Christmas was approaching—in two weeks to be exact. Instead of joining in the mass of crowds doing all their shopping at the last weekend before Christmas, I decided to start off early. At least I could get an idea of what to get everyone in advance.

Luhan stood idly next to me at the mall. Baekhyun was somewhere wanting to kill himself as he draped his body over the railing as we waited for Jongin to retrieve from inside the store. I was done counting all the different colors on the store’s sign three times and Jongin hadn’t returned from its depths yet. I came expecting to watch over Luhan and see if he showed any kind of interest in the things available so I could get it for him during Christmas, though so far he was either on his phone or picking at his watch.

I eyed the display of Beats headphones by the store beside the miniature chocolate factory. “Luhan.” I gestured to the store. “Aren’t those cool? It’d be something you’d like, right?”

“Yeah, Yixing got me one to match with his purple headphones three months ago,” he explained, and I would have slapped myself in the face if I weren’t carrying any bags.

“Hey, they have a sale in Victoria’s Secret,” Baekhyun announced, pointing across the mall from where he propped himself off the railing. “Bras are buy one and get the other half off—”

“Oh God, that only happens once a year.” I shoved my bags towards Luhan. “Could you please hold these while I look inside?”

Luhan eyed the pink bags that said La Senza. ”There is no way I’m holding on to those.”

I gave him a look, begging and hoping my eyes were doing that thing that makes him weak. “Please?”

“Nope.”

I frowned. “Please?”

He crossed his arms and shook his head.

Whirling on my heels, I faced Baekhyun. “Baekhyun could you drive me home after this?”

Baekhyun shrugged. “Okay, su—”

“Nevermind, let me get those for you.” Luhan snatched my bags from me and I successfully smiled. He held the bags up and away from him like they were infected. Digging in his back pocket, Luhan brought out a grocery bag and snapped it in the air twice before shoving all the La Senza bags inside. He breathed a sigh of relief.

“...Is that a bag from K-Mart?”

Baekhyun gaped. It miraculously looked like Luhan was only carrying groceries instead of a girl’s purchases from the mall. “Wow, that’s actually really smart.”

“It’s just La Senza,” I scoffed and made my way towards Victoria’s Secret.

“I want to come!” Baekhyun trailed from behind me, though Luhan pulled him back by his collar.

“If you get your elbow on my eating space one more time, I will cut your arm off,” Jongin warned, moving his tray away from Baekhyun’s.

“Make me!”

There was a shriek as Jongin proceeded to kill him, though I didn’t even look at them because I was concentrating on my food.

When I eyed Luhan, he was finishing the remains of his Iced Americano. Instead of finding out what Luhan might want for Christmas, all I learned was that he carried a grocery bag with him to the mall in case of “emergencies.” What was I supposed to do? Get him an unlimited supply of plastic bags from the grocery store?

“You have lettuce on your face.” I pointed at him.

“I don’t have lett—”

Just as Luhan turned his head to me, I slapped a strip of lettuce on his cheek that had previously fallen out of my sandwich. The mayonnaise acted as adhesive and it stuck to his cheek better than I thought. I laughed more than I should at my childish prank.

“Oh yeah? You have lettuce on your face too.” Luhan leaned in to attack, but I whined and covered my face with my arms.

I pointed to the TV that was playing overhead as a distraction. “Look, there are dolphins on TV!”

“What?” He turned to watch the screen.

Luhan was momentarily in awe while the channel showed previews of the Sea Lion and Dolphin Show at the Seoul Grand Park. I hadn’t actually thought that my distraction would work, but he was actually immersed in the commercial that was urging people to watch the show soon with his mouth even hanging open a tiny bit.

“I wanna see a sea lion balance a ball on its nose...” Luhan muttered to himself.

I reached for a napkin to wipe away the remaining mayonnaise from his face. “You like that kind of stuff?”

Luhan nodded. “They’re performing on Christmas day, but the tickets were sold out within five minutes, I heard. I don’t know why they still run the commercials.” He appeared to be disheartened by this and the corners of his lips tugged down.

“Sold out, huh?” I muttered. Too bad. I could have gotten tickets.

On a weekday morning, my feet were propped up on the coffee table and I reminded myself constantly not to knock over the mug of tea beside my right foot. My phone rang between the cushions of the couch. Directing my eyes away from the morning cartoons on TV, I picked up the call from Yixing.

“Hello?”

“Jinah? We have a group project to do in pairs. It’s worth so little in our grades, and I don’t even know why we’re doing it...” He trailed off with some thought and I waited patiently. “Anyway, Sehun said you were at the hospital helping kids when your name was called. The professor assigned you with Park Sojin.”

“Sojin?” The name rung a bell, and I briefly recalled what she looked like.

“You have to meet up with her. I think she’ll be around the campus for a little bit more.”

“Alright, thank you.” I reluctantly turned off SpongeBob and stood from the couch to change clothes.

I made it to school just as lunch was beginning. Weaving through the crowds, I wondered if Luhan was still around, though remembered that he had a shift at Coffee Republic that afternoon and probably had to leave as soon as possible. I spotted a brunette by the classroom doors and I approached her gingerly.

“Hey partner.”

Sojin stared. “What?”

“For class. I’m Jinah.”

“Oh!” She pushed herself off from leaning against the door. “How was the hospital?”

I should probably give extra credit to Sehun because at least he didn’t tell the class I was busy raising a lion in my backyard like last time a teacher asked for me. “It was... good. I was keeping this kid company. He’s sweet.”

“That’s great.” With one flick of her wrist, Sojin disposed her banana peel in the nearest garbage bin. “About the Rube Goldberg assignment, I have all the supplies we need at my house. My brother collects junk.”

“Are we working on it today?”

“Yeah, why not? I’m the type to want to finish things as soon as possible.” She paused. “If that’s not a problem.”

I shook my head. All I had planned for the day anyway was nothing at all. “Not a problem. Let’s go?”

Sojin lived closer to the school than I thought because the drive there literally took three minutes and I wondered why she bothered driving back and forth from school. It was only the two of us in her house when we entered and she led me up the stairs and turned a hall to her bedroom.

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