“Minho?” Onew knocks on Minho’s door without much patience before opening the bedroom door, “Minho?” Onew calls again, a frown on his face. Even though Onew himself liked sleeping in, he knew that the person in SHINee who loved sleeping more than anyone else was Minho. Though it was unusually weird for the tallest member of SHINee to still be sleeping at this time.

“Minho!?” Onew called louder this time, he walked up to the other’s bed and gently shook the other by the shoulders, “you have to wake up, if you miss breakfast again, Kibum is going to dice and then fry you.”

Receiving no sign of awareness from the sleepyhead, the leader of SHINee pulled off Minho’s covers in a fell swoop, “Minho! Stop being a child and wake up!”

Sighing, Onew ran a hand through his hair, he was half wishing that he hadn’t offered to go wake Minho up. Pursing his lips, Onew sneakily placed his hands on Minho’s cheeks and pinched with a suitable amount of strength. When Minho did nothing but frown and tilt his head, Onew let go and sighed again. He considered if slapping Minho silly would wake the younger boy up.

“Khun~”

Onew stared blankly at the younger SHINee member and thought hard about the name Minho had let slip in his sleep. Minho’s recent lack of sleep must have something to do with the dreaded ‘Khun’. As Onew forcefully pulled Minho off the bed, he decided confidently that he was going to have a word with 2PM’s Nichkhun.

A sharp pain quickly rung through Minho’s head as he landed on the floor. Instantaneously, Minho’s eyes fluttered open, his hands quickly reaching behind his head to nurse the pain. It did not take long for Minho to notice Onew’s presence, “oh…Jinki-hyung, good morning”

Giving Minho a disapproving look, Onew ruffled the other’s short hair, “you need to sleep earlier from now on. I can’t have you sleeping in this much every morning.”

“I’m sorry”, Minho apologised with a pout, “I promised I’ll start sleeping earlier, just…can you let me sleep in a little more today, please?”

“So”, Onew ignored Minho’s plead and scanned the room quickly once before staring at his dongsaeng, “at what time does he come visit you? What time does he leave to give you bags that are even heavier than usual?”

“Huh?” Minho blinked blankly at his leader.

“Don’t pretend!” Onew narrowed his eyes at the young adult, “Nichkhun has been coming to see you late at night right? He’s keeping you up all night so that’s why you’ve been so tired and even more sleep deprived than usual right?”

“Eh!?” Minho looked with shock at the other, “no! That’s not it! He’s as busy as us recently, he barely even has the time to text me!”

“Stop denying it!” Onew stared suspiciously at Minho, “if I can’t get the information from you, I’ll pry the information from Nichkhun himself.”

Minho’s eyebrows furrowed, he couldn’t believe that his hyung wouldn’t even believe him, and to even suspect him so deeply, it was a strange feeling in which Minho didn’t understand how he should even analyse it, “hyung, you know that we have to practice hard for our upcoming concert, you won’t be able to find time to interrogate Khun even if you want to.”

“Whatever, I’ll find time, now you have to go clean yourself up and eat breakfast”, Onew commanded before he walked out of the bedroom confidently.

Minho yawned and got up from the floor. It was Christmas Eve, but that didn’t mean he could slack off from work. It was going to be a long, long day.

From Khun

Min-ah~ I finish late tonight, so I don’t think I can see you tonight. Forgive me.

From Min

It’s okay, I finish late today too…It’s a shame we won’t be able to spend either Christmas Eve or Christmas together, but we’ll have plenty of chances in the future. ^o^

SHINee’s Minho sighed heavily before he pocketed his phone. He couldn’t stop himself from feeling slightly disappointed, but he was mature enough to accept and understand his current circumstances.

.

.

.

“Jinki-hyung, I’m going out for a bit, I’ll be back soon!” Minho told Onew as he stepped out of the SHINee dorm carrying two bags, one of them being a Christmas present for Nichkhun and the other bag carrying a thermal container filled with soup. Before Minho could even properly step out of the dorm, he felt someone pulling the hood of the jacket he was wearing.

Turning around curiously, Minho gave the person pulling on his jacket a weird stare, “hyung? What is it?”

Jonghyun gave a Minho a grim smile and let go of the other’s jacket, “Jinki-hyung told me that you better be back soon.” The lead singer of SHINee ignored Minho’s innocent stare and continued talking, “he told me to tell you that if you don’t come home soon, the next time he sees your precious Nichkhun, he’d chop his hands off for your sake~”

Pouting, Minho straightened his jacket, “you say it as though it’s a joke.”

