Setting: Infinite Radio

"Woah, Myungsoo!" Sungyeol shot up from his seat and snatched the microphone away from L. "What are you doing?!"

"You!" L pointed at his boyfriend's chest first, then following his finger to point directly at Sungjong's head. "I had to deal with media outlets and photographers standing outside the lobby of our apartment this whole weekend trying to get the information about the benefit concert. I rejected all of them, and now you're just freely exposing all of the details without any of our permission? Sungyeol..." 

Sungyeol's jaw dropped, shocked that L had not gotten over any of this. He thought at this point L would have put everything off to the side after everything was said and done, but he was still bothered by the whole benefit concert. "Oh, this is back to me again," he rolled his eyes. 

L and Sungyeol never really resolved their issues from last weekend, but that was a whole other story to be explained later.

Sungjong leaned his head on his elbow, twirling a pencil around between his fingers and hearing the couple roughhouse about things that were nonsensical to him and quite frankly, unworthy of his time. "Are you two done yet?!"

"Yes we are." L grabbed the microphone back from Sungyeol, turning on power back on and waiting for the feedback to die down. "This is DJ L and we're back on air, explaining last weekend's story to you with the whole truth and nothing but the truth!"

(((())))

Setting: Seoul National University Hospital

L sat in an empty room of the hospital which had a peculiar and unrecognizable aroma that puzzled him. He sniffed around, his nose trying to follow the scent of where it was coming from. There were several empty shelves around him as well as a window with a view of the back side of the hospital and the nearby street. The room was relatively empty, dull in color and dimly lit. The only other person in the room with him was a security guard who sat right across from him, watching him and sharing dirty looks with him. L was mortified, figuring out ways to escape this damned place. "Excuse me?"

The security guard stared at him sternly. "Yes?"

"I was wondering where exactly we're sitting at right now."

Looking left and right, the guard snickered thinking about it. "We're somewhere."

Fantastic. I'm probably in a room where they perform open heart surgeries or embalm the dead or even worse: childbirth.

Suddenly, someone knocked on the door in intervals. The security guard got up from his seat, inspecting a small window that showed a glimpse of the hallway. He opened up the door, and L's face turned completely pale at the sight of who walked in.

Filing in, each member of CNBlue entered the room. It was Lee Jonghyun entering first, followed by Kang Minhyuk, Lee Jungshin who L had previously hit in the crotch years before, and the last member to enter was no other than Jung Yonghwa. As the lead singer walked in he had a giant ice pack cuddled in between his legs, looking like he was limping on his way inside. Following behind every member was their manager, closing the door behind them once everyone had entered.

It was the greatest and scarist moment of L's life as they surrounded him closely, everyone breathing each other's air and turning the small room claustrophobic. L stayed still, not a single limb in his body moving. It was an honor to be sitting right before his favorite band in the world who he worshipped the ground of whenever he could, but it was also offputting knowing that the reason they were here was probably to file some sort of lawsuit against him. L thought the worse of this whole situation. Both parties stayed quiet in their first moments of staring at each other, the two of them trying to contemplate what the other person was thinking about. 

Finally, Jung Shin was the first person to make a move and speak first. "Yup, that's the same guy!"

L kept his attention on Jung Shin, his lower lip quivering in anxiousness. "The same guy?" his voice cracked.

"Yeah! I knew there was something weird about today," Jung Shin started, cracking his knuckles before moving onto his next sentiment. He pointed straight at L's head. "That guy whacked me in the goods a couple years back."

Jung Shin remembers me? Lee Jung Shin specifically remembers me ing my bass case into his package? Oh my god, this is a good and terrifying day.

"So this same guy hurt Yonghwa today?" their manager asked.

Chincha... L was banking on getting away with all of this, but that was clearly not the case this time around. "I didn't meant to push Yonghwa-sshi, I swear. I was caught in a moment of passion finding out my sister ran away." He directed his comment straight to Yonghwa. "I'm so sorry about everything. I am a huge fan of your band. In fact, you guys are my favorite band and I would never do anything to intentionally hurt you guys. The only thing I truly care about is finding my sister and making sure she's ok. She's a patient at this hospital, and I just want to find her and give her a big hug."

