A/N: Aw, thanks so much for the early support :D You all are so nice~

2. Shock Hazard!

Waking up with Youngjae in his arms was as fantastic an experience as Jaebum had hoped it would be. Less romantic was the fact that the inside of his mouth felt like a sewer and he really needed to put on deodorant before Youngjae actually woke up. Unfortunately for him, Youngjae's eyes were just starting to flutter open.

“Mmmm,” Youngjae sighed. “G-good morning.”

“Hey. Sleep well?”

“Like a baby.” He rubbed his eyes, then cutely puckered his lips. “No kiss?”

“Let me brush my teeth first.”

“Oh, come on.” Youngjae clapped his hands on Jaebum's cheeks and gave him a quick peck on the lips. “I wasn't saying we should make out or something, just a good morning kiss.”

“Sorry,” Jaebum said sheepishly. “Whenever I think of kissing you, I'm always thinking of doing it all the way.”

Youngjae granted him a lopsided smile. “That's fine, too. We can do that part after brushing our teeth.”

“And brushing our hair,” Jaebum added, smoothing down one of Youngjae's cowlicks.

Youngjae started laughing as if this were the most hysterical thing he'd ever heard. “This... this is just so...” He tried to clear his throat. “It's just so... lovey dovey.”

“Wasn't that the theme of the vacation, according to Hyejin noona?”

“Yeah. But you're actually doing it. It makes me happy. You're not like this around anyone else, just me.” He smiled triumphantly. “I remember first meeting you, and you were trying to act all cool and stuff. I almost had a heart attack when you started getting all sweet out of nowhere. I wanted to know what you wanted to up to me for. I never would have guessed... I never would have guessed it was this.”

“What do you mean 'trying to act'?”

Youngjae giggled again. “Shouldn't we be dressing?”

Jaebum playfully shoved him off the bed, which only made Youngjae laugh harder. God, he loved that sound.

Youngjae took a few minutes to calm down before finally grabbing a pair of a jeans and a sweater out of his suitcase. “So. What are we doing today?”

“I don't think there were any plans in particular. Maybe we could go shopping?”

Youngjae lifted an eyebrow. “So you're saying you haven't gotten me a gift yet?”

“Of course I've gotten you a gift!” Jaebum said quickly. And he had, awhile ago. When you were older, Christmas was supposed to be a dating holiday, after all, so it had been at the forefront of his mind as December had approached. “It's still fun to go to the stores and see the holiday decorations, right?”

“Right.”

“But, we'll probably need to take noona along. We are supposed to be dating, after all.”

Youngjae made a face. “Don't rub it in.”

“Hey, if we let her know quickly, maybe she'll call her real boyfriend and he can tag along. You'd really like him, I think.”

When they sat down for breakfast, Jaebum shared their plans with his mother and Hyejin. As expected, Mrs. Im was thrilled at the idea of him taking Hyejin out, even though there would be a third wheel, as Youngjae was in her perspective.

“Be sure to take lots of pictures in front of the big tree,” she said brightly. “We can send them along to the relatives and Hyejin's family, they'll be thrilled.”

“Um,” Jaebum said. He'd have to claim to have conveniently forgotten when they came back home.

“And take the thrill out of telling them in person?” Hyejin said serenely. “I wouldn't dare.”

“True. Very true. We have been waiting for this for years, after all.”

Jaebum rubbed Youngjae's knee under the table in case he was bothered, but he didn't seem to be this time. After all, he'd been the one in Jaebum's bed last night, so any victory went to him, in the end.

After they'd cleaned up their breakfast dishes, the three of them headed outside. It had snowed a little, but the roads were still pretty clear and the temperature bearable.

“Yungchul oppa's staying at a hotel in the area, so he'll be meeting up with us,” Hyejin said. “So sorry, no couple photos by the Christmas tree for us two. You and Youngjae are free to do it, though.”

“It's pretty cheesy,” Jaebum pointed out.

“Darling, quite a bit about love is cheesy. You'll live.”

The mall areas were packed with last minute shoppers and couples, even though it was still early morning. Jaebum was pretty relieved that he'd purchased Youngjae's present awhile ago, since he wasn't sure how anyone could do legitimate shopping in this kind of environment.

