“Wakey wakey baby baby,” he sang.

“I’m not a baby!” I replied, taking off the blanket wrapped around me.

“Am I taking care of you or not?” Kibum asked and put his hands on his waist, with a spatula in one hand.

“Well, yeah...” I said and sat up.

“Aaand did you cry the whole time yesterday?” He asked again.

“Uh...yeah?” I said again, understanding his point so I covered myself with the blanket again. “I get it, I get it, go away,” I mumbled. He walked away and I grabbed the remote and turned the television on.

“How do you like your eggs?” He asked from the kitchen.

“Cooked,” I responded sarcastically.

“Yeah, obviously, how?” He said, cracking one egg into a bowl.

“Cheese omelette?” I asked and he eyed me, so I smiled innocently.

“Why do you make everything so hard? You’re so demanding,” he shook his head and chuckled.

“It’s okay, i’m cute,” I muttered quietly.

“You’re not!” He sang from the kitchen.

“Just do it, i’m the sick one here,” I said and flipped through channels. A few minutes later, the food was ready and we started eating.

“So I have to leave today, we have practice and I have to take my dogs out,” he explained, as he took a bite of his scrambled eggs and toast.

“Okay, you’re not going home to Daegu for Christmas?” I asked curiously.

“My parents are travelling and i’ll visit Grandma in the New Year,” he muttered with his mouth full.

“Oh..your grandma..” I said slowly.

“Oh no, yeah like her grave, aigoo,” he chuckled lightly.

“Mm, i’ve always wanted to visit Daegu, is it nice there?” I asked to lighten the mood and toasted another piece of bread.

“Omo omo, you should know everything about there! You’re my fan!” He put his hand over his mouth. I scoffed and went back to my seat, he continued. “But no, really, during trainee days, like I told you, it was hard to not have my neighbourhood friends and my grandma...and just...home, you know...” He got quiet, thinking about all these and I put my hand over his on the counter, as comfort

“It’s okay, i’m happy, this is my dream,” he smiled at me softly and I pushed his face away.

“Aigoo, you’re making feel all fuzzy,” I said and took the last bite of my toast. He chuckled lightly and stood up to put his dishes in the sink.

“Will you be okay if I leave for a couple hours?” He asked and started clearing the counter.

“Yeah, i’m not a kid, plus i’m feeling much better,” I nodded.

“You still look quite pale and uh…tired,” he glared.

“I’m just not wearing makeup,” I muttered while looking inside my fridge.

“Yeah, maybe that’s it,” he mumbled and I was about to be offended, but I was thankful for him, always being honest and straightforward.

“When are you leaving?” I stood up to fold my blanket that I used on the couch.

“I’ll just change and leave, i’m gonna go back home to get ready and then to the dorm to meet the members,” he explained and walked to the bedroom, probably to change.

“Okay, are you sure you’ll be okay?” He looked back before opening my front door.

“Yeah yeah,” I waved him off.

“Make sure you take your medicine,” I nodded, but he continued, “and drink lots of water and orange juice and pineapple juice, and don’t do too much,” he nagged.

“Yeah yeah,” I said again. He started to open the door to leave. I grabbed his sleeve and he looked back at me. “Thank you,” I said seriously, avoiding his gaze.

“I’m sorry for our misunderstanding...thank you for forgiving me,” he said and ruffled my hair.

“Aish, okay go away,” I said and pushed him out of the door.

“Yah yah! We were having a moment!” He yelled when I shut the door, his voice fading as it closed.

Dirori…

2:39 P.M. KIBUM AHJUSSI

How you feeling?

I replied.

2:40 P.M.

Good. I’m getting cake and buying groceries.

2:40 P.M.

Wae?! Yah, I told you not to do much, I could have gotten you groceries.

2:43 P.M.

It’s Christmas Eve today, I gotta to cook dinner and have some cake! It’s tradition!

3:00 P.M.

Mmmkay, i’ll text you later.

I didn’t reply to this and continued with my grocery shopping. I was going to attempt to make Kimchi Jigae as my Christmas Korean dish and, also because I was sick and it was the easiest Korean soup to make. I planned to make pasta, so I grabbed all the ingredients I needed and bought a roll of garlic bread. After the grocery store, I googled a place to buy cake and bussed there. I had gotten pretty used to the transit system here since it was my main way of transportation.

“I will get this one whole cheesecake here,” I said to the girl working in the cake shop and pointed to the cake behind the glass. She packed it neatly and handed it to me. I thanked her and left the place. I went straight home to start cooking, I admit I was still not feeling great, but I was way better than how I was feeling yesterday.

When I arrived home, I my speakers and played music to get me in the mood to clean and cook. My mom always did this a couple days before Christmas Eve day, but it’s never too late! I cleaned and cleaned but also took many pauses to break out my dance moves and used the mop and broom as my microphones, like I was holding a concert. I cooked a dinner for one and went to sleep again because I had gotten tired from cleaning and cooking.

Dirori…

6:17 P.M. ‘KIBUM AHJUSSI’

Open the door!

