Love Parallel

 

            “Jongin, it’s time to get up.”

 

            There’s a low groan and a mumble of, “five more minutes, hyung” from the sleeping boy.

 

            “No, Jongin, it’s time for you to get up. You’ll be late for dance practice.”

 

            Jongin picks his head up from the couch pillow and whines, “Ugh, but I don’t want to go, Kyungie.”

 

            Kyungsoo chuckles and lightly pinches the younger boy’s cheeks, “C’mon sleepy head I know you don’t mean that. You love dancing.”

 

            Jongin laughs at the statement and pushes Kyungsoo’s hands away from his now red cheeks, “Alright, alright, I’ll get up.”

 

            Jongin casually walks outside once he has his jacket on, Kyungsoo running after him with a pair of white mittens.

 

            “Wait, Jongin you need to put these on. It’s way too cold outside.”

 

            Jongin stops walking towards his motorcycle, which is parked in front of Kyungsoo’s driveway, and turns his head. He immediately snorts at the sight of the white mittens that are in Kyungsoo’s hands, “Hyung, I don’t need those. They look so girly.”

 

            “Please.” Kyungsoo says with such an adorable pout that it makes Jongin hesitate for a moment before finally giving in.

 

            “Fine.”

 

            Kyungsoo beams a smile and hastily grabs onto one of Jongin’s hands in order to put the mittens on for him. This makes the younger boy blush at the sudden action, but Kyungsoo doesn’t catch it since he was too focused on making sure the mittens were a perfect fit.

 

            “There you go.” Kyungsoo says warmly and proceeds to give Jongin one of his most brilliant heart-shaped smiles afterwards, the one where it shows all his pearly white teeth and reaches all the way up to his beautiful brown eyes, making them into lovely moon crescents.

 

            Jongin grins happily at his hyung. Kyungsoo is just too damn cute for his own good sometimes, but Jongin’s grin quickly falters when he remembers that he has to tell his hyung some bad news. He hides his growing insecurity by clearing his throat and hopes the older boy won’t be too upset with him after this. He quickly turns around and situates himself on his motorcycle, all the while trying to avoid eye contact with his hyung, “So, um, hyung…about tomorrow…I won’t be able to come over. I’m going to hang out with my dance team over at the studio so you don’t have to wait for me, okay?”

 

            “What? You aren’t coming? But its Christmas Eve tomorrow and you always come over.”

 

            Jongin tries his best to ignore the deflated tone in Kyungsoo’s voice, “Yea, I know, but I’ll be over on Christmas.” Kyungsoo doesn’t say anything and instead chooses to give Jongin his ultimate puppy eyes. He hopes that by doing this it will deter the younger’s decision on spending Christmas Eve with his dance buddies and spend it with him, but Kyungsoo’s attempt to convince the younger boy fails him. “It’s just one day without me, Kyungie. You can’t miss me that much.” Jongin teases lightly, tapping Kyungsoo’s nose when he realized what his hyung was trying to do.

 

            The older boy huffs and childishly pushes Jongin on the shoulder, “Ha, as if I would miss you.”

 

            Jongin smirks at Kyungsoo’s response and lazily puts on his helmet. The older boy just flares up in annoyance at the other, and when Jongin receives an angry pout from Kyungsoo, his attention goes back to his motorcycle. He turns it on and revs it a couple of times in order for it to get warmed up. He then turns his head to the side and gives Kyungsoo a wink, “Don’t miss me too much, okay?” He then speeds off before Kyungsoo could say anything and shouts out, “I’ll miss you too, Kyungie! See you on Christmas!”

 

            Once the younger boy can no longer be seen down the street Kyungsoo shakes his head with a soft smile, a little heartbroken at the fact that Jongin won’t be coming over tomorrow, and heads back inside his house.

 

            As Jongin rides his motorcycle off to the studio for dance practice, he contemplates to himself whether or not he did a good thing in telling Kyungsoo he wasn’t going to be coming over for Christmas Eve. Once he stops at a red light he sighs in guilt and looks down to his white covered hands.