“Ah, there's oppa.” Jaebum frankly had no idea how Hyejin had been able to pick him out in the crowd, but when he followed the direction of her pointing finger, sure enough there was Yungchul leaning against the mall directory sign.

“Jaebum ah,” he said warmly when they approached. “Good to see you again, kid.”

“Not a kid, hyung,” he said, smarting. Still, it was a pretty kindly greeting for someone who looked like he had taken a wrong turn on a trip with his motorcycle gang and ended up at shopping mall. “But good to see you again.”

“The one who looks like his eyes are going to pop out of his head is Choi Youngjae, Jaebum's beloved,” Hyejin explained. “You'll have to excuse him, he was probably expecting someone a bit more conventional.”

“My eyes are about ready to pop out of my head, too,” Yungchul laughed. “Jinnie, you dyed your hair and you're actually wearing the clothes your mom bought for you.”

Hyejin laughed. “I know, isn't it terrible?”

“You're pretty either way, you know.”

“Oh, please.”

“It's nice to meet you,” Youngjae said, a bit belatedly.

“You too. Jaebum's beloved, huh? I can believe it. He has that rough exterior of his, but he's always liked cute things.”

“Hyung!”

“What, it's true.” Yungchul laughed and slung his arm around Hyejin's shoulders. “Anyways, I'm sure you two would prefer some alone time away from us old fogies. Should we split up and meet later? The two of us have some errands to run while we're here.”

“Sounds good.”

“Great. Let's meet at the food court around three or so, then.”

Youngjae and Jaebum waved them off. “It's so weird,” Youngjae murmured once they were gone.

“I know. He may look like that, but he's a really nice guy. Hyejin noona said he learned his art style from a tattoo artist, so he grew up kind of taking after the looks of that crowd.”

“Not that,” Youngjae said, shaking his head. “It's just that... noona looked like an entirely different person when I saw her in the car yesterday, and it stands out even more when she's next to him. The person she's supposed to be... the person she wants to be... they really are two different things.”

Jaebum nodded.

“But she looks happy now, at least. I guess I had nothing to worry about, after all. The way she looks at him is completely different from how she looks at you.”

“I could have told you that.”

“I think it's better that I saw it for myself.”

Free of their actual third wheel, the two of them bounced around window shopping and admiring the collection of Christmas decorations set up around the store. There was a vendor selling fudge squares outside one of the bigger department stores, and Jaebum bought a handful for him and Youngjae to share.

“No girlfriends this year?” the woman selling the fudge asked. She was about their age, and deliberately making eyes at Youngjae.

Before he could stop himself, Jaebum had wrapped his arm around Youngjae's shoulder. “Yes, he has a girlfriend. She's in the lingerie department right now, so we're hanging out. And she's the very jealous type. VERY jealous.”

“Aw, those types of girls are no good, oppa.”

Youngjae was halfway to bursting out laughing again. “It's...it's okay... I really-” He clapped his hand over his mouth for a minute. “I really do like her, even though she's like that.”

“Too bad.” The shopkeeper looked for a moment like she would turn her attention to Jaebum, so he decided it was time for them to make their getaway before they had to invent another -shopping girlfriend.

“The jealous type, huh?” Youngjae snickered as they walked away from the fudge shop.

“I did so many stupid things to get together with you,” Jaebum muttered. “I can't let you get stolen away from me.”

“So it's a matter of pride?”

“That, and I love you and stuff.”

“Hehehe, you said it again.”

“It's Christmas, I can be generous.”

“Then you should be generous and tell me.'

“Tell you what?”

“When you knew. That you loved me.”

“Ehh...” Jaebum averted his eyes. “I already got you a Christmas gift. And fudge. Do you really need to be spoiling yourself this much?”

“If you tell me, I'll tell you. When I knew I was in love with you.”

.

“Ugh... fine. Let's see. We met during first year because of choir. But it wasn't right then. Although I did really like you a lot right from the beginning. You have good energy, really positive and bright. And a beautiful voice. So I think... I think I was always paying attention to you a lot, from then. And because I was paying attention to you...”

“Yeah?”

