You’re not done. You’re not going to die of this. Get your up. Come on, UP. When Amber opened her eyes and slowly woke up, she felt sore in her entire body. She clenched and stretched her fingers to make sure they were still functioning, and sat up straight. The moment she bent forward, she winced, and held a hand over the right side of her stomach. As she closed her eyes, last nights events came back to her, and she bit her lip. She never found out who the guerillas were from officially, but she had her ideas that she was 100% sure was positive. What kind of wake-up call is that?! she thought angrily, hitting her pillow to let out her frustrations, earning a laughter from the other end of the room.

“When you’re violent, you’re okay” Eunhyuk said, crossing his arms and smiling. Amber rolled her eyes, and leaned back against her headboard. “Don’t you have a hard-disk to defragment or something like that?” she asked jokingly, and Eunhyuk sat on the foot-end of the bed. “Thought I’d check my sewing was robust enough to last a night” he said, and Amber raised an eyebrow. “You patched me up? When? How much have I missed?” she asked, and Eunhyuk laughed again. “You went out cold around 3:30 in the morning because some maniac shot you. Henry nearly had a nervous breakdown when Kyuhyun picked you guys up. After you got home, I removed the bullet and patched you up” he said, and Amber nodded. “And what’s the time now?” Eunhyuk looked at his wristwatch. “Around 2 in the afternoon” he answered, and Amber fell back against her pillow. “Life hates me” she murmured, and Eunhyuk patted her on the head. “I’ll go tell Henry you’re not dead and hopefully stop him from wandering aimlessly around in the house. He’s wearing down the floor in the living room if he continues.”

Amber slowly walked down the staircase, careful of the bandage around her stomach, and took in the surroundings. As Eunhyuk had said, Henry was walking aimlessly around, biting his lip as he did when he was thinking, and the others didn’t really speak in more than two or three words to each other.

“You know, you could’ve at least waited with the funeral until I was actually dead” she said, and Henrys face flew up from the floor. She smiled at him, and walked the rest of the staircase, still holding her stomach to prevent the binding to jump open. Henry smiled as she wrapped her arms around the taller boy and kissed him. Siwon snorted. “And here goes the lovebirds once again.” Both Amber and Henry shot him a glance, and Amber stuck her tongue out at him, not leaving Henrys side. “Don’t worry Siwon oppa, when you find a girl that’ll see through all that,” she gestured to him, “You’ll be EXACTLY like this and WORSE.” By the look of Siwons face, they all laughed. When their fit of laughter was over, and Amber has assured Siwon that he would never get a girlfriend, Kyuhyun spoke up. “Are you alright Amber?” No, I’m ing not alright. My boyfriend was almost shot dead, Jia almost got me, of COURSE I’m not okay! “I’m… Fine. It slows me down, but I’m fine” she shrugged, and Kyuhyun nodded.

“I took the liberty of identifying the bullet you were shot with last night” Eunhyuk said, “and I found out who the owner of the gun was, thanks to Siwon.” Amber looked from Siwon to Eunhyuk, and nodded slowly. So they’d found out about Jia? . “And?” “Who’s Jia?”

It lasted a while before she answered, and Kyuhyun had to ask again. Henry nudged her in the side, and she bit her lip before she sighed. “An old friend. She killed my little sister a year ago. I don’t know much about her really, I only know she’s working for Lee So Man in a fancy office.” By the very mentioning of Sulli, Amber had to take a deep breath to get a hold of herself. She knew she’d earned Kyuhyuns pity, if she was to judge by the look on his face, and Sungmin had dropped the book he was holding onto the table with a loud slam and was now looking directly terrified. She shrugged and buried her hands in her front pockets, looking at her shoes to avoid any eye contact. “Look, guys, it’s no big deal” she murmured, and Sungmin furrowed his brows. “No big deal? No big deal she says? WOMAN, it’s NOT no big deal!” he shouted, waving his arms in the air to suppress the newly given information about his friend. “Jia’s a PSYCHOPATH, she should be locked up, HOW IS SHE NOT LOCKED UP?!” Eunhyuk received a glance from Kyuhyun, and by taking one of his arms each, they dragged him out for some fresh air, leaving Amber in the living room with Henry, Ryeowook and Siwon. “Anger management problems much?” she said, looking after him, and Henry nodded while pronouncing a long ‘yeah’.

