The following weeks that passed made Seungwan’s heart heavy. Joohyun had become distant, and though she was still giving her rides, she kept the conversation minimal and mundane. Seungwan felt as though she had lost something dear to her heart, and had spent the rest of November and most December grieving that loss. She did not see Joohyun outside of the office anymore than necessary, and she had even started declining Yeri’s invitations to go get coffee, as she was assuming her time at the office was coming to a close. As far as the rest of the world was concerned, the only pressing matter at hand was Christmas swiftly approaching. All the shops in the city were decorated appropriately for the holiday, there were Christmas carols on every station, and the snow was heavy and coated the sidewalks nearly every night.

The day before Christmas Eve was an office Christmas party, organized by Sooyoung with the reluctant help of Seulgi. Sooyoung, Seulgi, and Yeri were all chatting by the punch bowl on the kitchen counter, meanwhile Seungwan sat on the couch in the waiting room, feeling distant from the whole occasion. She had nothing about Christmas to look forward to. She could hear the conversation from her seat, and her ears perked when the topic turned to Joohyun.

“Has anybody seen Joohyun?” Sooyoung asked.

“She’s stayed in her office all day.” Yeri answered in a quiet way, unusual for her.

“Well somebody has to go and make her have some fun for once.” Sooyoung said with an exasperated sigh. “She’s been so sad lately, I don’t know what happened.”

“I don’t know either.” Seulgi replied. “I’ll go and get her. She needs to stop working so much. She thinks nobody knows but after she drops Seungwan off she comes back to the office and stays here until god knows when. I came back to get a USB I had forgotten I needed the other day and she was still here, and it was nearly ten o’clock at night.” Seulgi walked off, stopping by Seungwan for a moment. “Hey, are you okay?”

“Yeah, just tired is all.” Seungwan said, forcing a smile. Seulgi did not look convinced, but she accepted the answer anyways, going to Joohyun’s office. Over ten minutes passed before Seulgi came back out, Joohyun following reluctantly behind her. Seungwan dared a glance at her boss and the first thing she noticed was how tired she looked. She had lost the brightness in her face and she looked almost ghost like, trailing behind Seulgi in her flowy white dress. Joohyun joined the circle, and Seulgi beckoned Seungwan to join it as well, so she stood and walked over, listening in on the conversation but not participating.

“My mom is trying to win the stupid competition our neighborhood has for who has the best Christmas decorations.” Yeri told, a clear attempt at brightening the mood. “But we don’t have enough lights and she’s stressed because every store is sold out.”

“Oh! We have extra lights in the storage closet.” Sooyoung said, bringing a puzzled look from Yeri. “We usually decorate the office for Christmas but I guess we all kind of forgot this year. There’s a bunch of boxes in there, you can borrow them if you’d like.”

“That’d be awesome, thank you.” Yeri replied, grinning.

“Alright well let’s go get the boxes.” Sooyoung said. “Can you three help carry them? There’s a lot of small ones.” Seulgi, Seungwan, and Joohyun all nodded. They all turned and began walking towards the hallway, Joohyun and Seungwan being closest to the hallway entrance reaching it first. They walked side by side but did not look at each other. As they each stepped under the hallway entrance, they heard Sooyoung go, “Oh god.”

“What?” Joohyun turned around and looked at the taller woman.

Sooyoung pointed upwards and both Joohyun and Seungwan glanced up, spotting the sprig of mistletoe hanging from the ceiling. “Seulgi,” Sooyoung turned and looked at her girlfriend. “Did you put that there?”

“Maybe.” Seulgi said, shrugging. “I was hoping I’d catch you under it, I didn’t anticipate anyone else going back there.” Seungwan looked from Sooyoung and Seulgi to Joohyun nervously. What the is my life anymore? Why does this stuff always happen to me? She thought to herself.

“It’s tradition.” Sooyoung pointed out, giggling a little. Joohyun shot her a glare.

“It’s a silly tradition.” Joohyun said sternly.

