Krystal had endured many challenges over the last year, but none of them seemed to bring her as much suffering as the current task at hand. As Krystal stood in the kitchen of her parents' home, her face covered in flour, Krystal felt that this would likely be the first and last time she would ever bake a cake with Amber's "help".
Krystal wiped her cheek with the back of her hand and scowled at Amber, who had smeared the flour on her face in the first place. Her hand came away with a thick layer of white powder on it and she wondered how much more flour was still stuck on her face. The younger girl turned an icy glare at Amber, but the older girl merely smiled in return.
"Are you gonna add more chocolate to the batter or not?" Amber asked, extending her flour-coated fingers threateningly at Krystal in case the younger girl refused again.
"You really think putting more flour on my face is gonna change my mind?" Krystal asked in a dangerously calm tone. "That's not how this works."
"Oh really?" Amber rubbed her floury fingertips together with a mischievous smirk. "Care to test your theory?"
"Only if you want to feel my fist in your face," Krystal coolly retorted. "You know I'd do it, and I'd do it with a smile."
"You sadist."
"Takes one to know one." Krystal stood across the table from Amber with her fist raised, daring Amber to try and approach her with her flour-coated fingers.
"Fine, I give up," Amber said meekly even though she knew that Krystal would never seriously hit her with the intention of inflicting pain. Her princess's past fits of physical violence had always been performed in jest, and Amber actually liked that aspect of their playful relationship. Amber lowered her hands with the guise of calling a truce, but in the instant that it took for Krystal to turn her head and reach for a towel to wipe off her face, Amber darted around to Krystal's side of the table with a devilish grin. "Nevermind, I'll risk that punch to the face."
The older girl quickly pinned Krystal's arms to her sides in a powerful, one-armed hug, and then used her free hand to smear more flour across Krystal's previously flour-free forehead. Krystal struggled and squealed and tried as hard as she could to hit Amber like she had threatened, but Amber's defense was impenetrable.
"More chocolate!" Amber demanded with an evil laugh as she ran her snowy fingers over Krystal's face. "Put more chocolate into the batter!"
"Stop it, stupid!" Krystal cried, struggling to free herself. "I'll add more chocolate, just let me go!"
Amber let out a victory cheer as she released Krystal from her hold, but the cheer was short-lived as Krystal quickly pelted Amber in the face with a small handful of flour.
"Hey," Amber sputtered, shaking flour out of her hair. "But you said you'd add more chocolate..."
"You were the one who lied first," Krystal pointed out, sticking out her tongue at the older girl. She steeled her heart against Amber's pitiful pout. "If you want more chocolate, ask me nicely or you get nothing."
"Fine... please, oh glorious Princess-nim to whom I have the honor of serving." Amber bent at the waist and bowed a full 90 degrees to Krystal, who watched the act with an amused smile on her face. "Your loyal servant humbly begs that you kindly add more chocolate to the cake batter." The older girl raised her head slightly and looked up at Krystal with a serious expression. "Should I kiss your feet now or something?"
The younger girl smirked. "A kiss on the lips should suffice." Amber did as her princess asked and the two girls shared a warm kiss. "Was that so hard?" Krystal wondered as she added more chocolate to the cake mix with a smile.
Krystal was acting annoyed with Amber's antics, but in reality she was quite relieved to see that Amber was finally back to her normal self. The older girl had spent much of the last few weeks mourning the loss of her beloved dog, Gongju. Even though Amber had forced herself to continue on through the pain, Krystal could see that Amber struggled at times to move forward. It was only somewhat recently that Krystal could see a more genuine happiness return to Amber's eyes, and she knew that tonight's celebration was helping to increase Amber's good mood.
The cake that they were baking together was for f(x)'s low-key but meaningful 6th anniversary celebration. Victoria was flying back from China at this very moment especially for tonight. It was only naive Luna who was unaware of their anniversary plans, and who was therefore the target of their surprise party. Luna was performing in her musical tonight and the f(x) members hoped to surprise her with the cake after the show ended, bringing the four f(x) members back together for the first time since their successful performance in London.
"OK!" Krystal announced, whisking the extra chocolate into the dry ingredients. "Now we need some eggs."