"That's quite a compelling story, but unfortunately that's not going to exactly cut it." CNBlue's manager took his phone out of his pocket and swiped his finger to enter some things. "You hurt Yonghwa today, hours before performing and it is causing a detriment to the-"

"Cut him some slack," Yonghwa interrupted.

"What?" their manager said.

"What?" L repeated.

"Yeah, he meant no harm at all when it happened to me," Jung Shun nodded.

"Wait," L paused, scratching his head at this situation. "I have no idea what is going on right now."

Yonghwa waddled forward, pressing the ice pack down on his crotch because it hurt to walk. He took a deep breath. "You're from that high school band Infinite, correct?"

L nodded his head, his whole back sweating from Yonghwa talking directly to him. "Yes, yes I am," he stammered.

"We love Infinite!" Jonghyun exclaimed, embracing his arms around Minhyuk and Jung Shin. "We love your music so much."

"Thank you! Thank you thank you Jonghyun-sshi." L bowed in his seat, having no idea what else to do around his favorite band in Korea. It was an honor being in their presence, but it was an unexplainable feeling hearing straight from their mouths that they liked you. That was an accomplishment that L could barely comprehend.

"Security, let this man go so that we can help him find his sister." Yonghwa turned to L and winked at him. "You're going to be fine. I know you would never do that on purpose."

"Yes, of course!" L shot up from his seat, bowing in front of Yonghwa with the utmost respect for letting him go. Now that he was free, he could concentrate on finding Dasom and helping her feel better from today. "Ok, we need to find my sister. There's barely time left until my soundcheck!"

(((())))

Setting: Infinite Radio

"In conclusion, I was kicked out of the benefit concert momentarily but then got excused by Jung Yonghwa himself. There are no hard feelings between me and the members of CNBlue. In fact, they adore us. We're practically friends, and nothing is going on." L sat comfortably in Sungyeol's seat, leaning over his microphone as he cleared his scandal with CNBlue to the Woollim general public. After his story, he spun back around and left his chair motioning for Sungyeol to sit back down. "You can have your spot back."

Sungyeol was sitting on top of a cleaning bucket turned upside down, his arms crossed and annoyed by the way L was acting around him. It was as if his own boyfriend was purposefully trying to annoy him, and he definitely did not appreciate that. He stood up from his bucket and walked back into his chair, L fixated on him with a deadly glare. He plopped back in his seat and scratched his head. "Myungsoo, are you still annoyed with me? I let you say your thing about CNBlue. What more do you want from me?"

"You know why I'm still mad at you Sungyeol." 

It finally made sense to Sungyeol, the real reason why L was angry. "Are you seriously mad at that?" 

The root of his grudge stemmed from the fact that he triggered Dasom running away when it could have been avoided in the first place. He was livid, flailing his arms in the air and grabbing onto random items inside the janitor's room to fidget with. He looked off to his side and grabbed a mop, shoving it into Sungyeol's chest to blame him for everything. "None of this wouldn't have happened in the first place if it wasn't for you!"

Sungyeol took a deep breath, frustrated by all of this. "We found Dasom, you got out of this clean we even performed, and what more could you ask for? I practically saved the day when I found her!" L called it the chain reaction that began with Dasom running away. If that never happened, then their experience would have been perfectly fine.

It caused a rift in their relationship and resulted in the both of them avoiding long conversations and spewing out passive aggressive to piss the other person off. 

"You should have never said that to my sister. You know exactly what she's going through. Then you had to feed this stupid Santa that her wishes will be granted right then and there. I didn't want her to lose her spirit and especially not on ing Christmas Sungyeol!" Beyond hitting Jung Yonghwa in the crotch or anything else that happened, L was saddened by the emotional pain that they caused her from facing the harsh reality of her cancer. As an older brother, there were things that they were almost expected to fix every time. The heartbreak of her first boyfriend, a cut on her knee, their parents yelling at her. This was something L could not place a bandaid over and call a day. This was much deeper than that, and he placed majority of the blame on Sungyeol for provoking it.

