This was written as a secret santa prompt for the IGot7SecretSanta Event 2018. Here's a link if you want to read what everyone else submitted: The Event

You and Jinyoung had been each other’s biggest annoyance for as long as you could remember. Your very first memory of Jinyoung involved Jinyoung ruining the sandcastle you’d just built. His very first memory of you involved you kicking him in the shin. Neither of you could remember in which order these things had happened or why but since you’d both been only four years old at the time neither had mattered. Especially since you were both as stubborn as each other. You’d decided you didn’t like Jinyoung and he’d decided he didn’t like you and that had been that. Whenever you and your sister ended up at his house for a playdate or he and his sisters ended up at yours you did your best to ignore each other.

And then you’d both started school. Being the same age and living in the same neighbourhood you’d started school together and since your teacher knew your sisters were friends she’d assumed you and Jinyoung were friends too. Because of this she’d placed you at the same table. This had meant you’d spent half of your first year at school arguing with Jinyoung about stupid things like who got to use the red crayon first or trying to beat each other to the head of the line when it was your table’s turn to line up for breaktime or lunch. In the end your teacher had gotten sick of the bickering and separated you but this hadn’t stopped you arguing with each other at every other opportunity. You were sure you’d had her close to pulling her hair out more than once.

As you’d gotten older the bickering became less frequent and was replaced instead by a near constant battle to better each other. If you were in the classroom it was a competition to see who could get their hand up the fastest to answer a question. If you were in the playground it was a competition to see who could catch the most people in a game of tag or climb the highest on the climbing frame. Looking back on it now it had been kind of fun. Having someone to compete with stopped things from getting boring at least.

Then high school had come along and with it had come a temporary truce. Starting high school meant you’d both been thrown into a completely new set of people and a new social circle. And since Jinyoung was the only person from your primary school who’d ended up in the same class as you, you’d automatically gravitated towards him. Jinyoung might have been annoying but at least you knew what to expect from him and it seemed he’d felt the same way about you because he hadn’t protested when you’d taken the empty seat next to him that first day.

But this temporary truce had been… well temporary. Soon you’d both made your own friends. And since your friends and his very rarely interacted you’d naturally drifted apart. And this might have been fine, just because you were spending time with different people that didn’t mean you couldn’t be civil to each other. But then you’d joined the line for lunch one day and overheard Jinyoung talking about you. You hadn’t caught the whole conversation but you’d heard someone mention your name. And Jinyoung’s response had been ‘I have to talk to her, her sister is friends with my sister. And okay yes, she might be pretty but she’s kind of a nightmare.”

You hadn’t known why the words had hurt you so much. Jinyoung was always calling you names to your face, he was always teasing you and that had never bothered you before. But hearing him say those things about you to another person, to someone who didn’t know you, it had stung. It had taken you right back to when you were four years old and he’d kicked over your sandcastle. And what was worse was you didn’t know what to say. You wanted to tell him he was obnoxious and full of himself but if you did it would just back up his assertion that you were a ‘nightmare’. So in the end you hadn’t said anything at all. You’d left the lunch line before he could notice you were there and when he’d sat down next to you in class that afternoon you’d ignored his ‘hey’ of greeting and any furhter attempt he’d made at conversation.

Jinyoung had seemed unconcerned at first but when the silent treatment you’d settled on giving him had lasted the rest of the week he’d had the gall to ask you what your problem was.

So you’d told him. You’d told him that yes, you might be a nightmare but he was petty, vindictive, and two-faced and you didn’t want to speak to him ever again.

Jinyoung had looked hurt and confused at first. You’d even thought he might apologise. But after opening and closing his mouth a couple of times the look of bemusement on his face had vanished and his expression had hardened. ‘Fine’ he’d said before telling you he didn’t like talking to you anyway.

And that was it. That was the end of the civility. You’d gone back to competing with each other in class, annoying each other whenever you had the opportunity to and ignoring each other whenever you had to visit each other’s houses.

And with you both being as stubborn as teenagers as you had been when you were toddlers this had lasted the entirety of your high school career.

Then high school had come to an end and there was no reason for you to see Jinyoung at all. He moved away to study drama, you moved away to study history and you’d thought that would be that. Maybe you’d see him sometimes if you were visiting your parents when he was visiting his but you’d no longer have to deal with his annoying face every day. It was a good thing you told yourself. You should be happy.

And you were for a while. But then you’d realised that even if you hadn’t gotten on that didn’t mean you hadn’t been a big part of each other’s lives. Through all the ups and downs of growing up Jinyoung had been a constant, an annoying constant maybe but a constant nonetheless. And now you were in a brand new place with brand new people, trying to navigate it all, trying to work out who you could trust and who you should make friends with and it was all so scary. There was no Jinyoung there to fall back on, not this time. Because yes, Jinyoung could be a giant pain in the but at least you knew where you stood with him. There’d been that one blip back in high school where you’d forgotten you weren’t supposed to like each other but that hadn’t lasted long. You thought he was annoying and he thought you were a nightmare. It had been simple and it had been easy and you found you missed it.

Missed it enough that when you went home that Christmas you hadn’t tried to wheedle your way out of going next door to visit your neighbours. You’d agreed to deliver the card and the Christmas Cake your mother had made for them without question. And when Jinyoung’s mother had taken them from you with a smile and asked if you wanted to come in for some hot chocolate you’d eagerly taken her up on her offer.

And when you’d been ushered into the sitting room and Jinyoung had looked up, eyes first widening in confusion then expression settling into a frown you’d found yourself smiling like an idiot.

 “What are you doing here?” he’d asked when his mother had left the room, sounding none too impressed to see you there.

“I’m here because your mother loves me and she invited me in for hot chocolate.” you chirped as you took a seat on the couch across from him, happy nothing had changed. “Why are you here? Have you run out of clean clothes and need mummy to do your washing for you?”

“No, I’m here because I’m a good son and I know my mother would be sad if I didn’t come home for the holidays.” Jinyoung had replied. “And she only loves you because she doesn’t know you. She still thinks you’re her friend’s adorable youngest da