Amber eagerly jumped to her feet and raised her hand. "I'll help!"
"Oh no you don't." Krystal shook her head and pointed a finger at Amber. "No more 'help' from you. Sit."
"Let me help," Amber whined, coming over to the younger girl and nudging shoulders with her. "I'm good at helping."
"Just keep your hands to yourself," Krystal laughed as she walked over to the refrigerator.
Amber responded by placing a kiss on Krystal's nose. "How about my lips?" she wondered cheekily. "You didn't say I had to keep my lips to myself."
"You're being quite bratty today, you know that?" Krystal observed as she opened the refrigerator. "What's gotten into you?"
"Today is f(x)'s 6th anniversary," Amber explained, placing another kiss on Krystal's cheek. "Six years ago, after we officially debuted, I finally let myself believe that I would get to see a lot more of you over the next few years. I imagined all the time we would spend practicing and performing together in the future and it felt like a dream come true. Today's a pretty meaningful day for me."
Krystal turned away from Amber with a smile and pulled two eggs out of their carton. "Did you imagine all the time you would spend teasing me and playing tricks on me, too?" she joked.
"Yeah, I did," Amber admitted, much to Krystal's surprise. "I imaged sitting in long car rides with you to get to our next schedules, I imagined filming music videos and recording songs with you... I even imagined what it would be like to have you fall in love with me and what it would be like to kiss you, Jung Soojung. And I'm grateful that I don't have to imagine any of that now."
Krystal closed the refrigerator and turned to find Amber standing extremely close to her with the most gentle of expressions on her face. The younger girl smiled warmly at her girlfriend, touched by the affection in Amber's words and in her gaze. "You're sweet, Am, you know that?"
"First you accuse me of being a sadist and now you call me sweet. Make up your mind, will you?" Amber joked. She stepped towards Krystal and reached out to pull her into a hug.
"Hey hey," Krystal chided playfully. She stepped back and leaned against the refrigerator. "You promised to keep your hands to yourself, remember? I'm trying to bake here."
"No problem, I don't need my hands for this," Amber whispered in a low voice, gazing at Krystal with a kind of hunger that didn't seem conducive to baking. The hands that had reached out for a hug now placed themselves gently against the wall on either side of Krystal's waist, trapping the younger girl in place without touching her. Amber held Krystal's gaze as she leaned in closer and kissed her softly so that only their mouths touched. With Krystal's eyes tightly closed as they kissed, all she could feel was the warmth and softness of Amber's lips against her own.
The dreamily happy smile on Amber's face as they pulled apart from the gentle kiss caused Krystal to feel suddenly shy and she found herself asking Amber, "What's it like to kiss me?"
"Hmm?"
"You said you thought about kissing me since our debut. Does the real thing live up to your expectations?"
Amber nodded vigorously in response. "The real thing is better than I imagined," she confessed without hesitation. "Kissing you is soft and sweet... like eating cotton candy or biting into a strawberry. Every kiss is just... delicious."
Amber's description of her kisses made Krystal's heart flutter with pleasure. But the sweetness of Amber's words was also quite embarrassing and the younger girl tried to laugh off the comment. "That's so cliché," Krystal scoffed. She rolled her eyes, hoping that her actions would hide her embarrassment.
"If it's so cliché, why are you blushing?" Amber asked rhetorically in the same seductively low voice. She brought her lips to Krystal's jaw line and began to trail kisses toward the younger girl's neck. "Do you ever think about me kissing you?"
"All the time..." Krystal murmured, closing her eyes and enjoying the ticklish sensation of Amber's lips exploring her face. "I'm imagining it even now..."
"I must not be doing it right if you imagine me kissing you while I'm kissing you," Amber whispered into Krystal's ear with a playful smile. "Perhaps I'm not doing it in the right places. Where do you imagine me kissing you?"
"Here and there..." Krystal answered vaguely. She smiled coyly at Amber, allowing the smile on her lips to speak louder than her words. "But not now," Krystal decided. She pushed herself off of the refrigerator and brushed past the other girl. "There's baking to do."
"Awwww, but baking can wait a few minutes, can't it?" Amber complained.
