To Amber, it's not a normal morning of school until Henry slides over, a panicked smile plastered onto his face.

"Hey, Am, what a wonderful morning it is t- "

"Yeah, whatever, here's last night's homework." She slides the calculus proofs over and her best friend nearly cries tears of joy and gratitude.

Both non-Korean teenagers going to some public high school in Seoul, it wasn't unexpected that they bonded over similar heritages and life experiences, especially with the outsider mentality that both owned. A friendly exchange of smiles across the canteen one day at the beginning of freshman year, and they were inseparable, their friendship only growing stuck in the same homeroom as the other for the past two years.

Amber, witty, affable, and open with her emotions, is usually the lesser evil of the two. She's the one that makes an effort to succeed in her classes and graduate in the top 10%, while Henry just wants to graduate and get out. The young woman has heard her best friend rambling many times on end of making music and traveling the world, and though she doesn't quite believe he'll get here, she encourages him nonetheless.

"Only coming over to me to copy answers before the teacher gets here, what kind of friend are you?" Amber asks in English, teasing tone laced with mock disgust. They usually spoke English to one another in the classroom, and if not in English, then in faltering Mandarin (well, Henry can manage his Chinese just fine -- she can't).

Henry doesn't look up from hurriedly scribbling down numbers. "The kind of friend that's gonna race to the book store to buy you bread packs during lunch?" the young man answers, momentarily stopping in his cheating expedition to dig fingers into Amber's side playfully. She scoffs, swatting his hand away, and messes up his hair as an unspoken comeback. His dusty light brown locks and her short blonde look was from a bet two weeks back, and though they got into minor trouble for the dyed hair, they escaped punishment, mainly because both are liked by their teachers and peers alike, 'with bright futures ahead of them.'

"Get me the meat-filled one," she just replies, smoothing down her skirt with nimble fingers. At first, it was difficult trading her baggy clothes for a uniform, but no one ever for wearing a skirt despite her boyish looks, and after school she always changed into a graphic tee and shorts anyway. "You better buy ten packs, Snoopy."

Henry finishes his plagiarism and sets his pencil down, squinting his eyes at her. "I'll buy you four, Llama." They had odd nicknames for the other that originated after six months of friendship and a trip to the zoo.

"Seven."

"This a supermarket where we make bargains?" Amber slugs his shoulder. "Ow! Okay, fine, seven."

She grins at the other contently as he winces, rolling his shoulder with the opposite hand, red tie moving in the process and white button-up already sticking to his skin. At school, they strip off their blazers, because the measly current flowing through the open windows on the floor that they are on aren't enough to cool down the hot summer days, and the overworked fan sitting in the corner of their room doesn't do justice, either.

Once the other is done faux whining about pain, he hands back her homework. "So, what's up? Last night you said that you had something important to share."

Amber's eyes light up. "Okay, dude, I found this out from my parents, and I am so ecstatic over it." Henry makes a 'go on' signal with his hands, and the young woman bounces a little in her seat in excitement. "My childhood friend is coming to visit!"

"Hey, that's great!" Henry replies, a smile on his face. "They staying for long in Korea?"

"Well, my friend's visiting from the States, and she'll be staying here for about a month? It's summer vacation over there as of now, and she said she'll enroll in our classes briefly 'to gain learning experience' or whatever." Amber puts air quotations around the offending phrase. Her mom probably told her to enroll. "Her name's Amy, but she said people started calling her 'Ailee' as a nickname, so when you meet her, you can call her either/or."

Henry sniffs, wrapping an arm around Amber like how a father would do so with his son. "As they say, dear, any friend of yours is a friend of mine," he begins in an old man voice, and his companion can't stop the snort of laughter that escapes from her.

They separate once the homeroom teacher walks in and their classmate Jonghyun in the back tells them they can do the PDA after lessons.

—

Henry stops Amber on her way out a few weeks later after changing out of her uniform, her bag slung over her shoulder. "Hey, you up for some intense gaming tonight?" The young man mimes a controller and mimics 8-bit sound effects.

