CHRISTMAS PARTY

Minseok sighs when she pulls the last white slip of paper from Yixing’s snapback and unfolds it to read the name of who she is the Secret Santa for. It was Chanyeol’s idea to do Secret Santa this year along with suggesting they have a Christmas party. Minseok doesn’t mind the idea of a party, but she’s horrible at buying gifts for people — especially when she’s barely been friends with the others for more than two and a half months. They’ve all been friends for at least a year before she moved into town. They’re all good friends — though whether she considers Han a friend or not is highly debatable — but does she know them well enough to get them a good present?

She feels someone approach her and scrunches the paper in her hand in time for an arm to drape across her shoulders. Wrinkling her nose at the stench of musky body spray, she turns out of the embrace and takes two steps back.

Han pouts at her for a quick second before he grins. “Who’d you get? Is it me? Even if it isn’t, I just want to let you know that I like kisses from pretty girls for Christmas. You know...if you were unsure what to get me.”

Minseok stares at him blankly. “Get out of my face before you get a broken nose for Christmas.” She shoves the crumpled paper in her back pocket and walks around Han to steal Sehun away from Jongin.

“What’s up,” Sehun asks as she lets Minseok drag her to the opposite corner of the dance studio.

Releasing the younger girl’s arm, Minseok sighs for the second time in under ten minutes. “Can I have Yixing’s phone number?”

Sehun makes a face, slightly confused. “Why are you asking me when Yixing is right there?” She glances over her shoulder at Yixing talking with Chanyeol.

“It might ruin the secret of who I have for Secret Santa,” Minseok replies, glancing over as well to see Han join in on their conversation.

“What makes you think I even have his phone number?” Sehun frowns, crossing her arms over her chest.

Minseok simply raises her eyebrows. It doesn’t take long for Sehun to blush lightly and take out her phone with a huff. Quickly opening her contacts list, she scrolls to Yixing’s entry and holds it out for Minseok to look at as she takes out her own phone and saves the number.

“Thanks.” Minseok smiles when she finishes.

Sehun shrugs and turns around to look at the others in the room. At the same time Chanyeol looks over Yixing’s shoulder and waves them over. When the two girls reach the other side of the studio, Chanyeol latches onto them, threading one of her arms into each of the girls'.

“We should go shopping together!” Chanyeol bounces on her toes, smiling broadly. She has been feeling the Christmas spirit ever since the first day of December. Sehun can barely stand to ride in the same car as her these days; all she plays on the radio is Christmas music.

“All six of us? Won’t that make it easy for us to guess who is getting something for who?” Jongin asks from his spot on the floor.

“She meant us three,” Sehun clarifies, gesturing between the linked girls. “But nice try thinking people actually want to spend time with you.”

Jongin sticks out his tongue which prompts Sehun to do it back. The rest of them ignore them as they start making stupid faces at each other.

“We can go this weekend, Yeol,” Minseok says before addressing the rest. “Where are we having the party? And when?”

“We could have it at my house,” Yixing offers. “My parents probably wouldn’t care.”

“It has to be before New Years but Christmas is on a Friday.” Han twists his face in concentration as he thinks.

“Let’s just check to see if the Sunday after Christmas works and then if not, we’ll figure out something else,” Chanyeol suggests. “That cool?”

“I’ll tell you guys what my parents say tomorrow.” Yixing breaks apart from the group to pick up his bookbag.

“Yeah, we should probably get out of here before the principal comes to kick us out for being here so late,” Han says as he checks the time on his phone.

Nodding, Minseok reaches around Chanyeol to tug at the back of Sehun’s shirt. “Hun, are you going with Yeol and Jongin today?”

Sehun stops making evil eyes at Jongin and shakes her head. “Nah, I need to go home. Can we stop by Starbucks though? I’m feeling a green tea latte.”

The three girls find themselves at the closest mall on Saturday morning. It being the weekend before Christmas, the mall is packed with last minute shoppers and Minseok drives around the parking lot twice before she finds a decent spot towards the entrance of the mall. It started to snow late the night before and Minseok doesn’t have an appropriate pair of shoes for the ice.

As soon as Minseok kills the engine, Sehun unbuckles her seatbelt and flops along the backseat. “I don’t want to get out. It’s too cold,” she complains. “Do you guys even need anything?”

Chanyeol reaches between the seats from the front and slaps her . “C’mon, Hun, where’s your Christmas giving spirit?”

“Bah. Humbug.”

Minseok snorts and unlocks the doors before reaching for her hobo bag on the floor of the backseat. “Okay, Scrooge.” She taps Sehun on the as well. “Get up. It’s not even a two minute walk inside and you’ll freeze in here without the heat on.”

