"Hey Amber!" Baekhyun called out, summoning his brightest voice. He's determined to let some of his cheerfulness rub off onto the quiet, moody girl.

Amber cringed. Not in the morning, please. She couldn't handle it. Her resolve to be unfriendly was already wavering after the short exchange the evening before. She silently cursed the over-enthusiastic boy. Why can't you just leave me be? Be like the others and ignore me? Why must you be so kind and make things so difficult? She continued down the street towards school, willing her feet to move faster, pretending not to hear Baekhyun.

But Baekhyun was not discouraged. He had already expected this to happen, so instead of giving up and racking his brains for another idea, he picked up speed and ran as fast as he could to catch up with the Amber. 

"Hey," Baekhyun stopped to catch his breath. "You. Walk. Really quickly." 

"..."

"Okay. So. Uhm. Amber. What do you think of the school so far?" Stay unfazed, Baekhyun, you can do this. Just keep talking. 

"..."

"Isn't the history teacher boring? Gosh, I almost fell asleep in class yesterday!"

Well, I'm obviously boring you now by not talking to you, why don't you just fall asleep? Amber sighed deeply. It looked like she had to shut the boy up herself, or else she'll have to spend hours at night psychoing herself back into complete coldness. She turned to face the him. "Look, I really, really do--"

Amber stopped at the sight that greeted her. It wasn't Baekhyun. No, actually it is. But wait, no, something's off. But it's still him all the same. It must be... “Dark circles,” she muttered. 

Baekhyun looked at her, amused. The first thing she says to a fellow classmate in the morning was 'dark circles‘? Incredible. He tried to control the edges of his lips, preventing them from curling upwards at the randomness of this interesting girl. "Yeah, you know, I ran out of concealer this morning..." Not that I ever have need for concealer though. These dark circles ar your fault. I wouldn't have been stuck with them if only I had gotten my beauty sleep instead of brainstorming ways to talk to you. 

"Oh. Here you go." Without thinking, Amber slid her arm into her rucksack, pulled a brown tube out and handed said item to Baekhyun.

The boy in question blinked. Did she just talk to me nicely? No hostility, just gentleness? 

"It's new, not once used. I just bought it." Oh God, what are you doing Amber? You're not going to be nice. No friends, Amber, no friends. You're leaving this place soon. Mom didn't come last night remember? This is definitely not the right place. So, no friends. "Take it. In return for the chocolate bar yesterday. I don't like owing people stuff." There. That's a good excuse to cover for that slip up. It was just a small one, Amber, don't be affected by it. 

Baekhyun reached out and took the small tube in his hand. He studied the label. Bunch of English words, nothing he really understood. k-ko-kohn-see-uh-see-uh-le-ur. kohn-see-uh-lur. Oh. Concealer. Oh. "Gee, thanks!"

And then, a brainwave hit him. "I don't like owing people stuff too," he proclaimed.

Amber glanced at him weirdly, before turning her focus back to the oh-so-interesting cemented path. 

"This," Baekhyun continued, waving the stick of concealer in her face, "definitely cost way more than the chocolate."

"..."

"What do you think of dinner tonight?"

*******************

"Stop pacing in front of the TV, Baek! I can't see the screen! Did your mom make you eat glass as a kid?"

"...No?"

"Exactly. You aren't transparent so go do your pacing somewhere else!" growled an annoyed Kyungsoo.

Baekhyun gulped and moved away immediately. No one in their right mind would cross Kyungsoo while he watches Prince of Tennis. Doing so was the equivalent of death, a long, painful one at that; nothing was worse than it (except making a mess in  the kitchen of course, but that's a story for another day). 

"You mean you can become transparent just by eating glass?" asked Tao curiously. He picked up an empty bowl from the table and raised it in the air. 

"No, Tao, you are not breaking that and eating the pieces! It was a figure of speech!" yelled Suho from the kitchen, dropping the spatula into the wok in the process, causing hot oil to splatter all over him. OUCH. 

"And that's not glass, idiot. It's china!"

"China?" Kyungsoo finally peeled his eyes away from the screen. "NOOO. NOT MY BEST CHINA!" He quickly jumped onto the couch and reached as high as he could, grabbing the bowl from Tao's hands and cradled it to his chest. 

"SHUT UP. EVERYONE. GOSH." Kris bellowed for the umpteenth time that day. 

The room was greeted with a spooky silence, but as always, it'll be broken in two minutes, the boys could never keep quiet long enou-

"DINGDONG."

"I didn't know we were expecting guests for dinner."

A/N: Hi guys, it's been what, 2 weeks? 3? Sorry! I really wanted to update sooner but schedules. And this is shorter than expected, but I don't have much time now and heaven knows when I can find time to update again and I didn't want to make you guys wait! Anyway, I've got a poster and background done! What do you guys think about it? Credits go to Contemporary Graphics, I love the work done there! And I know this is kind of late, but guess who got her MID albums finally? YAY! Happy belated new year!