"Great. I have to see your face seven days a week now?" Amber whines the moment Henry steps beside her as she was unlocking the shop's door.

"Hey, early morning and I get a nagging already? It's a nice Sunday morning! Smile a little" he pinches her cheek and she scowls even more

She shakes her head and opens the door and tosses a dark green apron at his face
"Put this on"

"Yes, ma'am!"

Amber unconsciously smiles in private as Henry fumbles with the ribbon.

"Here's a contract. You promise to repair my reputation?" She shoves a piece of sticky note and sticks it on his flat chest
"Y-yeah?"
"Then I promise to train you and guarantee your win"
"Alright!" He smiles at her blank face
"Then sign it" she says handing him a pen

He signs it and gives it to her. Amber pins it on the shop's corkboard along with the many other colorful sticky notes

"By the way, I brought my notes and reviewers and stuff. Maybe we could--"

"It's busy especially today. We can study later after my shift." She tosses a piece of cloth and gestures at the table, telling him to wipe them

"And when is that?" He manages to catch the rag

"Tonight"

Tonight
Tonight
Tonight

Her voice echoes through his senses and he smiles wildly causing Amber to look at him judgingly "okay!"

"Oh . Take off that apron right now and sit there" Amber suddenly untangles the ribbon and pushes him down on one of the chairs. "Here. Pretend you're a customer." She shoves a menu in his hands and the poor Henry was oblivious of what was going on in his first day of internship.

"Wh--what..."

"I want you to behave, alright? And do what an ordinary customer does." She starts to walk her way to the counter only to turn on her heels to walk back to Henry's seat
"Don't do anything funny!"

Ten minutes later Amber's gang arrive at the scene. Since it was a busy week and they can't seem to spend time together that much. They figured sending Amber a text that they'd breakfast at the Lius' pastry shop would be a nice idea.

It would have been.
If only Henry hadn't decided on being business partners with her family.

This was one of the rare times Soojung would come over. The food they sell would ruin her perfect body proportion. "Bad for the diet" or so she would say. Everything was hard to resist.

Okay, so far so good

Amber keeps close surveillance on the young man in the corner of the shop, still "reading" his menu.

She drops him a text

To: secondratehamster         
Keep that up. Be a normal customer.

From: secondratehamster    
Lol ok

"Amber seems so busy with her phone." Song Qian nudges the person beside her who was stuffing her face with toast, Sunyoung.
"Whm kum im be?" She mumbles through her full mouth
"She said 'who could it be'" Jinri translates and they high five
"Hmmm could it beeee~" Soojung purrs
"Hey, you shut up. I still can't believe you did that!"
"Whaaaat" the youngest one just shrugs and cracks a smile as if she's impressed by herself.
Laughter burst from their table when

"Excuse me!"

. Really??

"Miss!"

"Excuse me for a bit, girls" the short-haired girl stands up and runs her way to Henry who was grinning from ear to ear.

"Yes?" She smiles through gritted teeth, trying to cover his identity with her back against her friends

"Oh, I just wanted to ask how do you read this?" He points at a photo of a food that spelt 'bagel'
"Bey jel? Buh jel?"

Amber has lost count how many last straws shes called on before completely snapping because of this guy
She breaks his neck in her mind before she regains composure and fakes a smile

"Your eyebrow is twitching"

"It's pronounced as bæ gel, sir. Would you like one of those?"

Henry can't hide the amusement in his face. He could see the hot-headed Amber back in sixth grade again

"nah, I'm still deciding on what to get. I'll call on you later" he smiles, flipping through the menu once more

Patience patience patience
She chants as she twists the hem of her apron under their table.

"You guys should know, we got the highest score with out project" Sunyoung wraps her arms around Jinri
"Wow. Congrats guys"
"A toast!"
Everyone raised their glasses of milkshake
"Excuse me again, I'll be right back"
Amber stands up for the nth time to take orders. Majority of these orders came from the customer occupying the table in the corner of the shop. Yes, Henry Lau

"What is it this time??" Her tone obviously irritated
"Hmm, I just thought I'd like another cup of chocolate?"

