Seonghwa had been right. He generally was but that didn’t make it any less irritating.

It was almost as irritating as looking down and finding that his jumper had ridden up to his chest for what Mingi was sure must be the hundredth time that day. Seonghwa would probably tell him he was exaggerating he thought with a sigh as he tugged the fabric of his jumper back down, the wool stretching over his rounded belly, but Seonghwa wasn’t there. Which was probably a good thing because if he was he’d no doubt be saying ‘I told you so’ and Mingi wasn’t in the mood to listen.

Because it wasn’t even as if he could argue. Seonghwa had told him so. When he’d spotted what he was pulling from the drawer that morning he’d immediately told him “that’s going to be too small”. Mingi had told him that ‘wool stretches’ and had pulled it over his head anyway. It was Christmas jumper day, he couldn’t not wear a Christmas jumper.

And yes, the fit had been a little snug. He was seven months pregnant and quite obviously so, ‘neat’ was not a word people used to describe his bump anymore. But it was his favourite winter jumper, and his most Christmassy one too. It was a bright cobalt blue, with a round and cheerful looking robin on the front. The robin was impossible to miss with its colourful scarf and a red Santa hat. It looked faintly ridiculous and Mingi loved it. He’d worn it for Christmas jumper day three years in a row and this was going to be the fourth. It was one of his favourite items of clothing and he’d been looking forward to wearing it ever since he’d spotted the poster announcing the date on the staff notice board and that had been four weeks ago. He wasn’t going to let the fact it felt a little tight around the middle this year ruin that for him. Seonghwa had just sighed and shaken his head when he’d told him this, gaze travelling to the strip of white vest that already starting to peek out from the hem of his jumper. Mingi had told him to stop being such a spoilsport and had huffily pulled it down.

“Why don’t you just buy another one?” Seonghwa had asked him. “You’ve got time before you have to go to work.”

This was true. But the only place open would be the supermarket and Mingi hadn’t been too impressed when he’d inspected their Christmas jumper offering the other day. They’d all been so generic, covered in snowflakes or elegant looking reindeer prints. Not one had been silly or colourful enough to grab his attention. And there was also the issue of money. Buying a new Christmas jumper was hardly going to leave him penniless but they did have a baby to save for. They shouldn’t be wasting money on things they didn’t need and he’d told Seonghwa so.

Seonghwa had told him not to be so silly, it wasn’t wasting money if he was spending it on something he needed. And if he was going to enjoy Christmas jumper day at work he needed one that would actually fit. If he insisted on wearing the one he had on he was just going to end up spending all day pulling it back down again.

Mingi had informed him again that wool stretches and that he’d be fine. Then he’d suggested that since it was going to be a Christmassy day anyway then maybe they should get the tree out of the loft after work. They could put on Christmas music and wear Christmas pyjamas and decorate the tree together. Make a proper evening out of it. It would be fun.

But Seonghwa hadn’t been keen on the idea. “You’re always so exhausted when you get back from work.” He’d said, being practical as always. “Maybe we should leave it until the weekend.”

And again Seonghwa had a point. Mingi’s job mostly consisted of sitting at a desk and in theory that should mean it wasn’t too tiring. But the further he got through his pregnancy the more draining his day at work was starting to become and the first thing he usually said to Seonghwa when he made it back from work now was ‘I’m ready for bed already’.

But he loved Christmas so much. If they were going to be decorating the tree he was sure he’d manage to stay awake. “I’m not a child,” he’d argued, “I can stay up past six pm. Let’s just decorate it tonight. You know you want to do it too. It’ll be fun.”

“It will be more fun at the weekend when you’re not half asleep.” Seonghwa had reasoned.

“If you want to be a scrooge then I’ll just do it myself.” Mingi had informed him with a frown.

To which Seonghwa had retorted “And how are you going to get in and out of the loft yourself?”

It had been a fair question. Mingi didn’t have the best centre of balance at the moment and the opening to the loft was also fairly narrow. Getting in and out of the loft was going to be extremely difficult if not impossible.

But no matter how much cajoling and wheedling Mingi had done, Seonghwa hadn’t budged. He wasn’t going to do it for him, not until the weekend. So Mingi had eventually given up and had slouched off to work, wondering how he’d managed to end up with such a killjoy for a boyfriend.

And now it was the end of his work day and not only was Seonghwa a killjoy but he’d also been right and that just made it worse. His jumper hadn’t stretched to fit his bump properly and the fact he’d needed to pull it down every few minutes had been more than a little irritating. And before he’d even made it out the building he’d been yawning.

He was still yawning now as he jabbed in the code to open his front door. He was just going to have to admit it he thought with a sigh as he stepped inside. He was tired and leaving the tree until the weekend was the best thing to do. He’d be more awake and they’d have all day to get it finished too. He could wait a few more days and he probably owed Seonghwa an apology. He’d been a bit of a brat that morning.

And then he heard it. ‘Let it Snow’ was playing somewhere. That somewhere was most likely the living room he decided as he stopped, one shoe on and one shoe off to listen. Maybe Seonghwa wasn’t such a scrooge after all he thought with a smile as he kicked off his other shoe and started unfastening his coat.

And then his smile was widening because the living room door had opened and ‘Let it Snow’ was flooding the hallway. And there was Seonghwa, making his way towards him, dressed in a reindeer onesie, foam antlers perched on his head and a length of red tinsel draped over his shoulders like some kind of scarf. He was smiling too, a smile that seemed to be part embarrassment, and Mingi’s just wanted to hug him. He would have run over to do just that if he wasn’t in the middle of taking his coat off.

“What are you doing?” He asked, finally managing to shrug his coat from his shoulders and hanging it up beside Seonghwa’s. He looked as adorable as he looked ridiculous but Mingi had no idea what was going on. Seonghwa had been so insistent that Christmas could wait until the weekend and there he was, dressed like Rudolph. It didn’t