(4) WINTER pt. II

It was nearing the end of the year, and the cold finally began to take effect on the small town the twelve boys resided in. They even experienced the trouble of shoveling snow off the wooden porch stairs, and even then, the snow climbed up halfway past their shins, some up to their knees. That didn’t stop them, however, from making plans nearly every day to venture outside and enjoy the snow while it lasted.

The sun begins to set, and this time, everyone slows down snacking on leftover oven baked cookies that were popped in the microwave for extra warmth, their cups of instant hot chocolate filling up their insides with satisfaction and joy. From one of the storage rooms, Kyungsoo and Suho pull out a huge green container, releasing it in the middle of the room with a huff. Everyone automatically drops their snacks and runs over to inspect the big box- everyone except Kai, Tao and Sehun.

“What’s that?” Tao asks curiously, chewing on another chocolate chip cookie and grabbing another one as he stands up from his seat. He peers over some of their heads to the best of his extent, and Chen whips around with his hands full of festive ornaments and decorations.

“We get to decorate now!” He says excitedly, stepping to the side to reveal the box stuffed with joyous decorations. Everyone picks up as many as they can handle before scattering around the house and sticking them just about anywhere.

Sehun and Kai finally jump up from their chairs to join in the fun, sticking stockings above the fireplace and small knick-knacks on the window sills and kitchen table.

“Woah,” Sehun gasps, eyeing all the shiny items that adorned the candle-lit room. It’s certainly random, but it at least looks like they have some holiday spirit. “You guys do this every year?”

“Yeah, you should have been here when we tried stealing a tree…” Luhan sighs. “We ended up ditching it in the middle of the street.”

Suho laughs, putting finishing touches on the fireplace. “We decorate the tree in the opening, instead.” He admits, already taking out a line of lights and rolling it around his hand and elbow. “It’s a lot more convenient.”

Kris takes hold of another box of decorations, along with a few others who hold lights and personal ornaments before everyone heads outside, bracing for the cold air that flows into the house when the door opens. They trudge through the snow with their boots, Kai and Luhan in the front clearing some of the path while Lay carries the extension cord connected to the lodge. When they reach the tree, they all look up at it before helping each other wrap the lights.

Kris and Luhan are in charge for the majority of the decorating, Kris floating upwards higher and higher as he wraps the tree in the cords. Luhan isn’t having as much ease with the task, his powers slightly shaky and energy-draining as he continues on, but he eventually gets his part done. A lot of the ornaments are bundled near the bottom of the tree, but when the final piece is needed, Tao stops Kris from flying back up and looks down at his feet shyly.

“I-I want to put the star on…” He mumbles, kicking some snow with his feet. Kris eyes him at first, then the others, and Suho comes trotting over with a big yellow star in his hands.

“Wait, why does he get to put the star on?” Sehun grumbles, staring enviously at the way the star shimmered in the sunlight.

“Just let him do it man.” Kai nudges the latter’s shoulder.

“This is exciting! I’ve never celebrated Christmas before!” Tao laughs with glee, causing some of the others’ eyes to widen in surprise.

“Me neither, but I mean I think I’m doing this right.” Sehun lifts his arms up, getting himself more and more tangled into the tinsel.

“You get used to it after a while.” Baekhyun shrugs.

“Here,” Suho reaches the star out in front of him to Tao, to which the younger accepts gladly. Kris doesn’t say anything more than needed, floating onto his stomach to let the other hop on with a happy cat-like smile.

When they reach the top, Tao leans towards the highest point of the tree and bunches it up with his hands to stick the star perfectly onto it.

“There!” Tao chirped, crossing his arms and nodding his head proudly. He proceeds to plug the end of the lights into the socket behind the star, and giving the boys below a thumbs up, the tree brightens up with vibrant colors as the sky gets darker and darker.

There, in the middle of a quiet, dark forest now lies a bright tree, illuminating the usual bleak plant life with a bit of Christmas magic.

--

The next morning, everyone peels themselves off their mattress’, excited for the new day that awaited them; everyone except Park Chanyeol.

