The door swung open, and inside stood a little, round lady. She had long, gray hair that was tied up in a knot on top of her head, with a few loose strands of hair that framed her face. Her smile was warm and welcoming, and it was impossible to be angry in the presence of this good-hearted woman.

“Ah, Sun Hee-ah, what a lovely young lady you’ve become,” the lady said in an admiring voice. Sun Hee giggled before running up to the woman, hugging her as tightly as she could.

“Grandma, I made you a snowflake,” she beamed as she pulled away from the hug and raised her hands where she held the paper snowflake that she had made at school.

“It’s beautiful, dear,” the lady said, taking the paper snowflake from her petite hands, and looked at it, admiring how pretty it was.

“Where is Grandpa, I have a Santa for him,” she asked, and fished out a Santa-like stick from her pocket. It looked more like the drawing of Siwon that Jongin had made than a Santa, but oh well.

“He is sitting in his chair as always,” the old lady told Sun Hee. The little girl was already making her way towards the living room, and the lady looked after her before she turned back to welcome the rest of the people that were standing outside.

“Ohh, my dearest Yoona, how gorgeous you look in that dress,” the lady said in awe and gave Yoona a hug, patting her back.

“You don’t look that bad yourself,” Yoona replied in her gentle voice, hiding her small blush, before she walked inside, smiling to herself.

“Junsu, you don’t look a day older than when I last saw you. How do you keep yourself so fit?” she asked and opened her arms, giving him a hug as well.

“I have been exercising a little now and then,” Junsu said, laugh obvious in his tone as he hugged the lady back.

“And mom, do I smell your famous pudding?” he asked, and the lady smiled to her son. Yes, her son if you haven’t already found out!

“Of course you do. I had to make it since my own son is coming over; I know how much you would appreciate it,” the woman said and let him walk past her, a smile on her face.

Jongin looked at the whole thing with a stone face. It was the same every year; his mother complementing, his father asking about the dessert, and his little sister bringing a present. Every freaking year.

But when the old lady turned towards him, he couldn’t help but smile to her; she just had that effect on him and everybody else in the family.

“Ah Jongin, how nice to see you again,” the lady said and opened her arms, a signal for him to hug her. He stepped up and let her embrace him; hug him closely. She was a lot shorter than him and their positions were awkward, but Jongin couldn’t bring himself to care. The hug felt comforting, warm. Just what he needed right now.

“How have you been, grandma Joy?” Jongin asked, hugging her back.

As you probably already have understood, the old lady was Jongin’s Grandma, and Jongin’s dad was her son.

Grandma Joy was probably the only one that actually cared about Jongin during the Christmas holiday. She knew exactly what he felt about the whole thing, and she was also the only one that helped him escape occasions like today. He was forever grateful for having her.

“I read your column this Thursday. It was really beautiful,” she complimented him, pride shining in her eyes. Jongin smiled warmly. Of course he had told his lovingly grandma that he was writing ‘Thought, Life and Other’. Jongin’s grandma used to send him letters every Friday, telling him what she thought of the column, and Jongin was always looking forward to those letters.  She was always honest; if there was something she didn’t like, she said it, although Jongin never got insulted - it had helped him a lot, actually.

“I’m glad you liked it,” he said and gave her a sincere smile. There was something special about his grandma; whenever she was present, he could not neither be mad, nor sad - just smiley all day long.

Joy wiggled with her finger at him; signalling Jongin to come closer. He leaned closer so that his grandma could talk in a low voice without being overheard.

“The list is hanging on the board in the kitchen. And for now, all the children are downstairs, so you can go whenever you feel like it,” she whispered and winked at him. Jongin smiled and shook his head.

Good old grandma Joy.

This was something he and grandma Joy had started a long time ago. His grandma knew exactly how much her grandson wanted to be at the party (totally not sarcasm, nope), so she gave him a reason to leave it for a while; she always made a list of things that she needed him to buy for her. But since his parents wont let him escape (they said he could do it later instead, not now), he and his grandma had figured out that he could climb out the window on the second floor and then climb down from the roof of the shelter that was underneath that window. It was a genius plan; Jongin was happy with this and so was his grandma.

(Since she was getting older and older, having a strong grandson to buy all the things she needed was something that suited her very well. And not to mention that she and Jongin were very close, so when Jongin was happy, his grandma was too!)

They walked alongside into the living room, where they were meet by a havoc you could never in your life imagine - children running around the furniture in the room, people chatting loudly, Christmas decorations everywhere. Some of Jongin’s nieces started to play some Christmas music in the corner, and then suddenly the chaos was complete.

Jongin felt how every inch in his body protested at the sight only, and the thought of being in this chaos for several hours made him dizzy and unwell. His grandma gently touched his arm in order to get his attention.

“The list is in the kitchen,” she reminded him as she looked at him with a gentle smile on her face, knowing exactly how he felt right now. Jongin nodded, his face pursed together and it looked like he was in extreme pain - something he was.

His grandma put a reassuring hand on his shoulder and squeezed once, before she walked into the chaos, embracing it.

Jongin walked out to the kitchen as fast as his feet could possibly move and closed the door carefully behind him. All of the sounds disappeared in a second, and all he could hear was a soft hum of sound coming from the living room.

He sighed in relief and just stood there for a moment, leaning against the kitchen door, catching his breath. He looked around in the tidy kitchen, smelling the familiar smell of English coffee that his aunt used to bring from where she lived every time they were visiting Korea.

