June 13, 2005 Los Angeles

“Mom when is dad coming?” 

“He’ll be here; he just texted that there is some traffic but it’s not really that bad, so go to your team before you’re kicked off and put on the bench.” Amber’s mom laughed. 

“Ha they can’t kick me off! I’m there ace!”  Amber said proudly and ran back to her team. Today was her home game at her school, her team has been practicing nonstop especially because there were going to be scouts coming. 

“Ah I’m so ready to play now! Hey can we hurry this up.” A girl named Luna yelled. 

“Calm down Luna you’re going to scare the scouts away.” 

Luna looked at Amber with jealousy, “Amber you don’t even have to worry about the scouts not picking you, you’re like a whole different level from us. You’re like LeBron James but 1000x better.” 

“That’s not true Luna, every single one of us have potential to prove to the scouts that we are awesome.”

“But your dad being David Liu gives you such an advantage. He’s the best of the best.” 

Amber knew that what Luna was saying was true. Her dad, David Liu was respected everywhere he went. He was a huge basketball hero when he was young. He was everywhere, magazines, tv, billboards and even on the front of cereal boxes. He made his debut at 17 years old in Taiwan and then went to Korea and the U.S, but then retired at 34 to start a family with Amber’s mom, Mei-Xing Liu who is also known for her hand made coffee flavors. Amber sighed, “Well I guess you’re right, I wish for them to see me as another talent and not the daughter of David Liu, even though I love the old man. 

“Specking of your dad is he not coming to see you play basketball?”

“He’s in traffic, but he’ll be here soon.” Amber smiled. “Come on lets go kick some .” 

Amber was playing center and Luna was playing forward. The referee blew the whistle and the ball was knocked to the opponent’s side. Luna was the shortest of the team which gave her a disadvantage but that did not stop her. Luna ran to block the girl who had the ball, she was at least 6 inches taller than she was and pushed her down with her shoulder and made her way to the hoop. Amber was ready, actually more ready than anything else she let out a smile at her opponent as she came closer and as if the time stopped Amber stole the ball underneath her hands, her opponent with eyes getting wider was to slow for Amber. The opponent turned around two seconds later and while that time Amber scored from the tree pointer line. Everyone screamed at of their seats. Amber turned to the girl with confusion in her eyes. 

“How-w did you do that so fast? Her opponent stuttered. 

Amber just smiled at her, “I just love playing basketball.” 

 Halftime ended with the score being 3-4. 

“Damn it if that girl didn’t make that penalty I could of scored.” Luna cried with frustration. 

“Haha don’t worry we still have another half.” Amber patted her back. “Anyway we have to come up with another plan, that other team is one point ahead of us. Amber gathered her team. “#11 on that team is really good, she’s the one who made those three scores, we need to try to block her as much as possible. 

“But Amber you’re the only one who can defend really well, but you’re playing center so I guess that’s sort of hard for you.” A girl named Hyuna spoke. 

“Then I should change my position. Who wants to switch with me?” 

. . .

 Huh so no one wants to switch ha. ha. Amber thought.

Amber looked at her team and spotted the perfect person. “How about you Sulli?” 

“HUH?!?!?” the whole team cried out. 

“What? I think Sulli would make the perfect person to score.” Amber looked at Sulli for her reply. 

“I-I don’t think I will be able to score Amber.” Sulli looked down 

“Yeah she’s right Amber, even though we all love Sulli she can’t score she better off in the middle field.” A girl named Lily pleaded. 

Amber stared hard at her teammates. “This is not how a team should be… we should all support each other and trust one another, if we can’t we won’t succeed. Sulli might not be strongest but she has the power within her to make a shot. I believe in her. We all should.”

Sulli stared with tears in her eyes at Amber. “Thank you Amber for trusting me, but I don’t want our team to lose, we’ve been practicing hard. I don’t want to just throw that away with my awful play. 

Amber grabbed Sulli by the shoulders with a hard grip. “You stupid girl don’t pretend that you’re a bad shooter. I’ve seen you practicing these weeks and you improved a lot! You love basketball right? Then show me what you got for this team!” 

“Hey Amber, calm down let her go.” Luna tried to pull Amber off Sulli. 

Sulli was in shock, she didn’t realize that Amber knew that she was practicing afterschool. Sulli felt her tears coming down her face and thought, what’s the point of having a weak player on a team? I have to be able to be of use for something. 

“Hey Sulli don’t worry about it so much just pretend like your practicing alone, you’ll surely make a shoot.” Luna said and with the rest of her teammates and gave her a hug. 

“Okay. I’ll score a ball.” Sulli with a more determination in her eyes spoke.

“That’s the Sulli I want to see for now on. That side of you is the most beautiful. Amber hugged Sulli. “Oh and sorry I had a hard grip on you.”

“It’s okay, let’s go play some ball.” 

Amber went to her position, forward. She looked at the bleachers and saw that both her parents weren’t there. They must be getting some more food from the stands. She thought.

