Noises from downstairs echoed up to where Jonghyun was sleeping. The loud clatter of pots and pans and what sounded suspiciously like a broken glass could be heard, slightly muffled over the distance, along with indistinct female voices. Jonghyun rolled over in his bed and groaned when his arm fell off the edge, pulling at his shoulder and flopping awkwardly against the carpet. Pulling the offending limb back and shifting deeper under the covers Jonghyun’s nose was assaulted with the smell of a washing powder that he hadn’t used in years. Not caring about the now unfamiliar scent and just wanting to sleep a little more, the boy shifted down the bed and settled down comfortably.

The blue-haired man was staying at his parents’ house for a few days over Christmas. His mother had insisted, as she always did. Every year, a week before Christmas, Jonghyun would receive a call from his mother. Calls from his mother were not unusual, she called him every few weeks for a catch up. But this call, the Christmas call, was always a little different. She would start the call with casual small talk and general inquiries about his health. However, there was this hint in her voice, this sign she was going to say something important soon. Then, she would start talking about their family’s plans, extended family Jonghyun hadn’t spoken to in many, many years. Finally, she would begin asking about his plans. Each question was pointed and usually phrased in such a pointed way that Jonghyun knew he had no choice but to head to the family home. Not that his plans were ever anything but heading to the family home anyway, but he liked to make a token protest; it kept his mother on her toes.

Five minutes later and Jonghyun had given up on sleeping. The noise from downstairs was only getting louder and he knew his mother wouldn’t let him spend much more of the holiday in bed, anyway. The composer pulled himself out of his cocoon, shivering as the cold air hit his bare skin. Rubbing him arms to warm them up, Jonghyun shuffled towards his bag and extracted a set of clothes for the day. He didn’t bother to wear anything fancy, just throwing on a loose pair of pants and a sweater. Dressing up wasn’t necessary when the only people in the house would be direct family members who had seen him through all of his awkward teenage years. It was safe to say, they had seen him wearing worse.

Once he made it downstairs, after a quick trip to the bathroom, Jonghyun went on a hunt for his family members. It wasn’t too difficult to find them, the family Christmas routine didn’t vary much from year to year and, even if it did, his mother and sister were making enough noise that he could pinpoint their location from anywhere in the house.

The kitchen appeared to be a disaster zone. Neither of the female Kims were stellar when it came to cooking and that was incredibly obvious as he cautiously entered the room. He would have offered to help, at least with the clean-up, but his sister’s glare warned him away before he could even open his mouth.

Retreating to the living room, Jonghyun took a seat on the sofa. His father, looking up from his book, made eye contact and raised his eyebrows, gesturing towards the kitchen. The blue-haired boy chuckled and shrugged, not quite sure what was going on in there either. He was actually quite impressed that his mother had managed to get Sodam involved. The girl was usually very good at avoiding such domestic tasks. Christmas was a special occasion, he supposed.

Seeing his father wasn’t going to strike up a conversation any time soon – the man having turned back to his crossword already – Jonghyun pulled out his phone and decided to pass the time before lunch by reading the news.

Two hours later and Jonghyun could no longer claim he was reading the news. He was instead playing some sort of racing game that Jiwoong had told him to download the previous week. It was pretty fun, he supposed; he’d still not managed to get first place in any of the races, however. When his mother called, informing him and his father, who was still working on his crossword, that lunch was ready, Jonghyun was up in a flash, the phone left discarded on the sofa as he headed to the dining room table to take his seat.

He supposed some people would find their Christmas routine a little strange. They always started their days late, whenever they crawled out of bed really, then ate a late lunch – it was currently almost 3pm. This was then followed by a day of family bonding and relaxed activities, usually board games or conversation.

It hadn’t always been that way, when he and Sodam were younger, Jonghyun distinctly remembered dragging his unwilling parents out of bed at ungodly hours of the morning to open presents and eat Christmas treats. Now that the two Kim children were older, that no longer happened and a much more sedate routine was created. Although, if you spoke to Jonghyun’s mother, she would disapprove with that sentiment immensely and claim it was the most stressful day in her calendar. The woman complained every single year that the males of the house refused to help her cook, yet, whenever they entered the kitchen or offered to help, she would shoo them away. Jonghyun found it particularly amusing because he knew Sodam would give anything to be shoo’d out too. However, as the only daughter of the family, she was forever relegated to the role of chef’s assistant.

