Another sleepless night.
Only this time, Amber wasn't afraid to close her eyes. She tried so hard to fall asleep, but every time her mind wandered back to Krystal. And not necessarily Krystal herself, but she started to question the whole idea of life. If vampires existed, did that mean other mythological creatures did too? She was lied to her whole life and she hadn't even known. If vampires really existed, and this wasn't some cruel joke, then what was their life like? How did they live? Did they live average days as normal human beings, in a nice house with bills to pay? Did they have careers? Or did they hide in the forest to lurke at unknowingly bypassers? Did they only like human blood, or animal blood too? Did they still like human food? Did it poison them or did it just disgust them? You'd think human food would either be really disgusting or poisonous for them to choose blood over normal food, right? And what about the fangs? If they lived normal lives, did they hide their fangs? And what about strengths? In the myths vampires were pictures as creatures with incredible strength. Did Krystal have the power to rip her apart, limb for limb? Or did vampires have more special gifts, like in Twilight? Did they have fast speed?
It was confusing, but she couldn't set herself to not think about it anymore. She had always been a curious person; she loved to learn. She wanted to know if there were other vampires, or if it was just Krystal. She wanted to know all the answers to the questions above. More than all, she wanted Krystal to visit again. Because even though the girl had scared the crap out of her, she also had this quiet, closed-off air about her that Amber wanted to explore.
When Amber emerged from her room around half past 8 — she didn't want to raise suspision by getting out earlier — she tried to secretly sneak to the bathroom to fix her face. Two sleepless nights in a row had left its impression on her skin and there were now big dark circles underneath her eyes. She didn't want the members to see them. They'd worry for sure.
She opened the door to the bathroom and stumbled almost right into Luna's arm. Amber tried to look away, but she already saw the shorter girl's eyebrows frown deeply. She had forgotten that Luna never locks the door whilst applying make-up.
"You told me you'd be fine!" she hissed quietly. Amber ran with her hand through her hair; she didn't dare to look at her friend.
"Yeah, well, I tried to sleep and such but, you know, I kept thinking.." she mumbled softly. Luna placed her hands on her hips and huffed.
"About that vampire? Amber, you told me you'd be fine tonight! I thought it was a one time thing," she said annoyedly. Amber sighed.
"Yeah, it was, I swear," she replied. "I'll promise everything will be alright tonight."
"Yes, because you'll be staying with me," Luna said strictly. The shorter girl looked up at Amber with a look that said she didn't want to hear any 'but's'. "Now fix your eyes. You look like shit."
A little smile appeared on the shorter girl's face. Amber smiled back, glad Luna wasn't really mad at her, and chuckled for a bit. Luna stepped away from the doorway and let Amber pass into the bathroom.
A little make-up performs miracles, Amber thought, when she got out from the bathroom again. The dorm started to live up a little, now it was almost nine o'clock. The door to Sulli's bedroom was still closed, but she heard Luna's favourite song play from the kitchen and she heard Victoria practise her lines in the living room. Amber went back to her room to change her clothes. Krystal was still in present in the back of her head, but she tried to not think about her anymore. Hopefully her friends could distract her a little bit.
Soojung was pacing through the room, turning and twisting, her mind occupied.
"Just sit down and relax for a moment, you're making me nervous," Sooyeon said. Her sister laid on the bed, with her eyes closed, so Krystal didn't understand why how the other girl could feel nervous. She didn't sleep though, they never slept, but Sooyeon loved just laying down on the soft pillows and doing nothing. The bed smelled like old people, so Soojung barely ever laid on it. It was disgusting, really.
"I'm just standing," Soojung replied. Sooyeon lifted her head, opened one eye and chuckled.
"Yeah sure, and I'm bungee jumping. You're pacing around; you have been pacing around the room for the last few hours without saying anything. What's up? Normally you don't get up from the couch until it's time to go hunting."
