They hadn’t spent time with the rest of their group members all at the same time for months and Hyunjin had suggested they fix that by having a ‘Christmas Party’. Seungmin had tried to talk him out of it at first. Had tried to tell him that holding a get-together at their apartment would take work and would be a whole lot of hassle. If they wanted to meet up they should go out for dinner instead. Then they wouldn’t have to do their own cooking or clean up afterwards. But Hyunjin had just pouted, told him going out sounded far more tiring than staying at home. And anyway he didn’t just want to eat good food and chat, he wanted to do proper Christmas things, he wanted to sing along to Christmas music and play board games. And Seungmin couldn’t really argue that. Taking a stack of board games along to a restaurant would more than likely be frowned upon.

So Seungmin was now attempting to tidy up their living room before their friends arrived. There wasn’t much to do. He needed to straighten up the couch cushions, fold up the blankets Hyunjin had been using the night before and put them away, and then clear the coffee table so there would be room to set up the board games later. Once he’d done that the plan was to move on to the kitchen where he was going to lay out some snacks so everyone would have something to graze on until the real food arrived, the real food being whatever take out they decided to order because Hyunjin had agreed that cooking for eight people did sound like a lot of work. But Seungmin was starting to think he was never going to make it to the kitchen. He’d been working on the living room for twenty minutes already and was still neatening up the couch.

The first interruption to his tidying up had been caused by Hyunjin coming into the room, complaining that he was cold. When Seungmin had told him he’d just put the heating on so he’d soon warm up Hyunjin had complained that he couldn’t wait that long, he was cold now, and he’d wandered over to where Seungmin was standing, wrapped his arms around him, rested his chin on his shoulder and declared that that was better. And Seungmin had returned the hug and let Hyunjin share his body heat for almost a whole minute. Hyunjin was seven months pregnant now and that meant there was no ignoring the fact that their daughter was right there between them, and it made him pretty reluctant to pull away. But he had pulled away, eventually, a hand automatically caressing Hyunjin’s bump as he’d disentangled himself and taken a step back. “I’ll go and find you a sweater.” He’d told him, and a now pouting Hyunjin had told him he’d already looked for his Christmas jumper but couldn’t find it.

Hyunjin had stipulated that the dress-code for their get together was ‘super Christmassy’ and then realised once the invites had been sent that any ‘super Christmassy’ clothing he owned would no longer fit him so a shopping trip had been necessary. Said shopping trip had only been two days ago so Seungmin couldn’t fathom how Hyunjin had lost the thing already, especially not when it was one of the most colourful and garish pieces of clothing he’d ever seen. Maybe it was baby brain he’d mused, as he’d left the room to go look for it, Hyunjin had spent half an hour looking for his phone the other day before realising he’d put it in the pocket of his hoodie. And sure enough it had taken Seungmin all of five minutes to find the jumper, still in the bag, on the floor of their wardrobe, half covered by a jacket that had fallen from a hanger.

When he'd handed it over Hyunjin had rewarded Seungmin with a blinding smile and then had promptly interrupted his cleaning again when he’d started flailing around, lost inside his own clothing. “How did you even…” Seungmin had mumbled after helping him find the neck of his jumper so he could escape, finishing up by tugging the hem of the jumper down over his bump. It was like dealing with a toddler he’d thought with a sigh before turning back to the couch.

The couch that Hyunjin had then decided to throw himself down onto, which would have been fine with Seungmin if he hadn’t chosen the side he’d already neatened up. With yet another sigh Seungmin had shaken his head at him and turned to the cushions at the other end of the couch only for Hyunjin to give a heavy sigh of his own.

“What?” Seungmin had asked, knowing that if he ignored it Hyunjin would simply continue sighing until he got his attention.

And Hyunjin had told him the whole reason he’d left their bedroom in the first place had been because he wanted chocolate milk and now, if he wanted it, he was going to have to get back up to get it.

This was most definitely a hint that Hyunjin wanted Seungmin to go get it for him. And while Seungmin would usually pretend he hadn’t worked this out and wait for Hyunjin to either go get the milk himself or ask him properly, the sight of his boyfriend sitting there, hair dishevelled after the fight with his Christmas jumper, a hand on his very rounded belly, had broken that resolve immediately. He was just too adorable to say no to.