"Not unless you wanna be late for Luna-unnie's musical," Krystal said, heading back toward the kitchen table. "Bake now, fool around later."
Amber reached out towards Krystal and held her in place with a back hug, disregarding her earlier agreement to keep her hands to herself. "Just one more kiss..."
The older girl placed an unexpected kiss to the back of Krystal's neck, caressing her lips against a sensitive place on Krystal's body. The touch was feather light but more than enough to send a shock coursing down Krystal's spine. The younger girl squealed and jumped involuntarily in response.
Splat!
One of the two eggs that Krystal held slipped out of her hand and fell onto the kitchen floor. Both girls looked at the splattered egg in surprise and then looked at each other as Krystal's expression darkened while Amber's expression grew meek.
"Oops... sorry," Amber apologized. She quickly reached for a paper towel and began to clean up the mess.
Krystal sighed but did not berate Amber any further. "Bake now, fool around later," she reiterated sternly. "...but only if you're good," she clarified, adding a stipulation for fooling around later.
"I'll be good!" Amber promised earnestly. She took another egg from the refrigerator and beckoned Krystal over to the table. As Krystal approached her, Amber wordlessly began to pull her into another back hug.
"Is this seriously how you're helping?" Krystal asked, somewhat exasperated by Amber's seemingly unchanged behavior. But to Krystal's surprise, Amber became like her shadow, holding her from behind, and she guided Krystal's hands to pick up and crack an egg into the bowl of ingredients. With her hands still on top of Krystal's, Amber then guided Krystal to add the second egg to the batter and they began to whisk the mixture together.
"What are you doing?" Krystal asked softly, her curiosity tempering her exasperation towards Amber.
"I'm baking with you," Amber explained. Her hand was on top of Krystal's hand while Krystal's hand held the whisk and they both stirred the bowl as one entity. "Baking like this is kind of nice, isn't it?"
Krystal nodded and smiled a wistfully happy smile as she snuggled deeper into Amber's warm body. "Yeah, it is..."
Four cooperative hands finished making the batter and poured it into baking pans, and those same four hands then carefully carried the pans to the oven and placed them inside. Later, after the baked layers of cake had cooled, the loving couple continued to stand in their shadowed back hug as they frosted their cake together.
"Just about done," Krystal announced as she and Amber lifted the spatula from their frosted cake. All they needed to do was place their chocolate curls on top and the cake was done. With Amber's hand still on top of hers, Krystal guided the frosting-coated spatula towards Amber's mouth. "Do you want to lick off the rest?"
"Did you even have to ask?" Amber wondered, opening her mouth to receive the extra frosting. Feeling mischievous, Krystal jerked her hand at the last second and caused the spatula to hit the side of Amber's face, smearing a large glob of vanilla frosting there.
The younger girl giggled and stepped back, taking the spatula with her. "We'll call it even for the flour on my face earlier," Krystal decided.
"Oh you think so?" Amber playfully threatened, lunging for the spatula in Krystal's hand. After chasing each other around the table for a short while, which ended peacefully after Krystal licked the frosting off of Amber's cheek, the two girls reached for their plate of misshapen, homemade chocolate curls to finish their cake.
"How many do we want on top?" Amber asked as she tried to select the best chocolate curls from the bunch.
"Five--" Krystal paused after saying the first number that had popped into her head. Five: that was the original number of members in f(x). The response had been automatic to Krystal since this cake was for an f(x) anniversary. But five no longer represented f(x), and the solemn look that passed between Amber and Krystal after she reflexively said the number reaffirmed Krystal's belief that five was not the right number to use for this anniversary. Nobody could forget the years of hard work that Sulli had put into their group, but it was time for them to move forward and celebrate their anniversary with the members who were still there.
"Four," Krystal decided firmly, correcting herself.
"Four it is," Amber agreed, not delving any further into the topic. The girls finished decorating the cake and admired their work.
A short while later, their managers picked them up and took them to Luna's musical. They watched Luna's performance proudly from the audience and enthusiastically applauded for her acting and singing. Victoria joined them towards the end of the show, coming directly from the airport after her flight.
After the show ended, the three members gathered in the dressing rooms for a proper reunion while they waited for Luna to appear. Amber and Krystal observed how tired Victoria looked and they thanked her sincerely for flying to Korea to celebrate their first anniversary as four members.