The same could be said this year too, as Jonghyun walked into the room, the girl was grumpily laying out cutlery on the Christmas patterned table cloth, a pout on her lips. Jonghyun’s mother was busily placing the turkey and all the ts into the centre of the small table, having to shift a few things around in order to get everything to fit. That task done, the woman stood up and dusted off her hands.

“Take a seat,” She said, though it was more of an order than a request. Her family all rushed to comply, taking their usual seats at the kitchen table, as the woman removed her apron and retrieved the carving tools.

The room was mostly silent for a while, as everyone got themselves situated and served themselves a portion of food each. However, after they had all made a bit of headway into their meal, the conversations started to flow easily. With Jonghyun having moved out and Sodam being out of the house more often than not, the family rarely got together like this to eat, so there was a lot to catch up on.

“When will you find yourself a nice boy?” The sibling’s mother asked Sodam.

The conversation had quite quickly moved into uncomfortable territory for the younger Kim. The girl was very unwilling to talk about her dating life with her parents. Her father was acting completely uninterested by the question, however Jonghyun noticed a slight tightening of his grip on his chopsticks as the conversation topic changed. The man was likely thinking of Sodam’s most recent ex-boyfriend who, by all accounts, had not been nice when he broke up with the girl. She had tried to hide it, from everyone really, but anyone who knew the girl well could guess what had happened. It was a good thing Sodam was so strong, or Jonghyun would have had to break some skulls, and he wasn’t particularly confident in his abilities to do so. At least he would have the support of his father in that endeavour. The man was not the most intimidatingly built but he could yell like the best of them and was damn scary when he did so.

Sodam shifted uncomfortably, poking the food on her plate with a chopstick. “I’m focusing on my studies right now.”

“A young, attractive girl like you should get out there more. Studying is good but you should go meet people and have a social life.” Her mother tutted, daintily placing a small portion of meat into .

“It’s not like I’m a hermit!” The girl protested, looking cowed when her father gave her a sharp look for her angry tone, “I’m just taking some time off from the dating scene after...”

Seeing his sister needed a little help, Jonghyun chimed in quickly, “I heard from Eunji that our Sodam has her eyes on someone at the moment.”

Just because he was saving his sister from a potentially painful line of questioning didn’t mean he couldn’t lead the conversation in a direction that would prolong his amusement at the girl’s expense. The girl clearly knew what he was doing too, if the glare she shot in his direction was any indication. Although, the faint blush on her cheeks hinted that he wasn’t just making his statement up. Eunji had, in fact, told him about the girl’s recent fixation on a boy, though she hadn’t said where from. Jonghyun had speculated, of course, and had determined that it was most likely to be that boy from her English class who had recently worked on a project with his sister. The girl had been most complimentary of him after that experience; an unusual thing when one considered the way group projects usually went.
 

“Well why didn’t you say so, dear?” Their mother asked. “I’m sure he’s a very upstanding gentleman. Now, Jonghyun, what about you, any nice...” The woman hesitated, still a little uncomfortable with her son’s uality, “men in your life?”

Jonghyun appreciated the woman’s effort. She wasn’t someone who had ever considered homouality seriously before and, although she couldn’t be described as homophobic, she was definitely uncomfortable with the idea. This mostly stemmed from her lack of understanding, Korea wasn’t the most accepting nation, after all, so her exposure to gay men and woman was more limited than it may have been. However, she was trying really hard to present a supportive front even if it came across a little awkward at times. She had been fantastic when he and Onew were together and had tried her utmost to understand and be accepting. That didn’t mean she didn’t feel awkward about the whole thing, however. Especially now that Jonghyun and Onew were… no longer together.

Jonghyun’s father also accepted his son’s preferences, in his own way. However, he had a total lack of interest in his children's dating life (bar his protective instincts against any abuse they may suffer) and therefore, the topic did not often come up in conversation with the man.

Jonghyun looked down at his plate, now mostly empty, and shrugged lightly, “Not at the moment.”

It hurt him to say so but it was true. He felt Sodam place a hand on his knee in comfort and looked up to meet his sister’s eyes, smiling slightly. He tried to convey that he was ok through his expression and, judging by the look of relief on the girl’s face, he had managed to do so. The girl had initially been walking on eggshells around him after his break up and tried to cheer him up on multiple occasions. It was only recently she had stopped periodically checking on Jonghyun’s mental state and he considered this to be good progress. The girl may put up a rough and strong front but she was really just a bleeding heart who didn’t want anyone around her to be upset or hurt.