“Ugh, fine,” Sehun sits up anyway and adjusts her black beanie to cover her ears. “I hate winter.”

“That’s the spirit!” Chanyeol grins, grabbing her own purse lying at her feet.

A gentle breeze stirs up the snow as soon as they exit the car. Sehun screams with her lips closed, wrapping her arms around her torso as the cold bites at her cheeks. Minseok buries her face in her scarf, reacting far less dramatically to the wind for someone who grew up farther south.

Chanyeol isn’t bothered in the least, running around the car to where the other two were waiting with a huge smile on her face. “Let’s go!”

“I don’t even know where to begin looking for gifts,” Minseok says as they walk to the entrance.

“No matter what you get, it’s the thought that counts,” Chanyeol says.

Minseok isn’t so sure. She spent a lot of time last night brainstorming gifts for the person she chose but none of them seem all that great. She’s always been big on holidays, going out of her way to be at least cordial to even those she doesn’t like.

“But when in doubt, you can never go wrong with food,” Sehun chimes in.

Heat rushes over them when the automatic doors to the entrance slide open and all the girls quicken their pace to let the doors close behind them.

Sehun s her coat and looks around. “We should split up. It’d be awkward if we were each other’s secret Santa and were shopping for each other together.”

Chanyeol pouts. “That’s true. I didn’t think about that.”

“Let’s do our Secret Santa shopping first. Then we can meet up for lunch and if we still have things we need to buy we can do it together,” Minseok suggests.

Once they agree to meet in the food court in an hour, they go their separate ways.

Sehun waves and ducks into the nearest music shop. Minseok shakes her head as she watches Chanyeol drift into the pet store, hoping she doesn’t get distracted by the cute puppies and remembers to get shopping done. Alone, Minseok wanders past an entire row of stores but none of them spark any inspiration in her.

Chewing on her lip, she pulls out her phone. Even if she had a feeling it would come to this, she hoped she wouldn’t need to ask for help.

yixing

hey, this is minseok
i got your number from sehun

hey what’s up

i need your help

should i be worried?

how do you feel about socks for christmas?

uhhh
i guess they’re cool??

how often do you go to the movies?

never?
are you my secret santa
cuz if you are you’re doing it wrong

hush
and no, i’m not
but i don’t know what to get
so i’m basing what others will like on you
cause you’re the most normal

okayy

idk what to do
maybe i should just give my secret santa money

min you don’t need to stress
we’re 17 and poor
han bought me a cinderella coloring book from the dollar store last christmas
and sehun gave jongin a bag of salted cashews

doesn’t jongin have a mild allergy to nuts?

my point exactly
so relax ok

yeah okay
thanks <3

“Thanks for nothing,” Minseok mumbles to herself. Tapping her nails on the back of her phone, she decides to go up to the second floor of the mall. Maybe she’ll browse around for the girls and herself and hope something comes to her.

Noticing a sale at one of her favorite clothing stores, she walks in. A display of men’s and women’s sweaters in the middle of the store catches her attention and she barely smiles at the attendant who greets her on her way over. The very last thing she needs is a new sweater but they are all Nordic print and extremely cute. There is a bright red 「BUY ONE GET ONE HALF OFF」 sign in the middle of the display, tempting her further. She picks up a grey and white sweater in her size and bites her lip when she finds the price tag hanging from the sleeve. It isn’t that expensive but the worry over what to get for Secret Santa lingers in the back of her mind.

Pouting, she looks up at the sale sign and then back at the sweater in her hands. Her eyes briefly pause at the men’s side of the display.

The six of them find themselves in Yixing’s living room the Sunday after Christmas. Chanyeol and Yixing sit closest to the beautifully lit tree, randomly arranging the gifts brought; Sehun is challenging Jongin to see who can catch the most m&ms in their mouth; Minseok is curled up on the couch, her legs tucked beneath her.

“Jongin, why are you so good at this?” Minseok comments as Jongin successfully eats five candies in a row.

“Because I’m-” An m&m hits him in the eye and he ‘ow’s. He narrows his good eye at Sehun who bats her lashes and feigns innocence.

Han rounds the side of the couch and drops down next to Minseok, holding out a plastic cup filled with instant hot chocolate. “For you, beautiful.”

She takes it with a light smile, not minding his presence as long as he isn’t being weird.

When the gifts are finally all separated, Chanyeol claps her hands to gain their attention. “Present time!”

“Do we have to do it right now?” Jongin asks despite scooting closer to see where his pile of gifts is. “Like we just got here.”

