Locked

With her headphones in her ears and a full laundry basket in her hands, Amber jumped down the stairs to the basement of the building she lived in with the other girls of f(x). It was her turn this week to do the laundry – not the biggest fun really, but well … Someone had to do it, right? Back in the USA, Amber had to help her mother a lot at home, so she was used to stuff like this anyways. Still listening to music and humming softly, the girl entered the washing room – when she was inside, she carefully closed the door behind her. For a few weeks now, its door handle was loose on both sides, so they had to be careful not to slam that door or anything and risk being locked in. It really was about time someone would take care of that …

But, luckily Amber knew about it and had nothing to worry about. So she grabbed the basket with the laundry and headed to one of the washing machines in the back of the room. She kneeled down in front of it to put all the pants, shirts, and also some slips and bras into the drum of the machine. Just when she was about to close it, someone suddenly ruffled her hair and made her jump with fright. The girl turned around with widened eyes, just to see one of her closest friends laughing at her – Henry …

“Dude, are you mad?!” Amber took her headphones off and stared at him. When she noticed that he was listening to music as well, she reached to him and pulled the headphones out of his ears – even before he lifted his hand to do so himself. “If you do that again, you’ll get your kicked”, she said a bit calmer than before. Sure, she had the image of a tomboy – but still, she was a girl, and in moments like this she made that pretty obvious. “What are you doing down here, anyway?”, she added then, wondering now what Henry was doing in the laundry room.

The older boy still had a grin on his lips, but at least he stopped laughing. “The same like you, I suppose.”

“I’m doing laundry, yeah …” She looked up at him, lifting her eyebrow. “And where’s yours?”

“My what?”

Amber rolled her eyes. “Your laundry, idiot – or what are you planning to do down here?”

“I saw that”, Henry commented the movement of her eyes and flicked the girl’s forehead. “And, to answer your question – look.” He pointed to a spatter of ketchup on the green sweatshirt he was wearing. “Just happened, and I thought I should get it cleaned right away”, he explained, nodding proudly about his knowledge.

Sadly though, apparently his knowledge about doing laundry wasn’t as great as he thought it was.

“So … You only came down here for this?” Amber asked, looking at the red spatter on his sweatshirt. “You know that in those machines there’s space for more than just a sweatshirt?”

Henry slowly tilted his head before he shrugged lightly. “Does it matter?”

“Oh boy …” She lightly shook her head before a grin appeared on her lips. “Don’t you ever do any laundry, Henry? Who’s washing your stuff?”

“Heechul”, he answered right away, making the girl laugh. “I know”, he added then and started laughing as well. “Then … just put it to yours.”

“No way”, Amber answered, pointing to the laundry which she put into the machine a few moments ago. “It’s all light-coloured, see? This though”, she tugged lightly at his sweatshirt, “is pretty dark.”

“So?”

The girl just sighed and shook her head again. “Ugh, whatever, give it to me. But if Soojung’s bras are all greenish in the end, you know who’s to blame.”

“There are bras?”, Henry replied excitedly, ignoring the other part of her sentence, and sneaked into the washing machine drum …

… just until Amber slapped the back of his head, making his cap fall down. “Just give me your sweatshirt so I can turn the machine on, idiot.” Actually, she didn’t really like his reaction. Sure, it was a normal reaction for a guy, but … Somehow, she just didn’t like it. She didn’t want him to be all excited about other girl’s bras. She just didn’t.

“Fine, fine”, he chuckled lightly and took off his sweatshirt, exposing a white muscle shirt which he was wearing underneath it. It lifted itself a bit when he took off his hoodie, and Amber threw a casual glance at his bare stomach. Actually, she never really paid any attention at all to bodies of her fellow members from SM – or anyone. She was used to seeing some guys half , since loads of them tend to take their shirt off on stage. So what.

But this, this was … Well, she couldn’t avoid that it looked pretty nice.

