Part 1 - Chapter 5 (1/1)

The ride ended up being kind of awkward, for everyone but Amber, who drove and chatted with Kris, who rode shotgun. Somehow, she just mind-over-mattered the awkwardness away, though Kris kept nervously eyeing the rest of us in the rear-view mirror. To be fair, we were kind of staring at him. Once the game got started, things proceeded more naturally. Kris stuck to Amber like a baby duck to its mother – it was a little shocking that he didn't insist going to the bathroom with her, but I guess even stoic six-foot former baseball players have their limits. It was still obvious that Kris was much more comfortable talking with Amber. Maybe it was the fact that she didn't treat him like a fragile piece of glass that could shatter at any minute. Maybe it was just that undefinable Amber-charm. Looking back, I don't even think it was all romance – Amber was his anchor, and as long as he had her in his sights, he wouldn't get lost in the wave of emotions that baseball brought back. Though too many of us were underage or responsible for driving to make it a really wild evening, watching baseball (or hanging out with a baseball game in the background) was what our group did best, really, and we had a pretty fantastic time. Chanyeol dodged a bullet when the kiss-cam landed square on him and Sulli; instead of having to decide whether to go for it or not, Chen grabbed him from his other side for a pantomime of sloppy make-outs. We were all basically rooting for the Dodgers, possibly because Amber had provided enough LA hats for the entire group – though Sehun nearly had a crisis when Shin-Soo Choo (a favorite among all the Koreans in the group, actually) hit an RBI double to tie the game at 2-2. Tied still in the bottom of the ninth, I swear Amber mouthed the words 'home run', before the pitch even left Chapman's hand, but as soon a Puig's bat made contact, she knew for sure – not waiting to watch the ball fly over the right field wall, she grabbed me around the waist and lifted me into the air, almost depositing me in the row behind us in her excitement. When I yelled at her to put me down, she turned and jumped on Sehun's back, who piggy-backed her up and down the stairs about 100 million times before depositing her in front of Kris and collapsing into the nearest seat. Amber pulled on Kris's coat sleeve to bring his ear closer to her level, “Are you glad you came?” He just smiled.  But things seemed to go a little sour after that. Silent for most of the drive home, Kris managed to slink away back to solitude home at the apartment, while most of the rest of us continued to celebrate - now with beer for everyone – early into the morning. After that, all of us generally stayed in solitary hibernation for the rest of the weekend in order to recover. When Kris wasn't in class on Monday, I wasn't worried – Sehun or Tao were absent, too. Even Kai, who showed up to take notes for everyone, looked like he was in pretty rough shape. When he didn't show up on Wednesday, I was suspicious – Kai and Sehun just shrugged their shoulders when I asked, and I didn't feel like I knew Tao well enough to bug him about it. Of course, a lot of students skip class on Fridays, but at this point, I was more than just a little concerned. I asked Sehun again, who told me Tao told him that Kris hadn't left the apartment or spoken to anyone in days. I then asked if he had told Amber that, and he looked at me like I had three heads. Boys. So clueless. I decided it was time to overrule Mother Victoria's order to not pester Amber about Kris, so we ambushed her with the promise of a girls night in. It wasn't totally sketchy – Luna, of course, had made a tidy little profit through our betting ring, which meant that she was responsible for pizza, Franzia, and pie, because you know, we're a classy bunch. It's always better to broach these things when Amber's got a glass and a half of wine-from-a-box in her. Still, I anticipated her first reaction – flight – and had my hand on her sleeve to pull her back onto the couch. “Uh-uh, Amber. You can't escape the girl-talk this time.” “There's nothing to talk about. Every time I'm friends with a guy, you guys insist on making it this big imaginary romance, but Kris and I. Are. Just. Friends.” “Can I remind you that the last time you were just friends with someone, that you ended up giving them the silent treatment for months? Yeah, I wonder why we don't believe you.” “Henry and I WERE just friends. We lost touch for awhile, but it's all cool now.” I almost could've slapped her then. “Are you kidding me?! Are you really deluding yourself that much? It may be all cool