"Well you know what?" Sungyeol grabbed onto the microphone, leaning back in his seat and placing his feet on the table. "DJ Yeol on air, and it's time to end this story on how we found Dasom."

Sungjong leaned back in his seat with his feet on the table as well. The radio show was going in an entirely different direction than he had expected when L barged in unannounced to join the broadcast. Sungjong was less than amused. "Wait, before you go we have a caller. Right now we're receiving a call right now from Mr. Lee Ho... oh you have got to be kidding me. Hoya, what do you want?!"

A static noise muffled through their speakers. "Sungjong, this is Hoya. Did you talk about my story to the radio show yet?"

"No, no we haven't. Why?" Sungjong asked.

"I want to make sure you're telling the right story," Hoya answered.

Sungjong rolled his eyes. "Well you might as well come in and tell it yourself."

"Really?"

"Yeah. L is already in here."

Sungjong was not really sure what he expected, but less than a second after he said that Hoya swung the doors open of the janitor's room with Sunggyu, Dongwoo, and Woohyun following from behind.

"What the hell is going on?" Sungyeol asked, shocked to see everyone standing around in the same room. It was almost claustrophobic and Sungyeol felt uncomfortable than usual hosting the show. Not only did he have to deal with his boyfriend still angry at him, but now all of his friends were packed into one room with low lighting and janitorial products. It was awkward.

"ing hell," Sungjong groaned. 

"So, how do I explain my side of the story here?" Hoya inquired, grabbing onto a microphone posted near Sungjong's laptop.

"Knock yourself out." Sungjong had given up on Infinite Radio at this point, nothing cooperating with him today.

"What's up Woollim High? When I say Ho, you say Ya! Ho-"

"JUST EXPLAIN THE STORY ALREADY," Sungjong interrupted.

(((())))

Setting: Seoul National University Hospital

After L's stint with CNBlue and the security guards, the group split up around the hospital benefit concert to search for Dasom's safe return. Hoya and Sungyeol were a pair, making their way towards an area with inflatable obstacle courses and jumping ring for kids to pay tickets to use for a specific amount of minutes. There were lines of kid patients waiting in line to go to the inflatable bouncer of their choosing, it would be a madman's hunt to go through every single person to see if Dasom was one of them.

"You've got to be kidding me, there are way too many people here." Sungyeol put his hands behind his back. The task to find her was so daunting.

"Well, you signed up for this," Hoya smirked.

"I didn't sign up to lose my boyfriend's sister in a mass of people like this!" Sungyeol was hysterical, on the verge of collapsing and breaking down in the middle of the concert.

"So let me get this straight." Hoya tried to compose everything he overheard between L and Sungyeol and piece the puzzle together. "You told Dasom something, and she ran away because of it. Now L is mad at you."

"That sounds about right," Sungyeol nodded.

"Why do you and L have to go through a ridiculous amount of drama all the time? Can't you guys just be happy without the issues?" Hoya chuckled, shoving his hands in his pockets as he strolled down the area nonchalantly.

"It's me and L. Of course we can't be a happy couple where everything goes perfectly," Sungyeol smiled. 

"I know. I mean I don't know how, but you two are perfect for each other," Hoya joked. Though it had a tone of sarcasm, he really liked L and Sungyeol together as a couple. Out of all of their friends, it took the longest for Hoya to accept the fact that Sungyeol was dating L because they came from rival bands at the time. L rubbed Hoya the wrong way at first, but since they became bandmates he tried his best to get along with him. It was not until a certain moment with L's ex-girlfriend that Hoya finally saw the light and realized why L and Sungyeol were truly fit for each other. After Sungyeol had a rough patch with his mom, L was the person who picked him back on his feet. No one truly made his best friend as happy as him, and Hoya was thankful for it.

To their dismay and to add onto their strife of finding Dasom, Jinki and Kibum climbed down a bouncy house in their area. They found their shoes on a mat provided for all participants to place their shoes on, and after tying them back on they spotted Hoya and Sungyeol walking around with worrisome faces. The two of them walked up to their search party uninvited. "How's it going guys?" Jinki smiled.

