“Halmeoni, I finally finished!” Myungsoo excitedly held up his finished product with a big smile on his face.

Halmeoni went over and examined what he made. “Aigoo, you finally did it,” she said.

Myungsoo looked at his product again. Even though he was happy to finish it, it didn’t mean that he was satisfied with the way that it looked. “But Halmeoni, don’t you think that this is too messy?”

Halmeoni shook her head. “No, of course not. It looks fine.”

“Really Halmeoni?” he asked, still not convinced.

“Of course, it looks amazing for a beginner like you,” she said reassuringly. “I know for sure that Yoomi will like it.”

“Really?”

Halmeoni nodded. “Really,” she said.

Myungsoo then smiled. “Thanks Halmeoni, I’ll make sure to give this to her.” He got ready to leave, but Halmeoni spoke up.

“Myungsoo, don’t you want to wrap that up into a gift?” she asked.

“It’s okay Halmeoni, I have another idea to give it to her,” he answered.

Halmeoni nodded at his response. “Alright then, off you go,” she said with a smile. “And remember to sleep enough. You come here at 6:00 every morning to learn how to make that thing.”

Myungsoo pouted. “Halmeoni, did I disturb your sleep by coming here?” he asked. “If I did then I’m sorry.”

Halmeoni looked bewildered. “Of course not!” she replied. “I usually wake up early every morning anyway. I’m just worried that you’re not getting enough sleep.”

Myungsoo started smiling again. “Don’t worry, Halmeoni. Even if I don’t get enough sleep because of this, Yoomi is totally worth it,” he said. He then got up and started towards the door. “Goodbye, Halmeoni. Thank you for helping me with this.”

Halmeoni smiled back. “There’s no need to thank me, I’m glad that I got to help you with this,” she replied.

Myungsoo bowed before heading towards home. He then looked at what he made with a smile. *I hope that she will like this.*

“Guys, we’re here!” Myungsoo said as he took off his shoes.

Yoomi looked around at Woohyun’s house excitedly. “Woah, his house is really nice,” she said in awe.

“Psh, my house looks way better…” Myungsoo mumbled.

After they took off their shoes and coats, they both went inside. The rest of the Infinite members were in the living room, sitting either on the couch or on the floor.

“Did you guys hear us come in?” Myungsoo asked as he walked and stood at the door frame of the entrance to the living room.

“Of course we did, we’re not deaf,” Sungjong replied. He then looked over at Hoya. “You’ve got any threes?

“We just didn’t feel like replying,” Hoya said without looking up from his cards. “Here.” He threw 2 cards onto the ground, and Sungjong picked them up before placing them into his card deck.

“You’ve got any kings?” Hoya asked back.

“Go fish,” Sungjong replied.

“Are you two just playing by yourselves?” Myungsoo asked.

“Yup, the others didn’t want to play,” Hoya answered.

Myungsoo looked over at the others and saw all of them on their phones. “Wow, you guys are being so sociable on Christmas Day.”

“Dude, you know that we were waiting for you, right?” Sunggyu said as he looked up from his phone.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Myungsoo replied.

Sunggyu sighed and shook his head before starting to play on his phone again. “Even on Christmas he’s still as rude as ever.”

Yoomi finally came up and saw them all in the living room and started walking over to them. “Why are all of you guys playing on your phones?” she asked. Just before she was about to stand next to Myungsoo by the door frame, Sungyeol immediately yelled.

“No! Yoomi! Stop!”

Yoomi stopped in her tracks and looked at him, confused. “What is it Sungyeol?” she asked.

“You almost stood under the mistletoe,” he explained. “You should thank me later for not having to kiss Myungsoo.”

Myungsoo and Yoomi both looked up and saw a mistletoe right above Myungsoo’s head. “Wait, when did you guys put that there?” Myungsoo asked.

“I hung it there before you guys arrived,” Woohyun said. “You should have arrived sooner. Sunggyu and Sungyeol were caught standing under it.”

Both Sunggyu and Sungyeol scowled at the memory. “It was the most disgusting thing that ever happened in my life,” they both said.

“Come on, admit that you both enjoyed it,” Woohyun said with a cheeky smile. “We all saw how you two were blushing when you kissed Sungyeol on the cheek, right Dongwoo?”

Dongwoo nodded and started laughing. Sunggyu glared at both of them and was threatening to throw his phone right at their heads.

Myungsoo looked up at the mistletoe and felt a little disappointed. *Dang it, if Sungyeol didn’t stop her then I would’ve had an excuse to kiss her.* he thought. He then glared at Sungyeol and imagined hitting him for stopping her.

