A/N: Merry Christmas and happy holidays everyone! Just a little peace to hopefully warm your hearts on this cold and busy season. Stay toasty :)

----------------------------------

1

"Wheein-ah! Can you hold the door for me?" 

Soft footsteps padded quickly toward the front door. "I'm coming, I'm coming," Wheein called. The clatter of tiny claws hitting the floorboards followed behind her as she rushed to the foyer.

She could barely catch the top of Hyejin's blue-grey head through the foliage bursting through the half-closed door.  The leaves and branches tried to jam their way into their house, eager to be put up and decorated as soon as possible. Wheein opened the door wide, as Hyejin, with a grunt, pushed the tree through. 

Ggomo, who had been sitting at the threshold, head tilted, tail swiping, scrambled to get out of the way when the tree hit the floor with a resounding thud. 

Hyejin stood over the tree with her hands on her hips. "You think this one might be too big?" She asked. 

Wheein laughed and reached up to dab the sweat off Hyejin's forehead with the sleeve of her sweater. "I think it's perfect," she said, grinning. 

2

The bare tree stood in the corner of the living room. Hyejin, sprawled across the sofa, watched Ggomo bat at the lowest branches of the tree. "Ggomo-ah," she whined, waving her arms, "Why won't you love me?" 

"Aigo, my lazy lion, what are you doing?" 

Wheein emerged from the kitchen with a steaming mug, and motioned for Hyejin to sit up. With a reluctant groan, Hyejin flipped herself over and pulled herself up, leaning on the back of the couch with one knee up on the cushion. She watched Wheein with a predatory grin. 

Wheein rolled her eyes, and sat down two cushions away. "Wheein-ah," Hyejin whined, "are you betraying me too?" 

She scooted forward and wrapped her arms and legs around Wheein like a koala bear. Nonchalantly, Wheein lifted her mug to save her drink and give Hyejin better access to her stomach. "Love meeeeee," Hyejin whined into her neck. 

She sipped her drink to hide the growing smile. 

"The tree is pretty," Wheein said simply.

"Are you choosing the tree over me too?" Hyejin murmured, snuggling even further into Wheein. 

"Not this again!"

Wheein laughed so loudly that Ggomo immediately leapt into the tree for refuge. His little white and orange face poked out from between the leaves as he gave a long and dissatisfied meow. 

3

As Wheein put the last angel on the tip of the tree, Hyejin, holding Ggomo in her arms, stepped back to admire their handiwork. Strings of Polaroid photos and colourful bulbs were scattered across the green leaves. 

Hyejin turned so Ggomo could have a good look at the tree, choosing to ignore the way he was squirming and trying to escape. "Look, Ggomo," she said, pointing at the angel, "that's your mommy. She's the sweetest angel you will ever meet, and she sits at the very top because she's the queen of my world." 

As soon the words tumbled out of , she felt a light slap on her shoulder and two eyes trying to burn through her skin. Wheein blushed crimson to the tips of her ears, and she was so cute that Hyejin couldn’t help but laugh. She laughed so hard, in fact, that she had to put Ggomo down to clutch her stomach. 

“Yah!” Another slap. “When did you learn to be that greasy? Even Byulyi-unnie wouldn’t be that greasy!” 

When Hyejin finally calmed down, she wiped the tears from her eyes and put a hand on Wheein’s hip. She couldn’t hide her crooked grin when she said, “I wasn’t trying to be greasy. I was just telling the truth.” 

Wheein took a step into Hyejin’s space. “I’m not an angel, you know,” she said, tracing the collar of Hyejin’s sweater with a finger. Her voice dropped to a whisper. “I can think very devilish thoughts.” 

“My beautiful, gorgeous, y angel, I think this poor sinner needs to be cleansed,” Hyejin murmured. She dove in for a kiss, but her lips were met with only a wall of hair. 

“You don’t get a kiss after a line like that,” Wheein laughed, and ducked away from Hyejin’s roving hands. 

Hyejin ran her empty fingers through her hair and cried, “Oh my god, you’re killing me, Jung Wheein.” 

“I told you I’m not an angel,” Wheein said from the bedroom. Her tousled head peeked out from the door, followed by a beckoning finger as she sent Hyejin a smouldering look. “Come in here, and I’ll prove to you how sinful I really am.”

Hyejin internally shouted a thousand blessings to every deity she could think of as she bounded toward the bedroom door. In her past life, she must’ve been the greatest human being to ever exist. There were no other reasons why she deserved this much happiness. 

4

On Christmas day, Wheein rolled out of bed and pulled Hyejin with her. “It’s Christmas!” she cried. “Get up! Get up! We need to open presents!” 

