Pairing: Heechul/Ryeowook
Words: 1849
Rating: PG
Summary: Heechul is too curious for his own good and Ryeowook is just being really sweet.

“What are you doing?”

“Nothing”

Eyeing him suspiciously, Heechul walks around his younger brother, and tries to take a peek at what he’s trying to hide behind his back. He knows he’s not supposed to be prying, but he can’t help his curiousity peaking and his urge to know it all, is making him not able to leave his dongseang alone.

Ryeowook tries to slowly back away from the prying eyes of his hyung. He knew he should have checked if the hallway was clear before trying to get to the living room unseen, because he didn’t want to be laughed at and pointed at like what happened a few days ago at school.

“So children, today we are going to do something different. As you all know Christmas is almost here.”

The whole class cheered at that but before chaos ensued, the teacher continued, “Okay, okay, calm down and listen. I have a fun assignment for you all. You are going to write a letter to Santa Claus. In this letter you can put anything you want or wish for this Christmas.”

Walking to the first table at the front of the class Ms. Park passes a stack of papers to the boy, “Here, Kim Jibum could you help me pass these out?”

Returning to addressing to the class she explains, “These will not be ordinary letters, try to fill the paper up as much as possible. Draw with your crayons from drawers, paint, cut and paste pictures from the magazines you can find there at the back of the classroom or anything else you find useful. You can find more materials in the cabinet behind me. Use your imagination, but Santa Claus has to be able to make out what is on your wish list. Okay? Let’s start!”

After hearing the assignment most students were quite excited, eager to make their wish list for Christmas. Ryeowook just sat quietly, staring at his still blank paper seemingly lost in thought. His seat neighboor and friend Choi Ji-hyun nudged him softly at the shoulder and asked him what he was thinking so deeply about. “I... am not sure how I am going to…can Santa Claus also make someone like someone more?”, Ryeowook says thinking that he would like his hyung to pay more attention to him and maybe even like him a little bit more than his other hyungs.

“You can always try, just write down the reasons for your wish and maybe Santa Claus will grant it. There is one way to make sure if your letter does reach his hands, leave the letter near the chimney on Christmas eve and when he knows your sleeping he will come. You then have to leave him some hot chocolate milk and cookies beside your letter on Christmas Eve, I heard he really likes that and that’s one way for you to make sure, because you can check if he did drink the chocolate milk or eat one of your cookies”.

Looking at his friend incredulously and seeing the sparkle of sincerity in his friend’s eyes, Ryeowook can’t help to let out a sigh and feel a sliver of hope bubbling up, but it was rudely interrupted by one of his classmates who overheard their conversation “You don’t honestly believe that do you? Santa Claus doesn’t come to our houses through chimneys, I’m not even sure he exists. Though I know that my parents take care of the presents and you should ask for something they can buy for you…your wish is kind of silly.” Before the boy could say more the teacher came to shush them and make them start their assignments.

Lost in thought Ryeowook started to work regardless of what the boy just said, and began to meticulously write his wish and add his own drawings to it. “Who is that supposed to be?”, a voice suddenly booms behind him and looking stricken Ryeowook tries to cover the letter in vain. The letter is tugged away and it’s being passed around. Everyone laughing and pointing at how stupid his wish is, until Ji-hyun snatches the paper back and retuns it to Ryeowook with a sincere smile “Don’t listen to them. Your wish is sweet and as nice… no, even better than their stupid wishes”, he says while glaring at those few classmates who were pestering Ryeowook a moment ago. Ryeowook felt grateful to his friend, but still took their words to heart. 

This brings him back to the present moment. His hyung is looking at him curiously, without a second thought he turns around and runs back to his room, closing the door behind him with a ‘bang’. Leaning against the door, trying to regain his breath, Ryeowook hears his heartbeat beating behind his ears. The urge to curse is bubbling up, but he tries to push it down, because Ryeowook doesn’t curse and isn’t allowed to anyway.

Standing stunned in the hallway, Heechul stands looking at the empty spot where his younger brother was just standing a few seconds ago. Turning around, to just hear a ‘bang’ from the closing of his bedroom door, he marches towards the door and starts banging on it.
“Open the door! What are you doing?! What are you hiding?! Come out now, Ryeowook!!”

With the start of his hyung’s raving to open the door, Ryeowook backs away to sit on his bed and relieves a sigh, thinking about what he should do now. It’s going to be hard to get past his hyung now, especially since his other hyung’s are not there to distract him.