 

            Jongin knows he does stupid things all the time, but this is probably one of those why-the-hell-are-you-being-a- kinds of things. Kyungsoo probably thinks Jongin doesn’t care about their tradition of spending time together on Christmas Eve anymore, but Jongin has his reasons. They’re reasons he can’t really tell his hyung—yet, or most likely never, but the point is he has a reason.

 

            To Jongin, Kyungsoo is his childhood friend and his most precious hyung. Both of their fathers are also close childhood friends which led to Jongin’s and Kyungsoo’s inevitable friendship. Jongin admires his hyung for nearly everything—from his academics, to his personality, to his looks, and the list could just go on and on. What caught Jongin off-guard the most about his hyung was the fact that somewhere along the years of admiration and being attached to his hyung’s hip was that he had fallen for him, his best friend, who was a guy like himself.

 

            It’s probably just a phase, right?

 

            Jongin would think about it constantly to himself, but no matter how hard he tries to get rid of his feelings for the other, Kyungsoo would always manage to make Jongin fall more and more for him. Whether Kyungsoo was doing it intentionally or not, Jongin doesn’t have a clue, but it’s most likely not since there’s just no way Kyungsoo would like him back in that lover kind of way. It makes Jongin feel quite miserable about it all.

 

            With these out of the ordinary feelings for his hyung, Jongin thinks it’s best to avoid any kind of awkward situations with Kyungsoo. Both of their parents decided to do a get-together outing thing all day tomorrow for Christmas Eve, which ultimately meant that he and Kyungsoo would be left alone at the house. There are just way too many scenarios that could happen and Jongin isn’t at all too comfortable with that. Like, what if he accidentally blurts out all of his hidden feelings for the older boy, or makes a fool of himself, or worse do something really stupid like kissing him because by god Jongin thinks Kyungsoo has the most amazing heart-shaped and kissable plush lips on the planet; maybe even the entire universe, and with the whole Christmas mood of cuddling up under a blanket with hot chocolate on the side it will probably make him do all of those said stupid things.

 

            Yea, he doesn’t want any of those things to happen, so it’s a definite no-no for Jongin. His conscious just blatantly laughs at him in the face and tells him that he’s a chicken .

 

            Oh, well. It’s best to keep his unrequited feelings to himself. Right?  Geez, if only Kyungsoo were a girl things would go so much more smoothly and be so much less complicated Jongin thinks.

 

            If only, if only…    

 

---

           

            The next day on Christmas Eve Jongin goes to hang out with his dance buddies like he had told Kyungsoo. He laughs and jokes around and dances the night away. It takes his mind off of his lovable hyung and the gnawing guilt he has for leaving him at home all alone, but there’s always that nagging little voice in the back of his head that tells him that he’s stupid and that he should just go home and spend his time with Kyungsoo. He adamantly disregards it from his thoughts though.

 

            “Hey, Jongin. Who’s that cute boy you’re always hanging around with?” One of his dance friends, Oh Sehun, asks after taking a drink of his Mountain Dew—Mountain Dew Code Red, mind you.

 

            “Uh, no one really.” Jongin stutters out, not liking how Sehun refers to his hyung as “that cute boy.” Of course Kyungsoo is cute, but no one should be saying that other than himself.

 

            “Really? Why do I always see you two together then? Whatever, it doesn’t really matter, but seriously, Jongin, that guy is just too cute. Well, not as cute as Luhan, but Luhan hates it when I call him cute. He says that I’m the cute one. That’s just not right. Like, c’mon! Just because I’m the youngest in the group doesn’t mean that I’m cute. Don’t you think so, Jongin?”

 

            Jongin shamelessly laughs at his pouting friend, “What are you talking about, Sehun? You are cute.”

 

            “What? No, Jongin! You aren’t supposed to agree.” Sehun screams out in disbelief, pouting out even more after his friend’s outburst.

 

            “Oh, c’mon, look!” Jongin continues to laughs while pointing at him, “You’re being cute right now.”

