I was contemplating on choosing between the two items in my hands; the newest model of headphone that the salesgirl recommended to me and an album which contained popular RnB songs over the years. Since I know how much Junhwe loves music and also singing, I also wanted to buy him a microphone just for a joke or something but thinking that it’s Christmas, I need to give him real gifts.

My eyebrows furrowed as I tried to choose between the two gifts to give to him; noticing that the salesgirl looked bored as heck while waiting for me to choose. So, I decided to ask her opinion.

“Excuse me, but which one do you think is more suitable to give to a high schooler?” I asked the salesgirl, making her startled a bit from her little daydream just then before she politely smiled at me and answered, “For a high schooler, I think the headphone is nice. Does the person like to listen to music a lot?” to which I nodded as an answer.

After thinking about it a few seconds, I decided to give him the headphone since it’s more suitable for him and it looks a lot cooler than to give him a mere album. After I made my purchase and asked the salesgirl to wrap it up prettily, I walked out of the store while holding the paper bag containing the gift on my left hand with my phone on my right.

I tapped the camera icon and raised the paper bag until it reaches the side of my face before smiling widely; capturing the picture. Then, I sent it to my friends’ group chat along with the caption, ‘I’ve bought my gift!’ since all of them had posted their proof shots of buying the gifts and all; I was the last one to do it among my friends.

I peeked inside the paper bag and felt the excitement building up in my stomach; I could imagine his smile as he gets the gift, making me smile as well as I walked towards my car.

I can’t wait for tomorrow.

*********************************

    At the morning of 25^th December, I was woken up by a phone call from Taehyung, asking me to meet him at the playground a few blocks away from my house since he said that he had something important to tell me. I agreed to meet him right away despite the cold weather since he sounded so desperate on the phone earlier.

Maybe I could just bring Junhwe’s gift along with me and leave it outside his house after meeting Taehyung since I’m too lazy to go out again later.

In order to keep myself warm in this ruthless weather, I wore more layers than usual and gave up on being fashionable for once.

“Noona, where are you going?” Chanwoo questioned just as I passed by him in the living room.

“To meet Taehyung, he said he has something important to tell me,” I answered as I wore my shoes; not even looking at him.

He quieted down for a second before I heard him saying “I guess that’s his present…” more to himself than to anyone in the room, which made me curious as to what that meant.

Maybe I’ll get the answer when I meet him later, I told myself as I waved goodbye to Chanwoo and exited my house; walking towards my car. Putting the paper bag on the passenger seat, I started the engine and headed to the playground.

When I arrived at the playground and parked my car, I saw Taehyung sitting at the bench; all bundled up. With a smile, I walked slowly behind him as I tried to not make a sound. Before I could even scare him, he suddenly turned behind to look at me and my initial thought of scaring him vanished once I looked at his face.

He looked… miserable.

That’s the only way I could think of to describe him. He looked different than the Kim Taehyung that I met just a few days ago; he had eye bags under his eyes, his usual smiley expression was gone and is now replaced with a deep frown.

When he realized that it was me, he began to smile but it still felt different. This isn’t the Kim Taehyung I’ve known. He smiled, yet it wasn’t as bright as it always was. It seemed like he was forcing his smile.

“Taehyung… why—” My words were cut off when he stood up and faced me while taking his breath.

I blinked in confusion; what was he actually trying to tell me? Just then, he suddenly spoke up.

“First off, I want to tell you that I’m your Secret Santa,” He began as he took a deep breath after. “And here’s my gift for you,” Continuing his words, he pulled me into a tight hug which surprised me. I didn’t know what to say in this situation so it’s better to just stay quiet and wait for what he want to say next while hugging him back.

The words he said next made my heart dropped in shock.

“I’m breaking up with you, Jung Yeoreum.”

My eyes widened in shock as I pushed him away from the hug and held both of his arms to his sides, looking at him straight in the eyes.

“What the hell do you mean? I was the one who got you into this, it should be me who break this off,” I snapped; I didn’t see this coming on a Christmas morning of all days, besides, it should’ve been me who cut off this whatever fake relationship we had between us, not him.