After the last person jumps out of the shower, Baekhyun comes crashing onto Chanyeol’s half-asleep body fully dressed in winter clothes. His puffy jacket cushions his fall, but it's no less painful for Chanyeol as the small weight presses against his back with a grunt.

“Dumbyeol!” Baekhyun shouts, propping his head up with his hands as his elbows wobble against the taller’s shoulder blades. “Are you coming outside today?”

Chanyeol groans at the bony elbows that stab his back, his strength failing him and forcing his head onto the blanket underneath him. He sighs at his question, closing his eyes in hopes of getting a little more rest. “I don’t want to,” he complains. “I don’t like the cold.”

“Boo,” Baekhyun teases childishly. “You have to come outside! The lake's all frozen, so we can go ice skating!” The small boy sits up on his back, patting and chopping it with the sides of his hands.

It actually feels good, and Chanyeol has to refrain himself from falling asleep in the middle of the massage, but the longer he didn’t reply, the harder Baekhyun hit. “Ow!” he yelps as Baekhyun starts to punch his back instead. “Baek- Ow!”

“You’re falling asleep!” He whines, tugging lightly on his dark fluffy hair. “Hurry up, Chanyeol! Everyone left already, and I’m waiting for you!”

Peeking through one of his eyes, he scans the room to find nobody there. Everyone had already gone out to have fun without him, and it almost hurt being forgotten- except, he wasn’t. He smiles to himself, glad that Baekhyun stayed behind for him.

“Chanyeol,” Baekhyun whines, rocking back and forth while he continues to tug at his hair. “I want to leave already…Get up…”

Chanyeol only groans one more time, turning his head to look up at his friend the best he could without straining his neck. “I can’t get up with you on top of me.” He finally says. Baekhyun happily jumps off, keeping an eye on him to be sure that he actually stands up.

When he’s fully up on his feet and begins to stretch, Baekhyun makes sure to snatch an extra coat for him because he knows Chanyeol gets cold easily, ushering him out the door with an excited grin on his face.

Baekhyun wasn’t joking when he said that it would be fun, and Chanyeol was itching to run around with the rest of them. Xiumin was the only one properly skating while the rest of the boys were wobbling around like newborn fawns. Even Luhan was having trouble holding his legs up straight, despite having used his power to jet himself around instead of pumping his legs to do the work. Kris wasn’t skating properly either, using his own ability to do majestic spins and leaps through the air, putting on his own private show for the incapable ones down below.

Making sure that Chanyeol was at least interested in the frozen paradise, he took a couple steps forward with their hands intertwined, giving Chanyeol silent but encouraging nods every once and a while to keep him from chickening out. The poor boy looked as though his soul had left him the second his shoe touched the icy floor below, instinctively clinging to Baekhyun and almost choking him around the neck.

Baekhyun coughed as Chanyeol’s grip only got tighter, muttering a small, “loosen up, will you...” He mutters before dragging him over to Luhan.

“Luhan, you should use your power to help Chanyeol learn how to skate.” Baekhyun wanted Chanyeol to enjoy the ice, but he also wanted to enjoy it as well without having his airways cut off every three seconds. “You need to practice your, um... power, anyways.”

Luhan rolled his eyes. “I would if I could get it under control myself, but since I can’t, this is the best I can do.” He s his hands towards Baekhyun and Chanyeol, only to have his feet stay in the exact same position prior to his attempt in using his powers. His eyes still shone a fluorescent purple, and he could only gasp as Baekhyun flew into Chanyeol, the two flying back until Chanyeol tripped over a rock near the lake. They both land in a small pile of snow on the side.

Seeing that they weren’t harmed by the way that Baekhyun still had enough energy to beat Chanyeol with, Luhan nudged himself over to the two in hopes that they weren’t too upset.

Despite the situation being one that Baekhyun wouldn’t normally handle well, he stopped swinging once he settled into Chanyeol’s chest, the warmth being subtly enjoyable on his numb hands.

“B-Baek, I’m cold.” Chanyeol complained, scrunching up his nose as Baekhyun struggled to stand back up. He kicks him lightly one more time before wandering off, Chanyeol scurrying after him.

