“Santa!” I yelled out. Air didn’t come easy to me as I sat up, covered in sweat. Instead, I was merely gasping for it, trying to fill my lungs with the precious substance. Groans erupted around me in the darkened room, some even grumbled, trying to tell me to go back to sleep. Breath continued to come in short spurts, though. Eyes scanning the dark, I climbed over the body that took up most of my bed. Santa’s sleigh had crashed and I was the only one that knew.

                “Jinwoo, what are—Yah! It’s three in the morning! Go back to sleep!” Eun Soo sleepily demanded when he took note of my silhouette falling to the floor when my foot slipped on one of the rungs of the ladder.

                “I can’t just go back to sleep,” I hissed. “Santa’s sleigh crashed, I have to go find him,” I urgently added. My hyung that shared the bed with me for the night sat up and glanced at the other sleeping lumps in the room.

                “It’s been a couple of weeks since Christmas, he should have been home by now, Jinwoo-ah,” he informed, taking his sweet time to climb down the ladder.

                “No! Do you not know what Santa does after he hands out presents all over the world? Every year, he goes to the Bahamas! This year, he decided to give the reindeer a special treat and took them with him. Rudolph, that crazy little party animal, had one too many martinis so he crashed the sleigh. How could you not know this, Hyung? Everyone knows this!” I stomped my foot. Hearing another chorus of groans, I scanned the room and settled on the bottom bunk closest to me. “Help me wake Cheol Kyoung-Hyung up. He speaks to aliens, so maybe he could talk to his alien friends and see if they know how to find Santa.”

                “That won’t work! You know how he likes to keep his alien business on the down low,” Eun Soo warned, swatting my arm away when I reached over to shake our Hyung. “But! If we wake up Soo Jin Noona, she can get him to go with us! Come on!” My hung then loped out of the room to find Soo Jin Noona, sitting up, her eyes glued to our TV. “Are you still watching the detective marathon?” Eun Soo questioned, sitting beside her to watch the screen.

                “Hyung!” I snapped, knowing that he would get distracted with the show and not help me with what I needed to do.

                “What is he looking for this time?”

                “Santa,” my hung whispered, wriggling his eyebrows. Unwilling to deal with his silliness at the moment, I gave up on them and started to storm towards the front door. “Before Jinwoo storms out into the darkness, could you wake up Cheol Kyoung Hyung? Jinwoo wants him to help us look,” Eun Soo Hyung quickly asked before I got too close to the door.

                “Can I go too? I want to help Santa!” our Noona pleaded, hopping up off of her makeshift bed. Smiling in victory, I enthusiastically nodded. Excited, Soo Jin Noona disappeared into the bedroom. Minutes later, she appeared, dragging a zombie-like Cheol Kyoung out of our room. Too excited for my own good, I rushed to grab all of our coats and threw them at everyone so that we wouldn’t get cold.

                “We need to hurry or else someone could find him before we do! Someone bad!” I announced, prying open the door and running out of our dorm. Not even thinking to check to see if the others were following behind, I continued to rush down the stairs and out of the complex.

                “Jinwoo! Wait!” Eun Soo’s voice split the air, causing me to stop and turn around. “Cheol Kyoung fell asleep on the way down.” Scowling, I shoved my hands into my pockets of my coat and began to pace.

                “He always falls asleep during important times,” I complained. “If he keeps doing this, we’re going to lose Santa,” I cried out, slamming the palm of my head to my forehead. “You know what? I’ll go first, I’ll be in the park where he crashed.”

                “What park is that?”

                “Our usual park!” I replied before I was too far away for him to hear. It took close to fifteen minutes to run to the park where Santa crashed. Once there, I stopped to catch my breath and moved my eyes to scan the blackened area for the silhouette of a sleigh. However, all I could see in this pitch black park were the silhouettes of the things that have always been there such as a handful of trees that were scattered about and the exercising equipment that lay not too far away. Straightening myself out, I jogged in the other direction.

               “Jinwoo-ah, are you here?” I heard my Noona yell once I had circled the park twice, searching through it thoroughly. Not wanting to give up, I continued to look behind every rock and tree like I had  done a hundred times. “Jinwoo! Santa’s not here!” she called again when the trio finally found me.

                “He is here though! I saw him crash!”

                “Where?”