 

            “Aish, whatever.” Sehun grumbles with a frown, sinking more into his seat with his arms folded childishly across his chest.

 

            “Aw, do you want me to give you a little kissey-wissey to make you feel better.” Jongin mocks while trying to give him a kiss on the cheek.

 

            “Eww, Jongin. Get away from me!” Sehun shouts while pushing the other’s face away from him; however, they both end up laughing hysterically when Sehun’s fingers accidentally slips away from Jongin’s cheeks and pokes the poor boy in the eye. Their laughter becomes so obnoxiously loud that their other friends, who were all amusedly watching their idiocy, figured they were both just a bit too high off of their sugar rush. They did have like about five cans of Mountain Dew each and a whole bunch of sweets beforehand.

 

            “Oh, god, my tummy hurts from laughing too much.” Sehun heaves when the two finally sort of calm down from their laughing fit.

 

            “Me too…ugh, I have to go pee now.” Jongin says suddenly earning him a smack to the head from the other boy.

 

            “Then go to the bathroom you idiot. You don’t have to announce it to the whole world.”

 

            “Okay, alright, I’m going.” Jongin says after letting out the last of his laughter, and hauls himself over to the bathroom.      

 

            After he relieves himself he walks over to the sink and washes his hands suddenly thinking about what his hyung could be doing right now. He’s probably making some of his delicious homemade chocolate chip cookies. They always made them together on this day, and he wonders if Kyungsoo would actually make them without him since he isn’t there. He must feel lonely being at home all by himself Jongin thinks and it makes him feel even worse for not having the guts to go back to his hyung and apologize.

 

            “Maybe I should just go back to Kyungsoo…” he whispers quietly to himself.

 

            He turns the faucet back on and splashes some cold water onto his face hoping that it will take his mind off of things, but when he looks back up he’s surprised to see a trail of smoke coming from the nearby mirror. Jongin squints his eyes, and amazingly enough, he sees a miniaturize elf that’s probably only about three inches tall sitting casually on the edge of a bathroom tile and he’s uh…well, smoking a cigarette. Jongin blinks, thinking he must be dreaming, but the elf is still sitting there smoking away on his Marlboro cigarette. When the elf finally realizes that Jongin can see him and is openly staring at him he stops smoking to wave a hand at the boy with a “Yo, wassup?” leaving his lips.

 

            Jongin recoils and looks around his surroundings in a daze, “What the…? Is this like Narnia or something? Did I get transported to a different world?”

 

            The elf puts his cigarette down and stands up with his hands on his hips, “What on earth are you talking about human? This isn’t Narnia. This is the men’s bathroom. And I’m as real as it gets. I’m just off-duty.”

 

            “But…but, you’re an elf!” Jongin states in disbelief, “Elves aren’t real!”

 

            The elf puts a hand to his chest obviously offended by what Jongin had said, “Well, then. Since you don’t believe in elves maybe I should tell Suho not to give you any presents this year.”

 

            “Huh? Suho? Who the hell is Suho? Wait, don’t you mean Santa?”

 

            “Santa? Ah, that’s right. You humans know him as Santa Claus. Well, hate to break it to you kid, but his real name is Suho. ‘Santa’ is just his alias.”

 

            “What?”

 

            The elf gestures with his hands, “Well, you know, big jolly old man with a beard, it’s just a suit he wears—a costume of sorts, I guess. Not sure why he’d go for that look when he’s already good looking as it is. Well, he did say long ago—before he wore the red suit and all—that there was this kid who found his mother kissing him under the mistle toe once. It traumatized the kid for life so maybe it’s a good thing he disguises himself as an ugly old fat dude so the ladies don’t try to get at him.” The elf muses.

 

            “Huh? What? No, no, no—just…no.” Jongin waves his hands back and forth as he shakes his head, “This isn’t right. This isn’t right at all! You’re not real nor is Santa, or Suho, or whoever the hell he is! I’m probably just knocked out dreaming about all of this right now. Yea, that’s right. I’m just dreaming.”

