“Oh wow. Isn’t this what you’ve been wanting for a while now, Jisoo?” Chaeyoung asked upon seeing the gift that Jisoo just unwrapped. It was a set of vintage vinyls and along with it, a turntable that looked like it cost an arm and a leg. 

Dumbfounded, Jisoo just nodded. She didn’t really know who it came from since she never mentioned her interest in those things to anyone yet. She was still in the process of reading up on how to pick a turntable and all that but whoever got her the gift seemed like they knew her well enough to guess. 

“Huh, guess Jennie went all out this year.” Lisa off-handedly commented as she sat back down nursing another glass of wine. Still deep in thought, Jisoo didn’t really pay her comment much mind until a few minutes later when she seemed to have finally processed what Lisa said.

“What do you mean this year?” she asked the other girl as she moved away from the pile, hands shaking a bit, still trying to make sense of what she just heard. Lisa looked at her and if she wasn’t so curious already, the girl’s reaction definitely made her suspicious. She looked like she saw a ghost with the way her eyes bugged out. 

Chaeyoung, who up till this moment was ooh-ing and aah-ing over the gift, burst out in dismayed laughter. “Really, Chu? You never noticed?” 

“Huh? What’s to notice?” 

Chaeyoung moved to sit beside Lisa and poured another glass of wine for herself. As she was doing so, Lisa recovered enough to answer Jisoo.

“She’s been your Secret Santa every year, Chu.” 

Chaeng, apparently in the mood to annoy her, added, “Correction: She makes sure to be your Secret Santa every year, Chu. But with everything, I’m surprised she still came through this year.” 

“What do you mean? We draw lots to make sure that everyone gets someone else. And what makes you so sure this came from her?” she asked, genuinely gobsmacked.

“Oh my sweet summer child.” Lisa laughed. “Jennie hounds us if she doesn’t get you, Chu.” 

“As for your other question, you’re Kim Jisoo. She’s Jennie Kim. She always comes through for you, Chu. No matter what, or at least that was what the Jennie we knew would have made sure of.” Chae added as she looked around Jisoo’s place. Spotting one of those gifts Jennie got her in the past few years, she started reminiscing. “Remember the time you got that huge lamp that we all swore was fugly but you loved anyway?” 

“Oh right, right.” Lisa joined in. “Jennie looked so disgusted when she was wrapping that. She kept talking to herself and we were just laughing at her. “Why does Chu like things like these? This is so embarrassing.” She said as she told us about how shy she got when she went back to the store to ask for that because you told her it’s what you liked.” 

Still in a state of disbelief, Jisoo answered, “ She told me it was useless.” 

The two girls shared a look and told her, “but she got it for you anyway, Chu. She always did.” 

Unable to stop herself from thinking about it deeper, Jisoo asked, “How many times did she switch with you girls?”

“Hmm, twice with me and thrice with Chaeng, I think.” 

“Oh yeah. The first two years, she really did pick you but during the third year, that was when I got you. She didn’t really care if we were gonna switch or she’d buy two gifts, She would bug me and tell me that I could still buy gifts for you too but she just wanted you to get what she got you. She’d even tell me that she’d get me a gift too, as long as I agree to give you what she thought you’d want.” 

“Right, then I picked you the next year and Jen said the same thing to me. She even got me the dance shoes I really wanted just to make sure I’d agree and give you what you wanted that year. I think that was when she got you that fancy camera similar to the one I had. You know? The one you kept bugging me to give you.” 

The other two kept trading stories and Jisoo just sat there trying to take it all in. As she was thinking back to the past Christmases and the gifts she had, her phone rang. 

“Hey, love. Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas too, babe. I’ll be heading home in a while. Want anything?” 

“Nah, I just called cause I missed you already.” 

“Aww, I miss you too.” 

Chaeyoung and Lisa gave her teasing looks then took the phone from her. 

“Hey Chu’s babe, we’re taking good care of her, don’t worry!” 

“Hahaha, hey girls, Merry Christmas! Have a blast, alright?” 