Amber groans. She forgot that they had planned that earlier. "Nah, I can't. I really want to, but I have to pick up Amy today at the airport."

"Oh, well, next week then," he compromises, patting her with the hand that isn't holding his blazer and bag, and Amber's grateful he doesn't try to guilt-trip her. "See you, Am!" he calls, saluting while walking backwards. Henry always walked home from school, since his neighborhood was close to the school grounds.

She waves goodbye, and when her mother pulls up at the school gates, Amber enters in the passenger side, dropping her school items in the backseat as they drive to the airport.

Amber's parents migrated from Taiwan to America, raising Amber and her older sister in central California, and after her father got a promotion at his job that required him to travel to Korea to oversee, he suggested uprooting their entire family and moving with him. Of course, this raised concerns and protests, especially from 15-year-old Amber, who had her entire life sorted out and friends to support her in the States, but her father firmly drowned them out, and they moved to Seoul. Amber still has a slight grudge for moving to Seoul so suddenly and having to painstakingly learn Korean for her classes, but hey, without moving, she wouldn't have met Henry.

Henry, on the other hand, came to Seoul from Hong Kong, only for the sake of his father expanding his career as a chef, and as a young man with many traveling experiences, he was able to converse in Korean quite readily, and as Amber found out later, English, Mandarin, French, and conversational Italian. The boy is like an elastic ball of wonder.

At the baggage claim in the airport, she nearly gets bulldozed over by a young woman who runs straight into her with a skip in her steps. "Amber!" she shouts, loud enough to call attention to themselves in the bustling area, and Amber laughs excitedly, wrapping her arms around the figure in front of her.

"Amy!" They separate briefly only to squeeze each other in a hug again, and Ailee squeals in delight. "Amy, oh my god, it's been forever!"

Ailee beams, fixing her high-waisted shorts and cardigan. "I know! I haven't seen you for, like, three years!" She collects herself enough to greet Amber's mother with a wide smile, and earns a hug from the other woman as well, before Amber helps her with her suitcases and guides her to the car.

"So much has changed in California, Amber, especially without you there," Ailee comments while they're driving home. "Even if we all talk every day on Kakao, you know, it's still not the same. Kevin got some part-time modeling job at one of those high-end stores."

"Figures as much," Amber grumbles. With his youthful face and charming demeanor, it isn't a surprise that her friend got a good-paying job before the rest of them did. "And Eric? What's he doing?"

The young woman laughs, eyes crinkling up merrily. "Still posting covers on YouTube, as always. I think he got contacted by a small agency a week ago; they want him to sing songs for them. He won't stop shutting up about it in school, so I'm surprised he didn't tell you. Must be busy filming another cover, I guess."

The rest of her friends fare pretty well. Min got temporarily suspended for beating up a guy, but it was only for a few days since the guy was making derogatory remarks about her ethnicity; she still got grounded by her parents and her phone taken away. Peniel is still falling asleep in class and getting in trouble with the teachers, but his grades are still perfect, so his naps can't be bothered with. Gen got a new car and dented it in the first fifteen minutes of ownership.

They continue chatting until they reach Amber's house, in which they pause to get the luggage into the house and upstairs into Amber's room. It was settled without words that Ailee would share a room with her childhood friend. After dinner and bedtime preparations, they huddle beside each other on the queen-sized bed, and it feels like they're ten all over again, gossiping about boys under thick duvets.

In fact, they're still ten and doing that, Amber thinks amusedly as Ailee tries to pry a name out of her lips.

"Come on, Amber!" Ailee pleads, eyes innocuously wide. "There must be someone!"

"Dude, why are you so desperate for me to like someone?"

Ailee sneers at her, whacking the younger with a pillow. "We haven't spoken to each other at all in person for three years! Work with me, Am."