Hoya and Sungyeol looked at each othe, unnerved being around them. Anytime Hoya and Sungyeol had ever encountered the members of The Sun Never Shines it was always around a former Eye Candy member since they had firsthand experience dealing with them. Now Hoya and Sungyeol, two unsuspecting former Strawberry Fields bandmates, had to handle the current situation without guidance. 

"We're good," Sungyeol answered simply. He did not bother to explain anything to them after, this whole situation being none of their business.

"You two are Hoya and Sungyeol?" Kibum asked for clarification on their names.

Hoya shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah. You really care about us that much huh?"

"Care about you guys?" Jinki scoffed. "We could give less of a about all of you."

"Woah there. You better watch your words, we're around kids right now," Sungyeol snided.

"You guys better watch out or else we'll cream you right here and right now," Kibum declared.

Cream? Cream us? Wait a minute. And that was when Sungyeol realized where Dasom went to. "I got it! I know where she is!" Without any thinking other than the fact he cracked the puzzle to Dasom's disappearance, he sprinted away from the three of them without a single care or a notification for Hoya of what he would do. Sungyeol bolted at the spead of life, and before Hoya could say a single thing Sungyeol was already gone.

"What the hell?!" Hoya spun around and scanned the area to spot Sungyeol. Hoya backed away from the two of them to find his friend, but before he could leave Kibum took a hold of his wrist.

"Where are you going? We want to talk to you!" Jinki smirked.

Too bad Hoya could care less and wanted to follow Sungyeol to find Dasom. "Look, I am very flattered by how interested the both of you are in my band and how interested you are to talk to me. Unfortunately, I have to deal with something at the moment that is more important than being around you two nugus."

"Not until we play inflatable jousting together!" Jinki suggested.

Hoya scratched his head. "Wait, come again? We're going to play what?"

"Jousting! We're both going to be dressed up in protective helmets. The two of us are standing on top of an inflatable base, and with humungous jousting sticks we're going to be playing in rounds of 3. The person who knocks their other off 2 out of 3 times wins the game," Kibum explained, gripping onto Hoya's wrist harder. "It's going to be fun!"

"You've got to be ing kidding me," Hoya complained.

(((())))

"I swear, you have got to be ing kidding me."

Hoya stood on top of a heightened platform on an inflatable boxing ring, wearing an inflatable protective helmet as well as holding a large inflatable jousting stick that simulated a dumbbell. Hoya was in absolute horror, his ears turning red in bashfulness of having to stand in the middle of kids with their families looking like an idiot across from a guy named Kibum. Let alone, it had barely been an hour since the first time they met. Now he was stuck with a jousting stick.

"Are you ready?" Kibum called out to Hoya, spinning his stick around in circles to impress the people watching their match. Jinki stood on the sidelines watching.

"No," Hoya answered bluntly.

"Great, we'll start soon," Kibum smiled.

Coming to their jousting match were Sunggyu, Dongwoo, Woohyun, and Sungjong. They all ran towards the ring after hearing the news spread that a new member of their band had volunteered to participate in a match for donations for the hospital. All of them were extremely amused by this, less than five minutes before going onto for soundcheck.

"What the hell do you think you're doing!" Sunggyu called out in frustration. "We're supposed to be finding Dasom."

"Yeah, get back down here!" Woohyun demanded.

"Sungyeol found her I think, and now I'm stuck doing a jousting match with this nugu," Hoya yelled back to Sunggyu. 

"You look lovely!" Dongwoo joked around.

"I swear, you shut up Dongwoo!" Hoya was on the verge of a mental breakdown of embarrassment. 

"Are you ready to go?" Kibum asked.

"No, not really." 

"The game is 3 rounds! The best 2 out of 3 wins," Jinki reminded.

The thunderous boom echoed in the sky, the weather overcast everywhere around soul with a very small chance of continuous thunder storms. A flash of lightning ignited the sky, marking the beginning of the biggest battle of their lives.

"You're going down!" Kibum asserted.

"I'm sure I am," Hoya answered sarcastically, almost afraid to look at himself and find out how ridiculous this whole situation was. He had barely met this band, and the next second he's participating in an inflatable brawl for his dignity. Then again, a lot of things in his life have changed when Eye Candy and Strawberry Fields combined. Something like this was to be expected. 

