* * *

“No, Taemin. Just… no.” deadpanned Key.

“But it’s supposed to look like that!” whined Taemin.

“Christmas trees are supposed to be hideous? My bad, then.”

But Taemin had spent hours decorating their tall, real Christmas tree, and was not about to let all his hard work go to waste. Behind the maknae was the tree in question, green branches hardly visible under vivid glass orbs and blinking colourful lights.

“No, not hideous!!! They’re supposed to be happy and colourful-“

“Are they also supposed to damage my freakin eyes? Didn’t I tell you to use just two colours?!”

“Seriously, just drop it.” threw Jonghyun from the plush white couch, trying to scoot over to Minho and see what the younger was reading on his laptop without Minho realizing it.

“But just look at it! I can totally feel my eyes dying!!!” protested Key, waving incredulously at the quite childishly decorated tree.

“Geez, you two are such girls.” muttered Jonghyun, scooting even closer to Minho and arching his neck, desperately trying to glimpse the screen.

“So?” retorted Key to Jonghyun, neither insulted nor surprised.

“Then let Jinki hyung decide!” suggested Taemin, sounding a bit hurt. “Hyung, does the tree look good to you or not?”

Snapping from his usual staring into some distant place, Jinki smiled at Taemin, getting up and thoughtfully walking around and around the nervous Christmas tree.

“Well… let’s see… errrrr… OOPS!” yelped Onew, accidentally knocking over Taemin’s beloved creation.

“Aish, stop the racket already. I swear, you’ll bring this place down one day.” spat Minho from his place on the couch, eyed never leaving the letters on the screen.

Finally, Jonghyun couldn’t take it anymore.

“Minho… what exactly are you reading? You seem awfully intereste-“

“None of your business.”

“Okay, okay, I have this under control!” claimed Jinki on the other side of the room, standing awkwardly next to the fallen tree. “I’ll just bring it back up-AAAAH!”

At Jinki’s scream, Minho bolted up in an instant, laptop falling to the floor, eyes frantically trying to locate his hyung. A quiet whimper came from under a bunch of snapped branches and broken pieces of decorations. The glass bits were sinking painfully into Jinki’s skin, and all of a sudden Jinki wasn’t so fond of Christmas anymore.

But his holiday spirit returned as soon as Minho rushed over, eyebrows furrowed in worry.

“Aish, hyung! Why are you so damn clumsy?! Bet you could trip over freakin air!”

While insulting his hyung, Minho was helping him to the couch, sitting him down almost ridiculously carefully.

“He’s not made of freakin glass, Minho.” sneered Jonghyun from the spot next to Jinki, while himself glancing worriedly at the not-so-shallow dents in Jinki’s arms.

Glaring daggers at Jonghyun, Minho sprinted into the kitchen and grabbed some disinfectant.

Hurrying back, Minho was faced with the sight of Jinki wrapped in Jonghyun’s arms, the latter careful to avoid Jinki’s scarred hands. The shorter boy even reached to wipe a stray tear of pain that had escaped Jinki’s eyes.

“YAH! Jonghyun!!!” yelled Minho, hardly knowing why he was yelling.

“What? Jealous much?” sneered Jonghyun, drawing nearer to a totally oblivious Jinki.

That’s when Key’s way of dealing with Jonghyun popped into Minho’s head.

“So?” retorted Minho, not even trying to deny it and feigning disinterest instead.

Completely taken aback, Jonghyun was totally frozen, mouth half-open to argue but having nothing smart to say. On the sofa nearby, Key smiled quietly like a proud mother would.

Grabbing the opportunity, Minho sat on Jinki’s other side, flashing a small smile and starting to clean up Jinki’s wounds.

“A….Ah…i-it… it hurts…”

Before he could stop himself Minho was already kissing Jinki’s cheek, trying to console him. On Jinki’s other side Jonghyun was cleaning up Jinki’s other arm, marveling at how the oldest was managing not to yell out in pain with gleam-sharp pieces of glass buried in his skin.

Completely absorbed, Jonghyun and Minho cleaned up the blood and carefully removed the troublesome bits of glass. Each time Jinki whimpered, Minho would instantly place a soft kiss on Jinki’s cheek and sometimes squeeze his hand tight, as if to say “I’m here and everything is going to be just fine”. Not having such courage, Jonghyun only bit his bottom lip in worry, feeling like every painful bit of glass was plucked out of his own arms.

“You’re okay now, right, hyung?” asked a small voice. Key had dragged Taemin out right after Jinki had had a close encounter with the Christmas tree, knowing that the maknae had a problem with seeing blood. Now, though, Taemin was back, big-eyed and dead-worried.

“Good as new!” assured Jinki. “But… we have no Christmas tree anymore…” realized Jinki sadly. He was really looking forward to it, despite his age. Christmas trees alight never failed to give Jinki warmth and hope.

“Wrong!” exclaimed Taemin, suddenly cheerful. “We have an even better Christmas tree! Look!!!”

What Taemin had brought from the other room had no poky branches and no dangerous glass decorations. Truthfully, it could hardly be called a tree. But it did slightly resemble one, despite being made of…

chopsticks?!

Jonghyun’s eyebrow was lost in his hair, while Minho looked no less confused.

But on closer observation, this improvised chopstick Christmas tree was really quite ingenious. It even resembled a work of modern art, chopsticks complexly intertwined. All the decoration was candy, Christmas-themed and in shiny wrappers and cute designs.

Even Key had to admit it was fashionably avant-garde, flashing a rare smile of approval.

And, most importantly, hyung won’t get hurt by it! thought Taemin, as everything on the tree was of plastic, glass now a hated word in Taemin’s head.

Proud as a peacock, Taemin raised his chin up, crossed his arms and admired his own work. Chuckling at Taemin’s cute self-satisfaction, Jonghyun suddenly had Taemin in a tight back hug, the youngest only too eager to giggle and lean back into Jonghyun’s short but muscular form.

As if in apology for earlier, Minho stood up and threw an arm over Jonghyun. At that very moment, maybe for the first time ever, Jonghyun and Minho shared a smile that was neither a smirk not sarcastic. Perhaps Christmas really is the time of miracles.

Soon, the whole of Shinee was huddled together in a group hug, hardly knowing how that came about.

But, predictably, Jinki lost balance and seemed doomed to share a smooth with the floor, when Minho and Jonghyun grabbed his arms at the last moment and pulled him onto his feet again.

“You know what’s a real miracle? That you can manage to be so ridiculously clumsy at all times!”

As if to prove Minho’s point, Jinki smiled, before unconsciously stepping backwards and, once again, accidentally finishing in a messy pile of something that used to be their second Christmas tree.

The snow was gently falling outside, snowflakes spiraling happily as hearty laughter filled the Shinee dorm.

In the midst of it all, Jonghyun’s eyes flew open wide as he, by pure chance, stumbled upon Minho’s abandoned laptop.

“N-NO!” screamed Minho for dear life, cheeks instantly pink, snatching away his laptop – but it was already too late.

“. . .”

“PWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”

* * *

Author's Note: HAPPY HOLIDAYS, everyone!!! :D ^.^

My first attempt at writing a fluffy story... Let me know if it was too awkward. XD