The coffee shop was pretty. It was oddly quaint for such a bright and crazy place like Seoul, and small too, but Amber thought it was cute. In a lot of ways it reminded her of Krystal.

"You sure this is it, Krys?"

The Princess rolled her eyes and smiled. "Yes, Amber, I'm sure."

A cold draft flowed into the otherwise warm coffee shop as they opened and closed the door behind them.

Yep. This place definitely reminded Amber of Krystal.

"Why? Don't you like it?"

"Aaah~ I never said it was bad, it's just...Not your type, thats all."

"Oh shut up and sit down!"  

"Yes my scary Princess~"

Giggling, Amber trotted over to one of the tables. The place was completely empty except for her, Krystal and the staff, but she suspected that her girlfriend planned it that way. "

Most people go to Seoul for the high-paced city life, so a little coffee shop like this wouldn't get too much attention, "Amber thought, observing the place.

The wallpaper was a gorgeous  cream color,  with little brown  and white swirls decorating it.  The place had nice, bright lighting, beautiful crystal-like light fixtures hanging above every table. The tiles were a darker shade of mocha, giving a nice balance to the place. Music was playing, too, though Amber couldn't quite figure out from where. It was a nice melody, she decided, and definitely helped set the peaceful mood to the cafe.

Looking back to the counter, Krystal was still carefully going over the menu as the barista worked on making drinks that must of belonged to them. The front counter was a typical display case with mini-bright lights, showing off yummy looking desserts that looked like they had a lot of details put into them, much like the cafe itself. 

"I wonder if this is a company or a family buisness. Everything looks so intircate, so...well-cared for." Amber slid out her phone and began to take pictures for fun, giggling and taking a few shots of Krystal without her knowing so.

A few more minutes passed and Amber had gone from taking photos back to taking more mental notes of the quaint little coffee shop. Her girlfriend walked up shortly after, placing their drinks in front of them as well as an entire plate of chocolate treats.

"Eeeee~" The tomboy squealed. She didn't usually eat sweets, but ever since Krystal had discovered chocolate bread she'd fallen in love with the mixture of cocoa and dough as well. " Snacks!"

"A date?"   "Yeah, a date!"   "Amber, how could we possibly go on a date?"   " Well I dunno, you pick I'll go!"   "  But..."    "Soojung-ah~" "Fine."

"So." Krystal said, making sure her glass sat on top of the napkins she'd brought. 

"So~" Amber sung back.

"Why did you want to go on a date?" She asked, resting her chin on her folded hands. She looked at Amber with a blank expression, but the tomboy could easily spot the wonder behind her eyes.

"I guessed you'd been holed up ever since I left. I wanted to see you, free, in fresh air with a smile on your face."  Amber  stated simply, taking a sip of her chocolate latte. "That, and you're so stunning, I never want to not be on a date with you." 

That one sneaky comment and Amber could already see Krystal's icy facade faltering. She cleared and allowed her long hair to sweep across her face as she took a sip of her own drink, sucessfully obscuring her embarassed smile from view, although she had no doubt that Amber knew  she was. "Oh."

Her girlfriend just smiled her dorky grin and munched on one of the treats, looking around again then looking back at her and observing the way the bright lights shone on her hair, her skin, her jewelry.

"You look like a pearl."

Krystal lifted her head, eyebrows raised, looking at Amber like she had gone insane.

Amber smiled, bending over and leaning her elbows on Krystal's shoulders as they looked at her in the mirror.

"What's the matter Princess? If you don't wanna go out it's alright with me. I was just suggesting..."

"N-No, it's not that...Just...uh, I-I lost one of my makeup brushes." Krystal lied lamely, looking down with a slight tinge  of pink on her cheeks.

"Do you really need specific brushes for everything though?" The tomboy asked. She took one glance at the makeup table and grabbed the nearest brush. "Here."

"Am w-what are you---"  "Shh, just lemme put the makeup on."

"I look...like a pearl?" The Princess repeated, carefully placing her cup down.

