Chapter 10: Thank You, Amber

I really did not want it to be that hard, but knowing Amber, she wouldn’t say no to giving me a hard time.

“Okay. Krystal, I dare you to kiss one of the member’s on the lips.”

Oh . No kidding. That was really hard as this kiss would be my first time. EVER.

AMBER POV

The moment the dare came out of my mouth, I wanted to take it back. But spoken words cannot be taken back, so I just stood there quietly waiting for someone to speak up.

When an eternity of silence seemed to have passed (it was actually mere seconds), Krystal finally spoke.

“Ooooh! This is exciting! So many dares in one day!” She squealed in delight.

“YEAH! We can’t wait to see you chicken out on all the dares, Krystal!” Sulli teased.

“I’m betting 50 bucks Krystal won’t even get to Amber’s dare!” Luna said.

“Yah! Yah! Calm down guys. It’s just the start of the day. I’m sure Krystal will have LOTS of time to do each and every dare. Right, Krystal?” Vic wagged an eyebrow at Krystal.

“HEY! Don’t underestimate me! Just wait and see, before the day is over, all your dares will be done.” Krystal bravely replied.

So here we are, patiently and excitedly waiting in line to get on the ‘big and scary’ rollercoaster (Sulli’s words, not mine). Luna was jumping in excitement and Vic was trying to calm her down. Sulli and Krystal were talking silently, planning a way to help Krystal hold her screams, I guess.

Few minutes later, we were all buckled up on the coaster. Since each row was efficiently a 5-seater, we all got to sit together. After charming the poor boy manning the ride, we got front row seats and pushed Krystal to sit in the middle. Sulli sat on Krystal’s right side and I on her left while Luna and Vic took both the far side.

There was a sudden beeping noise and a voice spoke over the speakers, signaling that the ride will start now. Before the coaster started, I screamed at Krystal, “Loser gets to buy us dinner!”

Krystal seemed to have balked a little but she put her game face on and held tightly on the handrail.

As the coaster chugged up the rails, Sulli started screaming, followed by Vic and a loud guffaw by Luna. Krystal remained quiet. Chancing a look at her, I saw that her grip on the handrail had tightened and her knuckles have turned white.

To comfort her, even a little bit, I place my hand over her tight knuckles and rubbed small circles on her skin with my thumb. Her gripped loosened one tiny fraction and she looked at me, with surprise at first then with gratitude.

The coaster has finally reached the top of the slope and it paused for a short while, making the people on the ride scream in anticipation. Krystal’s face was still angled to mine but she has closed her eyes, scrunching her face up in the cutest way possible. I wanted to laugh but the air was suddenly cut off as the coaster hurtled down the rail and plummeted down to the ground.

We were jarred and pushed side to side, up and down, as the coaster took endless loops and turns. All the members were screaming their throats out by now and Krystal still hasn’t piped a single sound. I was instantly proud of her bravery and wanted to pat her on the back, maybe offer a friendly hug, if we were not still on the fast moving coaster. I looked at her again, she still hasn’t moved from her earlier position, she was still facing me, face still scrunched in panic.

My hand, which I forgot was still clasping knuckles, was now intertwined with hers. How that happened, I didn’t even notice; but I was more than okay with that. I grasped her hand tighter to calm her even more. She slowly opened her eyes and look at me. But exactly at that moment, the coaster made a dizzying loop which caused her to squeak a little scream. It wasn’t what I would call a scream, more of a sharp intake of breath.

For some reason, I did not want her to lose the dare, so I masked her own little sound with a loud scream. I did the girliest I could do, which earned me a huge grin from Krystal. The other girls did notice my sudden scream and laughed along with Krystal. By the end of the ride, we were all wind-blown and tearing up from laughing too much.

“Krystal! You did it! You did not scream at all!” Luna, the dare’s perpetrator congratulated.