When I saw this, I jumped up out of my bed, like a cartoon character and ran to the door.

            “Why is he back? Did he forget something here?” I said to myself and opened the door. “Yah, I was sleeping,” I rubbed my eyes.

            “Suuuuuurprise!!!” Wait..he wasn’t alone?!

            “It’s been so long, Ellie-ssi!”

            “How are you?”

            “Sorry for the disturbance!”

            “Merry Christmas Eve!”

            “Yah, why are you in your pyjamas? It’s only 6:30,” Key nagged.

It was SHINee! They were in my home. I was so surprised that I didn’t talk until they have settled inside already.

            “Uh..what?” was all I said and shut the door. “What are you guys doing here?” I asked, wondering if I was dreaming.

            “Well, Key-goon thought that since you don’t have family here, that we could spend Christmas Eve with you!” Jonghyun explained and bumped shoulders with me. The others were sitting on my bar stools and Key was putting things inside my refrigerator.

            “It would be really fun! I haven’t waited for Christmas Eve like this in so long!” Taemin said with a huge smile on his face.

              “B-bu-uh-but don’t you have that live performance for the Christmas special tomorrow with SMTOWN???” I worried.

              “Ellie-ssi, don’t worry, we’re pretty great performers you know,” Minho said smugly.

              “Aigoo,” Onew shook his head and hit the back of Minho’s head. “Don’t worry, Ellie-ssi, we won’t stay late,” he smiled his sweet gentle smile and helped Kibum fix my kitchen.

              “Yah, are you gonna thank us or what? We’re doing a pretty good deed, this is probably like, the best Christmas ever, right? I mean, you love SHINee so much and you get to spend Christmas with us,” Kibum explained and danced around funnily. I pushed him to get him to shut up but he teased me some more. “Aren’t you grateful???” he asked, after running to the living room area so that I wouldn’t be able to shove him.

               “Aish,” I stomped my feet and turned to the members. “How can he easily get on somebody’s nerves,” I muttered.

               “Trust us, you don’t know what we’ve been through,” they all said at the same time, watching Key dance and stick his tongue out in the living room.

               “Oh wait! I didn’t make enough food! I only cooked for myself! I wasn’t expecting guests…!” I came to my senses and started walking back and forth in the kitchen. They all waved their hands like it was choreographed.

               “Don’t worry, we brought food for all of us!” Taemin said happily.

               “Yeah, my mom packed us some,” Jonghyun pointed at the fridge behind me.

“My mom did too!”  Taemin raised his hand.

“I got some meat from the store,” Onew put a thumbs-up. 

               “Aaaaaand I got ice cream,” Minho said proudly. 

               “Yah Kibum-ah, what did you bring?” I called out to him, because he was still in the living room then he walked towards us.

                “Myseeeeeeeeeelf!” he walked like he was on runway and struck a pose. The members all shook their heads and sighed. I did the same.

The night passed quickly, we played games, ate my Kimchi Jigae, which they kept making fun of, put on music and we all just talked about whatever came to our minds. It really felt like I was with people i’ve known my whole life… Well, I basically have, TEEECHNICALLY, known them for almost half my life (they just didn’t know me), but they were also comfortable around me, which I was grateful for.

               “Comme Des yah, come here,” did I mention that Kibum brought his two dogs? Both Comme Des and Garcons came towards us, while we were all sitting on the living room floor and sat in the middle of all of us. We all started to pet them and then Minho turned his attention to me.

               “Ellie-ah,” Oh yeah and we established talking informally because Kibum explained to them that I have a hard time talking informally.

               “Neh?” I looked at him and let Garcons come into my arms. Kibum, who was sitting next to me started to pet Garcons.

               “Are you coming tomorrow??” He asked and stretched his legs out. The rest of the members looked at me, waiting for my answer.

               “Yah! I’m supposed to ask that,” Key said defensively. “Do you want to come to SMTOWN concert tomorrow?” He grabbed my shoulders and had me turn to him. The members were shocked by this and started ‘Woah’-ing. I pushed his face away because I felt shy.

                “Wait-what?” I came to my senses.

                “The live Christmas special?” Jonghyun cleared his throat.

                “You should come, you should come!” Taemin said excitedly.

                “We’ll get you a backstage pass or something, we’ll just tell them you’re uh..childhood friend of Kibum’s,” Onew nodded, thinking of other reasons he could say.

                “Oh no no, that’s too much, i’ll be okay watching it here,” I kept my arms stretched on and placed my hands on my knees because I felt awkward and grateful but had no idea how to display how I was feeling.

                “Aiyooo, it’s like you’re begging us to let you come,” Kibum teased so I hit his arm.

                “Really though, you should come, we’ll find a way,” Minho explained and the rest nodded.

                “Do you still feel sick?” Kibum asked seriously.

                “I’m fine, but are you all sure that it’s okay for you to ask me to come?” I asked, playing with my hands.

                “Yeah!” Onew said and clapped his hands once.