“I must have gotten hooked on all the little things. Your smile, your voice, your laugh especially. And everything looked... it just looked brighter around you, because you were there. And then there was this time I was in the cafeteria just before our big competition. I was eating with Jinyoungie, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw you walking to the lunch line. And I don't know, I just couldn't stop watching you. And I thought to myself... I thought, how awful that this person isn't mine. Since that's not something you usually think about people, I was kind of shocked at first, but I decided it was a really, really bad thing that you weren't mine, so the only thing to do was to make you fall in love with me.” He sighed tragically. “Too bad I did such a bad job of it. I still can't believe I wound up confessing to you seven or eight months after that during a stupid fight. That wasn't the plan.”

Youngjae smiled at him, a bit abashedly. “What was the plan?”

“Uh... there wasn't a set plan or anything. I thought maybe we'd wind up naturally kissing or something during one of our study sessions.”

“Then why didn't you initiate a kiss?”

“You would have been okay with that?”

“Yes. Even during the very first study session, honestly.”

“Oh?” Jaebum blinked. That had been a good several months before they'd wound up getting together, and he'd really had no idea that Youngjae had liked them as long as that. “So, looks like you owe me your explanation, now.”

“Well, I was into you pretty much right away. You smiled and said 'Hi, I'm Im Jaebum' with your squinty eye smile, and I was pretty lost from then on. But if I had to pick when I knew for sure... that time you were practicing singing Baek Jiyoung-ssi's 'Like Being Hit By a Bullet' in the choir room and noticed me watching you. It felt like... being hit by a bullet. Right in the heart. So...”

“You did a good job of not showing it,” Jaebum murmured, quiet to offset the noisy racing of his heart.

“Ah, well... I was so excited when I heard Mark couldn't fit tutoring into his schedule and you were taking over, but you spent so much time on it and looked so exhausted that I thought I was annoying you, plus I thought you liked Jinyoung who's so much smarter than me.”

“I can't say I'm dating you for your brains.”

“It's mutual.”

Jaebum smiled, surreptitiously taking Youngjae's hand in his and squeezing it. “Yeah. It is, isn't it?”

0

Hyejin and Yungchul returned promptly at three, surprisingly without any shopping bags with them though they'd said they were going to go out and run errands. They were in high spirits, too, and Hyejin in particular had a new brightness about her.

“Did you two enjoy yourselves?” she asked, ruffling Jaebum's hair.

“We ate fudge and joined the carolers for awhile at the bench area,” Youngjae answered for him.

“Oh, isn't that just fun? Jagiya, it's a real shame you couldn't hear them sing, they're like two little angels. Maybe...” She bit her lip. “Well, I'm sure you'll have a chance to hear them sometime.”

Yungchul smiled and patted her on the back. Something seemed to pass between them that Jaebum couldn't quite catch.

“Um, Jaebum mentioned something about you doing a webtoon, hyung,” Youngjae said, addressing Yungchul. “I'm a fan of comics, can I ask which one it is?”

“Sure. It's 'Merchant of Death'.”

Youngjae almost dropped the hot chocolate he was drinking into his lap. “The one about the career woman who is a top figure in the Black Market by night? I love that one! It's not just the art, but the storyline is just so smart and well-written. I can't believe I'm actually meeting the creator.”

“Creators,” Yungchul said softly.

Youngjae didn't catch it, but Jaebum did. He glanced at Hyejin, and she put her finger to her lips and winked.

“Hey, since you're a fan, I'll show you a little about the process,” Yungchul said. “I've got my sketchbook in my bag right here. I'll draw a picture of Jinnie and Jaebum, and you can watch.”

“Can I really?”

“Sure thing.” He pointed to a few tables away. “We'll sit here so we can get a good angle. You two, just try to act naturally.”

“Sure thing,” Hyejin echoed.

“So,” Jaebum said, once Youngjae and Yungchul had grabbed another table. “Creator?”

She smiled. “I dabble. That's how I met him, actually. I joined a creative writing club in my spare time, and he was there. He had this brilliant idea for a comic, and even had dozen of character concept sketches and the like, but he just needed a way to flesh out the story. His writing is good, but his art is so much better. So I got it in my head to help him, first by editing his scripts, and now... now I do the dialogue for 'Merchant of Death'.”