 

            “Sure. Whatever. Deny all you want, kid.” The elf says with a shrug, picking up his cigarette again.

 

            “Hey, my name’s Jongin not kid.”

 

            “Alright then, Jongin, deny all you want. Ah, but if Suho asks for me don’t tell him that I was skipping out on work and went for a smoke, okay?”

 

            “Uh, didn’t you say you were off-duty?”

 

            “Did I say that?” The little elf blinks trying to remember.

 

            “Maybe I should tell him you were out smoking.” Jongin says smugly, although he didn’t really mean it since he believed the elf wasn’t real anyway, but the elf seemed to think otherwise.

 

            With his hands outstretched, the elf drops his cigarette and starts to plead, “Oh, no, please, don’t. If I get in trouble by Suho one more time, Baekkie isn’t going to speak to me ever again.”

 

            Jongin raises a brow wondering who this ‘Baekkie’ person was to the elf.

 

            “Why don’t I help you in exchange for you not to tell on me? Like a—uh…an early Christmas present or something.”

 

            “Uh-huh. Sure.”

 

            “No, seriously I’ll give you something—anything. What about that Kyungsoo person? You were talking to yourself about him earlier weren’t you? Maybe I can help you out.”

 

            Jongin’s ears perked up at that. He could definitely use some help with Kyungsoo, and well, the elf did say he could ask for anything, right? Jongin bit his lip. Was it a good idea asking the elf for help, that is, if the elf was even real?

 

            “I don’t know. I mean, I kind of have a crush on him, but he would never like me back, and besides we’re both guys, so it’s just not possible.”

 

            “Not possible? Well, you’re in luck, kid, because I’m an elf, and what is it that we elves have that you humans don’t?”

 

            “Uh, they lack height and have really pointed ears?” Jongin states dumbly.

 

            “No, not that you idiot! It’s magic! We elves have magic!” The elf suddenly jumps up and down in excitement, “So what would you like to wish for, kid?”

 

            Jongin thinks for a moment, although not understanding why he was actually going along with this.

 

            “I wish Kyungsoo were a girl.”

 

            “A girl?” The elf asks with a tilt of his head.

 

            “If Kyungsoo were a girl I’m sure I would have already made him mine.”

 

            The little elf purses his lips, “Okay, I can do that, but here’s the thing, kid, I can’t really change Kyungsoo into a girl because, for one, my boss—you know, Suho, or Santa as you humans prefer—would kill me, and two, it would distort the way things are in this world such as time, balance, and yada-yada-yada—but there is one thing I can do for you, which is I can give you a glimpse of what it would be like if Kyungsoo were a girl in another world. All you have to do is follow me to the other side.”

 

            Jongin blinks, “The other side?”

 

            “Yep.” The little elf smiles mischievously, “The other side. Just take my hand, kid, and I’ll take you there.”

 

            Jongin stares in shock as half of the elf’s body disappears through the bathroom mirror. The elf reaches a hand out towards Jongin; his mischievous smile now gone and replaced with an assuring one.   

 

            “Um, alright, I’m trusting you.” Jongin says hesitantly while placing his finger in the elf’s tiny hand.

 

            “Don’t you worry, kid. My name’s Chanyeol by the way.”

 

            Jongin lets out a chuckle, a little irritated that the elf was still calling him “kid”, but he decides to let it go, “Okay then. Take me to the other side, Chanyeol.”

 

            The little elf smiles wide and takes Jongin by the finger, both of them disappearing through the bathroom mirror—well, uh, sort of, anyway.

 

---

 

            “Whoa, I’m your size now!” Jongin exclaims in shock.

 

            “Well, you would have never made it through that mirror if you were still in your human size now would you?” Chanyeol states as they both look back to a very girly and pink hand mirror in which they’ve both come through. “It’s better this way anyway, that way no one can see us.”

 

            Jongin purposely coughs into his hand, “But I saw you…”

 

            “Not the point, kid.” Chanyeol shushes quickly.

