Even though Jinki and Jonghyun had made up, the next day continued to be filled with overlying awkwardness. Both of them had confessed that they felt something for the other, but they had also agreed to not act on it. 

And every time one of them made a nice gesture towards the other, it just felt weird. 

“Do you want some coffee?” Jinki asked. It was a question that he asked almost everyday, so it shouldn't be weird, but it still seemed weird. 

“You know what, I'll go get it myself.” Jonghyun offered, rising from the couch and striding towards the kitchen. 

Later that day, Jonghyun accidentally brushed his hand over Jinki's arm. The atmosphere in the room suddenly turned stiff. 

“Sorry.” Jonghyun said. Suddenly, Jinki burst out laughing. Jonghyun looked at him like he was possessed. “What?” 

“Look at how were acting. We act like 10-year olds.” He said, his voice a mixture of amusement and disappointment. 

“Then how do you suggest we act? I mean, you know I have feelings for you, and you also pretty much told me that you have feelings for me too. And then you rejected me.” Jonghyun said, his voice bearing an underlying feeling of something akin to annoyance. 

“Why don't we go back to how things were before? Back when we were good friends, maybe even best friends, who could actually touch and speak to each other without it being extremely awkward.” Jinki said. Jonghyun sighed. 

“Why do you always make everything sound so easy? How do you suggest that we can we go back to that time?” Jonghyun said, making it sound like it had been a long time since they were like that, even though it had barely been 3 days. 

“I don't know, but can't we at least try? I mean, I want us to be like that again.” Jinki said. 

“Fine, we can try.” Jonghyun said, surrendering. 

The next hour consisted mostly of getting comfortable again. It took a bit of amusement on both sides, to try and ignore what had been revealed these past few days, but after a while, they managed to fall into the same, comfortable, friendly tone that they used to have. 

“...and I had used an hour to try and make my parents a nice meal, but I ended up burning it all.” Jinki said, reselling the story of the time he wanted to help celebrate his parents’ anniversary, but ended up almost burning down the whole kitchen. 

“Did they get angry?” Jonghyun asked, genuinely interested in the story. 

“No, thankfully not. They were just happy that both I and the kitchen was alright. We went to a restaurant after that, so it wasn't a totally bad day.” Jinki said, chuckling, revealing his lovely smile. That smile was a sight that Jonghyun hadn't seen for days, and now that he saw it again, he realized how much he had missed it. 

“It's gonna be Christmas soon, you know?” Jonghyun asked. “How are you going to be spending it?” 

“I don't really know. I think the staff here will make a small dinner, and invite all the residents, but I don't know if I really want to go.” Jinki said. 

“If you want to, you could come celebrate it with me and my siblings. We have no one else to be with, and it would be sad if you'd feel lonely.” Jonghyun said. 

“Really, are you sure. I mean, I don't want to be a burden on you or anything.” Jinki hurriedly said. Jonghyun shook his head. 

“No no, it would absolutely not be a burden. Gwiboon, Minjung and Taemin are actually always asking me when I'll bring you over again. I think they really like you.” Jonghyun said. 

“Okay, I'll think about it.” Jinki said. “Thanks for inviting me, though.” 

“It's nowhere near a problem.” Jonghyun said. 

----------------------
An: I'm sorry I often bring Christmas into this story, but we're so close, and I am really excited (I hope to get a few SHINee albums), and this is actually a Christmas story, even though it doesn't really feel a lot like that.

Merry December 16th❤️