"So how was China, hyung?" asked Jongin as he sipped happily on his cup of coffee. They had retreated to a slightly busy cafe just across the Kim Entertainment building, wanting to be comfortable as they had their catching up talk especially since it would most likely be a particularly long one.

Minseok heaved a satisfied sigh after wafting in the fragrant scent of the caramel mocha in his hands. "It wasn't bad. Not bad at all! There are a lot of talented people back there, and it was really fun! I'm glad uncle suggested that I go there to scout some people. How did Henry go? Did he get in? He's a pretty talented one, that kid."

The breeze was a great comfort from the harsh heat of the summer season and Jongin was grateful for it. "Henry… Henry… Ah! That Chinese guy you sent who was Canadian too if I remember correctly. Yeah, he got in I think. I wasn't there for the audition but I've seen his face around since you sent me a picture."

"He was Canadian? I didn't know that."

"Yeah, neither did we until we saw his application," Jongin stretched his arms then placed them behind his head to lean on. He then pouted. "By the way hyung, why did you never come back even just for a vacation or something? I really missed you!"

"Well, contrary to popular belief, I was actually pretty busy back there. I was pretty swamped with stuff." Minseok took another sip of his coffee.

They continued talking for a while, enjoying each other's company after two years of separation. They talked about Minseok's adventures in China and Jongin's there in the homeland-how his dad had decided that he would be the heir to the company and not his eldest sister. Within moments, the atmosphere around them had turned even warmer, if that was even possible, and anyone within a thirty metre radius would have been affected by their fluffiness.

"Are you sure you want to hear about it?" Minseok uncertainly asked a much too eager looking Jongin across from him.

"Yes! Yes, please hyung," Jongin replied, giving his rare puppy eyes that were usually reserved for the direst situations. And Minseok was speaking from experience. "Please?"

Darn those eyes. It was going to be a painful re-telling the story. One day. One day he would overcome those darn eyes that he was never able – and still is – to overcome.

"For goodness’ sake Jongin. Your eyes! The eyes! What did I tell you about the eyes!" exclaimed Minseok dramatically covering his eyes to block his view of Jongin, making the said boy double over in laughter. “I can never say no when you do that!”

Calming down, Jongin sat back down properly onto his seat as he clutched his stomach which had started aching from too much laughter. “And that’s exactly why I do it, hyung!”

Defeated, Minseok heaved a slightly exasperated sigh. “One day, Jongin. One day! I will defeat those eyes!” That earned a hearty chuckle from the said boy and he readied himself for the task he was about to do. “Oh screw this. So back in China, I was walking around the small town I was in at that time, as you can probably tell, scouting some talents. I told you that I constantly changed where I stayed for the second year right? Yeah, when I was walking around this one –I forgot what it was called– and then BAM! I don’t know how but there was a pineapple glued to the freaking ground and then I tripped on that. That wasn’t even the worst part! I somehow ended up double tripping straight into a trash can. Don’t ask me how because I really have no idea, it was just somehow conveniently placed there.”

By that time, Jongin was already in the verge of crying from too much laughter, slapping his thigh repeatedly and making hyperventilating sounds that scared the daylights out of Minseok. His voice was loud and he grabbed the attention of everyone in the café. Some were giving him weird looks and others (mostly the girls) were ogling him.

“And you know what the worst part was? There was this guy who saw apparently everything and started laughing his off! Goodness that was one of the most embarrassing things I’ve done ever. I had to walk back to where I was staying literally smelling like trash!” said Minseok, recollecting the embarrassing memory so vividly it was almost as if it had just happened. He covered his face with his palms, groaning at both the humiliating memory and Jongin’s reaction.

“You are amazing, hyung!” Jongin managed to giggle out between his guffaws.

The older really wanted to just forget the whole thing and take the spotlight off of him. “Alright, alright! Enough about me, what about you? Anything interesting happen while I was gone?”

It took a few moments for the younger to calm down enough to be able to speak without having to hyperventilate in the middle of his words. He wiped a tear that had escaped his right eye with his thumb. “That made my stomach hurt a lot! Okay, well there’s dad deciding I should be the heir to the company instead of Jiyung noona. I think it’s because she said she wanted to be a doctor to him and he agreed. I told you that she’s studying abroad in Harvard right?”

Minseok nodded but something was still intriguing him. “Then why not Jihyun noona?”

“Jihyun noona is the same except she wants to be a designer and she’s still here in Korea.” Jongin shrugged, of course, that leaves him as his dad’s last choice. It wasn’t that he was the last choice because he was incompetent, the old fart had said, it was only because he was young and he needed a lot more learning to do.