for you now, but you broke Henry's heart, and you don't even have the decency to feel bad about it? I'm sure it's easier for you to pretend you don't have feelings, but when it hurts everyone else in your life, it just makes you selfish!” I sort of regretted the words as soon as I'd finished, not that they weren't completely true. Amber stood up and faced away from me, clenching her fists, “Krystal, if you're so worried about everyone else's feelings, then don't bother, because Kris hasn't talked to me in a week. And while you're at it, why don't you keep your nose out of my business.” She walked out and we heard the door to her room slam. “Well, that went well.” “Shut up, Sulli.” Amber never stays mad for long, but she's also shit at apologizing. The next morning, I was reading on the couch, when I felt a head lean against my shoulder. I pushed her off, but then she gave me these pathetic puppy-dog eyes. “Ugh, whatever.” She happily cuddled up against my side again. I sighed, “You know, Tao says Kris hasn't spoken to anyone in the last week. He also hasn't shown up to class, and maybe hasn't even left his apartment. It kind of sounds like your boyfriend is dealing with some serious issues.” I knew she was really sorry, when she didn't even protest me calling Kris her boyfriend. But even though she tensed up a little, she didn't say anything. “Look, because I'm the best friend ever in the whole world, I grabbed some of Kris's home-work out of the pile. It's a pretty good pretext for going over there.” Still nothing. “I can take it over there, and you can tag along with me?” After a long pause, she grabbed my hand and squeezed it. “Thanks, Krystal.” We waited for a few minutes after knocking before Xiumin came to the door, his hair a mess, and his face flushed. “Oh, Amber, are you here to see Kris? He's still not talking to me at all, but you're welcome to try your luck.” Xiumin opened the door to welcome us in, while Luhan appeared in an open doorway, with equally mussed hair and red cheeks. “Amber! Kick Kris's ass for me. And Xiumin, get back in here.” It wasn't exactly the most suggestive statement – but the way Xiumin's face got even redder was pretty incriminating. I couldn't help but raise my eyebrows a little – could Victoria and Sulli have been any farther off? Obviously, it was no surprise to Amber, who smiled, and patted Xiumin on the back. “You heard the man. We'll be fine here, no worries.” Xiumin got redder still (which I hadn't thought was possible), but waved and headed back to his room. I could see Amber's courage start to flag, and looked at her in disbelief. Was this the real Amber or some shy doppelganger? I shoved Kris's homework into her hands, and pushed her forwards. As timid as I've ever seen her, Amber shuffled towards a door I assumed belonged to Kris (it would be helpful and cute if they had little name signs on their doors like the 7 dwarves, but no such luck). She knocked. And knocked. And knocked again. No answer. Sighing, she leaned her head against door, “Hey, uh, I know you can hear me, because the doors in this place are pretty cheap. So, um, Krystal brought you your homework from class... and look, man, I'm sorry, ok? I shouldn't have bugged you so much about coming to the game. I should've... I just shouldn't have, I know, ok. Just... just talk to me. Whenever. Whenever you want. Just … please be ok.” Most of this speech was delivered in Amber's usual low-pitched 'Nah, brah' style, but the end, when she said, 'please be ok', her voice got all tiny and thin, and it just tugged every single one of my heartstrings. So when the door opened, and Kris (who, by the way, looked like exactly like a dude who hadn't seen sunlight or a shower in a week) grabbed the papers out of Amber's hand, and slammed the door shut without a word, I was about ready to bust the door down myself and claw the bastard's eyes out. Instead, Amber grabbed my arm (her posture was stiff, her face blank), and started walking towards the exit. I couldn't help myself, though and offered a parting thought as I was dragged away. “I am going to fail you Kris Wu! I'm going to grade your homework so hard, you asshole! And then I'm going to lose your final exam! You're going to regret this!” Not my finest, or most intimidating moment, I suppose. But it made Amber smile, so that was something. Kris dodged failing Integrated Studies Curriculum - Introduction to the Biological Sciences 101 by getting his act together several days later. At the time, the boys obliquely referenced something that I think may have been some kind of legendary and very literal ass-kicking, but when asked, they all