Suho and Lay were busy talking about their plans later that night to really pay attention to the rest of the boys, not taking note of Chen and Kris as they terrorized the three youngest boys with bombs of snow. Kris would fly up with buckets of snow that Chen miraculously prepared, while Sehun, Kai and Tao frantically scampered around, trying their best to avoid the buckets of ice cold hell.

Kai and Sehun were mildly good at dodging on their own, Kai being one to just throw his body out of the way just in time. Sehun would use his arms to force gravity to fling him around at the last second to barely have the snow knick his back or arms. Tao, on the other hand, had the power to freeze the ice, but he’d never have enough time to focus clearly on each attack as they plundered from above him, cursing at how useless his legs were on the slippery ground.

Sehun spoke first, irritated by the fact that he was sweating despite the cold weather. “This isn’t fair!”

Letting out a small scoff, Kris practically did a backflip from how hard he threw his head back while laughing. “You think this isn’t fair? Me and Chen have a disadvantage because you guys have three people when we only have two.”

“But you have powers!” Kai cried out, the cold starting to seep through his thick jacket.

“Yeah, but you have Tao, and he can stop time!” Chen called out, not bothering to look their way as he made more snow bombs.

It somehow managed to slip their mind that Tao had powers, he being one that could barely use it properly when they needed it the most. They watched as Kris practically buried him under another heap of snow, rendering him useless as his legs kicked wildly up in the air.

Sehun huffed, mumbling under his breath, “It’s Chen and I, not me and Chen.” Before getting slapped in the face with a handful of snow, courtesy of Kris.

Kai had been smart and had gotten away from Kris’ range, taking the time to use Sehun’s downfall to his advantage. Although he had avoided one menace, he completely forgot about Chen lurking in the shadows, only to be reminded as a fresh snowball kissed his cheek, sending him to the floor as his feet slipped.

“Kris and Chen: one hundred, youngest members: ZERO!” Kris chanted aloud, he and Chen whooping into the chilly winter air as all three youngest were down for the count.

Meanwhile, a few feet away from Suho and Lay, sat Kyungsoo by himself, enjoying the solitude as he watched Kris down Tao in another batch of packed snow. He honestly was surprised that Suho didn’t say anything about Tao’s constant girly screams, but then again, Tao always screamed around him, making him accustomed to the high pitched shrill.

As soon as Kris’ laughter suddenly stopped, Kyungsoo found another interesting sight as Tao slowly rose from his snowy igloo to have already frozen them. Sehun and Kai were awestruck at how amazing his powers were until the real fun began. The three boys all skid over to Chen first, scooping up handfuls of snow before packing it in his pants and shirt, making sure to add a little special present in his cap and scarf. Wobbling over to Kris again, they all stood around his frozen being to just stare at him, thinking up ways to not only get back at him, but to top their last prank of drawing all over his treasured face.

Sehun moved first, grabbing Kris’ shoulder and spinning him around so that he was not only frozen, but upside down with his head touching the ice lake. Kai moved second, stripping him out of any clothes that wouldn’t leave him indecent and get him in trouble. Tao smirked and did his part last, packing snow in his mouth, ears, boxers and even in between his armpits and while balancing little piles on his . Kris was now in his boxers and his thin shirt, flipped upside down and left with snow everywhere with Chen in not much better condition. The three masterminds all ran off to Luhan, Baekhyun and Chanyeol before allowing the magic to wear off.

Kyungsoo, as a bystander, could probably help the two, but seeing how much fun the others were having, he decided to let them go for a little bit more. Instead, he listened in on Suho and Lay’s conversation about dinner that night in hopes of finding something interesting.

Suho swayed a bit in his seat before turning to Lay. “I wanted to make chicken tonight. You know... the really big one we took from the supermarket a few days ago.”

Lay made a confused face before replying back, “Wasn’t that ham? Not chicken? I could have sworn it was ham.”

“No, the ham was from the mini mart, they’re two separate places.” Suho clarified, looking at Lay who just hummed at his new discovery.

“If we make chicken, can we make stuffing, too?” Lay’s hands were anxiously held together as he waited for