The leftover sheets of coloured paper lay scattered across her dining table which, as the only table in the apartment, also served as desk, crafting station and general all-purpose flat surface. Their glaring brightness caught Seungwan’s eye from just about every point in the room, reminding her of the terrible excuse for a present that would soon be pressed into Joohyun’s waiting hands.

Maybe she’d made a mistake. There might be enough time to run out and buy a purse or something. She never should have listened to her father’s advice; he wasn’t even that good at gift-giving. All her parents ever gave her were fuzzy socks and yes, she loved fuzzy socks, but objectively speaking they weren’t the most imaginative or impressive gift.

Mr. Fluffers jumped on the table and cast a predatory glance at the scattered paper. Of course, his favourite prey were inanimate objects. Everything else put up too much of a fight.

Seungwan was tempted to let him go ahead with his destructive spree, but the paper had actually been a bit expensive and she felt a twinge of guilt at throwing away all that money for such a petty reason. Shooing him away with a gentle push that had him jumping dramatically off the table, she gathered everything up and stored it in an empty folder.

Then she turned back to her terrible present, along with the two marginally less terrible bundles for Yerim and Sooyoung. At least she felt fairly certain that Joohyun would value her effort, even if she ended up wishing she’d just received that tiramisu ice cream after all.

Her phone lit up with a text from Yerim, letting her know that they couldn’t start opening up presents until she showed up and not very politely requesting her attendance as soon as possible. She put the device back in her pocket with a sigh and packed the brightly wrapped boxes into a large enough shopping bag.

Joohyun’s apartment door opened before she’d even finished knocking, yanked inwards by an expectant Yerim. Her face struggled to twist into displeasure but it was too firmly fixed in excitement to budge.

“Finally,” she dragged out as she pulled Seungwan in by the sleeve. “She’s here, now give me my presents,” she declared to nobody in particular, and probably to all three women in the room with her.

Walking inside, Seungwan noticed that Joohyun hadn’t put up a Christmas tree, probably not deeming it worth the trouble if she wouldn’t even be home for Christmas. Instead, all the presents were piled on top of the coffee table, and it was easy enough to tell which belonged to whom. Joohyun’s were the only ones that looked normal, while Sooyoung’s were wrapped in what looked like magazine pages and Yerim’s could hardly be described as “wrapped” at all.

The gift-giving itself was done in pairs, and Seungwan was inwardly glad that there were four of them, ensuring that they were always paired off. It meant that nobody would be paying attention to the gifts she gave except for the recipient, which would hopefully make her disappointing exchange with Joohyun a little more bearable.

First, she turned to Yerim to hand over the gaming mouse that Joohyun had suggested. The younger woman ripped off the wrapping paper energetically, her eyes widening as she recognized the item inside. “It’s got extra buttons and things,” Seungwan provided helpfully. “You know, for macros. That’s what the lady at the store said.”

Yerim’s reaction was a bit delayed, but eventually she patted Seungwan’s arm in what looked like her awkward version of a grateful hug. “It’s cool, I guess,” she finally said with a shrug. “I’m mostly surprised that you didn’t give me something awful.” It was as close to appreciative as she was likely to get, and Seungwan didn’t feel like pushing it. She was too preoccupied with the looming tragedy of Joohyun’s gift.

“Here’s yours,” Yerim said, holding out a large tube that didn’t look wrapped so much as simply rolled around in enough wrapping paper to cover most of its surface, then thrown into a hurricane of scotch tape. Eventually, Seungwan managed to reach the present and found that it was a poster tube. Closer inspection revealed that it contained a poster of several animated girls hanging out at the beach.

“You got me a Love Live poster?” she asked with some confusion, trying her best not to open it too wide in fear that it would call the attention of the other two.

“From the beach episode,” Yerim pointed out innocently, but her widening smirk belied her tone.

“Why did you think I even liked Love Live?” she asked honestly. Did she give off that kind of vibe? Was this something she should be concerned about?

Yerim raised a sceptical eyebrow. “Please, I use your Crunchyroll account. You do know it saves your viewing history, right?” She could only nod at that because yes, she’d watched that show. A couple of times. In the near past.

The present was clearly meant to embarrass her, and she wasted no time in shoving it back in its tube and placing it away from view, but it was still a nice gift. After all, those things were expensive, and Yerim could certainly find a way to embarrass her for free. Maybe part of the fun was the fact that they both knew Seungwan was seriously considering actually putting it up on her wall.

Sooyoung and Joohyun were also done with their exchange. Sooyoung held a light pink cardigan which she handled with care, folding it back into its box, and Joohyun was smiling widely at a large container of fabric softener. It was hard to tell which one was happier with what she’d received.

