Year Four

Chanyeol brushed a hand through his dark hair and gave himself a half smile in the reflection of his bedroom mirror.

Yoora would be arriving any minute now, and while his parents hadn’t mentioned anything about Wei Lin, Chanyeol knew she’d most likely be joining them.

He scrambled for a bottle of cologne and spritzed some onto his collarbone.

After fixing his hair one more time, Chanyeol made his way downstairs.

He felt an odd mixture of nervous and excited this year. He wasn’t quite sure why. Perhaps it was because he had been highly amused by the way Wei Lin had snapped at him and his friends last Christmas and he couldn’t wait till he could push her buttons and make her snap at him yet again.

He paused to eye the gold wrapped box under the Christmas tree. The pile of presents was looking just a bit sparse this year and Chanyeol wondered whether someone had forgotten to do their Christmas shopping.

He shrugged the thought off when the sound of the doorbell permeated the silence.

With a wide grin, Chanyeol walked to the door.

“I’ll get it!” he called out to his mother in the kitchen.

Chanyeol unlocked the door and jerked it open excitedly.

The grin slipped off his face as he took in the figure of his older sister on the doorstep, breathing onto her gloved hands in an attempt to warm them.

“Chanyeol, get out of the way. I’m freezing,” Yoora complained, shoving past him.

Chanyeol stuck his head out and looked around but when he couldn’t spot the short fair-skinned girl he’d been looking forward to meeting all day, he turned back to his sister with a frown.

“Noona, where’s Wei Lin?” he asked.

Yoora blinked, hanging her coat up. “Wei Lin? She’s not coming this year.”

“What?”

“Didn’t mom and dad tell you? Wei Lin is spending Christmas with her family in China this year,” Yoora replied.

Chanyeol’s lips dipped low into a disappointed frown.

“What?” he repeated dumbly.

“How is Wei Lin these days?” Mrs. Park asked Yoora during dinner.

Chanyeol looked up from the food he’d been pushing around his plate.

Mrs. Park had prepared an absolute feast for the four of them, as she did every year. But despite everything tasting amazing, Chanyeol just didn’t feel hungry.

Yoora swallowed her food before giving Mrs. Park a wide grin. “She’s good. She asked me to wish you and dad a Merry Christmas on her behalf.”

Chanyeol frowned. ‘What about me?’ he wondered, bitterly.

“Wei Lin is graduating high school in a few months and she was accepted into Dongguk University in the Film and Media Department. She’ll be starting next Fall,” Yoora continued.

“Oh wow, that’s great news,” Mr. Park voiced out. “Chanyeol, doesn’t your friend go there? What’s his name, Minseok?”

“Yeah, dad, Minseok hyung is in their Music Department,” Chanyeol replied, soullessly.

“Maybe you can ask him to show her around and help her settle in,” Mrs. Park suggested.

Chanyeol bristled at the thought of introducing Wei Lin to Minseok. Minseok was one of Chanyeol’s nicest friends from high school. He was polite, mature and very sweet. But the thought of introducing Wei Lin to him didn't sit right with Chanyeol.

‘I don’t want to burden hyung with that troublesome girl,’ he decided.

The conversation soon shifted to Yoora’s new internship and Chanyeol took the moment to think about the hollow feeling in his heart.

He looked at the gold box under the Christmas tree and frowned.

He had so been looking forward to her reaction to the gift too.

He missed his little red-faced, wide-eyed pet.