“Good morning everyone! And what a wonderful day, I must say! It’s a good morning to wake up to, don’t you think so, Ron?”

“Yes, James, I must agree with you on this one. The snow is falling, and we can look forward to a great first day in December! Don’t we all love Christ-”

The clock radio was quieted by a hand hitting the ‘off’ button in order to shut it up. The owner of the hand groaned, and rolled over in bed.

“Don’t remind me,” he mumbled, his tone bitter. He took a deep breath, and very slowly, he cracked his eyes open. It was still quite dark outside, but it was slowly getting lighter as the world woke up from its slumber.

The quiet humming of the outside traffic calmed him, and he was lulled in a false sense of security. It could have been any other day of the year - except, it wasn’t. It was the first day of December, the first day of what he considered to be twenty four days of pure torture.

Thinking of it only gave him a headache, so he pulled the duvet over his head, and pretended to be asleep. He heard a soft murmur from outside his room, and not long after, he heard footsteps that was shuffling towards the direction of his room. It was unmistakably his little sister, who had a habit of waking him up at this time every year to tell him how happy she was that it was Christmas-month, as she so prettily called it.

He took a deep breath, and hid further into his duvet in hope to come off as invisible.

Okay, take a deep breath now. Brace for impact. Three, two, on-

“Jonginnie!” his little sister cried as she skipped into his room. She didn’t seem to understand the fact that he was trying to hide from her, because she jumped in his bed, ripping off his duvet.

“Jongin Jongin Jongin!”

Jongin sniffed, and reluctantly opened his eyes to take a good look at her.

She was virtually glowing, and the childlike innocence that surrounded her almost made her look cute. Almost. The fact that she was wearing her reindeer-pajama while jumping around in his bed this early in the morning made her lose some of her charm.

Really, how can anyone have this much energy at this time of the day? It isn’t even past ten yet, Jongin thought bitterly, as he slowly sat himself up, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

“It’s rude waking someone up this early on a Saturday, Sun Hee.”

She looked at him with her big, innocent eyes, and frowned. “It’s not early,” she argued, small pout forming on her lips as she spoke, “and besides, you’re always awake at this time!”

Jongin almost thought that she was going to cry, seeing the way her lower lip was trembling, but her comeback was quick.

“But Jonginnie, aren’t you happy? It’s December! It’s almost Christmas!” she beamed, and gave him a bone-crushing hug. She was pretty strong for being a small child, if Jongin was going to be honest. But he wasn’t. Oops.

Jongin huffed. Almost Christmas? It’s still twenty three days left!

Any other (sane) human being was looking forward to the holidays and everything that followed, but Jongin clearly did not. Everything about Christmas made his soul cry, and all he wanted was to sleep all December away.

Sadly, that was not possible, so he just had to live with the pain.

He slowly shook his head and pushed his little sister away so that she wouldn’t strangle him with her excitement. He sighed heavily, and lifted her off his bed.

“Go away please, you’re disturbing my brain,” he said flatly while he gently shoved her out the door.

She frowned at him again, but she didn’t let his brother’s mood kill her spirit so the frown disappeared as soon as it came.

“Okay, but mom told me to tell you it’s breakfast soon!” she said, and with that, she made her retreat to wherever she came from (an alien planet, maybe?).

Jongin closed the door, and walked back to his bed before he plumped down on it, face first. He groaned into his pillow, feeling his headache from earlier getting worsened by a tenfold.

Damn Christmas and everything that came with the stupid holiday. Stupid stupid stupid.

Not soon after he thought that, he heard a soft knock on his door.

“Come in,” he said, his voice muffled by his pillow.

His mother popped her head through his door, smiling gently. “It’s breakfast, Jonginnie, would you please get dressed and come eat?”

Jongin only shook his head and didn’t even spare her a glance, which only made her laugh at him.

“Okay, but don’t be late, okay?” And with that, she disappeared again.