“Oh.” He didn't know what else to say at first, as surprised as he was. He hadn't known she had any skill as a writer, outside of acing all of her school essays. “That's really something.”

She patted his hand. “Jaebum, you would really love working at Kang Im, right?”

Jaebum shrugged. “I grew up helping there. I think I'd be good at it, and it would be pretty rewarding. I've never really thought of anything else, to be honest.”

“And there you have it. You do it because it fits you, and so it's truly the right thing. For you. And that's how it should be. As for me... I grew up in the same situation as you, but it felt as if I was looking for something else. The thing that fit me. That's why I acted out so much. I wanted to become someone other than who I was asked to make myself.”

Jaebum nodded.

“And I've found it now. But to the people who should love me best, it's the wrong thing. Isn't that just the silliest, Jaebummie? The people who come on the earth before you make all the rules and guidelines, and maybe they're right in some cases, but maybe in some cases they're making the same stupid judgments as everyone who came before them. And because they're set in stone, there's no way to get around them. Or at the very least, they make it as difficult as they can. But what do those people know about you and me? Who are they to say that you or I have to love this kind of person and do this kind of job and that we absolutely have to have raise this kind of family whether we want to or not or else we're a disappointment to our parents, who we have to owe everything we do to? This is my one and only life as Kang Hyejin, and shouldn't I spend it being who I want, loving who I love, and doing what I want to do?” She exhaled sharply. “What good is writing if I can't author my own life?”

“Noona,” Jaebum said solemnly. “Even if no one else is, I'll at least be on your side.”

“Jaebum.” Her smile slowly returned. “This is about you, too. You have a beautiful heart, and you gave it to a beautiful person. I hope you always treasure that and don't let anybody tell you that you can't. After all, you were part of my gang, too, and we don't take no for an answer, right?”

He nodded. A few tables away, Youngjae met his eyes and smiled. Like always, everything around him simply looked so much brighter because of it, and he knew that he would always treasure that, that nothing could or would take that beautiful feeling away from him.

0

Yungchul let Youngjae take the sketch home as a special treat, and it was pretty cute how excited Youngjae got over it. He'd worried when the vacation started that he'd heads with Hyejin over the fake dating thing, but now they were happily chattering about how awesome Yungchul was and debating which direction 'Merchant of Death' should turn, and Jaebum couldn't have been happier.

Of course, it was back to play dating when they were at the house, for the benefit of the family. There was a moment when Youngjae and Jaebum stepped under the mistletoe in the foyer unawares, and Mrs. Im made a joke about Youngjae stepping aside for Hyejin. Jaebum stubbornly planted a kiss of Youngjae's cheek, which had caused Hyejin to lose her false composure and burst out laughing.

“Oh, what on earth was I worrying about you for?” she tittered. “Jaebum's a true rebel, too.”

“Pardon?” Mrs. Im asked.

“Nothing, nothing, mother,” Jaebum said.

“Did you take a photo with the Christmas tree?” she asked, still looking between the three of them confusedly.

“Completely slipped my mind, sorry.”

There was a picture on his phone of the Christmas tree, but the person he was standing with was completely different. Love was quite a cheesy thing, after all.

0

It snowed a lot on Christmas, and Youngjae woke him excitedly to show him the view from out the window. The streets were thinly covered in a layer of snow, and oddly, Hyejin was in the driveway clearing out the snow with a blower, even though this was generally his father's job, and the snow wasn't even that bad to begin with.

“Do you wanna build a snowman?” Youngjae belted. Jaebum threw a pillow at him.

Before dressing, he checked his phone and noticed a text message from Yugyeom. Grades are up. Good luck to Youngjae, but if you fulfill your promise in the dorm, I'll kill you. Merry Christmas. God, that kid. Still, the school probably thought they were being cutesy posting their examination results on Christmas as a 'gift' when it was probably going to ruin a few holidays in the process.

“Grades are up,” Jaebum told Youngjae. “Want to check now, or wait until tomorrow?”

