"So, um, let me get this straight," Henry turned his purple colored snapback to the back of his head and looked into the eyes of his best friend, "You're telling me that, Krystal Jung hates you?"

   "YES!" Amber clapped both her hands in response, causing a loud slap to be heard over quiet library halls. "Sorry, sorry!" She bowed later on when she realized that she and her friends weren't in her room but at the school library, where they should be busy doing their research on the Vietnam War and not having their little heart-to-heart session.

    The students around them threw quick glares at them before burying their heads back into whatever dictionary they were reading. The librarian pointed her finger at the troublemakers, giving them a warning. Amber and Henry quickly nodded their heads and shrunk into their seats. So, maybe this wasn't the right place to be talking about problems.

    Henry popped his head out of the library table and whispered curiously, "So...?"

    "So, I don't know, man. I think she hates me?" Amber placed the side of her face on her book and sighed.

    "Oh okay, so you think she hates you? But she might not actually hate you?"

    She brought her hand to her eyes and covered them, "I. Don't. Know."

    Henry tisk-ed and flipped a page on his book. "So, tell me. What do you know?" He asked.

    "I know that she talks to me, but it's different, the way she does it with me and then with you guys, and it's been like, a month. I know that I annoy her but I can't help it cause I can never seem to stop talking when I'm around her?" Amber answered, "I also know that she probably doesn't like me the way she likes all of you," she added sadly.

    "Aww, you feeling down cause K-Jung don't treat you the way she treats us? You feeling a little, I don't know, jealous?" Henry teased as he went over to ruffle Amber's blonde locks.

    She slapped his hand away and sat up, "Wouldn't you be if you were trying so hard to be her friend?"

    "Aaah, but see, that's the question!" It was Henry's turn to sit up as his voice vibrated with excitement, "Why, oh, why, Amber, are you trying so hard to be her friend?"

    Amber opened then closed it, realizing she had nothing to say. She racked her brain looking for a logical answer to her behavior but found none. She didn't have an answer and even if she wanted to come up with some stupid excuse just to get Henry off her case, she couldn't. There was something stopping her from thinking straight, stopping her from being the knowing person that she was. 

    Why was she so lost when it came to the sophomore?

    "Ugh," Amber slammed her forehead onto her book, irritated by the fact that she didn't have it all figured out. The fact that she didn't have Krystal Jung figured out.

    "Yo, dude, take a chill pill? It was a simple question," Henry laughed, "No need to be cracking brains up for this."

     Seeing that Amber wasn't going to get up from her own messed up thoughts, Henry decided to give the guru of the group a call. The only person who was wise enough to know what was going on and dig up the perfect solution for it. Someone who was always there to help Henry with his girl problems because although this guru of their didn't have a , he had something both Amber and the rest of the male population lacked-- a woman's intuition.

    "Yo, this is Snoop Dogg," Henry spoke into his phone, "You might want to come down to the library for a sec? Yeah, Amber seems to be having one of them girl problems. Yeah, get on it. She needs you like, pronto."

    "I do not have girl problems," Amber growled with her face still plastered to the book, "And I don't need anyone, pronto."

    "A'ight, a'ight. See you in a few," Henry ignored his stubborn friend and hung up his phone. "Key is offended 'bout you not needing him and is currently on his way down here to whoop your llama-."

    "Why are you bringing him into this?" Amber groaned.

    "Because, boy-o, between you and I, he's the only one girly enough to know all this women ."

    "Just because he's sensitive, it doesn't make him girly, Henry."

    "Tell that to his three hundred dollar bedazzled cardigan like, Jesus, a bedazzled cardigan?"

    "Oh, please. Don't get homophobic on me, asswipe."

    "I'm not. I'm just saying cardigans shouldn't be bedazzled. In fact, nothing should be bedazzled. Ever."

    "Homophobe," Amber straightened her back then proceeded to throw her eraser at her slightly homophobic friend.

     They went on to talk about philosophies given by famous gay people and Amber tried to teach the meaning of the phrase "To each his own" to Henry, but something in her told her that she might have failed when Henry described Hitler's mustache as "gay as day" to her when he was on the World War ll section of the history book.

    Moments later, Key arrived with all his fabulousness as he strode down the library looking for his two dorky friends. "There you are!" He exclaimed when he caught sight of Henry's ugly snapback. He sat himself down on their table and with one swift move, took off Henry's hat.

    "I told you, this pathetic excuse for a hat is not giving your face any justice," he wiggled the snapback in front of Henry before tossing it over to the other side of the table.

    "Hey!" Henry yelled in a harsh whisper as he reached out to grab the his tossed-away accessory, "It's a snapback, not a hat. And my face don't need no justice. My face is the definition of justice."

    "Yabadabadoo, you conceited fool. Now, what was I going to say again?" Key drummed his fingers on the table, "Oh, yes. You," he pointed at Amber, "You and your girl problems."

    Amber gritted her teeth, "I do not, have girl problems."

    "Yeah, yeah, and you don't need me. News flash, baby girl, if it wasn't for me, you be lying dead by the street."

    "Correction, if it wasn't for Vic, I'd be lying dead by the street."

    "Hey, I helped too. Thanks for the acknowledgement," Key rolled his eyes then went back to serious mode, "Alright, so I heard you're having issues with the female population?"

    Before Amber could open and come up with an argument, Henry put one of his hands over and said,  "Yes, and by female population, she means Krystal."

    Amber pushed away Henry's hands and gave him a light shove, "I have lips do to my own talking, thank you very much."

    "Aah, so it's about Soo-Jungie! How exciting," Key exclaimed as he leaned closer towards Amber. "Do tell me more," he commanded.

    "There's really not much to tell," Amber laughed, trying not to make this more complicated than it already is. The lesser Key knew, the lesser the pain in the he would be. 