Minseok’s mouth formed an “o” shape and he nodded again slowly. “I see.”

“Well there’s that. And oh! Hyung, I think I’ve found more really talented people to recruit!”

The older raised his eyebrows, the last time Jongin had “found” talented people to recruit a few years back, they turned into SHINee, one of the biggest K-pop groups to this day. Since then, Jongin hadn’t really “found” anyone who he thought had the potential to be big. He was Kim Entertainment’s ace, if you will – he somehow always new which people would be big and snuffed the talented ones out like a dog. SHINee was definitely a good example of that. Come to think of it, Uncle probably planned to get Jongin to take over all along, thought Minseok.

“Really now?”

“Mhmm! Well there’s a certain guy I really have my eyes on. I met him when I accidentally destroyed his cake and his coffee by bumping straight into him when I was running around.” Jongin replied looking a bit too happy that he had destroyed a stranger’s cake.

“That’s a nice way of meeting someone for the first time, no?”

“Oh hush, hyung. It was by accident! Anyway, so I compensated for it and he is actually so cute! He has the cutest and the biggest doe eyes I’ve ever seen which adds even more to his charm since he’s really short too. I gave him my number and then a few days later we talked on the phone and we decided that we should hang out. Turns out he’s a college freshman and on the day we watched a movie… It was The Human Centipede…” Jongin shivered at the mention of the movie’s name and Minseok’s eyes widened in astonishment.

“But you’re horrible with horror movies… You’re still scared of Coraline and you literally pissed yourself when we watched Paranormal Activity One for goodness’ sake! And it wasn’t even that scary!”

“Yeah, well.”

“This guy must be hella special for you to watch the whole movie with him.”

Jongin scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. “Well, about that… We weren’t really able to watch the whole movie… I may or may not have completely freaked out at the surgery part and had to leave…”

At that, it was Minseok’s turn to start laughing hysterically, slamming a fist onto the wooden table repeatedly just as Jongin had done with his thighs earlier. “You…” he began, trying extremely hard to stop himself from laughing too hard. “You are freaking amazing!”

“Shut up! No!”

The older smirks. “So you aren’t amazing? Not that I didn’t know that already, you can’t even compare to my fabulous, Jonginnie-ah!”

“That’s–”

“Hush, my little bro. The more you accept it, the better you’re off.”

Jongin rolls his eyes and sighs. “Anyway… He has a beautiful voice and his friends are all talented too. I just need to tell him about me now… and about this too.”

Minseok raised an eyebrow imploringly. “Wait, so you haven’t told him about you?”

Jongin nodded, leaning backwards to get more comfortable in his cushioned chair. “I just you know, haven’t found the right time. When I tell people about me, I seem to attract more people who just try to become my friend because of my position. I don’t like that.”

The much understanding and awesome hyung he is, the older nods in agreement. “I understand. Don’t drag it on for too long though, I’m sure he’ll be upset if you do.”

“Yeah,” then a pause. “He’s a huge TVXQ fan too. I wonder what his reaction will be if I told him TVXQ works for our company,” Jongin chuckles, imagining the doe eyed elder fanboy and spasm on the floor as he tries to manage to coherently ask Jongin to get an autograph or something.

“Oh? That’s great the–” Minseok started, but got cut off by his BoA Disturbance ringtone. He looked at Jongin, “Excuse me a moment.” And he stood up and walked just outside the café to have some privacy.

Jongin sunk further back into the chair and then checked his watch. 4:35pm. Wow. Had it been more than three hours already? As he waited for his cousin, he let his mind wander to thoughts about Kyungsoo. The way he smiled, his surprisingly badass sniping skills, his irresistibly adorable pout – the way he would laugh or react to whatever Jongin said or did. His charming bow-shaped lips that looked so perfect for kissing…

Wait. No. He wasn’t meant to think about his cute hyung like that. Kim Jongin, what the hell were you thinking just then huh?

A few more minutes passed and Minseok comes back looking like he was in a hurry. “I’m sorry Jongin-ah, but my dad just called and he said he needed me for something so I have to go,” he apologised as he grabbed his bag and coffee. “We’ll probably be having dinner over at your place tonight though. See you tonight! Oh, and say hi to auntie for me as well would you?”

Jongin smiled and nodded, bidding farewell to his cousin who then hastily started walking back to the Kim Entertainment building.

--Seoul National University—

“Ugh, I really need to work on my high notes…” groaned Kyungsoo as he collapsed onto the piano chair next to Baekhyun who was just playing a few moments beforehand.

“Well I need to practise the part in the bridge, I can never seem to get it right,” came Baekhyun’s gruff response, flipping through the sheets to find the phrase he spoke of.