“There”, Henry said then, throwing the sweatshirt over the girl’s head. “Make sure it gets clean, yeah?”

She could clearly hear the grin through his words and pulled the garment off her head, glaring at him and putting the hoodie into the machine then. “You’re such an idiot, don’t get used to this here.”

“If you mean to the view I’m having right now … Sad, I could get used to that.”

“What … Dude, here aren’t even any windows, so what are you t–“ Before she could finish her sentence, Amber realised that she was bent forward – and he stood behind her, having a perfect view on her . With a gasp, she turned around and pushed her friend. “Don’t you dare looking at that, you idiot!”

Henry laughed again, lifting his hands in apology. “I’m just kidding, silly!” He then finally picked up his cap and put it back on his head.

“Idiot”, Amber said again and the machine. “You really want me to kick your , right?”

“Please don’t”, he chuckled and followed her as she walked back to the door. “Where are you going? Don’t we wait until it’s done?”

The girl sighed. “It takes about an hour, do you really wanna spend so much time down here?”

“Nah, not really”, he replied.

“See, so let’s–“ Amber stopped at the door and gasped, looking down onto the floor.

Henry walked into her when she suddenly stopped. “You’re standing in the way, man”, he said and walked beside her. He noticed she was looking to the floor with widened eyes, so he followed her look and found the door handle laying beside the door. He blinked. “Was that me?”

“Who else?!” Amber picked the handle up and shoved it back into the door lock, but it was no use. Apparently the worst thing happened – the handle fell out on both sides of the door … “Gosh, how could you forget to be careful with closing that stupid door?”

“Heechul never even told us there was a need to be careful!”, Henry replied and gently pushed her aside to try opening the door himself. Nothing happened.

Amber crossed her arms. “If we would be able to get that door opened, I would have already made it myself.”

Henry rolled his eyes.

“I saw that”, she said and flicked his temple, getting back at his reaction from earlier. Then she sighed. “What now? I mean, I don’t have any schedules today, but I don’t really want to spend all afternoon in here …” She looked around the not really big room and leant sideways against the door.

“Mhm, me neither”, Henry nodded lightly and leant backwards against the wall. “Well, do you have your cell phone?”

The girl blinked. “Oh, you’re right.”

Henry chuckled and watched Amber pulling her phone out of her jeans pocket – but the hopeful look on her face faded away as soon as she checked the display of her phone. “What?”

“No signal …”, she sighed and walked around in the room, still looking at her phone and waiting for a signal, but there didn’t come any. Hopeless. “Argh … What about you? Do you have any?”

“Any what?”, he replied and tilted his head.

“Signal, you idiot.”

“Oh! Actually …” Henry held in for a moment before he continued speaking, “I don’t even have my cell phone with me.”

With her eyes widened in disbelief, Amber stared at her best friend. “Dude, you always have your phone with you.”

“Well, not now”, he answered and shrugged lightly.

“Are you kidding me?!” She sighed and shoved her useless phone back into her jeans pocket. She leant against one of the machines and ruffled her hair. “Well … Sooner or later someone will either come down here to do their laundry or Victoria will come to get ours”, the girl said and pointed to the machine which she a few moments ago.

Henry nodded lightly and walked to her. “And that will be … when?” He stopped in front of her and raised an eyebrow.  

Amber looked up at him and shrugged slowly. “Not sooner than in an hour …”

“Mhm …” He nodded again and leant against the washing machine beside hers. “Then we should find something to do for the next hour, huh?”

“I guess so”, she answered and pursed her lips. “Any idea then …?”

“Do I really have to do this?”, Henry replied to the girl which sat in front of him on the floor. Since it already got a little dark outside, they had switched on the light bulb which hung above them on the ceiling. They also picked a blanket from the laundry line and put it on the floor, so they could sit on it – and play truth or dare … Which was Henry’s idea, but now he kind of regretted it.

Amber laughed and nodded quickly. “I dare you! So you have no choice, man.”

