She was wrapped up in his jacket he gave her as she got in. She secretly thinks it feels nice and she can't tell him about it because-- "Playing hard-to-get. Just like way back then." Henry breaks the silence Amber twitches out of surprise and she hopes he didn't see that just now "Hey, I was not playing hard-to-get or whatever. I just thought it was unnecessary" She shrugs
Did that even make sense? "Uh. Okay. Whatever. I was being a gentleman." "Yeah. Right." Another moment of silence. Awkward This might be the longest five-minute car ride Amber has ever had. Am I not there yet? "This way." Amber points to a corner and Henry drives that way. Finally
She finally relaxes in her seat as they passed by the Lius' pastry shop only a few blocks more before she's finally home. Jackie was manning the shop. "Hey wasn't that your sister?" Henry spares a glance then concentrated on the road again "Yeah."
Limited. Keep your words limited. "Does your family run that shop?" "Yeah." "Do you work there, too?" "Yeah." "Are you gonna take your turn at the shop later?" Was the car getting hot? Or was it just Amber's head? Seriously. The guy was getting annoying "YES. LATER TONIGHT. Now can you just shut up and drive?" "Okay" Henry just smiles. What's with that satisfied look on his face? So all he wanted to do was annoy me? This little-- "You can take a picture. It lasts longer." What Aaand unknowingly, Amber was staring at his face for who knows how long. 10 seconds? "I-I wasn't staring at you at all!" She leans back, observing the wipers all of a sudden. Another smile escapes Henry's lips
Cute
He thinks "This is it. Pull over." He parks the car and observes her collect her things and take off the jacket he lent her "You can keep that for now" "Uhh... Thanks. I guess..." "Wait." He tells her before he gets out of the car and suddenly her door opened "C'mon" he was holding an umbrella What's up with this guy?

 

"Aren't you coming out?" he smiles at her and she just can't help but furrow her eyebrows and puff out her cheeks as she slips on the straps of her backpack.

 

Henry thinks

 

She steps out anyway. He walks her to the doorway. And his senses can't help but tingle at the thought that they are a decimal centimeters apart. His heart flutters just like back then but he has the same mindset as hers

 

 

"Hey, thanks. Y-you wanna come inside for a drink?" her eyes were set on the floor

 

"Sure." his immediate answer and he facepalms after realizing he just said that. Idiot

 

"Uh... What's wrong?"

 

"Mosquito!" He just stiffens and perks up like a soldier called to attention

 

WTF the tomboy thinks. So jumpy.

 

She tries to shrug it off and pretends she didn't see that just now. Wait, why did I invite him inside anyway? .... common courtesy? Well, he did kinda save me from being drenched... Whatever.

 

"You can put your jacket there. Sit." She gestures to the sofa

 

 

she makes her way to the kitchen to make some Swiss Miss for her guest.

 

"Aren't your parents home?" he queries from the living room

 

"They usually come home in the morning. Busy people." She rolls her eyes and put down the mug on the living room table.

 

"Thanks." he takes a sip. Henry can't help but take an endless whiff off the Liu's residence. It smelled a lot like Amber. The scent was sweet and smelled a lot like donuts. The kind of donuts that are coveted in confectioner's sugar. And he can't lie to himself that this scent was something he'd never get sick of.

 

Yo, nerd. You smell like donuts. He smiles while observing her sniffle as she takes out a few of her notebooks and start flipping them as she squats on the floor.

 

"Hey, you're still soaked." he says from where he sits.

 

HE GETS UP AND TAKES OFF HIS GRAY COTTON SHIRT AND HOLY HE WAS TOPLESS AND DEM ABS THO UH HUH YEAS C'MON! HE STARTS WALKING HIS WAY TO AMBER'S DIRECTION AND USES HIS SHIRT TO TOWEL DRY HER HAIR. UGH! HIS BREATH SMELLED LIKE THE SWISS MISS SHE JUST SERVED HIM AND OH GOSH WAS HE FRAGRANT AND BUTTERFLIES IN HER STOMACH WERE IN A RAMPAGE AS IF THEY'D ESCAPE HER INSIDES ANYTIME SOON BUT--

 

"ACHOO!"

 

"Hey! You listening?" Henry throws a throwpillow at her and she jumps up

"What?!" Amber was angry now because he just interrupted what she was thinking of just now and she was angry because DID SHE JUST THINK ABOUT THAT JUST NOW??

 

"You're still soaked. Don't you need to change or something?" he chuckles before taking another sip off his drink

 

"Oh... Yeah." She stands up and walk her way to the stairs. She stops to tell him "Hey! Don't look at notes, okay? You're the enemy!" she points accusingly at him before walking away backwards.