A look of determination flashed Kibum's face. "Alright, we're going to start in 3."

A look of boredom flashed Hoya's face.

"2."

Everyone on the sidelines watched as the two rival bands went head to head in what would be a match of the century. Not for music, but for the pride of being the inflatable jousting champion. 

"1!"

Right at the one, Kibum swung his jousting stick around to hit Hoya.

Hoya foresaw this coming, ducking at the right second and then with the greatest power he swung his jousting stick at Kibum's legs. He knocked him over, the momentum causing him to flip in the air several times before Kibum landed on his upper back and neck to the inflatable ground. Kibum's arms and legs sprawled on the floor, his eyes closed and barely breathing.

Everyone's jaws dropped from watching the scene. Kibum wailed some unknown language as he rolled around the bouncy jousting ring in agonizing pain. The rest of Infinite and Jinki kept their mouths shut, looking at each other in disbelief of what they would do next.

Hoya threw his jousting stick on the ground and tore off his inflatable helmet, skipping on the inflatable ground to jump off and return back to his friends. He was done for the day and did not want to go into round two.

"What, what did you do to him?!" Jinki cried in horror, jumping on top of the inflatable jousting field to help his friend out.

"That... was daebak," Sunggyu and Sungjong said in unison, finding pleasure in their rival's misfortune.

Woohyun had his arms crossed, his eyes blinking as he tried to comprehend everything that had happened. "Hoya, you just knocked him almost unconscious..." he muttered.

Hoya turned around to watch the scene, unaware of the pain that he caused him. Hoya saw Kibum's chest move up and down, indicating that he was going to be alright. "He's breathing, that nugu will be fine." Hoya was unfazed by all of this. "Come on, we have to practice soon."

(((())))

Setting: Infinite Radio

"I didn't get kicked out, but after we performed our song I got asked for questioning by security because Kibum ended up spraining his neck. There was nothing I could do though. He signed a waiver that I wasn't responsible for any injuries. And that ends my story from DJ Ho to the Ya. When I say Ho, you say Ya! Ho-"

"Thank you Hoya," Sungjong grabbed the microphone away from Hoya to end his segment of the radio broadcast.

The janitor's room was getting stuffy, barely anyone could breath in the studio and barely anyone had space to move around freely. It was an uncomfortable nightmare for everyone to be around, bodies squishing together trying to find space and defend their name on Sungyeol and Sungjong's show.

"So this is how you broadcast your radio show," Dongwoo commented, intrigued by all of the equipment right around them. There was Sungjong's laptop standing on top of a box of refillable paper towels, Sungyeol's tablet standing on a contraption made with a broken mop stick, and microphones set around with toilet paper rolls as their holders.

"It's very... resourceful of you," Woohyun chuckled.

"When is this show going to end," Sungjong groaned.

"It ends after me," Sungyeol spoke.

There was one last story to tell. Sungyeol sat comfortably in his chair to explain the extensive story of how he found Dasom. He paused for a moment to collect his thoughts and form the story in the right order with all of the right details. With L breathing down his back, Sungyeol wanted to clear his name and get the story out of the open. He was a little scared to tell the story, some of the intimate details might be a little depressing for a lunch radio show. Let alone he wanted to keep the story private in respect of the people involved. In the end, to clear the air with L he opted to tell everyone what happened and if he had to do it in public then so be it.

"Thank you for the wonderful story DJ Ho to the Ya. I'm DJ Yeol, and we're going to end this story right now."

(((())))

Setting: Seoul National University Hospital

Sungyeol ran off site the premises of the hospital, searching for a specific place where he suspected Dasom to be. He ran as fast as he could till he spotted a small cart at a nearby park.

A small girl was waiting in line by the mobile ice cream struck, which was currently stationed a block away from the hospital. She was wearing the seasonal holiday gown with snowflakes, her thin hair blowing with the chilly breeze. Sungyeol watched from afar, squinting his eyes to focus his vision on her. At that moment the worker scooped up a generous serving of strawberry ice cream and piled it on top of a waffle cone, pressing down on the ice cream with the scooper to keep it in place. He handed the scoop to the girl who then jumped up and down in excitement, taking her first of the cone.

