December 2015

“IT’S CHRISTMAS!!!” 

The boys, no, the whole orphanage wakes up on the morning of December 25th to the high pitched screams of an overly excited Zhong Chen Le. Though the other six groan in despair for being woken up at such an ungodly timing, they were quite excited nonetheless. 

It was their first Christmas together as seven, and the orphanage was having a small internal dinner party that day. (Heechul also allowed the boys to stay out till eleven in the evening, can you feel their happiness?!)

Literally jumping out of his bed, Chen Le bounces to the relatively huge, but otherwise fake, Christmas tree planted in the middle of their shared room. The boys wanted to exchange gifts between just the seven of them so they decided to have a tree for themselves as well.

“Guys wake up!” Chen Le squeals as he grabs one of his presents from under the tree and shook it, trying to figure out what was in it. “It’s time to open the presents!”

“Le Le, it’s seven thirty in the morning.” Ren Jun groans, rubbing his face with his palms. “It’s not even boxing day but can’t this wait at least till lunch time?”

Chen Le pouts and whispers a quiet fine, but tears open one of his presents anyway. Ren Jun rolls his eyes and sighs, so much for boxing day tomorrow. He gets up from his bed and drags himself to where Chen Le was marvelling over his gift.

“Le Le…”

“Waaa!” Chen Le cuts the boy off mid speech, clearly very satisfied with his gift from the other Chinese boy. “I can’t believe you really got me this!”

Ren Jun had managed to gift Chen Le a brown stuffed bunny that he had been eyeing, with some pocket money he has been earning from helping around the orphanage. (He’d do anything to make sure the younger boy’s cute smile was never wiped off his face, really.)

Cradling the soft toy in one arm, Chen Le curls his other arm around Ren Jun’s neck, pulling him into a hug. “Thank you, ge ge!”

“You’re welcome, Le Le.” The older boy laughs heartily, ignoring the fake vomitting noises coming from the other boys. Clearly wide awake, the other boys gave up trying to go back to sleep, and join the two Chinese boys at the Christmas tree, tearing open their small but meaningful gifts from one another.

Jaemin tried his very best not to beat Donghyuck up when he opened the latter’s present and a short pink dress was sitting innocently in the box.

-

After the short Christmas dinner at the orphanage, the seven boys got permission to head down town to see the Christmas lights. There was even going to be a small parade on the streets. It was pretty much their first time going out altogether as seven, and boy were they thrilled.

The parade was nothing but wonderful - bright Christmas lights filled the posts, huge colourful floats roamed the streets, and of course rows and rows of stalls stood offering numerous sweet Christmas treats.

The boys stumbled through the crowd as they obnoxiously sang along to the Christmas carols blasting through loud speakers. They didn’t give a crap about the biting cold, clearly a little too high on sugar. Even Jisung who never fancied singing so much was belting out All I Want For Christmas Is You, voice cracking slightly at the high notes.

It was past nine in the evening when the boys started to feel the ache in their feet. The fair lasted a whole stretch worth almost an hour of walking, Mark swore he couldn’t see the end of it.

By the time they’ve walked enough to last them a week’s worth of exercise, the boys somehow ended up on a pathway by a very familiar looking lake. The murky water was starting to freeze up and the poles by the little dock that Mark and Donghyuck frequented was decorated with fairy lights.

As if reading each other’s minds, the two made brief eye contact before cheeky grins were pulled at their lips.

“Come on guys, let’s settle down at the dock!” Mark called out to the tired boys. “I heard there’s gonna be the first snow fall tonight!”

The boys groaned but dragged themselves towards the lakeside anyway.

Plopping their freezing butts down on the cold hardwood, the seven boys shivered at the dropping temperature. They huddled a little closer to each other, attempting to get some warmth.

The tips of their noses were redder than Rudolph’s, and Donghyuck simply smiles when Jaemin sneezes suddenly, and Jeno wraps his own wool scarf around the younger boy.

“Aw, they’re so cute.” Mark coos when he witnesses the same thing. Donghyuck laughs a little and turns to the older boy, pouting. 