Woohyun then stood up and clapped his hands. “Alright everyone, it’s time to decorate!” he said in a commanding tone.

Everyone in the room furrowed their eyebrows. “Wait, you want us to decorate?” Sunggyu asked with a raised eyebrow.

Woohyun nodded. “Of course, did you think that I’ll be able to decorate this house all by myself?”

“Yeah,” Sunggyu stated matter-of-factly. “Also, isn’t it a little too late to decorate right now? It’s already Christmas.”

“I know, but I didn’t want to decorate this place by myself, and I knew that you guys would have definitely found excuses to not come and help me decorate,” Woohyun explained. “That’s why you guys are helping now that you all are here.” He then clapped his hands again. “Alright, now let’s get started with the decorating!”

Everybody groaned, but got up to do it anyway since, hey, it was Christmas Day after all. “If it wasn’t Christmas then I would’ve just skipped out on the decorating,” Sunggyu grumbled loudly.

Just like Sunggyu, they all were grumbling about decorating, but each of them found something to do to decorate the house.

“Does this look good?” Yoomi asked as she carefully placed the last ornament on the Christmas tree. It took a while to completely decorate the 10 feet tall fir tree standing in the middle of the living room, but after a lot of putting on and taking off ornaments here and there, they finally finished it.

Dongwoo looked at it, held his chin, and tilted his head before smiling and giving her a thumbs up. “It’s good!”

Yoomi then climbed down from the step ladder and went over to Dongwoo. She then looked at the tree and smiled. “It looks awesome,” she said. “I think that we did a pretty good job.”

“Pretty good? More like an amazing job! This tree looks awesome!” He turned to her and held his hand up. “Good job, partner.”

Yoomi smiled and high fived him. “Thanks, you too.”

Woohyun then came into the room while sipping on a drink. “Woah, looks awesome,” he said as he looked at their finished product. He sipped his drink again. “Did it take you long to finish decorating this?”

“Yeah, it took quite a while-“ Dongwoo finally noticed that Woohyun had a drink in his hand that he probably just bought not too long ago. “Wait a minute, when did you have the time to buy this?” He pointed at the drink with a confused expression.

“I was buying some cookies at the store when I came across a café.” He took another sip. “This is hot chocolate by the way.”

“But you didn’t buy any for us?” Yoomi said sadly.

“Sorry Yoomi, but if I bought one for you and Dongwoo then everyone else would ask for one,” he explained.

Yoomi pouted. “You’re so cheap,” she said. She then nudged Dongwoo. “Right Dongwoo?”

Dongwoo nodded and crossed his arms. “Yeah, you didn’t buy us that even though we helped you decorate this tree.” He pointed at the tree with his thumb. “And not to mention that it looks amazing.”

Woohyun shrugged. “Sorry guys, it wasn’t a two for one sell either,” he said. “Don’t you know how much this thing costs?” He raised an eyebrow while pointing at his drink. "It was like 2 bucks.”

“But you’re a son of a rich company,” Dongwoo pointed out. “Don’t you have enough money to buy all of us that?”

“You’re rich too,” Woohyun retorted. “You can buy it yourself since you have money.”

“Yah, I’m your best friend. You’re supposed to buy me a drink too since, you know, friendship,” Dongwoo said.

Woohyun shook his head. “Sorry, but friendship doesn’t have anything to do with buying each other hot chocolate.” He then took another sip before walking away.

“Wow…” Yoomi watched as Woohyun walked away. “Woohyun is really cheap.”

Dongwoo sighed and nodded. “Yeah, but you get used to it.”

They both shook their heads in disapproval before turning back towards the tree.

“Well… at least we got to decorate the tree,” Yoomi said.

“Yeah,” Dongwoo agreed. “We even got to put the star on the tree. That’s like the best part of tree decorating.”

All of a sudden, they heard Woohyun’s voice from the kitchen. “Guys, did you put on the star yet?!” he asked.

“Yeah!” they both replied.

“Well, take it back down since I want to put it on!” he yelled so that they could hear.

Both of Dongwoo’s and Yoomi’s eyes widened as they slowly turned to look at each other.

“We have to protect the star,” she said.

Dongwoo nodded in understanding. He then pointed at the tree. “Yoomi… you protect the tree, and I’ll block him,” he said as he ran towards the kitchen and blocked the exit so that Woohyun couldn’t come out. Yoomi did as she was told and ran over to the tree.

“Guys, did you take down the star yet?” Woohyun started walking towards the exit of the kitchen, only to find it blocked with Dongwoo in the middle with his arms and legs spread out. “Yah, what are you doing? Move.”