Suddenly it goes silent and Ryeowook wonder what his hyung is up to, did he just give up?
A small rustling sound is heard on the other side, with a click the door swings open and reveals a triumphant looking Heechul-hyung in the door opening. “How--?”
“How did I open this door? Easy, see…” holding up in his hands are the spare keys on a chain to everyone’s room which his parents keep, but it’s obvious that his hyung would know where to find them.

“Now tell me what you were doing,” Heechul says in a demanding tone, he wouldn’t say it in any other way. He just wants to know what his dongseang is up to, especially since he’s being so secretive about it.

Hesitantly Ryeowook tries in vain to think of a way out of this predicament, because his hyung comes up to him and corners him effectively to the bed. With his hyung now hovering over him, he can’t really avoid the inevitable. So he’s just going to get this over with.
“Well, I was just trying to pass my letter with my wish to Santa Claus , and also put some cookies and hot chocolate milk beside it. Because according to Ji-Hyun Santa Claus really likes those and I didn’t want anyone to find out. I didn’t want anyone laug– “. Suddenly Heechul starts laughing and Ryeowook stops his rambling, instantly feeling hurt.

Feeling tears starting to prick at his eyes Ryeowook also feels anger starting to boil, giving his brother a shove. “Why are you such a jerk! That’s why I didn’t want anyone to know, because I didn’t want anyone laughing at me anymore! Sobbing a bit, Ryeowook keeps on telling his hyung off.

Rather shocked, Heechul looks up at hearing his dongseang lose his temper and seeing him on the verge of tears, is making him feel kind of guilty as well. “Okay, okay. I’ll help you okay.” Swallowing, he slowly approaches Ryeowook who has angry tears streaming along his cheeks, he wipes them away and takes his hand to pull him gently to the living room and set everything up.

A bit surprised by his hyung’s actions, Ryeowook’s tears stop and his anger fades away when he feels his hyung pull him gently along. Looking at his hyung sincerily trying his best at displaying the letter, hot chocolate and cookies in the best way possible for his standards that is, Ryeowook can’t help but feel touched.

After setting everything up perfectly Heechul can’t help but feel a bit proud of having done a great job if he may say so himself and Ryeowook seemingly having calmed down as well. It still makes Heechul curious though of what’s in the letter, but he’ll find out later now it’s more important to just keep on appeasing his dongseang, he has never seem him that scary before.

Feeling tired after accomplishing his mission, Ryeowook yawns and lets his hyung usher him back to his bedroom and he almost immediately falls asleep when his head hits the pillow.

After wishing him good night, Heechul quitely closes the door to Ryeowook’s bedroom and stroll slowly back to his own bedroom when he finds that his curiosity starts to peak again. The urge to know what his dongseang was trying to keep from him, that he even threw a scary tantrum. He changes his direction and walks silently back to the living room.

Reaching the living room, he walks to the display beside the chimney. Taking the letter he opens it carefully, in case he needs to place it back to not let Ryeowook find out. Starting to read the content of the letter, his eyes widen in surprise, but the surprise slowly changes to guilt as he read how his dongseang describes how he misses his care and that he feels inferior to his other brothers, even fear that he’s not liked by him and wishes this in this letter to Santa Clause to let his hyung like him a bit more. Which is followed by anger when he reaches the part of how Ryeowook’s classmates laughed at him and his contents of his wish for Santa Claus, his protectiveness pumping through his veins making his blood boil wanting nothing less than to inflict some harm to those ignorant boys. His anger reaches a peak when flails his arms round and knocks the cookies and milk from the table beside the chimney.

The sound of the sudden crash makes Heechul jump out of this seat and he stares into the dark of the hallway to detect any sound or movement, while holding his breath. After several moments of continued silence, Heechul breathes a sigh of relief and slowly sits down again. Thinking about the contents of his dongseang’s letter and in that moment he feels extremely touched by the love Ryeowook has for him and decides in that moment he will change his ways and start to care and pay a bit more attention to his little brother from now on.

Making his way back to his room, he stops at one particular door and opens it quietly to see his dongseang peacefully asleep. A gentle smile crosses Heechul’s face and without much further thought closes the door as quietly as he opened it and leaves for his room to sleep and wake up the next day to first and foremost wake up his beloved dongseang gently with a dazzling smile.