School started the next day and classes were in session. It was the tenth period and Krystal sat at her desk, casually writing down the notes that were being written on the whiteboard by the teacher. Her pen was moving and so was her mind. It drifted to a place where it made it impossible for her to stay focused on her work at hand. Amber. 

    She had seen her during recess, or at least a part of her. Having an accounts assignment that she had to complete, she was on her way to the school library when she caught sight of the familiar blonde locks of her senior. In a glimpse of an eye, she saw Amber and her friends around the table, talking and laughing with one another like it was every other average day at school. Using her secret ninja abilities, Krystal quickly glided her way through the cafeteria, trying to avoid being seen by her clique of friends which she succeeded in doing. 

    She was going to see Amber that afternoon for their tutoring session. That wouldn't have been a big deal if it was any other tutoring session, but unfortunately for Krystal, it wasn't. For her, it would be the the tutoring session that played a hand in deciding where she would go from there; where she and Amber would go from there. So, excuse her for not wanting to see her blonde-haired senior before their supposed meet-up.

    Yesterday was nothing but a massive red-flag moment for Krystal. The way Amber talked to her, the way she her eyes spoke to her, or rather the way her eyes didn't speak to her like they used to, it made Krystal realized that maybe, just maybe it was her who did something wrong. But still, she wasn't sure what it was. What could she have done? Spat into her food by accident? Stepped on her sneakers? Farted in her presence? She didn't remember doing any of those, so what could it be?

    Krystal planned to ask Amber about it in the afternoon, but only after she made sure that the blonde was no longer in her prickly mood. This was the first time she saw Amber remotely pissed at something. Since befriending her senior, she discovered that Amber was the sun of the group, not because everyone there revolved around her, but because she was the one who brought all the fun and giggles into their lives, being all smiles and dorky most of the time. 

    As thick-skinned as she was, Krystal still managed to bring herself to admit that Amber did in fact, bring fun into her life but not the giggles because giggling is totally off-limits to the sophomore. Actually, now that she thought of it, Amber was kind of the only one who brought joy into her life. And she's pissed at me. All of a sudden, the Amber-problem seemed to have swelled up thrice in size. What if she really hates me now? What if she doesn't talk to me ever again? Who am I going to roll my eyes at when I feel like it? And who can I be sarcastic with? .

    Krystal sat up straight in her seat, suddenly feeling extremely motivated to make things right although she still didn't know what could possibly be wrong. Whatever it was, all will be explained during their tutoring session later. Hopefully. She was going to ask Amber, no, scratch that, she was going to interrogate Amber until she got the answers she needed.

    The school bell rang, anchoring Krystal from floating too far away in her sea of thoughts. She looked around to see her classmates getting up from their seat and then leaving the class. Soon after, the chattering sounds of students her age stopped and the classroom was left with Krystal and her lonesome. She took a glance at her wrist watch. Fifteen more minutes before her due session with the blonde-haired tomboy at the mathematics classroom.

    She started packing her belongings, putting them one by one into her Gucci messenger bag. When she was done, she stood up from her seat and headed for the door, leaving behind a now empty classroom. 

    Krystal took a deep breath as she walked through the doors that led to another hallway, the one she'd have to walk through to get to the Ms. Song's classroom. She had fifteen minutes before she had to face the music.

    And boy, did she pray for the symphony to be playing the right tune and key.

Krystal halted in her tracks upon nearing the door of the classroom she and Amber were using for their math tutoring session. She blinked her eyes in disbelief with her head turned towards the classroom. Was her mind playing tricks on her? She blinked again. Was this optical illusion?

    She was a step away from entering the room, but her legs wouldn't move. She couldn't bring them to move. Maybe she should just let them stay glued to the cement underneath her soles because for now, nothing felt more right than not entering the class. Not knowing what she should do and having legs that were failing her by the second, she checked her watch again to make sure it was the right time. It could just be another blonde.

    2.10 p.m. No, the time was right. If anything, Krystal was actually early. This was quite an odd occurrence as she was someone had who always put the term "fashionably late" to practice. Always. But as of this afternoon, something else outweighed the oddness of Krystal's punctuality.

    Why would she be early?

    And just like that, Krystal continued staring at the blonde who sat in front of her desk as she remained standing by the door. She was aware of how creepy this might've looked, but her confusion towards Amber's early presence convinced her to stay rooted outside the class. If Amber didn't forget about their session and was actually here early, did it mean that things were back to normal again?

    She contemplated on entering the class, but thanks to their little incident the day before, Krystal couldn't help but feel awkward about their meeting. And that awkwardness alone was enough to prevent her from stepping inside. What should she say? Should she greet her the way she used to greet her or should she initiate more? Should she apologize?

    But what for? I don't even know why I'm apologizing. Ugh, this is so frustrating.

