I slowly walked to the destination written on the paper.

"Is this it?" Jihoo pointed at the house we were in front of.

I eyed it carefully. "I don't know."

It was a lot of people there, it seemed. I just wasn't sure if I was in the right part of town, since we were in the city. I guess I was stereotyping, though.

So we went to the porch and knocked on the door. Sure enough, Vernon himself opened the door.

"Hey, I'm glad you made it!"

"Me, too," I said. "I'm just glad I had enough money with me to get on the bus."

"Oh, I'm sorry. You didn't know I lived far?"

"No, actually, since you're always in my neighborhood."

He nodded with a laugh and let us in. Jin was already in there, at the table drinking (non-alcoholic!) egg nogg. He offered to take mine and Jihoo's coats to another room.

"Coffee?" Vernon offered.

I shook my head. "It's not good to drink coffee after being out in the cold. They caffeine will pump the cold blood to the heart before it has time to warm up."

Vernon scoffed. "That's just if you have hypothermia."

"Well, you gotta be safe."

Jin came back and sat next to Jihoo, who was looking around. There were quite a few people we didn't know.

Then, a group of kids came from playing in the backyard: Jackson, Sulli, Kyungsoo, and Amber. They saw me and Jin and sat at the table with us, making the house a bit crowded. I couldn't help but wonder how he met them. Or any of us. We don't live in the city, not even close!

So, I asked him outright. "Vernon, how come you know everyone in West County when you live in South City?"

"My uncle works over there."

Oh. Ha.

"Oh, okay." I nodded and decided to leave it alone when two people came in the room from the hall.

"Oh, speaking of." Vernon smiled at the two adults. The man had brown hair, but you could see the streaks of gray. He was a big man, and very tall, and his smile spread wide on his face to display his pearly whites. He looked like he was maybe in his forties. His arm rested on the shoulders of a woman, who looked about the same age as him, and she had dirty blonde hair and a sweet smile. She was about half a foot shorter than the man, and a little smaller.

"Hey guys!" Vernon called for everyone's attention. "This is my aunt and uncle. Make sure to talk to them, okay?"

So, Vernon lives with his aunt and uncle. What happened to his parents? But I decided not to ask, it wasn't my business.

Him and his guardians sat at the crowded table with us. Jin and I sat next to each other, and Jihoo sat on the other side of Jin. Amber sat at the end of the table with Jihoo on her left and Jackson to her right, and Sulli sat in between Jackson and Vernon. His aunt and uncle sat on the other end, his uncle next to him and his aunt next to me. whew I hope that made sense.

We all went around in a circle and introduced ourselves. His aunt's name was Julie, and his uncle Robert, but I thought it'd be more respectful if I had just called them Mr. and Mrs. Johnson. Until they insisted I call them by their first names.

"So, which one of you kids did Vernon say was his first friend?" Julie asked curiously. Vernon looked down at the table shyly.

"Um, me."

"IT WAS ME!"

Jackson and I said it at the same time, and all eyes were on his crazed pose, him raising his hand real high up in the air as if he'd get a prize.

"Okay, you got me, it wasn't me." He laughed.

"You, Myra?" Kyungsoo said, smiling. "Aww, that's cute. I knew it, he talks about you all the time."

Both Vernon and I looked at each other, me surprised and him embarrassed, and we were both red.

Julie laughed. "That is cute. And he does talk about you all the time. He can't stop. I think he likes you."

"What?!" Jin and I exclaimed at once.

"Jin, don't be so alarmed." Sulli said with a chuckle.

His uncle seemed to be excited about the news. "Ay, boy, you got a girlfriend?"

"Haha, no." Vernon started to shake his head quickly, laughing nervously. "We're just friends, Rob."

"Where did you guys meet?" Julie asked me curiously.

"Um... uh..."

"At the park, she told me!" Jihoo said. I hadn't even known that he was listening, since he and Amber were doodling in a notebook.

"That's cute." The girl said teasingly, and she and Jackson snickered.

