“Hey N!” the woman greeted with a bright smile, reaching her hand out for a much-needed handshake. The man laughed and instead of accepting her friendly offer, pulled her in for a hug before letting go once he heard footsteps coming toward them. There was no way he would risk Yewon teasing him about Amber and him as a couple. It was a fact between the two that N needs a girlfriend, but as he had mentioned in an interview before, he preferred someone on the feminine side and Amber certainly don’t fit the bill. As least in the logical part of his mind, she doesn’t.

“N!” “Amber!” the newlyweds happily called out as they went to greet their long-time friends. After Amber and Henry did their usual bro-hug, the older girl swooped in and embraced Amber tightly. “Ambie! How long has it been?!”

Amber let out a strangled gasp in surprise before she chuckled and returned the hug, “Unnie, it hasn’t been that long. We met last month, remember?” Amber winked teasingly at Yewon, indicating something that was supposed to only be between them.

Yewon rolled her eyes and hit the younger woman’s arm harshly, “Shush. Nobody needs to know that you told me all of Henry’s weaknesses,” she hissed before she turned to N and a naughty smile appeared on her face. “C’mon in, guys, and tell me all about that hug~”

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“You two look good together. You have something like a couple look today,” Henry casually brought up just as Amber and N were able to enter the newlyweds’ house. The two guests’ eyes met with each other and a spark of knowledge ignited between the two. So this was what the couple was up to.

“No, I don’t think so,” N denied with a small smile and a shake of his head, trying to hide the shade of pink that was encompassing his cheeks. It really didn’t help the situation when Amber had grinned up at him and offered her hand, to which he took to help pull her up into the house. I’m simply being a gentleman, he convinced himself even as he held the warmth of her palm for a second longer than necessary.

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“There are presents on the second floor. You have to go up.” “Hold her hand.” Henry and Yewon said and the moment the two guests took the bait and started to head up the narrow staircase, Yewon clapped Henry’s back, trying hard not to burst into laughter.

“There’s nothing in there. Are you trying to lock me-” N started, but had his answer as soon as he felt had felt Amber’s hand on his back and the darkness covering his vision.

“Can someone please stop these two from locking me and Amber inside a freaking closet?” N grumbled as he helped Amber to push aside the wooden door that was enclosing them inside the tiny space. However, as soon as he leaned over Amber’s shoulder to grasp onto the handle, N couldn’t help but take in the familiar lavender scent that had been imprinted inside his mind since their meeting on AS4U. It was a brief encounter, and yet for days afterward, N couldn’t get the social butterfly’s face and melodic laughter from leaving his mind. Of course, it only took a single, teasing snicker from Leo for him to abandon Amber and plot up ways to murder the younger man instead.

Once they had gotten out and Amber had given Henry a lesson, N shook his head at the newlyweds in disappointment, but a part of him couldn’t help but to thank the two for the chance to be alone with Amber. However, he couldn’t help but to let the question fell from his lips. “Why are you locking us up as soon as we got here?” to which Henry and Yewon simply ignored as the answer was as obvious as day.

“NO more tricks. We promised,” the couple swore but Amber and N had experienced the doubt, and they had made an alliance to trust each other and to not fall for any more of Henry and Yewon’s tricks.

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“Swindlers,” N and Amber accused the two as the man had accidentally sat down on a purposefully-set fart bomb on his chair just seconds before. To comfort the poor leader of VIXX, Amber placed her hand on the back of his neck briefly to show that she’s there for him before she took the nearest object to her and threw it at her best friend of several years. Henry picked up the bamboo stick that was given to him and waved it threateningly, but Amber merely stuck her tongue out when Yewon gripped onto the stick and forced her ‘husband’ to put it down.

“I’m sure there will be more,” Amber warned N, her eyes glancing away from the object of her conversation even as the man continued to stare at her.

“Ok! I’ll prepare my heart,” N replied, his gaze never leaving the tomboy by his side. It wasn’t like he hasn’t seen women prettier than Amber, but for some reason, he couldn’t help but to let his eyes linger on her for as long as possible without getting caught by either the couple or the multiple cameras that were in front of them.

Snapping out of his thought when he heard Amber started to explain to Yewon about the punishment stick, N smirked and leaned in closer to give the new bride a lesson as revenge for earlier. “This is a custom when you get married...hitting the husband’s feet,” N started his lecture, but as he got to the part as to why they should do it, the man became speechless from embarrassment as he realized what he was about to say. Glancing at Amber for help, she couldn’t help but chuckled at the older man’s predicament.

