yein x jin | 1443 words

sorry for posting this after Christmas.. what is punctuality again? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

          Jung Yein loves office Christmas party for all the free food. She hates it for all the unnecessary socializing with people outside her department which, based on experience, always turned out to be hella awkward.

          After official announcement that they are going to exchange presents with someone chosen randomly by raffle as well during the party, Yein scrolls absent-mindedly through Amazon looking for a cheap gift. The problem is, she has literally zero idea of who is this Park Myungeun appointed to be the one who will receive her present except that this.. Girl? Guy? - Yein cannot even tell if Myungeun is a male or female, screw Korean ambiguous naming system - is from the customer service department. And in the entirety of her first year working in this place, Yein had visited the customer service floor a total of three times only, mostly to fix the air conditioning system.

          "Why don't you just ask around?" Soojung suggests. "There got to be someone who knows Park Myungeun the customer service in here."

          "Eh, sounds like too much work."

          They are working in head office of Korea's biggest mobile operator company which has hundreds of employees, out of those hundreds, Yein only knows two Soojungs - one is Lee and the other is Ryu - and one Jiae.

          Oh man, so she got only three friends, her life is miserable.

          Anyway, the point is... Yein really doesn't want to go through all the trouble finding and stalking a single person out of those hundreds only for silly secret santa. Just pick out a nice, gender-neutral stuffs would work, right? And the party is still a week away, there's still lots of time to think over this later.

*****

          Except, Yein totally forgot about the Christmas gift hunting. Work has been so hectic, more than usual, it's like there's a conspiracy to kill everyone from maintenance department going on and the whole building are purposefully breaking something in their room. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, she always clocked off with 0.05% energy left and went to sleep immediately after getting home.

          So Thursday morning, one and half day before the party, Yein is having a panic attack.

          Ditching the event suddenly sounds like good idea, but when else she could eat fancy meals and liquors for free? (Her boss is avid fan of refined cuisine and also doing restaurant business so it's fully guaranteed great foods are gonna be served. Bless him for being so generous.)

          She once again browses internet to find a decent present, and since she's been thinking about food, a strip of bacon scarf catches Yein's attention. It's on winter clearance sale so the price is very low, it's hilarious - in either good or bad way depending on how much you love bacon, but seriously, what kind of human doesn't love bacon???

          Okay, well, there's 50-50 chance the gift actually lands on some diet-freak, barbie girl who counts the calories of each food they consume, but then again, Yein absolutely dislikes that type of people, so... Whatever. She checks out and proceeds with payment, not forgetting to request the fastest shipping service and the scarf to comes gift-wrapped.

*****

          Comes Friday evening, and the Christmas party begins. It is being held in the building's roof terrace, despite chilly weather, the view is amazing. Yein and her three nerd friends are basically hogging a table farthest from the stage; first is to avoid getting dragged to participate in whatever stupid games the MCs ask people to do, second is because all they've been doing is only munching down pile of food.

          The gift exchange session happens as intermission in between games and various entertainment, and so far Yein is the last one out of the four who hasn't hand out nor receive her gift. Jiae is the luckiest because she got a very nice sweater from Kim Jiyeon, one of the manager in the company. Lee Soojung got an Iron Man action figure she would definitely pass to her nephew from a legal staff, Seo Jisoo. Ryu Sujeong got a capo from the company's receptionist, Lee Mijoo, who suspiciously had stalked her on social media because how else that woman found out that Sujeong can play guitar right?

          Though she initially wasn't interested at all, Yein somehow feels her heart slightly racing as she watches her friends joking around with their presents. It's also kind of weird because up until now most people have already gotten their turn, yet her name hasn't been called out at all.

          Out of the blue, the MC announces rather dramatically, "Tonight, we have a slightly surprising coincidence! Or I'd like to say it's perhaps... Fate."

          "As you all know, secret santa is being assigned 100% randomly, no collusion whatsoever going on I assure... Yet these two people managed to pick each other's name from the lottery and became mutual secret santa! Wonderful, don't you think?" He does incredulous wink. Collective murmur of excitement washes over the crowd. "Park Myungeun from customer support department and Jung Yein from maintenance department, please come up over here!"

          "Huh?" is the only thing comes stumbling off Yein's mouth as her friends burst into peals of laughter and shove her out of the chair.

          Yein staggers through throng of fellow employees clutching the gift she's prepared tightly against her chest, face heating up and very much aware of everyone swiveling their heads towards her direction. , , tt she should've really just ditched this ty party. Is this how god punishing her for being glutton?!

          Park Myungeun reached the stage a moment earlier than Yein, looking as wildly shocked yet still trying to be friendly by waving her hand and saying hello first. Her voice is.. Is gorgeous? It's clear, somewhat soothing to hear, oh no wonder she became customer service staff. She doesn't appear like any of others female employees here who are all about giggling and gossiping, and honestly Yein wants to scream how the she never know this girl exists?

          However—

          The MC is now instructing them to hand each other the gifts and unwrap them.

          Yein wants to jump off the rooftop.

          Park Myungeun cannot see her ugly, super random, unlady-like gift.

          But it's too late, now that the present has been taken away a bit forcefully by another MC standing next to her and she's been tossed Park Myungeun's box... It's a pretty carton box. Blue green just as Yein's favourite colour, tied with ribbon. Park Myungeun totally did her best effort for this event, meanwhile Yein—

          Ugh, her present is enclosed in absurd pooping-moose patterned wrapping paper. Thank you, ing eBay.

          Yein fumbles with the ribbon, intentionally taking longer time to untie the box just to distract herself from watching Park Myungeun's expression when the girl finds the bacon scarf.

          She hears a gasp.

          Uh oh.

          But—

          "Oh my god."

          The box' lid falls to the floor. Revealing an equally horrible pizza scarf.

          They both look up from their respective present and stare into each other's eyes. The crowds explode into teasing hoots and hollers.

          "Thank you." Yein hears Park Myungeun whispers. "I really love bacon."

          Deep blushes tint their faces.

          "Yes. And pizza is also great."

*****

five Christmases later.......

          Once they step into the wedding reception room, very delicious smells of freshly baked pizza immediately assaulting their sense.

          "Look! There are Sujeong and Mijoo!"

          They both turn towards the source of voices calling out their name, and not even a second, two brides come half-running as fast as their white gowns allow them and immediately pull Sujeong and Mijoo for hug. Four more girls join in and it turns into big, warm group hug.

          "What took you two so long? Here, have a slice of bacon pizza!" Yein immediately calls a waiter to bring them more pizza.

          "Aww you brought Mimi and Jiho!" Myungeun squeals at the sight of Mijoo and Sujeong's kids tailing behind their mothers. The girls all squat down to marvel at their cuteness. "How old are you two now?"

          "Mimi is five!" The older child announces proudly, holding up five fingers towards her aunties. "And Jiho is four!"

          "Do you like pizza?"

          "Yes!" They yell simultaneously in unbridled excitement while being handed a tiny slice of pizza each.

          "Mommy, Jiho have question!" Mouth still full, Jiho leans over to Mijoo, clutching her mother's blouse with oily hand.

          "Yes, honey?"

          "Why Aunt Yein and Aunt Myungie giving out pizza on their wedding day? Isn't it supposed to be cake?"

          "Oh, sweetheart..." The adults chuckle at Jiho's innocently confused face. "Let us tell you the story of how Aunt Yein and Aunt Myungie met for the first time."

*****

Happy holidays from Jean and Yan!! we hope you have a great time with your loved ones~