A.N: I'm so so soooo sorry I've been so inactive on this story- I've been DEATHLY sick the past few weeks with strep throat, AND my GCSE mocks are starting next year...so yeah, I've been busy to say the least, both studying and wallowing in self-pity and my own fluids :-( But anyway...on with the story!!

A few weeks had passed since...that day, and I was feeling a pretty intense mix of emotions- I was glad that I had done what I had because Jong-dae and I were closer than ever before, but at the same time, I just couldn't shake the feeling that I'd made a horrible mistake. After all, I had just given up the one thing that was still sacred to me, and I would never get it back...but it was all for the best, right?

Before long, my two best friends in the world, Wendy and Young-ji, noticed something was up with my lack of texts to them, and I soon started receiving distressing messages such us:

Wendy: If you don't start responding soon, I'm gonna tell your mom that I think you're suicidal!

Wendy: ... You're not are you?

Young-ji: Kryssiiiieeeee answer meeeeeee

You get the idea.

It was on the last Friday of the summer holidays that the two girls nearly knocked my door down with their knocking before my mom let them in and then stood out of the way as they wooshed up the stairs and burst into my bedroom.

I blinked quickly before saying, "Wendy, Young-ji- what are you-"

"Something's up with you," Wendy said, panting, her hair hanging like a brown and blue curtain around her face, "You've never gone this long without talking to us!"

"I'm fine guys, really," I weakly attempted to reassure them, "I've just been wanting some time to myself-"

"Bullcrap!" declared Wendy.

Young-ji held up a bag from the local chocolate shop, announcing proudly, "We brought truth serum!"

Pretty soon we were all sitting on my bed, eating chocolate (well, Young-ji and I were eating chocolate, Wendy claims that it's the 'devil's food') and gossiping. I obviously couldn't tell them about me and Jong-dae's capade, so when they asked me for the fiftieth time that afternoon what was wrong, I ended up saying, "Wrong time of the month...every towel I use ends up looking like the Japanese flag..." to which Young-ji responded by shoving more chocolate in my mouth and Wendy by throwing her arms around me and my hair as she said, "I understand, I understand..."

I let them tell me all about all the irritating things they imagined Wendy's worst enemy, neighbourhood rebel Amber Liu, was getting up to, laughed at all the right parts, groaned at all the right parts, and went through all the usual motions of trying to cheer myself up. Obviously it didn't work that well, but it worked a bit.

When they had been up in my room for about three hours, Jessica knocked on my door and shouted, "Hey Krystal, Wendy's brother's here!"

Wendy groaned, "Ugh, he's already here?"

We all marched down the stairs to say goodbye to each other at the door as Ho-dong, Wendy's wheelchair-bound twin brother came to let Wendy know that their parents were getting anxious, which would inevitably lead to them call Young-ji's parents to make sure they were panicking enough. 

"Hi Ho-dong! How was your summer?" I asked Ho-dong cheerfully, trying not to look down at him too much.

He looked up at me with one raised eyebrow and said sarcastically, "Oh yeah, went rollerblading, waterskiing, learned to kickbox, you know, the usual stuff."

"Ho-dong, why do have to make people feel so awkward about your differently abled-ness?" Wendy asked him irritably before whispering in my ear, "Honestly, I don't know why you even try."

I waved them goodbye and then rushed back up to my room again to lie down for a bit, but barely had I closed the door when an intense wave of sickness washed over me like an ocean. I ran to my ensuite bathroom, my hand clapped over my mouth, and then threw up into the toilet. I stood up, wiping my mouth, and confused as to why, even though I had just been sick, I didn't feel any better. 

Looking at myself in the mirror, I ran through all the things that could be wrong with me: Okay, what involves puking...flu, norovirus, pregnancy, food-poisoning... 

Wait.

Pregnancy...

No, no, it couldn't be...no, stop being stupid, Krystal, you're not pregnant! No, that's impossible...