The nickname brings a flash of tousled light brown hair and messy handwriting, and Amber turns her attention to the pillow in her lap. "Okay, well, I don't like anyone. I don't like anyone, okay?" she repeats, looking at Ailee in the eye with all seriousness so that the other doesn't twist her words. Ailee nods vigorously, excited that she's made headway. "But... I made a friend here."

Ailee's face falls. "Just a friend? Are you that boring?"

Amber scowls, and this time it's Ailee's turn to get hit by the pillow. "No, you goldfish. He's my best friend here."

"I'm listening," her childhood friend immediately replies, an interested gleam in her eyes.

The younger wrinkles her nose, but continues. "His name's Henry, and, uh, we play video games a lot. Yeah. He's from Hong Kong, and we've shared the same homeroom since freshman year, so."

There's a Cheshire Cat grin on the older's face. "I'm excited to meet this 'best friend' of yours, then. You know, besides me."

"You just wanna check him out," Amber complains, lying down and rolling onto her stomach.

"Dost I hear the green monster of jealousy speaking?" Ailee cackles, flopping atop her friend. She ignores the cries of distress beneath her. "Hey, Amber, isn't there some kind of prom dance thing that your school has?"

Amber stops struggling briefly. "Yeah, in two weeks. How did you know?"

"Please, all schools have some kind of dance." Ailee quirks a brow at her. "You should ask that best friend of yours to go."

"What?" Where did that come from? "Amy, he's just a friend- "

"And who said that you couldn't go to a dance with friends?" Ailee asks defiantly, cutting her off. Amber purses her lips in thought, and her friend sighs, getting off of her. "It'll just be a small, fun thing to do. You can think about it; it's in two weeks, after all. And who knows?" she drawls, lying down on the bed. "Maybe something else will come out of this, too."

Amber frowns at the older, leaning out of bed to switch off the overhead lights, before lying down as well. "Nothing will happen. But sure, I'll think about it. Night, Amy."

"Night, Am."

—

"You look so good in a skirt!" Ailee squeals for the hundredth time that morning, hopping up and down in her own uniform. Amber tiredly sighs and walks to her homeroom, ignoring the looks casted their way.

"I've worn this uniform for three years already," she mutters.

"But that makes it even better! I haven't seen you wear a skirt since that bet in sixth grade!"

Amber groans as she stops in front of the homeroom door and slides it open. "Whatever, Amy. You have the same homeroom as me, right? Just come in."

As per usual, the first person to turn their head at her voice is Henry, waiting for his daily dose of homework answers faithfully at her desk. "Hey, Am! Do you- oh, whoa," he abruptly stops, wide eyes focused on Ailee.

The students present quiet down, attention turned towards the newcomer, and Amber feels something weird in her stomach when she noticed how much Henry gapes.

"Hello!" Ailee greets in perfect Korean, bowing. "My name is Lee Yejin; please take care of me!"

In the back, their classmate Baekhyun whistles and says something about how well the uniform suits her, but his friend Kyungsoo bops him hard atop the head and reminds him he has a girlfriend.

The class resumes its usual bustle right afterwards, no one else decidedly caring about the new student arriving in the middle of the year aside from Henry, who leaps over the desk he's sitting on and stumbles over his feet on his way to meet them.

"Hi," he breathlessly begins, and Ailee chuckles amusedly. Amber frowns at this exchange. "You must be- uh, well, Ambro's childhood friend."

"And you must be Am's best friend!" Ailee pipes up. "It's nice to meet you! You can call me Amy or Ailee, either works."

Henry grins toothily. "And you can call me Henry. It's nice to meet you."

They shake hands, eyes never straying from each other, and their mutual friend gets a slow, sinking feeling in her gut.

The foreboding feeling she has is justified. Over the next few days, everyone seems enamored with Ailee and her perfect Korean, despite being born in the States. She sits with Amber and Henry during lunch, is seated right next to her childhood friend in classes, and during gym periods, is the one the the team leaders clamor to have join their group (this is after people realize, in her first gym hour, that she is both good at sports and easy on the eyes when working out).

