The winter season was already upon them and everything was all still horribly screwed up. Key was furious at JongHyun for being a player (but really he was just jealous); Onew was hung up over Key and trying to cope with the holiday rush in the store; JongHyun was a walking zombie plastering on fake smiles to fool everyone; TaeMin was trying to keep happy, but he knew he was being lied to, and MinHo was still struggling with that dark, ugly secret of his.

            In the shop, the early morning hour was making the holiday shopping crowds dwindle to a mere nothing – leaving the three employees in an awkward situation. Jessica was thankfully not involved since her parents had decided to take her to Florida for the holidays.

            A rope tying the three together was pulled taut and ready to snap in a moment`s notice.

            “Where is that new test shipment I ordered?” Onew asked, staring at the yellow slip in his hands.

            “That small box that came in last night?” JongHyun asked.

            “Yeah, that one.”

            “I put it under the counter.”

            “Of course you would go touching other people’s things,” Key mumbled loud enough for JongHyun to hear as he walked by him.

            The older boy rolled his eyes at Key’s childish behaviour and joined Onew at the counter. He had an exacto knife out and was cutting through the tape holding the box flaps together. Curiosity bubbled inside of JongHyun’s chest. He had wondered what the box was for ever since it had arrived the day before. It was too small to be a regular shipment and now Onew had announced it as test batch for a possible future product so it was bound to be something interesting – and probably pink and full of sparkles.

            “What is it? What is it?” JongHyun asked. He leaned across the counter with semi-forced excitement.

            “I figured that since the majority of our clientele are girls and the holidays are here… I wanted to make some new things available to them, but I wanted to see if the product was of good enough quality first, so…” Onew hauled out a couple kits of… Nail polish?

            JongHyun studied the brightly coloured assortment of polishes while Onew unloaded some more make-up products. The nail polish had three outrageously bright shades of pink – light pink, hot pink, dark pink – three more bottles of the same pink, but with sparkles, a bottle of red nail polish, white and a very prominent sparkly silver. Stickers came with the kits. There were two sheets of mini Hello Kitty faces, mini Hello Kitty faces with Santa hats, stars, hearts, dolls… Only to be expected with Onew. It made JongHyun wonder why he had even chosen to invest in a store such as this one.

            The nail polish kits had to be the most interesting of the supplies even if Onew was still pulling eyeliner and other make-up items that JongHyun couldn’t identify out of the box.

            “You ordered a bunch of make-up?” JongHyun asked incredulously, holding up one of the tubes of eyeliner.

            At that perfect moment Key chose to stride by. In three seconds exactly (for real, JongHyun had counted) his face changed from the puckered up, sour expression that he had perfectly mastered to an expression containing a giddy, child like happiness. “Is that the new Janie collection make-up?” he asked, grabbing the liner from JongHyun. Despite the grabbing, the older couldn’t help but enjoy this side of Key more.

            “Uh…” Onew glanced at his papers. “Yes.”

            “How did you get this hyung?! Her new line wasn’t supposed to be released until next week!” Key yelled. He singled out the closest mirror he could find and dragged it back to the counter, not bothering to be shy about digging into the products.

            Kind of like TaeMin with his banana milk, JongHyun thought miserably. He had no time to sink back into the depression over taking him since Key’s incessant shrieking and joyous giggling kept him fastened tightly to the real world.

            Taking a look at his befuddling friend he saw that Key had one of his eyes already all made up with the make-up and was already working on the other.

            “Is he really putting on make-up?” JongHyun asked Onew who seemed to find this more amusing than the fried chicken commercial with the little dancing chickens.

            “Key likes his make-up,” Onew said.

            “How does it look?” Key asked. He turned to flaunt his eyes to his two friends, batting his eyelashes for extra dramatic effect.

            JongHyun’s own eyes widened and something burst like a water pipe in his stomach. Key’s eyes had always been very nice, but highlighted by the liner and eye shadow they were absolutely stunning. The feline qualities in his eyes were accentuated to look almost dangerously seductive and mysterious. The sparkle Key had added with the liner worked much in his favour – opening his eyes up and bringing out the intense brown that seemed to captivate JongHyun until he was stuck gazing into the endless colour of the orbs.

            “Hyung! Can we try the nail polish?” Key asked excitedly, not even giving them any time to compliment him on his handiwork – very surprising.

            “I bought it for that reason. Is it good quality? I know you’re the expert and all,” Onew trailed off.

            “Good quality?! Janie is second best to MAX! I can’t believe you managed to get her new collection!” Key exclaimed, ripping open the nail polish kit.

            “Well, I’ve got a big shipment on standby waiting for my okay.”

            Key nearly fainted on the spot. That or he experienced the wonders of a mini .

            Each nail polish bottle, sticker sheet and design utensil was spread neatly out on the table. Key studied them with wide, innocent eyes full of wonder. You’d think these nail polishes were the eighth wonder of the world by the way he was ogling them.

            “JongHyun hyung, give me your hand,” Key ordered, already grabbing for the other’s fingers.

            “Why?” he asked warily.

            “I’m going to test the nail polish out on you. Don’t worry; I’m an expert at this.”

            Under normal circumstances, JongHyun would have flat out refused, claiming to be too masculine to walk around with sparkly polish on his nails. However, he was glad that after days of dealing with Key’s repelling attitude he was finally being graced with the side of Key that he loved. So like an obedient puppy JongHyun spread his fingers out on the counter and let Key bedazzle them to his desire.

            Even when the first rush of customers came in and Onew went to go so some actual work JongHyun stayed put, barely paying attention to the girls swooning over him as he absently rung up their purchases. Each look of disappointment on the young girls’ faces secretly pleased Key who made sure he worked extra slow so as to not “ruin” JongHyun’s nails.

            “Uhm, excuse me…” a timid voice started. “I thought this was three dollars, not five.”

            JongHyun was forced to focus his attention away from Key and to the girl who couldn’t have been more than twelve. She had her friend with her who was splotchy from her neck up from blushing so much.

            JongHyun worked quick to figure out the issue and apologized when he realized his mistake.

            “Yah, hold one. Let me work the cash, your nails are still wet,” Key said. He screwed the cap back onto the silver nail polish bottle and shuffled round the counter to work the register. He made a scene by bumping JongHyun out of the way with his hip just to have fun. “Blow on them; I want to put the finishing touches after this,” Key ordered as he passed the young girl her change.

            She giggled at the two with caused the elder of the pair to flush just as much as her friend.

            “We’re testing out the new stuff,” JongHyun tried to explain.

            “If you say so,” the girl said. She left the store with her pal, giggling loudly. They were probably going to go tell all their friends about this, JongHyun thought.

            “Finish up already,” he ordered Key who simply laughed at him. “Embarrassing me in front of little girls – who do you think you are?”

            “Yeah, yeah, deal with it puppy. In a store like this, the most feminine man always wins,” Key said, picking up the nail polish once more.

            And just like that, the tension disappeared between the two and things slowly started integrating back to what they had been before…