    Krystal brought her hands to the side of her head and started massaging her temples. The sight of the blonde was causing a bigger stir-up than she had originally thought it would. Stealing another glance at Amber who was now busy writing something on a piece of paper, Krystal felt a part of her urging her two buddies below to move forward, but simultaneously, another part of her, the more reserved, awkward part was busy tying a noose around her neck and preparing to drag her far, far away from the classroom door, or better yet, out of South Korea. 

    Oh, it. I'm here for my grades, not for her. That's right, Jung Soo-Jung.Your grades. Do it for your grades. 

    She readjusted her bag's strap on her shoulder, took a deep breath, well, several deep breaths, and then walked head-first into the classroom. Amber who had heard her rather heavy footsteps upon the classroom floor, turned her head slightly to the side, showing that she was well aware of the other presence in the class.

    Upon reaching her seat, Krystal flopped down clumsily onto her chair by accident, no thanks to her over-thinking and worrying about the awkwardness that was bound to exist between them. Feeling that the air around them was already beginning to thicken with the awkwardness she had feared so badly, she clenched her jaw lightly together to form somewhat of a toothy grin.

    "Hi," she said, looking at the blonde-haired senior opposite her. Please say hi back.

    "You're early today," Amber replied as she stopped her writing and placed down her pen on the desk. YESSS, THAT'S GREAT. THAT'S MORE THAN A HI. OKAY, NOW ACT COOL.

     "Apparently, I'm not the only one," Krystal gave out a dry laugh while reaching into her bag for the things she needed for their session.

    Amber hummed in response, not tearing her eyes away from the paper in her hands. Krystal continued taking out her stationery and putting them onto her desk. She mentally sighed a breath of relief as Amber definitely seemed like she was in a better mood. Maybe yesterday was just one of those cloudier moments of Amber's, like the one she had that day during recess. Maybe Krystal didn't have anything to do with it and she was just over-thinking things.

    Whatever it was, there was still something Krystal wanted to ask. You could say that curiosity killed the cat, but she would be a fool to just overlook this. She was sure there was a legitimate reason behind Amber's actions for the past week. She was also sure that she would try her best to get to the bottom of this.

    Alright, now how do I ask her without sounding like I actually care about her attitude change?

    "So, how's life?" Krystal finally asked when she was done placing all the materials needed on the desk. Touchdown! That's an awesome question. You're a genius, Soo-Jung, a genius. 

    Amber seemed slightly amused by Krystal's attempt at a conversation starter. She looked up at the latter and gave a half-smile. "Just great."

    But before Krystal had the sufficient time to process the fact that Amber had just smiled at her, Amber picked up the piece of paper and placed it onto Krystal's side of the table, causing Krystal's original plan to dig deeper into Amber's life to be given no other option but to be aborted for now. 

    "I think you should try these practice questions first before we get into the chapters we're covering for today," Amber explained, placing her hand on top of the paper she was talking about. 

    "Umm, okay," Krystal mumbled as she reached out for the exercises laid out for her. Minutes into her work, she found herself stuck on a question. She fumbled her pen around, trying to think of a solution.

    "Need help?" She heard Amber ask from across the table and it was a major déjà vu moment for the brown-haired sophomore. Not wanting to make the same mistake as she did the day before, she nodded her head and proceeded to become the helpless student who's desperately seeking for assistance from her private tutor. She tried her best to avoid becoming, as Amber had put it, the know-it-all idiot that she was.

    And that about it concluded the events of that particular afternoon, with Krystal getting stuck on her math problems and Amber coming in to save her from her mathematical hell. During their quiet session, Krystal had tried multiple times to get Amber talking. About what, she didn't care. She just wanted the two of them to have a conversation with each other that lasted more than a minute and didn't relate to Krystal's failure in math whatsoever.

    Unfortunately, things didn't exactly happen the way Krystal wanted them to. Not only did she fail to find out about the reason behind Amber's "y moment", she couldn't even talk to Amber without being reminded that both of them were there to study, well, Krystal was, but Amber had a responsibility as her tutor to get her to study. After Krystal's second attempt to ask Amber about her feelings, the older of the two made it clear that anything outside of Krystal's math syllabus was out of the question. And so, the tutoring session went on without any more words unrelated to math exchanged between the two.

    Krystal was on her last question, and so far, it looked like things between her and Amber were beginning to lighten up, not that she had a chance to actually have a talk with Amber, but seeing that insults weren't flying at her like Mexican food in the movie Pitch Perfect, she assumed that they were atl least on the "okay" level again. Although all that came out of Amber's mouth during their 2-hour session were either mathematical equations or equations about mathematical equations, there was something about the lack of scoffing and sarcasm that led Krystal to believe that Amber was back to being who she was before.