 

            Jongin just shrugs and looks around. They were standing on a desk filled with scattered books and post-it notes. Jongin was about as tall as the pencils that were collected messily in a pink tin can. When he looked around at the walls and saw K-Pop posters labeled as Boys Generation on them he laughed at the irony. Who would have thought that the Girls Generation in his world would look hot as males here in this world? How amusing.

 

            Wait, hold up.

 

            Did this mean that he was in a girl’s room?

 

            As in like the girl Kyungsoo?

 

            His eyes widen and he unabashedly skips over to the edge of the desk. He openly gaps at the figure whose limbs were completely sprawled out all over on a fluffy twin sized bed, which was adorn with baby blue sheets and an insane amount of blankets.

 

            “Oh, my god! Is that Kyungsoo?” Jongin says with an unmanly squeal, jumping up and down like a typical fangirl seeing her idol for the very first time. Chanyeol side eyes at him judgingly before shaking his head and walking over to take a look at the ungraceful looking human. He squints his eyes in disappointment and purses his lips.

 

            “You sure that’s your Kyungsoo?” Chanyeol asks skeptically, “I imagined him, well in this case her, to be a bit more angelic. This girl is like a total slob when she sleeps!”

 

            “Hey, don’t say things like that about, Kyungsoo!” Jongin shouts which causes the human to stir a little in her slumber.

 

            “I’m just saying.” The elf retorts while crossing his arms.

 

            “Why you little…” Jongin starts to say, but ends up getting cut off when he’s suddenly lifted up into the air.

 

            “Ugh, what time is it?” A girly voice sounded making Jongin look down. His mouth immediately gaps at what he sees, and holy this wasn’t Kyungsoo. It was—it was…himself? As a girl?

 

            “What the…? No way! Why am I a girl?” Jongin whines pathetically, “Kyungsoo is supposed to be the girl.”

 

            “This isn’t my phone.” The girl Jongin mumbles before tossing the miniature Jongin aside not even realizing what it was that she was actually holding in her hand. She then starts rummaging underneath her pillows; Jongin trying his best not to get crushed underneath her, “Ugh, where did that damn phone go? Ah, here it is. Oh, ! I’m going to be late!”

 

            Jongin helplessly flops over on his back when the girl Jongin takes off to the bathroom in record time. Chanyeol finally jumps down onto the bed from the desk and laughs at Jongin’s miserable state.

 

            “Oh, man. You should see the look on your face, kid.”

 

            “Shut it, elf. I wasn’t supposed to be a girl. Kyungsoo was! What’s the meaning of this?”

 

            Chanyeol helps pull Jongin to his feet, “Hey, all I did was bring you to the parallel world. If you’re a boy over there, it makes logical sense for you to be a girl over here.”

 

            “Are you serious?” Jongin exclaims breathless, “If Kyungsoo and I are both girls in this world how the hell are we going to get together then? I was supposed to be the boy and Kyungsoo the girl!”

 

            Chanyeol knocks his knuckles against Jongin’s forehead, “Calm down, kid. What if it ended up you being the girl and Kyungsoo being the guy, huh?”

 

            “No, way! I’m the one who’s going to top in this relationship, so I have to be the guy.”

 

            “What made you decide that?” Chanyeol scoffs, “You might actually like to take it up the , as a guy anyway, and as a girl, well, it’s a given, I suppose.”

 

            “Would you stop it?” Jongin growls, rubbing both his temples with the tips of his fingers and shutting his eyes close. This elf was giving him a major headache.

 

            “Hey, you never know.” Chanyeol says with a smirk, “Besides you’re pretty hot as a girl. Kyungsoo would be a if he didn’t tap that, whether he was a guy or a girl.”

 

            Jongin groans. What did he do in his past life to deserve this?

 

            “Chanyeol, no—please, just stop…”

 

---

 

            When the girl Jongin comes back into her room, nearly giving Chanyeol a nose bleed when she comes barging in all her glory, they stole away in her school bag. However, the ride to school was a bumpy one. She had to run the entire way since she missed the bus, and they were jostled quite violently inside her bag. Jongin’s surprised they weren’t stabbed to death by her pencils when they finally reached school.