So he’d told Hyunjin to stay where he was and he’d retrieved the chocolate milk without argument. And as he’d held out the individual carton complete with straw he’d been unable to help as smile as he was again hit with the full force of Hyunjin’s cuteness. But as cute as Hyunjin was he still had things to do so hoping this would be enough to keep him occupied he’d let Hyujin take it from him and turned back to the job at hand.

And now he’d finally gotten task one out of the way, the last couch cushion had been straightened and he was stepping back to admire his handiwork. And yes, if you ignored Hyunjin’s side of the couch that was perfect, next job blankets and that shouldn’t take too long, all he had to do was fold them.

But as he walked past Hyunjin to get to the pile of blankets he’d thrown onto the armchair he was stopped by a tug at the waistband of his jeans.

“Come sit.” Hyunjin demanded as Seungmin turned to look at him eyebrow raised.

“Later.” He told him, “I need to finish tidying up before everyone starts arriving.”

“We’ve got ages to do that.” Hyunjin protested, “come sit with me. I’ve missed you.”

Seungmin thought about pointing out they hadn’t been apart today, unless you counted the couple of hours that morning where he’d been awake and Hyunjin had still been asleep, or the negligible amount of time between him leaving to tidy the living room and Hyunjin emerging from their room, complaining he was cold, looking for chocolate milk. He also thought about pointing out that Hyunjin shouldn’t be using the word ‘we’ when they both knew full well that Seungmin was the one who was going to end up doing most of the tidying up and preparation. But he didn’t point out either of these things. He couldn’t bring himself to. Hyunjin was looking at him now, eyes wide and beseeching, his bottom lip was jutting out as he pouted, and yeah, the level of cute he was displaying was, once again, just too high to handle. “I’d love to baby,” he said instead, hating to deny him, “but I need to get this done.”

“I know…” Hyunjin whined, “… but don’t you want to say hello to Squish?”

“She’s awake?” Seungmin asked, taking a step closer. Their little girl didn’t have a name yet but Squish had become her nickname as soon as Hyunjin had started to notice a change in his waistline. He’d been sulking over the fact his clothes were no longer fitting properly and that he didn’t even have a bump to blame. Had groused that he didn’t look pregnant just ‘squishy’ and he hated it. And Seungmin had told him there was nothing to hate, he looked great. Perfect even. That any squish was down to their baby and he loved to see it even if Hyunjin didn’t. And that was it, ‘Squish’ had stuck.

“She is.” Hyunjin confirmed, patting his bump. “Come feel.”

And Seungmin found himself biting his lip. He did have a lot to do but he hadn’t said good morning to their little girl yet, not properly. He’d pressed a kiss to Hyunjin’s belly before leaving their bedroom but she hadn’t been awake yet. Hyunjin hadn’t really been awake either, he’d mumbled a groggy sounding ‘morning’ and as Seungmin had pulled back his barely open eyes had closed completely. He’d been asleep again before Seungmin had even reached the door.  And considering how active Squish had been the night before Seungmin hadn’t been too surprised at the lack of response he’d gotten from them both. But it had meant he hadn’t gotten to feel his daughter move yet today. And feeling her move was always the most amazing thing. “Okay… fine. But I’m just saying hello and that’s it.” And he came to sit beside Hyunjin on the couch.

“I thought she’d want to sleep this morning.” Hyunjin said as he took Seungmin’s hand and placed it on his bump. “But she’s kicking like crazy.”

The firm push Seungmin immediately felt against his palm backed this statement up and he smiled, rubbing a hand over the curve of Hyunjin’s belly, marvelling at how strong she was. The jumper Hyunjin was wearing somehow made him look even rounder and Seungmin couldn’t help thinking their little Squish was going to start running out of room in there soon. He wondered if he’d get to feel her kick like this quite so often once she did. “You were thrashing around like a fish caught in a net not too long ago.” He reminded his boyfriend, “It’s no wonder she woke up.”

“If I was stuck inside my jumper like that for much longer I could have suffocated and died.” Hyunjin declared with a huff, moving Seungmin’s hand back to where their little girl was still kicking.

