Today was Christmas day. There was a massive snow storm currently hitting town, every building in sight was covered with dusty white snow. Some unfortunate souls could be seen walking against the wind, and most probably towards their doom, in the harsh weather while seven people were seating on a large L-shaped couch in Jae Suk's living room, a mug of hot chocolate in their hands.

"I'm guessing that by now, you all know that Ji Hyo and I have broken up? I felt the need to clarify since some of you might have the idea that I got cheated on, which is not the case at all." Gary said. "We have been immensely happy together but things changed, therefore, we decided that we were better off just being friends."

"You sound like you're having a press conference at the White House." Kwang Soo resisted the urge to clap and bombard him with questions like a reporter would.

"We've actually been separated for a few months now, we just didn't feel ready to tell you about it." Ji Hyo looked at Gary, as he nodded silently. "Given the circumstances, it was best to tell you now, before you went off making assumptions about my faithfulness to Gary oppa." She glanced at Haha, accusingly, to which he pleaded guilty.

"I'm sorry, Ji Hyo-ah, but in my defense, the pictures look like the real deal!" Haha insisted as he naively waved the tabloid magazine in front of her eyes, which Byul tried to stop by putting his hand down and sending him signals through intense stares that what he was doing was a bit insensitive.

Kyeong Eun, Jae Suk's wife, returned to the living room with a tray full of snacks on one hand and her son holding onto her other hand. Jae Suk immediately stood up from his seat and went to give her a hand. "What's going to happen to the Monday Couple?" She asked as she sat down with Ji Ho in her lap.

"From what I remember from a meeting about lovelines I had with the pds, Monday Couple will have to be put to a halt since Ji Hyo's in a public relationship." Gary said, thinking back to the past, to the time when he and Ji Hyo were still strangers.

Despite the fact that the house was decorated in a festive-looking way, the atmosphere was not merry. Everyone was worried about the repercussion the news would have on the show and their jobs. The music coming from Ji Ho's animal toys could not hide the deafening silence in the living room. The Running Man members were lost in their thoughts. Ji Hyo, Kwang Soo and Jong Kook would occasionally glance at one another knowingly before looking away. Haha would rub Byul's ever growing belly, patiently awaiting the baby's arrival in a few months. Gary would stare pensively at his fingers while Suk Jin would pat his knee comfortingly, aware that the rapper still had some lingering feelings for the actress next to him. 

"Okay, everyone. Today's Christmas, so let's put aside all our problems and worries for the next five hours." Jae Suk spoke up after noticing how gloomy everyone was. "We're all free on the same time for once. I say we pretend nothing happened and try to enjoy ourselves as much as possible."

Kwang Soo agreed. "Hyung is right. Let's at least have fun for Ji Ho's sake." He reached out to the little boy and held his tiny hand. "I'm sure he wants to see all his aunts and uncles smile!"

"Do you want to open your presents?" Haha asked Jae Suk's son, to which he nodded with a toothy grin and ran to grab all the wrapped gifts sitting under the chrismas tree, dropping some of them on the floor out of excitement and eagerness and simultanously earning a few chuckles from the members.

The rest of the night went by quite smoothly, with no one mentionning the possible complications from Ji Hyo's sudden relationship announcement. Most of the guests left earlier than planned due to the snow storm, except for the Kook-Hyo-Soo trio who were forced to sleep over at Jae Suk's because the Grasshopper was afraid they'd get stuck outside in the storm since they all lived so far away. 

As he went to get some blankets and some pillows for his dongsaengs, he reminded Ji Hyo the deal they had a few days ago, which was that, in the case Ji Ho preferred his gift, she was to babysit him for one evening. To everyone's surprise, the kid did prefer the weird looking giraffe his dad got him to the more traditional giraffe from his mom. He made sure the three friends were comfortable sleeping on the floor in the recently renovated guestroom, wished them a merry christmas before turning off the lights and telling them to go to sleep. 

After making sure that the Nation's MC was out of hearing distance, Jong Kook sat up straight and spoke up. Ji Hyo, who was lying between the Framer and the Commander, turned to him and propped herself up on her elbow, giving him her full attention, as did Kwang Soo.

"There was a time when we couldn't even be in each other presences without there being an awkward silence. Look at us three now, we're even sleeping in the same room!" 

