Kass looked hesitantly at the two looming figures over her. Chansung and Junho had called her over to the JYPE roofdeck that afternoon for what they referred to as a top-secret meeting.

“Kass-ah, you’re probably wondering why we called you up here,” Junho said, steeping his fingers in front of his face, attempting to look intimidating.

“Have you heard of the Maknae Club?” Chansung asked, stepping forward, his shadow falling across Kass’ face.

The two boys had completely cornered her against a wall, and Kass racked her brain for a reason, any reason, for them to call her up here. She had been minding her own work as always, running around the building attending to various errands whichever manager needed for her to do when a text from both Junho and Chansung demanded for her to meet them up here during her lunch break.

“Yah. What’s wrong with you two? Weirdos, cut it out,” she huffed, elbowing the two other maknaes away.

“Yah, Kass-ah, listen to us first,” Chansung whined, Kass could be so impatient at times, couldn’t she read the supposed tension in the atmosphere?

“What is it? I have to get back to work, Coordi-unnie’s gonna have my head for dinner if I’m late again this afternoon.”

“Kass-ah, we were thinking of inducting you to the Maknae Club,” Junho replied in the same voice as before, stepping next to Chansung again. “Me, Chansung, Jinwoon, Sohee, Min and Suzy are the members, and the others gave us the go-signal to induct you in as well.”

Kass’ eyes beamed with delight as she bounced up and down, “Really?! For real?! Yes!!! I’m in!” she exclaimed.

“But...”

Kass’ face fell, she did not like buts.

“But there’s something you need to do first. It’s tradition,” Junho said gravely.

“What’s that?” Kass replied, now unsure if this was such a good idea after all.

“You have to swear to secrecy first. If this gets out, we’ll hunt you down in the night and cut off your tongue and make sure everyday is hell for you that you cry tears of blood,” Chansung told her in mock threat.

She shot the boy a bored look. “Yeah, yeah, whatever, what is it?” Kass replied, her tone of voice impassive.

“What do you think about a Secret Santa exchange between our dorm and yours?” Junho suggested, trying his hardest to keep the hopeful, almost desperate tone of his voice hidden.

A Secret Santa exchange? Kass’ head was already swimming with ideas, one in particular standing out well above the rest. “Junho-yah, can’t you count? There’s six of you and only four of us.”

“Yah, yes or no?!” Junho interjected, he hadn’t meant to sound too excited. There was no reason for Kass to think he and Chansung had ulterior motives for this...yet.

“Just say yes, Kass-ah, don’t you want to be part of the Maknae Club?” Chansung added, he wanted this too, but perhaps not as much as Junho did. He had to admit, he was a little skeptical of Junho’s idea at first. He wasn’t completely convinced it was going to work, but it was worth a try.

“I want to, but what’s the catch?” Kass answered, completely unconvinced. She wanted to join the club, of course, but she was also wary that there was something underlying motive in all this.

“Kass-ah, don’t you want a Secret Santa with us?” Chansung tried again, using the cute tactic this time.

“I do,” Kass admitted. “It would be great especially if Taec-oppa and Fuu-unnie got each other-” Her sentence was suddenly cut off as soon as the idea jumped into her head. Why hadn’t she thought about it before? “It’s brilliant! I’m in, what do I have to do?!”

Inside, Junho was doing backflips out of joy but outside, he kept his face calm. “Now that we have that settled, here’s what we do.”

“Wait.” Kass cut him off, raising her hand. “What do you get out of this?” She eyed each boy seriously, trying to draw out an answer from each of them. She was agreeing to this for Taec and Fuu, but how exactly did this benefit the two maknaes?

Junho returned Kass’ gaze steadily. Had he been caught already? As far as he knew, only Chansung knew why he was this intent on doing this. He had been thinking about it for a while now, almost a year in fact, but this would be the first time he was going to finally take action. It was unlike him, he knew, to stand down and watch from afar, but he was sick and tired of it now, and he was Lee Junho for goodness sake. He never backs down or shies away from anything. He was Emperor Junho, and he was going to get what he wanted.

The past few months had been the final straw, and now more than ever, he was utterly determined to make a stand. “I have my reasons,” he said firmly.

Kass knew better than to question Junho’s motives, she also knew that there was no way she was going to make it out of the place without the two boys browbeating her into agreeing to this top-secret plan of theirs. “Fine. I’ll ask the unnies, but this can’t be it.”