Before too many questions could be made regarding her own present, Seungwan rushed to Sooyoung’s side to speed the process along. Yerim matched her eagerness, pulling Joohyun aside to receive her next gift.

Sooyoung handed over a thin envelope and Seungwan studied it curiously. “Are you my grandma?” she asked teasingly. “Are you going to give me shopping money?” Her joke didn’t have much of an effect, as Sooyoung merely nodded towards the envelope with a small smile.

Inside it was a piece of paper, decorated around the borders with a colourful design of intertwining curves. In the middle, in elaborate letters, were the words “Voucher for”, followed by “one New Year’s Eve free of jokes about New Year’s kisses” in a slightly smaller font.

“I didn’t even know that was a possibility,” Seungwan admitted with a furrowed brow. “But now I’m really glad it won’t happen. Does this extend to Yerim?” Sooyoung nodded solemnly in response and Seungwan let out a relieved breath, fighting the urge to wrap her in a tight hug.

Her tall friend came a little closer, sneaking a glance at the other two. “Also, the poster is kind of from the both of us. It was really expensive,” she said with a small shrug. Then she looked back at Seungwan and smirked at the red tinging her cheeks. “But it’s worth every cent if it makes you this happy,” she added wickedly, poking her in the ribs.

“So, your present,” Seungwan quickly interjected in an attempt to change the subject. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out another box, leaving only Joohyun’s gift, alone and sad and entirely underwhelming.

Sooyoung reached for it with eager hands, unwrapping it to find a long summer dress with a flowery pattern that combined shades of soft pink, violet and baby blue. “Oh, it matches the cardigan,” she squealed with excitement, drawing the attention of the other two. They had been inspecting their own presents, which consisted of a wireless headset for Yerim and a pair of socks for Joohyun. Had Yerim seriously given her socks? Seungwan had assumed her suggestion had only been joking, but from the look on Joohyun’s face, it was an entirely welcome gift.

“That looks beautiful,” Joohyun remarked softly, moving closer to inspect the dress, with only a short pause to leave her socks near the fabric softener, at the end of the sofa. She and Sooyoung were quickly engrossed in a discussion about the article of clothing, debating which coats she could wear over it and whether or not it would clash with boots.

Seungwan watched them fondly for a moment, surprised that Yerim hadn’t intervened to claim her final present, but a glance in the younger woman’s direction informed her that she was currently too busy taking Seungwan’s mouse out of its packaging and inspecting it closely. Yerim seemed to sense her attention, because she looked up to catch her eye and immediately put the box and its contents away.

“Alright, talk about it later, I’m owed another present,” she declared grandly, moving on the two women with arms outstretched to push them apart. Then she latched onto Sooyoung’s arm, leaning down towards the coffee table to pick up her own gift and deposit it in Sooyoung’s hands. “Now hand it over.”

Joohyun smiled, following the antics of the two youngest with amusement. The only thing left on the table was a very large, oddly-shaped package and Seungwan was honestly surprised that it hadn’t been intended for one of the two children currently trying to hit each other over the head with their own presents. Sooyoung had the advantage of height, but Yerim had sheer persistence on her side, so the fight actually seemed promising.

And yes, Seungwan was trying to stall the final exchange of gifts as long as possible. Maybe if she stared at the nearby scuffle for long enough Joohyun would forget the whole thing and they’d just get down to baking cookies or something. She liked baking; she was much more confident in that department.

The large present was pressed into her hands by an excited Joohyun, putting an end to her final desperate hope. It was strangely light for its size and it yielded easily under her hands. Curiosity eventually managed to pierce through despair and she unwrapped the object to find herself holding a giant stuffed toy in the image of a familiar grey and white forest spirit.

“It’s a Totoro!” Joohyun exclaimed as soon as Seungwan had taken a look at it. “From the movie! Yerim said you like anime a lot.”

It was nearly half as tall as Seungwan and it looked up at her with lazy, half-opened eyes that seemed to beg for a warm, tight hug. She couldn’t resist indulging it and wrapped her arms around the large toy with a contented sigh. “It’s amazing,” she finally remembered to say, but her enthusiastic reaction had probably been enough to transmit that particular message. “Where did you find it?”

“Yerim knows a place,” Joohyun replied simply. Seungwan raised an eyebrow at the information, doing some quick mental calculations to weigh the odds of Yerim murdering her for bringing it up against the fun of teasing her about it. Maybe she’d keep to it to herself, at least until she got an address from Joohyun.

Her face was once more buried in her new friend’s soft fur when she felt Joohyun’s insistent gaze fixed on her. “Oh, right, your present,” she exclaimed brightly, before remembering what it actually was and dejectedly dropping Totoro on the sofa.