The two had been practising together for a while in one of the soundproof music rooms that the University offered. Their music professor had told them about their new assignment. They were all supposed to go into pairs and perform an arranged song of their choice and one that they had composed themselves by the end of the two months they were given. Naturally, the two midget best friends automatically gravitated towards each other when it was time to pick their partners in crime.

“You know what, let’s take a break. This is giving me grey hairs and I’m only twenty damn it,” Baekhyun declared, fishing his phone out of his pocket in an instant. Kyungsoo agreed and then looked over Baekhyun, who was hunched over his phone’s shoulder to take a peek at what the latter was doing.

“Hey, Baekhyun-ah, who’re you texting?” asked Kyungsoo, craning his neck to get a better look at the name of the person Baekhyun was texting. What he saw surprised him, but then again not really. “Chanyeol?”

“Hnn.”

“I swear everyone around me is turning gay.”

At that remark, Baekhyun snapped his head around to face the former. “I most definitely am not. What the heck, Soo!” A quick flick to Kyungsoo’s forehead was what followed Baekhyun’s retaliation, making the poor boy scrunch his face up in the sting that the feminine boy’s fingers brought.

“Ow! Seriously Baekkie, how can such pretty fingers inflict so much pain and violence? Such impossibuhuru!” Kyungsoo whined, placing a hand on top of the injured area and rubbing it softly. Baekhyun smirked then stuck his tongue out.

“Merong~”

“And you’re supposed to be older than me…”

“Yah!”

-A few minutes of playful strangling and wrestling later-

“Alright, come on. Let’s get back to work,” Kyungsoo decides finally, sitting back onto the piano seat before clearing his throat and fixing his dishevelled, panting self from the ‘fight’ up. He was in really dire need of a work out.

Baekhyun was still on the floor laughing and Kyungsoo stretched his hand out to offer the laughing boy. He took it and sat down next to his best friend, fixing himself up as well.

“Alright, let’s do this!”

The next few hours – about three – were spent practising and perfecting Taeyang’s “Wedding Dress” with both boys singing and harmonising while Baekhyun played the piano at the same time. The room was filled with beautiful sounds – with Baekhyun and Kyungsoo’s mellow voices and the matching piano accompaniment. Lost in their own little world, the two continued until the sun had started to kiss the sky good night and the stars had started peeking out from their hiding places.

“That should be enough for now, great job today Baek. Your singing and piano was incredible as usual.” Kyungsoo complimented his friend who blushed. Ever since he was a child, Baekhyun could never really take a compliment. He would always either say that someone was better or “not really”, until now. He had started to try to learn how to accept them and not brush them off, which was good, because Baekhyun really needed to start loving himself more.

“You too, Soo. As per usual.” Baekhyun complimented back and the two laughed lightly as they packed their belongings and headed out of the building and the university itself.

Their other friends, Sehun, Luhan and Tao had already gone on home preferring to stay on their nice comfy beds instead of waiting in the summer heat for the two of them.

“Summer’s coming into an end, isn’t it?” said Kyungsoo out of the blue happily, ecstatic that the stinging heat of the weather would soon come to a halt and then replaced by his favourite season of the year – winter.

Baekhyun, who shared the same sentiments as the former, nodded eagerly. “Yep! Only a few more days until November. Do you think we’re gonna have a white Christmas this year, Soo?” he asked. “I really want to wear that scarf Hyunsik hyung gave me on my birthday.”

“Hmm, I don’t know. I doubt it, seeing as the last time we did get a white Christmas was what, six years ago now?”

“Aw. Oh well, it doesn’t matter. At least it’ll be cold, and Christmas is coming!” Baekhyun cheered as he clapped his hands like some mental seal then somehow made a chupa chup appear out of nowhere. He ripped the wrapper off the lollipop and then put it inside his mouth.

Strawberries and cream flavour.

“Hnn. So what are you getting Chanyeol?” Kyungsoo smirked, causing Baekhyun to bite on the candy and almost shatter his teeth to a millions of tiny pieces.

“What the !” 

Merry Christmas! (Though I'm late by a few days. I'm so, so , so sorry) Christmas parties everywhere ever since the holidays started (and even before it did) so I'm really so sorry I'm such a slow updater. 

I'm going to try and update tomorrow, but I'm not sure that I can guarantee it :( 

Anyways, as always, I hope you like it :D

MY MIRACLES IN DECEMBER ALBUMS AND POSTERS HAVE ARRIVED AND I'M CRYING BECAUSE IT IS SO BEAUTIFUL ;_;

Merry Christmas!