When she told Ailee about the kiss, she thought she’s going to go deaf with how loud she squealed.

“This is it! You should tell him how you really feel!” Ailee exclaims, taking her by the wrist and dragging her to the door. Amber splutters in protest, stopping her before she opens the door.

“Are you crazy? I can’t!”

“Why not?”

“Because of the very possible reason that he doesn’t feel the same way!” Amber says, feeling her heart twist inside her chest. “Ailee, he’s my best friend. It’s not worth it if I have to lose him.”

“Amber, he can’t kiss you like that and not mean it. You can’t just share a mind blowing kiss without it meaning something.” At this point, Ailee really wants to shake her head and slap some sense into her.

“I-I can’t do this. We only have a week left.”

“All the more reason why you should tell him.”

“Or I could just stay here, not tell him anything and wallow in self-pity for the rest of my life. And I thought you were against this?”

Ailee shrugs. “Opinions can change.” She doesn’t tell her that she’s been talking to Eric.

“Look Ailee, I’m okay with not telling him. Maybe this is just a phase or something.” Amber says with a sigh. “Maybe it will go away sooner or later.”

“That’s what you’re going to write in your manuscript? That you fell in love with him but maybe it’s just a phase?” Ailee scoffs and raises an eyebrow, crossing her arms on her chest.

“I don’t know! But I do know that I don’t want to tell him.”

“Sometimes it amazes me that you’re so smart but so incredibly stupid at the same time.” Ailee sighs, walking over to their kitchen to fix herself a drink.

Henry comes over that night with snacks and a DVD of Jay Chou’s Secret. Ailee says something about having dinner with Eric and when they raised an eyebrow at her, she got defensive and told them that it’s not like that, he just wants her to sing one of his songs.

“You know, she’s jealous of Boa.” Amber says as she pops the popcorn into the microwave. “She denies it but she is.”

Henry snorts. “Why would she be jealous?”

“Because they ‘hang out too much.’” Amber answers, using air quotes to emphasize her point.

Henry fakes a gasp. “Is she jealous of me, too? Because we live together and stuff?”

Amber rolls her eyes and throws a napkin at his face.

They start the movie and no matter how many times she watches this, Amber still thinks that Jay Chou looks cute in a school uniform. She wonders what Henry would look like in one.

Henry holds her hand in the middle of the Piano Battle scene, tapping his fingers along with the piano on the back of it. She smiles and watches them dance for a moment before turning her attention back to the movie, the smile not leaving her face. When the movie ends, he’s still holding her hand and she’s still smiling. The credits roll and Henry scoots closer, laying his head on her shoulder.

They’re silent for a moment, enjoying each other’s presence before Henry decides to break it.

“Hey Amber, remember when I told you that you didn’t say anything embarrassing that night you got drunk at Mi-ge’s wedding?” Henry asks and Amber notices that his grip on her hand tightens.

“What? I did say something embarrassing?” Amber looks horrified as she waits for his answer. Oh god, what did she say?! She rakes her brain for an answer, trying to remember the events that night.

Nothing. She remembers absolutely nothing.

“Well it’s not exactly embarrassing.” Henry goes red and lets go of her hand to scratch the back of his neck. “You asked me to kiss you that night.”

It takes a while before the information sinks in and when it did, Amber just wanted to disappear from the face of the earth.

“Why didn’t you tell me?!” She exclaims, hiding her face in her hands, face burning.

“Hey,” Henry starts, trying to pry her hands off her face so she can look at him. “Come on, it’s not that bad. I mean, we did kiss. Just, four days later.”

Amber looks up, glaring this time and she wastes no time in grabbing a throw pillow and hitting him with it. Hard.

“You are not helping!” She exclaims and continues to hit him until Henry grabs the pillow and throws it aside before grabbing her wrists to prevent more damage.

“Next time, you don’t have to ask me if we could kiss. Just do it. I am the boyfriend.” He says with a cheeky grin as Amber turns red.

