Onew was sitting on a bench outside of the restaurant Amber and him had decided to go to. It was a casual pizza place, nothing too fancy or expensive, but Amber said they had the best pizzas in town. It was good though, Onew thought, that it was a more casual restaurant. If it were more expensive or classy then there would be a higher chance of it being mistaken as a date and Onew knew he would rather avoid the confusion.

He leant back on the bench and looked down at what he was wearing. He managed to talk his way out of Key dragging him shopping for a new outfit, insisting it would be awkward if he dressed up and Key eventually relented. Onew was wearing a simple pair of jeans, though slightly better fitting as his usual ones, a light blue t-shirt and a cream, woollen, hooded jumper over the top. It was simple but Onew thought it looked okay but, in order to get out of being dragged around the shops by Key he had to agree to not wear his glasses.

Onew owned contact lenses but rarely wore them, they hurt when he read for too long and he had a tendency to read a lot for his studies so contacts were impractical for him. But Key kept pushing it, telling Onew that he looked better without his glassws and he wouldn’t be reading that day so Onew eventually gave in and agreed even if he thought he looked strange without his glasses now that he wore them so often.

He looked up from his outfit and looked around him nervously. Amber was late, he could tell by the clock in the shop window across the street and worried that maybe she wouldn’t turn up at all but he shook his head, she had no reason to do that, she probably just got caught up along the way. He nodded to himself and took a slow breath to ease the butterflies in his stomach, he had no idea why he was so nervous.

The butterflies got worse as the minutes dragged on, he kept looking around him in hopes of spotting the girl but it wasn’t until 5 minutes later that he spotted her running towards him and his eyes widened at the sight.

He had never seen Amber dressed up in the 6 months she had been a part of his life, seemingly without her knowing. She looked great...she always looked great to him but seeing her now was like seeing her for real, without being swamped under large and baggy clothes.

 She wasn’t dressed girly by any means, it was dressier but in a style which suited her perfectly and Onew really liked it.

Amber skidded to a halt in front of him before bending over slightly as she caught her breath. She was so out of breath Onew couldn’t help but wonder how far she had run for, did she run all the way?

“Sorry” She spoke breathlessly between pants “Sorry I’m late”

Onew shook his head and subtly wiped his suddenly clammy hands on the front of his jeans. Her cheeks were slightly flushed, even now that her breathing was returning to normal and she was standing up straight. He didn’t understand why he was noticing such trivial things but it seemed his mind thought they were important.

“It’s fine, don’t wo-“ He was cut off by Amber who was looking at him with her eyebrows furrowed slightly

“You’re not wearing your glasses” Amber tilted her head slightly as she kept her eyes on him. He looked different without glasses, not in a bad way but just different. The word handsome instantly sprung to Amber’s mind and she blushed lightly as she tried to push the word out of her mind. He was cuter in his classes but more handsome without them, her brain had reached the conclusion before she could stop it.

Luckily for her Onew didn’t notice her blush due to her cheeks already being pink from running and he rubbed the back of his head as he nodded slowly.

“um, yeah. I’m wearing contacts...” Onew trailed off before looking towards the restaurant and then back to the girl in front of him “should we go inside?”

Amber nodded eagerly, she could smell the pizza from on the street and it was making her hungrier than she already was “sure, I’m starving”

“Right...” Onew resisted the urge to link her arm with his and lead her inside, reminding himself that it wasn’t a date and it would be confusing for both of them if he acted in such a way. He did, however, hold the door open for her and smile warmly as she thanked him. It not being a date gave him no reason to not be polite his brain reasoned as he pulled her chair out once they were led to a table and helped her tuck it in once she had sat down.

But Onew acting like this, all gentlemanly and polite, just confused the girl who had never been treated in such a way buy a guy before. She started to think that, maybe, Onew had intended their meet up to be a date all along and Krystal was right. She bit her lip lightly and tried her hardest to hold back a blush as small butterflies started to fly in her stomach. She shouldn’t be reacting the way she was, there was no reason for it, Onew was just being nice because of what she said in the library, about her worrying about him vanishing. He was just doing it to reassure her. She nodded to herself as she picked up her menu, even if the thought of him trying to reassure her alone flattered her and made the butterflies in her stomach get stronger. No one had ever been so persistent before.

