December 24

 

Zitao chased Sehun through the house, knocking the Christmas wreath off the door along with several candles.

    “Calm down before you hurt yourselves!” Baekhyun called after them, but they continued to horseplay.  

 

Jongin and Minseok were decorating the Christmas tree in the living room. Minseok was hanging ornaments on the lower half of the tree and Jongin was in charge of hanging the where Minseok couldn't reach.

 

And finally, after what seemed like forever, they were all happy. Zitao and Sehun giggled as they ran through the house. Baekhyun smiled and shook his head as he watched. Chanyeol and Kyungsoo were baking fun-shaped sugar cookies in the kitchen while throwing flour at each other and laughing so hard that their faces were turning red. And Minseok and Jongin were just smiling. Not even talking, just smiling. Smiling because Minseok no longer had to live in fear. Smiling because a once broken friendship that seemed unfixable at the time was now stronger than ever. Minseok was now closer to Jongin than anyone else.

 

Yes, it had only been a little less than a month since their friendship had been thrown into jeopardy, but that month they had made incredible progress. Chanyeol was no longer angry all the time, but he hadn't really gone back to how he was. He was almost like a different person now. He was clumsy and dorky now.  Of course he still took care of them, but now he did it with a big smile plastered on his face. They also learned what a loud laugh Chanyeol had. So whenever he found something funny, everyone in the county and the next one over knew about it. But the boys didn't mind, they liked this new Chanyeol.

Around 9:00 that night, the sun had gone down and the only thing that lit the house were gingerbread scented candles that were deep colors of red and green. The seven of them were all sitting close to each other in front of the fireplace, which was bright and warm. Some of them had started to fall asleep and others just watched the flames flicker.

 

Then the door burst open. The howling wind threw dead leaves and snow through the door along with two figures wrapped in coats.

 

They recognized the first as Mrs. Yang, the president of the Child Welfare Council. She stopped by the shelter to do yearly inspections, and also when they were in need of a new caretaker. They didn't recognize the other person though. He had styled black hair and a bit of scruff on his chin. He smiled at the boys with perfect white teeth.

“Hello again,” Mrs. Yang waved at them. “This is Mr. Siwon, he will be your caretaker,”

 

“Ah, don't call me Mr., it makes me feel so old,” Siwon laughed as he started to remove his grey and black scarf from his neck. “Thank you so much for escorting me Mrs. Yang,” Siwon bowed and shook Mrs. Yang’s hand.

 

“No problem. Call me if there's any trouble,”

 

“I doubt there will be,” Siwon looked over at the boys and smiled. “You all look like a good group,” he flashes that amazing smile again.

lright well, I'll be on my way. Goodnight Siwon. Goodnight boys,”

 

“Goodnight Mrs. Yang,” they said in unison.

 

“Well, how about we introduce ourselves?” said Siwon.

 

They sat around the fire with Siwon. They talked and laughed until their eyelids became heavy, and they all drifted off to sleep.