Invisible Mistletoe

“When’s our turn?”

“I told you it’s after SHINee are done”, Victoria answered Amber’s question – for the, like, fifth time.

“Oh, yes”, Amber chuckled lightly while walking around the lounge. “Sorry.”

“Aish, you’re like a little kid that keeps asking when they’d finally arrive when driving somewhere”, Luna made fun of her unnie.

The shorthaired girl just shrugged. “I might be older than you, but I’m still a kid.” She laughed.

Along with the members of SHINee and Super Junior, f(x) were in the studios of S.M. Entertainment to record their Christmas album for this year. It usually doesn’t take too long since it’s only one song, but somehow Onew, Jonghyun, Minho, Key, and Taemin were taking pretty long this time. After Amber already played around with her mobile phone with which she took useless photos posted some senseless tweets, she slowly got bored and kept walking around the lounge. They’ve been up since early morning, so the girls were kind of glad to find some time to relax, while Amber felt like jumping everywhere. So a happy smile appeared on her lips when she heard the voices of Henry, Donghae and some other members of Super Junior. They just entered the lounge when Amber already attacked her best friend Henry by jumping on his back.

The older boy – or man would be more appropriate – let out a gasp in surprise, although he should already be used to those sudden attacks from Amber. He linked his arms with her legs and turned his face to look at her. “Hi.”

“Hey”, she grinned and hugged his neck. “What’s up?”

“You right now, on my back”, he answered and chuckled lightly before walking into the lounge, carrying the younger girl on his back. “Apart from that though – not much. You?”

Amber shrugged and rested her chin on his shoulder. “I’m bored. It’s still not our turn and my girls are longing for their beds rather than entertaining their favourite llama.”

“We heard that”, Krystal shouted without looking up from the magazine she was reading.

Henry chuckled once more. “Well, good thing then that I’m here, huh?”

“We’ll see. At least I have someone to jump on now”, Amber nodded.

“Oh … I get it.” He wiggled his nose and pursed his lips then. “That’s all I’m good for, I see.”

“Yah”, she laughed and playfully hit his shoulder. “You know I love you, man.”

“I think everyone knows”, Heechul commented as he entered the lounge and walked past them without paying any further attention.

Amber just chuckled lightly while Henry threw an evil eye at his bandmate. “Anyhow”, he mumbled then and looked at Amber again. “Any plans for tonight?”

The girl shook her head before tilting it to the side. “Why are you asking?”

He shrugged. “I just thought we could hang out again. Having a drink or something”, he smiled.

“You finally asked her out on a date?!”, Luna’s excited voice interrupted them.

Henry took a deep breath and sighed then. “Have some time alone”, he mumbled, still smiling at the girl he was carrying on his back.

Amber chuckled again before she asked him: “Why would you want to be alone with me?”

Some of their friends in the room let out a deep sigh, but the two of them tried not to pay any attention to it. Just like they didn’t pay any attention to what the girls and guys around them were doing – or above them …

“Well … We’re friends, no? Friends sometimes spend time alone with each other, Amber”, he answered and grinned lightly.

“That was the most ridiculous lie I’ve ever heard”, Siwon mumbled as he sat down on one of the chairs.

Henry let out a moan and turned to face them. “Guys, can you stop that now? It’s kind of –“

“Look!”, Sulli interrupted him and pointed to the ceiling above Henry and Amber.

Both of them looked up – and widened their eyes as they noticed the mistletoe right above them. Not only this, but they also noticed the giggles everyone was failing to hold in.

“What even …”, Henry gasped.

“Yah, I’m sure I haven’t seen this before!”, Amber protested, not letting go of Henry.

“Didn’t you say earlier you’re still a kid? – Maybe you just weren’t tall enough”, Luna giggled.

“Now that says the right one”, the shorthaired girl replied unimpressed.

“But seriously now, that thing hasn’t been there before”, Henry supported Amber and stared at their friends which were pretty amused about this situation.

“But it is there now, so just do it”, Donghae laughed.

