“Jimin, get down here!” Gemma called from the basement of his parents’ house. I had Haru in my arms while Jimin was putting the finishing touches on Santa’s cookies and milk. He and Haru had baked them in the afternoon, before the Christmas Eve party. We’d gotten back about a half an hour earlier, having left with a cranky, sleepy Haru and a tipsy Jimin. Tipsy Jimin was one of my favorite Jimins, and he’d infinitely cheered up Haru by singing loud Christmas carols and kissing her nose on the way home.

Gemma was here for the annual Christmas Eve sleepover, which had been far from annual for the past couple of years.

“Baby, can you take Yukon out?” Jimin pleaded as he bent over the plate of cookies. He had a tube of icing in his hand and it had smeared on his cheeks and nose.

“Yeah, sure.” I set Haru down on the ground. “Snugglebug, go downstairs and play with Aunt Gemma, okay?”

She nodded and toddled off.

“Yukon!” I called, clapping my hands. The fluffy little white puppy immediately came bounding over. I grabbed his harness and leash and clipped them on over his Christmas sweater. I hated to put him in clothes because it was way too cutesy for me, but Jimin insisted that he would catch cold if he didn’t wear one. “You ready to go for a walk, baby?”

Yukon placed his front paws on my legs and barked excitedly. I cooed and patted his head before grabbing my coat and heading out.

We were halfway down the stairs when I spotted a vaguely familiar figure come loping up the driveway. I squinted to see if I could make out who it was in the dark.

“Hey, gorgeous.” A deep male voice called out to me. Yukon realized his presence and immediately starting barking and growling. “Your dog still kind of hates me, I see.”

I blinked in surprise as I recognized the adorable dimples on the man’s face. “Young Jae?”

“In the flesh.” He grinned and spread his arms as if for a hug. “Miss me, baby?”

“Don’t kid yourself.” I laughed. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you and Jimin mortal enemies?”

Young Jae shrugged. “Yeah, but his parents invited me over. It’s a tradition, you see, that I’ve missed out on for the past…oh, I don’t know, eight years?”

“Gemma’s here.” I said casually, wondering what their recent relationship was.

He nodded wisely. “Oh, I know. She told me she’d be home when I saw her in France.”

“You saw her in France?” I felt a little shocked by this news.

“Yup. Went to check out her café and get some tips for my restaurant. I’ve been trying to scout her to cook in my kitchen.”

“Oh? You think she will?”

“Not a chance.” Young Jae said easily, stuffing his hands in his pockets. He looked up at me from underneath his thick eyelashes, almost shyly. “You’ve gotten prettier, you know.”

“I’ve gotten older.” I corrected him. “You should hurry inside, they’re probably all waiting for you.”

He came closer, stepping further into the light. He had aged a bit in the past four years. I had seen him briefly over the summer, the last time Jimin and I had visited Busan, but I hadn’t been able to get a good look at him.

“Would you believe me if I told you I came to see you?” He cracked a smile as I tugged on Yukon’s leash, getting him ready to go back inside.

I grinned back. “It’s nice to know you haven’t changed, Young Jae.”

He pressed a hand to his heart. “Oh, baby girl, it’s so nice to hear you say my name again.”

“Get inside before my husband thinks I’m cheating on him.” I rolled my eyes. “You’re always taking things one step too far.”

“Ah, you’re such a mom now.” He playfully shoved me. “No fun to tease.”

“You better believe it.” I followed him up the stairs, Yukon in tow, still barking occasionally.

“You gonna get drunk with me tonight? Drunk you is the cutest version of you.” Young Jae dimpled down at me.

“You’re way too familiar with me.” I pushed him inside the house. “One would think we’d just seen each other yesterday instead of four years ago.”

His face clouded over for a moment. “Has it been that long already?”

“Yup.” I crouched down to set Yukon free from his constraints. I felt a hand on my hair and looked up to see Young Jae staring down at me with a strange expression. “What’s wrong?”

He blinked and the moment passed. “Nothing, baby girl. Just thinking about how twenty-eight isn’t that different from twenty-four.”

I nodded and straightened up. “It isn’t, is it? I thought it would be, but I still wake up sometimes and wonder what the I’m doing with my life.”

“Really? Even married with a kid?” Young Jae leaned against the wall and crossed his arms, surveying me.

“Yup. It’s not like life stop beings life. I’m still the same person I always was, but now I live with two other people and a dog and somethings I wonder if we’re all gonna be okay.”

“I heard it’s easier when the kids are little.”

“I think it’s the most fun when the kids are little.” I countered. “Before the messy onslaught of puberty. But I don’t know if it’s easier. It’s tiring, that’s for damn sure. Do you think you’ll ever have kids?”

He pondered for a moment or two. “I don’t know. Depends on the kind of girl I fall in love with.”

“Have you ever been in love, Young Jae?” I teased, poking him in the chest. “I’ve heard stories of your conquests from many a person. How do you fall in love like that?”

He grasped my hand and pulled it off his chest, holding it for just a beat too long. “Don’t mock me, baby. You should know the answer to that better than anyone.”

I flushed and snatched my hand away. “Don’t call me baby.” I mumbled, tossing my curls over my shoulder before leading Young Jae down into the basement.

A domestic scene greeted us. Jimin was in the midst of helping Haru decorate the cookies, icing all over the two of them. Gemma lay snuggled up on the couch underneath a million blankets, trying to work the ancient DVD player.

“Baby, I forgot to grab the milk. Would you mind running up and pouring a gl…” Jimin trailed off as he glanced up at me and took in the person behind me on the stairs.

