04. Home

Nichkhun anxiously stared at his wrist watch and then out the window. The snow storm nearly blocked out all view to the frozen airplanes. The winter snow was a dimming dark shade of white due to the night time, but it was a pure chilling sort of white that never failed to rattle his bones.

He gave an annoyed grunt. Damn blizzard!

Nichkhun was waiting for the blizzard to stop so that the flights could resume. He wanted to go to Thailand to meet his family, his sisters and his older brother. But that didn't seem like happening.

He felt hopeless. It had already been a whole full year since he had last seen them. JYP said that he could go a couple months back, but Nichkhun didn't feel that it was right to leave his fellow members when they were all working so hard in the training room. He stayed with them instead of heading back to Thailand for his family.

But it would be Christmas in two days, and he wanted to be with his parents. He remembered that back when he was child, although he was buddhist, his whole family would pitch in to celebrate Christmas and give out meticulously decorated packages.

Oh how he missed his mother's Christmas dinner meals.

The speaker suddenly with a click and a man with a deep voice began to speak. "I am sorry to inform you, but due to the weather conditions, all flights will have to be canceled until further notice."

Another click and the man with the official sounding voice disappeared.

He stared at his watch once more. 11:30 PM.

He couldn't wait any longer. He let out one last dejected sigh before he turned and walked off towards the airport's front doors with his luggage rolling behind him.

When he reached his apartment and pushed open the door to his dorm, he noticed that nobody was home. That's when he realized that all the other members had gone home for the holidays.

Taecyeon had been lucky enough to leave the day before Nichkhun's flight, and so he was able to miss the snow storm. Junsu had taken the train to Daegu this morning, and Wooyoung, Chansung, and Junho had all taken a bus to their parents' homes.

In the darkness, he silently walked over to the living room.

"Gone..."he whispered. They were all gone.

He reached over to the wall to flick on the living room light when he happened to hit the wrong switch.

Instead of the yellow flourescent light popping on, the multi-colored bulbs of the Christmas tree glowed in the cold and empty darkness.

Nichkhun took a sharp intake of air and dropped his luggage to the wooden floor, as though he was a bit startled with the sudden bright light.

He sat down in front of the magnificent tree that the six of them had worked so hard to put up together and gave a smile.

All around the tree, the boys had perfectly placed six large ornaments to symbolize each of the members. They had made seperately as a fun festive Christmas activity. Actually, Chansung had commanded that they all bow to him and make ornaments instead of buying them, so the other five did as the maknae said. Chansung had mumbled something about inappropriate money wasting.

So each of the boys created one for themselves.

Taecyeon made an orange-ish yellow ornament that he claimed to be a mango, which everyone disagreed on.

Wooyoung made a plump purple one that was decorated with little star stickers.

Junsu made an awkward rectangular block that he said was supposed to look like a snowman. He had just gotten a block of wood, painted it white, and drew a couple dots to make it look like a face with buttons dotted down the middle of the thing.

Chansung, who laughed at Junsu's creation, showed everyone his wonderfully made star object. It was a bunch of different colors and it had a bell connected at the bottom which rang every time it shook.

Junho, who was lazy about the whole 'make-your-own-ornament' deal, grabbed a piece of paper and cut out a circle that he colored black. "Ornament of Death." He called it.

They all hung around the tree that Nichkhun decided was too sparsely adorned to be a Christmas tree. That next morning Nichkhun had somehow retra box of ornaments from someplace.

He stared at the small modestly decorated red glass heart that hung near the bottom of the tree. It was his ornament.

His mother had given it to him last Christmas. It had been with his family for generations, and so when his mother saw him last Christmas, she told him, "Honey, I know it's hard for you to come and visit us, so I'm going to give you this..."

"But ma..." Nichkhun had started.

"Sweetie, I want you to know that home isn't a physical thing. It's not where your parents are...or your brothers and sisters. Home is where the heart is...and you cherish that with all your might, because you'll never know when your heart will have to leave for another place."

Still in his poofy black jacket, he gave a small smile.

Thinking back on his memories that he had collected within this now empty home...

He couldn't complain.

He had so dearly wanted to be home for Christmas...and yet...

He had been there all this time...

Wooyoung kicked his shoes off as he entered the apartment, the snow flaking off his wet leather jacket. "Jesus! Damn snow ruined all my plans!"

Junho shook his head in agreement. The two had met in the lobby. Due to the heavy snowfall, the flow of traffic had halted. Wooyoung actually had to walk a couple of miles back to get back to the dorm.

But as the two entered, they noticed a warm colorful glow coming from the living room. They popped their heads off the corner to see someone with their luggage bags scattered around them. The person was still in their winter coat with a hat and a scarf that matched. He was sitting with his back to them, staring up at the Christmas tree that the 2PM boys had decorated together.

"Nichkhun?" Wooyoung said outload once he recognized the person.

Nichkhun turned around, his face seeming bright in the soft darkness.

"What are you still doing here?" Wooyoung asked, patting the last of the snowflakes off his arm. "Why aren't you home?"

Nichkhun gave a delicate smile. "I am home."

sighhh. Christmas is so wonderful...i really do hope those boys get to see their families during the holidays, especially Christmas. ♥