Yongguk sat on the grass, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration. Between his knees was a little pumpkin, the top cut off to spoon out the seeds. The annual lantern festival was approaching and the priority of every Autumn fairy was to prepare as many lanterns as they could.

Next to Yongguk were a few pumpkins he had already prepared, each of them with cute faces he had carved into them. He was on his fourth and this one was the largest but this one would be the most special of all of them. Yongguk had prepared these lanterns for his friends from the other areas and each lantern was representing one of them.

Youngjae's pumpkin had large round eyes, a round nose and a smile. Daehyun's pumpkin had the largest smile of them all – because Daehyun was always smiling. His eyes were little crescents, matching his usual eye smile. The plump orange lantern that resembled Himchan had almond shaped eyes and sharp curves for his lips. Yongguk liked Jongup's lantern the most so far, though. Jongup's pumpkin had smaller eyes compared to the others but Yongguk had decided to carve wings into both sides because Jongup's wings had such a pretty glow.

When Yongguk was finished spooning the contents of the pumpkin into a bowl, he took the sharp knife and started cutting out the Spring fairy's eyes. Junhong's eyes were large so Yongguk cut out a bit more until he was content. He then added a mouth, a cute smile and because Junhong often blushed, Yongguk carved out a few lines on his cheeks so the light could shine through it.

Yongguk observed his work when he was done and with a smile, he placed the pumpkin next to the other four. This was the last one for today so he got up and carefully carried the bowl with the seeds and the pumpkin flesh out to bring it to the cooking fairies. The lantern festival always meant a lot of pumpkin pies and pumpkin juice.

Fairies from the summer glade and the spring valley always visited the lantern festival so the presence of most of his friends would not look suspicious. The only worry was that Himchan and Youngjae, who visually stuck out the most, would be found out but there were a few days to go and until then, Yongguk would find a way for them to enjoy it too and in the meantime, his five extra lanterns would sit patiently at his home, waiting for them.

When the day of the lantern festival had finally come, Yongguk woke up earlier than usual, he was so excited to see the others that his eyes opened even before sunrise. After his morning routine, he placed the lanterns for his friends on his little wooden table. Later that day, the light fairies would fill the lanterns with their glow and they would celebrate together, Yongguk couldn't wait to the his friend's faces.

As expected, there was a knock on Yongguk's door a few hours later. It was just noon but he had asked them to arrive a bit earlier s they had time to prepare. On the other side of the door were Himchan and Youngjae, smiling brightly when they were led in. Only a few minutes later, another knock signalled that the next guests had arrived – Daehyun and Jongup. The last one to arrive was Junhong and he didn't let the others wait for long, they had arranged to meet right after lunch beforehand.

“What is this?” Junhong pointed at the pumpkins sitting on the table even before he said hello.

“Your lanterns!” Yongguk beamed proudly as the others approached the table with interest. Daehyun was the first one to lift up one of them.

“That one looks like Youngjae,” he said, giggling as he held the pumpkin right next to Youngjae's face to compare their faces. Youngjae didn't look very impressed but when everyone agreed, he admitted defeat, not trying to hide the pout on his lips.

Quickly after that, each of them had found their lantern, laughing at each other. They complimented Yongguk on his skills, making the Autumn fairy blush and cough awkwardly.

“But where is yours?” Junhong suddenly asked. It was true, Yongguk had only made five lanterns for the others because there were always plenty of others available for him later.

His friends had other plans for him though. They demanded him to get another pumpkin (he had to sweet-talk the fairies in the kitchen to get one) and started working on it enthusiastically. Youngjae and Jongup did the first step, emptying the pumpkin's insides and scooping into a bowl.

After that, Junhong, Daehyun and Himchan took turns to carve a smiling mouth, eyes, a little nose and two wings into the pumpkin. Junhong sprinkled some pixie dust on the finished lantern and let it spin around in the air so everyone could admire the work.

Yongguk's chest was bursting with warmth as he looked at the lantern the others made for him and he was even happier when Junhong announced that he wanted to carry Yongguk's lantern later on. They ended up swapping the lanterns and in the end, Daehyun claimed ownership of the Youngjae look a like, Youngjae was happily patting the head of the widely smiling pumpkin that resembled Daehyun and Himchan and Jongup had also exchanged their lanterns. That left Yongguk to carry the plumpest of them all: the cute lantern that looked like Junhong.

They left Yongguk's house by the time the sun was setting, after he made sure to give a set of his clothes and a sprinkle of Autumn dust to the Winter fairies. Carrying the lanterns in their arms, they made their way to the large maple tree where everyone gathered.

Father Messis, the head of the Autumn fairies arrived and everyone was in awe. His red shimmering wings were large and his loose shirt and trousers were made of hundreds of leaves that shone in the warmest of colours. Especially Youngjae and Himchan, who had never been surrounded by that much colours couldn't manage to close their mouths.

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