MinHee and Jackson had arrived to Cora’s party after what felt like a lifetime. MinHee was glad that Jackson had fun with her parents, and that they got along, but currently she and he were not getting along, and it was painful to be sitting quietly since she’d nothing she wanted to say in front of her parents.

Or her brother, who was sitting beside them in the car. She didn’t want to say anything in front of him either.

The car stopped, and the three climbed out, arms full of gifts and MinHee forced a smile as Cora hurried towards her to help out. “Thank you,” She said, as Cora snagged arms full of presents from her.

Cora’s eyebrows rose, but she continued to smile as she said through her teeth “Something’s wrong, right?” MinHee nodded and they continued towards the house. “Alright, the presents for us are going in the den. If you brought anything for anyone else, it goes under the grand tree in the parlor.”

And sure enough, as they entered the house, there was a very grand tree in the parlor. It was covered in glittering white lights, tinsel, and silver ornaments. Underneath the tree were thousands of presents for the exchange later that night, which was going to end up being the end of the party, MinHee was sure.

Cora lead them towards the den, which was separated from the rest of the house by a long hallway and a heavy wooden sliding door. She slid it aside using her heel and walked into the room, where everyone else was already waiting.

Youngjae and Maria were sitting on the edge of the chaise lounger, watching the fire and talking quietly. Yuna and Yugyeom were standing in a corner, hand in hand, also talking quietly. MinHee made a mental note to speak to Yuna. She noticed Bambam and Jr. were pushing wood into the fire, and Reina was watching with a small smirk on her face as Jr. leapt back from the flying embers. Ji-su was looking through Cora’s collection of Christmas music, and Nick was laughing with Mikki, who was twirling her hair around her finger flirtatiously. MinHee knew Cora was probably glaring the two down.

Mark, who was sitting alone on the couch, moved towards them and reached for the presents Cora was holding. “How was dinner?” He asked Jackson, who walked beside him towards the table they were keeping the presents on. Jackson laughed at the thought and began filling Mark in on what had happened.

“I’ll take yours for you,” JB said, taking the presents left from MinHee and smiling. “Try to enjoy yourself, okay? You looked so upset earlier. Just let loose.” She nodded and he walked away.

Cora immediately moved to her side. “Tell me what happened.”