Hakyeon blinked awake slowly when he heard the front door opening and his kids in the hallway. He moved carefully so as not to dislodge a sleeping Jieun from the couch as he got up.

“Appa, can Soobin stay over to play for a bit?” Hyejin peeked into the living room, still in her jacket.

Hakyeon rubbed his eyes, forcing himself to wake up faster.

“Uh-… Yes, why not. Do you have homework?”

“Yes.”

“Then do that first. You can do it together, and then you can play.”

Hyejin squealed, thanking him, and went back into the hallway, no doubt to let Soobin and her mom know Soobin was allowed over.

Hakyeon finally got up from the couch, stretching, and went over to greet the kids who were taking off their outside clothes and possibly help Seojun with that task.

“Hi, Soobin. Good afternoon, Mrs Choi. Thank you for giving our rascals a ride.”

Mrs Choi smiled.

“No problem, Mr Cha. Your rascals are some wonderfully behaved kids when they are with me. Make sure you keep an eye on these two young ladies, though, they are cooking something up; I can feel it!”

“Mom! We’re not! We’re just-…” She trailed off, giving Seojun an unsure look. Hyejin nudged her gently.

“It’s ok; he knows.”

Soobin cleared .

“We’re discussing what we should get for our Secret Santa gifts.”

Mrs Choi rose an eyebrow.

“Secret Santa?”

“Mhm. Our whole class is doing it. We have until the day before the last before the holidays to get one. Well, actually, the day before last day is the day we’re doing the exchange, so we have to get the present until the day before that.” Hyejin explained.

“Alright… But… How does that Secret Santa business even work?”

Hakyeon hummed pensively.

“Hmm, if I remember correctly, it’s pretty simple. In a group of people, everyone picks a name of another member of the group and gets them a present. Ideally, the recipient doesn’t find out who the present is from; that’s why it’s called Secret Santa.”

“Almost. In our class, we don’t even get to know who we are getting a present for until the day of the exchange. Mrs Shin said it’s so we don’t get something nasty in case we don’t like the person we picked, or something too over the top in case we get our best friend, so no one gets jealous. Also, it’s an exercise to find something that anyone who could get it would like.” Hyejin elaborated.

Mrs Choi frowned lightly.

“And do you two have something in mind yet?”

“No… It’s so hard! If I knew the person I got, I know what I would get for every single one of them, but like this…” Soobin sighed, and Hyejin nodded, agreeing with her.

“It really is hard… But it also makes sense. I know if I knew I got certain people from our class, I wouldn’t be able to not give them something really silly… and some people, I’d just give them an empty box or a roll of toilet paper, at best.”

“Hyejin!” Hakyeon groaned, his lips twitching with a barely hidden smile. He remembered all too well the time Sanghyuk had gotten Taekwoon a toilet paper roll as a Christmas gift. One that was half used up, too. Of course, he’d gotten him a real gift, too, but the moment Taekwoon had unwrapped the elaborate gift to find a toilet paper roll in it had been quite hilarious and was still often cited. He wondered if Hyejin had picked up on that at some point and that had given her the idea. Or, which was the far more likely option, she was naturally as devious as Hyuk.

Mrs Choi shook her head.

“Here you go, giving my child ideas again… Choi Soobin, I promise you now, if I find a toilet paper roll among your brother’s gifts… You better not find out the consequences!”

Soobin laughed loudly, making her mother roll her eyes and huff in despair.

“Alright, go on in and start on your homework, kids! I’ll make you some snacks for after and then you can go play.” Hakyeon finally ushered the kids on into the adjacent living room, leaving him alone with Mrs Choi.

“I was planning to go out into town tomorrow anyway, and since they need to find presents now I’d just take Hyejin with me after school. If you want, I can take Soobin, too, so she can look for a present together with Hyejin. Shopping is always more fun with a friend, anyway.” He offered, and Mrs Choi’s face lit up.

“Really? I was going to ask you if you could give Soobin a ride tomorrow since I have an afternoon shift and can’t make it. To be honest, I don’t know when I should take her shopping for that present at all. I barely have time to go shop for my presents for the kids!”

Hakyeon chuckled quietly.

“Oh, don’t I know it! But I really don’t mind taking Soobin along; she’s a really sweet child. Hyejin will be ecstatic, too. Is there a time she needs to be back for?”

Mrs Choi shook her head, waving his question off.

“No, none in particular. Just not too late; it’s a school night, after all.”

“Of course, Hyejin isn’t supposed to stay up too late, either. Alright then!”