“Yeah. But I did not expect you Amber to scream like that. It’s so girly and soooooo adorable!” Sulli said as she pinched my cheeks, hard.

“Now… shall we all head off to eat some spicy food?” Krystal butted in all the attention given to me.

I sent her a grateful nod and walked beside her as we scanned the park for some spicy food.

“Hey, thank you for earlier…” Krystal said in a hushed tone.

“No problem. Besides, you weren’t about to scream were you?” I said jokingly.

“Actually I was about to, but your scream was really funny so I somehow managed to keep it in. Really…thank you…” she looked into my eyes then and I saw sincerity in the dark brown orbs.

“I—I…” I started but Sulli’s loud voice interrupted.

“Hey you guys, I think I found the right store!” Sulli came running towards us and pulled us to food stall.

The aroma of pepper and chili wafted to our faces the moment we stood in front of the store. It was the usual street food you can see all around Korea, but the store-owner swore that this was different from the others as their tteokbokkis, fried dishes and sundaes were the spiciest in the area.

I instantly believed her upon seeing how red the sauce were on the food. And from the reactions of the customers, I dare not doubt her. I am now more than a little bit concerned with Krystal. I know that she’s not too keen on spicy foods. Her tolerance barely reaches half of mine.

I wracked my brain for a way to help relieve Krystal some of the pain after eating the food, but I can’t think of a way to cheat Sulli, who I may add is now watching Krystal like a hawk.

“Here. Try this, miss. This is our best-seller.” The lady offered Krystal a very spicy looking plate of tteokbokki and sundae.

Krystal slowly reached for it and sniffed it. Her eyes widened upon inhaling the spicy aroma.

“Oooh. Looks like our Krystal will not be able to do this dare…” Vic taunted.

“No. I can do this.” Krystal said with conviction.

From the side, I can see Luna enjoying her own spicy serving of spicy Korean street food. Sulli poked one rice cake and popped it in , jeering Krystal to take her first bite.

Krystal gulped and then slowly took the spicy rice cake with a stick and shove it in . A few chews later and Krystal’s neck started getting red. The redness crawled up her cheeks. Soon, her whole face was blushing and sweat broke on her forehead.

“Krystal…are you okay?” I asked in concern.

She swallowed the spicy rice cake and nodded.

“Are you sure?” I prodded.

She put the plate down and wiped sweat from her brow. Fanning herself, she said, “Yeah! Why wouldn’t I be?” she answered bravely. But it was evident that she was in pain.

“See Krystal, it wasn’t so bad at all!” Sulli said as she popped another sundae in .

“This is actually good. Really, really spicy, but one of the best I’ve ever tasted.” Luna said.

“Yeah, ahjumma, you’re the best!” Vic said approvingly at the lady vendor.

All the while, Krystal was fanning herself on the corner. She was still a little bit flustered but her color’s getting better by the minute. The girls were oblivious to everyone because of their small talk with the vendor. What they were talking about, I did not dare care as I rushed to buy a carton of milk from the nearby stall.

I stood quietly beside Krystal and sipped the milk I bought, making it look like it’s mine. I sipped a few then stealthily gave Krystal some. She was surprised at first but accepted the milk and sipped through the straw.

Instant relief reflected on her face and I looked around, making sure that the girls would not see us. I angled us a little so our backs were facing them, and said to Krystal.

“Hey, slow down. I’ll buy you more if you want.” I said.

She finished the whole carton before saying, “No, this is fine. You're the best, Amber.”

I quickly threw the carton and we walked back to where the girls were.

“Hey, we were just talking with ajhumma here and she spilled some of her secrets in cooking this delicious sauce!” Vic squealed in delight.

Luna and Sulli were still too busy eating to notice the little cheat Krystal and I did. I grinned at Krystal and I earned a similarly large grin from her. Soon the grins erupted into fits of laughter which made the other members look at us like crazy people.

“…maybe it’s your awesome ttejbokki, ajhumma…” I heard Sulli say.

