m so sorry, it was just an automatic reaction.” Sung-ha nodded still holding his jaw as he spoke.

“I’m okay Yiyun…if you feel bad you could kiss it better…”

“YAH! JUNG SUNG-HA!” Amber moved away from Sung-ha at his words and I continued to glare at the older boy.

“What? I’m just saying..” I was about to yell at him again when my father calmly walked over to the older boy, clapping his shoulder roughly before speaking to him in a low tone.

“That’s enough Sung-ha… let’s go talk about proper behavior shall we?” I watched surprised as my father directed the boy out of the room, clearly as angered by his words as I was. Huh… I’ll have to remember to ask mom about that later. Amber looked at me sheepishly.

“Happy birthday to me?” I chuckled at her words, walking over to her and handing her the cake before speaking.

“Happy birthday llamaface, sorry for scaring you.” Amber smiled at me before looking guilty for a moment.

“Thanks… sorry for punching your cousin in the face.” I chuckled.

“That’s okay, Sung-ha has a hard head… he’ll be fine.” She laughed and moved to blow out the candles before I stopped her.

“Wait! We have to sing to you stupid!” Amber blushed and nodded as everyone erupted into a chorus of Happy Birthday in both English and Korean. Amber kept her eyes on me the whole time and I had to fight the dorky smile that threatened to grace my lips under her stare. Her eyes only peeling away from mine when my grandmother came up to her and patted her back gently before speaking.

“Yiyun, you must make a wish, do you know what you want to wish for?” Amber glanced at me quickly before turning back to my grandmother and nodding. I smiled to myself, I could be imagining things, but I secretly hoped that she was wishing for me, just like I wished for her all the time. Amber closed her eyes, concentrating on her wish before blowing out the candles. The room erupted into loud clapping and my mom ushered Amber into the living room where we had prepared small gifts for her.

None of my relatives aside from Jessica had known it was going to be Amber’s birthday so a lot of the gifts were small things they’d picked up in the very few stores in the small village that weren’t closed for Chuseok. You wouldn’t have guessed from the happy smile on Amber’s face that gifts had come from local GS25’s or the Emart. She treated each cheap trinket like a special treasure and thanked each person honestly and sincerely.

To be honest I was surprised when my family members insisted on throwing a party for the older girl. I had fully intended on getting her a cake and presenting it to her privately but as soon as they’d found out everyone wanted to do their part to make the girl’s celebration a good one. Even my youngest cousins had chipped in and bought Amber something, a pororo baseball hat, which Amber was of course wearing now along with a cheerful lopsided grin. Amber waved at me happily and I smiled at her, about to make my way over to her when my older sister came up behind the girl and smacked her upside the head with a small package. Amber flinched and turned her attention to Jessica.

“Yah! … Happy birthday dork!” Amber looked surprised as Jessica handed the neatly wrapped package to her. I was surprised as well, in all the years that they’d known each other Jessica had only barely tolerated Amber. I knew it was because she was protective of me and she thought maybe that Amber might hurt me? I mean… we never really talked about it, not really, she would just give me vague warnings to stay away from ‘the ert’ or to make sure ‘the dorky one’ didn’t get fresh with me.

I love my sister, but she’s really over protective and I guess she has the right to be. She saw something in the beginning that I didn’t, not right away at least, she saw that I could, or was, or had fallen for the tomboy and she knew that it could either be the best thing in the world for me or it could break me. I suppose that’s how love is though, great risk for great reward, would this cute dorky girl break me? I didn’t think so, but I appreciated Jessica’s concern.

I watched as Amber carefully opened the package Jessica had handed her, Jessica looking on with a disinterested expression. Amber smiled when she opened the package fully to reveal a book, I arched my neck a little to read the title but Amber quickly stood up obscuring my line of sight as she approached Jess.

“I… it… thank you.” Jessica simply nodded. Amber moved closer and awkwardly reached out to hug my sister. I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing as I watched the two of them awkwardly embrace. Amber had only lightly placed her arms around Jessica, her body still arm’s length away from my sister as she ‘hugged’ her, no doubt worried that my sister would smack her for her efforts.

Jessica for her part seemed surprised at Amber’s attempt to hug her and she moved her arms around in a strange flailing motion for a while not really knowing what to do with her appendages as Amber loosely embraced her. Jessica finally settled for tapping Amber’s sides lightly, in a strange ‘there, there’ motion. After a few moments they separated and not knowing what to say to each other Jessica quickly jabbed the book in Amber’s hands.

“It’s poetry.” Amber nodded, directing her attention to the book.

“Yeah… I know… I really like this author.” Jessica hummed in response nodding.

“Good… yeah… um… he’s Taiwanese American… like you.” Amber nodded again.

“Yeah… I…. thank you Jessica… Unnie…. I um… I’ve been trying to find this book for a while.” Jessica nodded.

