A/N: This chapter is just in time for the holidays! Enjoy! <3

Myungsoo and I continued to grow distant, although to a certain extent. There were those small moments, where we would accidentally take the wrong lunches and have to give them back to each other at school, or run into each other awkwardly in the hallways. Not to mention the overly nonchalant and casual small talk during dinner.

            But it was apparent to the both of us: maybe, somewhere earlier along the line, we’d become good friends, friendly companions. But things changed and now, it wasn’t the same. We didn’t even playfully hate each other anymore. Things were just silence and awkward silence at that.

            That was, until Christmas came.

            For some reason, the holidays always seem to bring people together.

            I was going Christmas shopping with a couple of my friends and had already picked out a purse for my mother and a new tie for Mr. Kim. But I had no clue what to get for Myungsoo.

            Then I began to wonder if he was going to get anything for me for Christmas and decided that he wasn’t. Myungsoo hardly paid any speck of attention to me anymore and I assumed that he was going to be too busy doing whatever he was always doing past midnight to spend Christmas with the family anyways.

            So I didn’t get him anything. I didn’t have to deal with the frustration of wondering what to get for him and that made me feel somewhat relieved.

            During dinner that night, Mr. Kim told us about the Christmas ball that his company was hosting.

            “It’s on Christmas Eve,” he explained. “Some of the company's head honchos will be there and I would love it if the family could all attend. Myungsoo? Naeun?”

            “Of course I’ll come,” I said. “I have no plans on Christmas Eve.”

            “Great!” Mr. Kim said. He turned to his son. “Myungsoo?”

            “Sorry dad,” my future stepbrother replied. He wiped his mouth with a napkin. “Got a thing with my friends that night.”

            I raised a brow. “‘A thing’?”

            “Why do you sound so skeptical?”

            I rolled my eyes. “Never mind.” He’s never even around anymore anyways. Thank goodness you hadn’t bought anything for him.

            “Well it’s unfortunate that you can’t make it, Myungsoo-ah,” my mother said. “You will be dearly missed.”

            “Thank you, Mrs. Son,” Myungsoo replied. “But duty calls.”

            That night, I decided to interrogate Myungsoo about his “thing”.

            “You’re not even going to spend Christmas with your new family?” I asked him as I followed him up the stairs after dinner.

            “Can you not?” he said.

            “But I must,” I replied. Then I blurted out, “You’re not ditching your family to go hang out with that stupid girlfriend of yours, are you?”

            Then my eyes widened.

            I’d called his girlfriend stupid on the whim.

            Myungsoo realized this also but ignored it as he said, “I’m just busy, okay?”

          I stood there, deflated. “You’re always busy nowadays,” I mumbled. “I never even see you around anymore.”

            Myungsoo looked back at me. It almost seemed as if he was going to say something. But nothing came out of his mouth as he turned the knob to his room and went inside. I was left alone in the hallway, just like how I always seemed to be nowadays.

            There was a student council meeting after school. I came early and took a seat by the window, absentmindedly daydreaming. I knew exactly who I was thinking about. I just didn’t really want to admit it.

            “Naeun.”

            I snapped out of it. Taemin took a seat next to me.

            “You okay?” he asked me.

            “Oh, um.” I fixed my hair. “Yeah. I’m good.”

            “You seemed really spaced out there,” Taemin remarked.

            I shrugged. “Tired.”

            At the meeting, we discussed the social that the student council was going to have at Taemin’s house. We picked out our people for Secret Santa and the meeting was dismissed. Taemin offered to drive me home and I accepted.

            After homecoming, I’m pretty sure that Taemin got the idea the two of us were kind of together. And if it were the old me, I would’ve been ecstatic.

            But things have changed since meeting Myungsoo and I knew it. I just didn’t know how to stop it.

            I felt bad for giving Taemin the cold shoulder but it wasn’t on purpose or anything. I was just too preoccupied with someone else to fully focus my attention on him, just like I used to. Things weren’t the same. I wasn’t the same.

            Taemin dropped me off at the new house. At the same time, Myungsoo had just parked on the driveway. Taemin took notice of this.

            “Naeun,” Taemin said. “What is Kim Myungsoo doing at your new house?”

            .

            “Uh…” I searched for an excuse. “Well, you remember how I told you that he was my mother’s friend’s son?”

            “Yeah.”           

            “Well...um...their house caught on fire. So Myungsoo and his dad are staying here while it gets rebuilt,” I fibbed.

            “Oh. That makes sense,” Taemin said. “That’s nice of your mother and you, to take them in.”

            “Yup. Well, see ya,” I said, not really wanting to contribute to this lie any further.

            Myungsoo noticed Taemin driving away.

            “He saw me, didn’t he?” he asked me.

            “Yeah.”

            “What’d you tell him?”

            “That you were my mother’s friend’s son and that your house burned down so you’re staying with me.”

            Myungsoo smirked. “Good one, Son Napoop.”

            I smiled, realizing that he hasn’t called me that nickname in the longest time. It brought warmth to my heart knowing that he still remembered that.

            “What are you smiling about?” Myungsoo asked.

            I shook my head. “Nothing.”

            But he had no idea how happy that made me feel.

            I stood in front of my mirror, admiring how nice I looked in my red dress and fur coat for the Christmas ball. I came downstairs and my mother and Mr. Kim cooed.

            “Ahhh Naeun-ah you look so pretty!”

            “Gorgeous!”

            “Thanks.” I peered around. “Where’s Myungsoo?”

            “He left already,” Mr. Kim replied. “Poor boy has been looking exhausted lately.”

            My mother agreed. “Hopefully he’s eating his three meals a day.”