When the laughter finally subsided to wide grins, we headed to the horror house. It was supposed to be the ‘scariest’ horror house in Korea, the park boasted. Well, I’m not easily scared so we’ll see how true that label is.

Vic eomma, apparently, was afraid of the dark. That’s why she dared Krystal to go alone, she was too scared to go with us. With a few minutes of urging, we finally had Vic’s permission to come with Krystal inside, of course, Vic also grudgingly agreed to come; but only if the three of us, sans Krystal, would huddle around her the whole way through. The edited dare now is that Krystal could not run or scream when she gets too scared in the horror house. She should also walk a few feet ahead of us. Krystal agreed without hesitation and off we went into the horror house, aptly named, “I Dare You to Enter”.

KRYSTAL POV

I fooled the guys again with my fake bravery. I’m really a scaredy-cat, and though I think I am brave enough to do something, I always find in hardest possible way that some things are just not for me. I thought the worst dare was to eat spicy food, I always had a weakness for spicy things.

Thanks to Amber, who has somehow helped me cheat the dares so I’ll win every time. I was beyond grateful when she screamed at the roller coaster to mask my almost scream; and when she secretly gave me that milk, oh my god, I could almost hug her; and now, she helped urge Vic eomma to have all the members to come with me inside. Aside from walking ahead alone in the horror house, I had no qualms about the revised dare, though I’m still really scared about going into the horror without someone walking beside me.

The friendly park personnel greeted us at the entrance of the horror house. After wishing us all luck, we, or should I say I, went in and a few seconds later, I heard the others come in too.

The house was dark, pitch black actually, but as your eyes adjust, you could see that there are furniture scattered all around the living room part, I guess. I was telling myself that it wasn’t scary at all when a scream suddenly erupted not far ahead of me. It was the scream of someone hurt, and I rushed to the sound immediately.

The source of the sound apparently was a now dead body. I was about to scream bloody murder if Amber had not come and put an arm around my shoulders.

“Sshhhh… It’s only a fake body,” Amber whispered in my ear.

“H-hhow? Why?” I stuttered.

“I said to the girls that I’ll be going to the loo, then I heard the scream and saw you here…scared and about to scream…” Amber said shyly.

“Oh. Go ahead then…to the loo, I mean. I can do this on my own.” I can’t actually, I’m too scared to go on my own now.  I might need Amber to accompany me the whole way through.

“…ummm…it can wait. I’ll go with you now.” She helped me stand up and tightened her arms around my shoulder.

For most part, I had my head on the crook of Amber’s neck, eyes shut and almost running. Amber just laughed off all the scary things that came our way. At one really scary part (I had my eyes open this time), where a particularly surprising ghost appeared and cold air shoot from all directions, I instantly hugged Amber and stopped moving.

Time stood still, or so I thought. Amber suddenly stopped moving, her arm frozen from where it was on my shoulder, and she seemed to have stopped breathing. I tried to let go, really, really tried; but I was just too scared (or maybe I just like being in Amber’s arms, I don’t know) to let go.

So there we stood for quite some time, oblivious to the people passing by. Amber’s arms have awkwardly returned my rather tight hug and patted my back in comfort.

As I was about to let go, I heard the distinct voices of the other members and started to panic. Before my panic could even manifest, Amber had released me from the hug and pulled me by the hand, running towards the exit.

I was blinded by the bright light that welcomed us at the exit. Huffing, we leaned on the wall and started to laugh.

“That was really fun! Let’s do that again, next time!” I said to Amber.

“Suuuuuuure…and you’ll get too scared to move again,” Amber sarcastically replied.

I walked slowly to where Amber was and put my arms around her thin frame. Unlike earlier, she did not tense this time but I could feel that she was really awkward with me hugging her. Before the awkwardness could grow, I said in her ear what I’ve wanted to tell the whole day.

“Thank you, Amber.”