Something was nagging on his mind the whole night, but he couldn’t tell what it was. No matter how much he tossed and turned, he couldn’t sleep, and he didn’t want to wake his gracious hostess, so he lay still, silent, and awake in the dark of the living room. Once thing he knew was that he wasn’t used to sleeping so high up from the ground. With his hands behind his head, he stared up at the ceiling, trying to figure things out in his head.

My name is definitely Lee Taemin. I was definitely trying to get home to my family for Christmas. I was definitely coming from somewhere important, where I had to be dressed up as Santa.

That was where he ran out of ‘definitely’s, and it all became ‘maybe’, ‘possibly’, ‘probably’, or ‘I just don’t know’. He sighed and looked over. What was that sound he heard? It sounded like whimpering. Did Sona own a cat or a puppy or something? She did live alone, right?

He sat up and looked around. He wasn’t imagining the sound, he was sure of that. He swung his legs over the edge of the couch and leaned forward, looking in the direction of the kitchen. Was someone crying in there? Could it be Sona? And if so, why was she crying? He remembered her sad expression when she talked about not celebrating Christmas. His heart reached out to her, even though his body was frozen to the couch.

     Sona couldn’t sleep either. All she could think of was her boyfriend and her sister and how it was impossible for her to spend Christmas with either one of them. She really did want to celebrate Christmas, as much as she tried to deny it. But she couldn’t do it alone. And she couldn’t do it with this pain in her heart. When she looked over and saw that her clock read past midnight, she gave up on sleep and headed to the kitchen for a glass of water. That was when she couldn’t take it anymore and she broke down. She set the cup down on the counter with a clunk that she hoped didn’t wake Taemin. She back up against the wall adjacent to the glass balcony door, slid to the floor, and cried into her knees.

Why Christmas? Why does Christmas, which is supposed to be the best time of year, have to be the hardest for me? Why me? She pressed her hands to hard to stifle her sobs. Get a hold of yourself. What if Taemin wakes up and finds you like this?

“Sona?” Her head shot up at the quiet voice.

“Taemin!” She gasped, but didn’t move to stand up like every muscle in her body suddenly had the urge to do. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up. Go back to sleep. I’m ok.”

He shook his head and sat beside her. “You didn’t wake me up. I couldn’t sleep anyway. I think at my home, I normally sleep on a futon…”

“Oh, I’m sorry. You can take my room if you need to. I’m not sleeping tonight.”

He grinned. “You’re too kind. I don’t need to take you room. I can’t sleep either.”

Sona looked up at him. “Well, you shouldn’t stay up on account of me.”

He shook his head again. “It’s not you. Don’t worry about it.”