                 “Mmm..” I started, then nodded slowly. “Okay, i’ll come support,” I said finally and raised my hands in the air.

                “Yeeeeyy!” Kibum hugged me from the side.

                “Yah! Stop taking advantage of her,” Jonghyun threw the box of kleenex that was on my coffee table to Key but it hit my head instead.

                “Ow,” I reacted and rubbed my forehead.

                “BAHAHAHA!” Kibum laughed at Jonghyun who missed his aim.

                “I’m so sorry, Ellie-ah! Omo omo,” Jonghyun went on his fours towards me and started patting my forehead.

                “Aigooo,” Minho said, “doing anything to touch a girl. he added, shaking his head.

                “Yeah, how could you do that?” Taemin nudged Jonghyun.

                “Tsk tsk,” Onew started shaking his head, “I didn’t know you were this low,” he stated and the rest of us laughed so hard when Jonghyun started to bow, saying sorry.

                 “Omo! It’s almost 12!” I ran to the kitchen and took out the cheesecake I bought. I also grabbed my laptop from my bedroom and video-called Kris on the kitchen counter, she picked up after 4 rings. “Merry Christmas!!!” I yelled and the members turned to look at me to see me yelling at my computer excitedly.

                 “Merry Christmas! I miss youuuuuu!” I think Onew heard this and he hurriedly came to my side.

                 “Omo omo! Why are you there?! Hi…” Kris said shyly. I scoffed and wanted to laugh because she was acting all cute. Onew waved and basically pushed me out of the way, I felt a bit out of place when they waved at each other, so I walked off and brought the cake to the living room.

                 “Waaaaah! Cheesecake...mmmm,” Taemin stood up to look at what I was holding.

                 “It’s almost 12!” Jonghyun went on his knees and we crowded around the coffee table.

                 “Kibum-ah, could you get the candles from the kitchen?” I asked and he did.

                 “Why do you need candles?” He asked and handed them to me.

                  “Beeeecause,” I started to say and put 9 candles at the edges of the cake, “it’s tradition, we all have to blow the candles, one...for..each of us,” I finished lining them and clasped my hands together, realizing Minho, Jonghyun, Taemin, and Kibum were looking at me weirdly.

                  “It’s Christmas...not a birthday,” Kibum stated with his mouth open.

                  “Yes it is a biiirthday! It’s CHRIST-mas,” Taemin smiled widely and seemed grateful.

                  “Yeah Kibum!” Minho crossed his arms and Jonghyun scoffed at Key.

                  “It’s also tradition in my family and I consider you guys family now too,” I mumbled and looked around the room for a lighter.

                  “Awwwwwwwwe,” Kibum replied.

                  “That’s so nice of you to say..” Jonghyun sniffed.

                  “What a crybaby!” Minho exclaimed and patted Jonghyun’s back. Taemin just smiled, not knowing how to react and finally, I found a lighter.

                  “Wait, why are there 9 candles? There are 6 of us..” Taemin bent his knees and watched me light each candle.

                  “Us 6, Comme Des, Garcons, aaaand for Kris,” I pointed at my laptop that was still in front of Onew on the kitchen counter. We couldn’t hear what they were saying but I could hear Kris’ girly laugh from where I was standing and we all got quiet and waited for Onew to notice us.

                  “Sorry to bother your uh..date, but it’s 12 in 30 seconds, Lee Jinki,” Kibum said in English and dragged Onew back to us and he brought the laptop with him to face us all.

                  “Hi everyone!” Kris waved.

                  “Annyeonghaseyo!” Everybody said and bowed.

                  “Okay 3…..2…..1!” Kibum counted down while we gathered around the cake I held up.

                  “Aaaaaand Merry Christmas!” He yelled out.

                  “Merry Christmas!” And we all blew our candles, I raised up Comme Des with one hand and Key had Garcons so we could blow them together. The whole night felt like I was home. It didn’t feel like a foreign country anymore. I had people I could go to, people I could trust, people who I saw as family, and well...I was more than grateful. There wasn’t any word that could possibly describe how I was feeling.

                  “Thank you for letting us spend Christmas Eve with you,” the members bowed at the door while Key was on his knees, putting the dogs on a leash.

                  “Thank you so much for coming, i’m so glad I know you all,” I bowed to them too and handed them the leftover cake slices, because well, they seemed to like it so much, especially Onew and Taemin. I rushed them out the door because they had asked to watch a movie and stay for a little bit more, but they had to wake up early tomorrow, so I had them leave before I gave in and said yes to a movie. I waved the members off and Kibum had a hard time trying to leave because Comme Des and Garcons wouldn’t leave my feet.

                   “Aigooooooooo….” I bent down and ruffled both Comme Des and Garcons heads. “I wish you guys could staaaay,” I ruffled their heads again and put my head against theirs.

                   “What if we did?” Kibum said out of nowhere. I looked at him and stood up.

                   “What?” I replied, confused at his question. 

                   “What if we stayed?” He asked with a blank face.