She hid her face slightly behind the menu as she read it, even if she knew exactly what she wanted, and slowly peeked around the laminated paper to quickly look at Onew. He was concentrating entirely on his menu, fiddling with the corner where the two layers of plastic encasing the paper were starting to come apart. His fingers were small Amber noticed absent-mindedly before quickly hiding behind her menu again as Onew looked up. She held her menu a little tighter and closed her eyes for a moment as she held back an exasperated sigh, why was everything about him so cute?

“Do you know what you want?” Amber suddenly pulled her menu away from her face when Onew spoke and smiled, though it was slightly strained as she worried that maybe he caught her staring at him, though he hadn’t and Amber had hidden herself again just in time. Onew noticed that her smile was a little off but, for now, decided not to question it as Amber replied that she wanted a pepperoni pizza. Onew smiled and nodded “Oh, me too. How about we just get a larger one and share it?”

Sharing food...? This was becoming more and more date like with every passing moment but, Amber found that she didn’t mind all that much if it was. She put her menu down and took a calming breath, she just needed to act calm and natural in case it was. She didn’t want to put him off if it was a date and didn’t want to make him think she was a weirdo if he asked her out platonically. She had to play it cool.

“Yeah, sure” She shrugged casually “Sharing sounds fine with me”

Amber smiled, proud of herself for sounding so calm, and Onew coughed slightly when he saw, to disguise a hitch in his breathing, and averted his gaze, instead choosing to try and call a waiter over. Her smile still blew Onew away, he never got bored of it and instead just found it more captivating each time he was lucky enough to witness it.

Onew ordered their food quickly, along with a coke each to drink, before he started to fiddle with the menu again. He felt awkward, he didn’t know what to say or how to act. He wished, in the back of his mind, that he let Minho give him advice now. He knew Minho was good with girls, most of the girls at his school were swooning at his feet and the athlete had been on loads of dates so at least he knew how to act around girls. He shook the thoughts out of his head, this wasn’t a date! Amber felt they were close enough friends to meet up outside school and he had managed to gain that friendship by acting like himself, though with a lot more jokes thrown in. He just needed to act like himself, he didn’t need advice from Minho, Key or anyone.

He let go of the menu and pushed it aside as their drinks arrived, watching in silence for a moment as Amber drunk some of her coke through the straw in the glass. She was looking around her as he drank, looking at the pictures on the walls curiously as if she hadn’t seen them before even though she had many times. This was the side of her he wanted to see, the curious and intelligent side, the more confident side.

He watched her happily, feeling the awkwardness melt away even though Amber herself still felt slightly uncomfortable as she tried to think of something, absolutely anything, to say. But, eventually she slowly turned her gaze back to the boy in front of her, feeling him looking at her, and blinked in cute confusion as she put her glass down.

“What...?” Amber reached up and wiped her thumb across her lips, making Onew notice her lips for the first time. He didn’t mean to look at them, his gaze was just following her thumb and then he was noticing how plump and full her lips looked. They looked soft. “Is there something on my face?”

Onew shook his head, suddenly feeling embarrassed when he realised what he was thinking. He shouldn’t be thinking about her lips! No matter how soft and warm they looked, Onew shook his head again to try and get the thoughts out of his head. His thoughts were becoming dangerous.

He didn’t speak for a moment, instead choosing to just look at her as a whole and take in how she looked properly. Amber looked at him in uncomfortable confusion and wiped her lips again before pulling out her phone to use the black screen as a mirror.

“Hey” Amber started to speak again after seeing there was nothing on her face at all “there is nothing on-“

She was cut off by Onew who spoke before his brain could catch up. He let out the one word his brain could think of while looking at her, thinking out loud without even realising.

“Pretty...”

Amber’s eyes widened and she blushed, ducking her head forward so her fringe would hide her face. It was like the boy in front of her was trying to embarrass and confuse her. Did he really think she looked pretty? Amber blushed a bit darker at the thought as she realised just how badly she had wanted to be told truthfully by someone that she was pretty. With her style and personality pretty was the last word that seemed to cross anyone’s mind but, apparently not Onew’s. If the boy confused her much more she would have to leave for now, she couldn’t handle it.

“U-Um” Onew stuttered once he had realised what he said. His hands became clammy again and he wiped them on his jeans. He didn’t know how he was going to talk his way out of this “I-I just wanted to say that you look really nice?...erm, I’ve never seen you dress like this, not that how you normally dress is bad of anything! It’s just nice....”

Onew trailed off and swore under his breath, he sounded stupid. He looked up happily when their pizza arrived, thankful for the interruption and change of subject. If anything, it was more awkward now.