He tried to push Dongwoo away, but he wouldn’t even budge. “Dongwoo, seriously. I need to put that star on top of the tree.” He tried even harder to push Dongwoo away, and even tried to tackle him.

“No, Yoomi and I put it on, and it will stay on until the end of Christmas!” Dongwoo yelled.

“Yah, it’s my tree!” Woohyun yelled back.

Woohyun tried every method that he knew of to bring the other male down, but Dongwoo tried his best to stay put. “Yoomi!” he said as he struggled with preventing Woohyun from going to the living room. “This is war! Protect the tree with all you’ve got!”

“Yah!” Woohyun shouted. “Since when was this war? I only want to put the star on my tree. And I repeat, my tree!”

Woohyun and Dongwoo started wrestling at the doorway towards the kitchen while Yoomi was building a fort around the tree with everything she could find from chairs, presents, the step ladder that she used, and even the candy canes on the tree – though they were only for decoration since even forts have the right to look nice.

“Guys, we finished with the front-“ Sunggyu stopped midsentence when he saw the battle scene in front of him.

“Yah, Jang Dongwoo! Let go!” Woohyun yelled as he was put into an arm bar by Dongwoo.

Dongwoo ignored him and shouted over to Yoomi. “Yoomi, protect the star!”

Yoomi didn’t even hear it since she was too busy with her fort building. Sunggyu watched the three with his mouth agape. “What in the world are these three doing?” he asked himself in confusion.

He was about to ask them, but then stopped. “You know what, asking them would not benefit you in any way Sunggyu.” He then nodded and agreed with himself. “Yeah Sunggyu, you’re right. We should just leave them be.” He nodded again and pretended that he never saw those three doing whatever they were doing before leaving the room.

“Which cake should we pick?” Hoya asked as he looked at the displays.

“I don’t know. They all look pretty good,” Sungjong replied. He then turned towards Yoomi. “Yoomi, which one do you want?”

Yoomi looked at the cake displays and examined each one. “How about that one?” She pointed at a white cake with Santa Claus standing next to a Christmas tree, and a smiling snowman in the background.

Sungjong smiled. “I think it’s a good choice.” He turned to face Hoya. “Right Hoya?”

Hoya looked at the cake and nodded. “Yeah, let’s get it.”

Sungjong then turned around towards the others that were waiting by the tables. “Sunggyu! We made our choice. Come pay!”

Sunggyu looked at them in surprise. “Wait, I’m paying again?”

Hoya nodded. “Of course, who else would pay?”

Sunggyu raised an eyebrow. “You.”

Hoya pulled on his pockets and showed him that they were empty. “Don’t have money,” he said.

Sunggyu then turned towards Sungjong. “Then you.”

Sungjong did the same and showed him his empty pockets. “I don’t have money either.”

Sunggyu sighed and rolled his eyes. “Fine,” he grumpily said before taking out his wallet. “You guys owe me a lot.”

“We know,” Hoya and Sungjong said in unison.

Sunggyu gave the worker his money, and the cake got placed into a box before being handed over to them. “You guys are going to pay me back, right?” he said to them.

Hoya and Sungjong smiled. “Sure…” they both said.

Sungjong then took the cake and looked over at Yoomi. “Yoomi, let’s go to the others now.” Yoomi nodded and they both started walking towards the others.

Sunggyu watched them leave before turning towards Hoya. “You guys aren’t going to pay me back, are you?”

Hoya shook his head. “Nope,” he said. He then placed his hand on Sunggyu’s shoulder and smiled at him. “It’s nice to know that you understand us.” He gave him a little pat before going towards the others.

Sunggyu sighed as he watched Hoya walk away. “Well, I knew that they wouldn’t pay me back anyway.” He then sighed again before walking over to them.

“Woah…” Sungyeol watched the event that was happening outside through the window. “I think that they’re having a parade right now!” He jumped up and down excitedly with a big, goofy grin plastered on his face. “I have to see this.”

He then ran outside, leaving the rest of them still in the cake shop.

“Woah, they even have people dressed in Christmas tree costumes!” Yoomi said as she stared at the dancing people out in the streets. Her eyes twinkled with excitement as she ran out to get a better look.

The first thing she saw when she got outside was the massive crowd of people standing to the side, watching the parade. Without any second thoughts, she quickly dived right in and squeezed her way towards the front.

“Hey, watch it!”

“Sorry,” she said, but still continued going through every small opening between people that she could find.

Finally, she made it to the front, and she had a clear view of the action that was just a few feet in front of her. “Wow…” she said as a smile formed unknowingly onto her face. “This is so cool!”