He only smiled sadly at my words before he turned down my hands that were holding his arms in place and cupped my face with both of his hands; the sadness evident in his eyes began to seep in deep within me.

“I know you’re just holding on to whatever this is we’re having because you can’t find a way to break it off, don’t you?” His question made me feel the guilt that I have hidden inside me all this while regarding this matter.

I blinked a few times to avoid tears from welling inside my eyes, but it fell instead.

“I… I didn’t mean to… hurt you—” I can’t continue my words; I was already crying from the guilt that began to eat me alive at this exact moment. I felt him enveloping me into a tight hug as he my back to calm me down. Instead of comforting me, the end up making me cried harder.

“I know, Yeoreum, I know. I was the one who was willing to get myself into this mess, I didn’t realize that you already had your eyes on someone else,” He said to me; I could hear the sadness evident in his voice.

I pulled out from the hug and looked up at him with the tears still running down my cheeks; he was smiling yet I could see the sadness in his eyes. There wasn’t just sadness, I also saw hurt. That sight made me felt even guiltier and even mad at myself because by now, he wasn’t only just one of my classmates; he is now a friend to me. I don’t want to lose him as a friend yet I know that we can’t possibly be like we used to be before this… breakup.

I am being selfish.

“Even if we can’t be like what we used to before, I hope we won’t turn awkward around each other since we’ll be seeing each other for another 2 years,” Taehyung tried to joke a bit to lighten up the current situation. His words actually made me stopped crying and smiled a bit.

He smiled when he saw me smiling at his words earlier before cupping my cheeks and kissed me on the forehead.

“In case you’re still oblivious, I’m your Secret Santa and I decided to let you go as a present,” He said once he pulled away from the kiss and smiled at me before he continued, “Now that I’ve let you go, please stop denying your feelings towards Junhwe. I want to see you happy, Yeoreum.”

That made me wrapped my arms around his torso and gave him a hug. Was it a hug out of thankfulness or that I don’t want to let him go just yet; I’m not even sure.

After a few moments, he pulled out from the hug and smiled at me before saying, “Don’t feel guilty over this, I was the one who willingly do this. Before I go and I will never have the chance to say this, I want to tell you this.”

I waited for what he was about to say, looking up at him expectantly.

“I love you, Jung Yeoreum,” He began before he continued with a little laugh, “This will be the first and the last time I’ve ever say this but I feel relieved to finally let that out!”

He then continued to laugh a bit, before saying that he had to go somewhere after this.

“Goodbye, Yeoreum,” He said for the last time as he waved at me; heading towards his car with a smile. I would be lying if I say that I didn’t notice the bitterness in his smile because it was apparent the whole time. Even when he said goodbye, his voice trembled; as if he wanted to stay strong in front of me, as if he didn’t want to break down in front of me.

Ah, suddenly I feel like I want to just go home and eat the whole pint of ice cream I had in the fridge back home. I feel sad.

**********************************

    When I finished the whole pint of Chocolate Mint ice cream while binge-watching a drama called ‘Monster’, it was already night time. It wasn’t only after Yunhyeong and Jiwon walked inside my house when I remembered that today is Christmas. After what happened this morning, I don’t even feel like celebrating it any longer.

“Yo, have you given your present?” Jiwon greeted me on the couch as he put his arms around my shoulders. I blinked at his question as an empty response; I was blanked out for a moment. That was when I realized that I still haven’t given Junhwe his present yet!

I stood up abruptly from my seat; leaving the empty ice cream pint on the couch and startling Jiwon for a second before he caught on the situation.

“You could just give up on the whole ‘I’m-not-his-secret-Santa’ act and just give him the present right away, you know. It’s 5 hours until 12 a.m.” Jiwon said to me with his bunny smile, before joining Yunhyeong who was cooking with my mom in the kitchen.

Yunhyeong and his love for cooking really made my mom like him.

I rushed towards the door after half-screaming to my mom that “I’ll be out for a while!” and wore the pair of slippers that were at the front door, heading towards my car. Luckily, I didn’t take the paper bag out of the car this morning so it was still there.