"You guys are acting like being here is a burden for me," Victoria said, gently chiding her members for being overly concerned about her health. "This anniversary is a blessing for all of us. It's an honor to be standing here and celebrating six years of family and friendship with everyone, and I wouldn't have missed it for anything! Stop feeling apologetic and start feeling happy and proud of our accomplishments."
"You're right," Amber agreed, helping Krystal to take the cake out of its container. She cast a very grateful smile at Victoria, who always seemed to have the right words to say. Krystal also opened her mouth to agree with Victoria's sentiments, but her words were cut off by a look of surprise on Victoria's face.
"What are you guys doing?" Luna asked curiously, appearing out of nowhere by Krystal's side. The maknae jumped in surprise, nearly toppling the cake in her hands if Victoria hadn't stepped forward to support it.
"S-surprise!" Amber exclaimed, caught off guard by Luna's sudden appearance. She turned to the others. "Who was supposed to watch the door?"
"Surprise!" Victoria and Krystal belatedly shouted, much to Luna's confusion.
"Unnie?!" Luna gasped, noticing Victoria and realizing that she was supposed to be in China. "I thought you were meeting us on Jeju Island on Friday! Why are you here?!"
"To celebrate an anniversary with my sisters," Victoria explained with a warm smile. She wrapped her arms around a misty-eyed Luna. Krystal and Amber grinned while Luna looked dazed by the event. "You didn't forget what today is, did you?"
Luna quickly shook her head. "Of course not! I was just thinking earlier that it was sad that we hadn't planned anything special for today. But this..." Luna glanced at the cake that Krystal held and looked into the eyes of her adoring members, "this is exactly what I had hoped for." Victoria, Amber, and Krystal smiled at Luna's humble reaction; this was exactly what they had hoped for as well.
The quartet of members posed for anniversary pictures that would be placed on their official website later. Unlike last year's anniversary, which had only been celebrated by a single handwritten letter posted by Amber on her twitter, this year's anniversary would be celebrated by all of the members. Each of them had autographed a small note that would be posted on their website. Victoria planned to post a congratulatory message on her weibo while Amber and Luna would do the same on their respective twitter and Instagram accounts. And for Krystal, she had already written a letter to thank their fans, which would be posted along with a selca on the official website.
"This is really perfect," Luna said as they cut into the cake and passed slices to their managers and stylists. "Thank you guys for doing this. I'm grateful that we can celebrate our anniversary together this year."
"Of course," Amber agreed, throwing an arm around Luna in a half hug. "Let's keep celebrating until f(x) is 100!"
Krystal doubted that they would be able to celebrate quite that many f(x) anniversaries, but she felt the same as Amber. The more years that could spend together, the better.
"Is everyone excited about Jeju Island this week?" Victoria wondered as the members enjoyed their cake. f(x) was only two days away from heading to Jeju to film their comeback music video. The members smiled at Victoria and voiced their anticipation, but it was Krystal who was most enthusiastic.
"I can't wait!" Krystal declared with a bright style. "This song is totally my style!"
The song in question was "4 Walls", the title track for their next comeback, and f(x)'s first foray into deep house and EDM. Krystal had liked their past title tracks--some more than others--but no song had ever suited her personal tastes as well as "4 Walls". From the first listen, Krystal fell in love with the song and fought to make it their title track. But she needn't have fought so hard; seeing how much their maknae loved the song, the other f(x) members couldn't help but love "4 Walls" even more.
"We know, we know," Luna laughed warmly at Krystal. "This is your favorite title track ever."
"You can't stop listening to it," Victoria chimed in.
"And you're gonna work extra hard because you love '4 Walls' so much," Amber finished, draping an affectionate arm over her girlfriend's shoulders. Krystal flinched ever so slightly at the intimate action since they were in public, but Victoria quickly noticed Krystal's unease and placed her arm over Luna's shoulders so that Amber's action was not out of place.
"Don't worry, Soojung-ah," Victoria said with a wink at Krystal. She put her free arm around Krystal's neck and hugged the younger girl to her. "We'll all work extra hard this comeback, too. Let's show the world how strong our f(x) is."
