“It’s… a bit much, don’t you think?”

Kibum shook his head condescendingly at the other, clucking his tongue to emphasize his disapproval.

“You just don’t understand fashion,” he said, looking at Yoogeun who was walking way ahead of them, distracted by all the Christmas decorations on the windows of the shop lots. They were both walking in a much more relaxed pace, dodging the hordes of people in their way. The crowd was a given, especially because it was a weekend in December and Christmas shopping was well under way for most people.

“Okay let’s just say all the colours are indeed fashion forward. I have just a tiny question then,” Minho paused, making Kibum turn to him, “-what are these two red stripes for?”

Minho pointed at the spot above his left ear, raising an eyebrow inquisitively. Kibum sighed, feigning exasperation.

Minho’s shock had quickly been taken over by his endless opinions about Kibum’s new hairstyle that he had surprised the other with. He had decided to go for an almost buzz cut, then dyeing them blonde despite knowing it will be a pain to keep up with. To make it extra special for the surprise reveal though, Kibum thought it would be fun to try spraying a few different colors in random spots. He found it pretty cool himself, if he could say so about his own style.

It was true that his choice of hair style and color was a bit unconventional and Minho was completely in the right to be asking him all these questions about it. But still, it gave Kibum petty joy to see Minho be so confused by it all, unable to understand the bold move to not only cut his hair so short, but also have the freaking rainbow on his head.

“It’s avant-garde. You’ve still got a long way to go, young one…”

Minho’s lips lifted up at a corner, shaking his head at Kibum’s antics. Kibum bumped his shoulder into the other’s, making the other laugh even more.

“I know, Master Key. I have a lot to learn…”

Kibum nodded smugly, playing along.

“Appa, they have a sale for their train sets!” Yoogeun called to them and Kibum noticed he was standing in front of a small toy shop, tucked in between a tourist souvenir shop and an artisan cafe.

They were in Gangnam’s shopping district, so of course even the smallest shops were decked out to be absolutely fancy and extravagant. Yoogeun’s eyes were almost twinkling from excitement as he looked at his father before going back to having his nose pressed to the window of that shop. They managed to catch up to the boy in the time he had been gawking at the huge train set on display, complete with multiple stations and town buildings.

“We’ll check it out later, let’s get to the bakery first…” Minho told the boy, mussing up the boy’s hair while he himself became distracted by the toys. Like father, like son. Kibum had to shake the other to break him from his reverie.

“Bakery. Right…” Minho said, watching Yoogeun take off again and then meeting Kibum’s eyes with a sheepish smile on his face. Kibum only rolled his eyes, following the boy.

Kibum basically glued himself to Minho’s side to face the barrage of people. It was almost closing time for most shops so that’s probably why everyone seemed to be in a rush.

They too had come to do some gift shopping when they had remembered that they had a custom cake order to place for Minho’s birthday get-together next week. Kibum had immediately suggested this bakery because of the pictures of the cakes he had seen on social media. The man was a self-taught, local baker with an incredible ability to make aesthetically pleasing cakes. Kibum would have preferred to have gotten the cake as a surprise for Minho, but the party would be the perfect occasion for such a fancy cake anyway.  

Minho’s mother had insisted on him throwing a party for his own birthday, which seemed odd to Kibum but it apparently was a thing in the other’s family. It was the way his family members were able to show off their current successful states to each other and though Minho hated partaking in it, he’d rather just go along with it than endure his mother’s wrath. Besides, this would be the only family gathering this month as Minho’s parents loved travelling during Christmas and New Year. So, it made sense that Minho’s birthday doubled as an early Christmas.

“Yah, where’s this special bakery of yours?” Minho whined impatiently.

“It’s around that corner, if Google is right. Yoogeun-ah, turn in there…” Kibum shouted to the boy, pointing to the next right turn.

A drop of water landed on his outstretched hand and upon closer inspection, Kibum noticed that it was in fact a melting snowflake.

“Yah, it’s snowing…” Kibum said, the anticipation slowly building as he looked up at the grey sky. He felt Minho’s hand on the small of his back guiding him through the crowd and turning the corner onto a smaller, less busy street. Kibum tore his eyes away from the falling snow to face the other.

“It’s first snow. Our first snow…” Kibum could barely contain his joy. Minho slowed down to a stop right in front of the bakery they had been searching for. Yoogeun went in without waiting for them. There were almost no people along this street but the few that were there, were all coming to or leaving this bakery.

“Kibum-ah, are you really that excited about that?” Minho asked, obviously amused by this.

“Yah, have you never once fantasized about this? Holding hands as you walk through falling snow, sharing a kiss under it, the whole rom-com package…” Kibum explained, opening his palms to catch the snowflakes. He looked up at Minho, who was obviously laughing at him now and not with him.

“Fine, just lemme be the hopeless romantic by myself then…” Kibum said, sticking his tongue out at the other and turning to enter the bakery. He stepped aside to let a young couple out first, feeling Minho’s hands wrapping around his left hand.

Kibum looked down at the hand and back up at Minho.

“What are-“

Minho brought his hand up to his lips, pressing a lingering kiss to the back of it while not breaking eye contact with Kibum the whole time. Kibum felt his cheeks heating up despite the cold air and he broke the eye contact bashfully. There were a few people passing them by but no one seemed to really pay them any special attention.

“Y-yah…”

“What? I can be a pretty romantic guy too, you know…” Minho said, lowering Kibum’s hand but not really letting go. Kibum sunk his teeth into his bottom lip, suppressing what he knew would be a very stupid smile which would make Minho immensely proud of himself.