Mrs Choi smiled warmly.

“Thank you so much. I’m so glad Soobin found a friend with parents as nice as you and your husband. I wouldn’t know what I would do without you two half the time!”

“That’s alright, Mrs Choi, and very nice of you to say. You are a great help to us, too, and we’re very glad your daughter is such a good friend to ours.”

-----

As expected, Hyejin and Soobin were ecstatic when Hakyeon told them he’d take them both shopping the next day. Hakyeon ended up asking Jaehwan to pick Seojun up from school, which Seojun was beyond happy with, too; that way he could ask Jaehwan for acting advice and help with practicing for the school play. No, his parents were not good enough for that, he’d decided, because apparently it had been too long since they had acted on a stage. The real professional was demanded!

Hakyeon pulled up in front of the school at the same time as said professional, both climbing out of their cars to wait for the kids.

“Hey there, hyung.”

“Hi, Jaehwanie.” Hakyeon smiled at him.

“Girls’ day out, huh?” Jaehwan grinned, and Hakyeon glared at him.

“Almost. I don’t assume I can win you over to switch with me to make it perfect, can I?”

Jaehwan laughed.

“Do you really want that? Me, off the leash with Hyejin?”

Hakyeon groaned.

“Absolutely not. No eight-year-old needs twenty-eight plain white shirts that cost over two thousand dollars each. By the way, no fourty-year-old needs that, either.” He gave Jaehwan a judging look, which the younger waved off.

“First of all, I’m thirty-nine-point-two!” Hakyeon rolled his eyes. “Second of all, they aren’t plain-white shirts!”

Hakyeon rolled his eyes.

“Whatever. You’re not getting Hyejin shirts that cost more than her school fees.”

“Pff. I’m sure at least she would know to appreciate them…”

“She’d spill grape juice all over them five minutes after getting them. But I’m sure she’d do it appreciatingly.” Hakyeon scoffed, and Jaehwan didn’t know how to retort, seeing as it was the truth and he knew it.

“Anyway. What were you going to the city for before you decided to bring the girls along?” He changed subjects instead.

“Christmas shopping.”

“And now?”

“Christmas shopping, without the bringing-the-presents-home part. Hyuk is going to follow us and pick the presents up once we leave a store.”

“Oh, sneaky! But didn’t Wonshik offer to do that part?”

“He’ll come with us another day. Hyejin has a radar for him that would find him in any disguise in any crowd. He also couldn’t make up believable excuses to her if his life depended on it, so we’ve decided it’s too risky to have him trailing us today.”

Jaehwan laughed.

“Aww, Wonshikie…!”

They were interrupted by the school bell, followed by kids streaming out of the school to the waiting parents, buses or to walk home. Seojun found them first, immediately chattering to Jaehwan about the play he would be acting in. He was strapped into his seat by the time Hyejin and Soobin arrived and waved goodbye before Jaehwan took off.

The girls were chatting animatedly when they arrived, but Hyejin took the time to hug Jaehwan before he had to leave, and Hakyeon as well, of course. Neither of them needed help with their seatbelts anymore, and they were off and on the way to the mall soon.

“So, any ideas on what you’re getting yet?” Hakyeon asked, and the girls shook their heads.

“I was thinking some gloves or a beanie, because it’s practical and everyone could use them, but lots of our classmates don’t like practical gifts.” Soobin announced.

“I considered socks as a joke gift that can also be useful and nice, but I think I’d be sad if they ended up thrown away because the person getting them didn’t like them or thought of them only as a joke.”

“Books are also not really an option, because there are too many people that don’t read.”

“And neither are games, because not everyone has the means to play them or anyone to play them with.”

“Huh, you really got a hard task there, didn’t you?” Hakyeon mused, and the girls groaned. They weren’t defeated, though, discussing other options all the way to the mall.

“How about we go eat something first and then start into the adventure when we are well fed?” Hakyeon suggested, earning cheers for his suggestion. Of course, the kids chose the unhealthiest option in the food court, and Hakyeon indulged them. They didn’t do this often, and they got a healthy diet at home; it would be alright. And Taekwoon loved his husband’s belly when it was soft the most, too. His manager would flip, but he flipped all the time and he’d learned not to care. And the food was delicious in all its unhealthiness!

“I feel like I would prefer if we didn’t get to know at all who got our present. Imagine you got something really smart and pretty and someone you really can’t stand got it.” Hyejin mused between bites.

“Mhm… But imagine if you got something rather meh and someone you really like got it…” Soobin added.