They ate in relative silence at first, only passing comments on how the pizza was good with Amber smugly saying that she told him so and that no one could doubt her tastes in pizza. But, eventually they were reduced to silence again and Onew sighed softly. This just wouldn’t do, the girl wouldn’t want to be friends with him if he couldn’t even hold up a conversation. He thought back to the list he wrote up to use over the past week, the list of jokes to make the girl in front of  him laugh and smiled when he thought of one he was yet to say.

“Hey, Amber”

Amber looked up at him, a bit of sauce from her pizza on her lips. Onew reached out, without even realising, as he continued to speak.

“What is the Karate experts favourite drink?” As he asked he wiped the sauce of her lip with his thumb, making the girl squeak quietly as he pulled back and casually wiped the sauce off his thumb with the napkin. He hadn’t noticed what he was doing, barely paying attention as he tried his best to remember the joke.

Amber looked at him in disbelief, not believing how casual he was acting and trying to ignore her brain as it thought of how warm his thumb was or how close his hand was to cupping her cheek. If Onew could act so casual about it she couldn’t help but think maybe she was over reacting so, she tried her hardest to calm herself down and, after registering the question she giggle quietly, though distractedly. She knew this one.

“It’s Kara-tea right?”

Onew groaned and slumped back in his seat “you know that one?”

Amber nodded happily and Onew pouted slightly, that joke was his favourite one out of all the ones he had found and he thought it would make her laugh more than any of his other jokes.

“aaah, honestly” Onew took another bite out of his pizza, nearly finishing his last slice “I was so proud of that one too”

Amber laughed softly and shook her head as she reached over to pat his spare hand sympathetically, ignoring the small sparks the action produce “It’s a good joke, a lot of people know it”

From that point the meal passed quickly, with both trading stories about their friend’s outside school as they both had some cake for desert. Amber still felt a little awkward, reaching up every so often and brushing her fingers over her lips where Onew’s thumb had touched, but she slowly became more comfortable and relaxed and was laughing freely and smiling earnestly by the end of the meal. Onew felt a sense of achievement as he pulled his wallet out to pay for the bill.

“I can pay for myself” Amber insisted as she opened up her small black bag to find her purse but Onew shook his head as he payed before Amber could get her purse out.

“It’s fine” Onew smiled warmly, bringing the butterflies back to life inside her stomach “I want to pay”

Amber nodded slowly and put her purse away again, not wanting to argue even if she felt like she should of paid her own share. They both stood once the meal was payed for and left the restaurant, returning to the bench they had met at outside.

“Thanks for inviting me out...I had fun” Amber looked up at the boy and smiled shyly, she wasn’t really sure of what to say and he still had that warm smile on his face.

“No, thanks for agreeing to come out” Onew smiled wider “I asked on a bit of a whim but it was nice right?”

Amber nodded. Despite the awkwardness and the confusion inside her mind, she did have a good time and she was happy about being able to spend the time with the boy. She was always happy about spending time with him, all week she would hope she would see him at lunch and he would brighten up her dull school days. She hoped he didn’t feel awkward too and that it didn’t push him away and stop him coming to her at lunch times. She didn’t know where she would find him otherwise and she felt that she would miss his overly happy presence in the library.

It was then at Onew bid his goodbye, telling Amber he had a lot of work to catch up on but missing out it was because of his joke finding over the previous week that had made the work pile up. But, as Onew turned to leave Amber reached out and grabbed hold of his wrist, to prevent him from leaving as she pulled a pen out of her bag.

Onew looked back at her worriedly, not expecting her to hold him back and prevent him from leaving “Are you okay?”

Amber nodded and quickly flipped his hand over before writing something on his palm before letting go of his wrist “My number....” Amber replied simply before biting her lip slightly “have a safe trip home!”

With that Amber turned around and quickly walked down the street, covering with her hand and blushing darkly as she thought about what she had written on the boy’s hand. She hoped he would use the number and text her, call her, anything. She would rather have that than have him ignore it.

Onew, meanwhile, watched as she disappeared around the corner before looking at the palm of his hand to see what was written. It was written in red ink, it standing out strongly against his skin, and simply said her name and number. But what was added on the end made him smile, a couple of little hearts and an x, to represent a kiss, along with the message ‘Lets meet up again soon’. Onew laughed softly and muttered to himself about the tomboy being cute as he pulled his phone out and added the number to his contact list. They would meet up again soon for sure.

Author's notes:

I really, really don't like this chapter *sighs*

Maybe I'll rewrite it? I donno