Truth be told, after two years alongside her male family members, Ji Hyo was comfortable sleeping in the same room as the others. They already knew what she looked like in the morning so it was completely fine for her to room with the men of the Running family. There have been quite a few times when the crew and the pds had to go to the ends of the earth to find a room large enough to accomodate the actress. They thoughts that, because she was a woman, she needed something large and luxurious when all she asked for was a place to sleep and to shower. 

"Two men and one woman spending the night in the same room...Think of all the headlines it would make if something like that happened on air!" Ji Hyo pitched in, amused.

Kwang Soo and Jong Kook grinned, relieved that their Ace was still able to joke around in spite of the circumstances. After a short moment of silence, Jong Kook asked about her current state of mind.

"How are you feeling?" He took her free hand in his own, looking at her worriedly.

"I'm fine. Really. We're all making it seem like the CEO thing is worst than it really is." She sat up. "I mean, I just need to pull through for a few months and then, we'll announce that we've broken up and everything will go back to normal."

Kwang Soo smiled widely and squeezed her knee proudly. "That's the mindset, noona! Don't worry about a thing and just think of this as an opportunity to improve your acting skills." 

Ji Hyo nodded slowly. "In the meantime, I guess we'll have to keep our touchy-feeliness to a minimum. Or at least, to an amount considered as normal between purely platonic friends."

"Right." Jong Kook agreed and lied down on the floor.

"I'm going to hit the covers. Feel free to talk though, I'm a heavy sleeper." Kwang Soo yawned. "Sweet dreams."

After making sure that Kwang Soo was off to dreamland, Ji Hyo scooted over to Jong Kook's and asked him whether she made the right decision. He told her that if he was in her shoes, he would've told the truth and admit to his relationship with her. He had nothing to be scared of but then again, he was a well-respected, almost veteran, male singer in the business whereas she was a relatively new actress, considering the amount of recognition she got in the industry before making it big on Running Man. 

"But I respect your decision. I understand that being a female actor has a lot more negative sides than I can imagine. I wouldn't want you to get harassed by haters because I selfishly wanted to announce our relationship. Perhaps, if we lived in a society a bit less male-centric, we would've been able to go public fearlessly." 

Ji Hyo smiled faintly; Jong Kook had a way with words that always seem to calm her down.

Soon after, the couple fell asleep. There was complete silence in Jae Suk's house and nothing could be heard except the purring from the heater. A car would occasionally drive by, some kpop blasting out of the speakers, disrupting the peace that surrounded the neighborhood, before silence took over again.

Despite Kwang Soo's goodhearted wish that they'd all go to the land of sweet dreams, Ji Hyo had a restless night. She woke up from some frighteningly vivid nightmares every few hours before going back to slumber, the process repeating itself throughout the entire night. Needless to say, she woke up the next morning exhausted and looking worse than ever.

Since the sun hadn't risen yet, Ji Hyo quietly got out of the room she shared with the two grown men and tip toed her way to the kitchen. To her surprise, Jae Suk was already awake, his hair sticking out in a few places just like she remembered from her first time on Family Outing. With a cup of green tea in one hand and a plate of pancakes in the other, he went to sit down next to Ji Ho.

"Good morning, oppa. You're up early."

Jae Suk squinted his barely awake eyes at Ji Hyo and yawned while cutting the pancakes into bite-size pieces. "I should say the same about you. Had trouble falling asleep?"

Ji Hyo sighed as he went to brew a much needed cup of coffee for her. She glanced around the dining area before her eyes landed on Jae Suk's offspring's failed attempts at trying to eat the pancakes with chopsticks. She picked up the chopsticks and started feeding the little guy.

"You eat so well!" She exclaimed as he grabbed a piece of the food with his fingers and put it in Ji Hyo's mouth. She laughed along with Ji Ho. Jae Suk returned and looked on, a grin etched onto his face. 

"Ji Hyo would make a great mother." He thought. She definitely had the mom gene, regardless of the roughness she expressed on the show. Caring for others came naturally to her, it didn't matter if they were her friends or kids in need residing in poorer countries. "I'm looking forward to you babysitting Ji Ho. I'm sure you'll do a great job!" He praised her motherly side.

After what seems like an eternity, I'm back, dearest subscribers :D

...Though I'm still having some trouble coming up with the rest of the story -.-' 

Nevertheless, please look forward to the upcoming chapters :)

Annyeong~