“Your Mummy’s so dramatic.” Seungmin said softly, directing the words at Hyunjin’s middle. “Wool is breathable, he wouldn’t have died.”

“You don’t know that.” Hyunjin grumbled. “I could have.”

“Well he didn’t.” Seungmin continued, ignoring the glare Hyunjin was sending his way, his eyes still trained on his bump. “I rescued him and he’s fine. And you know what? I don’t think he even said thank you. I hope you learn your manners from me and not him when you get older.”

“So rude.” Hyunjin muttered, “I didn’t ask you over here just so you could badmouth me to our daughter.”

And Seungmin guessed he hadn’t. He’d asked him over so he could say hello and he hadn’t done that yet. “Sorry, you didn’t,” he agreed. And he leant forward and pressed his lips to Hyunjin’s middle. “Hi Squish,” he said softly, lips still hovering over the spot he’d kissed, “your Mummy might not have any manners but I like him a lot anyway.  He’s pretty amazing. Even if he did spend all night last night using you as an excuse not to listen to me. I told him he’d be tired this morning if he didn’t sleep and look, I was right. Couldn’t even be trusted to dress himself this morning.”

“That wasn’t an excuse!” Hyunjin exclaimed, scandalised by this claim. “I couldn’t sleep because she wouldn’t sleep.”

Seungmin couldn’t refute this without it leading to an argument, he was sure. Having a tiny person wriggling around in your belly was bound to be more than a little distracting. But if Hyunjin hadn’t been too excited about today to settle down, Seungmin doubted the baby would have been awake in the first place. But saying so probably wasn’t going to help. Hyunjin hadn’t listened when he’d tried to get him to calm down and at least attempt to sleep last night and he wasn’t going to listen if he pointed out to him now that Squish hadn't started kicking until he'd started tossing and turning. “Fine, it wasn’t your fault.” He conceded, “It was all Squish. She was looking forward to today and wanted you to know. That was the problem.”

“It was.” Hyunjin agreed, with a satisfied nod. “I told her that her uncles were coming to visit and she couldn’t wait to see them.”

“Can’t wait for them to spoil her I bet.” Seungmin agreed, giving Hyunjin’s belly one last peck before jumping to his feet. Ever since Hyunjin had developed a bump their friends had been obsessed, if they got too close it was like their hands were drawn there magnetically. If Seungmin was the one who was pregnant he was sure he’d find it too much, he never had liked people encroaching on his personal space, but it didn’t bother Hyunjin in the slightest, in fact he seemed to revel in the attention. But then he always had been quite touchy person Seungmin supposed. But before Hyunjin could enjoy basking in all the attention he was sure to receive they had things to do. “Now are you going to help me tidy up or not?” He, asked holding out his hand before Hyunjin could make the excuse that he just couldn’t get up. "It will be quicker if we do it together."

________ ________

Hyunjin had been offended by the implication that he wasn’t prepared to help organise his own party and had told Seungmin that of course he was going to help. And he had let Seungmin pull him up from the couch. But his idea of helping had been to follow Seungmin around the living room, suggesting where he could put things and pointing out things that he’d missed. Then he’d trailed after him into the kitchen and worked his way through a punnet of grapes while he watched him set out the rest of the snacks on the table. But they had got everything done before their first guest arrived and Seungmin was taking that as a win.

The first person to arrive had been Felix, who had turned up, Christmas jumper clad, reindeer antlers on his head, glitter on his cheeks, carrying two plastic Tupperware boxes, one filled with cookies and the other with brownies. And Seungmin didn’t know what Hyunjin had been more impressed by, the fact he’d brought food or the effort he’d put into following his ‘Super Christmassy’ dress code, but whichever it was he’d told him he was the best and pulled him excitedly into the kitchen to show him what they’d already set up.

Next to arrive had been Changbin and Jisung. Their entrance had prompted a squeal of excitement from Hyunjin which had surprised Seungmin slightly, if Hyunjin was going to squeal at anyone’s arrival he would have guessed it would be Jeongin’s, but then he spotted what they were carrying between them. No one had been told to bring their own snacks but it seemed everyone had decided on their own accord it was something they should do, and Changbin and Jisung had gone for a rather professional looking Christmas tree shaped fruit platter. Hyunjin had said his hellos to them and then had ignored them in favour of following behind Seungmin as he’d taken it into the kitchen and added it to the snack table. Then he’d stood there, torn between wanting to eat the fruit and not wanting to ruin the aesthetic until Felix had pointed out the fresher the fruit was the better it was going to taste and now there was only half a fruit Christmas tree on the table.