“It means bad luck if you don’t follow it.” Sooyoung kept going, obviously enjoying her teasing. Seulgi gave her a sharp elbow to the side. “Hey! I’m just warning her.”

Seungwan could tell everyone was watching, wondering what the conclusion of this mistletoe saga would be, and so she threw all caution to the wind and leaned and gave Joohyun a quick peck on the cheek. Joohyun’s cheeks turned bright red, she could feel the heat under her lips the brief moment they rested on Joohyun’s cheek, and after Seungwan pulled away she turned and looked right at Seungwan, which she had not done for nearly a month. “There, does that count?” Seungwan asked, her question directed at Sooyoung.

“I guess it does.” Sooyoung conceded, so the crowd moved ahead and deeper into the hallway, Seungwan and Joohyun stepping out the way to let them through. Joohyun’s cheeks were still rosy and she had went back to avoiding Seungwan’s gaze.

“I’m sorry if I overstepped.” Seungwan said, drawing Joohyun’s attention. “I just knew Miss Park wouldn’t let us go without something.”

Joohyun gave a hesitant half smile. “You’re right, Sooyoung loves traditions like that and follows them closely. She’s very superstitious.”

Seungwan gave a small smile back and stepped back to let Joohyun go down the hallway first. “After you.” She said, her heart in . As Joohyun walked by her she could swear she caught the faintest scent of the lavender that had long since disappeared from her clothes again, and she found herself wishing for that familiar scent again, which always put her at ease when nothing else could.

~

Christmas morning brought four inches of snow, leaving the streets and sidewalks laden with gray slush from cars and pedestrians trekking through. It took Seungwan one look outside to decide once and for all she would be content not leaving her apartment the entire day. She did get dressed, so she could have some semblance of put togetherness, wearing a thick, knit, red sweater and jeans. Her apartment felt frigid and so she went and turned the heat up slightly, still not used to the luxury of being able to do that without worrying about the heat bill becoming far too expensive. The morning was passing quickly into the afternoon, the blazing winter sun reflecting rectangle slats through the blinds onto Seungwan’s floors, making the room look slightly dim.

Knock knock knock.

The sound startled Seungwan, making her jump slightly. She debated on ignoring the knocking sound as she was positive this could not lead to anything good. She mentally went over all of the bills that needed to be paid for December and their due dates, nearly positive she was not behind on anything, though she couldn’t imagine who other than her landlord this could be. Sighing, she meandered slowly to the door, wrenching it open and finding herself stunned into silence. It was Joohyun, wearing a mauve colored cardigan that made her features look soft and warm, clutching a gold colored box tied with a pearly white ribbon.

“Hi?” The greeting came out more as a question as Seungwan leaned against her door frame, almost tempted to pinch herself to see if she was actually awake. The last month of Joohyun’s distant, cold disposition and now she was here, smiling timidly at Seungwan and looking more cheerful than she had in a long while.

“Hi.” Joohyun said in reply. “I hope I’m not intruding on anything.”

“You’re not.” Seungwan answered bluntly, unsure what else to say.

“I just wanted to apologize, for my behavior these past couple of weeks.” Joohyun began in a low voice. “It was wrong of me to be so cold towards you when you had done nothing wrong.”

“Thank you.” Seungwan said softly, confused as to what led Joohyun to her door on Christmas Day.

“Your worries were not off base, and I wish they had been, but considering my…” She waved her hand, searching for the right word. “...history, I can understand your concerns.”

“But I know you better than to think you’d be so cruel.” Seungwan said. “Or at least I should have.”

“Please, don’t place the blame on yourself. I should shoulder all of the burden.” Joohyun corrected her in a gentle way.

Seungwan sighed, and then asked, “Are you doing anything today?”

“I was supposed to, but those plans fell through.” Joohyun answered vaguely. “Why do you ask?”

“I was going to invite you in for some tea.” Seungwan told her. Joohyun smiled.

“I’d like that very much.” She replied, so Seungwan let her inside the apartment and led her to the couch, offering her a seat.

“What kind of tea do you want? I have earl grey, green tea, jasmine, chamomile…” Seungwan left the list open ended.

