Jongin is eleven and he gets his first heartbreak during Christmas.

"Stop being a sissy!" Sehun shakes him repeatedly, thin lips pursed in a line so tight Jongin would about how his lips does not exist if not for the tears currently clouding his vision. Or the snot clogging his nose.

"I am n-not!"

"Says the one crying for over an hour already." Luhan grumbles beside him making the eldest, Minseok, shoot a glare at him.

Jongin feels his world stop shaking and he tries to blink the tears out enough to see Minseok's silhouette in front of him. Then soft hands are wiping his cheek and it only serves to make him sniff more.

"She's really old anyways, Jongin. She's like..." Jongin pauses long enough to catch the thoughtful look on Minseok's face. "my noona that works already."

Jongin sniffs a few more times but he stops crying. Finally. Until he sees the glares Sehun's directing at him and Minseok's hand on his cheek. Then he bawls again.

Jongin cries again the next day when he wakes up alone, his parents gone to work and his noonas out to wherever. He cries some more when he trips over the stairs. He cries again when he spills milk all over his brand new shirt and he cries and cries just because his day isn't going his way.

It's bed time and he grumbling, mentally burying santa claus over his bag of gifts because he's been so good this year but his wishes didn't come true. The thought of his unreturned crush comes back and he sniffs again.

"You're going to cry again?"

Jongin startles, looking around in panic when he sees no one inside his room.

"I'm here, dummy!"

Jongin jumps out of bed and runs towards his window, pushing them open and looking down only to find nothing, just the thin layer of snow covering the grass.

"Are you blind or are you just really dumb?"

He whirls around, eyes wide as he tries to make out anything.

"On your bed! Geez!"

So he tiptoes, not sure why he's doing it on his own room. But all he sees is his own messy bed and his book covered with some spilled tears from earlier's self pity.

Then there's a ripple, just the tiniest bit but it's enough to make Jongin's heart beat ten times faster (or as fast as humanly possible).

"Stop staring at me like a creep."

Jongin crawls on top of his bed, keeping his eyes on... the small puddle of his tears and wondering if he's awake or dreaming already. He doesn't recall sleeping but he considers it anyways.

"How are you talking?"

"Hell if I know."

If tears can make an expression, Jongin's sure that it would be glaring daggers at him right now. Carefully, he sits down next to his book and reaches out a hand to poke on it.

"Yah! Are you stupid?"

"I'm not!" he says back, pouting because his tear just asked if he was stupid. His tear.

"You can't just poke me! I'm fragile, you ."

Jongin pouts deeper at this, not appreciating his tear to insult him especially when it came from his own eyes.

"I made you." he counters weakly, voice small and unsure.

"Duh, captain obvious."

He contemplates grabbing a handkerchief from his closet and dabbbing it on the puddle just so his tear could shut up but he kinds of like his tear's voice. It was smooth and nice and it makes him think about having a best friend.

"I'm Jongin." he says instead, glancing at the puddle. His tear didn't reply and the silence stretched on for a whole minute before Jongin's lower lip wobble and the urge to cry comes back again. His tear just left him.

"Stop crying, oh my god."

This makes him stop and he actually breathes out a sigh of relief. "I just told you my name. You should tell me yours. That's what my mom always says."

"Newsflash, I'm your tear. I came from you. I don't have a name. Idiot."

Jongin doesn't register the insult this time, smiling dumbly because he gets to name his tear. Just like a pet. Though he knows it's not really normal to name a tear. Nor is it normal for tears to talk but who cares anyways. Certainly not Jongin.

"I'll call you..." he purses his lips in deep thought, thinking of a nice name. Sookyung. He recalls his crush's name and he grimaces because he really likes her name but he doesn't want to call his tear that. So he changes it a bit and smiles dumbly.

"What?" he hears his tear grumble and he giggles like a two year old. He takes back every bad thing he thought about Santa and hums 'jingle bells' under his breath before he hears another impatient sound from his tear. It makes him grin like an idiot when he thinks how nice Christmas this year is.

"I'll call you..."

"... Kyungsoo!"