Chapter 5: Complications

“Sleep tight, Amber.” She said as she closed the door. That was the last thing I heard before I went to dreamland.

And a good sleep it was.

KRYSTAL POV

Sleep did not come to me that night. I tossed and turned for one hour before I finally gave up and just read a book. A page into the book and I was zoning out again, images of Amber too sleepy to talk straight, Amber’s boyish hair all messy, Amber’s adorable nose scrunching, and Amber’s peaceful sleeping face.

Why am I even thinking about her? Why?

You’re starting to like her, a part of my brain answered.

No, I do not. I just like her as a friend, I argued.

Sure. You think of your ‘friend’ in those ways? My brain countered.

NO, NO, NO. She’s just a FRIEND. End of internal rambling. I ended the annoying conversation with myself.

Okay. From now on, I will only treat Amber as a friend. No more thinking about her in any weird way. OKAY.

At around 4 in the morning, closed my book and headed to the kitchen to make some breakfast. Song Qian do most of the cooking; but I want to do it for once. I want to surprise them with some of my specialties – which I might say is not that much. I don’t cook, except for the occasional boiling of ramen and frying some eggs and the other simple stuff.

So I decided to cook something easy and fail-proof – scrambled eggs and pancake, with a side of bacon. That’s not hard to cook at all. And this is one of the few times we’ll be eating an all-American breakfast. I’m sure Amber will love this, given that she always says she misses LA.

And I am thinking of Amber again, which is not good. So I got the premade pancake batter and started cooking them. Preparing breakfast kept me busy enough to not think of HER again.

As I was flipping the last pancake into the pan, I heard Jinri come out of her room. She padded quietly into the dining room and bid me a sleepy good morning.

“Is there coffee, Krystal?” she asked in Korean.

“None yet, could you make some, please?” I answered.

“Suuuure,” she answered, still a little groggy.

I smiled to myself. Jinri is not a morning person but she is always the earliest riser. Song Qian and Sun-young came in the room soon after and we all got busy preparing the table for breakfast.

“You up early, Krystal? Thank you. You made breakfast already. I should do that.” Song Qian said in English.

“Oh no worries, I wanted to make breakfast for once.” I answered.

Breakfast was ready and the table was all set, but Amber’s still asleep. Sun-young volunteered to wake her but I said that I’d do it instead.

So here I am, silently walking to Amber’s bed to wake her. She’s on her side, her hands under her cheek, looking serene in the flurry of her pillows and blankets. Oh, she looks so handsome/pretty when she sleeps. I watch her for a moment before waking her.

“Amber, wake up.” I said, shaking her shoulder lightly.

“Mmmmm…no...five more minutes, Mom,” she grumbled, pulling her blanket high up her head.

So adorable. “Come on, Amber. We have an early training today, wake up.” I tried again.

“Mmmmm...” she groaned again.

I was beyond surprised when her hand shot out of her blanket and pulled me beside her. I was spooned in front of her and she nuzzled the back of my neck.

“You can sleep some more…Ni…cole,” she hummed at my hair.

Who in the world is Nicole?

I tried getting up but Amber just hugged me tighter. I pried her arm off my waist with more force and I was able to free myself from her. I was breathing hard and blushing to my roots when I finally had the energy to kneel beside her bed and wake her again.

“Hey, Amber. It’s Krystal. Wake up.” I said louder this time.

She finally opened her eyes and blinked at the bright light coming from outside the door.

“Nicole?” was the first thing that came out of .

AMBER POV

Nicole was the first word that I uttered the moment I was fully awake. Only Nicole wakes me that way, shaking my shoulders first then whispering in my ear to wake up. Only she did that. Only Nicole would do that. But Nicole’s gone. And I’m not in LA. I’m in Korea.

So who’s waking me up?

I rubbed the sleep off my eyes and looked at the silhouette of the girl beside my bed, waking me. It’s definitely not Nicole. Nicole never wore pajamas in her sleep, she just usually sleeps in my loose shirts and her boy-shorts.

“Hey, Amber. Are you awake now? Come on, get up. Everybody’s up and ready to have breakfast.” Ah, Krystal. Of course it’s Krystal. How can I even think for one moment that it was Nicole? Stupid, stupid, stupid.

“Hey, mornin’ Krystal. Sorry, I’m a bit difficult to wake.” I apologized.

I got up and followed her out to the dining room where all the girls are already seated and drinking their coffees. I saw that breakfast was scrambled eggs, pancake and bacon. Oh, god. These were my favorites.

I sat down and bid everyone a good morning. Digging in to the scrumptious breakfast, I noticed Krystal looking at me weirdly. I wracked my brain for something that would earn me that look and I remembered in my groggy mind that I had pulled her into my bed when she was waking me up. I was suddenly choking on my eggs and Jinri patted my back in assistance.

“You okay there, Amber?” Krystal asked.

“Yeah, fine, fine. Food just got down the wrong pipe.” I said in excuse.

No wonder she was looking at me weirdly. I thought she was Nicole and suddenly grabbed her. Oh no. What do I do now?

I finished my breakfast hastily, leaving the table and heading to the bathroom to get ready for the day, oblivious to the 4 set of eyes staring in wonder at me.

The ride to the studio was eerily quiet. Jinri and Sun-young, who were always chatting and ranting over everything, sat meekly at the back, exchanging knowing glance but not talking. Krystal and I sat far from each other. We usually sat beside each other, talking about things I should know in my stay here in Korea and whatnot.

Krystal now sat beside Song Qian who is sitting beside me. Song Qian, who we have jokingly started calling eomma, served as our barrier. From what, I’m not entirely sure.

The tense atmosphere was still there until we finished the first set of trainings that day. Lunch time rolled in and neither one of us had engaged in a conversation apart from the simple yes and no’s whenever our instructors asked us something.

I could not take this ignoring anymore. So I stood up from our lunch table and whispered in Krystal’s ear to follow me outside.

In the dim hallway, I confronted her and asked why everyone was acting weird today.

“Amber, they were just worried about you, you know. You suddenly took off when everyone was still eating breakfast. They asked me what was wrong with you these past few days. I told them you were just missing home.” Krystal explained.

“Oh. So they’re not mad at me or anything?” I asked.

“No, not at all. But I guess you should apologize for your rude behavior earlier.” Krystal assured.

“Okay. I’ll apologize to them. Like, right now. Come on.” I said, pulling her back to the room.

“Hey, guys…” I started in English.

They all looked at me.

“…umm. Sorry for my rude behavior this morning. I hope I did not offend anyone of you.” I apologized.

The mood instantly lifted up the moment I apologized. They all said it was fine and that we should communicate better next time. Song Qian eomma even added that we’ll definitely be communicating better in a few weeks if we keep up with the language lessons.

We may speak different languages but our hearts are one. We are after one goal and that is to become the best Korean girl group. This is just the start, but I know that we will become even closer and more united as time goes by.

We will be the best.