A little after Changbin and Jisung, Minho had arrived, and Hyunjin’s eyes had instantly been drawn to the older man’s sweater. It included neither a garish print nor a cute animal in a Santa hat. “Did you not read the invite?” he’d asked, brows furrowing, arms crossed over his bump. And Minho had informed him his sweater was red, red was a Christmas colour wasn’t it? He’d even found some green socks to go with it he’d added, wiggling a foot in Hyunjin’s direction. And then he’d complimented Hyunjin’s own Christmas jumper, commented that he must be doing a good job looking after himself because baby girl was getting bigger every time he saw them, then informed him he was glowing, and Hyunjin had gone from frowning to smiling in a blink of an eye. And his smile had only gotten wider as he’d spotted the box of banana choco pies in Minho’s hands.

So most of their guests were now here. Christmas music was playing, the snacks on the kitchen table were slowly disappearing and Minho might have only started spouting compliments to draw Hyunjin's attention away from his disappointing Christmas outfit but he hadn’t been exaggerating. Hyunjin was currently sitting on the couch, Felix on one side of him, holding his plate of snacks for him, Changbin on his other side with a hand on his bump, a look of awe on his face that made it clear to anyone watching that baby girl was putting on a show. And Seungmin didn’t think Hyunjin had ever looked more content. He was smiling so wide, his cheeks were flushed pink, his eyes were practically sparkling. He really was glowing. And the golden tinsel crown, that Felix had conjured up like magic when Hyunjin had pouted and told him he was jealous of his antlers, just magnified that. He looked happy and healthy and radiant and Seungmin couldn’t resist the urge to pull his phone from his pocket and snap a picture.   

“Cute.” Minho observed and Seungmin was proud of himself for managing to keep his composure. Minho had been in the kitchen with Jisung last time he’d checked, he hadn’t expected him to appear right behind him.

“Very.” He agreed, successfully keeping up the pretence that his heart hadn’t just jumped into his throat. And then his phone buzzed in his hand and he almost dropped it.

Minho smirked.

Seungmin ignored him and opened the notification that had popped up on his phone screen.

“Chan Hyung?” Minho guessed, peering over his shoulder.

“Chan Hyung,” Seungmin confirmed, “They’re five minutes away. Hyunjin will be pleased, he’s been looking forward to seeing Jeongin all week. It’s all he’s talked about.” Hyunjin had been looking forward to seeing all of their friends but he’d always been particularly close to their maknae so it the fact that Jeongin had been so busy recently, and had been struggling to find the time to drop by and visit, had really been getting to him.

“He might want to lower his expectations a little.” Minho suggested. “Jeongin hasn’t exactly been a delight to be around lately. Snapped my head off at least a dozen times when we were recording the other day.”

“He’s been working really hard .” Seungmin reminded him, immediately coming to his friend’s defence. Hyunjin was currently out of action and unable to promote, and since he wanted to spend as much time with his daughter when she arrived as he could Seungmin soon would be too, and that meant the rest of the group had been thrown into individual and unit group activities instead. And Jeongin had seemed to have everything thrown at him at once. As well as working on a unit track with Minho and Jisung which they were planning to release after New Year, he’d also been filling in as a guest host on a radio show, he'd been booked for magazine shoot after magazine shoot, and not only that but he’d been attempting some song writing of his own. It was no wonder he was a little stressed. “And it’s not like you’re a pleasure to be around when you’re tired and overworked either.”

“I’m not.” Minho agreed, unperturbed by this observation. “Everyone knows that though, and you guys can usually work out when I want to be left alone. But lately… I don’t know how to describe it… do you know that kids’ game with the dog? The one where you have to try and take food from its bowl and if you wake it up it tries to snap your hand off?”

Seungmin nodded. He did know it, they’d played it a few times when filming silly variety show style content.

