After Sungyeol had exited the dark grey SUV, he along with Woohyun and Sungjong turned towards the two remaining people in the car and bowed politely.

“Thank you, Soeun noona.” They chorused and turned do the same to the stoic American man sitting in the driver’s seat. “Thank you, Louis-ssi.”

When Soeun mentioned how she’d drive the three home earlier, it meant more along the lines of ‘I’ll get my caretaker to drive all of us’ because she had yet to get her driver’s license. Her porcelain cheeks had flushed red in embarrassment as she explained to the three who Louis was briefly before turning all conversations towards their plans for the holidays.

If there were anything Yoon Soeun was an expert at other than making invitation cards and decorative banners, it would have to be evading questions and changing subjects. She had years of practice to perfect that back in America, when she refused to answer anything in detail regarding her family.

“Here, treat this as my Christmas present for all of you.” Soeun said, passing Sungyeol a heavy bag of things. It was just a simple paper bag with Soeun’s shop name stamped across it in a smooth gold, cursive script and tied together at the top with a big red and blue bow. “That should be enough to last you and the other members for the whole of Christmas.”

“What’s that?” Sungjong asked, peeking into the carefully sealed bag.

“Nuh-uh.” Soeun reached over the seats to slap his wandering hands away gently. “You can only open it when you’re home with the others, okay?”

“Thank you, noona!” Woohyun exclaimed and used his arms to form a heart over his head. “You must be an angel. I love you.”

“I love you too, dear.” Soeun returned jokingly, unable to keep a straight face at the ‘aegyo’ he was displaying. Even the usually stony Louis couldn’t keep the small smile off of his face as he studied the four in the rearview mirror. She turned to the other two men and nodded. “You two as well. Take care, boys. And have a wonderful Christmas.”

The three nodded and returned her holiday greetings boisterously. Soeun shut the car door as Louis restarted the engine for their drive back to the shop. With a last parting wave, the SUV slowly made its way out of the car park of Infinite’s apartment building while Woohyun turned to activate the voice-calling machine to ask one of the members to open the door.

“Wah, Soeun noona’s really daebak!” Sungyeol proclaimed, patting the bag he was holding happily. “We should bump into her more often so we can get to eat yummy snacks.”

“You’re such a pig.” Woohyun jabbed a finger into Sungyeol’s forehead and smirked at the hiss of pain he let out. “And that totally don’t make sense a all.”

The ‘choding’ of Infinite ignored his hyung’s comment and continued. “And did you guys see how she blushed when she brought up Gyu-hyung out of the blue?”

Sungjong nodded as the automatic doors swung open. “I think they’ll look cute together.”

“Why is hyung always the one who gets to be match-made?” Woohyun grumbled. “Jimin noona’s already tried to put them together when Soeun noona came to the studio the first time. Why isn’t anyone helping me find a girl?”

“That’s because you’ve got your Inspirit girlfriends already, hyung.” Sungyeol said. “Besides, you’re so greasy, it’s easy for girls to fall for you. You just have to throw some hearts and do some aegyo and you have women dropping to their knees before you. It’s different for Sunggyu-hyung.”

The main vocalist jabbed the elevator button hard. “Why is everyone saying that? Just because I’m cute and attractive and handsome doesn’t mean I don’t need help getting girls.”

“Hyung, just stop.” Sungyeol said. “Sunggyu hyung needs someone more than you do."

“Exactly. He’s too hung up on the past.” Sungjong added as they exited the elevator and walked up to their apartment slowly. “He needs to move on with someone new before she returns and hurt him all over again.”

“Hurt who all over again?”

The three looked up in alarm at the voice and watched, frozen, as Sunggyu narrowed his small eyes at them suspiciously. His apprehensive gaze moved from their slightly guilty expressions to the bags in their hands as his eyebrows shot up at their purchases.

“Whoa, did you guys buy out the whole of Seoul or something?” He asked, opening the pet safety gate to let them into the house.

Before anyone of them could respond, three bundles of furry joy had rushed up towards the four from where they had been playing with the other Infinite members, and immediately began to pounce and paw on the new arrivals’ legs. Excited barks filled the apartment, which Sunggyu tried to stifle in fear of disturbing their neighbours.

“Where did you three go?” Dongwoo asked from his sprawled position on the floor. Sungyeol placed the bag from Soeun in the middle of the living room and sat down in front of it as the other members and even the puppies, crowded around him.

“Unlike you lazy people, we went to get our holiday shopping done before the last-minute crowd comes in.” Woohyun said, taking a seat beside Sunggyu. He pulled Nurungie, the fawn coloured Jindo puppy towards him and turned towards Hoya sharply, “Don’t you dare touch it, Lee Ho Won. I will break your fingers off in your sleep.”

“Okay, okay.” Hoya muttered, putting his wandering hands up in a surrendering stance. “No need to get all defensive.”

“We’re opening Yeol’s presents now?” Myungsoo asked, looking at Sungyeol who was busy untying the bows on Soeun’s bag.

“Remember Jimin noona’s wedding dress designer? We bumped into her while we were on the way back.” Sungjong explained. “Soeun noona was struggling with her shopping so the three of us, being the kind and compassionate idols we are, helped her to carry them to her shop. She treated us to – ”

A loud cheer of elation interrupted Infinite’s youngest when Sungyeol finally managed to get the bag open and shouted, “Peppermint bark and chocolate fudge!”