“I’m getting really cold too, Marco. What if I fall sick?”

“Well too bad, dumb .” Mark scoffs. “Who told you not to wear gloves?”

Donghyuck sulks even deeper, upset that he didn’t get the response he was pining for. Frowning, he stares at his boot-clad feet dangling above the near-frozen water, not bothering to join in on the others’ conversation about hover boards.

He doesn’t miss the familiar gloved hand that intertwines with his freezing ones, however. He smiles to himself when that same hand pulls his into warm pockets.

“Oh look!” Chen Le suddenly stands up and points to the dark sky. “Snow!”

The other boys whip their heads up towards the sky and mimic the Chinese boy’s expression of amazement, watching dots of white fall onto the tips of each other’s reddening noses. Their mouths widen in awe as the snow thickens and begin to pile up in random places.

“We clearly need to get out more.” Jaemin laughs when he realises how too amazed they were by mere snow. The rest of them giggle and nod in agreement.

“Let’s do this every year, then!” Ren Jun suggests, eyes sparkling. “This place could be like our spot!”

Everyone cheers in agreement, momentarily forgetting about the cold and simply just basked in each other’s presence.

Mark turns to Donghyuck and for the millionth time that day, they make eye contact and smile genuinely. Yeah, our spot.

I don’t ever want things to change.

-

Present Day

The five remaining boys sat on the couch, watching Mark pace continuously around the playroom. He’s been doing that for the past few minutes, little wrinkles between his eyebrows and a noticeable frown upon his face.

Jaemin sighs and plays with his lithe fingers, slightly shaking with nervousness.

“I have a plan.” Mark suddenly stops pacing around and speaks up. “We need to stop this before the meeting ends!”

The other boys nod in agreement, except one. Mark hastily grabs a stack of plain papers from the shelf and a few markers, settling down on the round table in front of him. The others ignore Donghyuck’s confused what and huddle around Mark.

“Okay first of all, we have no time to do anything big. So this is gonna be as simple as it gets.” The oldest boy trails off, beginning to go into details.

Still confused, Donghyuck gets up from the couch and peeks over their shoulders in attempt to figure out what was going on. He didn’t have a clue what Mark was even blabbing on about, and what were they even making a plan for?

Slipping his hand between Jisung and Ren Jun, Donghyuck picks the paper between two fingers and quickly pulls it out. The boys stop their conversation abruptly and stare at the tanner male.

“Stop Jeno’s adoption - What is this?” Donghyuck questions immediately when he began to read the paper.

“It is what it seems to be. We’re trying to make sure your cousin doesn’t leave this place.” Mark shrugs, snatching the paper back. Donghyuck puts in no effort to hold onto the paper tighter. “You in or what?”

Speechless, Donghyuck scoffs in shock.

“Why in the  are you guys even trying to stop it?”

Mark stops writing and the five of them turn to stare at Donghyuck once more, eyes slightly widening at the latter’s tone.

“He belongs here, man. He belongs with us. With you. He’s happy here. We’re happy here.” Mark explains with his brow raised. Why is he getting so worked up?

“This is an orphanage, guys. We’re orphans. We’re supposed to be adopted. It’s our second chance at finding a home.” Donghyuck presses on, tone getting deeper and more agitated by the second.

“We don’t need a second home,” Mark stands up from his spot on the floor, beginning to get a little pissed off at the younger’s attitude. “This orphanage is our home and we’re all each other’s family. No one wants to leave this place, not one of us.”

The four younger boys by the round table nod profusely, agreeing with every word that the older had said.

“This is ridiculous!” Donghyuck steps up, rubbing his face in frustration. “What do you know what we all want? What Jeno wants? As much as I love being here and I don’t want to be separated from my cousin, he deserves a loving family. A real one, and -“

“What do you mean a real one, huh?” Mark cuts him off, frowning. His hands were balled into fists and his veins were starting to show. Mark was starting to get really angry. “Are we not a real family to you? Do you want to leave this place?”