He waited for as long as five seconds before he made a move. Slowly, very slowly, he pushed himself up from the bed again, groaning in displeasure as he did so. Grabbing a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, he took a quick glance in his bedroom mirror and fixed his hair so that he at least looked presentable and not like some sort of a zombie, before he shuffled into the dining area where his mother had prepared their breakfast. Christmas or not, his mother was very careful about keeping traditions and he didn’t want to disappoint her. This was their annual first-of-December-breakfast, so. Yeah.

Besides, he was hungry. One could not function without food.

He slid soundlessly into his chair and pretended he didn’t see his mother’s grateful smile that she sent him. He only poured orange juice into his glass, and started chewing slowly on a piece of toast that was sent his way.

His little sister, though, was a little bit more lively than him, and went on an on about what she wanted to do before Christmas Eve. Their mother only laughed along and just said that December should definitely have more days, because there was no chance they’d have time to do all that.

Jongin’s father was too engrossed in his newspaper that he didn’t pay any attention to what was going on around him, only throwing in a comment here and there.

“When we go to the Snow Hotel, I wanna have the banana split, and we have to go skiing, and mom can we please go to the pool where they have candy and Christmas decoration this year?” Sun Hee beamed, making her parents smile at each other at her innocence.
“I can’t wait to meet Katy and Jonathan again at the family Christmas gathering, and I wanna invite grandma Joy to the Christmas concert this year, and and and,” the little girl went on and on and on. Jongin was amazed how his little sister seemed to fit the word Christmas into nearly everything this morning. It was Christmas this and Christmas that and Christmas everywhere.

Deciding that he has had enough, he abruptly stood up, making all conversation around the table halt.

“I’m not feeling too well, so I’m just going to go for a walk. Thanks for breakfast.”

He bowed politely, and before anyone had the chance to interrupt, made his way towards the hallway. He put on his converse, deciding that maybe going down to the city would calm his headache, and he slid out of the door while he slipped on his coat.

As the cool winter air hit him in the face, he took a deep breath and exhaled.

It felt refreshing, finally being able to breathe without feeling choked. Plugging in his iPod, he slowly made his way towards the city, humming under his breath. Although, the closer to the city he got, the more he realised what a bad idea it had actually been. He had honestly hoped that there wouldn’t be any Christmas stuff out yet, but boy, was he wrong.

Christmas decoration were hanging everywhere; the trees and bushes were accessorized with lights, paper angels were hanging from the branches and every store played loud, obnoxious Christmas music as if trying to lift the Christmas spirit to an even higher level. Really, wasn’t it enough with one store playing music? Did all of the stores have to play? Really?

To be quite frank, it drove Jongin mad and it sure didn’t help his bad mood at all - quite the opposite, actually. He sighed heavily and started doing breathing exercises in order to calm himself down.

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Breathe, Jongin, breathe.

But yeah, it wasn’t that bad really. He had seen worse, like that year where people thought it would be cool if everyone was singing old Christmas songs on every corner of every street.

He shuddered at the thought of it. Stuff of nightmares, I tell you.

Looking around, he felt incredibly small, like an animal trapped in a cave. As he thought about it, he only found one solution to his problems - going to Nevermore Cafe, his beloved cafe, where he was certain there would be no such thing as Christmas.

He made his way through the mass of people, eager to get there, but no matter how hard he pushed he didn’t seem to get anywhere. It was just so many people.

He accidentally bumped into a guy and was about to apologise when the man turned around, and caught the sight of him. He looked at Jongin, being all smiley and Christmas-y and stuff and Jongin felt chills going down his spine. He was dressed in a complete Santa outfit, beard and all, and either was he stuffed with pillows underneath his clothes, or he was a ing balloon. That guy looked stuffed. And creepy. Don’t forget creepy, with his big grin that screamed ho ho ho I’m going to eat you!

Jongin choked on air.

“Merry Christm-”, the man (Santa) started but before he could complete his sentence, Jongin was off, running towards the direction of the cafe. Enough was enough. It had only been a couple of hours but he was already worn out.

