Wham - Last Christmas

When Jaebum first invited her for a Pre-Christmas Party, Irene had envisioned it to be somewhat loud; with Christmas music blaring through his home speakers and perhaps a few cocktails to soothe the dry throats.

Her image was far from it, however, as she realised that Claude Debussy’s Clair De Lune was softly echoing through the walls when she first stepped into his quaint home. Her eyes quickly took in the appearance of his home, and they soon found themselves on the many vinyl records he owned. She hadn’t guessed for the man to be a classic gentleman, noting the atmosphere was more of a Valentine’s Day rather than a Christmas one.

When she had turned to call for him, her eyes came upon a glass of red wine, and she saw how Jaebum was just standing there waiting for her to take it.

“For you.” His little smile tugged at her heartstrings.

“Thank you.” Irene took a sip of the wine. “It’s delicious.”

“Glad that you liked it.” He offered another toast and their glasses clink together. “Thank you for coming, by the way.”

“About that,” She laughed as she made her way to his couch. “I imagined this to be much livelier. What happened to all of the people?”

He took a seat right beside hers, placing his glass of wine down onto the table. She felt it funny how his face was filled with seriousness, for the Jaebum she’d always knew wasn’t like that. In fact, the man had been more… unrefined.

“I wanted this to be a little special.” Jaebum looked on warily. “We just got engaged, so I wanted Christmas to be a little different this year. I figured it’d be best if there were only the two of us.”

“I don’t mind.” Irene laughed again. “It’s just… this doesn’t really feel like Christmas, you know?”

“How come?”

“Well for one, you’re being all serious, which unfortunately wasn’t originally part of your image.”

Jaebum tilted his head to the side, half of his eyebrow raised. “What is my original image then?”

“A presence that grates on your nerves?” The girl scrunched her nose together.

“Even before the bad breakup drama?”

“Definitely before the bad breakup drama.”

Jaebum snorted in disbelief, but soon tried to hide his face behind his hands when he realised how his snort had left the girl in stitches. The man gave a little frown, before pinching her nose in revenge.

“You’re annoying.” Jaebum finally sighed. “Here I was, trying to be romantic on Christmas.”

“Well, you’re romantic just the way you are.”

“You’re finally flirting, huh.”

There was definitely no way that she had started the flirting, the girl thought solemnly to herself.

“So tell me.” Irene dismissed his statement coolly. “You planned a Christmas Party for the two of us, right? The party will definitely not get any livelier with us both.”

This time, Jaebum grinned.

“What are we going to do?” She continued mumbling. “Listen to Mariah Carey all night?”

 “What do you want to do?” He purred and Irene suddenly froze.

What had she wanted to do?

“I, uh, want to just spend my time with you, of course.”

“Just that?” Jaebum inched in closer but the girl made no effort to move away.

“I guess…”

“Yeah?” His fingers now traced over her right palm.

“I guess we could…”

“We could?” Jaebum brought his face closer to hers.

“Listen to Mariah Carey all night?” Irene croaked from nervousness.

Jaebum blinked once, twice and thrice before finally clutching onto his stomach tightly as he rolled over in laughter. It was so typically Irene to mess up when she was nervous and Jaebum was just glad that he at least found some humour in her nervousness.

“Don’t laugh.” Irene covered her now red face with her hands. “This is so embarrassing.”

“What? Listening to Mariah Carey?” Jaebum teased as Irene playfully hit him on his shoulders. “Nothing embarrassing about that.”

“Oh, Jaebum, stop.”

“Do you want to hear what I want to do though?” The man placed his hands on her shoulders this time round.

Irene looked up to see him staring intensely at her, though in that moment, his gaze had felt sweet. She felt her lips shudder as he brought his face closer and she could see the love and warmth he bore in his eyes.

“I want to kiss you.” Jaebum muttered softly and it felt as though the air had stilled in that moment. “May I kiss you, Irene?”

She nodded her head and soon found herself wrapped in his arms. He tilted her head to match his and brought her lips in for a sweet touch. The kiss was light but it still sent shivers down her body. When he had moved away, Irene remembered being awestruck by just how handsome Jaebum had looked that night.

The Christmas tree by their side seemed to bring out a sense of peace and tranquillity and Irene found herself resting her head against his chest. The sounds of Clair De Lune still echoed softly in his apartment and Jaebum hugged the girl tighter as he wished to hold her in his arms forever.

“Merry Christmas, Irene.” Jaebum kissed her cheeks softly. “I love you.”