 

            During lunch break Jongin and Chanyeol climbed out and sat nearby the classroom window. It was kind of funny seeing everyone as the opposite gender, especially Kris, one of the school’s basketball players. Jongin wasn’t really sure what to say to that. Luhan was a beauty for sure, but he laughed when he saw Sehun. He actually didn’t look too bad. But the one person he did want to see hadn’t shown herself yet and that person was Kyungsoo.

 

            “Geez, where is she?” Jongin pouts as he continues to scour the whole classroom for her. Kyungsoo was in another class, obviously because of the age difference, but his hyung always came over during lunch break, so Jongin was getting disappointed since the Kyungsoo in this world should also be visiting the girl Jongin during lunch.

 

            “Relax, kid. You’ll see Kyungsoo soon enough.”

 

            “Quiet, elf. Your encouragement is not helping me. And stop calling me kid.”

 

            “Well, stop calling me elf.”

 

            “No way.”

 

            “Then I won’t stop calling you kid.”

 

            “But you’re the one who’s acting like one.”

 

            “Like you’re any different?”

 

            “Seriously?”

 

            “I am being serious.”

 

            “Really?”

 

            “Yes, really.”

 

            “God, you’re so annoying! Do you know that?”

 

            “Jongin?” A new voice interrupts, startling them both.

 

            “Oh, crap. Run!” Chanyeol hisses. He grabs Jongin’s wrists and jumps off the window ledge, the both of them landing into a nearby hedge.

 

            The girl Jongin suddenly comes up to the window and smiles, “Oh, hey, Kyungsoo. Did you call for me?”

 

            The girl Kyungsoo smiles before furrowing her eyebrows cutely, “I saw a little mini Jongin just a moment ago standing right here on the ledge, but he’s not there anymore, so maybe I was just imagining things.”

 

            The girl Jongin laughs and pats Kyungsoo’s head, “You and your imagination, Kyungie. You’re so cute you know that?”

 

            “Jongin.” The girl Kyungsoo pouts.

 

            “Alright, I’m sorry. But really you are.” The girl Jongin then pinches Kyungsoo’s cheeks adoringly before looking away, “So, um, Kyungie…about tomorrow…I won’t be able to come over. I’m going to hang out with my dance team over at the studio so you don’t have to wait for me, okay?”

 

             “What? You aren’t coming? But its Christmas Eve tomorrow and you always come over.”

 

            Jongin and Chanyeol peer through the branches of the bush they were both hiding in and quietly eavesdrop on the girl Jongin’s and Kyungsoo’s conversation. Jongin frowns to himself when he hears the girl Jongin spill out the same exact words he had told his hyung about them not being able to spend time together on Christmas Eve. How is this possible? Jongin asks himself. Aren’t girls supposed to be more genuine with their feelings with one another? They always tell each other their secrets and stuff don’t they? This girl Jongin was as much of a coward as himself, who is a guy.

 

            The girl Kyungsoo even does the same puppy eyes with the girl Jongin; however, the results have ended up the same. Kyungsoo will be left to spend Christmas Eve alone while Jongin goes off to spend it with her dance crew. Chanyeol pats Jongin’s back sympathetically when he notices the boy looking downward to the ground in shame once the girl Kyungsoo bids the girl Jongin a half-hearted goodbye.

 

---

 

            “I’m a terrible person.” Jongin voices out loud to no one in particular.

 

            “No.” The elf states, “Just stupid.”

 

            Jongin laughs at the statement and nods, “Yea, I am pretty stupid aren’t I?” He heaves a sigh and plays with the dirt inside the flower pot they were currently sitting in, which was placed on top of the girl Kyungsoo’s balcony. “I started to think that maybe even us both being girls in this world I would have more courage to tell Kyungsoo my feelings because aren’t girls supposed to be more honest with these kinds of things? I didn’t think that I would say the exact same thing to Kyungsoo here as I did in my own world. God, I’m such a jerk. Did you see the look on her face? It was just like how hyung looked at me when I told him that.”

