A/N: It’s a little early for a Christmas chapter but hey, we can celebrate it anytime we want. Enjoy reading!

Chapter VIII

Merry Christmas!

Its twelve midnight, it’s officially Christmas.

But thanks to Lee Donghae and Choi Siwon, Eun Hye found herself being annoyed more than happy. Those two made everything seem so pointless and it really made her angry. “Eun Hye!” She heard someone call her. She turned around and saw Henry with bags and bags of candies. “Merry Christmas!” He said cheerfully. Eun Hye was relieved that Henry is such a happy little boy and that he’s already moved from the fiasco earlier. She really wished she was more like him.

“Merry Christmas.” She said, trying to be cheerful again.

“Here!” He handed Eun Hye one of the bags of candies. “I couldn’t get a hold of Eunhyuk and Kyuhyun because they left already.” He frowned a little. “I was planning on giving these bags to them as presents.”

Eun Hye smiled. “You can give it to them tomorrow.”

Henry shrugged. “I guess.”

“Thanks for these by the way. I’ll wallow in them when we get home…right after I give Siwon and Donghae a piece of my mind after that stunt they pulled.” She said as she clutched the bag in her hand.

Henry nodded in agreement. “I thought they were a little rude earlier as well. When I looked at Kyuhyun at the theater, he seemed really sad about it.”

“I’m sure he is.” The young woman paused and decided to nitpick inside the bag and found a bar of Mars Chocolate. She took it out and debated on whether or not to eat it. Deciding that she needed a sweet fix, she unwrapped it and took a bite. “It’s actually his favorite play.”

“I’m sure it’ll all blow over soon. I mean, it’s Christmas, so we can all just forgive and forget, right?” Henry said as he looked up in the sky and smiled.

“That’s going to be a little hard.” Eun Hye said.

Henry looked at her and sighed. “Well, you should forgive them.” The young boy decided to change the subject to a much lighter one. “Do you think Santa will bring us any gifts this year?” He asked.

Eun Hye chuckled a little. “You still believe in Santa?”

Henry nodded. “Yes. But not in the real life person, though. I mean, that guy is all ready up there in heaven. What I mean is the Santa inside all of us." He paused befoe looking at Eun Hye with sad eyes. "Do you want to know the gift I wanted to receive from Santa?” He asked.

Eun Hye looked at him, amazed at this young boy’s maturity even though there are times that he acts like a little child. She smiled at him and patted the top of his head. “What did you want to receive?” She asked.

Henry smiled at her. “I wanted to be accepted. To not feel indifference.” He sighed heavily. “I mean, you guys were so welcoming and caring for me when I returned but it’s a different thing with Siwon and Donghae. I mean, I act like it doesn’t bother me that they don’t seem to like me and even though I’m very friendly towards them, they seem to ignore my efforts and just make fun of me, especially Siwon whom I expected to be really nice to me but I'm just like an alien around him.”

Eun Hye looked at Henry and smiled at him. “Don’t worry about them. They don’t know good people when they see one.” Suddenly Henry started yawning. “Are you sleepy?” When her young cousin nodded she offered to give him a piggyback ride which he gladly took. It was a surprise to Eun Hye that Henry is pretty light. She smiled as Henry immediately fell asleep once he was on her back.

Choi Household

“Honey what should we do about Henry?” Mrs. Choi asked her husband. “I mean he is really sweet and I really didn’t expect him to have this kind of disorder.”

Mr. Choi sighed as he cleaned his spectacles. “Look, Hye Jin, we don’t have to tell the kids about Henry having Asperger Syndrome. Henry specifically asked us not to tell them about this. He doesn’t want them to think that autism is a hindrance for him to be close to them.”

“But honey, Siwon treats Henry in a really bad way and I don’t think that it’s a good environment for Henry. Did you even forget why my sister sent her here?” She asked.

“I will never forget about what your sister told us.” He said.

“Little Henry was bullied by his classmates for being socially awkward. Now, he’s masking everything by being loud and happy. I want or children to know that they should be delicate when it comes to handling Henry’s situation, that’s why I think we should tell them.” She said.

Mr. Choi nodded. “Okay. We will talk to Henry first but it’s Christmas and I don’t really want to us to get on each other’s nerves, okay. This is all about helping Henry so we’ll talk to him and then see what happens from there.”

