Creativity was never Shuhua’s forte.

The last time she’s done anything related to arts and crafts was in high school, when they were required to take a Home Economics and Livelihood Education class. HELE, for short. (Emphasis on the “HEL(L)”.)

It sounded like fun during the subject’s orientation week; sewing, cooking, woodcraft, and basic DIYs… until it came to actually making the stuff.

Cooking is out of the question since Shuhua seems to burn almost everything she touches. If they managed to survive the flames of her inadequacy and knack of clumsiness, food often turned out overcooked. Tastelessly bland and tough to chew on, even Gordon Ramsay would be hurling insults to her face at terminal velocity. But hey, at least that steak was still edible. Right?

(Can’t tell. Those judges are still chewing to this day.)

Sewing just lead to her hands getting constantly pricked by needles, and she soon ended up with a minor infection shortly after. Thankfully, it healed within a few days’ time. Enough for Shuhua to realize that this class ing and that sewing is a hazard to society.

But, honestly, she’s just better off not touching another needle for the rest of her life.

What about woodcraft and DIYs? You can’t go wrong with those. Handmade items crafted from accessible resources and recyclable materials will save you both money and hassle in the future. Plus, you can customize them in whatever way you wish. A very useful skill.

Yeah, no. Shuhua doesn’t want to elaborate on the different times she had:

1. Got her hands pricked again, but by splinters.
2. Almost cut her finger off because she had used the carving knife incorrectly.
3. Used said carving knife to stab into the misshapen block of wood out of frustration, it left behind an ugly crack and she got seven points deducted in quality (Shuhua nearly chucked the stupid project at her teacher’s head when that happened); and
4. Put her lungs at a health risk thanks to all the wood dust and the Gorilla glue she had inhaled while indoors, her dad had to take damage control by dragging Shuhua outside for some fresh air before she could end up hospitalizing herself. Okay, cool. She’d rather have heart failure than finish her ty birdhouse anyway.

As for the DIYs, they usually fell apart within minutes after completion and didn’t even fulfill their basic purpose. Mainly because they weren’t even properly constructed to do so, which made them nothing more but useless heaps of junk all crammed together with adhesive and tape. Pitiful.

In short, Shuhua was never any good at them. Her outputs were always one of (if not) the worst in class that even her teacher felt sympathetic enough to, at least, give her a passing mark. She did try to put effort every once in a while, but she still hated it.

However…

When it comes to gift-giving and dating the impeccable Cho Miyeon, you’re absolutely 100% obliged to give her something she can appreciate. Something practical, something of sentimental value and endeavor. Something that tells her you care enough to put much thought and work into it. A token of love and gratitude.

Well, perhaps Shuhua doesn’t care at all then; since her past few gifts were just store-bought items she got from the nearest department store and Miniso. Who wouldn’t want a cute, frilly apron? Or a mug with Grizz’s face printed on it?

Her girlfriend never had a problem with this. Miyeon, being the sweetheart she is, always accepted these basic but practical gifts with an endearing smile. Each time added to the guilt weighing on Shuhua’s conscience as she took them gratefully, no matter how—per Yuqi’s words—lame they were.

That feeling only worsened after seeing all the gifts Miyeon gave to her in return, which were always very personal, handmade items. Such as the notebook full of letters she wrote during high school when Miyeon first started crushing on Shuhua, but was too afraid to send them; and then the mason jar full of tiny slips of colorful paper containing all the many reasons why she loves the Taiwanese girl. Each of them thoughtfully written out with the most heartfelt confessions that can make a grown adult cry.

(And Shuhua did exactly that. Bawling her eyes out while Miyeon just hugged her for thirty minutes straight until she calmed down and even patted her head after wrapping a blanket around her for extra comfort. It was really sweet, but also mildly embarrassing on Shuhua’s part altogether.)

So, what did the amazing Yeh Shuhua give to her lovely girlfriend in exchange? A matching set of Tom and Jerry pajamas she bought from a clearance sale at a clothing store not too far away from her workplace. Had it been a Christmas party with the rest of their mutual friends, her look of utter shame would be the talk of her office for weeks to come. All at the hands and mischievous tendencies of Song Yuqi and the equally conniving Jeon Soyeon.

