Wednesday Morning, Winter Break.

The boys apartment.

It was the day before Christmas Eve and Changsub was looking forward to the date he had planned with Chorong for that afternoon.

He lay on his bed, holding a small box which contained Chorong's gift and turned it over slowly between his fingers. This was the first present he'd given her that wasn't coffee or food and he wondered if she might be intimidated by the amount he'd spent.

Not that the price mattered to him. She was definitely worth it.

Changsub rubbed his thumb on the edge of the box with a soft grin then set it aside and picked up his phone to text Chorong.

Changsub: Can't wait to see you later :)

He tapped send then put down his phone and got up to grab a snack from the kitchen.

The apartment seemed emptier than usual today. Minhyuk had taken the first train out to Seoul to meet some friends and Hyunsik was off on holiday with his dad in Jeju.

That left Eunkwang who was currently in the shower singing something that sounded a lot like Kim Bumsoo, but Changsub couldn't be sure with all the wrong lyrics Eunkwang was making up.

Changsub pulled open the pantry and took out a chocopie which he carried back to the bedroom.

His mother surely would've scolded him for eating on the bed but after years of living away from home Changsub had picked up some bad habits.

He plopped down belly first, opened the wrapper and took a bite. A small shower of crumbs fell onto the bedding and he quickly scrambled to pick them up.

"Damnit I forgot how messy these are…"

The image of his mother's stern face loomed in his mind and he felt slightly self conscious as if she could see everything he was doing from his home on the other side of town.

Changsub sighed then picked himself up from the bed to finish his snack elsewhere.

 As he walked back into the living room the bathroom door opened and Eunkwang stepped out wearing only a t-shirt and boxers with a towel around his neck.

Changsub stopped eating and frowned at the sight of Eunkwang's boxers.

"Hyung I thought we agreed not to go around the apartment like that." He sighed.

Eunkwang laughed.

"Aye come on Changsub-ah we're bros and Minhyuk isn't here so it's fine." He said, rubbing his damp hair vigorously as Changsub made a face and continued munching on his chocopie.

Suddenly there was a buzzing noise from the couch and the two boys both turned. It was Eunkwang's phone.

"Oh that'll be my mom!" Eunkwang exclaimed.

He ran to pick up his phone from the couch and answered it.

"Eomma!" He said delightedly.

Changsub turned around and went to go trash his chocopie wrapper while Eunkwang eagerly started babbling away like an overexcited 9 year old.

"…I knowwww I missed you too eomma…yeah I'll be home this afternoon…yes yes I'll be careful not to crash the car…oh stop worrying it's only one city over…yeah I will…okay…wait eomma what are you making for dinner tomorrow?...oh my gosh my favorite!!!...eomma you know how much I missed your food right?...wahh I can't wait!…yes I'll go pick up some sparkling wine on the way…yeah…uh huh…WAIT YOU INVITED WHO??"

Changsub looked up from the trashcan to find Eunkwang's face had turned a nervous shade of green.

"Ah eomma you can't do that without telling me…" Eunkwang whined.

He listened for another moment then nodded reluctantly.

"Arasseo…I'll bring something nice to wear tomorrow…okay I'll see you later. Eomma saranghae…"

Eunkwang hung up and Changsub gave him a questioning look.

"What was that all about?" Changsub asked.

"She invited Bomi and her family to dinner tomorrow night." Eunkwang replied weakly.

He looked up with a slightly panicked expression.

"Changsub-ah…what am I gonna wear???" He asked, wringing his hands.

Changsub looked Eunkwang up and down with a judging eye.

"Well you might wanna start with pants." He said simply.

Eunkwang's face went from green to slightly pink and he made an embarrassed noise as he covered his face with his towel.

"Aish I'm screwed…I'm going to make a total fool out of myself in front of her parents again I just know it." He said in despair.

"Why what happened the last time?" Changsub asked.

"I was trying to pour water out of the pitcher and the lid fell off and I spilled ice all over the table." Eunkwang groaned through the towel.

Changsub let out a stifled snort as Eunkwang pulled the towel off his face with an offended look.

"YAH shut up! You just wait until you meet Chorong's parents. I bet you'll be so nervous you'll do something just as dumb." Eunkwang said, whacking the towel in Changsub's direction.

Changsub laughed and managed to escape back to his room before Eunkwang could catch him.

"That's what you get for getting the parents involved hyung!" Changsub yelled through the door.

He chuckled to himself as Eunkwang whined from the other side.

It was kind of ridiculous that a guy like Eunkwang could manage to hold down a relationship with the seemingly untamable Bomi but Changsub had to hand it to him. If things kept going like this the two might just end up getting married within the next few years.

"Oh god imagine the chaos…"  Changsub thought as his brain suddenly conjured up a scene with bridezilla Bomi giving Eunkwang a roundhouse kick in a wedding dress.

He shuddered. That wedding was something he didn't want to have to think about any time soon. 

Shaking his head, Changsub sat down on his bed. He picked up his phone hoping to see a new message from Chorong, but strangely she hadn't replied. 

"That's weird...she should be up by now. Maybe I should call..." 

Changsub's thumb hovered over the call button on his screen for a moment before pressing it. Hopefully it wouldn't be too early. He didn't want to wake her up if she was still in bed. 