                “In my dream! Santa crashed!” I cried out, running to the next tree. Silence followed my attempts to find our missing holiday figure, and I believed that they were helping me look. “Cheol Kyoung Hyung, use your alien-ness and help find Santa!” I pleaded, stopping.

                “My…alien-ness?” he softly questioned in confusion. Rolling my eyes, I spun around to see Eun Soo Hyung kneeling on the ground, clutching his stomach as he silently laughed.

                “Hyung!” I whined. At the sight of the three that said that they were going to help just stand there, anger rose up inside of me. “You guys never care for what I’m worried about!” I snapped and walked away to search for any hint of the crash away from the park. An hour passed and there was still no sign of Santa. Concluding that someone else found him, I plopped down on the side of the road. What if he was taken away by someone bad? Someone who would demand for more presents and Christmas magic after such a long time after Christmas? Upset with myself for not being quick enough, I balled my hands into fists and fought the urge to cry.

                “Jinwoo-ah…” Soo Jin Noona’s voice floated through the air. Blinking away the tears that were forming, I craned my head around to see her jogging over to me.

                “W-we were too late Noona,” I whispered, my voice threatening to crack. When she saw my struggle to keep back the tears, she crouched in front of me and ran her hand through my disheveled hair. “Someone else found him, and we were too late,” I continued, my bottom lip quivering as I spoke.

                “It’s okay, Jinwoo-ah, it’s okay,” she consoled, still my hair. Pressing the palms of my hands to my eyes, I continued to fight the need to cry. “Don’t cry,” she softly whispered. “Let’s go back okay? And we can see if any of the others got a hold of the North Pole to let Mrs. Clause and the elves know about the crash, okay?” she added after a couple of tears escaped. At that, I got myself together and nodded. Smiling, she helped me stand up once more and led me down the street towards the complex where our dorm was located. Once there, the tears finally settled back down and I was able to go inside by myself. The instant I opened the door, though, I was greeted by our leader dressed up as Santa Clause, while an angry Kim Seol stood to his right, wearing an elf costume.

                “Welcome back, Jinwoo-ah!” Chae Beom yelled. All I saw before I was tackled in a hug was a figure dressed in a reindeer suit running my way. “Our poor Jinwoo-ah,” he cooed, my head with his reindeer hoof. “You thought that Santa was stolen away, didn’t you?” he asked. Shocked that he knew, I stared at him with huge eyes. “Cheol Kyoung called and said that Santa fixed his sleigh and they were well on their way to the North Pole!” he exclaimed and let go of me, a huge smile spread across his face.

                “Really?” I asked, unsure. In response, Chae Beom enthusiastically nodded. Relieved, I threw my arms around my crazy Hyung.

                “But…what I don’t understand is why you’re dressed like this,” Soo Jin Noona commented, looking over the three in costume.

                “Because we lost a bet, remember? And we’re celebrating Christmas today since we finally have a free day,” Kim Seol grumbled.

                “The things I do for my dongsaengs,” our leader grumped and walked away.

                “I don’t even know why Chae Beom’s a part of this, I was supposed to be the reindeer…” Kim Seol pouted.

                “But I love reindeer! And you’re shorter than me, so the only thing you can be is an elf! Who wants a short reindeer leading Santa’s sleigh?

                “You weren’t part of the bet!”

                “I was already wearing the suit!” Chae Beom insisted. “It’s so cozy!”

                “You could have taken it off!” Kim Seol yelled.

                “Someone’s an angry elf,” Eun Soo joked right as he and Cheol Kyoung stepped through the door, their arms full of bags. Scowling, Kim Seol crossed his arms over his chest and joined the grumpy Santa.

                “Here, Jinwoo, go wake up the other two,” Cheol Kung instructed, handing me a bag of party poppers. Grinning, I plucked them from his hands and ran to wake up the other two members in our group so that we could start our celebrations. Now that Santa was safely on his way to the North Pole, there wasn’t a reason for me to worry much longer.

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A/N: Hellooooo readers~ This isn't an actual update, but a *late* Christmas special~ You see, I was so close to being done with the second chapter, but...I lost my notebook and I forgot how it started. This little Christmas update will be for you, my readers, to see what our lovely maknae is like~ And it's also for me to gain inspiration again. I'll work hard, my dear readers~ I hope that you'll stick with us! ^____^ <3

~Milly~