When he finally spotted the cafe, he slowed down and released a breath he didn’t know he was holding and smiled. Finally free from creepy Santas.

Upon entering the cafe, a strong smell of freshly baked cookies hit him, and it calmed him down immediately.

He took a deep breath, before he sat down by his usual spot in the far left corner. He leaned back against the wall, and took another deep breath to savour the smell of the cafe.

The atmosphere in the cafe was very different from what it was outside; it was calm and collected, and only soft music could be heard in the background. There was no Christmas decorations in sight, and it made Jongin happy. At least he had one place he could escape to for the next few weeks.

Turning off his iPod, he closed his eyes, deciding that it was nice just listening to what was going on around him, and before he knew it, he was dozing off, the soft hum of the cafe lulling him to a dreamless sleep.

★

"You shouldn’t be sleeping in a cafe, Kim Jongin,” someone whispered near his ear, and it made Jongin literally jump a feet up in the air, nerves alert. As his rapidly beating heart calmed down, he glared at the source of the voice, which turned out to be no other than his best friend.

What an .

“Do that again, and I’ll kill you, Oh Sehun,” he gritted through clenched teeth while shooting daggers at him with his eyes.

Sehun only laughed at his antics while he slid into the chair opposite him.

“Sorry, I just thought it would be nice if you woke up this year. You know you still have school, right?”

Jongin huffed, and kicked him in the shin, making Sehun yelp.

“You’re mean,” he pouted, rubbing his sore spot. Jongin only snorted, before he sat up straighter and stretched his sore muscles. A cup of coffee was sent his way, and he looked at Sehun with curious eyes, who promptly rolled his eyes.

“Well, since you were basically drooling on our tables, without any coffee, I thought I could as well buy you one since my shift was over anyways. Besides, I’m nice to people, unlike a certain someone.”

“Hey, watch it before my coffee ends up in your pretty little face!”

They ended up in a glaring competition for a whole ten seconds, before they burst out laughing simultaneously.

If there was one good thing that could be said about the friendship between Jongin and Sehun, it was that they could insult each other in any way and form without  the other getting offended. They knew each other too well to take any insult seriously.

(Besides, if they should take everything the other say seriously they wouldn’t even be friends, considering how often they badmouthed each other.)

Taking a deep breath in an attempt to stop the laughing, Sehun leaned back in his chair and looked out of the window, before looking at Jongin again with curious eyes.

“So, anything going on in the volleyball world of yours that I might want to know?”

Jongin took a sip of his coffee, shrugging, “Well, we have a quite important match soon so we have to practice hard if we’re going to have a chance at winning, but other than that it’s all the usual. I’m still the best one.”

Sehun snorted at his last comment.

“Well, good to hear you still have your foot up your . It’s good to have someone who isn’t as down to earth as us normal people.” He emphasised the word normal, but Jongin pretended he didn’t understand what he was talking about. Instead, he aimed for a kick again, but Sehun had learned from his earlier mistakes, so he dodged it at the last second. He stuck his tongue out in victory, which made Jongin roll his eyes at him.

“You ungrateful brat, Sehun. Just you wait until I become world famous. You’ll be glad I even bothered to talk to you.”

“Mmm. Call me when you’re sober, yeah?”

Jongin pff’ed. “I’m sober yeah? Stop fooling around.”

Refusing to answer (in fear of boosting Jongin’s confidence, really, he didn’t need more of that), Sehun just sighed heavily, and leaned towards the window. He drew a smiley face in the condensation that his hot breath made on the window and smiled dopey.

Realizing he had lost his friend to the land of dreams, Jongin huffed.

And this guy is my best friend. Really.

He changed the subject in hope for a response.

“How’s your horse going by the way? What was his name again... Horsey?”

Sehun rolled his eyes at him and took a sip of his iced tea, before answering, “No, his name isn’t Horsey and yeah, he’s fine. I mean, I still can’t make him do the pirouette or the piaffe properly, and it’s like this huge dressage-competition coming up and I really don’t want him to up but ugh. He’s a pain in the . He goes forwards when he’s supposed to stand still and he goes backwards when he’s supposed to go forwards and do you think he’s retarded because I really think so.”