Soojung sighed and let her fingers go through her hair. It fell back exactly the same way, which annoyed her. Stupid hair, why wouldn't it change?
"It's nothing," she simply said, before sitting down on the couch, like Sooyeon had implied. Her sister wasn't entirely wrong though; Soojung had been a bit unfocussed. After her meet-up with Amber and her fight with Sooyeon, she just couldn't stop thinking about the possibility to have more than one friend, a human friend. It was a weird dilemma. A lioness would never befriend her prey, but somehow, it seemed really appealing. It went against all odds, but that's the thing that made it appealing. Maybe Soojung also wanted to prove it that this could work out, unlike what Sooyeon had claimed. Getting close to a human is asking for trouble... Maybe she just wanted some trouble in her life. It was boring as hell.
"You're thinking about that human again," Sooyeon concluded grumpily. Soojung didn't look up. Why did her sister know her so well?
"Amber," she corrected. "Her name is Amber."
"So? She's a human. Don't go near her. I won't say it a third time, Soojung."
The brunette signed and closed her eyes for a bit.
"I guess you're right," she sighed. She heard Sooyeon stand up from the bed — the springs creaked — and she felt the pillows next to her slump. Sooyeon's hand was cold on her shoulder.
"It's for the best," her sister said. Soojung sighed again.
Two weeks had passed and Amber had gone back into her normal sleeping scedule. Krystal only barely visited her thoughts and she had almost forgotten about the weird happenings from a while ago. After spending a few nights with Luna, and not seeing Krystal, she decided that it had been a hallucination after all, like Victoria had said. It had been fun to think about the possibility of vampires existing, but she had to push those ideas away now.
The f(x) scedule also started to get busier and busier. She didn't have time to think about the supernatural anymore. The promotion pictures of Red Light had just gone out and the girls were preparing for their comeback. That meant a lot of studio hours, a few weeks of intensive dancing classes, a new hair colour, new clothes, a lot of photoshoots and the filming of their new music video.
Amber's busy scedule made her forget about Krystal entirely. Sometimes she still found herself dreaming about the white face, but she always pushed it away quickly. She just had to concentrate on other stuff; she was too busy to be wondering about the supernatural. f(x)'s activities were tiring her out, but she also enjoyed them more than ever. The group was loved, the fans were waiting patiently for their music video to release in a month. There'd be a new album that they were busy editing at the moment. With that came the interviews and the performances. Amber always got such a rush out of performing. It was one of the best things in the world, to stand on stage, showing the dance and singing the song you had spend months on to perfectionate it... and hearing the crowd go wild. It wasn't hard to understand that Amber was excited for Red Light to come out.
At the moment, they were busy practising the choreography. It technically wasn't a hard choreo to master, but they most of the time was spend at perfectioning the dance. Moving exactly at the same time was diffecult and the group choreography needed to look great.
It was about half past ten when Victoria finally called it a day. They had been recording since early in the morning until an hour or 4. Today's turn was Dracula, but even after all those hours, they were only half past the song. It was a diffecult one, that needed a lot of attention. She had heard their manager say it needed a lot of special sound effects that they wouldn't let the girls hear just yet.
After that, they went to the dance studio. Their teacher had been there the first three hours, after that Victoria proposed that they should train on themselves. Amber had thought their leader had meant until 8 o'clock maybe, but Victoria turned out to be even harser than their dancing instructor. She agreed that the dancing needed more work, but still though... she was tired as hell.
Luna moaned loudly and laid down on the ground. Sulli soon let her head rest upon Luna's back.
"Don't do that, I'm sweaty," she shorter girl mumbled. Sulli just 'hmm'ed in response and closed her eyes. Victoria was looking at the couple and slowly shook her head. Despite the grin on her face, she noticed that their leader was just as tired as they were. She was dabbing her face with a towel and drank water from her waterbottle in big gulps.
"I'm hungry," Sulli eventually said. "Does anyone have any food?"