The door opened and Eun Hye entered the house with Henry still sleeping as she was still giving him a piggyback. Mrs. Choi stood up and walked over to Eun Hye. “Merry Christmas, Sweetie…” She whispered to Eun Hye’s ear.

“Merry Christmas Mom and Dad.” She said quietly as her father smiled at his sweet daughter. “I’ll put Henry in his bed and I will head to my room to sleep.”

“Okay…be very careful with him.”

Eun Hye nodded before carefully walking up the stairs. Suddenly, the door opened again and Siwon and Donghae entered both of them seemed a little annoyed. Siwon greeted his parents a merry Christmas while Donghae just smiled at them. The two boys retired to Siwon’s room, without even a peep.

“Must’ve been quite a play, huh?” Mr. Choi said.

That Morning at Cho Kyuhyun’s House

It was snowing outside and Kyuhyun felt indifferent about Christmas for the first time. He guessed that what happened at the theater affected him. It’s really not just about the play. It’s more than that because he actually thought that he and Siwon could have been really good friends—or more than that. But now, he felt so stupid for even thinking for a second that he can be in Siwon’s league. He opened his MAC notebook and decided to just surf the internet for awhile before heading down stairs and celebrating with his family.

As he was busy typing, he noticed a box wrapped in blue gift wrapping paper and a darker shade of blue ribbon. He smiled a little as he walked over there to where the gift was and picked the card that was attached on it.

Merry Christmas Kyuhyun! Love Mom and Dad

He smiled for the first time today as he unboxed the present her received. It was a knitted scarf. He took it out of the box, the color of lilac really suits him well so his mother probably knitted it for him. He suddenly remembered the gifts he bought for his friends and his parents. Upon opening his closet and taking different boxes of gifts he hefted them up on his bed, then he took a look back in the closet and saw a silver box that that has Siwon’s name on it. He bought it last week at the Banana Republic. It’s a pair of grey trousers because Kyuhyun noticed that Siwon lives for either butchered jeans or corduroy shorts. Even after what happened at the theater tomorrow, he still wanted to give Siwon his gift so after eating Christmas breakfast with his parents and giving them their respective gifts, he went for his bike and pedaled to the Choi’s.

Eunyuk’s House

It was eerily quiet. Yep. Normal Christmas day at Lee Eunhyuk’s house. His father was always away since he works at Seoul and only comes back to Busan once a month. And by Eunhyuk’s estimation he’ll be spending Christmas with his mother and his older brother who is going back home for a few weeks, the last time he’d seen his brother was five years ago, when he was twelve since he works in Singapore and rarely even calls.

He walked down the stairs and it was a typical sight, his mother—after cooking breakfast is busy cramming things in her purse as she was frantically trying to get out as fast as she can. “Merry Christmas, mom.” He greeted.

She looked up at her son and flashed an awkward smile. “Yeah, same to you too. Look, I really have to go. You can reheat your breakfast again if it’s not warm enough for you.” She said as she took her car keys from the key hook attached at the wall before leaving without even looking back at her son.

Yep. And here I thought me and my mom can spend Christmas together.

His LG flip phone chimed and he took it out from his pocket. It was from his brother.

“Hey, looks like I won’t be coming home after all. Just tell mom that I’ll send something for you guys this Christmas, okay? – Ji Hyun”

He sighed. This. Is. Really. Great.

Stadium

Lee Donghae was still breathing hard from running along the track and field. He really didn’t want to celebrate Christmas this year. Earlier, he received a text message from his mother greeting him and asking him to come home for the holidays. He’d carefully considered it until he got the cold feet.

He really did want to see his mother on Christmas but he felt like he’ll just wind up saying the wrong thing again and hurt her. It’s better for things to be this way, besides, he’s pretty sure that his mother is probably out and about with her new family. You see, a few weeks before December, he found out that his mom is going out with a business man from Seoul and is planning on taking her with him. It really looked like he would take Donghae with them as well but judging from what his future step father’s words, that is highly unlikely.

November 2006

“You’ll really be taking me and my mo to Seoul?” He asked once he was alone with his future step father. A smile forming in his face. Ever since his father left him and his mom for another woman, it had been an uphill battle.