If Amber wasn't sinking into obscurity before, she is now, especially with all the attention given to Ailee. She doesn't mind the fact that the compliments and attention she received before is now given to the older in her stead; she's not that petty. No, what she did mind, however, is Henry being occupied with Ailee every second of the school day now. Before, it was ragtag Chinese mischief duo Snoopy and Llama, taking over the world, and now it's been replaced with Henry and Ailee, now the school's most desired OTP.

"What does OTP even mean?" she tries asking numerous people, but obviously no one can see her anymore, so after scrolling down Urban Dictionary, Amber realizes that her two friends are the school's hottest 'ship.'

Before, she'd walk with Henry back to his house almost every day, but most days after she changes her clothes and runs out the gates expecting to see familiar hamster eyes staring back at her, Amber catches Henry animatedly chatting to Ailee, their laughter ringing in the air as they walk together in the direction of Henry's house. Amber watches them walk away, bag loosely in hand, and she's not sure what to make out of the hurt and abandonment swirling around in her chest.

She walks to the bus stop and goes home by herself.

When she gets home to start homework as well as lazing around on her computer, it takes Ailee until six in the evening to come home, and when Amber asks her where she went, her friend just shrugs and replies, "Somewhere."

The worst scene by far is when Amber comes to school in the mornings with Ailee. Mornings now are tinged with silence as they walk to the bus stop and sit beside each other, and aside from the inane small talk Amber tries to conduct, there's a tension in the air that just won't go away.

To Amber, it's not a normal morning of school until Henry slides over, a panicked smile plastered onto his face, and when she enters the room, her homework in hand, she fully expects her best friend to come running to her complaining about their studies.

Henry twists his body quickly, and smiles. "Amy!" he calls, beckoning her over to his seat, and Ailee laughs and skips over, the two of them huddled over what looks like a piece of paper on his desk.

Amber sits quietly at her desk, staring down at biology terms and math variables until her eyesight turns blurry.

Bit by bit, it becomes routine for Henry to stop asking Amber if they want to play video games or prank their teacher during study hall. It also becomes routine for Amber to start leaving earlier in the mornings before Ailee wakes up from her sleep, in uniform and taking a walk along the edges of the nearby lake before heading to school. It becomes routine for Amber to start making excuses during lunch and say that she has to work on something, and she ends up sitting beside the door of the rooftop entrance, eating packed lunches while gazing out at the horizon.

—

One night, Ailee confronts her about the tension.

"Amber, what's up?" she begins as they change into their pajamas. "I see less and less of you every day, and really, when I do see you, we don't talk! Is something the matter?"

Amber threads her arms through the sweater she decided on wearing, a black oversized thing with a printed 'NO EXCEPTION' in a white box on the front. She bought this last year while shopping with Henry. "Nah, Amy, I'm fine."

One look from her friend, and Amber sighs. She turns to the older, rubbing her fingers into her left temple. "Amy, you and Henry have been disappearing on me lately, and I really feel left out." Ailee's eyebrows shoot up, but Amber continues, because talking is always good for the soul. "You go over to his house and you don't tell me where you go when it's obvious. You guys never invite me anywhere anymore. In class, you two always partner up and I'm stuck to find someone else, who usually turns out to be the class president Lee Donghae kid. I don't talk with you guys anymore, yeah, but I feel like you two were the ones who excluded me in the first place, and that's really not cool."

"Amber..." Ailee begins carefully, but the younger interrupts.

"Yeah, fine, I'm a kid for feeling like you guys abandoned me, and now you're going to say that you're my friends, and that you would never abandon me," Amber tiredly says, hurt evident. "But do you guys even know where I disappear to during school? Where I go in the mornings? I'm probably being melodramatic and stupid for saying all of this right now, but I don't even exist anymore with you two."

