TWO.

Oh No! They Were Roommates!

Title: Joy
Characters: Mark & Haechan + Jaemin
Genre: Christmas
Warnings: Angst, loss of family members
Wordcount: 3429
Author's Note: Thank you terrible netflix movie plot that began with the character receiving a calendar from her grandma. A short cute but sad story about Haechan and his crush Mark. 

H A E C H A N was too fascinated with the calendar in front of him. Every number had two small doors that opened if you pulled the string that was attached. It was made of wood, polished and painted into a beautiful decoration for Haechan’s empty room for the winter. Haechan sighed and stepped away to see it better. His heel met the wall first and then his back. The room was narrow. Much narrower than his last room. So much for Christmas joy.

  “Haechan dear,” a voice came, and Haechan glanced at the two beds to his right. He went back to the calendar and polished a corner when the door opened.

  “What?” Haechan replied and turned his head to see his aunt stand in the door. Her small head framed by chin-length black hair with grey strands. She looked awfully like her older sister. His mother. Just that slight thought of his mother made his throat tighten into the size of a straw.

His aunt noticed the clean state of the calendar. “Granny would be happy to see the calendar being used.” She smiled. The corners of Haechan’s mouth moved up, but his eyes didn’t show much cheer. Both his granny and his mother were gone. His aunt noticed the now blinking boy, as if he was trying to remove the stinging in his eyes. “Your roommate will be here soon.” She then spoke and straightened. Haechan couldn’t help but frown at the thought of sharing the room with another boy.

  “The fire got his house as well.” Haechan grimaced, immediate guilt gripping his insides. He couldn’t judge. “Remember Mark?”

Haechan sighed. Of course, he remembered Mark. His crush from 8th grade. How could he forget?

His aunt was leaning against the doorsill. “His parents are in the hospital. He made it out with his younger sister. She’s gonna live with the other girls down the hall…” His aunt didn’t seem to be finished. At last she added one more thing. “Be nice to him, Haechan.”

  “When have I ever not…” The door was shut while Haechan spoke. He faced the closed door for a moment before sighing.

Mark looked like the ghost of what Haechan remembered from his younger days. 18 years old, but now on the verge of being parentless and maybe having to raise his younger sister alone. Christmas miracles were very welcome in their small town. Yet it didn’t bring that. Mark’s hair on his left side were shorter, it had been scorched by the heat. He had a patch on his left cheek as well and looked very sore. Haechan hated the fact that he himself looked like he had been the farthest away from the fire. He had not. His father made sure he was thrown out of the window and into the snow. Right before the gas tank exploded and his family vanished in flames.

  “Hi,” Haechan found himself saying as the first thing and he immediately wanted to stab himself with the sharpest object in the room. Mark sent him a look that looked wounded.

  “Hi Haechan.”

  “You remember me?” Haechan asked with wide eyes. Mark put down his bag on the desk that was in his side of the room. He dragged his feet to the bed before he replied.

  “How could I not?” He asked and dropped down onto his back. Haechan looked down at his hands. For a moment he felt as if they were wet again, drenched by the melting snow as he watched his childhood home burn. He also remembered annoying Mark for 3 years straight, which probably wasn’t the best thing to do when you tried to make someone like you back.

  “I was that amazing?” Haechan asked with a crooked smile and Mark shifted his gaze to him. He opened his mouth but had been rendered speechless. Haechan grinned in victory. “I guess I was.”

Mark sat up straight. “You kept calling me names, how could I not forget the person who made up that stupid nickn-”

  “Seagull?” Haechan helped Mark finish his sentence but earned a glare. Haechans’ smile fell off his face. “Yeah, sorry about that.”

Mark blinked. “No need to apologize. Stuck with me through senior year as well. Now it decorates by yearbook and will forever be remembered.”

  “But am I wrong?”

Mark twitched. “Are you actually serious, right now?”

Haechan closed his eyes and shook his head. “Sorry. Hard to shake off bad habits.”

  “Sure is.” Mark muttered bitterly and lied back down, turning his back to the other. Haechan glanced up at the calendar.

  “Uhm,” he started and noticed Mark stir, but the other didn’t turn around. “I got a calendar… I know it’s been 7 days, but would you like to open it with me?”

Mark rolled onto his back. He released a deep sigh from his chest before he swung his feet over the bed. “Why not?” He asked and stood up. Haechan controlled an urge to reach up and touch the short hairs on his head. He needed a haircut, but Haechan knew it was the last thing Mark would worry about.

  “You can… open the first one.” Haechan smiled and Mark scratched his forehead before doing so by pulling the string. A small bell rung when it did, from inside the wooden calendar. Mark glanced at Haechan as if expecting it to be a prank. When Haechan pulled the next string eagerly, it proved that it wasn’t a prank.

Behind the doors were beautifully painted images of a kingdom none of them could recognize. Mark seemed to be genuinely interested when he opened his third door. And so they reached door 7. Haechan and Mark had to hold themselves back from continuing.

  “One every day.” Haechan stated.

Mark nodded. “One every day.” He agreed.

Every day they shifted between opening doors. Which was their only ritual and what got them both gathered in the small room. They tried to keep to themselves during the day. On door 16 Mark received the news that his father didn’t make it. Haechan sat outside the room while Mark cried. He ended up falling asleep and woke up to a blanket around him. His aunt must’ve passed by and seen him there.

The next day Haechan woke Mark up so he didn’t miss the next door. Mark’s eyes were red and puffy, but he pulled the string and they both leaned close to see the image. It was a small boat in a lake, white hills and mountains in the distance. They both wondered why the lake wasn’t frozen over.

On door 23 Mark’s mother was cleared, she wasn’t in critical condition anymore and got moved to recovery. Haechan
felt like he could stay in the room when Mark cried in relief under his blanket. Haechan could deal with happiness better than sadness.

  “Did you cry?” Mark asked that night. Haechan glanced over at him before he realized what Mark meant.

  “Ah,” he said at first, but a pregnant pause fell over them. “I think I cried the first night… Haven’t since.”
Mark turned to face him, both were ready to sleep, but then again. “Don’t feel like you can’t, just because I’m here.”

Haechan smiled and found himself meeting Mark’s dark eyes. Then he reached up and turned off the light, letting the darkness embrace them both. Haechan let tears fall, but only that. He knew if he let the river flow it would drown him.

The 25th was the last day. Both awoke to the sound of kids running down the hall, ready to open their gifts. Haechan waited for Mark to get up before he did. The air in their room was cold. They got dressed and Mark fixed his hair that was now cut and styled. The patch on his cheek gone, but the burn wound still healing. Haechan took a moment to admire Mark as the other was checking himself out in the mirror. Haechan remembered when the other started doing it in 8th grade. Well, Mark had been in the 9th at that time. Haechan had watched the phenomenon with awe when he then 3 weeks la