“Last Christmas, I gave you my heart~”

“But the very next day, you gave it away~”

“Shut up I can’t concentrate with you two hollering like that!” Kyungsoo yelled out the open door towards the Park flat.

“Embrace the Christmas spirit Soo!” Chanyeol’s cheerful voice echoed back.

Sehun sat up from the kotatsu, giving a weary glance towards Kyungsoo who had been busy cooking the Christmas dinner in his kitchen since early afternoon. Much to Sehun’s dismay, it was decided that Christmas dinner would be held at his — though he knew that the kotatsu was to blame for that.

Consequently, the Christmas tree was standing in his living room next to the balcony door, and Jiwoo had gone through a rampage of spraying fake snow on literally any surface visible to the human eye. Sehun knew that it was going to be a nightmare to clean up but when he saw how excited and happy Jiwoo was, he just did not have the heart to stop her. After all, whatever Jiwoo wants, Jiwoo gets — which was why they were all wearing the Christmas sweaters that she had gotten with Kyungsoo. Chanyeol’s contribution to the decorations was sticking up the large Merry Christmas letters on the wall, and Kyungsoo’s was the numerous mistletoes hanging from every door frame. Sehun had given him a quizzical look when he saw Kyungsoo putting those up, though the latter simply responded by wiggling his eyebrows and giving him an uncharacteristically suggestive wink.

“I need to check on the turkey back in my kitchen,” Kyungsoo announced. “Sehun keep an eye on the potatoes will you?”

Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Kyungsoo crossed the hallways towards his flat. For convenience’s sake, the three neighbours had decided to all leave their doors open — easier to communicate and to run back and forth throughout the cooking and preparation process. Jiwoo was in her flat baking the Christmas cake and other accompanying desserts while Kyungsoo was slaving away whipping out a full traditional British style Christmas dinner with roast turkey, mashed potatoes and the myriad of side dish that came along with it. Since one kitchen was not going to be enough to cook everything he was running back and forth between his own and Sehun’s kitchen. Sehun and Kyungsoo had realised all too late though, that leaving the doors of the flats open also meant that they were fully exposed to the Park siblings’ incessant singing of Christmas tunes.

“Park Chanyeol!” Sehun heard Jiwoo yelp from next door. “In what universe does Santa Claus have an afro? Stop wasting the whipped cream!”

“This is a free country!” Chanyeol hollered back. “I can do whatever I want.”

“Well this is my cake that I am baking, so back off!”

After Jiwoo’s snarky remark, the siblings’ screaming match came to an end. All that could be heard was the heavy metal rendition of Silent Night — courtesy of Jiwoo and her Christmas playlist— playing in the background. Moments later, Sehun heard a new pair of feet entering his flat and he naturally assumed that Kyungsoo had returned. When he turned around though, he saw Chanyeol leaning against the kitchen island with a visible pout on his face.

“She has no respect for her older brother. Always screaming at me.”

“I’m more shocked that you guys never received a noise complaint from the neighbours.” Sehun chuckled. “Does anyone else even live on this floor?”

“It’s mostly university students who live here,” Kyungsoo answered, returning from his kitchen. “Music students with weird schedules. Plus most of them are back home for Christmas now.”

“They did complain about us initially,” Chanyeol recalled. “But after we helped them out on some assignments they started treating us completely differently. One of them works part time at the convenience store and always gives Jiwoo something free whenever she visits.”

“Why not you?” Sehun asked, feeling rather curious.

“She studies music theory and that’s Jiwoo’s area of expertise,” Chanyeol answered. “I could never get my head around that stuff, much prefer the practical element.”

“All brawn and no brains,” Kyungsoo added in a flat tone.

Chanyeol raised his arm, threatening to throw an apple at Kyungsoo, but froze when he saw Kyungsoo lifting his gaze from the chopping board with a very sharp knife in hand.

“Please,” Sehun begged. “Let’s not commit the sin of murder. At least not on Christmas Eve.”

"Only because you asked so nicely.” Kyungsoo patted the younger male on the head.

“Sehunnie is so mild and polite,” Chanyeol cooed. “Hopefully some of those manners will be passed over to my gremlin little sister.”

“I think there’s higher chance of her contaminating him first,” Kyungsoo snorted.

“You think so?” Chanyeol slouched his shoulders in disappointment.

“How about you stop talking about this as if I wasn’t here?” Sehun exhaled. “Oh, speak of the devil.”

The trio turned to look at the entrance and saw Jiwoo poke her head inside.

“I’m out of cream because of a certain someone,” Jiwoo mumbled while glaring at Chanyeol. “So I’m making a quick trip to the convenience store. Is there anything you need Soo?”

“Rock salt,” Kyungsoo shook the almost empty pack of rock sa