“Oh you bet! Can you fetch Chu so she can drink a bit?” 

“You know what, sure. That’s fine with me.” 

The girls hollered and Jisoo could only shake her head in mock exasperation. They gave her the phone back so she could wrap up the call. 

“I guess I’m staying over then?”

“Yep. They seem to have missed you.”

“Yeah, I missed them too.”

“Pick you up tomorrow?”

“Bring breakfast for these knuckleheads please.”

“Sure thing. The usual?”

“You know it.” 

“Alright, love. See you tomorrow?”

“Mmmm.”

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah. Everything’s great. I love you.”

“I love you, Kim Jisoo. Have fun, okay?”

“I will. Thanks, my love.” 

They dropped the call and Jisoo focused her attention to the two other girls. They seem to be engaged in a conversation of their own so she just kept quiet and tried her best not to eavesdrop but still, she caught some snippets of their conversation. 

“Okay, we shouldn’t have said that.” Chaeyoung said, mildly anxious.

“Yeah, but , she deserves to know that.” countered the other one.

A bit cowed, Chaeng replied, “But it wasn’t our secret to tell.”

“Whose is it then? Because our other friend is halfway around the world away from us and the one with us seems to have simultaneously lost and found a piece of herself.” Lisa said hotly. 

Choosing to intervene before it escalates into a full-blown argument between the two, Jisoo cleared . 

“It’s okay, girls. I was just shocked. Like you said earlier, after everything, it is surprising that she still had something for me.” She said trying to wave away the looks of guilt and sadness from the other two. “And besides, now that I think about it, I should have known. I never really mentioned the stuff I wanted to the both of you but every single year, I kept getting them.” 

“Still, it shouldn’t have come from us.” Chaeyoung answered despondently. 

Lisa butted in guiltily, “It’s not your fault, Chaeng. My mouth got ahead of my brain again.” 

“No use crying over what’s done you two. Let’s just enjoy the night. I’m sure she’s fine wherever she is.” was heard as Jisoo made her way back to the stacks of vinyls and decided to browse through the collection instead. 

The other two picked up on her attempt to shake the discovery off and decided to not make it any harder for her by going along with her attempt at distraction so they also proceeded to sit by her and looked through the stack. It was quite a sizable collection and the other two soon realized just how well-curated the set was to fit Jisoo’s taste. They just watched Jisoo continue to look at and hold the discs quite reverently, as if she was being transported away by whatever she was remembering as she continued to marvel at the gifts.

A little while later, she stopped at one specific package. She lifted it up and scanned the songs included in the disc. With a seemingly bittersweet smile, she asked the other two to help her set up the turntable. 

“A dance party, Chu?” Lisa asked carefully.

She shook her head, “No, not really. I just thought it would be a waste to have all these and not listen to any of them.” 

“Why that specific album then?” Chaeyoung pointed out. “There’s a couple others here that caught my eye too, Chu. These discs are rare.” 

“And we can listen to the others later. But, this one first okay?” the older girl insisted.

Lisa saw the disc and let out a small laugh. “Michael Bublé? Really, Chu?” 

“Shush you, there’s one song here I really missed.” 

“Like you miss her?”

“Yah, that’s not fair.” 

“But you do miss her right?”

“Every single day.” 

“What happened to you two, Chu? One moment you were the best of friends and the next thing we knew, Jennie was moving to Paris with no plans of returning.” 

There it was, the elephant in the room they all tried to skirt around but found that they couldn’t. The four of them had been friends for the longest time. Even if it seemed like they broke off in pairs, Lisa with Chaeyoung and Jisoo with Jennie, they still considered each other to be family. 

Chaeyoung went closer to Jisoo and gently wrapped her in a hug. 

“We knew something happened but we didn’t want to pry, Chu. We thought one of you would come to us after some time but it has been a full year and few months and we still know nothing except that Jen dropped off the face of the earth and you’re out here with Seul trying to be okay.” 

Jisoo just leaned into the hug a bit more