 

            Chanyeol puffed on his cigarette, which he somehow randomly conjured, and squinted his eyes in thought, “Well, this is the parallel world to your own. It’s not like things are going to go the way you want them to just because both of your genders have changed. You need to stop being inconsiderate to both of your feelings and just straight up tell Kyungsoo that you love him and all that squishiness of his. Why can’t you just be honest with yourself?”

 

            “Because!” Jongin shouts, standing up with a red face, “Because he’s my hyung! My childhood friend! He’s like family! How do you tell someone who’s close to you like a brother for so many years that you suddenly love him more than that?” He ruffles his hair in frustration, “Damn, I love him. I love him so goddamn much, but what if that’s not what Kyungsoo wants. What if he doesn’t love me back? I’ll hate myself.”

 

            The elf frowns and chucks his cigarette away, “Stop being so ignorant, kid. You don’t even know what he’ll say.”

 

            “Jongin?”

 

            Both Chanyeol and Jongin freeze and look up to find the girl Kyungsoo curiously looking down at them from above. Jongin topples over in shock from the flower pot and falls on top of the snow covered balcony. Kyungsoo gently picks him up and smiles at both Chanyeol and Jongin, “Let’s go inside. It’s cold out here.”

 

---

 

            “I thought I saw a mini Jongin yesterday. What brings you here?” Kyungsoo says with a smile. Jongin coos over her adorable smile in his mind before speaking bashfully.

 

            “Well, nothing really.”

 

            The elf snorts at Jongin’s lame response and busies himself by looking around and touching Kyungsoo’s belongings that were scattered about on her bedroom floor. Apparently she was into crafting.

 

            “Jongin looks really handsome as a boy.” Kyungsoo giggles cutely as she lifts Jongin again and places him on top of her palm. Jongin blushes and scratches the back of his neck.

 

            “Heh. Really?”

 

            “Jongin always looks good, handsome as a boy and beautiful as a girl.” Kyungsoo’s eyes look a little sad, “Kyungsoo can never compare to Jongin.”

 

            Jongin’s eyes bulge a little, “What? That’s not true! Kyungsoo is also beautiful! No, even more beautiful than Jongin will ever be. Kyungsoo is kind and caring, sweet and gentle, smart and charming, and, and…”

 

            Kyungsoo smiles sweetly as Jongin stumbles over his words. He becomes embarrassed and hides his face in between his hands. Oh geez, what on earth was he saying?

 

            “This is pretty, Kyungsoo.” Chanyeol says, helping to break the attention away from the flustered Jongin, “Is it a gift for someone?”

 

            Jongin lifts his head and peers down to Kyungsoo’s bed which is where Chanyeol was currently at. The item the elf was referring to was a pair of white handmade mittens, exactly like the ones Kyungsoo had given Jongin in his own world before he left for his dance practice. Jongin’s eyes slightly tear at the sight of them.

 

            “They’re for Jongin,” Kyungsoo says, “but I don’t think she’ll like them.”

 

            “No, she will!” Jongin abruptly shouts startling both the elf and the girl Kyungsoo, “I like them, so she’ll like them, too. She has to.”

 

            “Okay.” Kyungsoo smiles making Jongin smile, too.

 

            Before he leaves this world for his own, he’ll at least make the idiot Jongin in this world happy first.

 

---

 

            Jongin wears a grin on his face as he sees the girl Kyungsoo walk out of the dance studio with the girl Jongin. They were both walking away hand in hand, the girl Jongin wearing the white mittens Kyungsoo had made for her.

 

            Chanyeol laughs joylessly from Jongin’s side with both of his arms up high in the air, “Ah, what a happy ending! It was funny, though, when Kyungsoo walked in and saw your girl self nearly kissing that Sehun person on the cheek. Kyungsoo looked so scary I thought your other self was going to die right there and then.”