"Ijiwaru nee..." I said, and hoped that no one would understand (I said that they're mean), even though half of them were otakus who spend half their lives watching anime.

So it just encouraged them to tease me more.

"Isn't the park romantic?" Sulli asked Jackson.

"Oh, yeah. It's so sweet."

"I was only waiting on my cousin." I muttered.

"Didn't she take you guys out? She was encouraging a date." Amber laughed.

Jin, Vernon, and I sat uncomfortably at the table. I was hoping someone would stop this, since no one would listen to me. Then Vernon did, but it didn't help much. If anything, it made it worse.

"Guys, why are you shipping me with Myra? Can't you see that her and Jin were meant for each other?"

Jin and I looked at each other, then Vernon, then each other, then at the same time put our faces in our hands with a sigh. OTL Why????

"Oh my gosh, you're right!" Sulli exclaimed. "Did you see that? They did it at the same time!"

When will it end??????

Everyone was told to gather in the living room by Robert. We all sat on the couch, chair, stood up, or sat on the floor. Three small tables were in front of us.

"Let's play a game, everyone!" Vernon smiled. "Rob is the host, so please listen carefully." He came over to sit between me and Jihoo.

I swear, everyone is stealing my brother from me.

"Okay, so this is how the game works," Rob started. "It's pretty simple. One person at a table. You get one candle to smell, and you must write your answer down on the paper. Who ever wins gets a candy cane."

"What kind of prize?" Jackson complained, disappointed, and Amber and Sulli slapped him on his arms. Rob looked a little hurt.

"We're not rich, we can't afford to by elaborate gifts for one game."

"No, I'm sorry. It's fine, really, I like candy canes." Jackson smiled.

"Okay," Rob looked around at the group. "Who's first?"

A handful of us raised their hands, and Rob chose who could go up. They introduced themselves.

"Sulli."

"Amaris."

"London."

"Okay, kids, are you ready to smell the first candle?"

They nodded. Rob brought the red candle to Sulli, who was on the far left, and she took a deep breath and smiled. The others did the same.

"Ok, you get thirty seconds to write it down."

They all wrote their answers on the paper. Rob checked it and said, "You all are right! It's cinnamon. That's the easiest, but they will get harder after this." He distributed the candy canes and they all sat down, on the ends so they become spikes.

"Who's next?"

And so it went like that. Many people found the game fun, expecially the harder it got. The smells became more complex the further we went. There were smells that people smiled at and smells that made people gag. Soon, nearly everyone had gone up except me, Jin, and Vernon.

"You three should come on up, since everyone else did," Rob encouraged.

But we all shook our heads.

"I don't want want to get a headache."

"I don't feel like getting up."

"I bought those candles, you know."

Jihoo tugged on Vernon's shoulder. "I wanna go!"

The three of us looked at each other and nodded. "Okay," I said. "You can smell it for me."

We all stood up and took out places, and I knelt down to be at eye level with Jihoo.

Rob held the candle up to Jin, who sniffed and smiled. "Delicious," he said, and scribbled on the paper.

Then he held it to my brother and I. We sniffed at the same time and looked at each other immediately. It was our favorite Thangsgiving food. Jihoo wrote it clumsily in his premature handwriting.

Vernon smelled it and looked confused, so confused it made me want to laugh.

He looked at Jin's paper and laughed. "Not quite." Then he looked at our's. "Yep, that's correct." Jihoo got really happy as he recieved his candy cane. And then he looked at Vernon, saying "Why didn't you write anything?"

"I don't know what it is!"

"What is it?" A girl asked.

"Cornbread ressing, my favorite!" Jihoo exclaimed with excitement, and I'm sure I didn't imgaine the "Awww" from the group in front of us.

"Dressing? Like salad dressing?"

"You never had dressing?" Rob asked. "Well, you'll eat some this year, kid."

Everyone laughed, and Vernon smiled and shrugged. "Obviously, I'm missing out."

1'Are any of you taking a bus?"

Kyungsoo, Jin, and me and my brother confirmed we were getting on a bus as everyone else were either driving or had a ride. Even though we told him it was okay, Vernon insisted that he come with us.