A silly smile was plastered on Jonghyun’s face as he saw Minho off, “Minho! There’s a lot of people out there celebrating Christmas Eve, so be careful, have fun and come back soon!”

Chuckling a little, Minho quickly made his way through the snowy roads. He checked the time and noted that it really was late and quickened his pace even more. It was a coincidence when Minho passed by a café and saw a familiar face. It was 2PM’s Nichkhun. Minho paused a little and took a curious peek through the café window.

‘Oh, he’s filming for We Got Married~ No wonder he’s finishing late.’ Minho thought as he nodded seriously before taking off again, heading towards the 2PM dorms. Just seeing the other’s face, even for just a couple of seconds lit a beautiful smile on Minho’s face.

It was only when Minho found a crying child on the streets did he stop in his tracks again.

“What’s wrong?” Minho asked the child, squatting so that he was at the same level of the child, “why are you crying?” Noting that the child was wearing thin clothes, Minho hastily took off his own jacket and placed it around the child, “please stop crying.”

The child continued to hide his tear filled face and rub his eyes.

“Are you lost?” Minho asked again.

Nodding, the child did not stop crying.

Gently gathering the child into his arms, Minho stood up with a worried expression, “it’s okay, don’t cry, I’ll take you to the police and then you’ll be able to get home, don’t cry.” With that, Minho carried the child who was not much older than Yoogeun to the police station.

Even though it was a detour and he had left his soup with the lost child, Minho’s smile was still firmly placed. To Minho, the snowy December night felt colder than before without his jacket, even though he was shivering a little and his nose was red and a little drippy, the cold did not act as a deterrent to his happy expression.

When Minho had finally arrived at 2PM’s dorm, it was 2PM’s Junho who opened the door for him.

“Good evening~” Minho greeted with a tired smile and a warm hug.

Junho returned the gesture enthusiastically.

“Junho-hyung, could you please give this to Khun for me?” Minho handed the older artist the bag with Nichkhun’s birthday present in it.

“Aww~ And let me guess, Minho didn’t bring anything for me?” Junho faked a pout before rushing a cold looking Minho into the warm dorm.

“Ah, I did bring you soup…but well, forget it”, Minho laughed nervously before rejecting Junho’s kind gesture into the dorm, “I need to go home soon, otherwise leader-sshi is going behead someone.”

Giving a scared look, Junho decided it was best not to keep Minho any longer, “Minho, I’ll go get you one of Khun-hyung’s jackets, so just wait a bit.”

Nodding, Minho thanked the other and tried to temporarily warm up himself by rubbing his arms through his jumper.

Taking the offered jacket with sincere gratitude, Minho took his leave and treaded back home with a silly smile on his face, “the jacket smells like you”, Minho giggled to himself as he walked back to his dorm. What Minho hadn’t expected was for Onew to be not so patiently waiting for him at the door.

“Minho”, Onew lifted his wrist and checked the time, “you’re home later than expected.” Onew gave the younger a challenging stare.

“Oh”, Minho smiled hesitantly, “I had to drop a lost child at the police station earlier”

“Oh?” Onew looked at Minho with little belief.

“It’s true!” Minho stressed, “I even gave him my jacket because he looked so cold, and I left my soup for him at the police station too”

“And so that’s why you came home wearing a different jacket”, Onew mostly speculated to himself.

“It’s Khun’s jacket…” Minho explained quietly.

“Ah!” Onew suddenly came to a realisation, “Nichkhun-sshi hasn’t been coming over to our dorm late at night, but Minho, you’ve been sneaking over to the 2PM dorms haven’t you!?”

Flabbergasted, Minho was shocked, he had not even imagined that Onew could come to such a ridiculous conclusion, “Jinki-hyung! Khun hasn’t been sneaking over here and I haven’t been sneaking there, I’ve just…”

Onew lightly tapped his foot as he waited for a truthful explanation.

“I’ve been sleeping less hours because I’ve taken time out from when I should be sleeping to knit…” Minho explained shyly, his eyes unable to look directly into Onew’s eyes.

“So in the end, your Nichkhun is still the perpetrator for your severe lack of sleep”

“What?” Minho looked at Onew with awe, he hadn’t even said anything about knitting for Nichkhun but SHINee’s leader had guessed correctly already.

Sighing, Onew looked at Minho with a gentle expression, “Minho, it’s late, even though it is Christmas Eve, I’d much rather have you sound asleep at this time”, with that, the leader of SHINee pushed into the bathroom, “clean up and then go to bed okay?”

Blinking blankly, Minho quickly cleaned himself up before crawling back into his haven – his bed.