The other four boys didn’t know what to do. Mark and Donghyuck quarrelled often, yes, but those past times were merely for fun and games, over trivial things. But this was different. They’ve never seen the two so angry, as if they were about to bite each other’s heads off for real.

“That’s not even what I meant!” Donghyuck defends himself. “I just think that it’s ridiculous of you to try to stop an adoption! And it’s not even the first time, I’m sure.”

Ignoring Chen Le’s mumbles of this is our ninth time actually, Mark fights back. He was this close to bursting.

“And why do you think it’s ridiculous? I just want us all to always be together, I don’t want things to change.”

Looking back and forth between Mark and the wide eyes of the other four boys, Donghyuck stops himself from pressing even further. He bites back the sharp words at the back of his tongue, not wanting to create a scene.

“Ugh, whatever.” Donghyuck rolls his eyes and sighs. He stomps out of the playroom and out the front door, not looking back in the slightest.

Mark rolls his eyes as well and sits back down by the table, picking up the black marker. He attempts to continue writing out his plan but Donghyuck’s words were ringing oh so loudly in his ear.

“Hyung?” Jaemin whispers a little too sadly for Mark’s liking. “What now?”

“I-“ Mark looks up to see four pairs of sad-looking eyes staring back at him, as if waiting for his command as a leader. “I’m not-“

“Uhm, hey guys.” The five boys whip their heads towards the door upon hearing the familiar voice. Standing at the doorway was Jeno, with Heechul behind him saying his goodbyes to the couple from earlier.

“Jeno? You’re done?” Jaemin asks, voice cracking.

Jeno nods and looks around the playroom.

“Where’s Donghyuck?”

“He uhm,” Mark explains. “He went out for a bit.”

“Oh? That’s weird.” Jeno murmurs, scratching at his head. As far as he knew, Donghyuck didn’t really like going out alone.

“So how did your adoption go?” Ren Jun asks, hoping not to hear the answer he didn’t want to hear. The other boys glance at Jeno in anticipation, with Jaemin chewing on his bottom lip in nervousness.

“Uh, before I tell you guys, can I talk to Jaemin for a bit?” Jeno flutters his eyes to the slightly shaking boy sitting on the floor by the round table. He smiles and offers his hand to the younger.

Jaemin smiles nervously and takes his hand, letting himself be pulled to the rooftop by the love of his life his eye candy.

-

Donghyuck sat at the same dock by the lake that he and Mark often visited. He runs his fingers over the random doodles on the wood that he and the older boy would scribble every time. He scoffs, picking up a pebble and throwing it into the lake.

“Stupid Mark. Stupid, annoying Mark. What does he know what we all want? Just because he’s the oldest there and he’s been there for almost nine years, doesn’t mean .” Donghyuck grabs another pebble and stares at it with hard eyes. Pretending as if the pebble was a certain Mark Lee, he grips it tight with anger and flings it into the lake as far as possible. “Selfish ! I can't believe I like you, ugh!”

He screams and plops his whole body backwards on the dock, lying flat and facing the sky. He closes his eyes and feels the slightly chilling breeze.

“I miss you mom and dad.” He whispers, the wind carrying his words through the sky.

-

Sitting by the ledge of the rooftop, Jaemin peeks down the side of the five storey high orphanage building. He shivers at both the cold breeze and the height and brings his eyes back to Jeno’s side profile.

Beautiful, he thinks.

Jeno smiles his unnecessary eye smile and turns to the pretty boy. Jaemin blinks, unsure of how to react.

“So the couple from earlier really wanted to take me home.” He began. “They’re really nice and they didn’t even mind that I’m turning sixteen soon.”

“That’s… Great, I guess?” Jaemin mumbles. He looks down and plays with his fingers, unsure of what to expect from their conversation. There was an awkward pause before Jeno speaks again after a few seconds of silence.

“I should just get to the point, huh?”

Jaemin nods, eyes still downcast.

“I told them I’d say yes, but -” Hearing this, Jaemin looks up at Jeno immediately. He could hear his heart break, his fingers were beginning to feel tingly and his eyes were getting wet.