He pulled out numerous green and red coloured boxes of the treats he had eaten back in Soeun’s store, along with jars of other holiday snacks such as peppermint marshmallows, colourfully iced gingerbread men and candy canes. The band let out low murmurs of amazement as they cast their eyes upon the massive hoard of holiday candies that were laid out in front of them. Even the puppies were rushing up to the food, only to be held back by the strong arms of their foster owners.

“We’re going to get so fat,” Dongwoo muttered.

Sungyeol reached into the bag for the last time and frowned in confusion when he pulled out a small box of honeyed peppermint tea bags and a small mint coloured card tapped onto it. The words ‘The best day of our lives’ was type-printed onto the surface, along with what looked to be two rings locked into each other.

“She even wrote us a card. How the heck did she manage to do all that?” Woohyun asked, snatching the card from Sungyeol. He shushed the band and cleared his throat.

“’Hello Infinite! This is Yoon Soeun here, remember me? Firstly, I am going to apologize for any written mistakes I will make on this card (I actually used a wedding invitation because I haven’t got any Christmas card on hand). My Hangeul isn’t very strong, so I’m sorry if I wrote anything wrongly.’ She wrote Hangeul wrongly. ‘Secondly, Merry Christmas to all of you! I know we’ve only seen each other once (twice for some of you) when I dropped by the studio, but hey, who said you had to know a person well to give them Christmas presents, right? Christmas’ all about the joy of giving, isn’t it? I hope Infinite will enjoy the sweets in the bag and eat them well.’” Before he could continue with the card, however, Woohyun let out a snort and looked up at Sungyeol. “She wrote your name as Sungyo.”

“Shut up,”

“’Sungyo, don’t finish everything on your own, okay? Share it with your other members or you’re going to get a terrible stomachache. Also, I feel bad that I haven’t got anything for your puppies, but I’m sure it’s okay to slip them a little bit of the gingerbread men. Just the gingerbread man though! And only a little! I hope they’ll eat them well too.’ Big smiley face here. ‘Sungyoo-ssi,’” Woohyun snorted again and showed the band her mistake in Sunggyu’s name. “’The box of honeyed peppermint tea is for you. (Or any of the members who has caught the cold) Being sick during the winter holidays is horrible, and I hope the tea will help to make you feel better. Nobody should be sick during Christmas.’ Another smiley face here.”

“’Please enjoy the treats and have a wonderful holiday! Merry Christmas, Infinite and Infinite’s puppies! X-O-X-O, Soeun.’” Woohyun chuckled and folded the card. “She’s so American. X-O-X-O.”

Sungjong passed the box of teabags to their leader and gave him a teasing smile. “Hyung, you better enjoy the tea. She was really concerned about you.”

“Huh?”

Sungyeol took a piece of marshmallow and stuffed it into his mouth as the band started passing the boxes of snacks around. “Yeah, she asked us how you were because you had a cold that day.”

“Oh? Really?” Sunggyu smiled lightly and nodded his head. “That’s nice of her,”

“That’s very nice of her to be concerned over someone she’s only met less than three times.” Sungjong added as he broke off a small, uniced part of the gingerbread cookie for Coco.

Myungsoo looked at the maknae and the leader curiously when he overheard their conversation over the loud comments of the members about Soeun’s snacks. His sharp, intense eyes narrowed in suspicion when he caught the small glint of a smirk tugging on Sungjong’s face as he looked away, and made a mental note to ask him about it later.

Sunggyu on the other hand, couldn’t help but feel a tinge of embarrassment and shy bashfulness creep up on him when he heard what Sungjong had told him. He looked down at the box of honeyed peppermint tea in his hands as a faint heat crawled up his cheeks. Mentally, he couldn’t help but be annoyed at his reactions towards what could only be deemed as an act of friendliness and consideration on Soeun’s part. He had no reason to blush or feel giddy at the thought of having received a special gift out of everyone in the group.

The fact that he was blushing because of that unsettled him.

It had been a long time since something that simple and small had caused him to feel so… pleased. Ever since the debut of Infinite, Sunggyu have had many things to be happy and grateful about – with events ranging from winning their first awards, clinching the top spot on numerous radio charts and album sales charts. But somehow, having received a box of tea that the doe-eyed, freckled cheeked young woman had specially given, him sent a jolt of exhilaration and faint sprightliness rushing through him.

“Hyung, are you okay?” The dazed leader looked up when he finally registered the hand waving in front of his face and the pair of large eyes blinking at him in concern. “Hyung?”

He pushed Dongwoo’s hands away from him. “I’m fine. What do you want?”

“Nothing. I was worried because you looked as if your soul just escaped your body.” The rapper admitted seriously. Sunggyu couldn’t help but laugh at Dongwoo’s 4D personality that came out at random bursts. He offered him a gingerbread man that had been iced with a bright blue outline, to which he refused with a shake of his head and stood up.

“Hyung! Where are you going?”

Sunggyu shook the box in his hands and smiled. “To make tea."

Second part, woooooo. I love my reviewers.

You guys are the best. It's always nice to know when someone appreciates the things you like to do, in this case for me, it's writing ^^

Sub and comment, silent readers <3

hugs and kisses and rainbows and unicorns for all of you!