"Yeah. I know it's cheesy, but when people say that their loves look like pearls I think they're just talking about the idealization of a pearl, not the actual pearl itself. You see, when I look at you, everything about you is shining. Your hair, your eyes, your skin, you just seem to be one big huge ball of pure fluffy light. Whenever I reach out to touch your face, or your hair...Or even when I just hold your hand, I get so amazed that I can touch you, that you exist. Every time that amazes me, I always remind myself that you're not some perfect being though. That you have cracks and flaws and bad moments. But that just makes you even more of a pearl to me."

With a bright red face, Krystal prodded Amber to go on despite being embarassed at the constant attention. "R-Really?"

"Mmm hmm. You see, most pearls aren't found perfect like the movies make you think. It's rare to find a perfect pearl in the ocean, most of them are cracked and roughed up from other sea life trying to eat them thinking they're eggs. The clams that hold these pearls will all run away from the attacker, and leave the pearl defenseless in order to preserve their own selves. That's how it gets so roughed up. It's not the pearls fault, it's the clams that are supposed to protect it." Amber continued, stirring her almost-empy latte as she spoke. The more that she rambled on about the more retreated into her own thoughts she'd get, thinking about how her story related to her, and how she perserved herself and her injury despite knowing that Krystal would have a hard time without her.

"What do you think?" Amber asked, bright smile on her face. She'd taken about twenty minutes, continuously swiping the brush across Krystal's cheeks and lids.

The Princess opened her eyes, looking into the mirror. The first thing she noticed were her eyes, the usually hardened orbs looking soft and relaxed. She slightly raised her eyebrows, lips forming an "O".

"I...I look beautiful."  She said, completely lost in her reflection.

"Hehe, wanna know a secret? " Amber giggled, rocking back and forth on her heels, hoping her gorgeous girlfriend would agree.

"S-Sure." Krystal said, still out of it. Amber's grin faded into a soft, genuine smile as she wrapped her arms around the younger girl's shoulders, buttoning up her white polo shirt.

"I didn't put any makeup on your face."

When she finished, she took a large sip to finish off her drink, and was greeted by silence other than her childish slurping of the straw.

The tomboy lifted her head to see Krystal's bowed one, her long black hair covering her face. She smiled and reached across the table, brushing one side of her hair behind her shoulder. "Even though I had to leave, I knew you'd be fine. You may be shy, you may be insecure, but you're strong. You're so strong, it suprises me sometimes. I wish I was that strong."

Krystal looked up then, tears evident in her eyes but with a confused look. "What do you mean? Am, you're the one who's strong. You're the one that has tons of friends and great advice and never hate anyone no matter how much of a little they are."

Amber chuckled, nodding. "I am all those things. But only to you, Krys. I know everyone and am on friendly terms with them and everything, but they don't know any secrets or anything special about me. I get most of my advice out of my ; I speak from my heart, not my mind. And I tried hating people when I was younger, in high school, when I was constantly teased for how I looked, but it only made me sadder--not happier---so I stopped."

She leaned forward, pulling Krystal's hands from her lap and into her own. "I'm all those amazing things to you, but to myself, I'm nothing special. Just like you're all these things to me, but to you, you're nothing special. That's the point of being in love, Soojung. To find all the parts of you that you don't have."  

Leaning one hand up to wipe the tears that had escaped, Amber smiled at her, her eyes tender and gentle as they met Krystal's scared and disbelieving ones.

"Okay?"

Silence. Amber was used to the sound, it meant that Krystal was gathering her thoughts. She never was as good with her words as Amber was, not when it came to expressing them somewhere outside her head, anyway. "But that really is the point of being in love, isn't it?"

Amber shot up from her chair. "Let's go for a walk!"

"JESUS CHRIST AMBER DIDN'T YOU JUST GET OFF A FOURTEEN HOUR FLIGHT WHAT'S WITH YOU WANTING TO TRAVEL ALL AROUND KOREA ALL OF A SUDDEN."