Ailee's eyes are trained on her wordlessly, and Amber laughs, a self-conscious and bitter sound. "Whatever. It's nothing. I'm just being dramatic again. Heard you two were the next 'it' couple, too, you know?" Her lower lip begins to tremble, and she looks away. "Welcome for introducing him to you, by the way. Hope it works out in the month that you're here."

She picks up a pillow and a spare blanket that's fallen to the floor, and backs out of her bedroom. "I'm sleeping on the couch tonight, Amy," she calls out, trying to keep her voice steady. "My back hurts waking up in the mornings, so."

Without looking behind her, Amber turns and shuts her bedroom door, leaning against it for a brief period of time as she hears scuffling inside and a phone dialing.

"Henry, I'm not sure about what we're doing," Ailee murmurs, and Amber shuts her eyes. "I just talked with Am, and she sounds really heartbroken right now."

There's some muttering on the other end, and Ailee grumbles. "Of course she is! And she should be! We completely ignored her and now she feels like her best friend and her childhood friend are being taken away from her."

The light flicks off, and Ailee is heard getting into bed. "She's out there sleeping on the couch right now because of us. We should end this thing quickly." A brief pause. "What? Oh, fine. Yeah, yeah, whatever. You're lucky you're so cute. Uh huh, love you too."

That was all Amber listened to before she soundlessly padded away and downstairs, tossing the pillow and blanket onto the loveseat before flopping onto the cushions and curling up into herself. In the dark, she thinks about the isolation and the loneliness she's endured in the past week, and exhales, shifting her position. A hand climbs up to the left side of her chest when Henry's smiling face pops into her mind, and she wrinkles her nose before turning over onto her other side.

"Don't do that," she whispers to herself, hand curling into a fist.

Even if she does like him, which she's now unsure of, he's taken by her childhood friend, and she could never put a wrench into their happiness to fulfill her own. Plus, she doesn't have time to think about that, anyway. There's a project due next Friday, and she needs to text Donghae about when they're going to meet up to start the project.

—

"So, we just need to get materials and whatnot, and then we'll type up the paper afterwords, is that all right with you?" Amber asks in Korean, and the class president nods his head. The two are currently sitting at a table at one of the casual diners near the school, greasy food piled in front of them.

"That's good, then," he responds to her, reaching out to pick a fry from the pile. "That gives me time to ask my cousin about using his crafts supplies, and we can split the paper into four sections for the rest of the days."

They grin at each other, sodas in hand, before Donghae's smile morphs into a look of curiosity. "Hey, are you going to the dance on Friday?"

Amber looks up at him good-naturedly. "I was going to, but as of now, I'm not so sure anymore. Why, did you want to ask me?"

The class president laughs, adjusting the position of his legs underneath the booth's table. "No, not me. I'm going with a few friends of mine."

"No girl?" Amber inquires.

Donghae hums a no, shaking his head. "Just going with friends. I heard someone's going to ask you to go, though."

Amber frowns. "Who? I might not even accept their request to go."

She receives a shrug as an answer. "Just heard it floating around the classroom. Even if you don't accept, no one said that you couldn't go by yourself and shine on your own. That doesn't make you some nobody, like what some of the other girls in class think, just someone looking to have a good time independently."

Mulling over the words, Amber cracks a smile. "You're deeper than the others give you credit for, huh, Pres?"

He scrunches up his nose, a rare haughty look on his face. "Of course I am," he sniffs, and Amber laughs at the ridiculous nature of the other, a real bout of laughter for the first time in over a week.

They spend the rest of the hour goofing off with a french fry tower.

—

The rest of the week passes uneventfully, although Amber catches Ailee and Henry giving her worried looks out of the corner of her eye, and she ignores them to the best of her ability. She doesn't want pity for feeling down, she just wants her friends talking to her again. The senior dedicates her time instead to finishing the project with her partner and preparing for the dance on Friday, and you know what, she'll wear a suit, too, just because she feels like it. If any of the others stare at her for doing so, then that's their business, not her's, and that thought is what drives her through the glumless of being alone that she's been feeling for almost half of Ailee's stay.