Hyejin shrugged.

“I only really like you and I could always make it up to you later if you got my meh present.”

Soobin chuckled, flicking a burnt fry at her.

“You’re the cheesiest friend I ever had.”

Hyejin flicked a fry back.

“I’ll try and keep that title forever.”

Soobin smiled, not unhappy with the idea, but then got serious again.

“It’s not true that you only like me, though. You get along with almost everyone in our class.”

Hyejin shook her head.

“That’s not the same, though.”

“What about the new kid?”

“I can’t even talk to him properly!”

“You like him, though.”

“I don’t want him to feel excluded, that’s all.”

Soobin gave Hyejin a knowing look, and Hyejin rolled her eyes, ignoring her.

“You got a new classmate?” Hakyeon asked casually, and Soobin nodded fiercely.

“Since last week! He’s Japanese, and he doesn’t really know Korean yet. He draws really well, though! He’s got the other seat next to Hyejin, and Hyejin has been trying to talk to him the most. Mostly, he just draws what he wants to say when he doesn’t know the words, so it makes it easy to understand him, but neither of us draws well enough to answer him properly.”

“He understands Korean better than he speaks it, though…” Hyejin added, half mumbling into her food.

“Anyway, if he got a meh present from you, wouldn’t you be upset, too?” Soobin came back to her original argument.

Hyejin sighed.

“You’re right, I would. He already feels excluded enough in our class.”

“So, why don’t you shop as if you were trying to get a present for him, who you don’t care for as much as for Soobin, but still enough not to want to get him a ‘meh’ present?” Hakyeon suggested, but Hyejin grimaced.

“I already know what I would get him, but no one else in our class would appreciate that.”

Hakyeon sighed.

“Well, in that case, we’ll just have to look around and see if something looks like it could work, don’t we?” It was the sign to get up and put away the empty trays, and the girls followed Hakyeon quickly.

The first destination was a toy store.

“Appa, can I get this for Seojun? He loves these characters! Oh, look, the Zoo extension! Heejoon doesn’t have that yet; it has parrots! He’d love that, appa! Can I get him that, please? Oh, this unicorn is almost as big as Jieunie! She’d look so cute cuddling it! I should get these fabric markers for Yuna! And Yeri would love this crafting kit… And can I get Eunhyun the magnet building set?” Hyejin chattered away as soon as they set foot into the store, finding presents for her siblings and cousins around every bend and corner while Soobin trailed after her, looking unconvinced by most of the displays.

Hakyeon sighed quietly.

“It’s very nice of you that you want to get the others all these things, Hyejin, but you need to slow down. The idea behind giving others presents is that you do it from your heart and from yourself. If I give you all this money to buy them, it’s as if the presents were from me and not from you.”

Hyejin pouted, but didn’t protest.

“How much do I have that I can spend?”

Hakyeon checked his phone.

“Fifty-two dollars and ninety-six cents.”

Hyejin exhaled slowly.

“Ok. Do I have to get the Secret Santa gift from that, too?”

Hakyeon thought for a moment.

“Half of it. I’ll pay the other half.”

Hyejin nodded slowly, starting to count which of the gifts she’d chosen she could still get. Not enough, she found, and she didn’t want to make anyone jealous, so she scrapped her ideas so far altogether, starting to look out anew.

Hakyeon watched for a moment before sending Sanghyuk a text about the store and the items to get, then followed the girls further into the store. It wasn’t that he was stingy with the money he spent on his kids, but he and Taekwoon had agreed to teach them to handle money wisely from a young age on. Hyejin understood why it was important to learn that, even if it annoyed her sometimes, and didn’t make a fuss.

She didn’t find a present that fit both her wallet and the standards for her to spend her own money on it in that store, though, and ended up leaving it empty-handed. The same applied to Soobin, and Hakyeon took them to another store.

After not too long, the girls found they had more fun playing with the displayed items than choosing one to buy, but Hakyeon let them, not rushing them. They had time, after all. They left empty handed, but another message had been sent to Hyuk discreetly.

A couple more stores were visited and left the same way, until Hyejin finally approached him.

“Appa? I found something I want to buy for Soobin, but she can’t know. Can you go buy it while I distract her?”

Hakyeon hesitated a moment. He couldn’t just tell Sanghyuk to buy that present, too, without making Hyejin suspicious, so he had to buy it himself.

“Alright. What is it?”

“Do you see that glass flower over there between the vases?”

“The hibiscus candle holder?”