Youngjae's eyes widened. “Oh. Oh god. Let's just check. I'll be freaking out the whole day if I don't. But you first.”

Jaebum shrugged and logged into the university portal. His exam results wound up being very good. He'd aced his statistics class and bio as well, plus had solid scores in his major-based classes. His parents would surely be thrilled when he told them.

“You ready?” Jaebum asked.

“Yes... yes... but don't peek...”

Jaebum sighed, but scooted away per Youngjae's request. He waited for the sound of Youngjae typing in his username and password, holding his breath. For one, because he really, really, really wanted Youngjae to pass bio, and also because he was a bit excited and terrified over what passing would actually mean.

“I...” Youngjae squeaked.

“Yeah?”

“I...passed... bio.”

Jaebum let out a sharp breath, and threw his arms around Youngjae. “You did it. You really did it. Congrats, you deserve it so much after your hard work.”

“Your hard work, too,” Youngjae murmured, still sounding as if he couldn't quite believe it. “Oh my god. And finally, after all this time...after all those hours of tutoring...”

“I know, I know,” Jaebum said, his hair.

Youngjae looked at him expectantly, as if he expected Jaebum to jump him right then and there.

“Er. I'm not sure the best place for that is here.”

“But there will trouble with it in the dorm, too. With Yugyeom.”

“Well, yeah, but I'm pretty sure I would feel a lot more comfortable locking him out of the dorm or whatever than doing it with my parents in the house. I mean Jinyoung and Mark manage somehow, and they've got BamBam hanging around.”

“They foist him off on Jackson.”

“Well, we could do that with Yugyeommie.”

“I think BamBam actually tolerates Jackson, which I'm not sure we can say of Yugyeom when he's in one of his moods. Maybe my roommate...” He trailed off, possibly already thinking of how he could get rid of Junho politely.

Jaebum lifted an eyebrow. He had no idea Youngjae would be this... eager... about the whole thing. It eased his mind a little bit, but he hoped Youngjae knew exactly what he was getting into nonetheless.

“We'll make it happen,” he said simply, kissing Youngjae's forehead. “For now, let's just enjoy a nice, family friendly Christmas.”

Mrs. Im had made them a huge breakfast, which Mr. Im and a fresh from outside and still pink-cheeked Hyejin were already indulging in. Jaebum felt obliged to take the seat next to Hyejin and greeted her with as much affection as he could come up with, but she simply grunted tiredly. Mrs. Im noticed, and looked at her in concern.

“Dear, are you sure you're quite well?”

“I'm fine... just a little chilly.” Her voice sounded unusually strained.

“There was no need for you to blow the snow off the drive. We are grateful, of course, but Father would have handled it before we left for services.”

“I wanted to clear my head, Mrs. Im.”

“Oh?” She looked even more concerned now. “Are you sure you're all right?”

“I'm fine. Really.”

“Youngjae and I passed our exams, mother,” Jaebum said to distract her.

“Did you? Oh, that's wonderful news! I was sure you would, of course, but I'm very proud of you. I'll be sure to bake you an extra treat with dinner, won't that be nice?” She clapped her hands together. “This is just the loveliest holiday. Youngjae and Hyejin come to visit, and dear Hyejin and Jaebum finally happy together. And now this lovely Christmas gift! It's almost too much.”

Hyejin let her silverware slip from her hands and clatter onto her plate. Slowly, she rose to her feet. “I'm sorry,” she said softly. “I... I have to excuse myself for a moment.” Without another word, she had slipped from the dining room and upstairs.

Everyone else looked after her in surprise. “Jaebum, go talk to her!” Mrs. Im hissed.

Jaebum shrugged and followed her upstairs, not having any idea what was up with her. He found her sitting in the guest bedroom, sorting things in her suitcase.

“Do you a brain-altering fever right now?” he asked. Now that she was alone, she looked all right enough to him. Not her usual upbeat self, but fine enough.

“I had to act like that, Jaebummie. You and I are breaking up today.”

“Really? On Christmas?” He glared at her. “Look, it's not like I want to continue to be in a relationship with you, but doing it this way is going to break my mother's heart.”

“I know,” she said.

“How exactly are you going to do it? Can I at least be forewarned of that?”

