Disclaimer: some strong language in this oneshot. 

 

Christmas List:

By Snapplelinz

 

#1 – Kiss an arch-enemy under mistletoe

#2 – Give Christmas candy to young cancer patients

#3 – Paint the letter ‘F’ on Mrs. Bae’s garage

#4 – Go down the tallest hill in town riding a piece of cardboard

#5 – Steal Mr. Hwang’s Christmas Decorations for Dad

#6 – Bake the biggest Gingerbread Man for Father Christmas

#7 – Drink 5 litres of egg nog on a dare

#8 – Sing Christmas carols to the elderly at a retirement village

#9 – Give away all your old Christmas toys to an orphanage

#10 – Volunteer at a homeless shelter

#11 – Make the smallest snowman in the neighbourhood

#12 – Get someone who hates you to forgive you

 

Donghae studied the list which had been slipped into his mailbox earlier that morning with a speculative frown. He’d recognized the untidy scrawl, but was still perplexed about why this person had bothered to get in touch with him after all these years. It had been far too long since they’d last spoken.

He put the note carefully onto the kitchen counter island and sat on a barstool with his head in his hands. He’d had a lot of misgivings about coming back to his hometown for Christmas. His original plan had been to go to his girlfriend’s parents’ house, but they’d broken up a month ago. And now he was stuck having to face the one person he’d dreaded seeing the most.

A polite knock resounded on the front door in close proximity. Donghae wiped imaginary dust off of his sweatpants and strolled barefoot over the soft woolen carpet his mother had installed in the hallway. He opened the front door without checking the peephole and stopped short.

A young woman roughly his age stood awkwardly in front of him. She had long, honey-brown hair which fell beyond her shoulders and big brown eyes you could get lost in for days. And when that familiar grin curled on her thin lips which always reminded him of an alligator, Donghae knew he was done for.

“Im Yoona.”

She smiled widely despite the curt greeting and before Donghae could stop her, she had boldly wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly. It reminded him all too well of days gone by when she’d wait for him outside his door every morning and they’d walk to school together.

The hug ended rapidly and Yoona was back to regarding Donghae with an almost predatory smile.

“Lee, Donghae,” she began, coyness enveloping her entire aura as she spoke. “You look like you should be doing commercials for Nature Republic now.”

She was of course referring to the fact that Donghae used to be tall, but gangly and with bad acne back in high school. Since then, he’d done three years of university and was taller than ever with an impressive, muscular body. His skin was still pale, but almost flawless now, like that of a model.

Lee Donghae had grown into his good looks and then some.

Donghae waved aside the back-handed compliment. “It’s no big deal. I just finally stopped washing my face with shaving cream.”

Yoona shook her head and laughed. “I still don’t know why you did that in the first place.”

“Yah! My Aunt Narsha said the strong soap would get rid of my pimples!”

“Omo, you really do believe everything that people tell you, pabo.”

“Im Yoona,” Donghae cut in firmly. “Why are you here? And why did you send me this?”

The smile dropped from Yoona when she saw Donghae reach for her Christmas list resting on the kitchen counter. She’d stayed up for hours the night before trying to perfect it and woken up extra early to slip it into the Lee’s mailbox before Donghae woke up.

It was the moment of truth.

“Do you remember that pact we made in grade 10?”

“You mean the one where you swore you’d get revenge on Kwon Yuri for painting red crotch stains on all your pants?”

Yoona blushed crimson at this. “Yah, not that pact! Although that homophobic cold-sore deserves to catch a live grenade-”

“Getting off-topic just like always.”

Yoona grinned sheepishly and cleared . “My bad. The point I’m trying to make is that you are the one person who’s seen every side of my personality, especially the bad parts. This Christmas is my chance to right the wrongs of the past and make amends the best way I know how to – with my best friend at my side.”

“And doing good things somehow includes…” Donghae took up the list once more and read aloud, “Stealing Mr. Hwang’s expensive Christmas decorations?”

“I’m stealing them for someone I love.” Yoona replied matter-of-factly. “So whaddya say, brosef? Wanna make my Christmas wishes come true?”

When Yoona gave him that look, it always meant trouble. And yet, it was a look which promised crazy adventures and exciting memories they’d be regaling years from now. It’s what had made high school the best years of his life.

Donghae shook his head and chuckled mirthlessly.

“Eh, it. I’m in…”

---

#1

Donghae stood in the middle of the local mall, gazing apprehensively at the scene in front of him. It was the first day of helping Yoona fulfill her Christmas wishes and so far, nothing was even happening yet.

Donghae stood a few paces away from Yoona, who was standing in front of Kwon Yuri, both women folding their arms and glaring with open hostility at each other. They’d been doing that for 5 minutes already with nothing but gurgling water from the wishing well trickling in the distance. The college student glanced at his watch and sighed. When he’d agreed to spend 12 days in succession with Yoona, he’d imagined that they’d be doing more than just ‘mean mugging’ in the middle of a shopping mall. Despite the bizarreness of the situation, he couldn’t help admiring the Christmas baubles which glittered off the glass panes of various stores and scores of silver angels swinging from the high-domed ceilings.