“There’s no time like the present.”

Jongin is the only one who laughs at the lame joke.

Sehun crawls over to the pile of gifts and picks out the one with her name written on it. Obnoxious red and green striped wrapping paper covers a thin, rectangular package. “I’ll go first,” she says, turning it over in her hands to gently slip her fingers beneath the tape.

“Can you stop trying to not rip the paper? It’s all going in the trash anyway.” Han grumbles, leaning into Minseok’s side.

Sehun pauses for a second to stare blankly at him before continuing to peel the paper at a slower pace. Once she finally uncovers the present, she tosses the wrapping paper off to the side.

“It’s a giftcard to Starbucks,” she announces. “This could be from anyone.”

“That’s why you’re supposed to guess,” Jongin teases, chomping on chocolate.

“Well, it’s not you.” Sehun glances around, meeting everyone’s eyes. It’s not Han either; he would have gotten her something dumb like a poop keychain. It could be Minseok since Sehun has forced her to drop by Starbucks every morning they go to school together. But that’s kind of predictable. Still, she doesn’t know who it could be.

“Nope.” Minseok shakes her head when Sehun says her guess out loud.

“It was meee!” Chanyeol exclaims, tossing her arms up in the air and throwing her body weight on the youngest girl, sending them to the ground.

Sehun giggles and pats Chanyeol’s head affectionately. “Thanks.”

“I got you a better gift than that, by the way. That’s actually a regift since I don’t go to Starbucks.”

Laughing again, Sehun pushes Chanyeol off her. “Nice to know I get your sloppy seconds.”

Chanyeol pouts at her as she reaches for her own present, next in line since she was Sehun’s Santa.

It looks like someone wrote her name on it with their toes and she snorts at the attempt to mask their identity with crappy handwriting. The gift bag is simple, white and glittery with a tiny red ribbon stuck to it. From it she pulls the cutest pair of toe socks. One pair is rainbow striped, the other navy with white polka dots, and they both look like they’ll reach her calves.

“Oh my god, I love these,” she gushes dramatically. She looks up to see if anyone reacted to her words but she’s met with five poker faces. “Uh, okay, Jongin?”

Jongin denies the guess as Han wordlessly detaches himself from Minseok’s side to search the last four gifts for his own.

Chanyeol watches him, eyes wide in surprise. “Han?!”

“That’s a plot twist,” Yixing says, also shocked that Han bought a decent present, especially since he and Chanyeol aren’t close friends. But maybe that’s why he did.

Han tosses out a blasé, “You’re welcome,” and picks up the huge penguin-printed bag with an obnoxious blue ribbon and his name written on it in black marker. It’s been stapled shut with one staple in the center and he looks at his group of friends before he rips it open. As he reaches in, his fingers brush something soft. His hand hits something stiff, probably a card, when he pulls the sweater out of the bag. It’s a nice sweater — grey and white with a reindeer pattern across the chest — though not what he was expecting.

Definitely not what he was expecting.

He snaps his head up and immediately finds Minseok, wearing the same exact sweater as the one in his hands, trying to melt into the couch, her eyes closed as if she’s trying to block out everything and the slightest dash of pink coloring her face.

“You bought us couple sweaters?” he questions, breathless.

There’s a moment of silence that’s broken by Jongin’s mumble of “Holy , I didn’t even notice.”

“I have no idea how our talk last week lead to this.” Yixing muses over where he went wrong to give Minseok such an idea.

But the most surprised person is Han who can’t stop looking between Minseok and the sweater in his hands. It would be an okay gift if they were dating but they aren’t. Minseok has stressed enough that she barely tolerates him. Wouldn’t having the same clothing as him make her uncomfortable? So what does this mean?

Han folds the top and puts it back in the bag. “I honestly don’t know how to feel. Like I’m so happy but at the same time I’m kind of lost.”

“Don’t let it get to your head, okay? It doesn’t mean anything. I just thought it was cute,” Minseok mumbles, hiding her face behind her empty plastic cup.

Leaving the bag on the floor near the Christmas tree, Han picks up the bag with Minseok’s name on it to hand to her as he returns to the couch. “I knew you couldn’t resist me,” he whispers into her ear. Even the hard slap to his cheek when Minseok pushes his face away from hers can’t knock the smile from his lips.

“That’s not why I bought it.” She scowls and takes the gift bag.

It has Happy Birthday printed all over it.

“I’m going to trust my gut and say Yixing would never reuse a birthday bag for Christmas,” she assumes, glancing at the three left. “So it’s one of you kids.”

