20 days until Christmas

  The next few days work was easy, Nichkhun did his daily routine, saw the same people, and tried his best to spread Christmas spirit. Jessica wouldn't admit it, but he was really helping her mall with this idea. The fanbase around Nichkhun was so large that not only did they pay every day to sit on his lap and take a picture, they spent their money around the shopping stores as well.

 Everyone was winning, and it felt like nothing could go wrong.

 "We've improved so much Changmin," Jessica had explained to her boyfriend as they strolled around the mall. "We're already up 30%, but I feel like we can go higher."

 "You're doing fine." he replied, trying his best to soothe her competiveness down.

 "What about the other malls? Don't they have like a petting zoo and those two teen stars?"

 Changmin stopped in his tracks, adjusted Jessica's body to face him and looked into her eyes. "Calm down." he said, emphasizing the two syllables. "There was some animal that came loose in the petting zoo and the two teen stars bailed the moment they got offered a Christmas Worldwide tour."

 "But -"

 "You're doing fine." he repeated. "But Santa needs to hurry it up,"

 Jessica cocked her head to the side in confusion. "What do you mean?"

 "Judging by the line the last customer will be in at about 7:50," he stated, looking over the long line of excited women. "And what time does the mall close?"

 "8 ..." Jessica said. "And that means that people aren't spending their money at the mall because they spent too much time with Santa."

 "Which results into you not going the best of these customers spending their time."

 Jessica nodded as she kissed Changmin on the cheek. "I'll fix it," she took a deep sigh and smiled. She tried her best to be comfortable whenever she had time with Changmin but the competition and his tips were really forcing her to try harder.

 Besides, when she becomes VP, she'll have all the time she wants with Changmin.

 "Nichkhun!" Jessica called from behind the stage. Santa, who was busy taking photos and what not, leaned over to see Jessica wave him over with her hand. Khun rolled his eyes as he pardoned himself from the next girl and walked towards his boss.

 "What?"

 "Speed it up,"

 "Why?"

 "The less time they have with you, the more time they have to shop." Jessica explained. "Remember you're not only working for yourself, you're working for the whole I'Park Mall."

 Khun groaned, "But I can't speed up being Santa."

 "Find a way," Jessica demanded, pushing Khun back towards his chair. "20 seconds per customer!"

 Nichkhun simply lifted his hand against Jessica, signaling her off. He got back on his seat and the next customer came by. It was a cute little girl with a broken arm.

 "Hi Santa!" she greeted as she jumped onto his lap.

 "Hey," he said back. He looked over to Jessica who was pointing her finger at her watch, mouthing her last words to him. "Now tell Santa why you broke your arm, he has all the time in the world."

 Of course he was going to do that because it aggravated Jessica. After a five minute story about how the girl fell off her bike and broke her forearm Khun dismissed her.

 "What was that?" she asked in anger. Nichkhun grinned, it was funny to see her angry. It made him feel like he wasn't the most miserable person in the world.

 "I'm Santa, I'm supposed to spread Christmas joy." he retorted. "Why don't you try to get into the spirit?"

 Jessica rolled her eyes. "It's just another day,"

 And before the two could even engage in a fun argument she had left. Hyoyeon came up to Nichkhun and tried her best to be reasonable about her best friend's behavior.

 "How can someone so into the holiday season hate it so much?"

 Hyoyeon patted Khun's shoulder in comfort. He didn't know what Jessica's really been through, and his background wasn't exactly like hers either. "It's like you said in the finals, Christmas is about family, and Jess never had that kind of experience with hers."

 This made Khun wonder, maybe her family was worse than his. It's been different since their mom left, but at least they've been together forever. He looked back at Jessica who was on her walkie talkie, giving more orders.

 He never thought about what made her so hasty and haggy, maybe he should at least try to be nice to her.

 "Hurry it up," Jessica whispered, clenching her teeth to show the line of girls a friendly (forced) smile.

 "I'm trying my best!" Khun whispered back, propping another child onto his lap and posing for a picture. He greeted Merry Christmas and put her down to retreat back to her mother. He was actually allowing twenty seconds per customer, and it did save the time for an awkward conversation with girls much younger than him.

 Lee Soo Man crept up behind the two and surprised Jessica, causing her to squeal. Nichkhun managed to grab onto her from falling on him and Jessica quickly stood up straight, trying her best to fix her dress.

 "Mr. Lee!" Jessica said with pleasure. "What are you doing here?"

 Lee Soo Man looked around the mall and was surprised with the number of shoppers in line and around the higher floors. "Impressive." he remarked. "Just like Changmin said, I just had to see it for myself."

 "It's all because of our Santa Claus!" Jessica stated, hitting Khun to introduce herself.

 "Nichkhun Horvejkul," he said, shaking his boss's hand.

 "Lee Soo Man," the CEO replied. "Seems like you've drawn yourself quite a crowd."

 Nichkhun chuckled as he gave a bright smile to Soo Man. "I try my best. Especially giving 20 seconds per customer so they can spend money at your mall,"

 Soo Man laughed along with Khun, he seemed like a loveable man. No wonder the girls were infatuated with him. "Make this guy happy Jess," Soo Man advised. "We wouldn't want him to leave us in such short notice."

 Jessica sighed, not only did all these women love him, now her boss did too? She quickly corrected her action, realizing how unprofessional her sigh was, and changed it to a cough to adjust her voice. "I'll try my best sir."

 "Nice meeting you by the way Nichkhun," Lee Soo Man continued. He turned to Jessica and motioned her outside, she nodded as they walked outside.

 Nichkhun went back to his beloved throne and called up the next girl, who ran up and jumped on him to give a quick kiss on the lips.

 "Jessica, I'm afraid I'm going to have to break some bad news to you." Soo Man addressed, the moment they got outside of the mall. Jessica was shocked, she didn't want any bad news, it was too early for it.

 She gulped. "Yes?"

 "Judging by your income this mall will close by the end of the year." Jessica's eyes grew big, not I'Park, not her mall.

 "But sir," Jessica tried her best to convince. "We've increased our sales by over 30%!"

 "However overall income you're just second to last." Lee Soo Man quipped. "The only way this mall will stay up and running will be if you guys manage to snag first place."

 It was a challenge. A challenge on top of another challenge. It was overwhelming, she had too many things on her plate, and now the one thing that can possibly lose her (and many others) jobs?

 "Over 90 people's lives depend on this mall." she tried to explain. "How are you going to find new jobs for all these people?"

 The CEO chuckled, it was a silly question in his opinion. "It's simple." he stated. "Just get first, and you won't even need to worry about it."

 It was simple. As long as Khun kept doing what he was doing, they were going to be number one in no time. They had over two weeks anyways, so they can just make up for lost ground. Jessica was going to have to work twice as much as before in order to achieve this.

 "But you can't tell anyone," Soo Man warned her.

 She nodded, it was sacred information anyways. Maybe she can actually save people's financial lives. It wasn't only about her, it was about them.

 And that made her want to be number one more than before.