“Really? This is cool?”

Yoomi was surprised that someone answered her and, thinking that it was Sungyeol since she remembered seeing him run out of the place first, she turned towards the person to reply to his comment. “Yeah, it’s really-“ She suddenly stopped midsentence when she saw Myungsoo standing there, staring at her.

“Myungsoo!” she said in surprise. She then looked back and saw how the people were all crowded next to each other, barely leaving room for anybody to go through. Sure, it was easier for her to go through since she has a smaller frame, but Myungsoo, well, he’s a guy so of course you would question how he got through them when he’s definitely not small enough to squeeze through the area between the people.

“How did you get here?” Yoomi asked.

“I followed you,” he bluntly answered. “Do you know how many people I had to push out of my way before I reached here?” She didn’t even try to answer since she knew it was a rhetorical question. “10,” he answered by himself. “And I almost got beat up by 3 of them.”

 “Well, it’s your fault for following me,” she said. She then turned back towards the parade and watched the dancing snowmen in amusement.

Myungsoo looked at her as she watched it. “Do you seriously think that this is cool?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Yoomi nodded with a big smile on her face. “Yeah, who wouldn’t think that this is cool?” she replied. “It’s not an everyday thing where you get to see a dancing, smiling snowman right in front of you. She then swayed her head to the music. “They’re even singing Christmas songs.”

Myungsoo held back a laugh as he watched her. “Seriously? Dancing, smiling snowmen are cool?”

Yoomi stopped what she was doing and furrowed her eyebrows. “You think they’re not?” she asked.

Myungsoo shrugged. “I don’t know. Should I think that they’re cool or should I not?”

“I don’t know. It’s your opinion.”

“Do I have an opinion or do I not?”

“I don’t know. It’s your mind.”

“Do I have a mind or do I-“

“Myungsoo, I get it already,” Yoomi interrupted. “Stop trying to be poetic. You’re not Shakespeare.”

Myungsoo frowned. “For once I’m actually trying to sound intelligent by being poetic, but you only shoot me down when I try to showcase my artistic abilities,” he said as he pouted. “And you’re the one that calls me a meanie.”

Yoomi smiled at his actions since it was just too cute. “Myungsoo, taking Shakespeare’s ‘to be or not to be’ sentence and revising it is not very artistic or creative,” she said. “You have to come up with something new to earn some praise for being artistic.” She then brought her hand up and gave him a pat on his head. “But I’ll praise you anyway for trying.”

She gave him that heartwarming smile of hers again, and he couldn’t help but blush. “T-thanks,” he said as he looked down, embarrassed that he couldn’t control the color of his own cheeks.

After that, they continued to watch the parade until it finally ended. When the crowd started to die down, they were able to find the others without even trying.

“There you guys are,” Sungjong said as he walked up to them. “We were looking for you everywhere.”

Sungyeol also went up and looked at Sungjong confusedly. “Really? It seems like it’s pretty easy to spot the others though,” he stated.

They looked around and saw that Sungyeol was right. There was barely anyone in the streets at that time since it seems like they all headed somewhere else after the parade ended.

“Then let’s go home now,” Dongwoo said as the rest of them joined up. “I really want to open my presents!” He eagerly started bouncing and was already heading towards Woohyun’s house, not even remembering to wait for the others.

When they arrived home, Sungyeol and Dongwoo immediately ran towards the living room where the presents were lying underneath the Christmas tree.

“Oh, I found one of my presents!” Dongwoo said excitedly. He held it up and showed it to the others. “Can I open it yet?”

“No,” Sunggyu replied. “We have to eat cake first.”

Sungyeol pouted. “No we don’t. We can just open the presents now and eat cake later.”

“No, we’re eating the cake first.” Sunggyu stood by what he said and crossed his arms stubbornly.

“No, we’re opening the presents first!” Sungyeol said, not planning on listening to the elder.

Woohyun then stepped in with a plan to end their bickering. “Guys, how about we settle this democratically?” he suggested. “Let’s all either vote for opening presents or eating cake, and we’ll do the activity that gets the most votes first.”

“Actually, that’s a pretty good idea,” Hoya said while nodding.

“Yeah, I think so too. Let’s just go with that,” Sungjong agreed.

Woohyun smiled proudly when he heard how the others were all in favor of his voting suggestion. He then pretended to flip his nonexistent long hair in an arrogant way. “I know, you don’t need to thank me. I already know that I’m a genius.”

The others ignored him since they were already used to him doing these sorts of things.

“Alright, so who votes for opening presents first?” Sunggyu asked.