Although the pajamas were cute and surprisingly well-quality, Shuhua still considered the gift to be complete trash in comparison to Miyeon’s letter notebook that had probably taken days to work on. Collecting past mementos from old memories tucked away in their attic and arranging them in such a way that the pretty pages look like they’ve been handled with as much care as possible. Plus, Miyeon’s calligraphy art is astoundingly gorgeous.

But, regardless, her girlfriend wore the Tom pajamas almost every night and gushed over how soft and comfy they were to sleep in. Miyeon’s genuine smile and the fact that she looks so dang adorable wearing them made Shuhua feel less bad, though she knew she could do better.

For this year’s Christmas, the Taiwanese suggested that they level the playing field by following a certain theme or budget. It was more for her own advantage, really, except Shuhua realized her mistake the moment Miyeon said they could both do handmade gifts.

She wanted to kick herself.

“I-I don’t know…” Shuhua says weakly. “I’m not very creative when it comes to that type of stuff…”

“It’ll be fun, Shu! Think about it!” The older girl assures with another one of her beaming smiles, dimples out and all. “Nothing store-bought, just gifts made out of love! Isn’t it romantic?”

Between the two of them, Miyeon is clearly the romantic one while Shuhua is not. She tries as much, but then fails miserably. It’s a miracle how they have managed to stay together for this long without Miyeon straight-up dumping her, especially when Shuhua has the emotional variety of a potato.

“Unnie, you know I’m terrible at making stuff. Besides… I want you to actually like your gift.”

Miyeon turns her head from where she’s lying on the younger’s lap and pouts up at her, sending a pink blush across Shuhua’s cheeks as she tries not to falter under her intense gaze.

Damn Cho Miyeon for being so annoyingly, offensively, preposterously beautiful.

“I’ll love whatever you’ll give me.” Miyeon promises. But when she sees the uncertainty in those timid, dark eyes she’s grown to adore, Miyeon gets up and adjusts herself so that she’s sitting on Shuhua’s lap. Straddling her as she cups the sides of her face with gentle hands.

“Please, Shu-Shu?” Her voice has a hint of aegyo behind it, and that’s enough for Shuhua to give in. She couldn’t say no to such cuteness, after all. It’s how Miyeon always gets her way.

“Alright. Anything you want.”

᠁

Stupid.

Stupid, stupid Shuhua.

You shouldn’t have agreed to this. You never should’ve agreed to this, you whipped gay- .

For the entire morning, Soyeon and Yuqi have been helping her brainstorm ideas for a gift to give Miyeon. They’ve agreed to meet up at Soyeon’s apartment since their respective girlfriends have gone out to their favorite spa for the day, leaving Shuhua alone with two wingwomen to assist her and take advice from.

“I don’t usually get much Christmas gifts for Minnie-unnie unless I find stuff she’ll like. She appreciates them, yeah, but still prefers just having me around. That’s why I take the entire week off to spend time with her. It’s all she really wants.” Yuqi tells her when Shuhua asks.

“Soojin is kind of the same, but more on physical intimacy. She’s like an actual kitten craving for hugs and pets, so I just cuddle with her on the couch while watching cheesy rom-com films. Those things make her happy.” Soyeon adds right after.

Shuhua feels lost. Her two friends don’t have a problem thinking of gifts because their girlfriends are easy to please. Not that Miyeon is super high-maintenance or even requires an expensive gift. Quality time and physical touches are also her love languages. It’s just that she is so terribly bad at expressing her feelings and affections for the older girl, she uses actions of gift-giving and surprise trips or dates as a way to compensate for it.

Even then, her “gifts” were pretty whack.

First, they attempt to knit a handmade scarf with a tutorial playing in the background as a guide. While they do manage to follow the instructions like so, the way Shuhua seems to almost tear apart the yarn with her needles implies that she’s more inclined to think the ritual of knitting is generally awful.

After her epic battle with trying to fix a wrong stitch and messing up even more, Soyeon and Yuqi have to wrestle away the wooden needles out of her fists before they snap from the pressure.