 

Henry just shakes his head, smiling.

 

He looks at the bunch of notebooks on the carpeted floor. Sheesh, she's so detailed and organized. 

A bunch of colorful sticky notes were popping out of the corners of her notebooks. He figures their cafe would run out of sticky notes because of her.

 

 

There were also lone papers ripped out of other notebooks and stuck on a different notebook using clear tape. And her notes were highlighted with different colored highlighting pens.

 

 

He explores around the house, mug in hand

 

There were a bunch of picture frames on the shelf. Then his eyes caught on something.

 

It was a picture of the sixth-grade Amber with a bunch of medals. He remember how he had such a huge crush on her and how she always declined his praises. She was his role model. Damn, she was goals. He thinks as he recalls. And then his eyes fixed on the medals around her neck. I wasn't good enough. But this time I'll be better than her.

 

So, you're all thinking, does he still have a crush on her? Idk. Even Henry doesn't know. lol he confused

 

"Yo, you still here?" she asks as she comes down, toweling her wet hair.

Henry looks up and he was at a loss of words for a second or two.

 

"U-uh... Yeah..."

 

"You lookin' at those?" she looks at the photos and he nods then Henry points at the sixth grade photo. "Cute" he compliments. Amber just cringes inside because she just recalled the events with him during those days. Oh how she always avoided him.

 

"Your compliments were unnecessary, really. Even now." she grimaces and he laughs "But you really were pretty. Well..."

"You still are." he mumbles the last part but Amber heard that clearer that Soojung's camera lens that captured the photo of them together the day before. She doesn't react and returns to her notes.

 

Henry gets it, and collects his jacket from the sofa.

 

"I'm going. Thanks for the drink. You can keep the jacket for now."

Amber just coldly nods not sparing a glance at him.

 

"Have a great evening." his last words before Amber hears the door close shut.

 

Her heart was thumping louder than Luna's "YAH!" and faster than Jinri at the sight of burgers.

 

Yes, it's that severe.

 

---

the following days were tough. There were activities and pop quizzes in school. The two of them had a push and pull on who got the highest score. Henry most of all, initiates a text conversation

 

 

 

[a week later]

 

"I didn't even know you made such progress with him just a week ago, so consider this as revenge" Soojung points a fork at the short-haired girl whose mouth was half open from what she heard just now

 

"WHAT PROGRESS?? We finally have time together the five of us and this comes up?" the helpless tomboy says

 

The three other members of the gang just sat there wide-eyed at the sight of the two

 

"Well who knows?! Maybe the two of you made out or something?!" Soojung's voice was so loud that made Amber wish she  was a turtle so she'd hide inside her shell of a house and lock herself up there forever.

 

The said three of the members quickly looked around to check if anyone heard that just now. Luckily everyone was too occupied to hear.

 

"Yo, the president's just a few tables away from us. You might wanna keep your voice down!" Victoria  threatens to give her a good slap

 

"Eonni, are you okay?" Jinri was quick to pat Amber's back and Sunyoung picked up a notebook and started fanning the pale Amber

 

"How could you sign me up without me knowing?" Amber calmly says 

 

"Well, you are the smartest person. Who else could he approach other than you?" Soojung reasons and the five of them glance at the table not too far from them. Henry was going to take a bite off his sandwich when he felt the five set of eyes on him. He looks at their direction and the five of them pretended to look around the cafeteria.

 

"He's perfectly oblivious." Amber muses

"Hah, no. I was the oblivious one. I was busy making quality information material for the whole student body, Song Qian was busy being a cheerleader, Jinri and Sunyoung were striving for their grades while you went flirting with mr. President without us knowing. How could you hide that from us? Especially me, a shipper!" Soojung dramatically faints and Amber just judges her from where she sat.

 

"You done?" she raises a brow?

 

"Yes."

 

Out of the blue, Amber becomes Henry's tutor for an upcoming competition. Much to Soojung's delight. She has written articles that haven't been published, following the two top notches and when she lets her editors read them, they sometimes doubt if it really happened or it's just a fan fiction from a delusional shipper.

 

 

 

 

Who the heck appointed me as your tutor anyway? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"He can't be serious about this. This lil never stops. ugh." Amber sighs then slips her phone into her apron's pocket and returns to wiping the crumbs off the tables.

---

a/n: Hi~ where is this story going haha just kidding. seriously tho. i could use some suggestions :3
i have 3 pending chapters but i'm scared of updating haha idek why i need help. i miss them so much. 3 ya guys feel ma heart breaking? lol ok bye~