“No. For this to work, you need to be good and surprised. And don't worry, I'm pretty sure you will be.” She looked at him solemnly. “I'm sorry.”

“What for?”

“For causing this last bit of trouble. Very sorry. But at the same time... it's something I need to do.”

“Okay then. Okay.”

“Go back downstairs to Youngjae and tell your mother I won't talk to you.” She pulled a plastic shopping bag out of her suitcase. “I have some work to do.”

0

Hyejin didn't reemerge until it was time to go to church, and when she did, she looked a bit different from expected. She was wearing a deep red dress cut daringly enough to fit with the persona she didn't usually show around Jaebum's family, and her hair was covered by a matching silk turban pinned with a broach and a some kind of decorative plume, something you'd expect to see in a Western period drama rather than on your typical college student. At one point, he thought he saw strands of red hair slipping out from underneath it; it reminded Jaebum of the temporary streaks she'd used to put into it when they were younger, and wondered if that was what it was.

“How are you?” Jaebum asked out of politeness. She gave him a pained look and didn't answer. He supposed this was part of her breaking up routine.

Youngjae, on the other hand, was in an unbelievably good mood after passing his exam, and was beaming throughout the service and singing heartily along with all the Christmas hymns. Jaebum couldn't help smiling back at the sound of his voice. Joy to the World indeed. Once again, he couldn't help but think how happy he was to have him here.

“Well, you two seem to be in the Christmas spirit,” Mrs. Im said to Jaebum and Youngjae once they'd made it back to the house, trying to look encouragingly at Hyejin. “Shall we exchange gifts now?”

“Let's!” Youngjae said cheerily.

Jaebum started off, giving his parents some new decorative items he'd picked up from a local craft fair, and Youngjae followed, giving them two bottles of wine as a 'thank you' for letting him stay for the holiday. Hyejin gave them orchestra tickets.

From his parents, they all received an assortment of nice food sets to take back to school with them, as well as some new designer clothes for Jaebum, even though he'd stopped wearing them again after his impress-Youngjae campaign had ended. He'd probably wind up handing them over to Jinyoung as always, but made an appropriate show of being grateful nonetheless.

“None of you youngsters have gifts for each other?” Jaebum's father wondered.

“We can do that in private,” Jaebum said quickly, thinking of Youngjae. His parents nodded knowingly, thinking he was thinking of Hyejin.

It started snowing again as the night progressed. Jaebum was ready to go upstairs and snuggle under the covers for warmth with Youngjae and maybe open their gifts together when Hyejin stopped him in the foyer.

“Noona, I thought we were going to break up. It's almost bedtime.”

“We'll be broken up by morning. Trust me.” She stood on her toes and kissed his cheek. He noticed she was wearing her wool coat again, and that her heels had been replaced by snow-appropriate heeled boots. Her hair was out of its turban and he could see that there were red streaks in it now after all

“Where are you going?”

“Well. I do have a boyfriend, you know. Shouldn't I see him? Aren't you going up to see yours?”

He nodded sheepishly.

“Well, then. Take care of yourself, Im Jaebum. I mean it.” She opened the door, turning around one last time. “Oh, and your Christmas present from me is under the bed. It'll make more sense if you open it tomorrow, so please try and hold off. I'm sure Youngjae's gift will be entertainment enough for the evening.”

“Take care of yourself, noona.”

With one last smile, she was out of the door. He wondered why it had all seemed so final, when she was supposed to come back. He wondered how they would be magically broken up in the morning, and if her hair and dress returning to her normal style had anything to do with it.

All the same, he couldn't keep Youngjae waiting. He took the steps two at a time, and excitedly opened the door to his room. Youngjae was wrapped up in Jaebum's plaid comforter, holding a wrapped present in his hands.

“This is my first time doing this, so I'm not sure how to do this right, but here,” he said, ing the gift into Jaebum's hands. Jaebum grinned and slipped into the comforter wrap beside him, warming his cheek again Youngjae's shoulder.

“Should I shake it first?”

“You could, but I doubt anything would happen.”

“Okay, then. Let's see.”