Gemma looked over, too, and promptly smiled. “Young Jae! I didn’t know you were coming.”

“Who the hell invited you?” Jimin demanded rudely. Haru glanced up in alarm at Jimin’s tone of voice.

I shot him a meaningful look as the two of us came down the stairs. He ignored me and confrontationally stared at Young Jae.

“Your mom.” Young Jae replied mildly, ruffling Jimin’s hair. “How you doin’, Jiminie?”

“Even if she invited you, you should be polite enough to decline when you know you’re not wanted.” Jimin hissed.

“I want him here.” Gemma piped up. Jimin scowled at her before looking to me for support.

I shrugged and brushed past the both of them to sit next to Haru, who looked a little scared that her dad was so angry. She crawled into my lap and buried her face in my chest.

“Jimin, please calm down. You’re scaring Haru.” I whispered to him, covering Haru’s ears.

He huffed and stormed away from Young Jae, plopping down next to us and Haru’s hair. She looked up at him before hiding her face. His face fell, but he bent to whisper in her ear.

“Did I scare you, lovebug?”

She nodded.

“Daddy’s sorry, honey. I’m not mad at you. You wanna come and eat a cookie with me?”

“Dere for Santa.” Haru mumbled, crawling out of my lap and into Jimin’s. “You can’t eat dem.”

“Okay, my love. I won’t eat them.” He kissed her hair and wrapped his arms around her.

“Is this your spawn?” Young Jae asked, crouching down next to us. Jimin’s arms tightened protectively around Haru.

“Yeah. This is our baby girl, Haru.” I reached out a hand and rubbed her hair affectionately. She tilted her head away from me as she worked on icing a cookie.

“Ah, so this is the girl who completely ruined my chances of ever getting together with you?” Young Jae looked at me with a lopsided grin. Jimin hissed. “I figured you had to be pregnant to be getting married so quickly.”

“Actually, we got married because we wanted to get married.” Jimin corrected, an edge of quiet anger in his voice.

“Young Jae, stop being an and help me get this movie playing.” Gemma called from the couch. He ruffled my hair before joining Gemma.

Jimin and I engaged in a silent argument before he sighed and kissed Haru’s hair once more.

“Almost time for bed, little love.”

“No.” Haru insisted stubbornly.

“Don’t tell me no.” Jimin admonished. “Besides, you have to sleep, or Santa won’t come.”

“I don’t want Santa to come.” She said petulantly.

“Then you won’t get any presents!”

“Mama tol’ me Santa doesn’t bring me presents.” Haru crossed her arms. “Mama says Santa isn’t real.”

Jimin glared at me. “That’s not true, Haru, honey.” He said through gritted teeth. “Santa’s coming tonight. If you go to sleep, maybe you’ll catch a glimpse of him.”

Just then, the tv started to blare the movie. Haru immediately looked up and saw the opening credits of It’s a Wonderful Life playing.

“I wanna watch the movie!” She cried.

Jimin sighed and glanced over at me. I nodded, a small smile on my face.

“Sure, baby girl. You can watch the movie with us.” I reached out my hand and she took it.

Half an hour later, Haru was asleep in Jimin’s lap on the couch. I was wedged in between him and Young Jae, with Gemma and Jimin on opposite ends of the couch. Jimin held my hand tightly in his. I could tell he felt stressed by Young Jae’s sudden appearance, but I wished the two of them could just let it go. Whatever had gone down between them was years ago. We were all adults; couldn’t Jimin act like one for once?

I glanced over at him and saw his eyes start to droop closed. Young Jae, normally one to pass out during movies, was Gemma’s hair while she slept on his shoulder.

“Your daughter is really cute.” He said softly. “She looks like you.”

I laughed. “What part? Her face is just Jimin’s on a small child’s.”

Young Jae chuckled. “She’s got your hair. And your expressions. The eye-roll and the curl-toss, for sure. And she’s got your sassy little smile.”

“I know. It’s funny to see it on , which is a replica of Jimin’s. He’s too sweet to ever look at me like that.”

“Are you glad you married him?” Young Jae asked, resting his head on my shoulder.

“Yeah.” I murmured, squeezing Jimin’s hand. “Really glad.”

“Good. You deserve to be happy.” He nuzzled his forehead against my shoulder, yawning. “If you weren’t, I would steal you away.”

“You’d never convince me to leave my babies.”

“Do you have another kid I don’t know about?” Young Jae let out a gentle laugh.

“I’m pregnant, actually.” I said quietly. “Due in July.”

“Congrats.” Young Jae replied warmly. “That’s wonderful.”

We fell into a comfortable silence for a little while. Jimin started to snore.

“He’s a love, really. I miss him. Wish he didn’t hate me so much.” Young Jae sighed.

“You probably shouldn’t have tried to date me.” I laughed.

“I didn’t know you were his ex in the beginning.” He said defensively. “Speaking of exes, do you know if Gemma’s dating anyone?”

“She’s not, actually.”

“Interesting.” Young Jae sat up and moved Gemma’s head to his lap. “Very interesting.”

“Don’t with her. Jimin’ll kill you.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m willing to risk my life for this little girl here.” He patted Gemma’s head.

The clock chimed midnight.

“Merry Christmas, baby.” Jimin mumbled, half-asleep. “Love you.”

“Merry Christmas.” I leaned over and pecked his cheek. “Love you, too.”

“Aww, so cute.” Young Jae cooed.

“Shut the up.” Jimin yawned and snuggled deeper into the couch. “Ya bastard.”

“Merry Christmas to you, too, Jimin.”