“Yeah…Yuri told me… she helped me pick it out…” I watched the interaction amused. Since when did Jessica care enough to find out what Amber likes? Let alone get her a birthday present ahead of time? Huh… something strange was going on here… “Right…. So…. Happy birthday dork.” Jessica shoved Amber a little at her last word and walked away from the girl who was smiling at her retreating form. Amber turned to me and flashed me a smile, I raised an eyebrow at her, silently showing my confusion over their interaction. Amber shrugged in response before walking over to me and nudging me with her shoulder.

“So did you get me anything?” I nodded and Amber smiled brightly at me. “Yeah?” I nodded again before speaking.

“Yep, but you won’t get it till later, and only if you’re good.” Amber pouted at me and I smiled. “Don’t give me that look llama face. You can wait. Anyway, what did you wish for earlier?” Amber shook her head.

“Nope, I can’t tell, or it won’t come true.” It was my turn to pout and Amber chuckled at my expression, her long fingers coming up to push my hair out of my face as she spoke. “Don’t worry princess, you’ll find out soon enough.” I blushed at her actions and I was about to respond when all of a sudden Amber was yanked away from me.

“Miyeokguk!” I blinked in surprise as my grandmother gripped Amber’s shoulder tightly in her hand. Amber looked confused at my grandmother’s sudden outburst as well. “Yiyun should eat miyeokguk! It’s a Korean birthday tradition! Soojung, go prepare some.” I was about to protest, when my grandmother sent me a pointed look. I sighed nodding my agreement.

“Yes Grandma.” I grumbled to myself as I walked into the kitchen, starting to pull out the ingredients needed for the seaweed soup. Amber was DEFINITELY flirting with me just now, and grandma pulled her away! Ugh! I thought she wanted me to get laid! So frustrating! I was in the middle of an internal rant when I heard someone clear their throat behind me. I turned around to see my mom raising a curious eyebrow at me.

“You know, I don’t think the seaweed did anything wrong.” I frowned following her line of vision and noting that I was stabbing at the seaweed. I blushed and put the knife down.

“I uh… I just want to make sure the pieces aren’t too big…” I trailed off and my mom just laughed, obviously not believing me.

“I think they’re small enough now Soojung…. Are you still mad about what Sung-ha said? You shouldn’t pay any mind to your cousin, you know how dense he is. He probably didn’t realize you and Amber were a couple.” I was nodding along with my mother’s words, calmly mincing the garlic for Amber’s soup until I heard her last words. The knife slipped from my hands and I yelped in surprise when I felt the blade slice my finger. “Oh! Are you okay Soojung?!” My mom quickly grabbed my hand pulling me over to the sink and running cold water over my cut. I paid no attention to the sting in my finger as I replayed her words in my head… a couple… my mom thought Amber and I were a couple…. “Soojung sweetie? Are you alright?” I nodded my head dumbly in response.

“Couple?” My mom looked at me confused.

“Couple? Couple of what?” She her hand over my forehead gently, growing more concerned by the minute.

“Amber? Couple… me?” My mom laughed heartily at my shocked expression.

“Oh Sweetie, did you think we wouldn’t notice? You two are so obvious with your feelings, especially Amber, the way she looks at you…” My mom paused, sighing happily. “it reminds me of the way your father looked at me when we first started dating.” I blinked a slow blush creeping up my cheeks. “To be honest I always kind of suspected something was going on, what with the way you talked about her all the time… You should’ve told me Soojung… you know that I love you baby, nothing would change that.”

I felt emotional all of a sudden, even though my mom had gotten it wrong, Amber and I weren’t a couple, the fact that she was so accepting made relief wash over me. There was a dread that I was holding inside of me at the thought of choosing between Amber and my family… how could I not know that they would never make me do that? Before I could stop them tears started tracing down my cheeks. My mom wrapped her arms around me quickly, rubbing her hands up and down my back as she shushed me.

“Sssh baby… don’t cry. Sssh baby, it’s okay.” I buried my head into my mom’s shoulder as I cried, holding her tighter with each passing moment.

“I love you mommy.” My words were muffled against her shoulder, but my mom understood.

“I love you too Soojungie. I always will, no matter what.” After a few moments I finally calmed down, wiping my remaining tears with the back of my hand as I pulled away from my mom’s embrace. She smiled at me and kissed my forehead before speaking. “Now, let’s get to making that soup for my daughter in law, shall we?” I chuckled.

“Mom?”

“Hmm?”

“Amber and I aren’t a couple…”

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Here's another lovely update for you all. I couldn't help but laugh at all of you who thought it was Jessica that Amber punched. I don't think Amber could've survived the rest of the story if she had punched her, lol! I'm glad that you all enjoyed the cursing grandma, to be honest, I was giggling to myself the whole time I wrote that scene, old people + cursing = funny. And don't worry there'll be more Grandber stuff coming up. What do you think of the mother daughter moment here? And that totally awkward Jessber moment? Haha, comment and let me know. As always thank you for all of your comments and subscribes and votes and everything!