 The whistle blew and Amber snatched away the ball from player 11 and passed it to Luna who was also forward. Luna quickly with her short legs dribbled it to player 9 on her team but then got stolen by player 11 and ran to the hoop Amber blocked her and stole the ball but Amber paused. She completely froze and couldn’t move.

 “Huh? I thought you were good, you’re just another useless player.” Player 11 whispered and quickly dribbled to the hoop

My hearts hurts…

 Amber quickly trying to shake off the pain ran to player 11 and whispered, “Who are you calling useless?” 

Player 11 looked at Amber straight in her eyes and saw the scariest determination in them. Amber took the ball and passed the ball to Sulli. Sulli passed two other opponent players and jumped up to the basket. 

BZZZZ SCORE 

“You did it Sulli!”

“I knew you could do it!” 

Sulli was so happy that she began to tear up. “It’s all thanks to Amber for believing in me.” She ran up and gave her a hug. 

Amber smiled, “I knew you could do it.” 

“Amber are you alright you stopped in the middle of the game?” Luna questioned. 

“Yeah uh I just felt a little sick, haha probably because I didn’t eat breakfast.” Amber ran to the bleachers but couldn’t spot her parents. Where are they?

 Amber kept looking but couldn’t spot them.

 “Hey everybody gather around the trophy so I can take a picture!” yelled the coach. 

“Excuse me...”

 Amber turned around and saw a middle age man wearing a suit. 

“Yes?” 

I’m Si Mi-Sook, I’m a representative from Korea and I had high expectations from you, Miss Liu. I was surely amazed by how you played today. You are surely David Liu’s daughter, even at 13 you play like a pro. I would like you and that young lady right there to be able to attend our school in Korea. 

“Huh? Me?” 

“Yes, what’s your name?”

‘Sulli… Choi Sulli.” 

“Oh you’re Korean? Well that’s a surprise I would love for you two to be able to attend our school in Korea.” 

Amber looked at Sulli and both smiled. “Here’s my card, I’ll wait for your call.”

“AHHHH! I can’t believe it you two got in!” Luna came and hugged both of them. “We’re so proud of you two!” yelled the team. 

“No bad feelings right?...” Amber asked.

“Yeah no harsh feelings at all, I already knew I wasn’t going to make it anyways. I have short legs.” Luna laughed.

“but never give up, okay?”  Amber hugged Luna.

“Of course, I will never quit.” 

Amber went to grab her phone at of her bag to call her mom. “Mom where are you and Dad, I have some great news I got scou-“  Amber heard someone crying threw the phone. “Mom? Mom what’s wrong? Where are you?” 

“Amber your dad… he had a car accident.” 

Amber stared blankly at the ground. She couldn’t progress what her mom was saying. “What?” 

“Amber stay where you are. I’m going to pick yo- “

Amber dropped her phone making her mom not finish what she was going to say. She ran to the bus stop and saw the bus time hanging on the bench seal. “Damn. In 15 minutes?” She spirited through the crowd of people on the sidewalks and made it to the hospital. She looked around but couldn’t spot her mom. “Mom!” she screamed. 

“Miss, please don’t yell.” A nurse worried. 

“My dad… where’s my dad?” She fell down on her knees and cried. “My heart hurts.”

“Amber!” 

Amber looked up and saw her mom call her. She got up with red eyes and sweat coming down her face. Mrs. Liu held onto her daughter not wanting her to go into the room. “Is he okay? Can I go in? Please tell me he’s okay!” Mrs. Liu let go of Amber and sat down. 

“Your father passed away.” 

Amber ran to the room where her dad was and saw the bloody mess that was on him. “DAD WAKE UP! ITS ME AMBER. YOUR STILL THERE RIGHT, STOP JOKING AROUND AND GET UP. GUESS WHAT WE WON OUR GAME TODAY AND I GOT SCOUTED, THE GUY SAID I CAN GO TO A SCHOOL IN KOREA, DAD!” Amber held onto his hand covered in blood and cried painfully. “Dad my dream came true today. You said that you would be there at my first professional game… you woldn—t li-e right?” She looked at him waiting for his answer, but he didn’t speak, he didn’t move. She stood up and stayed silent for a while. She looked up and saw the heart monitor. “Mom? When there’s a straight line on that, doesn’t it mean that the person died?” Her mom didn’t answer and only cried. “I see. Then I guess we lost a great man today.” Amber kissed her mom on her forehead and sat outside the door. She looked up at the celling and remembered how her dad was the one who introduced her to basketball. The person who always helped improve her skills. The person who always cheered her on to never give up. The person that was now gone. 

“Lets go home hun.” Mrs. Liu came out of the room and held her hand out for Amber.  

“Can’t I stay here?”

“You need some rest we will come tomorrow, besides the paparazzi will be coming anytime now and I really don’t want to handle them.”

“I don’t care about them. I want to stay with dad.” 

Mrs. Liu let out a sigh and sat right next to her daughter. “You can cry, Amber.”

Amber leaned her head on her mom’s shoulder and closed her eyes. “I wish I could, but the tears aren’t coming out anymore.”