Constant and Changing (kryber)

Chapter 20: Dangerous

A groggy Krystal Jung woke up from her short nap on the plane to China to find that there was a plate of warm cookies sitting on her lap tray. She glanced around in sleepy confusion and mumbled aloud, "Did I order these in my sleep?"

There was a snicker from the seat beside her and she looked over to find Victoria watching her with an amused smile.

"Babo-ya, who orders cookies in their sleep?"

"I don't know," Krystal replied with a sheepish smile. "Sulli used to do it in her sleep all the time."

"Those cookies came from a fan," Victoria said, pointing to the other side of the plane. Krystal followed Victoria's hand and found herself looking at the pair of seats occuppied by Luna and Amber, who were engaged in conversation. "Someone over there must really like you," she joked.

Krystal's cheeks flushed as she looked at Amber and thought of her girlfriend considerately ordering a plate of cookies for her as she slept. Hoping that Victoria wouldn't notice her reaction, Krystal lowered her head and examined the cookies. "That was really nice of her, I was starting to get hungry." She took a bite of one of the warm chocolate chip cookies, and then tried to smile naturally as she looked up at Victoria. The older girl responded with a knowing smirk.

"...what?" Krystal asked nervously, hoping not to fall into one of Victoria's traps if her clever leader asked about Amber. Victoria was already aware of the fact that they were dating, but Krystal did not want to reveal much more about their relationship at this point, not until their relationship felt more solid.

"Oh nothing," Victoria replied nonchalantly, looking back at her phone. "I was just thinking that Luna does a good job of making sure you're well fed."

"Luna-unnie?" Krystal asked, furrowing her brows in confusion. She looked back across the aisle to where Luna and Amber were chatting, feeling a little disappointed that the caring gesture of cookies had come from Luna instead of Amber.

"Oh, did I say Luna? I meant Amber."

"Hm?" Krystal turned back to Victoria and found her wearing the smuggest of smiles. Krystal immediately realized that Victoria had been gauging her level of disappointment after pretending that Luna had sent the cookies instead of Amber. Krystal had been tricked into revealing her feelings about Amber's gesture.

"Ugh, damnit!!" Krystal thought to herself, annoyed at falling into Victoria's trap. Unable to think of a better way to vent her frustration at Victoria, she picked up one of the cookies and roughly shoved it into the older girl's mouth.

"Unnieeeee!" she pouted angrily, "Why are you so mean?"

With a goodnatured smile, Victoria calmly bit down on the cookie and pulled the remaining half out of her mouth. "How am I being mean?" she asked, wiping crumbs from her lips with the back of her hand.

"You know, you--you're...you know what you did!" Krystal retorted, unable to express Victoria's trick in words. "You definitely did that on purpose."

"Fine, I did," Victoria admitted. "But I can't help it, it's fun to torment you kids." She put her arm around Krystal's sulky shoulders and pulled the younger girl closer to her. The slightest bit of Krystal's annoyance towards Victoria ebbed away and was replaced with affection. "Just think of this as training."

"Training?"

Victoria nodded, finishing the rest of her cookie. "You guys want to keep things secret for now, right?" Krystal nodded in a greement. "Well part of keeping a secret is realizing your shortcomings. Keeping your reactions in check is clearly a shortcoming," Victoria said with a laugh.