Letting go a long sigh, the young man slowly got on his feet and started doing twenty-five jumping jacks while singing the chorus Girls’ Generation’s Oh with a not-so-happy expression on his face. It was really childish, but Amber just couldn’t stop laughing about it. She never really had a problem with being herself, and especially with Henry she didn’t feel uncomfortable at all, not even when she dared him to do jumping jacks while singing a girl group’s song … And laughing her off about it.

When Henry finished, he sat down in front of her again and rolled his eyes. “You’re an idiot”, he chuckled then and flicked her nose. “Truth or dare?”

“Truth”, she replied, rubbing her nose with her fingers.

“Duh, you’re such a chicken …” He tilted his head, thinking of something he could ask her. A slight grin appeared on his lips then as he found a question for her: “What do you like the most about me?”

“Huh?” Amber blinked confused, looking at him. Normally she would just reply with something to kid him, but she knew that this was against the rules of this game. So she had to think of something real now … “W-Well …” She bit her lips while thinking of an answer, still looking at him. “I can at least say that I don’t like that grin of yours.” Although, maybe that was exactly one of the things she did like about him? – But she wouldn’t tell him of course … No, she had to find something else.

Henry shrugged, still grinning. “Too bad. Now, come on, there has to be something you love about me!”

“Hey, you said like, not love”, Amber replied and playfully gave him a punch on his leg. She took a deep breath and answered then, lowering her voice a bit. “Well … I like about you that I can always rely on you, no matter what.” She shrugged lightly and ruffled her hair.

The grin on Henry’s lips disappeared slowly and turned into a soft, kind of surprised, smile. “Really? – I mean”, he added quickly, “of course you can, I’ll always be here for you, no matter what.”

Amber just nodded lightly – when she saw the smile on his lips, she kind of … lost her voice. It’s not like she never saw his smile before, but sometimes, it just made her speechless. Like in this moment. “I know”, she said then quietly and smiled back at him. “Anyhow! Truth or dare?”

“I’ll be a chicken”, he replied and chuckled. “Before you make me dance to Girl’s Generation again … Truth.”

The girl rolled her eyes and grinned then a little, thinking of a question. “Mhm … Ah, since you knew their song pretty well – is there anyone you like?”, she asked, chuckling a bit. It wasn’t a question she usually asked, and if she did it was just in a teasing way. Well – it was kind of teasing in this moment as well, but at the same time she really wanted to know the answer to it.

Henry lifted his eyebrows and looked at her, slightly confused. “Huh? In Girl’s Generation you mean?”

“Yup.” She nodded.

The young man frowned a little bit, wondering why she would ask him something like that. He had to grin about it then though and shook his head. “Nah … Not in Girl’s Generation.”

When she heard how he denied, a sudden smile appeared on Amber’s lips – it froze though when he continued speaking. So … there was a girl in his life after all? And he never told her? She didn’t know if she should feel disappointed about that – or … jealous?

“You okay?”, Henry asked as he noticed her reaction. “You look kinda shocked.” He chuckled a little and looked at her.

She quickly shook her head. “I’m not! I just didn’t know you like someone, so it’s more … well … surprised?”, she mumbled then.

“Well … I wouldn’t have told you about it casually”, he said and ruffled his hair.

Now that was the moment in which Amber was disappointed indeed. Weren’t they good friends anymore or why wouldn’t he have told her about his crush? “I see”, she said then and tried to smile, but it didn’t really work that well.

“Mhm?” Before Henry could even say anything, the light bulb above them suddenly started flickering – just before it went out. Both of them looked up at the now useless bulb. It wasn’t completely dark in the room yet, there still came a bit of light from outside through the small window close to the ceiling, but it was still kind of a bad timing for the bulb to go out.

“Great”, Amber mumbled and let out a sigh.

“Isn’t an hour already over?”, Henry asked and looked at her – well, at what he was able to see of her.