"You aren't supposed to eat so late, your face will get bloated," Victoria answered. Sulli opened her eyes and shot her an 'I-don't-care' look. Amber agreed with Sulli; she was really hungry.
"I can get some. There was a 24/7 convenience store nearby, I thought," she offered. Luna didn't move, only lifted her thumb to show she agreed too. Sulli started to grin and pleadingly look at Victoria. She squinted her eyes for moment.
"Please please please please, Qian!" Sulli whined. "My belly won't take it anymore! It even hurts!"
Victoria sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Only if you get me some of those gummy bears," she eventaully said. Sulli squeeled of happiness, then pointed her pleading look at Amber.
"Amber-unnie, will you get it?"
The maknae pouted her lips cutely at her and Amber rolled her eyes.
"Sure, why not," she said. "Anyone else wanna come?"
She had hoped that Luna would agree with her, but her best friend still laid face-flat on the ground, not moving. Luna didn't even reply to her call. Amber huffed. The other members complained slightly. Seemed like she was all on her own on this one.
Victoria reached into her purse to get some money. Amber took it and left the studio, still butt-hurt that no one wanted to come with her.
It was cold outside, even though summer was on its way. She only wore her sweaty tank-top and that was less pleasant now that there was a chilly wind starting to set up. It had been hot as balls outside all week long, but now it just seemed weirdly cool tonight. Amber wrapped her arms around her waist to keep herself from shuddering. She decided to walk a little faster. The convenience store should just be around the corner...
She was flooded with warmth once she got into the store. A relieved sigh left her lips when the goosebumps on her arms started to fade. Amber took a cart and started to take her stroll around the store.
A quarter later she stood outside again, with a bag full of snacks. It was their way to resist against the strict diets of their label and all the hours of hard work. Sometimes, a girl just gotta eat some junkfood, you know? Amber had managed to score some bottles of soju — even though Sulli wasn't of age yet — two bags of chips, Luna's favourite cookies and not to forget Victoria's gummy bears. Satisfied and quite some money lighter, Amber started to walk back towards the dancing studio.
It was a ten minute trip, but Amber had paid attention well when she came to the convenience store. She was one hundred percent sure that she could cut off a piece of the route to decrease the time she'd spend walking. Well, okay, maybe not one hundred percent... Eighty maybe...? Sixty percent, probably. But she still wanted to try it.
She walked into a dark alley, keeping her bag with groceries close to her body. Amber walked a little faster. Even though the dark forest hadn't scared her one bit — okay, Krystal had scared her, but the darkness hadn't — she did feel a bit nervous now. She set in a faster pace.
Amber had almost reached the building when a sudden voice made her jump up. She let her bag fall, and the sharp pangof broken glass filled the alley.
"Didn't you bring your girlfriend?"
Amber spun around on her heels to face a person she hadn't seen in quite a while anymore. Two deep, black eyes were pointed at her. The white face seemed to glow in the darkness.
"I-I.. what?" Amber stuttered.
"The short-haired girl. Who recently got her hair dyed blue," Krystal explained. Amber blinked her eyes confusedly. Then it hit her that she meant Luna. A chuckle left her lips.
"Luna's not my girlfriend," she said. Krystal raised her one of her eyebrows and crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"What do you care anyway?" Amber asked jokily. Krystal's gaze shifted away from her eyes, back to the ground. She took a step foreward, away from the shadow that the high buildings across them let fall onto the alley. Amber could feel that this wasn't a question she liked to answer.
"How do you know she dyed her hair anyway?" Amber asked. Krystal looked up. She frowned her eyebrows together and let her arms drop by her side. The girl bit her lip, staying quiet.
"Have you been watching us?" Amber asked softly. Krystal didn't look up, neither said anything. The silence said enough though, and Amber needn't to hear no more.
