“What are you doing here?”

“Merry Christmas to you too. I didn’t know I wasn’t welcome here.”

“You’re not, Lu Han.”
At this point Lu Han was beginning to question whether his best friend was kidding or being serious.

“Do you have a girl inside or something?”

“I wish,” Kim Minseok said with a roll of his eyes as he let his friend enter his apartment that they used to share not too long ago.
“What brings you here?”

“I just wanted to see my best friend,” Lu Han said with a shrug, “Is that too much of a crime?”

Minseok shuffled in beside his friend after shutting the front door.
“I just thought you’d want to spend time with Sunjung-ssi.”

Lu Han threw himself on the small couch that still had a futon and a pillow on it. The room too had an overall air of indolence, which wasn’t what one would expect from the owner of the apartment. Lu Han checked his watch, it was way past noon.

“I live with her. We don’t have to be together all the time.”

There was a glint in the older man’s eyes when Lu Han spoke those words, and a small smirk made it’ way onto his thin lips as he spoke, “I see you guys are past the ‘always wanting to be together’ stage.”

“Our relationship didn’t exactly follow the ideal stages of dating anyways,” said Lu Han with a small, fond smile on his lips.

Minseok couldn’t help but chuckled at the lovelorn look on his friend’s face.
“Do you wanna drink something? Coffee?”

“Since when do you keep coffee in the apartment?”

Minseok made a face. “Since never. I get enough of it at the café. I was just saying.”
Lu Han said nothing.
His friend was a strange person.

Minseok lazily walked into the kitchen without a word. A few minutes later, he arrived with two glasses of water. He handed one to his friend and then seated himself beside him.
“What brings you here, my friend?”

“Nothing really. Sunjung gave me tickets to the opening match next season.”

The other man’s eyes widened at his friend’s words. “Really? How did she manage that? I should have hit on her when I had the chance.”

Lu Han didn’t look exactly pleased at what his friend had just said but he chose to ignore it. Like he hadn’t noticed the bun-like man subtly hitting on Sunjung when he’d first introduced them to each other.
“Two tickets. We can go together.”

Minseok cheered happily, almost in a childlike manner. Football was obviously the two friends’ shared passion. “This is the best thing I’ve heard all day!”

Lu Han looked around the room again as he sipped on water, “What have you been doing all day anyways?”

“I took today off from the cafe,” Minseok said, setting his empty glass on the floor. He pulled on the futon and then proceeded to cocoon himself in it. He looked very much like a child now.
“Some kids are the most annoying things on earth. They made me drink yesterday.”
He tried to look annoyed but at the same time, he looked like he had not minded getting drunk.
With a content look on his face, he snuggled against the arm rest. He looked at his friend, waiting for him to say something but he stayed quiet and had a little frown creasing his face.
“Is something wrong?”

Startled out of his reverie, Lu Han hastily turned to look at his friend. “Nothing’s wrong.”

“Then why the long face?”

“It’s just that...” Lu Han took a deep breath, “I really really like her. It’s weird.”

Beside him, Minseok snorted, “Like?”
There was a mildly mocking stress on the word.
“You’re in love with her.”

“I know,” he responded, “It’s kinda overwhelming.”

There was another snort from Minseok.
“You’re lucky, Han. She’s probably the one you’re gonna spend the rest of your life with. You’ve always been bad with expressing what you actually feel but with her it comes naturally, doesn’t it?”
He got a meek nod in response.
“Then you don’t have to be worried. I’m gonna be the best man.”
Lu Han shot Minseok a look that made the latter chuckle.
“Don’t tell me you haven’t thought about it.”

Lu Han sighed and sat back. That was enough for his friend to know that he had been right.
“But sometimes I feel like I put in too much effort, you know? It’s like I’m way ahead of her in the relationship. I know she’s a bit closed off but sometimes it feels like the things I do make her uncomfortable. She never says it but I feel like I’m being overbearing.”

“It’s your relationship, Han and I don’t think I have to tell you that you guys are probably way past that point in your relationship where you guys have to be scared of not being able to tell each other things.”

Lu Han nodded and suddenly there was a small smile on his lips.
“We’re living together already. We skipped so many steps.”

“You guys are very unorthodox.”

Both men couldn’t help but chuckle at the unfunny statement.

“By the way,” Lu Han said, looking for the TV remote, “my colleague is throwing a New Year’s party on the 31st. He told me to invite anyone and everyone, so can you come?”

Minseok narrowed his eyes at his friend’s question. “You think I can make it? Yesterday was so hectic; New Year’s Eve is going to be worse.”

“Oh, come on. You want to spend New Year’s Eve making sure a bunch of college kids don’t get wasted? Your assistant manager is there for a reason.”

“Would you leave your office and all your work to that Baekhyun kid? Ever?” Minseok asked with a scoff but he smiled in satisfaction when Lu Han grew wide-eyed, looking absolutely horrified.
Minseok let out a hearty laugh.
“You get it now?”

***

Sunjung was startled when she felt someone or something tugging at her sleeve. With a gasp, she looked down at whatever it was that wanted her attention, only to see a small child looking up at her expectantly.
But in an instant, the small boy burst into tears, leaving Sunjung to gape at him, not knowing how she was supposed to handle a bawling toddler.
S