“I guess so … But I said ‘not sooner than in an hour’”, she answered and checked the time on her phone, just to sigh once more.

Henry titled his head a little and smiled then, leaning a bit closer so he could ruffle her hair. “Don’t worry, someone will come soon. I’m sure.”

Amber gave him an unimpressed look and shrugged lightly. “Probably, yeah”, she mumbled before she yawned.

“Tired?”

“I guess so.” She smiled a bit and crawled backwards a bit until she reached one of the washing machines, so she could lean against it. Since she pulled the blanket with her, Henry followed her and moved beside her, leaning against the machine as well. Amber looked up at him and smiled a little. Her smile disappeared though to leave a confused expression on her face when her friend started to talk.

“You’re alright, aren’t you?”

“What do you mean?” She blinked in confusion and kept looking at him. It was slowly getting dark outside which made it kinda difficult to see a lot of Henry’s face.

The young man shrugged a little. “Just to know. You reacted a bit weird about … well, my answer”, he said then and chuckled a bit, nibbling on his lower lip.

“Nah, it’s nothing. You’re just being silly”, Amber nodded and looked away.

“Yeah … Probably”, he said and ruffled his hair a bit.

And that was the end of their conversation – at least for a few moments. For a while, they didn’t do anything at all. Well, except breathing obviously and still waiting for someone to come down to the basement. But in those moments they didn’t speak at all, they were just lost in their own thoughts. Until …

“What if I told you it’s you?”

Amber, which almost had passed out, opened her eyes and looked up at him again. It went a little more darker, so she couldn’t see much more than his silhouette anymore. “What?”

Henry shrugged slowly and looked down at her. Since Amber was facing the window, he could still see the expression on her face – which was a mix of sleepy and confused in that moment. Somehow, this made him smile before he cleared his throat a bit and continued speaking. “The girl I like. What if I told you it’s you?”

She widened her eyes in disbelief, not sure if she should laugh or not. “What even …” At the same time though she imagined him saying exactly this, and somehow … it made her happy. This simple thought made her happy. But … It was just a what if question, wasn’t it? “Well, I would call you an idiot for joking around like that”, she said then and chuckled a little bit, slowly looking away from him.

“Thought so”, Henry replied, still with a slight smile on his lips. “And what if I told you it’s true?”

Amber swallowed. Suddenly she felt all nervous – wasn’t she happy about this thought just a moment ago?! This was confusing. “What are you talking about, man …” She nervously bit her lower lip and tried to breath calmly. This was even worse than the nervousness she always felt before a performance on stage … But, why?

“I’m just playing the game and answering the question you asked me”, he said and chuckled.

“I asked you if you like anyone in Girl’s Generation, and you already answered that a while ago, you know …”

“True. See this now as some additional information.”

Amber rolled her eyes and grinned a little, turning her face back to him – and held her breath as she saw his face right in front of hers. He had bent over to her and held his breath as well when she suddenly turned her face back to him. “What are you doing …?”, Amber whispered, not feeling able to move at all.

Henry shook his head a little and whispered back. “No idea.” Saying this, he leant a little closer and kissed her lips. He could feel how the girl held her breath again, but she didn’t move away either. Henry wasn’t exactly sure if this was good or bad – until she slowly kissed him back, just by moving her lips a little bit. A smile appeared on Henry’s lips and he pecked her lips a few times.

Without knowing why, Amber suddenly chuckled a bit. Somehow … this felt pretty good. She still had no idea really what was going on, but it felt good. And for that moment it was probably all that mattered.

Henry smiled softly and opened his mouth to say something, when they finally heard steps outside in the basement, coming closer to the door.

Amber immediately looked at the door and let out a sigh in relief. “Thank god …!” She was about to get up as Henry quickly grabbed her wrist, making her look at him. “Wha–“

“I meant it”, he said – before the voice of Victoria appeared.

“Aah, who’s stuck in there this time?!”