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A small tree is placed in the middle of the room with small boxes of presents around it - some of the presents aren't even wrapped with wrapping paper. The dorm is decorated to fit the season. Well, if you count having green and red ribbons thrown around the room with no artistic value seen is count as decoration.

 

Jaws is looking the most festive out of all of them, being the only one forced into wearing a red and white striped collar and of course – a Christmas sweater, in his dismay. Fur is enough to keep him warm, he doesn’t need a sweater.

 

Hanse yells, “who the hell thought it was a good idea to put a sweater on the cat!”

 

Honestly Jaws would like to thank Hanse for being the only logical human, except for Hanse doesn’t appreciate his and screams when he goes within a meter radius near the man. ‘Cats are warm and mushy, that’s why you’re gross,’ Hanse had said to him before. If Hanse leaves him alone, Jaws can do the same – so he doesn’t go near the man.

 

“It’s Christmas, dammit!” Comes a faint reply from Seungsik in the kitchen as if that excuses everything about the sweater.

 

Jaws do not care if it’s Christmas, he doesn’t celebrate it. He’s a cat. Jaws tries to make this clear by rubbing his head on Seungwoo’s foot but the man simply scratches his head. Flicking his tail in annoyance, Jaws leaves the living room, finding a place for his second nap tonight.

 

 

 

It’s two hours before midnight. They’re all sitting together in a badly made circle (it was a nice circle, but then the fight for the blanket happened and well–) and Seungsik bumps into the small excuse of a Christmas tree behind him. Whines of 'don’t ruin the tree’ are thrown and Seungsik huffs in reply as he fixes his position.

 

Sejun mumbles dejectedly, “you know, Christmas is supposed to be spent with your girlfriend so this is a pretty sad–”

 

“Wrong,” Seungsik cuts him off. “It’s supposed to be spent with your loved ones.”

 

Sejun raises an eyebrow. “And?”

 

“You love us.”

 

Although he tries to hold it, Sejun can’t stop the corner of his lips from twitching upwards. Though it quickly disappears after he hears Hanse mumble a small 'ew’ opposite of him. Byungchan also doesn’t bother hiding the fact he’s laughing.

 

“You little shi–”

 

“Okay!” Seungwoo claps his hands together obnoxiously to get their attention. "Today's night before Christmas and it'll be out first time celebrating Christmas together after debut-"

 

Squinting his eyes, Chan interrupts. "Honestly - we look like we're about to perform some sort of ritual in this circle with everyone cooped up inside their hoodies."

 

Seungwoo sighs. "Since someone's not feeling serious, I'll start over." Clapping his hands again, Seungwoo shushes Hanse before he says something snarky, and announces, "we are all here today to celebrate the holy night together. Though we have fun, within our excitement we can’t forget that it is Jesus Christ’s day of birth and that’s what makes it important.”

 

Eyes widening in surprise, Subin looks at Chan in question and the older grins at him. “Don’t you know? Seungwoo hyung is what the girls call 'Church oppa’.”

 

“Although,” Chan continues. “That’s just a concept. You can stop messing with us now, hyung.”

 

“Damn,” Seungwoo curses, faking disappointment when he’s actually grinning. “Got caught.”

 

Hanse exaggerates by exhaling loudly in mock relief. “You scared me there, hyung.”

 

Though Sejun didn’t get to finish what he wanted to say just now, Seungwoo does that for him and says to Hanse, “you little .”

 

 

 

'Celebrating night before Christmas' is what they said it was, but tonight is no different than any other nights where they have no schedule and play games instead because leaving the dorm isn't an option. They're trying to make it more meaningful than any other nights, but the keyword is 'try'.

 

So after a round of frying pan game and Chan whining that they broke his back from hitting it too hard, Seungwoo decides they should start another game. It really isn’t a 'game’ per se but a member will sit in the middle of the circle and has to answer (honestly) the questions thrown by the others. It’s so they could get to know each other better, Seungwoo reasons. They can find out if someone has any bad feelings, and what the group can change to gain better teamwork. He explains all that in his leader voice so no one says otherwise. Although he did spot Byungchan looking like a fish from opening his mouth then closing it on second thought.

 

“Let’s make this a serious talk, you guys,” Seungwoo finishes his explanation of the 'game', or rather, a heart to heart talk.

 

But Seungsik shakes his head before correcting the leader. “A relaxing one. It can be serious but a chill conversation. No hard feelings, okay?”