Jongin really had no idea what he was talking about, but he just nodded and pretended he knew all of the weird words that fell out of Sehun’s mouth as he continued blabbering about the competition and his horse and oh what the heck.

What the is a piaffe?

While Sehun was too distracted with his talking to notice anything, Jongin quickly stole his muffin that was lying innocently on his plate and propped it into his mouth, still nodding at the appropriate places.

Mmm. Muffins.

Frowning, Sehun suddenly stopped talking.

“Did you just eat my muffin?”

Jongin quickly shook his head, muffin crumbs everywhere. “Mm, no, why do you ask?”

Sehun sighed heavily, and leaned back in his chair again. “What am I going to do with you, Jongin, really.”

This made Jongin smile brightly, holding his hands in front of him, palms faced up.

“Buy me more muffins!”

“Hey you said you didn’t-”

“Muffins.”

Sehun only rolled his eyes, but stood up either way and made his way towards the counter. When he came back though, it was with a cookie and not a muffin as Jongin specifically asked for.

“Sorry, I drove over the muffin so it’s a bit flat. I hope you like it either way,” was his excuse as he sat down, sugar sweet smile in place.

Not wanting to be rude, Jongin took a bite of the cookie and nodded approvingly when it tasted good. “Not bad.”

(He knew it wasn’t bad because a cookie a day keeps the doctor away, and he basically lived off cookies. Or, the cookies that were made in this cafe, that is. Muffins were just meh, if he was going to be completely honest. Sehun knew him too well. Good dog boy.)

“So, how’s work?” Sehun asked, leaning back in his seat, making himself more comfortable.

Jongin wrinkled his nose, before he shrugged.

“It’s the same. Key is nagging about the article as always, and Jonghyun is flashing around with his work at any occasion he gets,” Jongin answered, and took another bite of the cookie, munching on it, savouring the taste in his mind for later. The cookies at this cafe were the best Jongin have ever had the privilege of eating. Heck, everything in this cafe was good.

“And what are you planing for Thursday?” Sehun asked - curious to what Jongin was planing on writing for this weeks column. Jongin used to write for the local newspaper, and Sehun actually looked forward to read it every week. Not that he was going to tell Jongin that.

“I don’t know. I haven’t found any inspiration yet,” he said, shrugging, and looked over some of the people sitting around in the cafe, trying to find some inspiration.

The column was a pain in the when he didn’t have any inspiration, or didn’t know what to write about.
But then again, the column gave him a kind of satisfaction in a way that nothing else did; listening to people discussing his words, his opinion, and just sharing his thought of life. It felt like an accomplishment.

Sehun nodded to that and did the same - watching all the people sitting in the cafe, chatting, laughing.
One of the best things about their relationship was that they didn't need to speak or keep a conversation going; they could just be there, together. No words needed to be said in order for the boys to understand each other.

★

Jongin took another sip of his coffee, before he propped his head on his chin, and looked out of the window. Sehun had left him a while ago when he had gotten a text from his riding instructor, who told him that he needed to meet him in the stable. The boys had bid their goodbye, and Jongin hadn't moved since then. It felt kind of nice, except for the fact that he couldn't feel his anymore. Sitting for too long apparently wasn't good for your , he noticed, and sniffed.

He glanced at his watch, cursing when he realized it was actually getting rather late, and whether he liked it or not, he probably should be heading home. Maybe his mom missed him.

(Kidding. He just wanted food. And, um, yeah, he hadn’t eaten a proper meal besides the cookie and muffin since breakfast, so he kind of longed for some real food.)

Reluctantly, he stood up from his seat, and threw away his garbage before he walked out of the cafe and into the cold winter evening.

Looking up at the gradually darkening sky, he sighed.

Day one complete.
Twenty three days to go.
 

★