The gift is a lotion, body wash, and perfume set. It’s the kind that always goes on sale around holidays. Minseok has received plenty of them from family members over the years. “Jongin.”

Jongin nods as he stares at the two objects left. “Unless you bought your own gift Yixing, I’m gonna take a wild guess and say you had me.”

“That kind of confidence will get you put in the hospital,” Sehun says as she lies on her back. “Hope you like almonds, friend.”

Yixing chuckles when Jongin rolls his eyes. “Yeah, it’s from me.”

Jongin was slightly afraid that Sehun did somehow convince Yixing to give him almonds — Yixing does spoil Sehun with a suspicious amount of bubble tea after all, she’s probably cursed him to do whatever she asks — but he breathes a sigh of relief when pulls out a black snapback with a bright yellow batman logo.

“When did we start giving each other quality presents?” Han wonders, watching Jongin push his hair back and pull the cap on.

Jongin shrugs. “I guess we have to evolve past giving each other toys from the dollar store and old Halloween candy sometime.” He looks at Yixing. “Saving the worst for last, bro.”

At his words, Sehun sits up and aims a kick at his thigh.

Yixing grabs for the last beautifully wrapped box with Zhang written in pink marker in the white box of a ‘Hi, My Name is…’ sticker. Even though he already knows it’s from Sehun, he rips off the paper with curiosity just the same. Inside is a Nike shoebox that is too light to be carrying sneakers. Lifting the top, he finds a thick, cream knit scarf.

“Oh, that’s so nice,” Chanyeol comments.

“Yeah, a total upgrade from the nuts last year.” Yixing laughs as he takes it out of the box and wraps it around his neck. It’s really warm and of great quality. He doubts it cost less than the twenty dollar price maximum they decided on.

Sehun smiles shyly and Yixing busies himself with pretending to clean up the wrapping paper to hide the way his own smile broadens at the look on her face.

Jongin reaches over and grabs Sehun in a choke-hold to ruffle her hair. “You tried to kill me last year but you give him that? I thought we were best friends!”

“This best friend is about to punch you straight in the if you don’t let her go.” Sehun raises her arm to make good on her threat but Jongin releases her. Running her hand through her hair, she huffs. “I’ve never met anyone so inconsiderate. Those were premium cashews.”

“Thanks, Sehun,” Yixing says before they can start squabbling.

Sehun rubs at her arm. “I’ve never seen you come to school with a scarf and it’s already pretty cold outside so…” She shrugs.

“I’m disgusted by this new, considerate Sehun.” Jongin makes a face.

“Same,” Han agrees.

After returning home to his parents questioning what he did at Yixing’s house and if he had fun, Han holes himself up in his room. He throws the bag holding his new sweater onto his bed and immediately flops face down next to it. Rolling over onto his back, he reaches out and tips the bag over, letting the sweater spill out next to him.

“I still can’t believe she—” The end of his sentence melts into a confused squeak when he notices a little blue book beneath the sleeve.

Sitting it up, he brushes off the mass of fabric and takes the book in his hands. It’s handmade from pastel blue cardstock cut into neat squares and held together with a white strand of yarn. The first page is a note written in Minseok’s pretty script.

I don’t know why I’m being so generous to you. Especially since you don’t deserve it. Like at all. And neither this nor the sweater mean that I like you more than a friend. I’m simply giving you a chance to change my mind about you being the scum of the earth. So don’t let it get to your overinflated ego. I’m trusting you with this. But I will take it back and burn it if I have to.

Merry Christmas, Han

Scrunching his brows in confusion, Han turns the first page. His eyes skim over the words written on the next one and his heart kicks into overdrive.

ONE FREE TICKET TO: HOLD HANDS

“No way,” he whispers to himself. He flips to the next one. Another chance to hold hands. And another. Then two for a hug. A lunch date. A movie night. And then two for a date of his choice. And…and one for a kiss on the cheek. “No ing way.”

She gave him date coupons. Not only did she give him a sweater identical to hers…she also made date coupons. He wants to send her a message, just to make sure this isn’t a really bad joke. It's just like she said: he doesn't deserve this at all.

Hugging the coupon booklet, he lies on his back. She has been softening up towards him ever since he confessed. He didn’t think it would change her perspective of him enough for her to start giving him a chance. He had this big elaborate plan crafted out to seal the deal but this makes everything so much easier.

He grins.

“She likes me.”

i didn't want to post this on christmas day. i wanted to post it 2 days ago but instead of writing it i played phone games

i gave up on making it decent about halfway through. and don't ask why minseok gave the gifts she did because i don't even know the answer

merry christmas, my loves