His(pov)

June 2009

"lakers won! Aww how I wish I could be there with Jackie and Brian lucky them. Now if only I could be there too man! Mamba killed it. How does he do it!"

"And there another perfect pointer into the hoop! Amber could you focus on this game rather than that or LA would be losing to Vancouver today " I told the already distressed girl who had lost interest in today's game.

"How can you be like that Wu.... my American heart is aching........ meanie beanie, prrrt!!" Amber pouted sticking her tongue at the older guy tossing the ball to him playfully.

"you know it's no fun if you aren't going to play properly I rather have a match with that snoopy friend of yours if you are going to whine" I warned.

"Ya!yah! Ok sorry, I won't brood anymore. Let's start again.

After about 2 hours both of us had exhausted each other.

'here drink this' I gave the girl who was now lying on the floor all drenched in sweat with a wet towel over her eyes.

'you shouldn't tire yourself so much with me, you still have the practice to go to' I said sitting next to her. 'you need to start taking care of yourself more after all you will be getting busy now.....'

Since there was no response from the girl I realized that the girl had fallen asleep already "Aish! what am I ever going to do with you, Amber!" I mumbled to myself lifting the towel from her eyes while placing her head on my lap.

"10 mins only and then I am waking you up"

While she was busy snoring, I was busy studying the animal on my lap a, smile threatening my lips as I realized that she was randomly sleep talking again

"hmm Jackie those bunny cookies...hmmmm... kyrs not my hair too "

I shook my head at that. This girl really had all the random things on her mind.

I still couldn't believe this girl was going to debut this September.. SM had high hopes on this girl and was ready to bet the new girl group on her, who had fallen asleep on the basketball court, though it was partly my fault but still.......
I couldnt help but be worried about her... after all, she was an ordinary girl who had auditioned to be a vocalist trainee only to debut as a rapper.

"meow brrng !meow brrng!"

"What was that !!! owww amber wake up silly your phone is meowing no ah! Ringing! Get up, you idiot! " shaking the kid out of her sleep

"Hmmm Wu!!! what are you doing here? wait where am I? is that my phone give it to ee, hello Krystal is that you hmmmm... yeah I am sorry cover for me will you. I will be there in 5 min ... yeah yeah sorry princess I promise I will be there ok"

She almost jumped at Krystal's voice.... ! ! I gotta go Wu why did you let me sleep aww man I am so late and dead bye Wu! "She said sprinting towards the dance building. 

while I was left baffled at the duality of this person. One moment she was intoxicated with sleep the next she would be sprinting like a cheetah. I just hoped she wasn't in much trouble and not that tired, these days were hard for her. Looking at her made me wonder was all this really worth it, but then again she was a fighter, she wouldn't give up. It always amazed me how much she had achieved in such a short time and how much did she work hard.

I picked my up duffle bag and started to walk towards the dorm. The girl would drain me of all my energy so I needed a good night's rest to revitalize myself.  we had another game tomorrow. Something I had started looking towards every day since she arrived. A game that had started as a recreational hobby had become a habit and was now a part of my daily routine, rather my life. 

 It had been already more than a year that Amber had become a part of my daily life. The shy girl had befriended most people in the company, it was something which baffled me a lot. This ordinary girl who was my friend, probably the closest, always managed to intrigue me then.
                                                        *****************************

At Dorm

"I heard Amber is going to debut next month, Damn I am so excited for her" Luhan who was my roommate,  exclaimed when I started getting ready for my bed dead tired with today's exertion.

 "waah she is so awesome man can you believe it. she has been training for only a year and is already debuting. I heard Lee Soo-man betting the whole group's success on her. that so great, guess all that hard work is paying off to imagine she even joined our dancing classes, totally crazy. Plus she is only 16 -"

" Ge-Ge! not next month but this September, also she will be 17 by then and there is nothing special about debuting at 16, her group has kids less than 14, I mean Krystal is only 13 plus sm is interested in her only because she has a tomboy look. I mean with her vocals she has to debut as a  rapper, which is I don't know. Also would you please shut the lights it already very late and I am very tired. I need to SLEEP!" I cut him. 

Luhan had recently joined the company. Being Chinese having joined the company recently, He had become quite close to Amber. The man was in awe of my friend to put it simply especially after he had heard Amber talk in mandarin. I mean she was Chinese even if she had been born and brought up in America it would be weird if she didn't know the language, especially with her Americanised accent of the language, I wouldn't even call it mandarin.

"Well that's true but still she is amazing and-"

"Ge-Ge the lights and please shut up I get it she is awesome and whatnot now can we sleep?"

"wow, ok dude! chill! There I shut the lights. I don't even understand how does she even tolerates your y nature" Luhan mumbling the last line.

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

The next day. 

"What's today's excuse for your lack of concentration," I said passing the ball to her which ended up hitting her in the face.

"hey! that hurt ow... why would you do that.." Amber started whining while rubbing her nose.

"You have been out of it most of the time. Plus it's getting kinda hard to ignore your brooding face. So whats been bothering you, get over with it and do tell so that we can continue with the game, that goofy kid Chanyeol  will be joining us any time with Junmyeon,  so what up?"

"hah" she sighed then looked down then sighed again. This was getting beyond annoying at this point. She was clearly not fine, which was worrying me knowing her, I knew she was starting to self-doubt again. For a person as confident in their own skin as her, i had never met a person like her with such low self-confidence.

"Amber talk, I am there to listen, for forever. you know that, right?. Did someone say something?"

"what do I do Wu..... they are asking me cut my hair short, the trainer and my stylist"

"and that's whats been bothering you, really. A hair cut?"

At this, she shot her head up and looked straight at me in the eyes. I could see the pool of tears for threatening to form around her eyes. when she cut me and bitterly said "you don't understand, it not just a hair cut. My hair is the only thing that makes me a girl. they want to develop my image more and more like a boy. All others are already so pretty that even if anyone of them were to get one they would still look pretty but look at me. I-I  ah!am ugly- "

"You are beautiful. Just beautiful nothing more than that " I said pulling her into a hug. I wasn't used to her crying. honestly speaking this girl was a cry baby but I could never get used to her crying. She seemed to be so small in my arms, that I wanted to keep her there for a while. She was too fragile, too easy to break. It scared me how easy it was to break her.

"beautiful. Měilì. Don't ever forget that" she silently nodded at that, sniffing at the last of her tears

"oye! Amber, Hyung  Tao said he would be joining us too"

We released each other to turn to see an excited Chanyeol dragging the panda boy to the court. Poor Tao was being forced to leave his virtual NBA game to play an actual basketball game.

"Amber you good? have you been crying! are those tears I see!" Chanyeol immediately ran to Amber as soon as he saw the girl's red eyes dropping the kid on the floor. "Yah! you giant idiot" Tao shouted at him from behind.

"Well yeah, Wu just threw a ball at my face and now my nose hurts bad. We better get the game started and teach this guy a lesson!"  she said mischievously after winking at me."I will avenge you, my comrade" Chanyeol assured her while doing their weird fist bump thingy. to which Tao and I could only shake our heads. Sometimes I would think that this girl would be the death of me, well until she did become. 

"well, that will have to wait for. we cant start the game without Junmyeon again otherwise we will never hear the end of his whining. and I don't want to be the one dealing with it AGAIN" I reminded them.