Amber doesn’t know where she got the courage but she does know that she doesn’t want three days ago to be their first and last kiss and the next thing she knows, she’s holding his face in her hands, running her thumbs across his cheeks, whispering, “Like this?” before leaning in and pressing their lips together.

Henry instinctively kisses back, pushing her snapback aside to tangle his fingers through her hair. Unlike last time, this isn’t rushed and he savors the sweet taste of her lips and the hint of popcorn lingering on her tongue. She kisses him slow and languid, like they have all the time in the world and the week that they have left will never come.

He chuckles when they break apart, breathless. “Yes, exactly like that.”

And Amber laughs before going in for another kiss.

Amber finds out that time passes by fast when she’s kissing Henry and suddenly, their week is now down to two days.

“We need to talk.” Amber whimpers in between kisses, stopping his hand from going under her sweatshirt. She came over his apartment to talk about the experiment and she doesn’t know how talking turned into kissing. Like they haven’t been doing that all week.

“But we’re having so much fun.” Henry breathes against her neck before ghosting a kiss there and she almost forgets what she wants to talk about. 

Before they can take it any further, she untangles herself from his arms, climbing down from his lap and fixing her sweatshirt. Henry pouts at her and she slaps the back of his head.

“This is important.” She says sternly, glaring at him. “We only have two days left for this experiment.”

Henry takes her hand and squeezes it gently. “I know.”

It’s not like he’s been counting. It’s not like he’s been beating himself up over it.

“I just want to say that I don’t want to pressure you into dating me after this.” Amber continues. “You can do whatever you want. You’re not obligated to be in a relationship with me. Just promise me that we’re still best friends.”

Henry wants to say that he doesn’t have to feel obligated because he would really like to be her boyfriend for real but he stops himself, the fear of rejection taking over his mind completely. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

He really can’t trust himself to say anything so he just leans in and kisses her forehead, letting his lips linger there for a moment before managing to say, “Okay.”

Amber smiles at him and he thinks that if she can smile at him like this forever then he doesn’t mind if she doesn’t like him back.

“Okay, I gotta go. I have to go meet up with James.”

Henry scorns at the mention of his name. “Again?” he whines. “You just met up with him the other day.”

“Well, we do have several classes together and you know, have the same majors?” She flicks his forehead and he whines some more.

“Rule number four, no flirting outside this relationship.” Henry states, imitating Amber’s voice that has her scrunching her nose in disgust.

“One, I don’t sound like that and two, I’m not flirting with him and I’m not going to.”

“That doesn’t mean he wouldn’t.” He mumbles, pouting like a five-year-old. “I don’t trust that Ginormous Statue.”

Amber laughs at that, hitting him playfully on the shoulder. “Be nice.”

She grabs her backpack from behind him before kissing him on the cheek and bolting out the door. Henry can feel his heart twinge a bit and he sighs.

Two days.  

Day 40 comes and Amber is simultaneously upset and anxious. She barely got any sleep the night before, busy overthinking and overanalyzing things.

“You’re really not going to tell him? Like ever?” Ailee asks, munching on her toast.

Amber shakes her head. “Nope.”

Their doorbell rings and Amber has to take a deep breath to calm her nerves. Henry is grinning when she opens the door.

“You ready?” he asks excitedly, practically jumping up and down. “Hey Ailee.”

Ailee waves from her seat. “Where are you guys going today?”

“Lotte World!” Henry exclaims without missing a beat, his grin even wider that earlier and Ailee laughs.

Amber grabs her backpack and snapback from the couch before waving goodbye to Ailee. “We’re leaving!”

“Have fun!” Ailee calls after them before Amber grabs Henry’s wrist and shutting the door behind her.

Her anxiousness returns as they walk to the car and Henry must have noticed it because he asked if she’s okay.

“We can just stay home, if you’re not feeling well.” He says, eyes looking over at her with concern and as cheesy and disgusting as it sounds, she melts under his gaze.