“Im Yoona.”

“Kwon Yuri.”

“You look fat in those jeans.”

“You look like a on Thirsty Thursdays.”

“Ok, ladies.” Donghae plastered his most charming on his face as he stepped cautiously towards the two girls. “I’m sure both of you have more important things to do than repeat the joys of high school during the festive season. Yoona, don’t you have something you want to say to Yuri?” he asked pointedly of his former best friend.

Yoona recollected herself and shot Donghae a sheepish grin which twisted his insides like a pretzel. “You’re right, D. Yuri…I’m sorry.”

If there was one thing Kwon Yuri hadn’t been expecting to hear from her arch-nemesis, it was that. She looked at Yoona with a quizzical expression and asked, “Are you high right now?”

“I’m serious,” Yoona pressed. “Look, shots were fired on both sides for years and honestly, I’m tired of it. Aren’t you?”

“Not at all. I can keep the feud going till our 10-year high school reunion.” Yuri answered, smiling spitefully at Yoona.

Yoona rolled her eyes and stepped excruciatingly closer to Yuri till the latter squirmed with discomfort.

“You really are making this difficult for the hell of it, Kwon Yuri. All of this madness wouldn’t have started in the first place if you’d just accepted that I wasn’t going to tell anyone about ‘your little secret’. Now you’re forcing me to do something really horrible: forgive you.”

“Stop, you don’t know what you’re saying,” Yuri begged nonsensically. Her eyes bugged out when Yoona retrieved a sprig of fresh mistletoe from her jacket. “What is that? What are you bringing that out for?”

“Yoona, are you sure you want to do this in front of so many people?” Donghae questioned, his palms getting sweaty with anxiety. It didn’t help that an elderly woman and what looked like a gaggle of her grandchildren had stopped close to their party.

“I’m sure, Donghae,” Yoona answered, her eyes fastened on Yuri. “Don’t fight the Christmas love, Kwon.”

“Noooooooo-”

Yuri’s shrieks were drowned out the second Yoona’s lips landed on hers. Despite having a skinny physique, Yoona kept her arms wrapped like cords of steel around the slightly taller girl as a plural of lips and hands melted into a sensual singularity. Sure enough, the old woman and her gaggle of grandchildren nearest to them started making a scene. And still Donghae couldn’t tear his eyes away from the scene in front of him.

There was no love lost between Donghae and Yuri for the special ways she’d tormented him during high school too. But even he had to admit that she looked less evil when she was entangled with another beautiful girl and kissing seemed to have provided her with a brazen kind of vulnerability. He idly wondered whether there was ever any true hatred between Yuri and Yoona to begin with. They both seemed to like kissing each other a great deal.

A blinding flash went off and Yuri finally managed to push Yoona away. “What the hell was that, Im?!”

Yoona wiped moisture off of and grinned slyly at her arch-nemesis. “That was payback for all the you’ve pulled on me over the years. Now that you know what it feels like to finally kiss another girl, go and do something about it.”

And with that, Yoona took Donghae’s hand and led him away before mall security converged on them amidst the gaggle of onlookers.

“Seriously, what the hell was that about?” Donghae asked of Yoona as they held hands and ran towards the nearest exit.

“I saw Yuri kissing Tiffany Hwang behind the Science Building in the tenth grade.”

“What?! Yuri and Tiffany are…huh?”

Yoona smiled, albeit a little sadly. “I don’t know for sure about Tiffany, but Yuri definitely is. That’s why she hates me so much, because I told her I had no intention of telling anyone about what I saw.”

“But she bullied you for years and you just let her get away with it. You could’ve busted her at any time.”

“But I didn’t, and it just pissed her off even more. Now I finally got my revenge by humiliating her back and showing her that it’s really not a big deal to be true to herself. Maybe now she’ll finally be brave enough not to hide anymore.”

“So you wanted to help her all along?” Donghae shook his head and laughed at Yoona. “You are a special kind of snowflake, Im Yoona.”

Despite the back-handed insult, Yoona still smiled genuinely at her old friend and it set Donghae’s pulse racing like a freight train. “That flash which went off just before I stopped kissing Yuri was totally you, right?” she asked in a business-like tone.

Donghae blushed crimson and waved his cellphone at Yoona, which made her laugh hard. “No one would believe you kissed Kwon Yuri without proof. Plus, I thought you might want a souvenir.”

Yoona rolled her eyes and punched Donghae in the arm while they crossed over a busy intersection covered in sludgy snow.

---

#2

The next day involved Donghae spending an obscene amount of money on buying Christmas candy canes from every sweet store in town before heading to the local hospital with Yoona. It was a little unsettling heading to the Children’s Ward and being surrounded by so many cute-looking kids with bald heads and toothy grins. He couldn’t understand how so many children that had barely hit puberty could be enduring something as heartbreaking as cancer. It really was a cruel world that they lived in.

“As nice a gesture as this is, why are we here, Yoona?” Donghae asked in-between playing checkers and getting his figurative kicked by a 6-year old girl. 

“Do you remember Kim Jonghyun in grade 4?”