Kibum slapped the other’s chest with his free hand, pulling the man after him into the bakery.

All eyes were on them as soon as they entered and began approaching the counter, including Yoogeun’s. They were all doing the thing where they’d stare at them when they thought Kibum and Minho weren’t looking, but as soon as they made eye contact, they’d pretend to look busy. Kibum’s ecstatic mood shifted into a more subdued one as he wriggled his hand free from Minho’s and buried them in the pockets of his jacket.

Yoogeun did not look very pleased. He moved away to look at the cakes on display, putting a lot of distance between them. Minho noticed this too.

Kibum took charge of the situation by going up to the person at the counter.

“I’m looking for Lee Kyung Hoon shii. We would like to place an order for a custom cake…” Kibum said, his tone extremely saccharine too cover up his uneasiness.

“I am him…” a short and stout man said, approaching from their right. Kibum smiled at him.

“Yes, hello. We would like to place an order-“

“I’m sorry, I’m going to have to stop you right there. We’re not taking orders at the moment…” he said, not smiling in response and not even meeting Kibum’s eyes. In fact, he looked extremely annoyed. Kibum was beginning to suspect he knew why.

“But I read on your website that you do a lot of Christmas-“

“Yes, yes. But we have decided to not take orders for now,” he said, looking at his watch impatiently. Kibum happened to glance behind the man and notice a couple of guys speaking to an employee. They were also all stealing looks at the exchange between Kibum and the baker but the thing that caught Kibum’s eyes was the piece of paper on the table between them with sketches on them.

The baker seemed to notice what Kibum was looking at and turned to him with a heavy sigh.

“Look, we won’t be able to take your orders as it is against our policy. I would like to ask you to leave the premises. Thank you for coming…” he said without pausing. Kibum clenched his fists in his pocket. He felt Minho’s hand on the small of his back again and it was the only thing keeping him grounded.

“Come on, baby. I’m sure we’ll be able to find a better place than this…” Minho told him. Kibum saw how the taller man’s jaw was locked as if he was barely holding back himself. He let Minho guide him away.

Kibum was busy trying not to break down from anger when he heard the sneering behind him. He didn’t know what took over him when he turned around and looked the man right in his eyes.

“It’s a pity such a talented man is so bigoted. One would think you would at least have the common sense to take a business deal, because you are running a business here, you know?”

The outburst seemed to take everyone by surprise. Still, no one had the guts to actually look directly at Kibum or Minho the whole time.

“Would you like to leave peacefully or do we have to do this the ugly way?” the man asked him, two of his employees coming up behind him as if they were his sidekicks. Minho stepped forward, putting Kibum behind him although he refused to budge. At that moment, Yoogeun decided to storm towards them, taking his father’s wrist by force and trying to pull him in the direction of the exit. He looked so scared and the sight of it broke Kibum’s heart.

“Appa, let’s go, please…” he begged, his voice breaking as if he was about to cry.

Minho listened to his pleading son, pulling Kibum along as they turned to leave. Once they were outside, Yoogeun let go of his father’s hand and began walking fast the way they came from. Minho ran after him, leaving Kibum to follow hesitantly.

“Are you okay? Yoogeun-ah, look at appa…”

Yoogeun was crying. Kibum hated seeing it.

“I want to go home. I just wanna go…”

Minho wrapped his arms tightly around the boy, looking up at Kibum worriedly. Kibum reached out to touch the boy’s head, trying to comfort him. But the moment he made contact, Yoogeun sprang back from both of them, wiping his tears messily.

“Did you really have to be so obvious? Can’t you just hide it? None of this would have happened if you weren’t being so obvious…”

Yoogeun would not look up at either of them. Kibum felt the stinging in his eyes from unshed tears. He hadn’t wanted for this to happen. Things like this have a way of finding him and the worst part of it this time around was that Yoogeun had been there to witness it.

“Yoogeun-ah, I’m sorry you had to see that, but you know this isn’t our fault, right?” Minho tried reaching out to the boy. Yoogeun refused to give in.

“Forget it. I wanna go home. I don’t want Key-hyung to come with us…” Yoogeun said, turning to walk away but being stopped by Minho’s hand on his.

“Yoogeun-ah, don’t do this-“

“Please, appa…” Yoogeun’s voice cracked pitifully and the sad sound was enough for Kibum’s tears to fall. He looked away, using his sleeves to wipe them off, ignoring the looks he was receiving from strangers.

“Go, Minho. I’ll just head home…”

Minho frowned at him, standing up from his kneeling position. He reached out to touch Kibum’s face, but Kibum stepped back, causing the other’s frown to deepen.

 “I have chores to do anyway. Just go…” Kibum said, burying his cold hands in his pockets. Yoogeun was already walking away from them while Minho was still hesitating.

“Minho-yah, go. I’ll be fine…”

Minho didn’t need to be told another time. He vaguely muttered ‘’ under his breath, stepping backwards into a stranger’s path but barely avoiding a collision. Then, he turned around to follow his son through the crowd.

Kibum waited till Minho was out of sight before he let his feet move him in the direction of the subway. There was a thin layer of snow on parts of the sidewalk that weren’t being stepped on, but besides that, there was no sign at all of the snowfall from earlier. It made Kibum angry, for some reason. Angry at everything he had no control over and at the world in general.

Kibum decided he didn’t want to go home after all. He felt that a night out drinking by himself was what he needed and that’s what he’d do. Tonight, it will be just about him and only him. No Minho, no Yoogeun, no stupid bigots making his life difficult.