Slightly shocked by Jaemin’s reaction, Jeno shifts closer to the younger boy and holds his shaky hands.

“No no, I’m not done yet, Na Na.” Jeno watches Jaemin croak out an okay before biting his bottom lip, clearly trying not to cry. “I told them I will agree, but I wanted to make sure of something first.”

There was that few seconds of silence again, and Jaemin really didn't want to speak because he knew that he would just break down.

“What is it?” He asks, giving up and just letting a lone tear roll down his cheek.

“I want you to come with.” Jeno swallows the lump in his throat, eyes searching Jaemin’s for a response. “They’re okay with it, and all I need is a yes or no from you.”

Jaemin stares at him in shock, mouth slightly hanging open. He didn’t know how to react. He didn’t like the idea of adoption, sure. But getting adopted together with Jeno? Having a real family, like what Donghyuck mentioned, with Jeno included?

He didn’t know what to say, so Jaemin simply stared into Jeno’s eyes for what seemed to be the longest time. He was so conflicted. A part of him just wanted to say yes in a heartbeat, because who was he kidding? He’d be with Jeno, like forever! They would live together in a house and even go to school together!

However another part of him said no. Who was he to say yes and leave everything, everyone behind? The orphanage was home to him too. He made so many precious memories that no amount of riches could buy. He had amazing friends who loved him for who he was, the one sitting right in front of him included. 

He couldn’t leave it all behind could he?

Na Jaemin had never been in such a dilemma before. It was a simple yes or no question, yet the consequences behind either choices were so heavy.

Squeezing the other boy’s hand, Jaemin looks into Jeno’s anticipating eyes and speaks, albeit a little shakily.

“I’m gonna have to think about it first, okay? I need to talk to Mark and the rest too. And you need to talk to your cousin as well.”

Jeno smiles (again), and nods understandingly.

“That’s fine. And yes I’ll talk to Donghyuck too, when he comes back.” Jeno replies, thumbs rubbing Jaemin’s hands in comfort. “Why did he even leave anyway?”

“Oh uhm, he and Mark sort of had an argument. About you and the adoption. Mark wanted to stop it.” Jaemin explains.

Jeno frowns a bit, but decides not to talk about it further. Shifting even closer, he lets go of Jaemin’s hands and wraps his arms around the pretty boy instead, chin resting on his shoulder.

“Don’t be sad, Na Na.” Jaemin smiles at the nickname, sniffing a little. “It’ll be fine.”

Jaemin nods slightly and looks up at the cloudy sky. Hopefully.

 

---

oK FIRST OF ALL LET ME EXPLAIN MYSELF ;;;;;;; I know I updated really late this week, (a week late I think), and I know I said on twitter that I would update two chapters on Thursday and Friday BUT OH GOD LET ME JSUT - I had a performance on Tuesday and a shoot on Wednesday and then I fell sick on Thursday and Friday and Saturday I was out the whole day and I had training today (Sunday) I didn't think I would be so busy I thought I would be able to squeeze in some time to write and post at least a chap this week but nuuuuuuu I'm so sorry excuses excuses  but really though I'm so sorry guys! Hopefully I'll be able to post the next chap this Wednesday huhu

And also I feel really bad because I thought this chapter wasn't my best, it didn't even reach 3k works ugh, but I really wanted to put something out for you guys because I read all your comments and it just makes me so happy???? Like thANK YOU SO MUCH FOR LOVING THIS FIC IM CRY ;;;;;;

I know it's weird that I added a random Christmas segment when it's literally September now lol but I just wanted to write a little fluff for you guys before the drama started hahahhahAHAHAHA oops. Also I'm REALLY SORRY THAT THIS FIC IS STARTING TO LOOK MORE LIKE A JAENO CENTRIC FIC LOL IM SO DEPRIVED OF THEM ISTG, MORE MARKHYUCK IS COMING YOUR WAY SOOOOOOOOOOOON once mark gets that stick out of his psh 

Comments and subs are loved as always! Thank you guys <3 This fic is ending soon nooooooo :(

xoxo