“Jonghyun who always had one hand down his shorts for all of grade 2 or Jong who ate snack boogers for all of grade 3?

“Snack Booger Jong.”

“Of course. He missed half of fourth grade because he was diagnosed with-” A lightbulb went off in Donghae’s head as he looked at the girl who was beating him viciously at checkers. “This is because of what you did back then, right?”

Yoona nodded, looking extremely shamefaced. And she just happened to have a four-year-old boy sitting on her lap who was super-cute. “Most of us didn’t know he got cancer and did chemo for a few weeks before coming back to school. But I just had to be the idiot who for having a ‘crater head’ without knowing why he shaved his head in the first place.”

Donghae reached over and placed a hand on Yoona’s knee. “You were a jackass for doing that, but you were just a stupid kid back then. JR doesn’t hate you; if anything, he upgraded you to ‘only kinda basic’ by the time we reached middle school.”

Yoona nodded solemnly, silently appreciating the wisdom behind Donghae’s words. “You’re right, it was a long time ago. And since then, JR’s grown a full head of y ‘-me-hair’ and got a six-figure-paying-job straight out of college. Karma found me in the end and this is my way of making penance.” She concluded with finesse.

Yoona was caught off guard when the kid on her lap gave her a sloppy kiss on her cheek as thanks for giving him the biggest candy cane out of the stack she and Donghae brought. Naturally, the moment was spoiled when the little boy put his sticky candy cane hands all over Yoona’s clothes when he hugged her tightly.

“Actually, that’s karma right there. Say ‘cheese’!” Donghae implored, grinning devilishly as he caught Yoona’s scowl on camera.

---

#3

“Yoona, I don’t know about this…”

It was the third day of fulfilling Yoona’s Christmas Wish List. In fact, the sun had already set and darkness now enshrouded the town. Donghae and Yoona were dressed in black attire and carrying a huge barrel of red paint between them.

Donghae had never been great at playing pranks on other people. But when he was with Yoona, he got dragged into doing the most ridiculous things. It was a morbidly cheap thrill.

And yet, he felt like they were about to cross a huge line that could get them both thrown in jail.

“Yoona, wait a second!”

Yoona sighed and stopped walking. “Donghae, we’ve been over this. We’ll go to her garage, splash it with a little paint and then haul . It’s simple.”

“This is crazy!” Donghae hissed. “And here’s why: it’s a crime, it’s morally wrong and most importantly, it’s freezing out here!”

“I can’t believe you don’t wanna help me get revenge on Mrs. Bae! And after what she did to you in high school!”

Donghae laid down the barrel of paint and stared quizzically at his former best friend. “What are you talking about?”

Yoona fixed Donghae with her best ‘duh!’ expression before answering. “She didn’t pick your essay for that big History exhibit on the Holocaust.”

“So?”

“Your essay was clearly the best one in our entire grade – you even got an A plus! But Mrs. Bae still picked Kim Hyolyn’s essay over yours, and all because her mother was suing her for knocking her car outside a ‘Planned Parenting’ clinic!”

“Wait…so you’re telling me that my academic brilliance was ignored because of a frivolous lawsuit? That !” Donghae fumed.

“So are you in?”

“You bet your sweet I’m in!”

Yoona couldn’t help blushing just a little at Donghae’s last remark before she was all business once more. “Ok, so it’s easy. We’ll take our brushes and paint a big fat ‘F’ on her garage.”

As they got to work with spreading red paint over the plastic tray they’d brought along, Donghae couldn’t help saying, “You do realise that the ‘F’ you got was deserving, right? I mean, you wrote a 5,000 word essay on the origins of the first kimchi refrigerator when the topic was the Joseon era.”

“Dude!”

“Sorry! I was just making sure we were on the same page.”

“The only page we need to be on together is taking Mrs. Bae down! She ruined my transcript, so I’m gonna ruin her most prized possession: this garage!”

“Why is Mrs. Bae so crazy about her garage anyway? She brings it up every time she sees my parents in the grocery store.” Donghae remarked in a conversational tone, painting neat lines of red on the wooden garage door.

“It was a prize for winning a radio contest on who could name the most Barry Manilow songs which topped the Billboard Chart.” Yoona answered, painting sloppier brushstrokes in comparison. Then again, she’d always known that Donghae was fastidious about the silliest things, like staying inside the lines of the letter ‘F’.

“Wow, that is the saddest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Right? There, all done!”

Yoona and Donghae stepped back to admire their handiwork. They had managed to paint a gigantic red ‘F’ across their old teacher’s garage. Despite the pettiness of the act, Donghae had to admit that his and Yoona’s artistic skills were impressive.

“It actually looks pretty good,” Donghae said in earnest. He couldn’t remember a time before this when he’d felt more liberated and energized.

“I know! Maybe after this, we should go paint a big on Jackson Wang’s gay drop-top Lexus.”

Donghae was about to offer his firmest agreement on that suggestion when he was blinded by a series of flood lights which suddenly shone down on both him and Yoona. He realised too late that they had been switched on from inside Mrs. Bae’s house and that she was now stalking towards them in a towering rage.