“Chamomile would be nice, thank you.” Joohyun said, her voice sounding meek. She sat on the couch, gold box on her lap, eyes roaming over Seungwan’s apartment as Seungwan prepared the mugs of tea. As the water boiled, Seungwan glanced back at Joohyun, who looked almost out of place in her tiny living room. Her cheeks were still tinged pink from the bitterly cold outdoors, but her face was complemented by the extra color. It made her look wonderfully youthful and bright, like she was straight out of a painting of angels from the Renaissance.

The pot of water bubbled loudly behind Seungwan, drawing her from her reverie. She poured the water into two mugs, dropping the tea bags in and adding spoons. As she carried the mugs she noticed one had a chip and mentally noted to give Joohyun the unchipped one. She sat beside Joohyun on the couch, passing her the mug with no chip, and held tightly to her own mug. Joohyun murmured her thanks and then took her spoon, crushing the tea bag so the flavor would fill the water quickly. She swirled the spoon, her eyes trained on the thing, all her focus on this small, simplistic task. Seungwan herself simply crushed the teabag forcefully and let it sit, the flavor filtering into her tea slowly.

“What’s in the box?” Seungwan inquired.

“Oh!” Joohyun exclaimed softly, picking the box up and placing it in Seungwan’s lap. “It’s your Christmas present.”

“But I didn’t get you anything.” Seungwan looked from the beautifully packaged present to Joohyun, who was beaming at her. She couldn’t help but think that Joohyun looked beautiful, so beautiful she didn’t seem real. She was practically radiating joy.

“That doesn’t matter.” Joohyun brushed off the concern. “Open it!” Her excitement was a bit contagious, coaxing a small smile from Seungwan as she carefully pulled the ribbon undone. She set the ribbon aside and cautiously slipped the top of the box off. Inside was an envelope with her name written on it in meticulous, even lettering nestled amongst white tissue paper. “Read the card first.” Joohyun instructed. Seungwan followed the direction, opening the envelope with nimble fingers and sliding out a thick, beautiful card. She opened the card, searching for the words inside. The same neat print covered the blank left side and Joohyun’s pretty looking signature was placed at the bottom of the right page. It read:

Seungwan,

Merry Christmas, Seungwan-ah. I hope this card finds you in good spirits. I know it seems odd of me to give you something like this after the past month we’ve had, but I do hope you can still find it in your heart to enjoy the gift. I’ve been pondering what to get you since Thanksgiving, and I hope what I settled on is satisfactory. Thank you for your kindness and diligence in your work, you have been a wonderful employee and an even more delightful friend. We all enjoy having you at the office, but I in particular would feel lost without your presence. You have been a gift to all of us.

Seungwan read the words once, and then went back and read them a second time, savoring every word. It was so heartfelt, she could feel the emotion behind the words. Joohyun was watching her intently, anticipating her reaction. Seungwan looked up to the older woman, expressing her gratitude with a hushed, “Thank you so much.”

“You haven’t even opened the gift yet.” Joohyun reminded her.

“The card alone was wonderful.” Seungwan said, her voice filled with awe. She set the card at her side, beside the ribbon, and pulled back the tissue paper. It revealed a picture frame made of glossy wood, with a note attached. The note said: Since you don’t have any pictures hanging up in your apartment yet. “Oh…” A soft gasp left her lips as she ran her fingers over the wood and then the glass. “It’s beautiful.”

“You like it?” Joohyun asked.

“I love it.” Seungwan answered honestly. “I just don’t have many pictures. I’m not a picture person.”

“That’s alright.” Joohyun said with a smile. “I’ll turn you into a picture person. Pictures are just so wonderful, they capture the most amazing moments of life. They’re like magic.” Seungwan looked at Joohyun fondly, her heart thrumming rapidly in her chest. She could’ve sworn there was nothing more precious in life than the smile that wreathed Joohyun’s face, her eyes glowing with joy. Life finally felt full again, and Seungwan was keenly aware that feeling was all due to Joohyun.