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.

.

“Hello Khun-hyung~”

“Ah, Junho, what is it?” Nichkhun asked, holding his phone close to his ear.

“I heard you weren’t coming back tonight after filming?” Junho asked queerily.

“Yeah”

“Oh”

“Why?” Nichkhun asked Junho, wondering if something happened that required his presence straight away.

There was a small pause before Junho answered, “nothing, just, Minho came by a bit before and dropped off your Christmas present.”

“Ah, just place it on my bed, thank-you. Funny enough, I’m actually going over to Minho’s place tonight”

“So late!?” Junho checked the time again and knew instantly that Nichkhun really was a bit silly in the head.

“I did think about not going tonight because it’s already so late, but I really want to see him…”

Junho sighed at Nichkhun’s mellow voice, “hyung, you know, he’s probably sleeping at this time.”

Nichkhun’s deep laughter rang softly into the night, “it’s okay, he knows I’m a selfish person, all I want for Christmas is to be with him, even if he’s asleep, I’ll still be satisfied.”

“You’re so weird”, Junho muttered before hanging up.

Shrugging, Nichkhun pocketed his phone and continued trudging through the snow. When Nichkhun had finally arrived at the SHINee dorm, he wondered if he should ring the bell or call their phone. As Nichkhun racked his brain in consideration, the door suddenly flew open.

“Come in”, Onew gave the other a warm smile.

Nichkhun laughed nervously as he walked into the familiar SHINee dorm, “how did you know I was out there?” he asked Onew.

“Intuition”, Onew replied curtly.

“Oh”

“Minho told us that you were busy tonight, so the two of you wouldn’t be meeting up, but I could guess that you’d come anyway”

Nichkhun applauded quietly at SHINee’s leader’s intellect.

“Our Minho is already sleeping, so I’d appreciate it if you don’t wake him up”, Onew gave Nichkhun a sceptical look, “I bet you’re planning on sleeping over tonight”, Onew handed a few bathroom necessities and a set of pyjamas to the taller artist, “you should be able to fit into Minho’s clothes.”

Nichkhun took the clothes with a small, “thanks.”

Smiling a little, Onew looked at the time before yawning, “well, I’m going off to bed now”, he took a glance at Nichkhun, “you can go be the extra blanket for Minho, he was saying it was rather cold tonight”

As Nichkhun was about to walk into the bathroom, he suddenly heard Onew’s voice from behind, giving him a fright as he jumped a little and turned around nervously to see what else Onew had to say.

“If you”, Onew scrutinised Nichkhun’s expression, “if you even try do anything to Minho, if you even think about violating him, I’m going to personally make sure that you turn into eunuch.”

The only thing Nichkhun could do was nod dumbly as his skin paled considerably. The love and protection between the SHINee members did scare him a little sometimes.

When the 2PM member had finished cleaning himself up, he quietly snuck into Minho’s bedroom. Because he was so familiar with the layout of the room, he could easily manoeuvre around the moon-lit room without hurting himself too much. Nichkhun easily found his way towards Minho.

What Nichkhun found was his sleeping beauty cuddling with something. A twinge of jealous rose from Nichkhun’s thoughts as he stared at Minho holding tightly onto what looked like a jacket. As soft as possible, Nichkhun crept onto the bed, his movement stopping when Minho would shift in his sleep, the last thing he wanted to do was to wake Minho up when the other was sleeping so peacefully.

“Khun~” Minho shifted his body uncomfortably so that he was unknowingly facing Nichkhun.

Frozen, Nichkhun did not know what to think as he stared at Minho’s slumbering expression. He felt immensely honoured for Minho to murmur his name in his sleep, but when he noticed that Minho only clutched even tighter onto that jacket, Nichkhun could not help but let his expression turn sour. With determination, Nichkhun held his breath and began prying Minho’s grasp from the jacket he was holding onto.

When Nichkhun had finally won the battle and taken the jacket from the sleeping Minho, he breathed a sigh of relief. And it was only then did he notice that the jacket belonged to him. Confused, Nichkhun did not leave his focus on the jacket for long. Neatly, he folded the jacket that didn’t look as hateful as before and placed it aside.

Nickhun slipped slowly under the covers and naturally, his arms went around Minho, pressing his warm chest against Minho. With love, his hands moved a little to caress silky skin, his fingers trailed over Minho’s plump lips, caressing soft cheeks before finally moving back to hold the other protectively.

“Min-ah, Merry Christmas”, Nichkhun whispered in English before leaning in to place the lightest of light kisses on Minho’s forehead, “good night.”