“What the hell is going on out here? What are you two doing at my house-”

The middle-aged woman stopped short and gasped in horror at how her property had been defaced. “What have you done to my beautiful garage, you villains?!”

“We gave it a much-needed facelift,” Yoona countered with an evil smile on her face. “Maybe next time you’ll think twice before being such a y teacher who listens to Barry Manilow.”

With that, Mrs. Bae emitted a bloodcurdling scream that wouldn’t have sounded out of place in an episode of Penny Dreadful.

“Wait, why does she have a baseball bat in her hand-”

Donghae barely finished his sentence when Mrs. Bae took a swipe at him and hit him directly in the groin.

“Whoa !” Yoona yelled out in horror.

“Mother of pearl – MY BALLS!!!”

Donghae lay writhing in agony in Mrs. Bae’s driveway while she continued whaling on him with an aluminum bat. Yoona charged Mrs. Bae from behind and pushed her into a nearby shrub. Then she grabbed Donghae’s hand and dragged him away just as Mrs. Bae got up with an assortment of twigs and leaves in her hair and started chasing them.

“Oh my God, is she still behind us?!” Donghae yelled out just as a multitude of dogs began howling and more of the neighbours woke up.

“Yip, and she’s pretty pissed!” Yoona replied, picking up a random pebble to throw at Mrs. Bae to slow her down.

“I can’t go any further – I’m too weak. Don’t be a hero, Yoona, save yourself.”

“No man gets left behind!”

With that, Yoona let go of Donghae’s hand and turned around briefly just so she could do an impressive ‘clothes-line’ manoeuvre on Mrs. Bae, sending the older woman sliding onto her back in front of them. That gave them enough time to ‘haul ’ in Yoona own words from before as they ran (or in Donghae’s case, wobble like a penguin from Happy Feet) for their lives.

---

#4

Needless to say, Donghae was quite frosty with Yoona the next day when he met her on top of the highest hill in their town. He had to ice hi balls for hours the night before, his right cheek still looked puffy from where Mrs. Bae had hit him in the face with a baseball bat and he was limping ever so slightly.

“Wow, you look like .”

“ a , Yoona. I got my kicked by an older woman who’s in love with a garage door and all for your petty revenge, which was a on a dumb Christmas wish list.”

Yoona had the good sense to look guilty about her transgressions. “You’re right, I’m really sorry about how things went down. Which is why I got up extra early and made you these as a peace offering.”

She presented her oldest friend with a plastic bag filled to the brim with Christmas treats made with mint milk chocolate, which were Donghae’s favourite. He couldn’t help smiling when he noted that she’d taken the trouble to cut the chocolate treats into cute reindeer figurines.

“I can’t believe you still remember how to bake these after all this time.”

Yoona smiled affectionately at Donghae and patted his arm. “Of course I still remember. You had a major sugar crash after you ate these the last time.”

Donghae didn’t say anything, but took a mint chocolate reindeer out of the bag and popped it into his mouth. The richness of the chocolate and the cool, crisp taste of the mint melted instantly on his tongue, sending him into nostalgic transports of delight. Yoona secretly enjoyed how happy Donghae was when he was eating chocolate – he looked just like a little kid on Christmas Day.

“They taste amazing, just like always. Thanks,” he murmured in a meek voice, feeling bashful as he looked in the opposite direction.

Yoona smiled and nodded. “So today is my fourth wish…”

“Right,” Donghae agreed, fishing out the Christmas list from his winter jacket pocket. “Wait…we’re still seriously doing that?”

“Yip, I’ve got our transportation ready and everything.”

Donghae glanced dubiously at the pathetic excuse for a piece of a cardboard that Yoona had deemed worthy for them to ride down a hill with.

“You can’t be serious. How are we going to fit on that eyesore?”

“Guess we’ll just have to sit really close together.”

Donghae wasn’t sure why Yoona’s words were laced with so much innuendo, nor why they had the effect of making his palms extremely sweaty in his gloves. Nevertheless, he sat on the cardboard behind Yoona and put his arms around her waist in a seemingly calm manner. When Yoona felt the warm pressure of Donghae’s hands encircling her, she smiled and leant excruciatingly closer into him.

Trying not to give into the temptation to lean forward and smell the sweet scent of Yoona’s hair, Donghae simply asked, “So, do we need a count-down or - AAAAARGH!”

Yoona had already tipped the cardboard forward and they were soon flying at break-neck speed down the tallest hill in their town. And she laughed uproariously at the sudden adrenaline coursing through her veins, lifting her hands high in the air. That caused Donghae to hold on tighter to her and scream his lungs out like a little girl.

“THIS IS THE WORST IDEA YOU’VE EVER HAD, IM YOONA!!!”

“NO WAY, THIS IS AMAZING! I FEEL SO ALIVE!” Yoona screamed ecstatically. She furrowed her eyebrows quizzically a few seconds later when she looked at a possible complication up ahead.

“Oh damn, I didn’t realise there was so much traffic…”

“What?!” Donghae cried out in alarm. That just gave him even more incentive to keep screaming his head off.