“It’s 7am on a Sunday,” Hyejin groaned, trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes. But Wheein wasn’t listening. She had her by the arm and dragged her to the tree. Hyejin collapsed at the base of the tree and decided to just lay on the floor for a while, as Wheein pulled presents out one by one. By the time she had the energy to sit up, Wheein had built a small fortress around her. 

“Wheein-ah, these have been here for weeks,” Hyejin reminded her with a yawn. 

“For you!” Wheein said, shoving a big box wrapped in red paper into Hyejin’s hands. She leaned over and puckered her lips for a reward. 

Hyejin chuckled. “I know. We bought it together. Thank you,” she said, rewarding Wheein with a kiss and a tickle under her chin. She unwrapped the red box and revealed the new mixer they had bought just last week, wondering if she should feign surprise. 

Fortunately, Ggomo arrived just in time, snaking his body around the corners of the many boxes. He meowed for attention. 

Wheein stacked and restacked several boxes to find the one she was looking for: a blue box tied with a gold ribbon. She set it in front of Ggomo, and gave him a scratch behind the ear. “For you, sweetie,” she said to the kitten. 

Ggomo played with the gold ribbon, having the time of his life, just to have his mommy peel him away so she could open the box. “It’s a toy!” Wheein beamed, pulling a fish shaped plush from the box and placing it in front of him. 

Ggomo sniffed it, rubbed his head against it, then left it for the sparkling gold ribbon. 

“Ggomo, why?” Wheein cried, poking him with the fish toy. He ignored the fish and continued wrestling with the ribbon. 

“Wheeinie, here's yours.” Wheein received a silver box the size of a shoebox with both hands. 

“What? When did you get this? I thought we got all of our gifts together,” Wheein said with a frown. 

“Honestly, I can't believe you didn't notice it,” Hyejin replied with a laugh. “Open it.” 

The silver paper was ripped off hastily, crumpled shreds rained down on Ggomo, who immediately leapt into his new blue box. A brown box soon came to surface. No markings, just a brown box. 

Wheein frowned. “What is this?” She asked. 

“Keep going.”

The lid flew off, landing unceremoniously behind her somewhere. She dug her hands into the white tissue paper and pulled out a silver photo frame. Wheein ran a hand over the photo inside: Her, Hyejin, and Ggomo smiled back at her. She recognized the photo, taken just weeks after Ggomo was brought home. There was no special occasion--just overwhelming joy and love for one another and the need to capture it on film. 

Wheein grinned. “Thank you, Hyejinie. I love it.” 

“There's more,” Hyejin said with a secretive smile. “Turn it over.” 

She stared at the black velvet backside of the frame, with the angular kickstand. Hyejin gestured for her to pop it off. 

Wheein didn't know what to expect, but something dropped to the pit of her stomach and hatched a thousand butterflies. With trembling fingers, she pushed the back off the frame. 

Hyejin watched her intensely, her lips anxiously. Ggomo purred inside his box. 

On the back of the photograph, written in a silver marker, was a simple message:

I love you, Jung Wheein. 

Before Wheein could react, Hyejin reached into the very bottom of the shoebox and revealed a square, black box. 

She flipped it open. 

“I didn't think I’d be doing this in my pajamas, but I didn't think you would be this excited about Christmas. This is exactly what I love about you. You're so unpredictable and goofy and adorable and amazing and beautiful and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you--”

“YES! YES! A THOUSAND TIMES YES!” Wheein cried as she launched herself at Hyejin. Hyejin caught her by the arms, and met her halfway in a passionate kiss, the ring box closed and forgotten in that moment. 

Several kisses later, Hyejin finally slipped the silver band on Wheein's finger, smiling so wide her cheeks ached. The diamond glittered against the Christmas lights. 

“You know,” Wheein whispered, placing one last kiss on Hyejin's cheek, “You're not the only one who knows how to shop by herself.”

She reached into the pocket of her pink pajamas and pulled out a ruby ring. “May I?” She asked sweetly. 

Hyejin opened , but didn't trust her voice--she could already feel the first happy tears rolling down her face. She nodded vigorously. 

“I love you, Ahn Hyejin.” 

“I love you too,” Hyejin said. She interlaced their fingers together, white and red side by side, and kissed them. 

“Merry Christmas.” 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: Merry Christmas once again everyone! Thank you very much for reading!

I would just like to shout out to Fengxian, who had the exact same idea as me with the rings in one of the Christmas chapters of one of her stories. This is a story I've been meaning to read for weeks, but haven't gotten around to it yet, so when this conversation popped up, I was floored. 

If Hwasa wears a ruby ring and Wheein wears a diamond ring in real life, I will die.

As always, comments, votes, and subs are always appreciated!