“It’s affection power! It increases your affection power, so you should hit him a lot,” Amber added devilishly, the emerging smirk highlighting all that was needed to be said.

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“Wait wait, do you two know each other?” Henry inquired, his eyes scanning his guests with suspicion.

Amber and N’s eyes met once again and they silently laughed. It was now Henry’s turn for revenge. The self-proclaimed Snoopy glanced at the cameras secretly, his expression deep in thought as the two discussed a way to get out of this set-up.

“At time like this-” “Just stay quiet?” “They will keep trying to pair us up. But we know, so it’s okay.”

At the reassurance tone from Amber, N’s heart heaved a heavy sigh of disappointment at the fact that the woman seemed to want nothing to do with him. ‘No, I’m not supposed to think like that!’ N slapped himself mentally, wondering since when his mindset had switched from innocent, ladylike women to the social butterfly in front of him.

“Let’s do this. Have the two of you ever met outside of work?” Yewon’s voice broke through his train of thoughts and N found himself glancing at Amber once again.

“No”

“..No”

At his hesitant answer, Yewon jumped up almost too happily as though she was expecting it, and N sighed to himself. She planned this, he thought, she knew I was distracted, and so she threw out the question to confuse me. At least, that was the excuse that he’s using to persuade himself that he’s not just secretly wishing to be able to see Amber outside of work.

“You answered late! Quickly, spill it!” Yewon egged him on, a mischievous smile gracing the idol’s feature as she pointed her finger at him. Yewon had know the boy for a long time, and she could tell from the change of expression on N’s face that somehow his opinion of Amber has been altered over the course of the past hour or so.

“Even though we are not a couple, we are a team,” Amber declared, the cooking utensil being waved in her hand at the couple’s direction dangerously as though she was trying to threaten them. N sat beside her, amused at the tomboy’s antics. It was no wonder she was able to get all of those guy friends of her under control.

“Wait, did you just say you are not YET a couple?” Henry countered, his arm hanging loosely over his wife’s shoulder in a protective manner as Amber’s ‘weapon’ edged closer and closer to them. To his disappointment, Amber quickly glared at him and proceeded to the topic of him not pointing his finger at someone. The woman was too good at changing the topic, but it doesn’t matter. He and Yewon had everything perfectly planned out already…

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Okay, well not exactly perfect, Henry was forced to admitted later as he was faced with the task of having to somehow rope the two into playing the game he and Yewon had prepared.

“See!” Henry shouted out in glee after having uncovered the insole from N’s shoes. In return, Amber quickly walked up to her annoying Snoopy and demanded for him to sit down so that she could take a look at his shoes. She knew Henry, and if her knowledge was anything, there was a huge treasure chest inside his shoes called insoles.

After uncovering the insoles from Henry’s shoes, Amber’s gaze turned up to show Yewon but she quickly turned away when she saw the display of affection the couple was showing. In pretended disgust, she put up her hand and turned away, her face scrunching up in what later N would called cute. Not that he had to know yet.

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“I have a request though,” N spoke up, not knowing his demise was coming soon, “You know, eating together without using hands. Just like the stick biscuit game,” he glanced at Amber, urging her to help him through his eyes when Henry and Yewon looked utterly confused. However, the moment Amber finished explaining, the couple’s eyes lit up.

“Ah! You two wanted to do it?” Yewon asked teasingly, pretending like she had never planned it all along, “You should’ve said it earlier.” The moment the words left Yewon’s mouth, the basket of biscuits had already appeared in Henry’s hands magically.

“No!” N was quick to denial, “I meant the two of you.” However, it was too late. Yewon’s smile pulled up into a smirk and she chuckled, “You should’ve given me a hint earlier.”  

“Here, let’s go with this one,” Henry pulled out a long stick of pepero and N hung his head in shame, his eyes occasionally darting over to Amber to gawk at her reaction. As his face slowly turned from a light pink into a deep red, Amber’s mouth was simply open in shock that the events had somehow managed to be turn into the pepero game that was supposed to only be play by the newlyweds. She really wanted to hit N, she concluded, but one look at him and pity formed at the pit of her stomach. ‘It couldn’t be help,’ Amber thought, ‘They did a great job roping him into their scheme.’

Fine, N thought, and for the last time, he decided to do something reckless. “If you do it, we’ll do it too.”

“Promise?” “Promise.”

The commitment was made just like that, but one look at Amber’s face and everyone could tells she took no part in the making of the treaty. Turning to look at N, her lips pressed themselves into a thin line as her eyebrows quirked up, questioning her fellow ‘teammate’ silently. She was considering taking all feelings of pity for the man back, and just going ahead with punishing him.