 

Although Hanse’s a pretty chill person, he’s bad at feelings. Scared of it in a quieter way compared to his fear of everything else. So he pushes Subin to the middle and says, “maknae goes first!”

 

And of course, no one disagrees when the easiest target is chosen. Subin doesn't, either. Instead he blinks and gives a soft grin when the others focus their eyes on him. He genuinely wonders what the older members wants to ask.

 

“Honestly,” Byungchan starts, pausing a few seconds too long for a dramatic effect. “There was, or is, a hyung that you find to be scary.”

 

It doesn’t even take him to ponder before replying with a, “nope!” Subin didn’t expect some of them to look surprised though. Were they trying to scare him? They all take care of him so well. “You’re all really nice and I like you guys a lot.”

 

That came out way too cheesy and Byungchan boos at him for making his question sound so serious. He wanted someone to be chosen so they could a bit. The rest of the members look touched and Byungchan does too actually – but he likes to act dramatic. “Our maknae is no fun.”

 

“Weren’t you scared of us though, the first few weeks?” Seungsik asks, he sounds hopeful for some reason. “I mean, I look pretty intimidating.”

 

Sejun snorts a laugh at that. “Hyung, even Byungchan looks scarier than you.” He throws an arm around Byungchan’s neck beside him just to pull him down lower and continues, “because you can’t even see his face when you look at him.”

 

“I can see his face well though,” argues Hanse. This is a false alarm on him protecting Byungchan, he’s mostly saying this to piss Sejun off. “Maybe you’re just short.”

 

Definitely to piss Sejun off.

 

Before a fight could start off between them as usual, Chan does a slashing motion at his neck using a hand. “Let Subinnie talk without you guys ruining the moment, yeah.”

 

When Byungchan opens his mouth again this time, Seungwoo does everyone a favour by blocking it with his hand. Subin ducks his head down, holding a laugh. He completely expected this to happen when they said the word 'relaxing’ alongside serious. When he looks up, everyone’s staring at him again, wanting to know, even Byungchan, with his mouth blocked and all. Subin hums in thought, reconsidering his answer.

 

Did they scare him? The only time he felt nervous around them was when he had to perform by himself during the monthly evaluation. Other than that –

 

Subin smiles. “I knew you guys wouldn’t even hurt a fly,” he says.

 

Byungchan’s muffled reply comes, “that is untrue!” Because they would kill a fly if they see one. Byungchan, especially, was in charge of bug murdering in the group though it doesn’t say in his profile.

 

Seungwoo pulls his hand back before flicking Byungchan’s forehead. It’s a light one that’s mostly for a reminder rather than a serious punishment, because despite the air he gives out, Seungwoo’s too nice to make it hurt unless they agree on it. This is exactly what Subin meant, they’re all so soft.

 

Despite the light flick, Byungchan drapes himself over Hanse’s lap, whining over the attack. If back then, which was like – 5 minutes ago, half of the members were serious, now even Seungwoo’s lost it as he pulls the blanket off everyone and covers Byungchan's face.

 

A war finally breaks out between the members with Chan trying to be mature for Subin’s sake when honestly – he’s just as playful as the others, so he fails and the team divides into him joining 97-liner’s side.

 

He tried to stop but Subin finally laughs out loud. They're ridiculous, all of them. Though after a while, Subin scrunches his nose then whines for the others to get their back together and focus, it's almost midnight and he wants to open the presents already.

 

“We’ll get back to it real quick if you join us, Subin-ah,” Seungwoo says while reaching over to pull Subin’s hand, but it stops short when a pillow meets his face.

 

"Don’t threat someone to join your team!” Comes a complain from Chan.

 

Even though he was the cause of tonight's war, Byungchan shamelessly walks in between them, trying to play the neutral party. “We are all one team. How did we get divided like this?”

 

Hanse boos at him in reply and everyone laughs, throwing the nearest items near them towards him. Just like always, the mood is never boring if they’re together.

 

Subin thinks that’s the good part of having 6 other members. Though sometimes a few problems arise like the dorm’s hot on days and he can’t get the fan to himself, Sejun sometimes leaves his sock on the kitchen counter, Hanse still screams over everything, they have to go to tiring practices everyday, and Subin can never shower first in the morning – but anything can be nice when they’re with him.

 

Yeah, Subin thinks while watching Chan performing some kind of praying ritual when Byungchan falls to the ground after getting attacked by Sejun. I like it here.

 

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