“That’s a shame,” The woman said, totally unaware of the reactions of her two children to her question.  “Maybe if you didn’t insist on having such obnoxious hair colours you might attract a better man.”

Jonghyun flinched slightly. He knew his mother wasn’t being deliberately mean and she was just a little old-school and obtuse when it came to others’ feelings. However, it still stung a little. She had never approved of his more out there hair colours – the blow up when he first dyed his hair blonde had been impressive – so that insult was almost expected. It was doubly expected this visit as the woman had not seen his blue hair yet and it was definitely his most unnatural colour so far. However, the snide insult that the woman probably hadn’t intended was painful; the idea that Onew wasn’t a good man and that Jonghyun could somehow do better. It wasn’t even an insult against Jonghyun himself and he still felt a sting from it. The singer was the best man anyone could hope for.

Jonghyun’s father was much more aware, his sharp eyes watching the two closely as he grabbed the kimchi from the centre of the table and served himself some. The man clearly sensed this was a sensitive topic for both his children, Jonghyun more than Sodam and there was clearly some recent history there. He would let the two be, they were old enough to work it out for themselves, after all.

“How is your job going, Jjong?” The man asked, after he had finished chewing his current mouthful of the spicy cabbage. His wife had really outdone herself this year, the meal and all the side dishes were especially delicious.

“Good,” Jonghyun said, perking up. He hadn’t seen his parents properly in months so they might not be aware of his latest accomplishments. “Did you hear my latest song got released? It even got performed on music shows and stuff.”

“I did.” The man said. “Because of you, I know far more about those damn idol types than I ever want to.”

“He reads all those kpop news sites in the hopes he’ll spot your name.” Sodam stage whispered behind her hand to her brother, causing the blue haired male to snort in laughter. This drew a look of derision from his mother, although the disapproving effect was ruined a little when the woman too laughed.

“It’s a little bit cute how often he checks,” The older woman said, blotting her lips with a napkin to clean the area where she had spilt some sauce.

The man in question spluttered a little before coughing and acting like nothing had been said. “It was very impressive. You’re very skilled, Jonghyun.”

Jonghyun grinned at his father, feeling pride and warmth surge through him. His father’s opinion of composition had changed around the time Jonghyun had been hired at SM Entertainment and he had tried to make up for his constant belittling of the profession since that moment. However, Jonghyun still found himself feeling a great rush of happiness every time these little compliments left his father’s lips.

“He is.” Sodam agreed. “Everyone thinks so. Even some people in really high up places.”

Jonghyun looked up in askance, he wasn’t aware his sister knew anyone in high up places in the Entertainment world. The girl just played coy and stuck her tongue out at him, ignoring her mother’s little cough at her lack of decorum.

“What’s next for you then?” His father asked.

“I’m not sure, I haven’t been given my new assignment yet. I was doing some editing work before Christmas and working on song rearrangements for special stages and things like that. I guess I’ll be given a bigger job after the Christmas break,” The blue haired male shrugged.

“Oh, I know you will.” Sodam chuckled, drawing strange looks from everyone at the table.

“What?”

Sodam merely waved off her brother and turned to her mother, smiling, “Shall we get the men to clear the table? Since we spent so long slaving away at the hot stove and all.”

Mrs. Kim chuckled and stood from her seat, gesturing for Sodam to do the same, “That sounds like a fine idea. We can go gather all the gifts ready to exchange whilst they do that.”

“Perfect,” Sodam grinned, standing up from her seat and following her mother out of the kitchen. However, she did take the time to turn and blow a mocking kiss at her brother and father, “Have fun!”

Jonghyun and his father made eye contact from their still seated positions and merely shrugged, not quite sure what had just happened. The two women had left the room quicker than the two had seen them move in a while.

“I guess we’re clearing the table then,” Jonghyun said, already gathering the plates. He didn’t mind, honestly. Sodam was right, she and their mother had cooked the meal, so it was only fair.

“I guess so,” His father agreed, standing up and collecting the glasses.  “Let’s get this done then we can exchange gifts.”

“Yep,” Jonghyun agreed, ready to get to the more exciting parts of the day. “Hey, bet I can wash faster than you can dry.”

His father let out an uncharacteristically playful laugh and grabbed the tea towel, standing ready at the draining rack, “You’re on.”

 

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CHAPTER NOTES: There’s been so much focus on Jonghyun’s professional and social life recently, I felt this fic needed a little family bonding. This chapter really messed with the timeline because it’s set on such a specific date. My beta/sister got mad at me for that because she was the one who had to make all the dates make sense. Oops.