Sungyeol definitely knew it was Dasom. She loved ice cream, and strawberry was her favorite flavor. No matter what the weather was, if there was a chance to get ice cream she would get it.

"Dasom!" Sungyeol called out.

Dasom turned around, her eyes fixated on Sungyeol running towards her. She smiled, one of her favorite people coming towards her. "Sungyeol!"

Sungyeol ran up to Dasom and wrapped his arms around her in an embrace, more than relieved that Dasom was ok. He gave her one squeeze, her fraility frightening with how much her body crumbled in. Sungyeol let her go, the initial satisfaction of seeing Dasom disappeared. "Dasom, you can't go running off like this next time!" he scolded.

Dasom lowered her head, taking a bite of her ice cream in guilt. She knew she was wrong for running away from L and Sungyeol at the Santa Claus booth. A single tear fell down her face. "I know."

Sungyeol saw the tear dripping down through her flowing hair, brushing it out of the way and wiping the tear as it slid to her chin. "Sorry Dasom, I didn't mean to sound harsh. L is just worried about you, that is all. Well technically I have no idea how L feels since he's kind of... anyways your brother was worried sick about you."

"I know." Dasom sniffed her nose, snot running down her nostrils and piling on top of the ice cream.

"Oh no." Sungyeol pulled the sleeve of his knitted cardigan down to shield his hands, using the arms of the sweater to wipe the snot away from Dasom's nose like a tissue. He made several rounds to clean her face up before more bodily fluids fall into her ice cream. "It's ok Dasom, you're going to be fine."

Dasom sighed. "Sungyeol."

"Yeah Dasom?"

"I don't want to die."

Sungyeol almost teared up himself from hearing those words come straight from Dasom's mouth. Dasom had always been the fearless one to Sungyeol, the spirited little girl would always speak bravely or exude so much confidence for a 6-year-old. Sungyeol was aware that Dasom's day was nearing, and he had only wished that it was something that strawberry ice cream could cure. It only made sense that once you were finally closing in on the day, perspectives change and your mind thinks a lot more morbidly. Sungyeol understood exactly where she was coming from. "Have I ever talked to you about expiration dates?"

"Expiration dates? What's an expiration? Dasom asked.

Oh yeah. She's only 6. "Come with me." Sungyeol tugged on Dasom's hand gently and pulled her to a nearby park bench by the ice cream truck. With her slowly dying spirit at stake, talking about the cutting issues with his boyfriend's sister seemed more important than performing with the band. He had lost track of time at this point, the only important thing to him was helping Dasom feel a little better. "An expiration date is when something ends. It's kind of a random thing. You don't know exactly when it's going to happen, and when it does the thing just passes and dies. You're at the stage right now when you process mortality in a different way when you know your death is close. Kids like you say it and they have yet to really understand its implications."

"I see." Dasom nodded her head in understanding.

"You know how you have a mommy?" Sungyeol asked.

"I love my mom!"

"Well, my mom died in a car accident more than a year ago. That was her expiration date, I didn't know when it was going to happen. No one knew at all. But when it did, I didn't fully understand it either. It was the first death that I experienced in my life, and for some reason I expected my mom to just walk through the door and cook me a delicious dinner after it all happened. After I realized what had happened, I was devastated. I was heartbroken more than anything, and I thought that everything in my life was miserable. It was hard for me to believe in anything again at that point."

Dasom frowned. "I'm sorry."

"No, it's ok. It took me a while to realize this: I have an expiration date. We all have expiration dates, and none of us have an idea when we are going to die. For all we know, today is my last day. Sure a doctor can dictate your date, but it's not up to him. It's not up to you. It's not up to Santa Claus."

"Then who is it up to?" Dasom asked with curiosity.