    "Save the b.s for your stupid fangirls, Amber. You want things to work out between you and Krystal, you spill the beans to me now," Key beamed.

    Amber stared at her best friend, debating whether she should tell him the truth or not. It was easier to communicate and tell stuff that was bothering her to Henry because well, Henry was Henry. He listens, teases then get over it unlike Key who had a tendency to overanalyse the things he was told. He believed in seeing things from different angles so he would spend days and weeks thinking about whatever that was the issue and when he found the key to the answer, he would then make a big deal out of something that had been long forgotten by everyone else. 

    Maybe Amber should've went to Luna about this. Yes, girls should know this better than any gay guy.

    As if Key had magically possessed the power of telepathy, he wiggled his index finger at Amber and said, "Asking Luna about this is totally out of the question. You don't ask a girl about girl problems."

    "Wha-," Amber furrowed her brows at Key, feeling slightly disturbed by Key's psychic abilities, "But I'm a girl too?"

    "Yes, I am aware of that, but you're a different shade of pink. This is why you can't help yourself with the girl issues that you have. Hence, my presence here today," Key stated proudly.

    "Yeah, Ams, I'm with homoboy on this one," Henry chimed in, "You don't tell chicks about chick probs, you know?"

    "But Krystal is not a chick. I mean, she's our friend and you know, she's my friend and why are we calling her a chick? It's like, I-"

    "You're stalling, Ams. Just nut up and tell Key your relationship problems already," Henry interrupted. He nudged Amber to confide in Key because he knew fairly well that Key was their best bet. This Krystal problem was biting away at Amber and it puzzled him, why Amber was making such a big deal out of this. It wasn't her style to over-think and it definitely wasn't her style to fret over problems with the ladies.

    "Okay, fine. Jesus, whatever," Amber finally surrendered, "If you want me to tell you, I'll tell you, but it's not a relationship problem. Krystal and I don't exactly have any sort of 'relationship' going on between us."

    "Is that what's bothering you? Because you guys aren't together?" Key asked nonchalantly as he looked at his nails, occasionally flicking it.

    "What, no. Key, I don't think we're even friends to begin with," Amber replied. She did her best at covering up the sadness in her voice but Key had caught it. He was now determined to find out the root of the problem.

    "Why do you think so?" Key asked gently, not wanting to screw up his only chance at getting Amber to express her thoughts about her problem.

    Amber swallowed and looked down to her books. Why was she having such a had time telling her friends? Did it really matter that much to her, what she thought about Krystal? Was she that afraid of letting others know about her feelings, her insecurities towards her barely-there friendship with Krystal?

    As Amber took her time thinking of a reply, Key glanced over at Henry and secretly signaled him to stay silent and give Amber a few moments to collect herself. He didn't understand what could be bothering her so much that she found it difficult to talk about something that wasn't that big of an issue, but it seemed like Amber finally found something to wreck her brain over and this had pleased Key. Although everyone knew Amber to be the happy-go-lucky girl that she was, Key who had the sensitivity of a pregnant woman picked up on the fact that Amber wasn't as carefree as she projected herself to be, but was actually just unoccupied. She made it seem like she had nothing to worry about in life, because in truth, she didn't. After the emotional turbulence she went through a few years back, she became less attentive to a lot of things.

    She let things that used to matter to her become something of distant memory and just started to live everyday with a dorky grin and a heart-warming smile. Sometimes, her laughs were real and her smiles were genuine, but most of the time she did so because it was the right thing to do. She seemed happy, and that was great, but it also worried her friends, especially the ones who were on to her, if she was starting to lose herself. Lose herself in becoming someone who didn't have something to actually put their heart and soul into. Something to care about. Something to grab ahold of her and keep her on the ground.

    Something, that kept her sane.

    It wasn't normal to be living like that, like everything didn't matter. It was bad, and it was dangerous. And for a long period of time, Key and Vic had tried to find ways to get Amber to be more aware of the things happening around her. Vic of course, knew all along but didn't know what to do because as carefree as Amber was, she was still a fragile little creature. Fragile, and explosive. She had seen Amber in her explosive days and those were the days that nobody liked reminiscing about. Amber was in a bad place at the time and as much as Vic wanted Amber to become a little more attentive towards the things she committed herself into, she didn't want Amber to fall back into her old routine, her old self.

    They say that there is a price for caring too much.

    Amber paid it in full.

    Now that there was something that seemed like it could be a problem to Amber, Key would not let it go. Amber needed something to get those feelings in her running again, and this Krystal Jung might be it. The more problems Krystal caused for Amber, the better things would be for the blonde. At least this was Key's thought up hypothesis.

    Amber shifted in her seat, clasped her fingers together and brought them underneath her chin. She struggled with herself. To tell her friends, or to not tell her friends? She felt like she needed someone to talk to abut this, but she just wasn't sure if Key was the right person to do this with. Realizing what had just gone through her mind, Amber shut her eyes in guilt.

    How could she thought about things that way? Key was her best friend. He was there with Vic when Amber needed someone to pick her up and haul her out of her own misery. He stayed with her through the days when life felt like a burden to her, when Vic wasn't there to dry her tears, when she was hurtful, mean, foolish, vulnerable and all those sides of her she would never have shown to people because they would only cause pain and sorrow. 

    When Amber wasn't Amber. 

    With that, she gave a slight chuckle. She looked up at her best friend, lips curved into a smile.

    "I guess it's because I feel like, I care too much and she doesn't care enough."

    Key hummed in response, then quickly looked away so Amber wouldn't see how his eyes started to water and his lips curved into a smile of their own.

    Hypothesis accepted. 

A/N story Key really gets story Amber like no other. I hope everyone has someone like Key in their lives :]