“Did you ask Amber yet?” Yewon questioned her hoobae, her hand on Amber’s shoulder as though it was a way to comfort her. N’s body jolted up and he glanced at Amber guiltily, although judging by the smiles on their faces, neither seem to mind the possibility of lips contact.

“It’s cool. Give and take, huh?” the guest pairing seemed to have come to an agreement and the game quickly proceeded onward. Henry and Yewon went first, leaving a fair amount of biscuit left.

“Let’s do it coolly,” Amber gestured, the biscuit already in .  N managed to snap out of his daydreaming and nodded before he adjusted his seat to face the younger female.

“Coolly? They said they’ll do it coolly,” Henry repeated, his tone filled with amusement. Even though his plan had involved a pepero game, he had no idea why N and Amber had decided to taken their challenge. It was something along the line of a simple game for him and Yewon since they are ‘married’ after all. But what was in it for the other two?

Discreetly, N’s hand flew up to Amber’s shoulder as he leaned closer, his mouth taking in a big part of the biscuit with no problem and within seconds, the two were moving closer and closer to each other. Well, more like N was inching closer to Amber. The usually extroverted woman just sat still, letting the VIXX’s leader take the lead and her head unconsciously tilted upward a bit to give N an easier access to the biscuit. Or so she would like to think.

With both of their eyes closed, N had no way to know when was enough but after a while, he decided that the distance should’ve been more than needed to win over Henry and Yewon’s. Breaking off his part of the biscuit, he took a peek and saw that quiet a bit was left on Amber’s side, but he knew that if Amber bit off her part, they could’ve won easily.

However, Amber was staring up at him instead, waving off Yewon who was trying to stop the two from going any farther, gesturing for “More.” Obviously, N would hate to lose and so he decided to take the risk and leaned back in, continuing where he had left off. With Amber actively taking part in moving closer to him, his inner Hakyeon grasped both of Amber’s shoulders and he bit the biscuit, shifting at an imminent speed toward Amber until the bottom of their lips touch for the first time, giving him an indescribable warmth that barely lasted a second before he knew he had to moved back in order to not create a scandal. A lingering feeling of regret resided inside him as he slid his hand off of her slowly and he stood up, pretending to be weirded out when she teasingly said “More, more?” even though all he wanted to do was to continue from earlier.

Alright, inner Hakyeon said, that’s enough daydreaming. Snap out!

As Amber bit off her end of the biscuit to secure their win, N reached over to help get the tiny leftover so that it wouldn’t fall onto the ground. Placing it onto the table, the two of them knew fully well that they had won, and what had just occurred between them. Even as they felt their hearts beating faster and faster with each contact, there was nothing they could do but to welcome the impending coming of a developing love.

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Filming finally concluded, and N and Amber started to head back to their vans where their managers were waiting for them. Henry and Yewon, of course, stayed behind to continue filming their own private scene. However, the two elders knew that something had changed within their friends.

The pathway toward the front entrance was farther than what either of them had initially remember. N and Amber were awkwardly walking side by side, and before long, they had arrived at the gate. Pulling open the wooden door for Amber like the gentleman he is, N’s heart dropped when he saw Amber said a small thank you before turning to walk away. The sight of her back wasn’t pleasing to him, and he finally realized what he had to do.

Swiftly reaching out to take hold of Amber’s arm, N used all of his strength to spin her around, a sweet smile flattering his face. “Would you like to have dinner with me?” He asked, his hand refusing to let go of her arm in fear of rejection.

Amber looked up at the man before her in surprise, not knowing what to do with the situation. From what she had heard, VIXX’s N was the type to fall for feminine girls like Seohyun and not someone like her. Eyebrows raised, she stared into his eyes to see if he was telling the truth and all she could see was the sincerity reflecting from his eyes.

Shaking off his arm, Amber simply grinned goofily before she tiptoed and placed a kiss on his cheek, “I would love to,” she whispered afterward before she stalked toward her van quickly in order to hide the blush that was spreading across her face.

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Outside of Henry and Yewon’s newlywed house stood a very happy, very excited Cha Hakyeon along with his equally annoyed and yet mischievous manager.

“7 o’clock!” He called out after Amber, “I’m picking you up from your place!”

Nobody ever question how he knew where Amber live. Afterall, they all knew the sorts of connections both of them have.

___________________________________

Inside the house stood Henry and Yewon, two teasing smiles appearing on their faces. “They’re idiots,” Yewon said and Henry nodded in agreement, imprinting in his mind the fact that he was going to interrogate Amber on how the date goes. It’s going to be a very long day for both Amber and N tomorrow.