My Mom stops the van in front of Seung Hyun's house. He grabs his bag and exits the van going inside the house. He pauses at his doorway, turning around, and waving goodbye to us.

I roll down the window Mom and I waving both hands.

"Bye Dorky! I'll text you later!"

"Have a good day sweetheart!"

When he walks inside Mom slowly drives off. She clears . I look at her.

"Thank you for letting him stay the night Mom. We got to talk a lot and he really needed me."

She smiles.

"Of course sweetie anytime. Now how about we go Christmas shopping."

I did a double take. How on earth did she get money for shopping? Any money she has should she be saving up for a house? I think she read my mind or read the confusion in my face. She waved her hand at me.

"Well I really didn't want to say anything to you but my boss gave me a generous pay raise and a bonus for the holiday. She knows our situation and understands that you and your baby sister goes first. I did my math and I got more than enough to put aside for food, Christmas presents, and a potential down payment for a house or apartment. Don't worry about it honey."

"No Mom please don't buy me anything you save that money for something you need. I don't want anything."

She shook her head at me completely ignoring my continuous refusal. Each time I give her any reason to not buy me anything, she turns up "Winter Wonderland" until she sees my lips stop moving. This went on for a solid minute before I stop refusing.

I cross my arms feeling sort of angry, but only at the fact that she uses a cheesy Christmas carol, of all songs, to drown me out.

"I see where I get my stubbornness from..."

She laughs as she makes a right turn into the mall parking lot. I roll my eyes.

Well, while I'm here I can get my camp buddies, Mom, Gabe, Mary Kate, Bella, My aunt, and Seung Hyun a present. It'll make up for the gifts that were lost in the fire. I still have $300 left in my bank account might as well burn it. She clicks Mary Kate's carrier in place in the stroller and walks with me in the entrance of the mall. Of course, and wouldn't you know it, it's crowded.

Duh... Christmas Day is 5 days away... What the hell did I expect?

Mom pats my back.

"Okay dear I'll let you go do your shopping. How about you meet me in the department store in a hour?"

I nod.

"Okay Mom stay safe and no fighting other women with wrapping paper for the last sweater on sale."

She pouts.

"You're no fun son."

She left and I made a bee line to GameStop. This is my happy place. A teenage boy's haven. I know each of my camp buddies own a XBox and one thing we all have in common is that we have an abundance of games but it's never enough. We want to hoard games as if it's going out of style.

I invested in five games:

Fortnite for Seungri, Naruto for Hong Ki, Call of Duty for Daesung, Halo 5 for Taeyang, and Minecraft for Seung Hyun.

I paid a fairly large price for them but it is most certainly worth it to make my friends happy. My next destination was Hot Topic for Bella and Gabe's gifts. I know Bella is obsessed with Supernatural and they had a pretty wide variety of Supernatural themed merchandise. Gabe, on the other hand, likes just about anything. The store became crowded fast so I had to be quick about my choosing there. I swiftly chose a supernatural hoodie and a couple t shirts for Bella, and a few various t shirts and a couple themed coffee mugs for Gabe.

Balance Alert: $199.91

Money does go fast. As I was looking around wondering where I was gonna shop next for my Mom's presents I hear a distant screech and a familiar voice yell: "JI YONG!"

Here came a speeding Bella coming out of a booth. She ran to me giving me a tight hug.

"Hi Baby! I haven't seen you since camp!"

I hug her back in a tight embrace. She plants a kiss on my cheek. Naturally we had adults walking by staring at us and our public affection and muttering "it's puppy love". She walks me to the booth she was standing in before she saw me.

"This is my parent's business that hasn't been doing so good. No one wants handmade gifts anymore."

I look around at the displays of handmade bracelets, necklaces, earrings, rings, and other small gifts. They were actually really pretty. They almost look like they were professionally made.

Something did catch my eye: A medium pink wooden heart shaped jewelry box. It's customizable.

I look through the book of possible engravings. I really enjoy the engraving that had a short pretty poem to a Mom from a Son. The second engraving I enjoyed is for a loving Aunt.

"Hey Bell, I'll buy two heart shaped boxes, one with the Mom poem and the other with the Aunt engraving."

This is the first time I've seen Bella suddenly light up like a Christmas Tree. She worked quickly to get the boxes done for me and wraps them in sparkly Christmas tissue paper putting them in individual gift bags. My heart sunk when the price on the register screen showed $127.89 then drops to $89.67.

"Bell I would've paid the $127.89."

She shakes her head.

"Christmas discount for my boo."

I smile and give her my card to swipe. She gives me my card back and leans over giving me a kiss on the nose.

"I can't wait to give you your gift Ji."

"Same here you'll love yours. I picked it out just for you pumpkin."

