She looked so beautiful, standing there underneath the brightly lit, intricately decorated Christmas tree that Victoria had spent so much time preparing the week before. He couldn't help but notice it, not matter how hard he tried. She was laughing at something; a joke Onew had just told her, leaning into him to steady herself.


"Hey Minho, come over here, we need to take a photo of all of us under the tree." Victoria called, motioning to him with her hand.

"Yeah, one second." He replied. Slowly he walked toward the tree and went to stand next to Krystal. 

"Hey Minho, move in a bit closer, I need to fit everyone in." Victoria ordered, testing different angles for the camera as she did.

Cautiously, he inched nearer to Krystal, hesitant to touch her.

"Hey," she said. "You can get a bit closer you know. I don't bite." she smiled.

He laughed weakly.

"Okay, say cheese!" Victoria commanded and Krystal chose that moment to kick the back of Minho's knee so he stumbled forward.

"Krystal." Victoria scolded.

Krystal giggled. "Sorry." And quickly looked over to assess if Minho agreed it was amusing. He wasn't laughing. Instead, he was looking straight at the camera, unsmiling.

"Okay, one more try guys. Smile!" This time, Krystal didn't try anything funny. "Perfect." Victoria praised, finally freeing them of their uncomfortable poses and allowing Minho to get as far away from Krystal as possible.

You see, he'd tried-he really had-to not be in love with her. But he couldn't, no matter what he did. He'd tried to be normal around her, sleeping with other girls…none of it worked. At the moment his tactic was avoiding her, but he knew it probably wouldn't do any good; he was hopelessly and utterly in love with Krystal, and there was nothing he could do to change that.

He walked back over to the coffee table. The others were all admiring the view outside the apartment window, outwardly hoping the rain would soon turn to snow.

Unexpectedly, there was a tap on his shoulder.

"Hey, Minho." Krystal said tentatively.

"Uh, hey, Krystal." Minho replied, not looking at her.

"Are you okay? Because when I tripped you back there you didn't-"

"I'm fine." He stated firmly, forcing himself not to look at her.

Krystal was silent for a few seconds before trying again. "Are you mad at me? I mean, did I do something wrong 'cause-"

"Hey guys!" Onew chimed in.

Neither Minho, nor Krystal answered his greeting.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Were you two having a private conversation, I can come back…" He apologized, backing away.

"No, no Onew. It's fine." Krystal assured.

"Yeah," Minho agreed. "actually, I was just going over to talk to Victoria." he explained and walked over to her, leaving Krystal puzzled and slightly hurt.

"Okay, that was weird…" Krystal said.

"Huh, what was weird?" asked Onew, on a candy-cane as he spoke.

"I think Minho's mad at me." Krystal answered, slightly incredulous.

Onew laughed. "Yeah, if anything, I don't think you should be worried about Minho being mad at you."

"Yeah." She agreed, barely paying any attention to what he was insinuating. "Wait, what? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, nothing." Onew replied, a knowing smile etched onto his face.

 "Onew, tell me." Krystal demanded. But before she could ask anything else, Victoria called dinnertime.

Begrudgingly, Krystal made her way over to the beautifully laid-out dinner table. Everything had been given the greatest attention to detail. Even the place cards were embellished with little green holly leaves and painted-on red berries. Krystal made a mental note to make sure Victoria was in charge of planning her wedding.

"Wow, this is beautiful, Vic." Krystal complimented, forgetting all about Onew's comment.

Victoria smiled. "Thanks, well I wanted to make this special since it's everyone's first Christmas away from home."

Onew smiled at his wife appreciatively. Victoria knew how much Onew missed his family, especially over the holiday season.

"Anyway, let's eat." Victoria continued, proceeding to go into the kitchen and get the turkey as the rest of them found their seats.

