Snow crunched beneath Luhan's feet as he walked through the streets of Seoul, the sound being one of the only things breaking the silence of the area he was in at the moment. It was Christmas Eve, and everyone was home with their familes preparing for the exciting day tomorrow. Luhan had only seen a few people out tonight, and they'd all been people hurrying around to finish their Christmas shopping.

Luhan sighed, wishing that he was home with his own family right now. His parents and older brother Yixing were hundreds of miles away in Beijing. Luhan himself had just recently moved to Seoul for a better job opportunity, though he was unable to save up enough money to get him back to Beijing for Christmas. He hadn't yet made any real friends here either, leaving him to celebrate his holidays all by himself.

He looked up from the ground as he approached a corner and the light from the front sign of a bar across the street caught his eye. Most places were closed by now, so the bright blue letters reading 'OPEN' across the front window stood out easily in the dark street.

"Huh." Luhan muttered to himself, "Well, I suppose a drink or two wouldn't be so bad."

He made his way across the street, glancing in the window of the bar. The lights were all on, and there were a few other patrons sitting at the bar plus one bartender cleaning off glasses in front of them. A few other men were playing a game of pool on the other side of the room, and while they were a bit scary-looking, they didn't even look up when Luhan entered the bar.

Luhan made his way over to the bar, taking a seat a few seats away from another patron and making eye contact with the bartender. The man came over to him, smiling a smile that Luhan could tell he didn't want to be putting on right now.

"Evening." The bartender greeted, "You're out late. What can I get you?"

"Um.." Luhan glanced up at the price listings on the board above the line of bottles behind the bartender, "Vodka and coke, please."

The bartender nodded. "Alright. I'll get that right up for you." 

He went away to fix Luhan's drink, giving Luhan a chance to look around. He couldn't help but wonder why this place was open on Christmas Eve while every other place around here was closed. The bartender seemed to be the only worker here at all, and he looked pretty young. Shouldn't a young guy like him be home with his family?

When the bartender came back to give him his drink, he decided to voice his thoughts. "Why is this place open so late Christmas Eve?"

The other man blinked at the question, shrugging. "My boss was willing to keep the place open as long as I was willing to work and close up when I'm done, so we're open."

"Yeah, but why are you here?" Luhan asked innocently, "It's Christmas Eve, I figure you'd want to be home with your family."

The bartender chuckled, "I could ask you the same question, sir. It's Christmas Eve, and you're here."

"My family is back in Beijing." Luhan explained, "I couldn't afford to get home."

"Ah." The man nodded, "Well, I could've gone home, but my family doesn't really celebrate holidays. My grandparents were Buddhist, but neither of my parents were raised religiously, so Christmas was never really a holiday that any of my family celebrated."

Luhan nodded, "Okay. I was just curious."

The bartender nodded. "I suppose it's kind of lonely, seeing all my friends go home to their families for the holidays, but it's just sort of normal for me."

"I wish I had someone to spend Christmas with." Luhan admitted, "I just moved here, and I don't even have any friends."

"Oh, that must be pretty lonely." The bartender sympathized, looking over as two of the other people at the bar got up and left. "I close at midnight, so I'll probably be alone for a while after all of you guys leave."

Luhan nodded, pausing before looking up at the bartender again. "What's your name?"

"My name?" The man blinked, "Sehun."

"Sehun." Luhan nodded, smiling a bit as he took a sip of his drink, "I'm Luhan."

Sehun smiled back and nodded, "Nice to meet you then, Luhan." He replied, then went to pick up the money the two patrons that had just gotten up had left on the table for him.

Luhan looked down at his drink, sighing again. He didn't want to have to spend Christmas alone. He wanted to be with his family, or at least with some friends. It having to be alone in a bar on Christmas Eve,

Oh. Well, that's probably the same for Sehun too. Luhan thought.

He watched Sehun serve up drinks to another guy and decided that there was no reason for them both to be lonely on Christmas Eve. Sehun may have been a stranger, but he was a lonely stranger. They were two lonely souls on a holiday meant for being together, and when Sehun came back to collect Luhan's empty gass, the words came from his mouth before he could stop them.

"Sehun, would you like to come home with me?"

It wasn't until after he'd said the words that he realized what the question sounded like and his quickly backpedaled, cheeks flushing. "N-Not like that! Just...well, you're lonely, and I'm lonely. Maybe we could have dinner together at my place or something?"

Sehun looked at him for a few moments and Luhan was sure he was going to politely decline and write him off as just another weird customer, but a small smile began to form on Sehun's lips and he actually nodded.

"Sure." The bartender said, "I'd like that a lot, actually. I'll call my boss and ask if I can close up early."

Luhan grinned, nodding as well, "Okay! Yeah, that's fine. I'll wait for you here."

Sehun chuckled. "Okay. I'll let you know when I'm ready to go, then."

"Okay." Luhan nodded, watching as Sehun walked away to finish cleaning up some things.

And just like that, Christmas didn't seem so lonely anymore.