“Well that’s what being around Jeongin feels like right now.” Minho continued, “it’s like you’re in a never ending game of ‘Don’t Wake the Bulldog’, or whatever it’s called. One misstep and he’s liable to lunge at you.”

Seungmin was pretty sure Minho was exaggerating. It took a lot to rile Jeongin up, even when he was stressed. But then he hadn’t seen Jeongin in person for a while, maybe he had been more irritable than usual lately, he wouldn’t know. And the fact Jeongin and Chan were currently running late, well that was odd too. Chan had a habit of getting lost in whatever he was doing and forgetting the time but Jeongin was usually pretty on top of things, there to pull him away from whatever he was working on if they had places to be. “Maybe he’s coming down with something. Remember that time he had the flu, and kept trying to tell us it was a cold? He was a nightmare to be around then.”

“He didn’t seem sick to me last time I saw him, just moody.” Minho informed him. “But maybe. I guess he could be coming down with something. It is the right time of year for it after all.”

_______ ________

And when Chan and Jeongin did turn up at the door Seungmin found himself agreeing with Minho. Jeongin didn’t seem sick. He wasn’t pale or wan or coughing and sneezing. But he did seem pretty moody.

His response to Seungmin’s greeting was a sullen sounding ‘hi’ and as Chan greeted him more cheerfully and went on to apologise profusely for being late Seungmin spotted Jeongin roll his eyes. Then Chan was handing over the box of pastries he’d been cradling and turning to Jeongin,  hands going to his shoulders in order to help him out of his jacket. It was something Seungmin had seen Chan do many times before, but never before had he seen Jeongin react so badly to it.

“I can do it.” The younger man snapped, shrugging his boyfriend’s hands from his shoulders and very violently extricating himself from his jacket.

And rather than argue, Chan took a step back, holding his hands up in defeat. “Okay, you can do it, sorry.”

Jeongin just huffed and let Seungmin take the jacket from him before toeing his shoes off and striding down the hall towards the living room.

“He’s just tired.” Chan explained before Seungmin could ask what that had been about.

“Right…” Seungmin said slowly, not missing the look of concern that had flashed briefly over his friend’s face as he’d watched Jeongin make his way down the hall.

“He didn’t sleep well last night and he didn’t want to get up this morning.” Chan continued, still sounding apologetic. “He’ll be okay once he wakes up a little.”

Seungmin wasn’t buying it. There had to be more to Jeongin’s sudden snarky attitude than him just being tired. In Seungmin’s experience an overtired Jeongin tended to act groggy and confused rather than snappish and irritable. But as much as he wanted to ask Chan what was really going on, he knew it wasn’t the time or the place. Hyunjin had been looking forward to this little gathering for what seemed like forever, had thought long and hard about how he wanted the it to go, planned everything from the snacks to the music to the games he wanted them all to play. Seungmin wasn’t about to ruin it by potentially stirring up drama. If Jeongin really didn’t cheer up by the time everyone left to go home, then he’d give him a call in the morning and ask if he was doing okay. Right now though, he had pastries to put away in the kitchen. “Let’s find somewhere to put these.” He said, holding the box of pastries up and gesturing for Chan to follow him. “Hyunjin went overboard when we went shopping yesterday, so there’s enough food on the table to last a week, so finding some space might be difficult. He’ll love these though, he can’t walk past a bakery lately without wanting to go inside.”

______ _______

As Seungmin had expected, Hyunjin had indeed been delighted by Chan and Jeongin’s contribution to the snack table. So much so he’d relocated from the couch and was now holding court in the kitchen instead, box of pastries open in front of him. Jisung had the honour of being sat to his left this time and was wrinkling is nose as Hyunjin tried to convince him that peanut butter on pepperoni pizza was a genius combination, the half-eaten peanut butter pinwheel he was waving around clearly having sparked the thought. Jeongin was to Hyunjin’s right, sitting close enough to him for their arms to be touching. He wasn’t paying much attention to what Hyunjin was saying, he was too focused on pulling apart the lemon tart in his hands, occasionally popping a piece in his mouth but more often dropping the tiny pieces he was ripping off onto the plate in front of him and squashing them flat, frowning as he did so. It was the same lemon tart Seungmin had watched Jeongin reach for only for Hyunjin to pick it up first and pass it to him. And Jeongin had rewarded Hyunjin with a small smile and a quiet ‘thank you’. It had been a complete reversal in attitude from the way he’d reacted to Chan trying to help him with his jacket.