“I’m fine. Just didn’t get enough sleep.” She explains avoiding looking at his eyes. “Plus, we’re going to ride the roller coaster and I get to see your horrified face and like hell I’m going to miss that.”

Henry’s eyes widen at the mention of roller coasters and he blinks at her, getting more horrified as the information sinks in. “R-roller coaster? We’re going to ride that?”

Amber doesn’t answer and just laughs instead, climbing up the car.

She still doesn’t answer even when he keeps asking her the whole car ride. This is the only way she can stop overthinking and actually enjoy their last date.

Henry gives up eventually and resorts to pouting and sulking as he drives and it’s even more annoying than when he was shooting multiple questions at her. Amber rolls her eyes and sighs.

“Okay fine, we won’t ride the roller coaster.” She says and Henry breaks into a grin, taking her hand and squeezing it gently. She rolls her eyes and calls him a baby.

When they arrive, Henry drags her to the skating rink despite her efforts of dragging him to the roller coaster.

Amber is not really a good skater but she can skate. Henry, on the other hand, played hockey when he was younger so he’s obviously better and has the need to show off. He does a little twirl and she glares as he laughs at her inability to make a turn.

“Want me to hold your hand?” he asks, still laughing.

“I hate you.” she grumbles but still takes his hand.

Amber manages not to fall on her and Henry manages to be a little less annoying and smug. She did have fun even though the constant fear of falling is there. And holding Henry’s hand is always a plus.

She gets her revenge half an hour later when she drags him to the roller coaster and Henry tugs his wrist back in protest but she only tightens her grip, pulling him close and kissing him in the middle of the queue. It’s a cheap trick and she promised herself that she won’t kiss him today because she can’t deal with anymore emotional baggage but it worked and a few moments later, Henry was screaming his head off and grasping to her hand like his life depended on it. By the end of the ride, Amber has tears in her eyes from laughing so much.

“I hate you.” Henry grumbles after almost throwing up when they got off the ride. Amber is still laughing.

They go to the arcade next because Henry can’t ride anymore rides that includes getting his feet off the ground. Henry decides that he wants to play the claw crane machine and win a sushi plushie for Amber. He stays there for almost an hour and Amber leaves him there for a moment to play on her own. When she comes back, she already won a plushie for him at the shooting range.

Henry finally gets one but he’s pouting at her and her plushie so Amber buys him ice cream to make peace. When he’s done pouting, he made a beeline to the merry-go-round and Amber swears on her life that she doesn’t know him.

The rest of the day passes by without either of them mentioning the experiment and Amber is relieved. It vanishes completely when they’re already driving home after dinner and suddenly, the reality that tomorrow, Henry is not her boyfriend anymore is Very Real. She stays quiet the whole car ride and he doesn’t question it.

He pulls over at her apartment and Amber honestly feels like she’s going to throw up. He reaches over the backseat and grabs a binder, handing it over to her with a curt smile.

“These are the questionnaires. I’ll give you the last one tomorrow.” He says and Ambers stops her hand from shaking as she takes it from him.

“Thanks, Henry.” She mumbles. “For everything.”

“Hey,” he smiles with a playful punch on her shoulder. “What best friends are for, right?”

“Right.” Amber sighs. “Good night, doofus.” She unlocks the door, trying not to look at him as she gets out of the car because if she does, she might kiss him again or worse - confess.

She gets into her building, not even sparing him another glance and she only notices the tears on her face when she slams the door behind her.

“You’re hopeless, Henry. You really are.” Eric sighs after Henry told him that no, he didn’t confess and yes, he chickened out. “What the hell are you going to do now?”

“She’s going to find out eventually.” Henry answers, scrubbing his face in frustration. “Everything is written on that questionnaire. She probably won’t talk to me again.”

At that moment, Eric really wanted to shake him out of his senses and tell him everything that Ailee said - that Amber’s just as stupidly in love with him like he is with her. But he promised not to meddle and let them sort all of these out by themselves (he also almost made a bet with Ailee on who will confess first but both of them felt bad so they didn’t do it).