The phone rang for quite a while before Chorong finally picked up.

"Oh Changsub-ah…*yawn*…"

"Chorongie?…Sorry were you still sleeping? I texted earlier and you didn't answer so I just wondered if you saw it." 

The rustling sound of blankets came from the other end of the line.

"Mmm…" Chorong replied sleepily.

She yawned again and Changsub suddenly found himself wondering what it would be like if she were yawning next to him in his bed rather than over the phone. 

He felt his ears get warm. No...It was much too early to be daydreaming about things like that. What was he thinking?

"Get it together Changsub."

He closed his eyes and willed the heat to go away.

"Sorry." He said, hastily "I should let you go back to sleep." 

"No no it's okay I can talk." Chorong responded. 

"Oh...okay then." 

Changsub's flustered mind seemed to stop working out of nowhere and he suddenly had no idea what he wanted to talk about. 

"Think...Think..."

"So uh...How was your night out with the girls?" He asked awkwardly, grasping for the first topic he could think of. 

There was a short pause then a barely audible curse.

"Chorongie? What is it, did something happen?" Changsub asked.

He heard Chorong sigh. 

"Should I start with the good part or the bad part?" She said wearily. 

"Umm the good part?" Changsub replied with uncertainty as his mind started to fill with all kinds of imagined scenarios for what could've gone wrong. 

"Well…" Chorong began. "The good part is I got to talk to Eunji about the recruitment thing."

"Oh. What happened with that? Did she take it?"

"Apparently she didn't."

"Wait for real?"

"Mhm. She said she didn't want to hurt my feelings so she rejected the offer."

"Damn…that's a real friend move right there."

"I know…I still feel kind of bad that Eunji did that for me but she said she wants to focus on singing instead so I guess it's okay. Anyways I think the whole thing was a good wakeup call for me to work harder on my acting and I definitely learned my lesson not to hold resentment based on assumptions."

"Hmm. Well I'm glad you got that off your shoulders. You seemed stressed about it before." 

"Yeah I was...but I'm all good with Eunji now so it's fine."

"That's good. So what else happened last night?"

"Oh…"

Chorong paused for a moment and sighed before launching into her secondhand version of the events that had transpired at the club while Changsub listened intently.

"...and so I decided to make Bomi do all the chores until school starts again to repent for being an irresponsible chaperone, which is a relatively light sentence from me, but I couldn't punish her too hard because she did save Naeun after all..."

"Holy cow…that sounds like a mess." Changsub said slightly lost for words. 

"A complete disaster." Chorong replied with an exhausted sigh. "Ughh I knew from the beginning I shouldn't have let Bomi take them off to the club and now look what happened. And then the whole thing about Ilhoon being in a gang? Crazy. I can't believe Namjoo pried that out of him."

Changsub let out a lengthy exhale as he mulled over Chorong's story. Somehow the news about Ilhoon wasn't too surprising. It added up with what little he knew about Ilhoon from being childhood friends with Hyunsik but Changsub was more surprised by the fact that Ilhoon had actually opened up about it. 

"Kim Namjoo you nosy freak…"  Changsub thought with grudging admiration.

He quickly made a mental note to himself to be more careful around Namjoo in case she ever tried to dig into his family matters uninvited.

"Anyways…" Chorong continued, yawning again. "It was a real crazy night and I didn't get to very much sleep."

"Dang I'm sorry." Changsub said apologetically, feeling somewhat unsure of how to soothe Chorong's mood in this situation.

He looked over at her present that lay on the bed and picked it up. 

"Hey Chorongie." 

"Hmm?" 

Changsub turned the box over in his hand and bit his lip. 

"I know we were gonna go on that date today but if you'd rather stay home and sleep that's okay with me. I can just come by real quick and drop off your present." 

Chorong said nothing for a second and Changsub was almost scared that she would agree to the suggestion but she finally spoke.

"Changsub-ah that's thoughtful of you but we planned it days ago and it'll be our last chance before I go back to Cheongju for Christmas." She said.

"Are you sure though?" Changsub asked worriedly. "I don't want you to be tired…"

"I'll be fine. It's still early anyways so I can rest up before we go." Chorong insisted.

Changsub looked down at Chorong's gift again and debated his options. Of course he wanted to trust her words and go through with the date but her acting wasn't fooling him and he could tell from her voice that she was putting on her strong face again.

He glanced towards the door of his bedroom and suddenly an idea came to him.

"Tell you what." He said, brightening slightly. "Why don't you come over to my place and we can have the date at home."

"At home?" Chorong asked.

"Yeah. That way you can just relax here and we can order takeout and watch movies or something." Changsub replied.

"But what about the others…?"

"They won't be a problem. Eunkwangie hyung is leaving after lunch and the other two are already gone so it'll be just us."

"Hmm…"

"So what do you say?"

Changsub waited as Chorong took her time to respond.

"Okay." She agreed.

Changsub broke into a grin.

"Cool. I'll come pick you up the same time then." He said.

"Mmm thanks Changsub-ah…" Came Chorong's sleepy reply. 

They said their goodbyes and Changsub ended the call feeling excited but somewhat nervous. 

A date? At home? All alone with his girlfriend? Oh his mother would have his head for this if she ever knew. 

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A/N  Wandered off track a little bit but we're back on the main road with some Changrong chapters hehe.