Next, the girls aim for a simple lava lamp jar based on a photo they just found on Pinterest. An easy and fun DIY project that even a kid can make (with adult supervision, of course). It takes a single Google search for the three to discover that sodium bicarbonate is just a fancy way of saying “baking soda”, so they don’t have to scratch their heads wondering where to find it.

Everything was fine and dandy until Yuqi began sneezing, which blew off all the powder from the spoon and towards poor Soyeon’s face. A sneeze fest has ensued shortly after, and the idea is scrapped for obvious health reasons.

Finally, they went out to the pottery crafts store just a few blocks away. Although the items aren’t exactly handmade (unless Shuhua’s plan is to give Miyeon a huge lump of clay as a present, then she’d do it herself), one can choose from the vast collection available and paint designs on them. So, she’s not technically cheating.

Shuhua selects a plain white crocodile base and attempts to recreate Miyeon’s “colorful” personality, despite her utter lack of artistic skills. The result? A funky crocodile who looks like he got shat on by a unicorn with diarrhea and was then dragged through the mud before getting tossed into an oil well.

(They decide to have some fun with the failed gift by excitedly throwing it down from Soyeon’s eight floor balcony. She paid for it, anyway. Let her do what she wants with it. Sorry, Mr. Crocodile.)

Because of her three failed attempts at making a proper gift, Shuhua feels like the worst girlfriend to exist by the time Christmas rolls in. All she can manage to scrape up as a last resort is a tiny coupon book covered with glitter hearts and a very crude depiction of Tom and Jerry scrawled on its cover.

“Love Coupons: Take One”, it reads in blocky red sharpie.

Boy, does she feel pathetic. Yeh Shuhua, twenty-five-years old and giving the love of her life a ing coupon book for Christmas Eve.

To further add blows to her already-fragile pride, both Soyeon and Yuqi can’t help but burst into laughter when she mentions the very idea to them. Making her want to seriously reconsider their status as “best friends” while she buries her face into one of Soyeon’s throw pillows with a groan.

In her defense, though, she didn’t have enough time left to think of anything else. Plus, it seemed like a sweet gift anyway. Right…?

Oh, who is she kidding? Shuhua wants to throw herself out the window for even entertaining such a dumb idea.

Back home, Miyeon bounces with excitement as they sit together in their cozy living room with steaming mugs of hot chocolate sitting on the center table. She’s wearing those Tom pajamas she loves so much while Shuhua is in her Jerry one, and the round eyeglasses that the Taiwanese finds cute on her are pushed back up her perfect nose bridge.

“I can’t wait to see what you made for me.” The elder says gleefully. Her childlike enthusiasm is infectious as it spreads to the corners of her smiling lips, which has Shuhua doing the same. God, she’s beautiful.

“Why don’t you go first, unnie?”

Miyeon pouts again, and Shuhua immediately feels weak in the knees. “But I always go first,” She whines. “Let’s change it this time. I wanna know what you got me!”

With a defeated sigh, the Taiwanese reluctantly pulls out her little coupon book and offers it to her girlfriend with a bowed head. Her cheeks are a nice rosy red while she averts her eyes to the carpet, completely missing the way that Miyeon’s face lights up as she eagerly takes the booklet and flips through its pages. There are fifteen coupons overall with no expiration date. To Miyeon, it’s the perfect gift for two soulmates.

“Oh, Shuhua! This is perfect!” She gushes, prompting the young girl’s head to snap up as Shuhua stares at her in surprise. Seeing how Miyeon is grinning from ear to ear with her eyes almost disappearing into happy crescents makes Shuhua realize that the trouble was worth it in the end.

“I’m gonna use one right now.”

Before she knows it, Miyeon has already ripped off a random coupon and all but pounced on the unsuspecting girl. Shuhua yelps as she tries to catch them both while keeping her balance, but then fails and allows herself to get smothered under her lover. Laughing contently, she just lays on the carpet with a huge smile on her lips as Miyeon trails kisses all over her face—and the warmth she’s feeling right now has nothing to do with the heater humming quietly in the background.

Yeah. Totally worth it.

Shuhua barely gets to read what is on the coupon, but it doesn’t matter once she feels Miyeon’s soft lips against her own.

“One free coupon: All you can kiss.”