Everybody raised their hands – except Sunggyu – and Sunggyu looked at them in disbelief. “Wait, so you guys seriously do not want to eat the cake first?”

They all shook their heads.

“Then why did we buy it in the first place?” Sunggyu asked.

“We bought it to eat of course, but let’s do that later,” Sungyeol said as he found his own present. “Who cares about cake when my presents are waiting to be opened?” Without waiting for an answer, Sungyeol already tore up the wrapping paper to reveal a box inside.

“Hey, that’s not fair. You have to wait for us to get our presents too,” Woohyun whined as he ran towards the tree and quickly looked around for his.

The others did the same, leaving Sunggyu standing there alone. Sunggyu then sighed as he looked at the cake in his hand. “Why is it that when I want to eat then they want to do something else, and when I want to do something else then they want to eat?” he asked himself. “What kind of unfair world is this for everyone to go against what I want to do first?”

He then looked up and saw the others already tearing through their presents. “Wait, did they actually start without me?”

“We already started a long time ago,” Hoya said, not looking up from what he was doing. “It was your fault for standing there and talking to yourself.”

“I was not talking to myself!” Sunggyu said in his defense before placing the cake down and walking over to find his presents.

Myungsoo opened his presents and got a variety of things from headphones to an origami book. “Who got me an origami book?” he asked as he held up the book with a puzzled look on his face.

Sungjong raised his hand, indicating that it was him. “I did,” he said. “I got it for you since it seems like you didn’t know how to fold anything else besides from cranes. Maybe reading that book will help you fold something new for once.”

“Well, thanks,” Myungsoo said sarcastically.

Sungjong smiled back. “You’re welcome,” he said merrily. “Merry Christmas~”

Myungsoo narrowed his eyes at him and saw Sungjong quietly laughing to himself. He then put the origami book down and looked to see if he had any presents that were left unopened. Indeed, there was one untouched present that was sitting next to him. He knew exactly who it was from, and purposefully saved it for last.

He then started to unwrap it, but this time, he was doing it more carefully and wasn’t tearing into it like the others. As he finally caught sight of the box, he held a breath before slowly opening it, anticipating what might be inside it.

To his surprise, he saw a nutcracker in the box. Compared to other nutcrackers, this one was actually quite cute since it was smiling unlike other nutcrackers that only stared blankly into space while showing their full set of teeth. He then started to look around it, thinking that there might be something else.

If this was given to him from somebody else, he would have just thought that they gave him a nutcracker for no reason at all and wouldn’t have thought too much about it. But this nutcracker was from Yoomi and knowing that she had a hobby of meddling with stuff, he was kind of expecting to find something more than just a nutcracker.

*If I was her, then what would I add onto a nutcracker?* he asked himself. He then sat there for a moment while thinking, and after a while, he finally remembered something that she would always put onto her machine – a button.

With that thought in mind, he started searching for the button. He turned the nutcracker all around and looked everywhere for a button that he could press, but he found no such thing. He searched for five whole minutes before finally giving up, holding the nutcracker in front of his face. *Was I wrong? Does she not put buttons on everything that she makes or meddles with?*

He examined the nutcracker’s face before noticing something odd about it. He could see a faint line near the top of its head and on its forehead. Looking at it with a curious expression, he tried pushing his thumb upwards at the line. Before he knew it, he saw the nutcracker’s head pop open, revealing a red button inside of it. Without even hesitating, he pushed the button and a familiar voice spoke out of it.

“Congratulations Myungsoo, you finally found the button!” Yoomi’s recorded voice said. A great applause could be heard in the background. “And to think that I kind of doubted that you could actually find it, it seems like you’re actually smarter than I thought.” Myungsoo quietly chuckled at what she said.

“Anyways, Merry Christmas and Happy New Years my best friend, Kim Myungsoo. And also…” There was a pause as it seemed like she was hesitating to say something. “…I love you~” she finally said sweetly. Myungsoo could feel his heart starting to beat faster as he almost stopped breathing. “Oh, that’s so cheesy,” the recording continued as she sounded like she was cringing from her own words.

“Oh, and it seems like I’m talking for too long, sorry about that.” She sheepishly laughed. “Yeah, well, I just wanted to tell you that I love you since you are a very special person to me, and that no matter what… you will always be my best friend. Thank you for everything, and Merry Christmas~”

The voice recording ended, and Myungsoo was smiling like an idiot. He was a little disappointed that it seems like she only thought of him as a friend and that she only said ‘I love you’ to him in a friendly way, but it didn’t matter that much. She still called him a special person to her, and that was enough for him to stay awake everyday while smiling nonstop like an idiot.

