Krystal was born near the end of a rainy October after a very unexpected (but happy) pregnancy, to a family that might not have been ready for a second girl but they would love her all the same anyway. Money was tight for the first year or so after her birth until her family's boutique finally got off the ground, and even though they wouldn't be the richest family in LA, they were certainly one of the happiest.
The first four and a half years of her life were uneventful and happy, spent following her sister around and begging her mom to let her make anything for the shop. And then she started school, and suddenly Krystal wasn't as happy as she had been before. Her mother noticed she tended to be shy when she was hanging around the shop and strangers approached her, but wasn't that usual for a child? Apparently, Krystal wasn't the type to open up to strangers, whether they be kids her own age or her teachers. All the incessant attention and expectations really bothered her, and she always ended up spending recess on her own, hoping no one would bother her before her sister got out to protect her. This eased off once she made a friend or two, but it was obvious Krystal wasn't going to be the social butterfly of the family.
Just before she finished elementary school, still stuck like annoying glue to her sister, her father recieved the horrible news that his father passed away suddenly and he was expected to come home and take over the family business. This devastated Krystal because she was going to lose the few friends she had actually made and kept. She knew what moving meant, it meant she was going to go away and even if she promised to write letters and call they would eventually stop and she'd be forgotten about. As they got ready for the move, Krystal's attitude dipped completely and she became sullen and quiet, alienating her few friends so that they wouldn't have to miss her and so she wouldn't have to think about how much fun they would be having without her once she left.
It was hard, starting over in Korea. Her mother and sister were just as unhappy as she was, her mother especially so because the loss of their physical store would be a hard hit on their sales. Krystal just couldn't understand why her father couldn't have come back here by himself and left she and her sister and her mother there to continue their perfect and wonderful life in LA. Krystal's Korean was...dismal at best, knowing only a few greetings and pleasantries to make her visiting relatives happy. School that year was a struggle, never mind the notes and calls to her mother about her apparent bad attitude with her classmates and even her teachers. How was she supposed to know who to call unnie and oppa? There were too many rules and she hated it all. She just wanted to go back to LA!
With grades lower than she ever expected to get, Krystal finished elementary school and went on to middle school. Now that she could conversationally speak Korean she had an easier time with her classmates and teachers, but she had to study much more than her peers to keep up. Still, she managed to make a few friends who didn't mind when she slipped up and called them oppa, who helped her with her homework and showed her where all the cool places to hang out around their school were. It wasn't home, and she still wanted to go move back home every day, but it wasn't as bad as she first expected. Middle school even turned out pretty okay by the end of it, having amassed more friends than she had ever had at home. Apparently her ice princess image was cool. It was better than being told she was a brat, at least.
High school was...eventful, to say the least. Her mother noticed that as more and more people wanted to hang out with her, Krystal was becoming distant and quiet at home. Her sister was busy with exams and getting ready to graduate and go on to university so Krystal felt like her closest friend was too busy (and she had every right to be) to talk to her and give her advice and she didn't know what to do. So she just stopped seeing a lot of them altogether, just not making plans and coming home straight after school, claiming she needed to study, using her parents as an excuse as to why she didn't want to go out saying that they wanted her home to help around the house and with the jewelery. And that worked, for awhile. But her friends wanted her to come out with them, wanted her to meet this boy she thought they would like, go on double dates and group dates because there was this guy that one of them had a crush on but wouldn't go on one of these dates until Krystal came along for his friend. The first (and last) date that she went on ended with her slapping a guy for grabbing her and pulling her along the sidewalk three minutes after the date started. Rumors flew and finally all the invites to dates and outings stopped.
In fact, besides a few close friends, invites stopped coming at all. She went out to coffee once a week to study with two of her friends and honestly, that was enough. She was happy staying home and listening to her sister talk about her dates and all the disasters associated along with it. It was so much easier to live vicariously through her sister rather than stumbling along by herself. Plus, Jessica was so much better with people than she was. She spent her last year studying and getting ready to graduate, hovering around her sister to see what sort of courseload she should be expecting. Her friends were all busy studying but they still met up as often as they could, even if it was just a quick shopping trip or a lazy coffee shop visit in the middle of a busy week.
And then she graduated with good grades, was accepted into the same university as her sister was, and some of the girls she had kept in contact with had gotten accepted too. She wasn't really looking forward to dorm life, not too sure what sharing a room would be like, but she was excited for the whole college experience nonetheless.
