Jongin was standing early outside the library like Taemin had told him to. He was curious what the blond boy meant when he said that ‘Christmas is a time for joy and peace. It’s a time for people to not worry.‘

Isn’t it just that everyone does during December? Worrying if they have everything they need, about having enough time to clean and get all their presents for god knows who? Remembering everyone that you use to write a Christmas card to, or someone that expect to get one! If they have made enough Christmas cakes, and what if they have forgotten something? Then Christmas would be destroyed. And they would tell everyone they meet that it is destroyed too!

December equals stress. That’s how it has been, and always will be. And it was nothing the blond boy could do to change that!

After ten minutes or so, Taemin came strolling from one corner of the building. His eyes went big, and a big smile formed in his face, as he picked up his pace.

“I didn’t even know if you’d show up”, he said when he was in reach so Jongin could hear him without him shouting.

“I said I would, didn’t I?” Jongin answered back, trying to sound tired and uninterested.

Taemin nodded, and waved with his hand, telling Jongin to follow him.

They walked side by side a few streets, toward the center of the city before Taemin cut out on a side street. Jongin had not been there too many times before, and looked at the shops that was neatly placed along the pavement. He started to notice that the further they walked in this street, the worse the shops became. Some of them looked old and dusty, while others had big holes in their roof, and many were vacated.

“Ehm, Taemin. Where are we?”, Jongin asked a little unsure to where the blond boy was leading him. The streets was starting to look like a terrible Halloween movie, and he almost expected that sooner than later; a man with a knife in his hand would jump out from one of the shops without a door, covered in blood.

“We are in one of the side gates. Like you see there are not many that goes here”, Taemin said without looking back. Jongin nodded and kept a close eye at every shop without a door as they walked further down the street.
After walking for a while - changing directions now and then to streets that were so small the boys could not walk beside each other; the street suddenly opened up a little and a big old house came into Jongin’s view. It looked scary and cold, and the atmosphere around the house were just like at a graveyard.

Jongin looked at Taemin a little worried, when the older boy walked up to the big scary house.

Really? Is he some kind of bait to get people like me to come with him to scary places where no one would hear their screams?

Jongin shuddered and stopped at the steps, not wanting to come any closer to the scary house.
Taemin opened the door and stepped into the dark house, not looking back at Jongin at all.

Was he serious? Does he really expect me to walk in there?

Jongin stayed his ground, waiting for the blond to come back out from the house and tell Jongin it was just a joke. He came out again alright, but he did not go for the joke.

“Are you coming?”

Geez, he was serious!

Not wanting to look like the scary cat he actually was, he nodded and walked slowly up the stairs.
Then he walked into the room. It had a great entrance, and a big stair was placed in the middle of the room. It looked like an old palace, but now the only thing it reminded him of, was still a graveyard. (Graveyards is the most terrifying things in this world. Almost as scary as bugs!)

Taemin smiled and told him to wait there in the hall for a minute while he was going to get something. Jongin did not answer. He was deeply into the last horror movie he had watched, and he was now regretting it terribly. The movie had this kind of fainted walls, no light, and he was sure if the TV could transfer smell as well, it would have smelled like this. Rotten, ancient dirt.

Suddenly a cold shiver ran down his neck, and he turned his head for a closer look. He thought he saw four eyes watching him, but Jongin pushed the feeling away and looked at the direction Taemin had left.

Why can’t he hurry up?

Then suddenly a loud sound was heard of a door slamming behind him. Jongin jumped ten feet in the air, and hasn't it been for the fact that the scare took his voice, he would have squealed like a girl.

A loud creak was heard from the stairs and Jongin looked up, seeing a lot of eyes at the top of it. They all looked looming and reminded him of the demons eyes from the movie he had watched. He remembered they would come closer, slowly approaching the unlucky seoul in the room, suddenly attacking them, biting, chewing and eating him alive. Jongin started to back out from the house; no way in hell he stayed here any longer. Taemin could just be eaten by, whatever.

But before he could get that far, the door behind him slammed shut and Jongin held his breath for a moment, before he turned around on his heel and tried to open the door, but it was locked.

“Let me out, let me out, please let me out”, he shouted, hitting the door and looked behind, something he should not have done. The threatening eyes was now making their way down the stairs, slowly and Jongin panicked.

“Let me out of here”, he screamed and shook the door. But the door was still locked and would not move. Jongin turned around again, his back against the wall now.

Please don’t come closer, don’t come closer.

He started to look for a way out of there, but he was surrounded. There was no where he could escape.

I knew it I knew it. I should never have followed Taemin.

Then suddenly a loud voice was heard and all the eyes looked at something coming down from the stairs. The thing who had the voice was coming fast and Jongin though his heart would stop.

Then he heard the voice again, and he blinked a little, thinking that a big and strong murderer or the devil would never have a so soothing voice as that.

“Taemin is that you? The light disappeared an hour ago, and I can’t.... Oh, there the light... Who are you?”

The light suddenly came back, and a small man was standing in front of Jongin at the bottom of the stairs. He looked much older than Jongin though, but that was not unusual since Jongin was rather tall.

Jongin was not sure how to process everything, and he wanted to facepalm himself when he realised that the demon eyes from before; belonged to a bunch of children.

Are you kidding me? I got a heart attack because of some children? Okay, now I really have to get my head checked.

The man looked at Jongin with a question on his face.

Maybe I should say something?

“Ehm, I’m Kim Jongin”, he mumbled and bowed to the older. Then suddenly Taemin came walking out from one of the side corridors. Jongin sigh in relief and the man standing before Jongin got a big and warm smile spread across his face.