My mom texts me asking where I was. I give Bella a good bye kiss and one last hug before retreating to the department store. I found Mom sitting on a bench beside the restroom feeding Mary Kate. She had a cart filled with tied bags.

"Did you get your shopping done honey?"

I nod.

"Everyone but Mary Kate. I'm going to get her gift really quick and then go to the gift wrapping booth."

She stands adjusting her shirt then burping Mary Kate. She waits until I returned. Mary Kate's gift was unwrapped and not bagged: A cute baby onesie that says: Santa's Favorite and a baby toy. Mom jokingly covers Mary Kate's eyes.

"Don't worry she didn't see a thing."

We took turns having our gifts wrapped and tagged. Both turns we'd turn around as to not spoil any surprises. After the wrapping we leave the mall piling back in the van. Mom re-ties her hair in a ponytail.

"Well that was quite an adventure was it not?"

I nod.

"Yeah I think that was my work out for the season or at least until Snow Camp."

We go to one last place before going back home. STARBUCKS. Mom parks the van.

"You do realize if we go in here we will be driving home shaking and talking as if we did crack right?"

I slowly nod while I momentarily day dream about swimming in the extremely caffeinated Christmas flavored hot goodness. I also remember that this is the place where Mom bought me my first coffee. A large mocha latte... My 14 year old body could barely handle the caffeine overload rushing through my veins. I had enough to energy to lap Seoul and a headache for two days. Good times...

"Liquid crack in a festive cup. Let's do it... it's Christmas."

Without hesitation we go through the drive thru and Mom orders us two large holiday flavored coffees. We park in the parking lot looking at the cups as if we never seen them before.

"My goodness sweetie I think they made the large bigger... I won't be sleeping."

"I'll say... I'll be wide awake for a week and dizzy for a few days. At least the cup design look awesome this year."

She holds her cup out to me.

"Cheers to Christmas 2018."

We bonk our styrofoam cups together and take a long sip at the same time. My head twitched.

"Caffeine for days in this thing."

Mom nods setting her cup in the holster. I do the same.

"Take an easy with that sweetie."

We got home just as it started snowing. We see Gabe is inside putting up a pre-lit 6 foot tree. Mom gives him a kiss as she puts the bags under her bed. I shove my gifts under my bed. No one will be peeking at the gifts even if I have to put a guard dog under the bed.

"Hey bud." Gabe greets.

"What do you think of the tree?"

I nod.

"I like it as long as your finger nails don't match it."

He laughs as he puts the presents he wrapped under the tree. I sat lazily on the sofa texting Seung Hyun.

To: Dork

Hey dork dork I got your Christmas present! I hope you like it!

From: Dork

Hi. I'm sure I'm gonna love it. I will like anything you give me. I got you something too it's not much but it's the thought that counts.

To: Dork

Exactly.

My train of thought was interrupted when Gabe's phone rang. He steps outside to answer it then he calls my Mom outside. For a moment they were quiet then she came in, both looking sad.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

Gabe replies with a head shake. He texts my friends in the camp group text saying to come over to the house as soon as possible. I keep asking him what's wrong but I got no answer except a simple: I'll explain it soon.

Within 15 minutes: Seung Hyun, Daesung, Seungri, Taeyang, Hong Ki, Luna, Kendra, and Bella show up at the door just as confused as I was. Gabe didn't say much beside inviting them inside the house and asking them to sit.

It's as quiet as a church in the house. Gabe clears his throat setting tissue boxes within reach.

"Everyone is probably wondering why I called everyone here... Unfortunately I got bad news that is going to be hard for everyone to take..."

We all knew Gabe isn't the strongest person it the world but when he cries we knew that something awful has happened. Mom rubs his back and gives him a hug.

"It's okay honey."

He wipes his tears away looking at us all with red blood shot eyes.

"Guys..." He starts.

"Guys... we... We lost Janie last night. She got in a bad car accident after her car slid on ice and her brakes failed."

Gabe bust into a sob, one by one, we start mourning and hugging each other for comfort. Almost everyone is shedding tears except me. For some reason that I really couldn't explain I felt numb. The news hurt me so bad to hear but my eyes were dry as a bone. As if the flow to my tears were blocked. I wanted to cry but I couldn't.

I didn't want to focus on mourning for myself, but rather be there for my fellow camp buddies and staff, I want to be there especially for Gabe. He is hurting the most. I want to be there with my Mom to comfort him. The little while that I disliked Gabe, I had realized that he's an excellent friend and he'll make one cool step dad.

He's there for me... I'm going to be there for him... After all that is what soon-to-be step sons are for... Right?

A/N: Updates! Woo hoo! I don't want to get too ahead of myself. While I brew up another chap enjoy what I managed to get done! I'm sorry for the character death and if any of you loved Janie, but trust me, the direction of the story is going to be amazing. Until then readers...! Bye <3