“Really?”- The boy’s eyes widened in surprise.

His best friend was avoiding his eye contact. The short-haired girl looked down shyly at her hands, didn’t dare to face him, yet.

Henry tried again. “Amber? Do you… Do you really…?”- He stammered at the new-found information.

Amber hesitated for a moment, but then slowly looked up at him through her black fringe. The taller was still boring his eyes straight at her, his expression confused as if he was trying to search for the real answer. She gulped, and nodded. She knew she was blushing furiously, that not like her usual self at all, but she tried to collect all the courage to exclaim: “Don’t you have any trust in this best friend’s words? You think that I am that type of person who make fun of my feelings?”

“N… No, of course not”- Henry said quickly, being afraid that he could have hurt her pride. “I just… I don’t know. I have never seen this coming”- He admitted and awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck while grinning sheepishly.

His grin made her relieved a bit, but the butterflies in her stomach was still there, refusing to disappear. Amber bit her lower lip slightly, worried about his possible answer. “So…?”

Henry couldn’t suppress his smile at the cuteness of the nervous girl in front of him. He reached for her hand, held it in his and squeezed gently. He brushed her bang to the side with the other hand and connected their eye contact.

“I’m really surprised, to be honest”. He beamed then. “But it’s you. So I’m very happy"

The boyish girl couldn’t believe in her own ears. Did he really just said that he accepted her? Like she had always dreamt of?

Henry grinned wider, eyes twinkling: “I guess now it’s my turn to tell you who is my special girl”

---

Next morning, Henry had a dance practice so he came to the company. He decided to do some warm up before starting the actual moves. He still found excited when thinking about the incident the evening before. Everything was fresh in his mind. The boy chuckled at the memory and released all his feelings into the choreography. He didn’t expect the sudden appearance of any audience.

BANG- The practice room’s door was push opened with such force that came with a loud thud. And there stood a tall handsome boy. Henry stops dancing in reaction to the sound and turned around to face the other boy. It was clear that the taller boy was angry. Henry frowned.

“Kris, what the hell?”

Kris stretched his long legs as much as possible and went up to him. And it didn’t take a minute when he was already there, in front of the other. Henry took note that Kris’ huge hands were already curled tightly into fists, which was not a good sign. He may have the weakest arm strength compared to other EXO boys but who knows, he could suddenly become surprisingly strong in some certain cases, like when being in this kind of bad mood. Kris started to say, or rather nearly shouted at him.

“You asked me? I must be the one to question! I heard it!”

“Heard what? Chill, dude”- Henry stepped back a little, maintaining a wider distance, just for safe.

Kris hissed through his gritted teeth, the hint of a dangerous glint in his eyes: “You and Amber!”

“And who did you hear from?”- the violinist raised an eyebrow.

“Amber!”- The rapper groaned. “She told me this morning!”

Henry chuckled. Amber was not really the gossip and bragging type. It seemed that someone was too happy to keep a secret, and the boy found that kinda cute.

The amusing grin formed in Henry’s face of course didn’t ease the anger from the younger, as he narrowed his eyes: “How could you do this to me? You have always known who I like”

Henry straightened himself, glaring back at the other boy. He said coldly. “I don’t care”

“I thought we are close fellows, Canadian brothers and all!”

“Yes, we are. And we will always be if you stop whining about this matter. I won’t make concessions”

“Why Amber?”- Kris grimaced. “I know you are closer to her, but…”

“Oh, you are aware of that. So stop, I am having practice here, as you can see”- Henry was about to walk away from the angry boy.

Kris was quicker, taking a hold of Henry’s shoulders to prevent him from moving. “I told you first. But you still did this. Have you ever considered my feelings?”

“Kris”. Henry stated seriously. He was not often serious like this. But then he was, you’d better back down. Kris flinched visibly, managing to mutter weakly. “I am sincere”

“And you think shouting at me can solve our problem?” The dark-brown-haired smirked mockingly. He released himself from Kris’ firm grip. He walked to the stereo to replay the music again. Before pushing the button, he turned to Kris, who was remaining still at his position.

“And stop this discussion here. I can let you take anyone, but not this one”

The taller boy knew it was no good continuing, so he sighed and exited the room, but  didn’t forget to leave his last message: “I won’t give up this easily either”

Henry glanced up just to see Kris’ back disappeared through the door. The dancer frowned, obviously annoyed.

-----

Author's note: Sr if you find Amber too "OC" here. Let's see it as "that's what love does to you", while I try to make her more into the character in the next chapters, lol.