“Myungsoo…” Yoomi said as she slowly walked up to him. She saw the nutcracker in his hand and felt herself blushing from embarrassment. “Was the recording too cheesy?” she asked nervously.

Myungsoo looked up at her while smiling. “Yeah, it was,” he said straightforwardly. He then stood up and looked at her in the eyes. “But thank you, it was an amazing present.”

Before Yoomi knew what was happening, she felt herself being pulled into an embrace. She stood there, stunned, as Myungsoo held her firmly in his arms. “Thank you for the present Yoomi, my best friend.”

After hearing what he said, she instantly smiled and hugged him back. “You’re welcome~” she said, happy that he liked what she gave him.

“And also…” Myungsoo leaned a little closer to her ears. “…I love you too,” he said in a soft, but affectionate voice.

Yoomi froze at what he said. It felt like her heart wasn’t working properly since it was beating so fast. For some reason, when he said ‘I love you’ to her, it didn’t seem like it was in a friendly way. No, it felt… different, like he meant something more than just loving her as a friend.

After thinking that, she then quickly shook the thought out of her head. They were best friends, and he even acknowledged it himself. It didn’t make sense for it to mean something more than just an exchange of ‘I love you’ between friends… right?

“Woah, what are you guys doing?” Woohyun asked as he finally noticed the two embracing each other at the back of the room.

Yoomi felt like she was caught doing something inappropriate – even though she wasn’t – and immediately pushed Myungsoo away from her, much to his disappointment.

He then looked at Woohyun with an annoyed look. “What? Haven’t you seen two best friends hugging each other before?” he asked as he pulled Yoomi back into his embrace and wrapped his arms around her waist while gently resting his chin onto her head. After registering what was happening, she then blushed like crazy and could feel her cheeks and ears heating up from his back hug.

Woohyun shrugged in response to Myungsoo’s question. He then looked at Yoomi. “Yoomi, you should watch out for him,” he warned her as he pointed at Myungsoo. “He’s a total skinship loving monster. He always hugs us like there is no tomorrow, and it seems like you’re his next target.”

Myungsoo heard what he said and instantly frowned as he glared at him. Woohyun saw it, and placed his hands in front of him defensively. “There’s no need to glare at me,” Woohyun said. “I’m just telling the truth.”

Myungsoo pretended like he was about to throw something at him while Woohyun just stuck his tongue out playfully and went back to opening his presents. Yoomi thought about what Woohyun said, and felt a little disappointed. *So him hugging me like this is nothing special,* she thought to herself.

She then pushed him away as she turned and smiled at him. “Myungsoo, did you find your other present?” she asked.

Myungsoo felt a little empty when she pushed him away again, but at the same time he was also curious about the present that she was talking about. “Wasn’t the nutcracker your gift to me?” he asked back.

“Yeah, it is,” she replied. “But I also got you something else.”

Seeing his confused expression, she knew right away that he wasn’t able to find his last present that she purposefully hid from him. She then went over to the now opened box and held it out as she pressed a button that was hidden to the side – barely visible to anybody that was looking at the box unless they carefully examined it.

“Surprise!” she said as the bottom of the box suddenly slid open to reveal a camera hidden beneath it.

Myungsoo widened his eyes at the camera. It was the new camera that he was eyeing ever since it came out. He was thinking of buying it, but now that it’s right there in front of him, he couldn’t even believe that what he was seeing was real or not. “W-what… how did you know-“

“I saw you looking at it at the store, so I saved up some money to buy it for you,” she answered. She then looked up at him expectedly. “So… do you like it?”

Myungsoo stood there, staring at the camera for a while before looking at her. A wide smile then slowly appeared on his face as he nodded excitedly. He then frantically took the camera out of the box and turned it on. “Woah, it looks amazing!” he said as he immediately started taking pictures.

Yoomi smiled as she saw how childish he looked while taking the pictures. He looked like a kid that was playing with his toy that he just got for Christmas – which was pretty much what it was since he did get the camera on Christmas after all.

“Guys,” Myungsoo called to the others. When he got everyone’s attention, he held the camera up with a big smile on his face. “Let’s take a picture together.”

Everyone started doing as told since they agreed that they should take a picture as a memory of the very special day where they all got together on Christmas. Myungsoo found a tripod and placed the camera on it while everyone else got into position.

“Alright, we have ten seconds to do this,” Myungsoo said as he hovered his finger above the button that would start the timer. “And… Go!” He then quickly ran over to them and stood next to Yoomi.

“Everyone, smile!” Sunggyu said as he and the rest of them started smiling.