“I’m sure she won’t do that.” Eric tries to comfort him with an awkward pat on the back. “She’s your best friend and who knows? Maybe she feels the same way.”

Henry lets out a bitter chuckle. “Yeah right. You should’ve seen how quickly she got out from the car earlier. She’s probably relieved that she finally got me off her back. Besides, I think she likes that Jamie guy from her department.”

“James.” Eric corrects and now he really wants to hit him with a brick.

“Same difference.”

Eric hopes that Amber will hurry the hell up and read those questionnaires.

The next morning, Henry doesn’t want to get out of bed. He doesn’t want to go to class or face Amber either. To be honest, he just wants the ground to eat him alive.

“Henry get your up, we’re going to be late for class!” Eric yells from the other side of the door and he groans, pulling the covers over his head to drown him out. Maybe he could just stay in his room for the rest of his life.

“I don’t wanna!” Henry whines, not caring if he sounds like a total five-year-old. He just wants to disappear.

He could almost see Eric’s eye roll as he sighs. “Fine. I’ll take notes for you.”

He hears the door shutting and he groans again, burying himself in the covers and pillows and taking comfort at the silence of the apartment. He closes his eyes for a moment, hoping to go back to sleep but his brain keeps reminding him that right now, Amber might be reading through his questionnaires and seeing all his answers and finding out just how stupidly in love he is with her. Stupid brain.

He thrashes in his bed, whining before he decides that he wants to get drunk, 9 AM be damned. He gets up and opens the fridge, grabbing a can of beer before plopping on the couch with a sigh. He shouldn’t have participated in this experiment. But then again, when it comes to Amber, he’d probably do anything.  

He’s on his third beer when someone knocks on the door and with another groan, he opens it. Amber greets him with an awkward smile and he’s horrified when he sees his questionnaires on her hand. Crap. She already read it. .

“W-what are you doing here?” he asks.

Amber just stares at him before she starts reading. “How do you feel about this relationship/experiment right now? I finally know why I was bothered that she changed her shampoo. It’s because I gave her that lemon one and I don’t want her to smell like anything else. It’s selfish but it feels like she’s mine. Is it right to think like that?”

Oh god oh god oh god oh god.

Henry wants to cover his ears and be swallowed by the ground but she continues.

“Day five, how do you feel about this relationship/experiment right now? I think my feelings for Amber in high school is coming back. It’s nice and scary at the same time.” she reads. “Day fifteen, I like Amber. I really, really do. Day twe--”

Henry manages to cover with his hand to stop her before he dies out of embarrassment.

“I get it, I get it.” He says. “You can laugh at me now.”

He retracts his hand and waits for her to break his heart.

“You’re an idiot.” He hears her say and there’s a split second of confusion on his part before she pulls him down for a kiss. It doesn’t take long before he kisses back, wrapping his arms around her waist and sighing against her lips. Amber pulls him closer, clinging to his neck and his breath hitches when her tongue touches his lips.

He lifts her up, her legs automatically goes around his waist and he walks backwards until they fall on the couch. Amber squeals when she lands on top of Henry but continues to kiss him. Henry’s starting to think that he might be drunk already - whether it’s from the beer or Amber’s lips, he doesn’t know.

He breaks the kiss with a peck, his breathing uneven and face red. “Does this mean that you like me too?”

Amber chuckles, giving him a peck on the lips. “What do you think, you ?”

It takes a second before the switches on his head click.

Amber likes him. Amber wants to date him for real.

“Say it, then.” he demands and she rolls her eyes.

“I like you, too. I really, really do.”

He breaks into a grin and pulls her in for another kiss which she gladly welcomes.

“So you don’t like James?” he breaks the kiss again and Amber looks like she’s ready to kill him.

“Just shut up and kiss me.”

She doesn’t have to tell him twice. 

a/n: phew it's finally done! i don't want to cut this in the middle so i posted it as one. thank you all so much for reading and subscribing and commenting! it really means a lot. i hope you enjoyed this~