As it turned out, Krystal was sitting across from Minho,  Victoria next to Minho, and Onew at the head of the table. As thankful at first that Krystal was about this, as she figured it would give her a chance to talk to Minho, her happiness faded quickly, when Minho avoided her gaze all night. When she asked him questions, he gave her simple, one word answers and tried desperately to avoid any interaction with her at all. Finally, dinner ended.

"Thanks for dinner baby, That was delicious." Onew said contentedly, as Victoria began clearing the plates.

"Yeah, it really was. Hey, I'll help you wash up." Krystal volunteered.

"Thanks."

Krystal and Victoria finished clearing the table and washed the dishes.When they finished washing up, Krystal and Victoria walked back out to the living room.

"Hey, where's Minho?" Krystal asked once they walked out.

"Oh, I think he left." Onew answered.

 "When?" Krystal asked hurriedly.

"Like, five minutes ago. "

Krystal quickly calculated the chances of catching Minho on his way down. She had to try. She needed to find out why he was so mad at her. Quickly, she ran out of the apartment and pressed the button on the elevator.

"Hey Krystal, where are you going?" Victoria called after her, but she was too far gone already.

"Do you think she's finally worked it out yet?" Onew asked.

"God, I hope so." Victoria replied.

 Krystal ran like a crazy woman down the street, Hopefully, Minho hadn't caught a taxi home and had decided to walk. His apartment was only a few blocks away.

Just when she had given up hope of finding him, she saw, across the road, a black-haired figure trudging down the street.

"Minho!" She called. The figure turned around as she ran across to meet him.

"Soojung? What are you doing?" He asked.

"Minho," She began, out of breath. "I need to know why you're mad at me." She finished.

"Krys," He sighed. "I'm not mad at you, I just…"

She looked at him, eyes pleading for explanation.

"I'm, not mad at you." He stated like it was the end of the conversation.

"Then why are you acting like you hate me? Why do you try and avoid me all the time? Why do you-"

"Because I'm in love with you!" He blurted out.

Krystal stood there, stunned. "What did you just say?"

"I said I'm in love with you." He mumbled, toeing the ground with his shoe.

"What do you mean you're in love with me?" She demanded.

"I mean…I don't know what I mean. I just…the last few months have been…weird." he stopped for a second to collect his thoughts. "I don't even know if I am in love with you, all I know is that I just want to be around you all the time. You're all I think about, all I want to wake up to in the morning…" he looked up at her. "And maybe, I was thinking…do you…feel the same way?"

"I don't know Minho, I mean…"

"Yeah," He said dejectedly. "That's what I thought.

"It's just, you're Minho….and…I…" She wasn't sure what to say. She wasn't even sure how she felt. "I like you, it's just…"

"What is it? Why can't we make this work?" he asked with renewed confidence. "Krystal, I think we'd be awesome together, if you feel the same way then I don't see why we shouldn't be together."

  "I…it's just…" She sighed. "I'm scared." She finally said. "I've never really liked anyone like this before. and come on, I mean; how do I know you're not just going to get bored of our relationship after a day and cheat on me?"

He didn't have an answer for this. "I don't know." He stated truthfully. "But, isn't this worth the risk? I love you, Soojung. I love you."

She bit her lip. "I know, Minho. I just…"

"Yeah, it's okay, I get it."

Krystal watched as he turned to leave, heard the thud of his shoes as they hit the pavement. For some reason, this brought on a sudden realisation; they were worth the risk. They were Minho and Krystal, how often did something like what they could have, come along? For the second time that night, she ran down the street like a crazy woman.

She quickly caught up to him. "Minho." She called.

He turned around. "Krystal I-"

Before he could finish his sentence, she kissed him-hard. Pulling him in close and running her fingers through his hair. It was a couple of minutes before they broke apart, both of them grinning.

"You were right; we are worth the risk." She said, and grabbed his hand as they walked down the street, just as it started to snow.

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sooooo :D something stupid what came to my mind, and i thought you will like it so i write this, please write comment! :) and i know it's late but Merry Christmas ! :)