 

            Jongin groans to himself. He totally forgot about that when he teased Sehun about him being ‘cute’ and giving him the ‘kissey-wissey’. Of course it was going to happen in the parallel universe. It that the girl Kyungsoo had to see that, but at least in this universe Jongin and Kyungsoo are now happily together.

 

            “Yea, well, I guess it’s time for me to go home now, huh.” Jongin sighs.

 

            Chanyeol pats his shoulder, “Hey, don’t forget about your own happiness. Okay, Jongin?”

 

            Jongin’s mouth gaps open for a bit before smiling. The little elf had finally called him by his name.

 

            “Thank you, Chanyeol. For everything.”

 

            “Of course. Now remember, don’t tell Suho anything, alright? I’m gonna give you your present now.”

 

            Jongin furrows his eyes in confusion, “But wasn’t bringing me here to the parallel world my present?”

 

            “Nope. I’m giving you an even better one.”

 

            “I don’t get it.” But before Jongin could say anything else, and without warning, the elf roughly pushes Jongin off the tree branch that they were both standing on. The elf then peers over the branch and gives Jongin a quick wave and one of his goofy smiles before disappearing into thin air. Wide eyed and panicking, Jongin is left cursing wildly and screaming at the top of his lungs before everything goes pitch black once his body hits the ground.

 

            “AHHHHHHHHH! ! Oh, god, I’m dead! I’m dead, I’m dead, I’m ing dead!”

 

            “Jongin?”

 

            “Huh?” Jongin lowers his arms that he had been madly waving around just a second ago in his sleep and blinks his eyes. He has to blink his eyes once more when he sees Kyungsoo—his Kyungsoo—peering down at him with an amused smile.

 

            “Hello, Jongin. You’re finally awake. Did you have an exciting dream?” Kyungsoo teases.

 

            “Wah, hyung!” Jongin immediately sits upright, noting how he was back in his regular human size, and blushing when he realized he had been resting on Kyungsoo’s lap, “W-What are you doing here?”

 

            Kyungsoo chuckles, “I should be asking you that question. You passed out in the bathroom. Your friend Sehun called me on your phone and told me that you had overdosed on Mountain Dew. He and the others have left already by the way.”

 

            “What an idiot.” Jongin mumbles to himself. This was so embarrassing.

 

            “I’m glad you’re okay though.” Kyungsoo smiles pulling Jongin up and fixing his bed hair, “We should get going home. I didn’t want to move you when you were sleeping.”

 

            Kyungsoo quietly collects Jongin’s things and his jacket before walking out of the bathroom and out of the studio building itself. Jongin feels warmth seep through him like crazy as he stares at Kyungsoo from the back. Kyungsoo was always so caring towards him. What did he do to deserve such a wonderful person in his life?

 

            They were both standing in front of the dance studio now, Kyungsoo buttoning Jongin’s coat, fixing his hair once more, and putting on his white mittens.

 

            “You know, these are actually your Christmas present, Jongin. I wasn’t sure what to get you, so I hope getting these mittens for you is alright.”

 

            Jongin smiles cheekily when he sees the tips of Kyungsoo’s ears turn pink. He’s always so goddamn cute.

 

            “Don’t worry even if they are a little girly I like them.” Jongin says, leaning his head in closer to Kyungsoo just a bit. Kyungsoo looks up with a look of relief in his eyes, smiling that beautiful heart-shaped smile of his, and somehow it makes Jongin feel a splurge of confidence, “Not as much as I like you though.”

 

            “And that makes another happy ending.” Chanyeol smiles as he looks down at the new happy couple from his tree branch holding a new Marlboro cigarette in his hands.

 

---

A/N:

Haha, oh my god, I finally finished this. This oneshot was originally for last Christmas since the inspiration came mostly from EXO’s Miracles of December album and of course the manga oneshot, “Parallel to the World” by Hari Tokeino, but I was never able to post it since I always hated how the story came out, so I was constantly writing and rewriting it. I think this version is the best out of all the other drafts that I had written, so I hope you enjoyed it. And isn’t Chanyeol like the perfect elf? God, I love him. Lol.  

Happy Holidays!

<3 dububrit-on