“Ahh, Taemin there you are. I was just telling this boy about the light”, he greeted and smiled.

He reminds me of someone!

“Yeah, I saw it when we arrived, so I hurried over to fix it”, the blonde answered and smiled back.

Then the man pointed to Jongin with a question across his face.

“Ahh, that’s Jongin. He will be joining us today, If you don’t mind”, Taemin said and the man light up.

“No of course not. Everyone is welcome here. I am Kim Ryeowook, nice to meet you”, he said and held out his hand for Jongin to shake it. Jongin smiled and took the man’s hand in his, and then it struck him who the man reminded him off.

He reminds me off my grandma Joy.

“Okay everyone. please say hi to Jongin, he is going to join us for the day”, Ryeowook announced, and Jongin’s heart fell again.

Great. My whole sunday used on some kids. uGH I hate kids.

He forced a smile and lifted his hand to a greeting. The children looked at him in awe, and Jongin could not find any reasons why.

“Okay then, lets go to work”, Ryeowook said and suddenly all the children started to run toward the door on Jongin’s right hand. It looked like they were running toward him at first, so he backed off, and looked horrified at all the children's running past him.

Calm down. It’s just a Sunday Jongin, it’s just a Sunday.

But he hadn't been on Nevermore cafe yet for his usual coffee.

Bloody hell, I am now lithely in hell, he thought and followed Taemin and Ryeowook.

They walked to a big hall with tables standing all around in the room. There were bunches of papers and two scissors laying on each table. The kids were already eagerly clipping in them, and Jongin’s eyes turned big when he saw the huge boxes with paper snowflake standing beside each table.

He picked up one in the nearest box and looked at it. The snowflake was similar to the one his sister made, but this one was much more neatly made. The boy sitting at the table must be really good in clipping snowflake. And so was all the other children.

“What? Why do they make so many. It’s like a factory,” Jongin stated and looked at Taemin and Ryeowook for an explanation. Taemin looked at Ryeowook and shared a look before he walked over to one of the children. Ryeowook waved with his hand, signalising to Jongin to follow him to one corner of the room so they could talk without the children hearing them.

“It somehow is. Every year before Christmas the big males order paper snowflakes from us, and we get a small amount of money for it. The childrens don’t mind, they think of it as a game. And they know that if they don’t do this the... Well, the orphanage is almost broke, but on Christmas we can celebrate because then we have enough money to do things a little more exciting” he finish of, just slightly referring to this and that.
Jongin suddenly got a thousand unanswered questions, but was unable to ask them, as one of the children called for Ryeowook’s attention. He was left in the corner not understanding a damn .

★

You gotta be kidding me!

A small bowl with oatmeal was set before him, and he almost puked by the smell.

I hate oatmeal.

The children around him didn’t seemed to think much of it, as they were already eating.
Jongin picked up the spoon and nudged the thing in his bowl. He filled the spoon and lifted it up, shrinking his nose.

No way in hell they are going to get me to eat this .

A loud growl came from his stomach, getting the kid that sat beside him to look at him. He smiled shyly, and the kid seemed to shrugged it off as he continued to eat.

Oh, so hungry. Won’t eat that. Need-food!

The kid tucked on his arm and Jongin leaned down when the kid showed him to do that. (He has a sister, he is not unfamiliar to kids)

“If you don’t like oatmeal, you can come on Christmas eve. We get sausages then” he said and turned to his food again.

Jongin blinked and wanted to ask the kid what he meant with that, but was interrupted by the girl sitting at his other side.

“If you want, you can have some of the sugar I have saved from last year!” She said and held her palm up with a tiny little package with the sweat in. She was one of the oldest children at the orphanage, and she had soft curled black hair flowing down her back.

“The oatmeal tastes better with it on” she explained and waited for Jongin to take the sugar bag from her palm. Jongin looked at the little girl and smiled.

“You keep it to later”, he said and blinked to the girl. The girl looked a little sad at first, but nodded and put the bag back into her pocket. Jongin was curious to what the boy at his other side ment, but thought he would not get a proper answer from him, since he was very young, so he turned back to the girl and waited for her to see that he wanted to speak to her. She turned to him, blinking her eyes wondering if he maybe regretet the offer.

“What did he mean that I should come back on Christmas eve beacause then he will get sausages?” Jongin asked, pointing at the boy on his other side and smiled to the little girl.
“It means that we will have sausages on Christmas eve,” the girl said wondering if he did not see the obvious in that?
Jongin chuckled and nodded. “Yes I understand, but why can’t you have it now for example” he asked patient.

“Because we have oatmeal now” the girl said confused by the older male. Was he stupid or something?

Jongin, started to get impatient, but tried once again. “Can’t you have it tomorrow then?”

The girl shook her head. “No, we can’t afford it”, she said as the most obvious thing in the world.

“Can’t afford it?” Jongin asked confused. The girl sighed, she was now getting impatient too, and she could not see why this boy was so curious to what they were to eat every day.

“Ryeowook don’t get much money for taking care of us, but on Christmas Eve, a nice old lady comes with sausages and other food to us, and then we have a feast. This only happens once in the year”, she explained.

“You meant you have to eat this ... I mean oatmeal every day for the whole year?” Jongin asked in shock, correcting himself. He was talking to a kid, so he should try to avoid cursing and so.

The girl nodded with her tiny head, making the curl bounce on her back and Jongin could not help but feel bad for the kids behalf.

Poor kids.

He was silent for a while, and the girl thought that now the boy had gotten answers to all his questions, so she turned back to her food.

Jongin was sitting there thinking about what the girl had said, and then at what Taemin had said.

It’s a time for people to not worry. Not to worry about if the childrens got something to eat!

 

★