She stepped to the side so she could reach the final box in her shopping bag. On the way, she noticed that Sooyoung and Yerim had bought each other chocolates, which they were happily trying to steal from one another, with much slapping away of hands. At least they were distracted.

“So this is… Yeah,” she said weakly, holding out the small package to Joohyun. Her friend unwrapped it eagerly, to find a wooden box inside. “It kind of needs an explanation, so, uh, if you could open it slowly…”

Joohyun looked up curiously at her words, then back down at the box in her own hands. She ran her fingers along the lid and Seungwan suppressed the urge to say it didn’t have to be quite so slow. Finally, she pushed it open to reveal several small origami flowers filling its interior. They were just enough to cover a photograph lying at the bottom, but not completely obscure it. It depicted a clearing by a pond, empty of any visitors and covered by a thin blanket of snow, its uniformity broken in points where faded green pushed up from underneath, demanding to be seen.

“Right, so I thought, you seem to really like that place by the pond where we’ve gone a couple of times. You said it was pretty. So maybe you’d like to have a picture of it, and that’s it at the bottom,” Seungwan began uncertainly, pointing out the photograph.

She’d had the idea when she was still visiting her parents, and she’d spent the remainder of her time nervously second-guessing herself and cursing the fact that she couldn’t do anything about it until she was back home.

As soon as her flight landed, she rushed home to drop her bag off and pick up Seulgi’s spare key. She took a taxi to her friend’s apartment, letting herself in to borrow her camera, which Seulgi had gracefully allowed. Otherwise, she’d be stuck using her phone, and that felt so unprofessional and lazy.

From there she hurried to the park, to make sure that she had enough sunlight to get a good picture. On arriving, she was momentarily disappointed. All the colour was gone, even the sky was grey, and the trees were and cold. The snow on the ground was barely enough to cover it and the grass poked out in clumps, breaking the monochromatism that might have otherwise made for an interesting picture.

With some reluctance, she tried to make the best of it, taking photos from several angles but mostly staying in the same areas she and Joohyun had occupied on their previous visits. Once she was satisfied that she couldn’t do any better, she took off once more, this time to a nearby copy shop. There, she spent another half hour poring over every single photo and slowly narrowing down her selection to a single picture. This she printed on photo paper, to the relief of a growingly exasperated store clerk, and she finally walked back home in the deepening darkness, only becoming less satisfied with the image as time passed.

She had dinner and went to sleep and then woke up the next morning to find the photo even more unbearably banal. But it was the day of the Christmas party, so it was probably too late to come up with anything else. Instead, she tried to find some way to salvage it, complement it, give it some sort of twist.

“Anyway, the photo turned out kind of boring, as you can see, because we’re in winter and parks don’t look that great in winter. But that’s when Christmas happens, so I guess I can’t do much about it. So, I thought maybe when spring comes around, we could go over there and take a new picture. Together, I mean. And maybe that could be, like, a thing, and we could take photos every season and make a little collection and, yeah.” She paused for breath, refusing to look up from the box of flowers, not ready to face Joohyun’s scrutiny just yet. She’d picked up the photograph and appeared to be studying it.

“So anyway, that’s what the flowers are for, because there’s a lot of flowers in that park in spring. I guess you’ll see when it comes around. I tried to make them in the same colours.” She gestured towards the origami flowers, then brought her hand up to scratch the back of her neck, hoping that the distraction would keep her from babbling even further.

In the silence that followed, all she could hear were muffled complaints that could only come from mouths stuffed with candy. Apparently Yerim and Sooyoung were still at it. Joohyun’s hand returned to her field of vision, photograph held against its palm by the pinky and ring fingers, running its free fingers gently through the little paper flowers and sometimes picking up one or another.

Finally looking up, she was shocked to find that Joohyun’s eyes were glassy and bright. She smiled widely and sniffled slightly. “Seungwan, it’s beautiful. The photo’s beautiful, the flowers are beautiful, the whole idea is beautiful.” She paused to put everything away carefully, then she threw herself into Seungwan’s arms. “I can’t wait to take that next picture with you. And every season after that,” she whispered warmly in her ear, and only then did Seungwan consider what she’d accidentally confessed. A confession that Joohyun had readily accepted. That she wanted them to be together for a very long time.

“Hey, why didn’t my socks get a hug?” Yerim demanded loudly, effectively ending the moment. Sooyoung snickered but didn’t intervene, too busy taking advantage of her distraction to shove her hand in Yerim’s box of chocolates and refill her own.

“Because they’re socks?” Seungwan took it upon herself to reply, given Sooyoung’s failure to deliver. Yerim glared at her half-heartedly, but the confrontation was ended abruptly as Joohyun stepped forward to wrap her in her arms.