            Mr. Kim chuckled. “I make sure of it.”

            The three of us headed to the car and drove to the venue for the Christmas ball. It was pretty boring to be honest. It was just a bunch of businessmen mingling and talking to each other and there was no one that I actually knew. I saw a little boy and a little girl running around and playing with each other, laughing. I suddenly wished that Myungsoo was there with me to joke around and make me laugh also. The thought of him being somewhere else and not here with me on Christmas Eve made me sad.

            “Naeun-ah,” my mother said. A boy in a nice tux was standing next to her. “I want you to meet Gong Chanshik, son of one of Mr. Kim’s treasured friends.”

            “Nice to meet you,” he said, holding out a hand.

            I shook it. “Likewise.”

            My mother winked at me and then it occurred to me that she was setting me up with this boy. He and I awkwardly looked at each other. The music began to play louder in the distance.

            “Want to dance?” he asked me.

            I shrugged. “Sure.”

            So he and I went out onto the dance floor. It was quite stiff and awkward at first but then Chanshik cracked a few jokes that made me laugh and I began to grow more comfortable with him, which was good considering I wanted at least one friend to talk to during the night.

            He and I chatted a bit more after the dance. Then he had to get back to his family so I decided to go outside for some fresh air.

            The ground and just about everything else was covered in snow. My fur coat was insanely warm and I was happy about that. I looked up at the stars and began to wonder where he was, what he was doing.

            “What are you doing out here all by yourself, Son Napoop?”

            Oh my god. It can’t be.

            But it was. Standing right behind me was the boy himself: Kim Myungsoo. He was dressed in a nice suit, although his tie was a little loose, as if he was in a rush to get here. I couldn’t help but notice just how good-looking he was in that suit, nonetheless.

            “What are you doing here?” I asked him. “Aren’t you supposed to be at your thing?”

            He looked up at the sky, at the stars perhaps. “I don’t know.”

I scrunched my face up at him. “What do you mean you don’t know?”

His eyes met mine and he swallowed as he said, “I guess I just couldn’t bring myself to spend Christmas without you.”

            A smile rose upon my face. “I knew it,” I said. “I knew you wouldn’t leave me alone tonight.”

            Myungsoo raised a brow. “You did?”

            “No,” I said, shaking my head. “But...I was hoping.”

            Myungsoo nodded in response. Then, he pulled something out from behind him. It was a pink box, with a pearl white bow on top.

            My eyes widened. “Is this…” I bit my lip. “Did you get me a Christmas present?”

            “Yeah.” Myungsoo peered at me, sensing that something was off. “Why?”

            “B-Because…” My shoulder deflated and I sighed. “Because I didn’t get you a present.”

            “Why didn’t you?”

            “Because I thought that you wouldn’t get me anything,” I said. “So that’s why I didn’t get you anything…” I felt really bad all of a sudden.

            He took a step closer. “Why did you think that I wouldn’t get you anything?”

            I shrugged. “I feel like we’ve been really off.”

            “Off?”

            “Yeah, off,” I said. “I don’t know I mean, we don’t talk as much as we used to and I got the impression that--

            --that I didn’t care about you anymore?”

            “Or you never cared about me at all,” I added. “So yeah, that’s why.”

            Myungsoo chuckled. “I didn’t know you’d overthink about me.”

            “Yah!” I said. “I did not overthink! I just, you know…” But he already knew what I was trying to say.

            “Well nonetheless, open it,” Myungsoo said, handing me the box.

            “But Christmas is tomorrow,” I said.

            “I don’t know about you,” Myungsoo replied, “but I think opening presents in front of mom and dad wouldn’t be the same.”

            “What do you mean?” I asked.

            Myungsoo slid his hands into his pockets. “Because I like the fact that you and I are outside here, alone. The lights are pretty too, of course.”

            “I think I know what you mean,” I said. “About the alone part.”

            Myungsoo nodded. “Now open it!” he demanded, gesturing to the pink box in my hands.

            I did as I was told, slowly untying the bow and opening the lid gingerly. Inside was a beautiful pastel pink scarf.

            “Oh my gosh.” I felt the soft wool fabric between my fingers. “This is beautiful.”

            “The color seemed to suit you so I thought it wouldn’t hurt to get it for you,” Myungsoo said.

            “It does suit me,” I replied. “I love it so much. Thank you.”

            It seemed suitable to hug him at the moment. And we did hug. I couldn’t help but notice how nice he smelled and how I loved the feeling of resting in his arms, even for that brief moment in time.

            Myungsoo couldn’t stay for the rest of the night, so he left soon after. No one knew that he had came, no one except me. My parents hadn’t even known. It was a secret that only the two of us knew about. Just the two of us.

I was eating lunch with my usual group.

“Hey Naeun, nice scarf,” one of my friends commented.

            “Thanks,” I said. “I like it a lot myself.”

 I see Myungsoo enter the cafeteria and unconsciously smile to myself. As he passed by he flipped the tip of my ponytail, something that only him and I knew about. I felt warm chills run throughout my body at his touch and my cheeks were burning.      

            “Naeun, are you blushing?” my friend Eunji asked me.

            “W-What?” I touched my cheeks and practically felt them sizzle. Oh .

            “It’s hot in here,” I fibbed as I tried to steer the conversation onto another route.

            I took a peek over my shoulder to Myungsoo’s table. He was laughing with his friends. He must’ve noticed that someone was watching him because he looked back at me. I quickly looked away. My heart continued to beat at a quick, unhealthy pace.

            I didn’t know what was happening to me. But I guess for some reason, I didn’t really want to know. I was just glad that things were back to normal, that he was back to normal.