Snap

Myungsoo smiled as he looked through the pictures in his new camera. He saw the pictures that he took of everyone when they were eating cake, some candid photos that he took without their knowledge, and also some posed photos where they were smiling happily at the camera while holding up peace signs.

“Wow, you must really like the camera,” Yoomi said. She was feeling happy that it seemed like he liked her present to him a lot.

Myungsoo nodded excitedly like a little kid. “Yeah, I really do. Thank you so much for getting me this,” he said.

Yoomi smiled. “You’re welcome,” she replied. “But since I got you such an amazing present, I was kind of hoping that you would get at least something for me.”

Myungsoo heard what she said and knew exactly what she was talking about. When they were opening presents, it seemed like Yoomi noticed that there wasn’t a present from him in the bunch. Even though she was smiling, he knew that she was feeling disappointed from not receiving a present from him.

“But that’s okay,” she continued. “I’m already happy that I was able to stay true to my word and was able to surprise you.” She smiled proudly to herself, knowing that he was truly surprised when he got the camera. “That’s why I even made a fake bottom to the box so that you would be even more surprised when the camera was finally revealed.”

Myungsoo smiled and ruffled her hair. “Yup, you’re right. I was quite surprised,” he said. “I’m sorry for underestimating you, oh mighty genius Song Yoomi.” He then bowed respectfully like she was of a higher class.

Yoomi giggled at his actions and played along. “Oh, thank you kind sir,” she said as she bowed back.

Myungsoo then put his camera back into his bag of presents that he got from the others before looking at her, his smile unfaltering as he took the scarf that he was wearing off of his neck and wrapped it around hers. Yoomi was taken aback by what he was doing, and was about to take it off when he stopped her.

“This scarf isn’t mine,” he said, his hand lying on top of hers. “It’s yours.”

Yoomi looked at him with a confused expression. “What do you mean?” she asked.

“It means…” He continued to wrap it securely around her neck, and made sure that the scarf would keep her warm. “…that it’s your Christmas present from me to you.”

Yoomi looked at him in surprise. “So you really did get me something for Christmas,” she said happily.

Myungsoo nodded. “Of course I would. Why would I forget to get a Christmas present for you? You’re way too important to me for that to happen.”

Yoomi’s heart started beating rapidly again from what he said. She still didn’t understand why it was happening. One explanation was that she might be attracted to him – according to psychology, brain chemistry, etc – but it didn’t make sense for her to be attracted to him. He was her friend after all, and you can’t fall for your best friend, right?

Myungsoo then rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “I hope that it’s okay and that it’s not too messy,” he said. “It’s my first time knitting.”

Yoomi looked at him with wide eyes. “Wait, you made this?”

Myungsoo nodded in response. “Yeah, and I even wore it the whole day today just so that my scent would stick to it.” He then smiled playfully. “That way, you will always remember that I was the one that made it for you, and you will also not be able to forget me.”

Yoomi pretended to cringe at his words. “Wow, Myungsoo… you’re seriously getting super cheesy,” she said. “And also, you do remember that I have an eidetic memory, right?”

“Of course I remember,” Myungsoo replied. “But I still wanted to say that line. It makes me sound poetic.”

Yoomi had on an expression that clearly showed that she disagreed. “No it doesn’t. It just makes you sound unnecessarily cheesy, even more than Woohyun.”

Myungsoo frowned. “Psh, you don’t know poetry,” he muttered. He then pulled something out of his pocket and showed it to her. Yoomi’s eyes widened as soon as she saw it. It was a silver heart necklace with a smaller heart inside of it with small diamonds embedded in it.

“Here’s your second present,” he said as he approached her with it in his hands, ready to place it around her neck.

“Myungsoo, I can’t accept this. It looks way too expensive-“

“You have to take it,” he interrupted. “If you don’t take it then it means that you hate me since you’re refusing my present to you.”

That sentence alone was able to silence her, and he was happy that she was hesitating to refuse the necklace after what he said. “Don’t feel bad about receiving this,” he continued. “Trust me, it didn’t even cost that much.”

He then tried to place the necklace around her again, but faced an obstacle when he noticed that the scarf around her neck was preventing him from wearing the necklace on her. He tried again, this time testing out different angles just to see if he can finally wear the necklace around her neck.

Yoomi held back a laugh as she saw him trying to find a way to wear it on her. “Myungsoo, I think this is a sign that I shouldn’t accept this.”

She then tried to stop him from his attempt of placing the necklace around her neck, but Myungsoo – being the stubborn person he is – quickly unwrapped the scarf around her neck before finally bringing the necklace around her and clasping it into place. “There…” he said as he wrapped the scarf around her again. “The necklace is finally on you.”