"You make more demands than a regular customer. What the hell, I said act like a normal customer!" She slams her hands on the table

"Careful. You might catch their attention." He winks

"If anyone of them finds out prematurely that you're sort of working here, Soojung will be all over me and my hands will be all over your neck so keep your mouth shut and don't attract attention."

Amber doesn't understand how he could afford smiling when she's right in front of him, getting worked up about everything else

"Easyyy, easy. Violence is not the answer"

"Hey, wipe that smile off your face. I might not stand that while tutoring you."

"Yes, ma'am" and just like that Henry's face became serious.

"Good."

"Wow. A lot of people are coming in. We better leave. You're gonna be busy." Song Qian taps the other girls telling them they should get going.
"Already? Hmm, oh well. You guys have a great day." Amber was sad and relieved at the same time. At least Henry wouldn't have to keep his douchey customer act for long.

"Hey get up. Help me out, intern." She smirks, throwing the apron in his face again.
"Will do."

They spent half of the day catering the seemingly endless flow of customers. Amber was quite impressed of his people skills.

The end of their shift finally came. Jackie takes over, endlessly giving suggestive smiles to Amber until she and Henry left.

"So, where to? My place?" He suggests. She arches a brow but nods a doubting nod anyway. "No choice."

The car ride this time was silent compared to the  first one. Amber, for once decides to end the deafening silence
"You hungry? We didn't have dinner yet."
Henry was caught by surprise. That was some opening statement
"Sorta. Wanna go eat somewhere?"
This time Amber slaps herself mentally. Why did I even ask that?? I sounded so concerned.

"I don't wanna be seen with you. We could go back to the shop and have dinner there" her concerned tone, long gone
He clutches his chest, making a hurt expression
"Ow."
The tomboy just gives him a judging look
"We can't ever be seen together. Especially by Soojung."
"I know. I'll just go cook something for us at home."
"Like you can cook!" Amber laughs a sarcastic laugh and Henry just smiles mysteriously.

She swallows her own words as Henry served her food, he himself made.
And goddamn, it tasted perfectly heavenly.

"O-okay. I'm sorry. I take everything back. You can cook alright." She says, head hung low. Ashamed.
It was the first time Amber complimented him and he felt his heart jump up a bit. He tried to ignore it but doing so just makes him smile like a madman.

They began their studying session in the living room. Every now and then Henry's parents would ask Amber if she needed anything or if she was hungry or thirsty

"They're really fond of you already huh?" He nudges her shoulder and she just rolls her eyes at him
"That's because I'm not an airead like their son."
He just falls silent because he felt that that was somewhat true.

They were sitting on the carpeted shiny wooden flooring and leaning against the living room's center table. Henry initially suggested they'd study in his room but Amber had smacked the back of his head after he suggested so

He stares at her, losing focus. Her words were nothing but a bunch of muffled sounds as he bore holes into her soul.
He just finds her so amazing
She goes to school and then goes to work afterwards, everyday. Plus she works hard. Surely when she gets home, she'd be too tired and would go back to sleep.
But why is she so knowledgeable?

"Hey!" She flicks his forehead
"Were you even listening? Look at what I'm writing!"

He blinks
"I-I am looking at it!"

"I'm not writing a bunch of stuff on my face." She deadpans "look at the paper"

---

"Are you done with your study session?" Henry's mom pops out of nowhere and finds Henry sleeping on the couch and Amber writing stuff on Henry's notebooks

"Oh dear! Are you alright? I'm so sorry about my son." She sits beside her on the floor and pats her head.
Amber smiles sweetly at her and nods. She's a very good person and she can't figure why this woman's son grew into an arrogant young man.

"I hope he's not causing you any trouble in the shop. He seems really tired." They spare a glance at Henry who was snoring gently behind them

"Oh, he's good with people. I think he'd do great when the day comes that he'll own a shop or run a business or whatever" she laughs gently, shrugging.

His mother looks at the clock and it was already 10 in the evening

"You better get some rest. Thank you for your hard work today" she pats Amber's back

"Thank you for accomodating me."

---

The next day Jackie was playing games with her younger sister's phone when a message arrives

From: secondratehamster             
Good morning. Thanks for last night :) until next week

"OH MY GOD, AMBER!!"