---

#5

Needless to say, the icy sleet forming on the street caused Donghae and Yoona to sail right into oncoming traffic, much to the consternation of numerous drivers who hooted angrily when they nearly bumped into them. It didn’t help matters that it was also the day of the annual pre-Christmas parade which celebrated the town’s other major holidays such as Hannukah, Ramadan and Kwanzaa. And Yoona and Donghae managed to crash head-first into a man dressed in a Menorah candle costume, whose head subsequently caught ablaze after colliding with a fire-eater performing in the parade. Luckily, it was just the head of his costume with actual candles on it which had burnt and thankfully not his face and other parts of his body.

So after Yoona and Donghae managed to slip away during the commotion, they met up the following evening to fulfill Yoona’s fifth Christmas list.

“Yoona, quit moving your so much!”

Even though Donghae was tall, balancing Yoona’s entire body on his shoulders was beginning to put a strain on his back. And then there was the added challenge of staying completely still under a rain gutter out of sight from the Hwang’s windows and any onlookers passing by while Yoona removed Mr. Hwang’s Christmas lights from the rooftop.

Despite the fact that Mr. Hwang was an obnoxious douche who bragged every chance he got about anything he achieved, Donghae did feel a little bad that they were robbing the man of his pride and joy at this time of the year.

“Hurry up, Yoona! My legs are gonna give out soon!” Donghae hissed.

“Quit your belly-aching, I’m almost done!” Yoona shot back. “There!” she cried happily and dropped the last set of tiny flickering baubles into a black garbage bag at Donghae’s feet.

They’d already managed to relieve Mr. Hwang of the plastic Santa which climbed his chimney, a huge ‘Merry Christmas’ sign written in neon letters which people could see from the street on one side of the Hwang’s home, several reindeers made out of wire and decorated with thick cords of Christmas lights and dismantled a beautiful arch piece by piece which was set up near the front door to welcome guests to the Hwang’s home.

“This is nuts,” Donghae said for the millionth time. “We could go to jail for theft, Yoona.”

“Well then, Mr. Hwang will be sharing a cell with us too since he stole these decorations from my dad in the first place.”

“Wait, I thought your dad’s Christmas decorations washed away in that bad flood seven years ago.”

“Sure it did, if a ‘bad flood’ is 5 foot 6 with a pot belly from drinking too much beer.”

Donghae really couldn’t argue with that logic and continued helping Yoona commit Christmas robbery.

“Ok, we did a terrific job, now let’s get out of here.”

“Cool. Lift me down so I can grab their front door Christmas wreath too.”

“Did Mr. Hwang steal that from your dad too?”

“Nope, but it’s nicer than ours and I hate that.”

Just then, the Hwang’s dogs started barking from inside their house and the front door crashed open, revealing an extremely irate Mr. Hwang.

“What the hell are you kids doing?!”

“Oh , run for it!” Yoona screamed.

Out of sheer panic, Donghae let go of Yoona and made a beeline for the driveway, leaving Yoona grabbing at the rain gutter and hanging precariously.

“Dude, get me down here first!”

Mr. Hwang chased after Donghae and cornered him in front of an azalea bush. But where Mr. Hwang was middle-aged and lacked any real physique, Donghae was younger and athletic. All the college graduate had to do was fake out the older man several and side-step him till he slipped and fell on his squishy . Then Donghae doubled back and grabbed Yoona and the black garbage bag just as Mrs. Hwang, Tiffany and her other siblings exited the house to find out what was happening.

“Dad, are you ok? Yoona, Donghae, what are you doing?” Tiffany shrieked in amazement.

“Sorry, Tiff, it’s nothing personal. Say hi to Yuri for me!” Yoona yelled as she and Donghae made their escape, the Hwang’s six labradoodles charging after them.

“I can’t believe we just jacked Mr. Hwang’s Christmas decorations! Isn’t Tiffany going to be upset about this?” Donghae yelled, keeping a firm grip on the black garbage bag filled with Mr. Hwang’s Christmas decorations while avoiding getting bitten on the heels by Tiffany’s dogs.

“Probably. But with any luck, that idiot Yuri will get a clue and go comfort her.” Yoona returned, jumping over a hedge of a neighbouring house and side-stepping through the garden to get towards the park.

If nothing else, Donghae was surely getting lots of good exercise before he ended up pigging out on delicious food on Christmas Day…

---

#12

Donghae woke up on Christmas Day with a heady feeling of happiness and anticipation. He got dressed at lightning speed and stepped outside to an alluring sight. His house along with the rest of the neighbourhood was covered in a thick blanket of snow. He was in such a good mood that he stopped briefly to shovel snow out of the driveway, a chore his parents regularly had to beg or blackmail him to do.

It had been an exhilarating 11 days of mayhem with Yoona. After the misadventure at the Hwang’s house (one of Tiffany’s labradoodles bit Donghae on the and made a sizable hole in his favourite jeans and Miss-A boxers), the two college graduates had slowed down and done more good deeds for the residents of their fair town and for themselves.