He then looked at her sternly. “And don’t you dare take it off or try to return it or something,” he said. “The necklace has two hearts, one is mine and one is yours. If you take it off then you’re throwing away our friendship and… my love towards you.” He muttered the last part so that she wouldn’t hear it, but she caught on anyway.

“What?” she asked, confused by what he said.

Myungsoo realized that she heard him, and quickly rephrased his sentence. “I mean, my love towards you as a friend.”

Yoomi nodded in understanding before frowning. “But it’s so expensive though…”

Myungsoo sighed again. “No, it’s really not,” he repeated. Actually, the necklace costed a few hundred dollars. But to him, it wasn't that expensive but he knew that Yoomi would think differently. It was best to just not let her know.

She then smiled at him. “Still, thank you… for getting something for me,” she said. “Even though I would have been happy with just the scarf alone.” She felt the warm scarf around her neck, and could smell his scent on it. It seems like he wasn’t kidding when he said that he wore it just so that his scent would stick onto the scarf. “But you do know that once this gets washed then your scent would most likely disappear, right?”

Myungsoo was taken aback by what she said. Clearly, he had not thought of his scent disappearing once the scarf was washed. “T-then don’t wash it,” he quickly said. “Don’t ever wash it!”

Yoomi started laughing and looked at him amusedly. “Myungsoo, this scarf can get dirty. How can I not wash it when it does?”

“Well, just ignore it,” he replied. “Even if it’s dirty, at least my scent would still be on it.” He then pointed a finger at her. “So don’t ever wash it! Don’t even think about washing it!”

Yoomi continued laughing and just nodded in response. “Okay, I won’t wash it,” she finally said.

Myungsoo smiled, satisfied that now he didn’t have to worry as much about his scent disappearing from the scarf that quickly. He then looked up, and saw something that caught his eye. “Wow…” he said as he stared at it. “…it seems like luck is on my side today.”

Yoomi furrowed her eyebrows and looked at him curiously. “What do you mean?” she asked.

She was about to turn around to try to catch a glimpse at what he was looking at, but was immediately stopped by him. “It’s nothing,” he said with a smile. He then took her hand in his, and led her over to the Christmas tree that he was staring at.

Yoomi was surprised that he was suddenly holding her hand, but was more curious about what caught his attention to make him stare at it for that long. “But what were you looking at?” she asked again.

She tried to look up to see what he was staring at before, but then saw complete darkness when Myungsoo covered her eyes with his hand. “Don’t look,” he said.

Hearing him say that only aroused her curiosity even more. “But I’m curious~” she whined.

Myungsoo chuckled. “Don’t use aegyo on me,” he said. “Because it’s completely working, even though I’m trying really hard for it to not affect me.”

Yoomi was silenced by what he said, and didn’t try asking him about what he was staring at before. Her brain was too busy registering what he said and what it might have meant.

Finally, they reached the Christmas tree and Myungsoo took his hand off of her eyes. He then took out his camera and turned it on. “Let’s take a picture together,” he said.

“Wait, right now?” she asked.

Myungsoo nodded as he pulled her next to him. He then positioned his camera in front of them, ready to take a picture. “Smile~”

Yoomi saw that he was quite eager to take the photo for some reason. She didn’t know why he looked eager, but didn’t think too much about it. She then decided to go with the flow, and held up a peace sign as she smiled.

“Alright…” Myungsoo started to count down as he nervously glanced at her. “1… 2…”

Suddenly, Yoomi could feel something soft on her cheek as she saw the camera flash. She then looked over at Myungsoo with wide eyes, and saw him pointing his finger upwards.

“Look up,” he said.

She did as told, and was shocked to see a mistletoe hanging on a branch of the Christmas tree. The mistletoe was perfectly camouflaged with the tree, most likely so that it would be a hidden surprise for unexpected or expected people who would stand under it. And it seemed like Myungsoo was one of the expected people since he somehow spotted it from a distance.

She then looked back at him, finally realizing that the softness that she felt on her cheek was actually his lips, and saw him smiling at her.

“Merry Christmas~” he said before planting another kiss on her forehead. 

And here's the second part of the Christmas special. I hope that it wasn't too long and that you guys didn't get bored through the middle of it. However, I would like to wish you guys a Happy New Year and that next year would be amazing for you.^^

Also, thank you ivyamericana and NicCage for upvoting~ Also, thank you new subscribers for subscribing. You guys are the best, thank you so much!^^ *throws hearts*