Chansung smiled mischievously, “Of course not. Since you agreed, we’re going to make sure Taec-hyung and Fuu-noona get each others names.”

“Wait,” Kass interrupted, extending her arms forward. She understood the gist of the matter now. The boys were planning to rig the whole exchange! “Whose names exactly were you two trying to get?”

Junho sighed, there was no way Kass was going to let this go. He had been hoping Kass would agree immediately in exchange for membership in the Maknae Club, but it seemed as if Kass had other motives as well. That, and Chansung had inadvertently revealed their original motives for this plan as well.

Junho had been internet shopping one night when the idea had hit him. He was browsing through an online accessories shop when he came across a cute bag strap accessory. It was a  Swarovsky crystal crown, key, and heart charm that fit her perfectly. It was away to open up her heart and mark his territory at the same time. He had already purchased the item, but decided last minute to find another way to get her his gift.

Chansung looked at Junho hesitantly, unsure of what to tell Kass. Junho just gave him an imperceptible nod, and the three of them began their scheming.

The plan was to get Kass to round up her unnies together with 2PM in one of the practice rooms an afternoon two days after the secret meeting. Kass thought it would be difficult, but to her surprise, her unnies had been exactly where she had expected to be. Lucky.

Junho and Chansung were nervous as they waited for Kass to arrive together with Renn, and Fuu. Mai was already there with them, as they had been practicing for the various award shows and special stages they were going to be performing in this December. Suddenly, for both the boys, the practice and performances weren’t as important as the this particular plan they had been working on since two days ago. It was almost flawless and foolproof. Junho was confident that there was no way their plan would fail.

He the pieces of paper he and Chansung folded up the night before. On them were the names of all ten people included in the exchange, four of which were specifically marked. The plan was for Junho and Chansung to pick out the names they wanted first while Junho held on to the last two names with Taec and Fuu’s names on them. The pair would go last, and to make this completely flawless, Junho had to make sure Taec would get Fuu’s name. He had practiced so hard with Chansung last night to ensure that the sleight of hand he was going to perform on Taecyeon today was going to work.

The practice room doors opened, and Junho braced himself for Chansung’s announcement.

“So,” the 2PM maknae started, “we, the Maknae Club,” he gestured towards himself, Junho, and Kass, “decided to have a Secret Santa exchange between our dorm, and Renn-noona’s dorm.”

Junho stepped up next to Chansung and showed them the can with the folded pieces of paper in them. “We already have everyone’s names, so we’ll just have to pick one from here.”

He was about to pick out the name he marked from the can, when all of a sudden, he saw a piece of red heart-shaped candy flying through the air, and his Renn-noona following after it. His eye quickly spotted the shirt directly in her path, and knowing his noona as much as he did, he immediately reached out to catch her before she could even hurt herself. And true enough, Renn’s sneakered feet had caught on Taec’s shirt and she plummeted forward, and she would have fallen to the floor if not for Junho’s foresight.

Junho fell backwards as he tried to break his noona’s fall, and the pair plunged to the floor in a cascade of folded papers, the can bouncing about in an audible clang.

The room was silent as Junho regained his breath, Renn’s lithe form on top of him. She had been trying to tear open a candy wrapper, and she had finally managed to with one extra hard tug, this, however, caused the red heart shaped candy to fly across the room and Renn had chased after it.

She lifted her head, and her eyes widened when she realized just why she wasn’t feeling any pain from the wooden floorboards. Junho had caught her, and all of a sudden her world was spinning around its axis as the blood rushed up to her face and ears.

Again, as if the world was moving for her, she felt herself being lifted off Junho, and she turned her head to see Taecyeon and Nichkhun on either side of her.

Junho didn’t know whether to be annoyed or relieved at his hyungs intervention.

“So, we just go pick a name right?”

That had definitely recaptured Junho’s attention as he instantly turned back to the other occupants of the room. Each person already chose that moment to pick up a piece of paper on the floor, and panicked, Junho’s eyes flew up to Chansung and Kass.

“Mai-umma just picked up a piece of paper and left, and everyone else just followed,” Kass whispered, helping Junho up.

“Here,” Chansung, said, handing him a sheet of paper, “It’s the last piece, let’s just hope for the best?”

Junho gingerly took the paper from Chansung’s hand and prayed to all omnipotent beings out there that he knew, even those he didn’t, that he would still get the name he wanted. Slowly, he unfolded the paper, and his eyes grew.