During the afternoon, Sulli was a dead-end to talk about. Amber would escape or change the subject whenever someone brought it up, and by dinnertime she’d broken a glass and said that the next person mentioning her sister would be dead within ten minutes. Then, silence. Henry didn’t budge though.

Henry found out that Amber smoked when she was nervous or stressed out, and at the moment she was eliminating her 4^th cigarette in the garden, wearing her superman-shirt with a black opened shirt and some jeans. Her shoes, trusty old Converse, were leaking, and the evening dew was, little by little, soaking her socks. “So here she’s hiding” he said, and Amber hid the still lit cigarette behind her back while turning to face him. “What are you hiding?” he asked. “Nothing” she answered coldly, and Henry raised an eyebrow. “Yeah right, and I’m the inventor of pizza” he huffed, grabbing her wrist with such speed she didn’t even see his hand move, holding her hand with the lit cigarette up in eye-height. She rolled her eyes and sighed. “Sometimes Henry? I’m annoyed you’re a cop. It’s close to impossible to hide anything from you, and that’s ” she pouted. He just laughed, and took the cigarette out of her hand, throwing it on the ground and stomping on it. “Hey, I was smoking that!” Amber said, and Henry smiled. “Yeah, along with a handful others during the evening.” When Amber sent him a confused look, he just gave her a hug. “I’m a cop, I notice” he whispered playfully, and Amber hit him on the arm, mumbling back a slightly annoyed “.” “I love you too” “So you say.”
Henry let go of Amber and together they strolled further into the depths of the garden as the sky grew darker and colder above them. “Can I ask you about one thing?” Henry asked, and Amber sighed. “You’re probably going to do it even if I say no, so shoot” she replied flatly, and he smiled before turning serious. “Why did Jia kill your sister?”

Amber was silent for a long time, looking at anything but Henrys face, hoping to avoid the question. She couldn’t find out how to explain Sullis death without giving herself away, so she did what she’d done so many other times before: Lied. “I don’t know” was all she said, and before Henry could state another question, Amber spoke again. “And I know it looks bad, especially for me, but I’d prefer if I could forget about it. Let’s go in, it’s getting cold.” And then she turned around to walk back to the house.

“Eunhyuk-hyung, aren’t you going to bed?” Amber asked, looking down at the older male from the staircase, her shoes dingling in her hands. Eunhyuk shrugged. “Nah, I’m a bit of an insomnia-type. I don’t sleep before 4 in the morning, so why go to bed now?” he said, and Amber nodded. “Hey, my aunt taught me to make a sleep-providing tea. I’ve drunk gallons of that stuff, it works EVERY time. Want some?” she asked, and Eunhyuk nodded. Amber proceeded to the kitchen, and found the tea and boiled some water. When the tea was ready, Amber slit a small package in plastic out of her sleeve, revealing some of the red powder from underneath her bathroom sink. She emptied the bag into the hot mug and waited until any visible signs of the powder was gone, and handed it to Eunhyuk who smiled. “Thanks, I appreciate it” he said, and Amber shrugged. “Nah, it’s nothing hyung. Goodnight, see you tomorrow!” And with those words she jumped up the staircase.

Halfway up the staircase, she heard a soft bump. She looked back, and satisfaction filled her face as Eunhyuk was lying on the floor, breathing unsteadily. Amber walked to him, and smiled. “What… the… Hell… Did you d-d-d-o?!” he whispered, and Amber bend down next to him, her smile all gone. “If only you hadn’t checked on that damn bullet. Then this wouldn’t have happened at all” she whispered, and her face turned hard by wrath as the older boy reached for his gun in his pocket. She quickly grabbed his hand, and broke the thumb in a swift motion, causing Eunhyuk to scream soundlessly. “Now lie still or this is going to hurt way more than necessary” Amber said. A few moments after, Eunhyuk wasn’t breathing anymore, and a flood of OCD-like panic shot through Amber. She hurriedly fixed the sofa so it looked like no one had been sitting in it, and she threw the cup directly in the garbage can outside. She wiped the counter three times before turning off all the lights and go to bed.