During the rest of her meetings with the class president for their project, Donghae has been observing her with a knowing gleam in his eye, and when she questions him about it, he gives noncommittal hums as answers. Her parents have been acting odd, as well, giving her beaming smiles for no reason whatsoever.

On Friday, when she walks in for morning classes, considering the fact that her friendships just may be terminated as of now if they knew how she felt and didn't act on it, she got a spray of rose petals in the face.

"Augh!" Amber sputters, swatting the offending sweet-smelling objects away, and when the petals disappear, she sees Ailee standing on a nearby desk, a grass-woven basket in hand and a fistful of petals in the other. "What the hell, Amy-"

Speaking causes her to get another handful of rose petals in the face, and the senior unattractively spits out some pink that landed in . When her vision clears, she sees the class congregating in the usual spots as they would in the mornings, but all their attention has turned to her and Henry, who sits atop a desk a few feet from her with a guitar in his lap. He clears his throat and begins strumming.

"Amber," he sings in English, "there's nothing that rhymes with your name. Except maybe 'Bamber,' but you've still got a claim on my heart."

The young woman's jaw promptly drops, incredulous eyes focused on her best friend. Henry continues to sing for the next minute and a half, alternating between English and Korean while he strums, and Ailee's face looks... surprisingly smug. The class keeps quiet, scrutiny on the young man proclaiming his love for the other through song.

"I know that lately we haven't been able to get along, but I hope you'll realize I like you through this song," Henry shyly laughs, the last strum ringing in the air as he sincerely looks at her. "Amber," he speaks clearly this time, nervousness evident, "will you go with me to prom?"

It takes a few seconds for her to respond. "... it's not even a prom, you idiot," she starts laughing, hands coming up to cover in astonishment as she nods. "But yes, I'll go with you." Here, her voice cracks, but it goes unnoticed by the loud cheers that echo throughout the classroom, and Amber belatedly realizes that students from adjoining classrooms have leaned into the window to watch the serenade, now whooping as well in support.

Henry laughs as well as he sets down his guitar gently on the desk, striding over to his best friend to pull her into a hug, and Ailee takes this moment to continuously shower them with more petals and shrilly harps out the notes to the Wedding March.

"Prom was the only thing that kinda rhymed with song," Henry mutters sheepishly into the senior's ear, and she snickers as she draws him closer with her arms. "This is what me and Amy have been doing in the past week, y'know. She was the only one who knew you better than I did, and, well, I'm sorry for blowing you off and making you feel bad."

Amber shakes her head, tucking her face in against his shoulder, and slightly revels in the racing heartbeat of elation and happiness that she discovers now is what she feels whenever she's with the other. "It's fine," she replies softly, smelling deodorant and perspiration. "I mean, I thought you guys were together, so."

Henry pulls back, making a face, and Amber begins to laugh once more, eyes crinkling up at the corners. "But we're together, now, aren't we?" he whines.

The blonde raises a brow. "Are we?"

"Am!"

"Alright, alright! Sure, yeah, we are, even though you never asked me."

"Thanks so much for helping me pull this off," Henry comments once the petals are cleaned up and his guitar is placed back in its case. The homeroom teacher, having arrived later, is currently writing equations on the board, his back turned.

Ailee smirks. "Of course I'd help you. Who knew Am would ever look like a blushing bride?" The duo quickly turn back to their notes when the teacher turns, hearing hushed voices, and only speak again when it's safe. "You owe me ten bread packs."

"How about four- "

"Ten, you hear me, llama lover?" Henry grumbles harsh words under his breath, and Ailee cackles in a satisfied manner. "Yeah, yeah, love you too."

—

a/n: okay but real question

how come i can type henber faster than b1a4 fics??? increibl???

i have amber's album n i believe as talented as eric nam was henry should've could've would've done th i just wanna duet