But even if Jeongin was frowning he did look a little happier now that he was sitting down with food in front of him. And talking of food… “What’s the plan, board games then dinner?” He asked Hyunjin, pulling him away from the peanut butter and pizza debate before it could get started and then spiral out of control. It was what always happened when Hyunjin and Jisung started discussing something, it would inevitably turn from a debate to an argument.

And Hyunjin turned to him, aiming a look of unadulterated disappointment in his direction. “No, I told you the plan. We’re going to play Find the Duck, then we’re going to order dinner and watch a Christmas film while we eat, then we’re going to have hot chocolate for dessert and then we’ll listen to Christmas music and play board games.”

Hyunjin had indeed told him this but in Seungmin defence he’d finalised this plan at around three am, after waking up for the third time that night and struggling to get back to sleep again. There was no need to defend himself though because Changbin was demanding some clarity.

“Find the Duck?” He asked, giving Hyunjin  look that said ‘either I’ve misheard you or you’ve lost your mind’.

“Find the Duck.” Seungmin confirmed for not only Changbin, but the room at large. Everyone, bar Jeongin who was still dismantling the lemon tart in his hand, looked just as bemused. “He hid a duck and he wants you to find it.”

“It’s a duck comforter.” Hyunjin clarified when all this did was sow more confusion. “Minnie’s sister bought it for the baby and it’s really, really cute.”

“And then you lost it…” Minho said slowly, brain clearly working hard, “…so you waited for us, your guests, to turn up and you’re now pretending that you hid it for us to find. That way you don’t have to expend any energy looking for it yourself.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Hyunjin told him, with a huff of irritation. “Find the Duck is a real game and I put in a lot of effort setting it up. There’s a prize and everything.”

“Is the prize your everlasting love?” Jisung asked. “Because if it is I don’t need to play. It was the prize the last time you convinced us all to play a game and I won so…”

“No, it’s not.” Hyunjin snapped at him, annoyance mounting. “It’s a real prize, I thought about what it should be and went out and bought it, even though it was freezing, and then I wrapped it as nicely as I could, because it’s Christmas… but if you don’t want to play then fine, I’ll just keep it for myself.”

And Seungmin thought he should probably step in before things started to get out of hand. It was easy to tease Hyunjin to the point of snapping at the best of times, never mind when he was heavily pregnant and running on very little sleep. However he didn’t have to do any damage control because their leader beat him to it.

“Ignore them.” Chan told him. “I didn’t want to open the present you got us last year, it was so beautifully wrapped. And it sounds like a fun game. Everyone has an equal chance of winning and there’s a gift at the end… perfect for Christmas.”

“Right?” Hyunjin agreed, expression instantly brightening. “And it’s such a good prize too. Whoever wins it is going to love it. There’s a snowman mug and hot chocolate…”

“Hot chocolate?” Jeongin asked, looking up for the first time since Hyunjin had handed him the lemon tart he was still pulling apart.

“Yes.” Hyunjin told him, smile widening, “Hot chocolate and marshmallows and Christmas cookies and fluffy socks…”

“That does sound like a pretty good prize.” Jisung conceded.

“It does.” Felix agreed. “And the game sounds fun too. When can we start looking?”

Hyunjin took a moment to think about it before settling on “Now. Yeah, I think now.”

And that was it, suddenly Hyunjin was the only one sitting at the table.

“Our bedroom is off limits!” Seungmin called after Jisung and Changbin as they left the room.

“As if we want to see what you two keep in your bedroom.” Changbin shouted back, causing Minho to snort and Hyunjin to glare.

Seungmin chose to ignore both Minho and Changbin and instead stepped forward so he could hold a hand out to his boyfriend. “Want to watch from the couch?” he asked.

And Hyunjin’s glare instantly transformed into a smile. “Yes please.” He said, an arm going to support his bump as he grasped Seungmin’s hand and let him help him to his feet. “It’s going to take them a while so we should probably make ourselves comfortable.”