    The dorky senior who hung onto her every word like they were the last slices of pizza to ever exist in the world; who treated her like she was a baby bird with broken wings, having fallen from her nest; who followed her around like a lost puppy whenever she could; who made her feel like she was worth something to someone.

    Alas, Krystal had spoken too soon.

    "And that's it for today," Amber stated, after handing Krystal back the exercises she had done throughout their afternoon together.

    "Oh wow, today was something, wasn't it?" Krystal made a sound that resembled ne of those dry laughs she pulled off at the starting off their session. 

    "Mmm." With a hum as a reply, Amber then quickly got up and prepared herself to leave. Her actions were so sudden, so unexpected that it momentarily made Krystal's heart come to a pause. She was taken by surprise at Amber's motion to leave, so surprised that she hadn't even realize her hand on Amber's right wrist. When did that get there?

    "Umm," Krystal searched for something to say upon realizing the position she had put herself and Amber in. "Where are you going?" She asked quickly as Amber turned her head over to look at Krystal.

    Amber's eyes then traveled lower and it took Krystal about .8 seconds to realize that it was her hand on Amber's wrist that the blonde was staring intently at. Quickly retracting her hand away from Amber, she shifted back and ran her fingers through her hair, tucking a few loose strands of hair behind her ear.

    "I mean, do you want to like hang ou--"

    "I'm going home," Amber didn't let Krystal finish as she began making her way out the class.

    Without a second to lose, Krystal immediately followed her out of the class and into the empty hallway. "Wait," she yelled, running and tailing behind the blonde, "you're going home?"

    "Yes," Amber replied monotonously as she continued strutting down the hall without turning back to face Krystal. I thought we were over this?

    "Can we go somewhere? I actually need to--"

    All of a sudden, Amber whirled her body around and the sudden action of hers caused the running Krystal to knock chest-first into Amber's. She knocked into Amber and seconds later, she felt herself falling, with the wind underneath her blowing at her neck, alerting her that the back of her head was soon to be met with the cold, hard cement floor of the school hallway. Luckily for her, the impact never came.

    She opened her eyes slowly, afraid to see her body lying on the floor of the hallway, covered in her own pool of blood. Much to her surprise, red wasn't the color that had met her eyes. Instead, staring back at her was something like the night sky she used to gaze at from her family's apartment back in the States. It was dark, and completely black, but if she looked hard enough, she could see them. The sparkles. The gleaming light in a canvas of darkness.

    There was nothing else that existed. She was completely alone in a world surrounded by the darkness that came along with those eyes. How odd were they to Krystal. She had never come across something so dark yet so bright at the same time, like their mere existence was a controversy to themselves. Was there anything else that could look so special, so unique? So fascinating that one could spend not hours or days, but weeks, months and years gazing into those twinkling irises?

    She felt the arms around her waist tighten and the warmness of the hand behind her back starting to cause a significant amount of blood flow towards her facial area.

    Arms? Hand?

    Oh, my God.

    With reality finally sinking in, Krystal pulled herself up and away from Amber's outstretched arm. She could feel the eyes of her senior on her as the energy of her legs underneath her dissipated away with every second Amber spent staring at her. Noticing the lockers around her, she quickly leaned her back towards them, using the compartments as temporary support.

    Avoiding the eyes of her senior, Krystal spoke with her head down. "Oh, God, I'm so sorry," she apologized, "I didn't mean to knock into you."

    "It's fine," came Amber's reply. No other words were exchanged after that. The two remained where they were in silence. Krystal couldn't sum up enough courage to say anything else and although Amber's silence was confusing the heck out of her, there was nothing she could do about it. Moments passed. Seconds dreaded on to minutes, yet Krystal could still see the shape of Amber's shadow casted onto the ground by the fluorescent lights above their heads.

    Why is she still here?

    Just when Krystal was about to look up from the ground, she felt her chin being lifted and before another breath could be taken, a pair of cold, yet tender lips traced themselves upon Krystal's. She felt the nervousness emitting from them as they were pressed softly against hers. The shaky breath she felt upon her own face made her feel something she hadn't felt in a long time. Something she never thought she would feel ever again. But before she could let herself grow familiar to the giddy sensation she felt in the pit of her stomach and in her mind, the coldness that was slowly starting to turn into warmth on was gone.

    She opened her eyes to find a very much frustrated-looking Amber standing in front of her with her face only inches away from her own. Krystal's eyes widened in shock, surprised at the closeness they two shared with one another.

    Neither of them spoke. And honestly, Krystal didn't want them to. She could barely get a grasp on reality right now, any form of conversation would've been impossible for her. Did that...did that really just happen?

    "Krystal," she heard Amber say softly, with their eyes still locked intently with each others'.

    "I don't want to see you again."

A/N oh no she didn't. oh yes she did. ehehe so what do you guys think?