He pulled of the paper to reveal a small pink book with the words “What I Love About You” printed on it. At the bottom was the author line, left blank for someone to fill, which Youngjae had, the three characters of his name written neatly on the line.

“It's cheesy, isn't it?” Youngjae asked, though he was still smiling in pleasure as Jaebum opened it.

“That depends on what's inside.” Jaebum flipped open to the first page. I love your ____, the first page read. On the line, Youngjae had written 'silly eye smile, though I wonder if you can even see me when you do it, the way your eyes turn into the little slits'. Not all of it had actually fit onto the line, but the page was big enough to allow for it.

Jaebum turned to the next page. You are my favorite singer/kisser/overall y person in the world.

When we are apart, it makes me happy to think about how you're always nearby, and I can see your face soon.

I love it when you kiss me, because I can feel how much you love me when you do.

“Oh my,” Jaebum said. He was pretty sure his cheeks were on fire.

“It's really cheesy, isn't it?” Youngjae repeated. He was smiling triumphantly. “You're blushing.”

“Are you doing this on purpose?”

“Pretty much. I found it when I was out with Jinyoung. He bought one for Mark, but I bet him you'd get more embarrassed by it.”

“You...” Jaebum reached over to grind his knuckles lightly into Youngjae's head. “You better not have bull ted any of those answers just to get the reaction you wanted.”

“Not at all. I was pretty embarrassed myself writing them, but they're all true.”

“Good. I'll read them later. When you're not around.”

“Aw, come on, I want to see.”

“Tough.” Jaebum pulled his own gift from the end table. “Your turn.”

Jaebum's gift was in a small box, so he was pretty sure Youngjae could guess what it was before he even opened it. In the little black box was the same silver ring Jaebum always wore on his finger, though of course fitted for Youngjae's slimmer fingers. He'd had his own version of the ring for years and hadn't thought he'd be able to find the same design again, so he'd considered just going out and buying them a fresh set of couple rings. But Youngjae had always liked his ring and played with during idle moments in conversation, even before they'd started dating. He'd wanted him to have the exact same one.

It had taken some digging and consulting with people who actually knew something about jewelry, but he'd finally figured out the brand and design name of his own ring, and was able to order one for Youngjae. Finding out his ring size had taken some subterfuge with Youngjae's roommate Junho, but he was sure it would fit.

Youngjae was still a bit speechless, so Jaebum took it out of the box for him and slid it onto his finger. A perfect fit. Youngjae flushed as he looked at it, and a sloppy grin crossed his face.

“Cheesy?” Jaebum asked.

“Incredibly,” Youngjae answered. “Thank you.”

Deciding that the situation was gooey enough for some added syrup, Jaebum grabbed his hand and kissed it. “You're not allowed to talk about this with Mark and/or Jinyoung,” he added.

“Oh, I think I can keep it to myself just fine,” Youngjae laughed. “They'll notice the rings, though.”

“Yeah... that's fine.” He leaned into Youngjae, gently kissing his lips. “Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas,” Youngjae whispered. “Let's do this again next year, okay?”

“Let's.” He wrapped his arms around Youngjae's warm body and kissed him again. It was still cold even with the blanket, even with Youngjae, but the way his body warmed up from the inside offset it a little and made him want to never let go. But he knew. Knew it would be a warmth he would carry with him into the next year, and that in another year, it would only be stronger and burn brighter, just as everything around Youngjae did.

0

He woke up early the next day to the sound of rapid knocking on his door. Jaebum was confused at first, but quickly disentangled himself from half-asleep Youngjae before his mother burst into the room.

To his surprise, she was crying. “Oh, Jaebum, oh my son.” Her hands, holding onto a letter sized sheet of paper, were shaking. “It's terrible... so terrible... I don't even know how I can tell you this... how is a mother to say this to her child? But there must be something... something you can do. You have to stop her. Oh, but how can I tell you...”

Jaebum sat up in bed, alert. “What is it, mother? Is everyone okay? Is something wrong with dad?”

She shook her head, wiping her eyes. “No... no, father's fine. It's... Hyejin.”

“Noona?”

“How can I tell you this?” she repeated again, wringing her hands. “My poor Jaebum... Hyejin is gone. She's eloped.”