As I drove to his house, my thoughts kept screaming at myself for my forgetfulness. How can I even forget that I was supposed to give him his present for today? Oh well, I guess it’s because of what happened this morning.

Wait, I can reveal that I’m his Secret Santa, right?

The question popped into my head just when I pulled over in front of his house, before deciding that it’s not important and I should just give him his gift. He must have been waiting all day for his gift; I feel so guilty.

I walked out from the car and the coldness instantly enveloped my whole body; making me shivers. That was when I realized that I only wore my pajamas when I walked out of my house earlier and my hair was still at its messy state; luckily I tied my hair up in a messy bun so I think I looked a bit tolerable. Heck, I didn’t even wear any makeup but since my bare face doesn’t have any difference than when I wear makeup, I think he wouldn’t even notice.

When I reached his front door, I rang the bell hesitantly as I suddenly felt jittery; the paper bag was held tightly in my hands.

The door opened and it revealed Junhwe himself; wearing his pajamas -which had the same pattern and color as mine. He looked surprised at my sudden appearance at his house, during night at that.

“Uhm, I’m here because I want to give you your present. I’m your Secret Santa,” I began before he even gets to ask why I was there; I could feel my heart beating rapidly just by seeing his face alone. Oh my God, I need to calm down. I couldn’t even look at him straight in the face while I said that, I only looked at him for a second before looking down at my feet after.

I heard him chuckle before I heard him saying, “I’ve been waiting for my Secret Santa, it turned out to be you. Now I can’t wait to see my present.”

“Yeoreum-noona, look at me,” He suddenly said next after a few moments of silence. I looked up to see his face while blinking nervously; I can’t take my eyes off him now that I look at him. The only thing that bothered me was how his smile affect me so much; I felt my insides fluttered when I saw him smiling.

In an attempt to ease the butterflies in my stomach, I raised my arms and handed the paper bag containing his gift with two hands; averting my eyes to his chest.

“Uh, t-this is your p-present,” I stuttered while my eyes were still looking at his chest instead of his face.

The weather was cold but I could feel my body heats up in embarrassment; I’m positive that my face is now as red as a tomato.

Instead of taking the paper bag, he took my arm and pulled me into a hug; resting his chin on top of my head. “Yeoreum-noona, do you know how long I’ve been waiting for this?” He said as he tightened his embrace on me.

I knew that he didn’t mean the gift; he meant something else. But I still wanted to ask.

“It’s just a simple gift; you don’t need to expect it so—” “You know I didn’t mean the gift, right?” His words made me froze in his embrace; looks like my plan of acting dumb isn’t working.

Why is he being so manly tonight anyway?

He finally pulled out of the hug -which made me feel a little sad before he held my shoulders and looked into my eyes; trying to search for something. Before I could even ask what he wanted to do, he suddenly cupped my cheeks in his large hands as he my cheeks with his thumb affectionately.

Dear Lord, I feel like my heart will jump out of my chest with that mere action.

“You are so cold, Yeoreum-noona. Let me warm you up a little bit,” He cooed with a smirk before I felt his lips on mine. Before I could even react, he suddenly pulled away and stared at me fondly.

“Merry Christmas, Yeoreum-noona.”

I could say that my soul actually went to heaven just then.

A/N: YOOOOO HERE'S THE BREAKUP + CHEESY SCENE Y'ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!!! I just watched BTS's 'Fire' and I think I'm changing my bias (again) to Yoongi because his voice is so y I can't ;;;; okay, I should stop talking about BTS now LOLOL 

So, this story will end in about 4-5 chapters, I'm not really sure but I will finish this story before my finals in June (no I did not make June reference LOL) T_T. I actually feel sad to end this story since I will miss you guys~ your comments actually made my day and I always look forward to see your comments every time I update a new chapter <3 I love you guys! And for the silent readers, I know all of you actually read this story and I also love you guys, it's cute seeing the view counts went up after a chapter update haha <3 <3

Until then, see you guys next week!

Expected update: 9/5/2016