The sixth day had been spent indoors at Donghae’s house (just in case the police were hanging out at Yoona’s house to ask them questions about the disturbance at the mall, the parade mishap, the vandalism of Mrs. Bae’s garage door or the theft of Mr. Hwang’s Christmas decorations) baking the biggest Gingerbread man to put under the huge Christmas tree for Santa outside of City Hall. Yoona had even gotten her cousin Hyo-Seob, a glassblower, to create a massive plate for the cookie and a tall enough glass to pour close to 20 litres of milk into. Then the two college graduates simply had to transport the goods to City in the dead of night in a moving van owned by Donghae’s uncle Yoon Sung. Needless to say, there was quite a spectacle to behold when people and Instagram-enthusiasts alike clamoured outside of City Hall and took pictures of the milk and cookie left by an anonymous person underneath the big Christmas tree.

The seventh day was best forgotten since Donghae and Yoona both had severe stomachache after drinking gallons of egg nog on a stupid dare. When Donghae’s parents came home later in the evening, they were shocked to find their son and his oldest friend lying spread-eagled on the kitchen floor with yellow, milky moustaches, egg nog spilt on tiles around them and groaning in pain. After going to the emergency room and being given some probiotics, they were advised by Doctor Choi Sooyoung (who laughed hysterically throughout the consultation) to eat plenty of sardines and drink chamomile tea to counter the rest of their symptoms.

The eighth and ninth days were spent doing more altruistic things. The elderly occupants of the retirement village in their town were gratified that two young adults would willingly give up their time to spread some Christmas cheer instead of going clubbing or closer to the truth, which was indulging in frivolity of the thieving and generally vengeful variety. They enjoyed Yoona and Donghae’s acapella singing so much that they kept requesting encores of popular carols like ‘The First Noel’ and ‘O Come, All Ye Faithful’. When he got tired of doing ‘Little Drummer Boy’ the traditional way, Donghae went off-script and launched into a comical beat-boxing (followed by some questionable break-dancing) version of the classic, which had Yoona in stitches. When it came down to giving away their oldest toys to the local orphanage (Donghae got cold feet at the last second about giving away his prized Buzz Lightyear figurine and Yoona had to bribe him with washing his car), the proprietors were extremely grateful. So much so that they invited the two college graduates to play with the children and their new toys for the rest of the afternoon. Yoona smiled secretly to herself as she watched Donghae get into an epic robot fight with an 8-year-old boy who’d been depressed about not being adopted yet. She’d always known that he had the biggest heart and it seemed to expand all the more during the festive season.

This was proved all the more on the 10^th day when Donghae put his heart and soul into helping Yoona at the local homeless shelter. She watched him take the time to smile at each person he served food to and even went the extra mile by going to each table afterwards and talking to those lowly people like they were human beings and not just ‘useless’ or ‘in the way’. Seeing how desolate some people made Yoona all the more grateful for her loving family and her caring friends who’d never let her get too down and out about life and its endless problems. It made her realise just how much further she still needed to go with reaching out to people and showing them that someone, no matter how strange the circumstances were, cared. And she was given that opportunity right there at the homeless shelter when two hobos tried to stab each other with stirofoam cups fighting over who got to eat the last Christmas ham.

When all the snow in the town seemed to have mysteriously melted on the 10^th day, Yoona and Donghae were forced to visit a stationery store to pick up some clay and a few utensils. Then they got to work on making miniature snowmen. Donghae wasn’t the most artistic person in the world, so Yoona was forced to step in and help him make something half-decent. After throwing away a good 5 kilograms of clay which Donghae destroyed with his lack of skill, he finally ended up making a snowman that looked half-decent and not like a deformed ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’. It was more fascinating for him watching Yoona make her snowman. He’d always enjoyed watching Yoona work on a new artistic project during their high school days, whether it was painting or sculpting. It was the only time when she wasn’t scheming or starting a new beef with Kwon Yuri. He remembered watching her for hours, drinking in her petite hands stained with rainbows, utterly absorbed with transforming the most mundane objects into stunning works of art. She was mesmerizing in those moments of tranquility. When they were finally done making their snowmen and painting and glazing them, they’d glued them inside empty glass jars and filled them with water and glitter. Yoona called them their ‘special snowman-globes’, which were now resting above the fireplace on the mantle in Donghae’s family home.

His mind was on those snowman-globes and everything else he and Yoona had accomplished in just 11 short days. Now it was the 12^th day, which was Christmas day and Donghae had no idea what was in store for him. Sure, he’d read the last Christmas wish on Yoona’s list, but he’d fallen asleep the night before still puzzling over it. Who could possibly hate Yoona? Not even Jonghyun or Yuri qualified as people who properly hated Yoona. Whoever it was, Donghae was going to help Yoona track them down and try to fulfill her Christmas wish.

And after that?

His heart twisted in agony when he realised that it was the last day he and Yoona would be spending together. And when it was over, they’d go their separate ways, never once delving into all the reasons why they stopped being friends three years ago. After everything that had driven them apart, the past 12 days had given Donghae a tiny spark of hope that just maybe they could be friends again.

But for now, he’d just have to see.