She couldn't exactly describe how it made her feel. Scared, defenitely, knowing that a creature like Krystal kept watching her and her friends. Not only was her life at stake now, but also Luna's and probably Victoria's and Sulli's too. She didn't want to endanger her friends like that. Amber herself didn't matter; she had already made peace with death, but Sulli still had a whole life in front of her, Victoria beginning acting career and Luna was busy writing songs and composing because she wanted to go solo one day maybe.
But at the same time, she was also intrugued. Why has Krystal been watching her? If she had wanted to eat her, to suck out her blood and kill her, she could've done so many times. Amber had been alone at night more than once these past few weeks and Krystal had had enough opportunites to kill her. She couldn't help to play with the thought that Krystal didn't really want to kill her.
And the silence. It almost seemed that Krystal was ashamed of what she had done. Amber surpressed the urge to step foreward too, to show the other girl it was okay. It actually didn't feel creepy at all. It was weirdly admiring. Maybe she was also a little bit glad that Krystal showed interest in her.
"The last time we met... I said we'd meet again when you made up your mind whether you wanted to eat me or not..."Amber said softly. Krystal's head jerked up. Their eyes met and the taller girl nodded slowly.
"Yes..." she said. Amber had almost forgotten how angelic her voice sounded. It was almost ironic; an angelic voice for a blood sucking monster. How can God be so cruel?
"Have you made your decision?" Amber continued. Krystal bit her lip again and let out a sigh. There was another silence, a silence which seemed to last forever. Amber could feel her heart starting to beat faster and faster. If Krystal now unexpectedly told her she actually came here to kill her, her life would be over for good.
Krystal's gaze shifted up, until their eyes met again. Amber forced herself to keep looking into those dark eyes. The moonlight made them sparkle quite beautifully.
"You're stupid, but I won't kill you," Krystal eventually said.
Amber couldn't help it to laugh relieved. She ran with her hand through her hair and grinned widely. Even thoughs he wasn't afraid of death; she was still happy to live on.
"So.. does that mean we'll see each other more often?" she asked curiously. Krystal blinked surprisedly a few times, but then a small smile crept up on her face.
"Maybe, Stupid," she replied.
Soojung had helped to clear the mess Amber had made because of her and showed her the way to the right building. Amber had probably want to cut off from her normal route, Krystal had figured out, but she had completely taken the wrong way. She'd probably would've gotten lost if it wasn't for her.
She watched the short haired brunette go her way and she stayed in her mind a long time after that.
Six weeks. That was the time Soojung had managed to stay quiet. Sooyeon had adviced her upon staying in their house; she'd bring her, her prey so they could drink together. At first, Soojung had agreed with Sooyeon. If she was drawn to Amber that much, it was best to stay away as long as possible. Distancing yourself from someone made weird feelings go away. Eventually, if she stayed in long enough, she wouldn't want to drop by Amber anymore.
Oh, how wrong she had been.
In fact, Sooyeon's plan drove her mad. She had to stay in their house for five weeks long. Not allowed to get out and hunt or go to any other place. She was trapped in a too small cage and with every passing day, Soojung started to fight more against the person that kept her trapped; Sooyeon. She knew her sister meant well, but she wanted to get out.
Eventually, Sooyeon allowed her to go back hunting again. It worked for a week or so; to just hunt and leave Amber alone. But eventually the urge had gotten too much. She needed to see her.
Soojung had watched Amber for a few days before she wanted to make her move. It had surprised her how often she was around the blue-haired girl, called Luna. Even though Amber was with the other two all the time too, she seemed to have a special connection with Luna. They teased each other, they slept together in each other's bed, they made each other breakfast...
Krystal had wanted to stay away longer, but jealousy had taken control of her body and forced her to go to Amber earlier than she had actually planned to. Now that she had finally spoken to Amber, she didn't understand how she could've kept herself locked up all those weeks. Talking to Amber was liberating; as if she was just a normal human. It was addicting, to feel normal.
She defenitely planned on coming back.