"It's dark out right now, you'll be back late," I said.

"That's okay." He smiled at me, and I wasn't sure why, but I blushed.

"Are you sure? If you do come, you can stay at my place." Jin offered.

"I am coming, and I would love to actually." Vernon smiled and went to his room to get some things.

"Can I come over?" Kyungsoo asked.

Jin nodded. "You might have to sleep in that though.

"That's fine, I'll go home in the morning."

"Can I come over?" Jihoo looked at Jin with hopeful eyes, then at me.

"I don't think I can give you permission to do that, lil' guy." Jin laughed and ruffled his hair.

Vernon got back with a bag of stuff and a smile and said, "Let's go."

The bus ride was quiet, since it was pretty late and we were all tired. We all sat in the back so we could sit together. Jihoo sat on Kyungsoo's lap and had fallen asleep, tired from all the excitement of the day. At first I was okay with it until Kyungsoo's eyes started drooping themselves, but Jin nudged him back awake.

I was beginning to get tired myself and my head kept dropping in various places. I was basically bouncing in around, and I knew I looked ridiculous because I got a glimpse of Vernon, whose eyes were shut to keep from laughing.

Then I drifted to sleep.

Then woke up again because Vernon had lifted my head with his shoulder. 

It happened various times until Jin wrapped his arm around my shoulder so I could lean on him and said, "It's okay, go to sleep."

Then we were woken up again by Vernon and Jin. We had reached our stop.

Getting out of the bus, we initially walked slowly towards our neighborhood.

"Noona, can I pleeaase stay over Jin's house?"

"It's not for me to decide, Jihoo."

Silence.

"Are you guys going to ice skating on the lake on Christmas Eve?" Kyungsoo asked, and earned a nudge from Jin. It made me roll my eyes. Whether they said Wednesday or Christmas Eve didn't matter to me, I wasn't going.

"Sorry," Kyungsoo muttered.

"Yeah, we're all going. It's gonna be lots of fun, isn't it?" Vernon smiled at me. I snarled.

"I told you I'm not going. There is no way I'm going. I stopped going a long time ago, and I , so I'm not going."

"No, you're going." Vernon smiled at me. "You have to bring Jihoo."

"Yeah, I wanna go skating, Noona!"

I huffed, my breath going up in the air in the form of ice crystals. "Why are you guys always turning my brother on me like that!"

As we walked past a church, Jin read the sign:

"Sing and Worship with us on Christmas Eve"

"Isn't that your church, Myra?" Kyungsoo asked.

"It's my mother's church. I don't go anymore."

"You are Wednesday." Jin said, and I was taken aback. He didn't usually talk like that.

He's been hangin' around that kid too long! I thought. Yeah, by that kid I meant Vernon.

"We'll see."

We walked in silence a little longer until we reached Jin's house. Again, Jihoo asked me if he could stay over, I said no, and we parted our ways.

As soon as I walked into the house, I picked Jihoo up and buried his face into my neck so he wouldn't see anything. It was a mess everywhere, with glass shattered all over the floor and books everywhere. SeoHyun was sitting on the floor balled up, crying. There was a bottle next to her.

"Unnie, what the hell is this?!"

She looked at me and then smiled. "Myra... I missed you~!"

I frowned at her. SeoHyun was never really a heavy drinker, so I was really upset that ever since she came back from Chicago, I had only seen her drunk.

"Unnie, what are you doing?"

"I'm just celebrating..." she slurred as she swept some glass from next to her. She pat her hand there, but I shook my head. I wasn't about to sit with her in this state, or this house.

"Celebrating what?"

Seohyun smiled at me. "Well... I'm going to Shanghai tomorrow."

I felt my stomach drop. "Wh-what?"

"And Mom's leaving the day after."

The day after? Christmas Eve?

"Where is she?"

"In her room."

But first, I went to Jihoo's room and closed the door.

"Noona... what's going on?" Jihoo asked as I sat him on his bed.

"You're going to Jin's house. Pack your games and toys, I got your clothes."

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