Krystal smiled and tightened her arms around Victoria and Amber on either side of her. "This comeback finally feels real to me. I know we've already finished recording some of the album, but filming the MV brings everything together somehow..."
"Maybe because it brings US together?" Luna wondered with a smile. She placed her arm around Amber's waist, closing the gap and pulling everyone into a group hug.
"That must be it," Krystal agreed, knowing that Luna had identified the source of her feelings. "Today's the first day we've been together since the four of us started working towards this comeback. I can tell that this is gonna be a good comeback."
"And it's only the beginning," Amber added with a smile, her eyes glittering with excitement.
Krystal thought about how last year, around this same time, Krystal's life felt like it was falling apart. Sulli had gone on hiatus and f(x)'s future was in limbo. Jessica had been kicked out of Girls' Generation and Krystal's position at SM was uncertain. But now, nearly a year later, together with her sisters at her side, today felt like the beginning of something new. f(x) was getting another comeback, they were fighting for a solo concert and a fandom name, and they were celebrating another year as a family.
The girls separated from their group hug as an unexpected bottle of champagne was uncorked overhead and glasses were handed to them by their managers with a smile. They toasted to their friendship and the longevity of their group, and they posed for more pictures with enough happiness in their hearts to carry them to their next anniversary. The future of f(x) was impossible to predict, but Krystal knew that they were following a path with much more joy than last year. Today was truly only the beginning.
Author's Notes: Hi everyone! Sorry for the long wait. I returned from Japan a week ago but my work somehow tripled in my absence. I've been playing catch up all week, hence the extra delay for this chapter. :( Thank you all waiting (not that you guys had much choice, lol).
As I previously mentioned, I went to Japan to go to Dimension 4 Tokyo Day 2. It was absolutely, mindblowingly amazing. :) This was my first concert ever and it was an unforgettable experience! During the encore when f(x) walked near the crowd for "So Into U", they were about 50 feet away from me and they were breathtakingly beautiful. I couldn't have asked for more. :)
I might get around to writing a fan account some time, but I don't know if there's more that I can say about Tokyo Day 2 that people haven't already tweeted about. I think the Japan concert DVD will be for Tokyo Day 2 as well. But I wrote up some Kryber fan accounts that can be found here:
http://onehallyu.com/topic/17533-official-kryber-thread/?p=12488798
http://onehallyu.com/topic/17533-official-kryber-thread/?p=12488905
http://onehallyu.com/topic/17533-official-kryber-thread/?p=12489037
And lastly, here are some Tokyo Day 2 Periwinkle Ocean pictures that I took. This is my twitter account. Someone asked if I used twitter a while ago but I didn't share my account name. I'm sharing now. :)
https://twitter.com/jyulix/status/701388172505165824
The Japan concerts were filled with amazing Kryber moments!! C&C is planned to end some time between the Korean and Japanese concerts, but I'll find a way to fit in some of these unforgettable moments. :)
Connections To Reality:
f(x) 6th Anniversary Celebration:
Autographed notes from f(x) website (with trans by functionlove):
http://functionlove.net/2015/09/05/trans-150905-fx-website-update/
Victoria Weibo Updated:
http://functionlove.net/2015/09/05/150905-fvictoria-weibo-update/
Amber's Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/p/7SKkLtt-p3/
Amber's Twitter:
https://twitter.com/llama_ajol/status/639818716654374913
Luna Instagram (with trans by functionlove):
http://functionlove.net/2015/09/05/trans-150905-fluna-instagram-update-i-love-you-fx/
Krystal's Message on the f(x) Website (with trans by functionlove):
http://functionlove.net/2015/09/05/trans-150905-fkrystal-website-update/
Manager Lee Wongyun's Instagram update:
https://www.instagram.com/p/7QAAOuwU-i/
Krystal Baked the 6th Anniversary Cake:
(This is a fact, right? Someone have evidence that shows that Krystal baked their cake?)
Amber message for 5th Anniversary:
https://twitter.com/llama_ajol/status/507573195507920896
Krystal saying she loved 4 Walls the most out of all the songs they've done:
https://youtu.be/vkFC8ALovl8?t=748