Last minute Christmas shopping was, by no one’s account, even a remotely good idea. Yet it was one of those things that was unfortunately inevitable to an extent, one of those nearly necessary evils - but not quite. It was avoidable just to the extent that those who couldn’t evade the grueling task were looked down upon. Regardless, once one had already pushed it off as long as they could, there was no going back, which was how Chwe Hansol and Lee Chan found themselves standing at the front doors of Walmart, armed with shopping carts and mild anxiety.

    “I’ll be fine,” both had said for the preceding two months, “I’ll just go tomorrow,”. But “tomorrow” soon became “next week” which in turn became “next month, the cycle tirelessly repeating itself until, before either of them knew it, there was just a over a week left until Christmas Day. For most people, that was hardly “last minute”; in fact, to the majority, Christmas shopping was not last minute until it was done the night of Christmas Eve, just mere hours before the morning that they would need to be opened. However, when the boys had to shop for their families, friends, and twelve other band members, there was no such thing as too early. Hell, December 26th would’ve been too late in buying next year’s presents.

    As if there wasn’t enough of a sense of urgency about the duo, standing lost and utterly clueless in the doorway, there was one key component that they had failed to account for; they still had yet to buy presents for each other, either.

    One couldn’t just buy any old gift for their significant other. No, it had to be well planned out - there had to be mass amounts of prior thought and premeditation before one could actually make the move to buy a gift for the one that they were dating. As seemed to be a theme in the case of Hansol and Chan, however, they were lacking in any foresight whatsoever. They refused, of course, to admit such a fact to one another, though.

    “I still need presents for Josh, Jihoon, Mingyu, Minghao, and Seungkwan,” Hansol rattled off, counting on his fingers to be sure that he hadn’t missed anyone. He was careful to leave out the fact that he had yet to buy Chan’s present.

    “Me too,” answered the younger, figuring it best not to mention that he hadn’t bought so much as a single present yet. “Do you have any idea what you’re getting them?”

    Hansol shook his head, quite apparently deep in thought. “Not a clue,” he replied, though he figured that it wouldn’t be particularly difficult to figure out what to get them as he felt that he was close with all of them. The difficulty lied in selecting Chan’s present. Of course, he was close with Chan as well - closer than he was with any of the other boys. But it was that exponential closeness that made it even harder to think of something befitting him.

    “I guess we should just start looking, then,” reasoned, Chan, beginning to push his cart in an undefined direction into the store, leaving Hansol no choice but to follow after him.

    There were plenty of things to choose from; with everything from food to jewelry to toys, it was hardly as though there was a shortage of selection. If anything, the vast variety made it almost more difficult to narrow it down to just one thing - the possibilities were quite literally endless.

    Chan seemed to have no problem ticking family members and band members alike off his list, and Hansol would have to be lying if he said that he didn’t envy the younger’s ability to make such quick decisions. While his list had begun quite vastly, within a matter of only ten minutes it had been cut in half easily. Hansol, on the other hand, had only managed to find one present, and he wasn’t even certain that he was entirely happy with his selection of that one.

    Even if Chan’s modesty wouldn’t allow him to admit it, he had quite the keen eye - it was no problem for him to pick up on little details that often would’ve gone unnoticed by any others. He didn’t know that he would quite call it a talent, it was just something that he had always had. So he would commit it to memory every time a member said that they liked a certain style of shirt or a certain kind of candy, and he then drew upon such memories when the time came to buy presents. That was why it seemed so easy for him - he could recall a member’s interests at the drop of a hat. To him, Hansol was the easiest member to shop for. He knew the rapper like the back of his hand, could notice even the slightest of alterations in his expression. As such, it was a painfully easy task for him to note how Hansol’s eyes began to twinkle as he looked at a pair of expensive headphones. Chan, being the sly boy that he was, had immediately picked said headphones up, watching as Hansol’s starry eyed gaze followed them all the way from the shelf into the shopping cart. It was no secret that the older was interested in them when he asked who they were for. Chan being a quick thinker, had answered that they were for himself, not missing the way that Hansol’s face fell at the answer. Really, he was so easy to read; Chan was confident in his present selecting ability.

    On the other hand, Hansol had never been having a harder time in his life picking a gift. He had managed to get all the other members secured; the only one that remained was Chan. It was then that he saw it, a shining beacon among the aisles - an expensive pair of headphones. Certainly that was something that Chan would like, right? He enjoyed music just as much as any other member of the band, so it was only natural that he’d love high quality headphones. Just as he was about to reach for them, however, the younger beat him to it. Hansol turned to him, eyes wide, and immediately becoming crestfallen at discovering that they were, in fact, for Chan himself. Just when Hansol thought he finally had it in the bag, there was always another flaw in his plans.

    It was on that note that they continued on in their trip, Chan beaming at his supposed quick thinking and Hansol moping as he tried to construct a plan B, both entirely oblivious to the other’s intentions.

    Christmas shopping, Hansol decided, was not for the weak of heart.