“It’s Christmas, everyone gets hugs,” she said happily. Sooyoung laughed at Yerim’s struggle to escape Joohyun’s clutches, but was stopped short as one of the older woman’s arms stretched out to pull her into the hug.

Seungwan watched the three women with mixed amusement and fondness. They were an unlikely combination, but she couldn’t deny that they worked together. As a hand grabbed hold of her sleeve and pulled her towards them inexorably, she began to think that maybe she was part of that combination. And that thought left her warmer than she’d felt in days.

(…)

Seulgi arrived the next day and they had their own little Christmas celebration. As in previous years, there was no exchanging of presents. Instead, Seungwan brought some brownies and they sat down to discuss their activities for the day, munching away happily while they studied each other’s lists.

It was their special Christmas tradition. They wrote down all the things they enjoyed doing that the other was usually against, then each of them had to pick an item from the other’s list. It made for an unconventional but exciting celebration. Sometimes Seungwan was even glad she’d stepped out of her comfort zone.

“It’s the third year in a row you’ve written ‘watch a bad scary movie’,” Seulgi pointed out with a pout.

“Maybe this time you’ll pick it,” Seungwan replied quickly, although she understood her point. She wasn’t very excited herself at the few repeats in Seulgi’s list. “Do you really want to go ice skating that badly?”

“Yes, it’s fun. And you’ll probably end up enjoying yourself. Scary movies, on the other hand… I get scared watching Scream,” Seulgi whined.

Seungwan paused her reading to reach for another brownie, shrugging on the way. “That you do. Then maybe you can pick the one after that,” she said innocently.

Seulgi continued reading, her face growing stern. “Seriously? ‘Let me adopt another cat’?”

“Hey, it’s something that I want to do and you don’t, isn’t that what the list is for?” Seungwan replied with what she hoped was convincing logic.

“You’re not getting another cat, we’ve talked about this,” Seulgi said simply, her tone effectively communicating the pointlessness of arguing it.

Seungwan slumped in her chair but didn’t say anything else. It had been a long shot anyway. She scanned Seulgi’s list again in the hopes that something nice and innocuous like ‘go to the movies’ might have popped up in there somewhere. It hadn’t.

She put the paper down for a moment. “Hey, uh, have you thought about the New Year?”

Seulgi’s eyes remained on the list. “Yeah, we can spend it with Joohyun and the others,” she said, sounding a bit too casual about it.

“Are you sure? You seemed a little uncomfortable when I suggested it.” The real possibility that Seulgi was planning on spending a boring New Year’s Eve with a handful of strangers just to make Seungwan happy kept her from quickly bouncing on Seulgi’s sudden agreement.

“I was just surprised they wanted me there,” Seulgi replied with a small shrug. “Maybe Joohyun just invited me because you mentioned it and she felt bad. I didn’t want to make it awkward or anything.”

“Seulgi, come on, how would you make it awkward?” Her friend only shrugged again, keeping quiet. Reaching out her hand, Seungwan gently pushed the paper aside to hold onto Seulgi’s arm. “We can do something else if you feel weird about it, but you definitely won’t ruin anything by coming.”

Seulgi let her own hand rest on top of Seungwan’s and offered her a reassuring smile. “I know Wannie, it was just a silly worry.” Her smile grew a little wider, reducing her eyes to little crescents. “But I thought about it and your friends wouldn’t feel bad about spending time with your other friend, I think, so it’s fine. We can go,” she added for emphasis, squeezing Seungwan’s hand.

Seulgi still seemed a little uncertain, but Seungwan knew that she wouldn’t say yes if she didn’t mean it, so she didn’t push. “That was easier than I thought,” she said instead, in an attempt to lighten the mood. “Do you want to rethink the cat thing while we’re at it?”

The side of her head was suddenly attacked by a sheet of paper, which flopped against it quite ineffectually. She still cringed away from it with displeased protests, of course. It was the principle of the thing.

In the end they did go ice skating, once Seungwan realized that it was probably the least social and safest thing on that list. It was truly a terrifying list. And yes, maybe Seulgi had been right and she’d had a good time after all. Maybe. Either way, it was all made worth it by the ridiculous amount of time she then got to spend watching cat videos with Seulgi at home. All in all, another successful Christmas selection.

Later, while they were eating the pizza they’d ordered for dinner, Seulgi asked if Seungwan had mentioned their Christmas arrangements to Joohyun and the others. She only shuddered in response. She couldn’t even imagine the horrifying lists the two demon children would come up with. This was the kind of idea that only worked with wholesome, caring friends who loved and wanted only the best for each other. Those two would turn it into some kind of twisted truth or dare and haunt her holiday season.

“Maybe I could tell Joohyun,” she finally said weakly, singling out the only one of the three that she even began to trust with that kind of power. Seulgi nodded wisely, clearly understanding what had been left unsaid.