Donghae took out his cellphone and checked the messages that Yoona had sent him earlier that morning. She wanted him to meet her on top of the hill they’d slid down eight days ago. As he walked through the town, he saw numerous signs that it was indeed Christmas: adolescents dressed in their winter attire throwing snowballs at each other; the younger children lying in the snow making snow-angels; the local acapella group which had won many a singing contest nation-wide going door to door and singing Christmas carols; neighbours walking beyond the borders of their homes to give each other compliments of the season. He chuckled when he walked past Mrs. Bae’s house and saw her furiously painting her garage door a new shade of beige. He jogged past the Hwang’s home and saw Mr. Hwang opening his Christmas present from Mrs. Hwang: Santa sitting on his sled to put on the roof. Donghae grinned when he watched husband and wife hugging, wondering idly where Tiffany was this morning.

He soon had his answer when he climbed the top of the hill. The snow up there had thinned and frosted over in a massive, circular chunk. Then someone had clearly poured water over it because it had now been turned into a natural ice rink. He recognized quite a few people from his old high school who were skating around on ice skates (or just their regular shoes) and goofing off. He caught sight of Tiffany Hwang looking cute as a button in her favourite pink winter coat skating hand in hand with another girl. When the two moved closer and shared an intimate kiss, Donghae realised with a jolt that it was Kwon Yuri that Tiffany was locking lips with. When he got over his shock, he caught sight of Yoona waving at him from the sidelines. As he walked closer towards her, he noticed Yuri and Tiffany moving off to the edge of the ice too to remove their skates. Yoona and Yuri caught each other’s eyes for the barest moment and Donghae worried that they were going to start fighting again. But what occurred next shocked him even more. Yuri pursed her lips and nodded as if to say ‘thanks’ and Yoona smiled genuinely back at her.

Donghae shook his head and laughed as he came to stand next to Yoona. “What the hell was that?” he asked, referring to Yuri and Tiffany sitting on a bench, their hands still interlaced.

Yoona shrugged and smiled. “It’s Christmas, D. It magically brings people together. Either that, or the Christmas card I trolled Yuri with turned her on so much that she just had to kiss somebody.”

Donghae sniggered at this, remembering an accompanying picture that Yoona had texted to him earlier that morning too. It was of a Christmas card Yoona made from the picture he took of her and Yuri kissing which she’d had the audacity to send to her arch-nemesis. Yoona really had more balls than a game of Quidditch when it came to messing with people for fun.

He watched the two lovebirds kissing once more and grimaced. “Yip, it’s probably the second reason. So…how are we going to fulfill your 12^th Christmas wish?”

“Before we do that, I want to give you something.”

Yoona reached into her thick jacket pocket and retrieved a neatly wrapped Christmas present. Donghae took it from her with a quizzical look on his face and began opening it. There were actually two gifts inside, the larger of the two being a picture of him and Yoona the day that they’d made the giant Gingerbread Man for Santa: they were standing inside Donghae’s kitchen and Yoona’s arm was slung around his shoulder. Even though his nose was covered in flour, they’d both been smiling and having a good time together. Donghae was starting to think that this was now his favourite picture of the two of them. And resting on top of the beautifully framed picture was a wooden figurine that Yoona had made which looked just like –

“Buzz Lightyear!” Donghae exclaimed in awe.

The details on the figure were unnervingly accurate from the colours down to Buzz’s facial expression.

“I saw how bummed you were about parting with your favourite toy, so I made you a miniaturized version which you’ll never have to give away.” Yoona proclaimed with pride in her voice.

“Yoona, this is amazing, and I love the picture too, thank you. But I didn’t get you anything for Christmas.” Donghae said, looking extremely bashful as he put his gift in his jacket pocket.

Yoona waved it off with a casual air. “Don’t worry about it, D. Spending the past 12 days with you has been the best Christmas gift of all for me.”

When Yoona said things like that, it was easy for Donghae to believe her. It made him strangely elated and wary all at once. He started glancing around him at his old high school classmates, trying to figure out why Yoona wanted to meet him here.

“So where’s the poor er whose socks you have to charm off so he or she will forgive you?”

“I’m looking at him.”

Donghae turned back to look at Yoona. She was smiling, albeit nervously and her hands were crushed together in front of her like she was going to explode out of her body. What was going on here?

“Me? Why would I hate you?”

“You know why, Donghae.”

Donghae stepped back a fraction, his jaw tightening with every passing moment. “Don’t, Yoona.”

“Please just let me say this,” Yoona pleaded, fresh tears springing into her eyes which startled him. “We were my best friends since we were kids; you were my ‘person’, the only one who knew my secrets and my flaws. And when you told me that you were in love with me, I hurt you in the worst way possible by going out with Minho. The truth is that I reciprocated your feelings, but I was scared that I would end up losing my best friend if we dated and it didn’t work out. So I decided to have my cake and eat it too by dating Minho and keeping you in my life. But it backfired because I lost you anyway, because I was a selfish fool who never deserved your love or your friendship to begin with. I’ve wanted to apologise to you for the longest time and I finally thought of a creative way to do it, to remind you of all the fun we used to have together and show you how much I’ve missed you.”

