“Happy birthday to you, zhu ni shengri kuaile, happy birthday, dear Amber -- happy birthday to you!”

“You guys really didn’t have too...”

Yifan spied a small taint of pink on Amber’s cheeks, finding her too cute. Although known to be rather like a boy, he had know Amber since they were in kindergarten -- Amber was the most girly girl he knew. His mind was far off from Amber’s contradictory looks though, for his eyes were glued onto his wrist, where his watch displayed the time: 6:25 PM. He could still make it in time, he would just have to leave soon, by 7:30, then again, would the traffic rush cause a problem? Of course it would --

“Kris, pay attention!”

His eyes blinked toward the source of the voice, seeing Kyungsoo’s eyes -- as well as the nine others that were present at the party. “W -- what?”

“We’re on your present, idiot.” Jongin gave him a disapproving glance as Amber managed a sad, queer smile. He knew that smile all too well -- it wasn’t a good one. It wasn’t rocket science for anyone to see how much Amber adored himself, the emotions she held for him ever since they had held hands in high school. But it wasn’t nuclear chemistry for anyone to notice Yifan didn’t feel that way, at all.

“Oh, right.” Yifan’s hands fumbled over to grab the small box next to him, stepping in front and handing it over to the birthday girl. “Happy birthday, llama.”

Amber’s eyes glanced upward at his, obviously glaring. “I told you, I’m too old to be called llama now!” A burst of laughter from all around the circle.

“Open it already.”

Amber opened the box slowly, eyes widening in gleeful surprise at the simple chain necklace. “This is...”

“You had your eyes glued onto that thing when we went shopping in Beijing.” Arms were immediately thrown onto his neck, as he spun Amber around once, chuckling.

“Xie xie, ni bai chi.”

“Bu keqi.”

 

7:29 PM. He was physically fretting now, his legs constantly shaking -- a bad habit from freshman year of high school he couldn’t fix, for some odd reason. The majority of his friends were playing a game of UNO over on the table, which he had refused politely to join -- card games and him didn’t match, and everyone knew. Out of nowhere, he felt a hand along his thigh, making in jump a bit. The hand immediately recoiled, as Yifan’s gaze stirred, meeting Amber’s.

“I’m sorry.” She chuckled, playing with the necklace he had gifted her, eyes gazing down at the floor embarrassedly. God, Amber was such a girl -- why didn’t anyone else see this?

“No -- I was just caught off guard, that’s all. What’s... the matter?”

Her eyes casted onto his again, and a sigh escaped. “Nothing, I just -- I know you have somewhere to be, Jongin told me. You should go. I really didn’t even expect for you to come here -- you should go now, you’ve been here long enough. You’re not even enjoying anything, look at yourself.”

Ah. “I’m enjoying myself --”

“Kris, you know out of all the people in the world, you can’t lie to me.” Again, one of her sad smiles. He hated those.

“It’s not you -- or anything, it’s just... me. My father wants me to go speak to some guy, hoping I’ll get employed under him... --”

“Go.”

“You know I can’t do that.”

“I know you should, Kris.”

 

Before he knew it, he had somehow managed to push out the incredibly guilty thoughts and stab at his heart, and push through the glares of Jongin and Kyungsoo. He had picked their nagging for a week on his decision over the screaming of his father. At least Amber was understanding -- she would understand as she always did right? His hands were fidgeting over the wheel as the car came to a halt at a red light. He took this moment to check his hair in the mirror, fixing his tie again. He wasn’t nervous to meet this guy, he was just... annoyed, that was all. Yifan’s back now slumped into the seat, watching the light flicker to green again.

As his foot pressed down the weight of the gas, something else appeared out of nowhere -- a boy, making his steps through the crosswalk. At the corner of his eye, he could see the car beside him already treading forward. The boy was going to get hit; badly.

He acted on impulse, the grip on his wheel tightening as he jerked it to the right, causing his own car to swerve to the side, hitting the car beside, stopping it.

What the had happened?

He could feel a sting of pain at his right arm -- something was pushing into his skin. He didn’t even want to look. He pushed at the door as he got out, hearing the commotion from the driver next to him, getting asked if he was out of his mind, crashing into the car like that. But his steps were made toward the boy who had fell onto the ground out of surprise, offering a hand.

Yifan himself was caught in surprise when the boy’s confused brown eyes were on him.

He could see his lips trying to formulate the right words to say. “Thanks for...”

“Saving your life?”

“Y -- yeah.”