---

A week later and the school papers have been released.
Amber was having second thoughts whether she should get a copy or not
She wanted to get one because she wants to support Soojung but at the same time she doesn't want one because she doesn't want to support Soojung's fanfic-like feature write ups.

"Congrats on the paper, Soojung-ah~" the group choruses but Amber who can only show her support by clapping her hands.
"Thank you~ yah, Amber eonni, have you grabbed your own copy?" She winks as she settles for a seat in their table.
Amber just glares at her and Soojung laughs because she knows exactly why that was her reaction.

"It's okay eonni. It wasn't that bad." Sunyoung pats Amber's back
"yeah, it was very professionally written. Good job, Soojung!" Song Qian hugs the youngest one who was sitting beside her.

"Ta-daaaaah~ Our banquet is ready" Jinri arrives with a bunch of take-out food paper bags and places them on the cafeteria table.
They start digging in and in the corner of her eye, she catches a glimpse of Henry walking in through the doors

He waves at her and mouths a "thank you"
He texted her earlier that morning that he got a hundred percent in their quiz because of the notes she made for him. Deep inside Amber felt sort of proud. But she was also jealous. So she just stares at him blankly and goes back to chatting with her friends.

---

Three days after the school paper's release, a new trend has begun in the school's website.

HenBer Interactions

Says the headline.
A page in the school's students' website was created especially for them without these two people knowing what was going on.

Slowly, Amber's "bully" reputation had changed into "Henry's probable girlfriend" reputation.
almost everyone was rooting for them considering they had the most brains and looks, how could they not be compatible? Plus they are both athletic and have opposite reputations.
While some just shake their heads in this issue. "I see them more like in the mortal enemies relationship"

Amber finds it so weird that people would now smile at her and greet her whenever they see her. As if she'd become some sort of celebrity.
What the hell is going on

It was a week later when Amber finally finds out about it when she sees Song Qian hardly letting go of her phone for days.

"People have been looking at me funny lately. Yah, eonni are you listening?" She closes her locker door after retrieving a binder

"OH. MY. GOSH. AMBER. LIU." Soojung comes storming in, phone in hand, face, pink like a baby's cheeks.
She pins her and the lockers rattle from the impact. "Wh-what--"

"What is this!?" Soojung shoves her phone in the older one's face and what Amber saw almost made her eyes pop out

It showed a photo of Henry and Amber talking and both wore the same dark green apron.
Apparently, a student from SM High had been a customer in their shop and snapped a photo of the two interacting and working in the same establishment.

"That's--"

"Oh my gosh, Amber!" Song Qian turns around and grabs the tomboy by her shoulders and begins shaking her out of excitement
"You're a lady now!" She then hugs her. Amber, still shocked, hugs her back.

"This was taken just this Saturday! What has been going on? Why am I so oblivious? I didn't know you guys already hooked up! I feel so betrayed! Plus he works in your shop, eventhough he's filthy stinking rich, out of love! I thought you were my friend!'" She clutches her chest and Amber just fidgets because she kinda felt guilty about hiding the issue behind her friends

"I just didn't want any additional issues after the article. In fact I don't want anything to be shared by me and Henry! I don't want anything to do with him! And you had to suggest me to tutor him."

And just like that Soojung grins and wiggles her brows suggestively
"So what do you guys do after you shift?"

"Omo~" Song Qian covers

"WHAT? No! It's nothing like what you're thinking of!"

"Why are you panicking, Amber? Are you guilty?"

"What? Guilty of what? We study after our shift, that's it."

Song Qian was at the edge of her seat just listening to the two younger friends

Amber was obviously flustered. Her face was on fire and she was sweating profusely

"Where?"

...

"His house."

That moment, Song Qian fainted, Soojung was emitting dolphin sounds and Amber was then a full fledged tomato.

a/n: the f(x) fandom has been baptized! long live us MeU!! anyway, been doing some exams. and an updating a an old, dusty chapter is all i can do to celebrate whatever is going on with f(x) haha //cries in a dark corner

anyway, here it is... i'm running out of reserved chapters haha (^_^ ;)  //runs away

btw is this story dragging slow too much? i can... maybe-- speed things up a bit and skip some parts i have thought of ._.