Sungyeol giggled. "It's up to a power of fate that none of us could ever imagine or predict. And because we can't read our own futures, we have to live life to the fullest every day. Dasom, you are one of the most if not the most courageous person I know. You have an older brother, a mom, and a dad who all love you with the bottom of your heart. It's ok to be scared of the unknown, but don't let that stop you from doing anything. Especially on Christmas. You know what cures cancer more than anything? Love. After learning about this world's cruel secrets, love is the only thing to keep you strong."

Dasom jumped into Sungyeol's arms and hugging him.

"I don't even know if this all makes sense. I'm talking to kindergartener! I probably threw in some fancy words in there that you probably can't understand. Anyway's, let's go back to your brother ok?" Sungyeol lifted Dasom up in the air and turned her sideways. He smiled, staring at Dasom's sweet angelic smile. Death is a strange word, and someone like Dasom who sputtered the word for a while now did not fully comprehend its meaning. Sungyeol felt terrible, now that she was growing up and learning more it finally hit her what death meant. With that her perceptions changed, the mind corrupted to affect how she views life. Sungyeol was hoping that with with his experiences with his mom, the band, and L, it would help her better understand that death can be conquered. That expiration dates mean nothing when you have the people you care about the most. "Damnit Dasom!" Sungyeol yelled.

"What?!"

Dasom glanced at Sungyeol's shoulder, her strawberry ice cream cone flipped upside down and dripping down Sungyeol's cardigan.

(((())))

"Dasom!"

The rest of Infinite were setting up on stage, tuning their guitars or resting on the side of the stage waiting for Sungyeol to come back. Keeping to his word, Sungyeol did bring Dasom back to alleviate the worries of everyone in the band. Especially L.

Sungyeol was carrying Dasom back to the benefit concert, his body tired from wielding her in his arms and running as fast as he can before he was late for their opening act. He put Dasom down on the ground to run towards L. She ran up the stairs of the stage and jumped into her brother's open embrace. L swung her around in the air, the tearful reunion heartwarming for everyone on stage. "Dasom, you're ok!" L cried.

"Oppa, I'm so sorry!" Dasom apologized.

L kept his hand on her head, brushing it and tangling his fingers in it. "I don't care. I'm just glad you're safe. Never do that again, Dasom."

Sungyeol joined everyone on stage, happy to see everything turning ok at the end of it.

"You really found her!" Dongwoo grinned, tuning his guitar and strumming the first riff of a Christmas song that Sunggyu had written for the group to play. 

"I know, I did." Sungyeol walked up to Hoya who was holding his bass, taking it from him and strapping it over his shoulders to prepare for himself. He plucked a small bass line for the Christmas song, his head still full of worry from everything that occurred today. "He's still mad at me though, huh?"

"Kind of, but I think it should calm down soon with Dasom back," Hoya encouraged.

Sungyeol let out a sigh. Even though the Christmas spirit was alive and well with everyone around him, he was close to losing it with L visibly ignoring him on stage. Sungyeol brushed it off, because all that mattered to him for the moment was that Dasom believed again. He could fix his relationship with L anytime, but it takes more than a wrench and screwdriver to help a little girl's heart. Sungyeol let out a faint smile thinking about everything today, satisfied with how it all mostly ended.

"Hey, you have some pink stuff on your shoulder," Hoya said.

"Oh, this?" Sungyeol turned his head to look at the dried strawberry ice cream on his shoulder. "Yeah, it's a fashion statement I guess."

(((())))

Setting: Infinite Radio

"And ladies and gentlemen, that was the story of our time at the benefit concert. It was quite a splendid time, some mishaps here and there but everything ended fairly smoothly. To answer your question, L was jailed momentarily by security while Hoya was questioned right when we ended our set so it did not even really matter. Anything else you want to say DJ Jong?"

"No, I think that ends our story of last weekend!" Sungjong looked at the time on his laptop, nearing the end of lunch. "And now, we're going to end this wishing all of our lovely listeners at Woollim High and elsewhere a happy holidays! Thank you for listening! Infinite Radio, out." Sungjong ended their daily program by shutting his laptop off and slapping it down. "I hope all of you are happy for invading the entire show."

"No problem," Sunggyu smirked, unwrapping a lollipop to eat. "It's our pleasure."