Hyejin nodded.

“That. Soobin collects glass figurines.”

Hakyeon hummed.

“Ok. You go distract her somewhere, I’ll get it

Hyejin beamed up at him, hugging him quickly before darting off to drag her friend somewhere.

Hakyeon smiled to himself as he made his way over to the glass display. Hyejin had managed to find the perfect gift for her friend, he found. She had really thought it through, and he was sure Soobin would treasure it. He did his best to look as inconspicuous as possible as he carried the glass flower to the register and paid for it, making sure it was securely padded and wrapped before hiding the box in his backpack. Soobin stayed none the wiser even as they left the store.

Two stores later, it was becoming obvious that the kids were getting tired. Hyejin sat down on a bench inside the store, dangling her feet above the ground.

“Appa, my feet hurt…” She complained, and Hakyeon was actually impressed it had taken her this long to reach this stage.

“Hmm… Did you find your Secret Santa present yet?” He asked, sitting down next to her. She shook her head, then leaned against his side.

“No… I don’t know what to get…”

Hakyeon shifted so she rested more comfortably.

“Are you giving up, then?”

Hyejin narrowed her eyes.

“Never! I just need to rest for a minute!”

Hakyeon chuckled, having anticipated that reaction from his daughter. He was sure she got her competitiveness from Taekwoon in some way; it was funny, really.

“What about you, Soobin?”

Soobin looked out of the store to the other side of the open space in the center of the mall.

“I think I have an idea… Can we go see the cinema displays, please?”

Hakyeon nodded.

“Of course. Hyejin-ah?”

Hyejin groaned, but hopped off the bench and to her feet.

They followed Soobin to the cinema, and Hakyeon had to give her credit for her smartness when she bought a family card valid one time for any movie, including drinks and snacks, as her gift. That was really a gift he thought any child in her class would like.

Soobin’s success spurred on Hyejin’s competitive side, and she set out to find her own gift.

While Hyejin was distracted, Soobin approached Hakyeon discreetly.

“Mr Cha, can you distract Hyejin for a bit? I want to buy her a gift, but without her finding out.”

Hakyeon agreed, finding his daughter while at the same time keeping an eye out for Soobin as she went to the register to pay.

“What are you thinking about, love?” He asked once he came to a halt next to his daughter, who was eyeing a display case.

Hyejin hummed pensively.

“I know I’ll never get a present as smart as Soobin’s, but I was thinking… What if I just get a really nice decoration? Everyone likes decorations. I just have to find one that everyone would like.”

Hakyeon hummed in agreement, but stayed quiet otherwise. He’d let her choose her own gift.

After five more minutes, Hyejin had chosen a pretty snowflake set with three snowflakes in different sizes and different, intricate designs. He gave her the money to let her go buy it herself and waited near the door with Soobin, who tugged on his sleeve again once Hyejin was distracted enough not to turn around to them.

“Mr Cha? Can you take Hyejin’s present and put it under the tree for her on Christmas Eve?”

Hakyeon looked down to her and saw her raise a prettily wrapped box with a small card up at him. He didn’t know when she had had the time to write the card, but apparently, she’d found it at some point.

“Of course. You don’t want to give it to her yourself?”

Soobin shook her head.

“This way, it’s sneakier and more of a surprise.”

Hakyeon smiled, liking the way she thought.

“Ok, then.” He took the present from her and put it in his backpack just before Hyejin was done paying and having her gift wrapped.

The girls were tired and hungry once again since it was getting late, and they paid the food court another visit. This time, the food choice was decidedly healthier, even if it was accompanied by a hot chocolate. The chatter was less animated, but Hakyeon could see the satisfaction radiating from both children’s faces as they thought about the nice gifts they’d found for each other and their class project.

On the way back, they fell asleep, and Hyejin didn’t even wake up when Hakyeon woke up her friend once they reached her house. She did wake up when they reached their own house, though, and whined loudly.

“Noo! I forgot to ask you! I wanted you to give my present for Soobin to her mom so she could put it under their tree on Christmas Eve. Appa, can you do that tomorrow while we are in school? I want it to be a special surprise for her!”

Hakyeon bit his lip to hide a smile as he got out of the car. These two, they were like two peas in a pod sometimes!

“Of course, I can do that. Let’s go inside now, it’s cold!” He promised, ushering her out of the car.

Hyejin ran ahead as he locked the car and then followed her at a slower pace, making sure not to forget his backpack with the two presents.

He smiled to himself as he thought about them; who was the real Secret Santa here?