A chuckle came out of the man’s mouth. “You think you’re coming with us?” He spat. “You have no place in my mansion, I was just being nice to you because your my future wife’s son but I will never be a father to you. You won’t even get a dime from me, understand?”

That’s the reason why Donghae is like this now.

Even though it’s been a month since that incident happened, the way he felt as soon as he heard what the man was saying was still painful. That man is going to take away his mother and he will not have a say in it.

I won’t care anymore…

He felt a pat on his shoulder. He turned around and he saw Yesung smiling at him. “Merry Christmas!” He greeted. Donghae shrugged his hand off of his shoulder and looked at him.

“What is it?”

Yesung pouted. “About our little deal…” he said.

“I’m getting to it. Now’s not really a good time since Eun Hye is still mad at me.” He said.

Yesung nodded and pursed his lips. He stepped forward and grabbed Donghae’s collar. “Listen to me, if you don’t get the job done…I will personally bite your head off. So you’d better start cozying up with her and by Valentine’s day, break her heart into millions of pieces. You got it?”

Donghae pushed Yesung away. “Alright already.”

Choi Household

Siwon, Henry, and Eun Hye were eating breakfast together. The silence in the room is clearly evident. Mr. Choi cleared his throat to get every one’s attention. Henry’s head perked up and smiled at the old man. Whilst the twins just sat there and frowned. “Merry Christmas everyone!” He said.

Henry smiled again. “Merry Christmas!” He cheered. Siwon looked at Henry and patted him on the shoulder. Henry looked at him with a confused expression. Eun Hye, just as confused as Henry was. The older boy stood up and swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat and looked at his family.

“I think I should apologize to everyone for the way I treated you this year.” He paused, as he placed his trembling hands together. He looked at his parents. “Mom, dad, I know that I’d been so disappointing and I can’t blame you for being mad at me. I’m sorry.” Mr. and Mrs. Cho nodded.

Then, he turned to look at Eun Hye. “Eun Hye, I know that the way we treat each other is not like most siblings. I hope that we can still be in good terms even if we argue at times. I’m also sorry that me and Donghae ruined your Christmas tradition with your friends by being disrespectful.”

Eun Hye smiled at him. “Now you’re wearing your big boy pants!” She exclaimed. “I’m also sorry for being very catty towards you. From now on, I promise that I won’t be such a hellcat towards you.” She swore, raising her right hand up.

Then Siwon turned to Henry and pinched his cheek. “And I also want to apologize to Henry, I just felt a little peeved because I wasn’t the only boy in the family anymore. So, I’m really sorry for treating you like that in the past few days.”

Henry smiled and leapt towards Siwon and gave him a bear hug. “That’s okay! Apology accepted.” He said before kissing Siwon’s cheek.

When Henry calmed down, everyone ate their breakfast and exchanged gifts. Siwon’s Nokia C3 let out a sound and he took it out for his jeans pocket. A smile formed on his lips. It was a message from Kyuhyun.

Meet me outside you house! –Kyu

He immediately grabbed his coat from the coat rack and went out the door. When he saw Kyuhyun. He greeted him a merry Christmas. Siwon took his bike out as well and they decided to go to the abandoned park like Siwon suggested. The ride going there was a bit quiet but not awkward.

When they arrived they sat on a rock. “Kyu,” Siwon said. The younger boy looked at him and smiled. “I’m sorry about last night…it was just…”

“Apology accepted. You don’t have to explain anything to me anymore…” he paused before giving Siwon his gift.

Siwon smiled at him. “I’m sure I’ll love what’s inside. Thank you.” Before he can even stop himself, Siwon was leaning towards Kyuhyun. The younger boy’s eyes went wide but he didn’t pull away. Siwon felt his heartbeat racing so fast. He tilted his head to the side and smile a little when Kyuhyun was doing the same as well. He closed his eyes and Kyuhyun did too. Before he knew it, his lips were grazing Kyuhyun’s. The butterflies in Siwon’s stomach began to go wild as he tasted Kyuhyun’s lips. Oddly enough, Kyuhyun’s lips tasted like a cinnamon roll and it was so good.

When the pulled away slightly. Kyuhyun bit his bottom lip before looking away. Siwon looked away as well and sighed.

Next year will be such a wild roller coaster…

End of Chapter

Thanks for reading and Please do leave me some comments! Thankies!!!