Everyone in the room talked amonst themselves about the show, joking around in the crowded room and sharing in each other's company before lunch would end. 

Everyone except for L and Sungyeol, who had stayed quiet after the broadcast ended. The two of them still had unfinished business about their short term grudge.

"Can I talk to you Sungyeol," L mumbled.

Dongwoo took a step back towards the door, pulling Hoya and Sunggyu's shirt to follow him. He sensed that L and Sungyeol were carrying some unspoken feelings from last weekend's concert, and Dongwoo figured it was something the two of them should figure out by themselves.  "Hey guys, so we have to go to our lockers for a little bit till the next class."

"Yeah, right after I clean this place up," Sungjong said, storing his laptop awawy in his backpack and oblivious to the fact that the couple was dealing with some issues.

"No. We're leaving now, you can fix that later!" Dongwoo grabbed onto Sungjong's ear and dragged him and the rest of Infinite out of the door.

The only two people in the janitor's room were L and Sungyeol. The room was dim, the only light was a flickering ceiling lamp with a bulb that probably needed to be replaced months ago. It was a tense atmosphere, both of them keeping quiet in a game of who would break and speak first. Neither person wanted to do that, because doing so would mean they were the one at fault. After some time alone in silence, L was the first one to speak.

"I didn't know you told my sister all of that last weekend," L mumbled.

Sungyeol shrugged his shoulders. "I mean, it was a private conversation between the two of us. I didn't really think it was appropriate outright to tell you right before our performance what happened. Let alone, you were difficult to talk to this whole week! Whenever I tried to go to you after we got to our apartment, you shut the door before I could even go in."

"You should've told me at some point! This whole time I thought that Dasom's spirit was shot down. This whole time I blamed you for this catastrophe." L took a deep breath and sat on top of the ledge of a foldable desk of different janitorial supplies. "Anyways, thanks Sungyeol. I was so angry I don't even think I thanked you for finding her. I've been a little stubborn because I thought her Christmas was ruined."

"It's ok Myungsoo, really."

"No, it's not. You fixed the problem and I was ignorant to believe it. I mean it might not seem like a big deal to you, but as a big brother things like this are important for me. I'm sorry if I made this into a big deal."

Sungyeol nodded his head, walking towards L with his hands shoved down his pockets. "I figured. I was a bit careless with my words, and sometimes I view Dasom as this normal kid like everyone else. Either way, I suspect Dasom had been thinking these thoughts for a while now. We just found them out at the benefit concert. Now that she's a year older, she better understands death and what it means. But really." Sungyeol took hold of L's hands and laced them with his own. "Your problems are my problems."

Sungyeol had an eloquence with his words that drove L crazy. L leaned in to meet lips with Sungyeol. Sungyeol pushed L back to knock over a row of cleaning supplies and climbed on top of him with their hands still intertwined together. Sungyeol released his lips from L, moving down his neck and with his tongue and sending L into an unexplainable sensation of pure bliss that drove him mad. L was out of breath, his whole body squirming every time Sungyeol would touch him at every right spot.

"Sungyeol," L whimpered.

Sungyeol pulled back, coming back to L's lips. In every passing second their breaths grew heavier, their tongues intertwined in a passion they had been missing for so long. Sungyeol pressed his lips harder until L had nowhere to go, trapping him in a pleasure to drive his senses wild. Out of breath, the two of them held onto their desires and gazed at each other lovingly, their noses touching as they smiled at each other. 

"You know I'm a better kisser than you," Sungyeol smirked.

L wriggled his nose with Sungyeol's. "I know, but I couldn't let the whole world know you're better at me with everything."

"I could give you that. But then I would be lying." Sungyeol leaned in for a sweet kiss on L's lips.

"How about you just shut up and kiss me some more?" L let go of Sungyeol's hands and wrapped them around his neck, pulling him closer for a passionate kiss.

"HOW ABOUT YOU TWO SHUT UP AND TURN OFF THE MICROPHONES BECAUSE THE WHOLE SCHOOL CAN HEAR YOU?!"

Sungjong's muffled scream went through the doors. L panicked, completely pushing Sungyeol off of him to fall straight on his back.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!