“Minhyun, where have you put the tinsel?” JR asked, whilst trying to untangle a set of twinkly star lights.

There were two days left until Christmas and NU’EST were desperately attempting to be in the spirit of the season. Somehow, simple things like putting a Christmas tree up and wrapping presents had completely passed them by. There had been plenty of reminders all around them for months; on T.V., billboards, in the shops, but it had not dawned on any of them to take action and join in the festivities...not until now. JR had thought that it would help keep the members happy by preparing for the season. What he had not anticipated was the chaos that was about to ensue...

“Tinsel? Probably...in the decorations box…” Minhyun absentmindedly replied whilst scrolling his phone for the perfect Christmas song to play. “I’m going to put…’Winter Rose’ on again, I think,” he mused to himself happily.

“Minhyun, there’s no tinsel in the box...” JR sighed as his words were drowned out by Minhyun’s enthusiastic singing.

“I have tinsel!” Ren ran into the room, reindeer ears on his head, red tinsel wrapped loosely around his neck whilst he twirled around. “Minhyun, put a more upbeat song on!”

“But I’m listening to-”

“Ya! I can’t dance to this!” Minhyun scrolled his phone for another song before settling on ‘Santa U Are The One’. Ren seemed to approve greatly of the choice as he began skipping across the room jubilantly, trying to mime along to the song at Baekho who was busy sitting in a corner, battling with a roll of metallic wrapping paper. When Ren did not receive the attention he was craving, he began to pull Baekho’s arm gently.

“Ren, can I have the tinsel please?” JR rose to his feet but as he did so, he knocked a bauble off of the tree.

“I’m using it,” Ren replied as prised a piece of sellotape from the end of the tinsel, ripping some of it in the process. “Why is there tape everywhere?”

“Because I’m trying to wrap presents,” Baekho told him as he tried to cut the wrapping paper carefully in a straight line.

“But you can wrap later,” Ren persisted as he continued tugging at Baekho’s arm.

“Minki, stop that-” the scissors slipped and Baekho ended up cutting a large chunk of paper off from the end of the roll. He looked up at Ren, both of them grimacing as the roll of sellotape rolled off the edge of the table and fell to the floor too.

“How about...we just don’t wrap any presents this year?” Baekho suggested.

“You can’t give a present without wrapping it,” Ren argued, picking the roll of sellotape from the floor and slamming it on the table. “It’s not even that difficult!”

“If it’s not that difficult, you should try it then!” Baekho pushed the scissors into Ren’s hands. “Your turn.”

Before Ren could talk his way out of doing Baekho’s wrapping for him, Aron burst into the kitchen looking victorious, flour splattered on his cheeks and apron.

“All done!”

“What did you make?” Minhyun asked as he picked the bauble JR had knocked off of the tree back in the decorations box, shaking his head as he did so.

“Mince pies and some gingerbread cookies,” Aron smirked. “They’re going to be the best ones you guys have ever tasted.”

“You baked?” JR asked as he bent down to pick up the fallen bauble. “Where did it go?” he looked under the tree but to no avail. The bauble had vanished. Scratching the back of his head awkwardly, JR decided to rummage through the decoration box for another bauble to replace it.

“I didn’t know he could bake,” Baekho retorted whilst watching as Ren tried to wrap a pair of socks with the tiniest piece of wrapping paper. “Minki-ah, what are you doing? You need a bigger sheet of wrapping paper.” Ren threw Baekho an intense glare which seemed to amuse Aron greatly.

“Aron, could you get the tinsel from Ren and help me with the tree please?”

“Sure-”

“But I need the tinsel!” Ren told them whilst furrowing his eyebrows, clearly concentrating very hard on sticking the wrapping paper together properly around the pair of socks.

“What do you need it for?” Aron asked Ren.

“I’m a reindeer, see?” Ren pointed to the antler headband on his head. “And the tinsel are the reins.”

“You don’t need reins,” Aron told him whilst chuckling. “You’re not actually going to go flying through the sky.”

“But it’s part of the costume!”

“Yah Minki, just give it to him!” Baekho began pulling the tinsel loose only to get slapped on his hand by Ren.

“Wait, nevermind! I found some silver tinsel!” JR announced as he pulled it out from the box. “Hold on…” Under the silver tinsel there was a bauble, very similar to the one he had knocked from the tree earlier. “How did that end up in the box?”

“I know what song to put on!” Minhyun told them all as he frantically scrolling his phone. “Here we go!” There was a moment’s silence as his phone transitioned from one song to the next.

The opening melody for ‘Dashing Through The Snow in High Heels’ began to play through the speakers and the atmosphere in the room instantly changed. Ren threw down the scissors and half wrapped present on the floor and began singing and dancing along. Baekho and Minhyun joined him straight away, singing loudly in an exaggerated manner as they imitated members of Orange Caramel.

Meanwhile, Aron had managed to help JR arrange the lights and tinsel around the Christmas tree. Once they’d finished with the decorating, they joined the other members and excitedly jumped around. It had been a long time since they had listened to this song they had featured on, but they remembered most of the words well. The dancing however was all over the place, inconsistent and out of time with the music, but they were enjoying themselves a lot, finally beginning to feel a little more festive.

They were all having so much fun that they had failed to notice the smoke coming from the kitchen…

“Aron…” JR noticed it first and immediately tried to get Aron’s attention. “The food…” Aron turned towards the kitchen door, the smile on his face fading instantly.

“Oh no!” He ran straight to the kitchen, followed by all the other members, except Ren who was too busy twirling around and enjoying the music.

Pulling the oven mitts over his hands, Aron opened the oven door only to be greeted by a thick cloud of black smoke. He plunged his hands into the oven and pulled the trays out, the food blackened and burnt to a crisp. Minhyun placed a hand upon Aron’s shoulder sympathetically. Before anyone say anything though, there was a crash nearby. The music cut out suddenly and instead, several angry words were being shouted.

JR ran back out of the kitchen and stopped as he looked at the mess in front of him. The Christmas tree he had worked so hard to decorate had fallen over, the ornaments scattered across the floor...and by the tree, Ren was struggling to get back to his feet, the reindeer antlers wonky upon his head. He looked up and saw JR’s saddened expression.

“It was an accident…” he began as everyone rushed into the room.

“What a mess…” Minhyun stated. “We need to clear this up.” No one said anything for a while as they scanned the room, each realising just how much they were to blame for the discord and mess. Ren managed to navigate his way out of the mess and stood beside the others, readjusting the reindeer antlers upon his head. Their attempts at being festive, at joining in with the Christmas traditions had not quite gone to plan. Perhaps it could be salvaged, but first...

“I’m hungry,” Baekho voiced out loud, breaking the silence.

“How can you be hungry at a time like this?” JR asked just as his stomach began to growl angrily.

“Maybe...we should all go get some ramen…” Minhyun mused out loud. “But we should tidy up first.”

“Let’s tidy after,” Aron said, untying the apron from around his waist and throwing it haphazardly on the floor. “First, food.” Before Minhyun could disagree, Baekho and Aron had pushed him out of the front door, JR and Ren laughing and following behind.

This had not been part of JR’s plans, in fact nothing had actually gone to plan at all, but when he looked across at each of s, he saw their smiling faces, heard their laughter and nothing warmed his heart more than knowing they were happy and healthy. Christmas would not be Christmas without any of them. After all, that was what the spirit of Christmas was about; the people you loved and cared for.

_____________________________________
 

Sometimes, things do not always go as planned but as long as you have people by your side who care for you, who make you happy, then anything can be overcome.

Happy holidays everyone. Merry Christmas. Be happy and healthy always everyone!