“At least you could support me”, Henry sulked and took the favourite hyung status off him.

“He’s right though”, Krystal said and finally put her magazine away, since this now was so much more interesting. “Come on, go for it!”

“Stop it!” Amber hid her face against Henry’s neck and whined like a baby. She might be tough and cool most of the time, but this really made her show her girly side, and she couldn’t do anything against it.

Henry gasped a bit, feeling all protective now – but before he could say anything, it was finally announced that SHINee were done with the song and that it was f(x)’s turns now. A smile appeared on Henry’s lips as he let the girl slide off his back. “Hurry”, he said and chuckled lightly. “Before they think of something new.”

Amber nodded quickly with a slight grin on her lips before she hurried out of the room, ready to give each one of her girls a punch on their arms for not helping her out of this.

“Oh boy …” Amber sighed and grinned lightly after Henry finished the story about how he had to make loads of detours before meeting her, so he could be sure that no one of his bandmates would follow him and stalk to two of them. “I don’t understand them really.”

“Oh, I do”, Henry replied and chuckled. They were walking through the park – which was pretty empty already since it was going to be dark very soon. There were still some children playing in the snow far away from them, but that’s it. The path which they were walking on as well as the grass and trees all around them were covered with snow – it was beautiful, and so … calm. “I would act like they do, I think … I can be really childish if I want to.”

“I know”, she grinned and shrugged then. “But I still don’t understand it – I mean, they know we’re just friends, so what are they even on about?”

Henry bit his lower lip and shrugged as well. “No idea.” Just friends? Mhm … Not to him. And somehow, he knew that to Amber they weren’t just friends either. Even if she probably didn’t know it … yet.

“Mhm …” Amber nodded lightly and pursed her lips, lost in her thoughts. She kept walking, not noticing first that Henry stopped doing so – until she suddenly gasped hardly when she felt a sudden wet cold on the back of her neck. She quickly turned around to her friend just to see him laughing at her. “Oh no, you didn’t …”

“Yeah, I did”, he laughed and was about to build another snowball – just when he got one from her, right in his face. Now it was Amber’s turn to laugh, but only until he threw a snowball at her again. And then it started. Just like those little children they were seeing a few moments ago, they started running through the snow, throwing snowballs at each other, and laughed like idiots. They had no idea how long they were playing around like that, but it was already at dusk when Henry tried jumping on Amber’s back for fun and made both of them fall into the snow.

“Are you okay?”, he asked her quickly, still laughing.

Amber nodded, giggling under him, and rolled on her back to face him. They were both just looking at each other with a grin on their lips, and totally out of breath. “And you?”, she asked then.

“Couldn’t be better to be honest”, he replied, and the grin on his lips was slowly replaced by a soft smile.

“How so?” She lowered her voice a bit and swallowed. Even though they were lying in snow right now, Amber felt all warm and comfortable. And she was pretty sure that she wasn’t warm because of the little action they were having until a few moments ago – not only because of that. It felt different, somehow.

Henry shrugged lightly and lowered his voice as well. “By the way … Is there going to happen anything to those which ignore the rule of the mistletoe?”

“What?” Amber blinked in confusion and chuckled a bit then. “Why do you ask? – I don’t think so though … Especially because that mistletoe has been literally forced on us.”

“Probably.” He bit his lower lip lightly before he continued talking. “Can we maybe just pretend that we’d be under a mistletoe for real?”

Amber didn’t reply. She just stared at him, opening to say something – but no words came out.

“Is that a yes?”, Henry whispered and didn’t even wait for an answer before her lips with his own. He could feel how the girl held her breath for a moment, and then both of them closed their eyes and kissed each other. The shy and kinda unsure kiss turned into a long, sweet one and made both of them smile at each other as soon as they broke the kiss. “Let’s pretend to be under mistletoes more often.” He grinned lightly.

“I’d like that”, Amber chuckled and lifted her hand to his cheek, just before he leant down and kissed her again.