Donghae was beyond shell-shocked to say the least. Yoona’s words were still ringing in his ears long after they’d left her lips. That last year of high school had been the hardest in his young life; he’d been on the precipice of getting everything he’d wanted: a fancy scholarship for college and the girl of his dreams. Instead, he got his heart broken by the only girl he’d ever loved and he ended up moving far away from home just to escape her and the memories which haunted his every footstep. But now he was back in his hometown and that same whacky girl was saying everything he’d always wanted to hear, and on Christmas day of all days too.

Which brought him right back to his immediate concern that had been nagging at him for weeks.

“So your Christmas list was just some grand scheme to get close to me again so I’d forgive you?” Donghae asked, confusion written all over his face.

Yoona giggled self-consciously and tucked a stray strand of her brown hair behind her ear. “Yes. But mostly, I wanted to prove to myself that I could be different this year, that I could become a better person. You were always like my better half and I wanted you to show me how to be good. Because I finally wanted the opportunity to tell you how much I’ve loved you this whole time, even when we were apart. This,” Yoona took the Christmas list from Donghae’s hands and held it in her own, “is my love letter to you.”

Donghae was positively floored. And yet, it was just like Im Yoona to concoct a nutty and elaborate plan to get his attention. With that said, he’d never felt closer to her than in these past 12 days and the thought of giving that up an hour ago had made him feel strangely depressed.

So where did that leave them?

“You’re insane,” he muttered in disbelief. “I mean, you have got to be the craziest and most inconsiderate person I know.”

Yoona was stung by Donghae’s words, but she put on a brave face and ploughed on. “I know and I’m probably being incredibly naïve by even hoping that I might have a shot here. I just had to say it once so you’d know. I’m not messing around this time, Lee Donghae; I want to be with you and go on dates where we hopefully don’t steal any more Christmas decorations.”

“Pffft, that wasn’t a date,” Donghae spluttered. “That was just your run-of-the-mill Christmas theft! What are you even saying right now? And why would you pick Christmas too to twist my heart into a pretzel?! With all this positive cheer and romantic…snow.” Donghae rambled on, pointing facetiously all around them.

Yoona giggled adorably and it made Donghae’s heart spike with sudden adrenaline. He’d missed her so damn much.

“You think snow is romantic?” Yoona asked quietly, daring to step closer to Donghae.

Donghae blushed hard at this and tried to keep up the pretense of not being that concerned with Yoona’s excruciating proximity to him. “Well, not as romantic as the holiday itself and roaring fires and mistletoe and um…you.”

“I like mistletoe too,” Yoona whispered, pressing her advantage and slipping her hands into Donghae’s warm jacket pockets. “Did you know that most varieties of mistletoe berries aren’t even red? They’re like white or transparent. I mean, how would you even begin to kiss under berries that you can’t even see-”

“For the love of God, please stop talking.”

Donghae wrapped his arms around Yoona and kissed her hard. Yoona’s hands slipped out his jacket pockets and hung limply at her sides while her dream boy attacked her lips with fervor. Donghae’s heart thumped wildly when his mouth tasted a soft undercurrent of sweetness from Yoona’s lip gloss. Was that cherry? It made him wish that he’d stolen a kiss from her a hell of a lot sooner.

When Yoona’s brain finally alerted her to the fact that Donghae was actually kissing her and liking it, her hands moved up to caress his cheeks, tracing over the scratchy stubble on his chin and along his jawline. And then she was kissing him back with just as much elation as he was, like she’d always wanted to all along. Her heart dipped into her stomach when Donghae’s lips sketched a perfect picture over her closed eyelids and her cheekbones till she was sighing with satiation in his arms.

When they finally pulled apart, they were both blushing and a little unsure of how to proceed.

“Uh, so that was um…really good,” Yoona fumbled, looking very pink under her winter beanie.

Donghae couldn’t resist grinning like the Cheshire Cat. For the first time ever, Im Yoona was the one who was at a loss for words.

“Interesting. I guess you should’ve put my kisses instead of Kwon Yuri’s at the top of your little Christmas wish list.” He teased.

Yoona recovered long enough to punch him in the arm for old times’ sake. Donghae’s eyes twinkled with happiness when he realised that he’d gotten more than what he’d bargained for this Christmas: he had his old friend back and even better than that, she was finally giving him her heart in return.

“For the record, I could never hate you.” Donghae said in a serious voice, briefly reflecting on the years of hurt and confusion he’d suffered through ever since he and Yoona had parted ways. Now he was finally ready to put it all behind him.

“I’m glad you feel that way, because we probably have to pay damages to a lot of people for all the crap we pulled the past 12 days.”

Donghae laughed heartily at this and drew Yoona into a tender, one-sided hug. “I change my mind. This is the most amazing Christmas present I’ve ever gotten.”

Yoona smiled radiantly and rested her head on Donghae’s shoulder as they walked hand-in-hand very slowly down the hill back towards town, Christmas bells ringing from the Catholic church a few miles away.

From way up there, it looked like it was going to be a beautiful day.

 

 

The End

 

 

*Kim Jonghyun in this instance who got cancer as a young lad is JR from Nu’est*

*Hyo-Seob and Yoon Sung are Crush and Gaeko respectively from Amoeba Culture*

*Minho in this case is SHINEE’s very own lady-killer, lol*