clammed up and cited some kind of 'guy code'. Which is hilarious because usually they're the biggest gossips, like, ever. Whatever happened behind Apartment M's closed doors, Kris walked into our place without knocking, which really, was pretty ballsy for a dude who otherwise looked like a guilty puppy with his tail tucked between his legs. All five of us were splayed out across the living room, but several of the guys had been inviting themselves in for a few weeks now, so we didn't think anything in particular of hearing someone come in the door. When it was Kris who came in from the entryway, I was pretty impressed with how cool we were about it, actually. Sulli yelped a little, before covering her mouth with her hand, but other than that we gave him four sets of vaguely menacing stares, while Amber, who was sitting on the couch, remained oblivious. When she finally noticed the icy silence in the room, she looked up to see Kris who was walking slowly toward her, and her eyes got big. They both looked like deer in the headlights, actually, and neither of them seemed up to saying anything, so I took pity on them. “Kris. Would you like to sit down?” His head snapped back towards me suddenly, as if he had forgotten that there were other people in the room, but he gave me a little nod and wave. The fact that Kris liked Amber enough to be nice to me was just the cutest thing ever. He quickly turned back towards her, and settled himself a safe distance away on the couch, his long legs sticking up awkwardly, since the couch was more sized for us, than for Kris's 6-foot-plus-something frame. Sticking his hand into his jacket, he pulled out two beers (in glass bottles, even, which is pretty fancy for our crowd). After opening them by knocking them somehow on the side of our coffee table (which we all fangirled admitted later, was extremely cool, even though it kind of ruined our table), and wordlessly handed one to Amber. When she took it from him the four of us let our a collective breath we had forgotten we had been holding, which of course, was loud, and completely not subtle. We tried to be cool, but after I made eye contact with Sulli, she couldn't hold it in any longer, and burst out laughing. Amber cracked up next, at which point we were all lost, so the next five minutes were occupied with rolling on the floor laughter, which had the fortunate effect of releasing all the pent up tension. Things were quiet for a bit, after that. Kris seemed to be dedicated to his mission of being a less shitty friend to Amber, and showed up at our place semi-frequently. He never said a lot when we were around, but we appreciated the gesture, and were on our best behavior – which meant absolutely no giggling, according to Victoria's rules. But of course, the next crisis was unavoidable. Conveniently enough, Halloween fell on the same night as Game 7 of the World Series, which meant a giant party for many vague acquaintances and complete strangers was being held at apartment K. Amber was dressed in an incredibly accurate mid-90s Mike Piazza Dodgers uniform replica (though she had managed to rub off the mustache I drew on her with eyeliner within five minutes), and was holed up in the second TV room, which she declared a Dodgers fan only zone. I, of course, being a Giants fan who tended to cheer against the Dodgers (especially when I knew it would piss Amber off), was summarily excluded, so I had to do my best with the other half of our friends, and a bunch of strangers dressed as 'zombie frat boys' and sexy-whatevers. There was dance music on, but the TV still had the game on in their main room, so I could see that the Dodgers were only a couple outs away from winning the World Series when Kai leaned over and whispered in my ear that his real name was Jong-in. I kind of wanted to tell him that my real name was Soo-Jung, but we don't always get what we want, so I told him instead that I was still his TA. In retrospect, I realized that it could have been interpreted as either 'I like you, but we can't right now' or 'I'll fail you if you don't stop hitting on me', but actually, that's kind of bad-ass, even if it was unintentional. The whoops and cheers that erupted from the other room told me that the Dodgers just won their first World Series since before most of us were born. As my eyes passed briefly over the doorway, I swore I saw Kris bent down with his hands on Amber's shoulders and his lips pressed against hers.  But when I looked back again, he was just standing there, alone.  Note: Hooray, drama! The next chapter will not have a 100 scenes it. It will probably just have one scene - a long conversation.