Dad’s sister, Junha, was married to a man from England named George, so she moved there to live with him. And since George was a wealthy man, they used to visit at any holiday occasion they could find. Jongin did not know them too well, but his little sister Sun Hee, who was around the age of the children from that family (Cathy and Jonathan), had a very close relationship with them.

After a while he got bored and decided that he should go now, seeing as he panicked just thinking about returning to the horrible living room, where dreams became nightmares.

Taking another look around the kitchen, and finding the list hanging at its usual place on the board, he quickly grabbed it and walked towards the door again. This was the hardest part. This was when he had to sneak out from the kitchen, walk right past the big entrance of the living room to get to the stairs - all without getting caught by any of his family.

One, two, three.

He opened the door without any sound, as slowly as possible, and was hit by a wave of loud noises coming from the living room. His heart picked up pace immediately, but when he peaked out from the kitchen and noticed that no one was looking his way, he felt his heart calm down a little. As quietly as possible, he tip-toed towards the door opening. He sneaked alongside the wall, and breathed out a sigh of relief. No one seemed to notice him. He counted down from tree again, and walked by the opening as casually as he could, praying to god or whoever that no one would look his way.

He was lucky.

He quickly picked up his pace and was jogging the last few steps, before he was on top of the stairs. He looked down to check, but saw no one. Relief flooded over him. He smiled knowing he had succeeded this year, just like he did last year.

After reaching the second floor, he walked towards the lounge and climbed out through the window as silently as he could, before he walked down the shelter in an equally silent manner. He was quite used to it (of course he would be, seeing as this wasn’t exactly the first time he’s done it), so he knew exactly where to not step. He easily avoided all of the boards that would make a loud creak if he stepped on them and jumped down, landing steadily on the ground (all thanks to his volleyball training). He shook off invisible dust from his jacked and walked through the backyard as he headed for the market, pleased he had been able to escape this year as well.

On the inside of  the house, Jongin’s grandfather stood by the window, watching as his grandson walked away from the house. A little smile formed on his face, and as soon Jongin was out of sight, he walked into the living room and stood by his wife’s side.

He bent down to whisper in her ear, “The bird has left the building,” and smiled to her. She smiled back and gave him an one-armed hug, sighing. Now she finally could send the children upstairs, because the way it was now, no one of the adults was able to hear what the other said. She also briefly wondered what excuse she should use this year as to why Jongin was no were to be found when they were going to eat dinner.



★



“• Thick paper, the same as last year.
• A photo-album in the same style as the last one you bought.
• A children’s book for the children, so they don’t get bored”

Jongin looked through the list once more, checking and double-checking everything he had bought and smiled to himself as he was sure he had gotten everything.

Jongin really liked his grandmother’s shopping list; it always held so much funny explanations in it, like for example the one he got a few years ago, where she had written in her neat writing, “Not the green one, I have so much green stuff. And if you pick the pink one, I’m going to kill you Jongin!”. And that wasn’t even nearly as funny as the one he got last year!

Exhausted from all the shopping he had done, he decided to sit down for a while to relax. He glanced around and spotted an empty bench in the nearby park, and walked over to it, setting his bags aside as he sat down. He was worn out after standing in queues that seemed like they were at least a mile long, with children crying, parents yelling, friends chatting and laughing - not to mention all of the Christmas decoration that was hanging everywhere. It was a bloody nightmare.

It was a little chilly outside, since it had gotten colder for each day that went by. Jongin closed his eyes and let himself doze off for a while.

He knew for a fact that if he returned back to the house right now, he would be stuck with all the Christmas craziness that was going on there for at least a few more hours. He didn’t want that, so that’s why he chose to sit in the park, trying to get time to move forward.

Then, out of nowhere, came a cold breeze (or more like a storm!), and with the wind, Jongin was suddenly thrown to the ground by a heavy object that came flying out of nowhere. He felt a sharp pain shoot through his head and he groaned, picking up the object that had so brutally hit him, revealing it was a large, garbage filled plastic bag. Jongin furrowed his brows in annoyance. What kind of idiot has left this in the park, he thought, just before he heard someone shouting at him.

“Sorry sir, oh my god, I’m so so sorry,” a little boy’s voice called out. Jongin held the bag in one hand and looked up to the source of the voice, revealing a tall, skinny male with blonde hair. He looked a little feminine and definitely innocent, like a little kid.

“Is this yours?” Jongin asked coldly, anger evident in his voice as he held the bag out for the boy to see.

“Ah, yes it is. I am so sorry. That wind came and tore the bag out from my hands. I am so sorry, I didn’t mean for it to happen, I’m so sorry,” the boy said nervous and retrieved his bag.

Yeah right.

Jongin started to stand up, using his hands as support.

“Oh, let me help you,” the boy offered, and dropped the bag before he held on to Jongin’s lower arm.

“Don’t, just. Don’t,” Jongin said and the boy stumbled backwards, small flush colouring his cheeks in embarrassment.

Jongin didn’t need any help. He was not an old man, and he surely did not need any help from the one who was the reason he fell to the ground in the first place.

(Technically, it wasn’t the boy’s fault. But it’s December, so what did you expect from Jongin, really?)

Jongin eyed the smaller boy. They boy looked lost were he stood, nervously fiddling with the bag in his hands. Jongin pff’ed and turned around, placing himself at the bench again. The thin boy stood on his guard, watching Jongin intently.

“Do you want something?” Jongin asked, annoyed after sitting there getting looked at for no reason all.

“Ehm, ehh, no. I’m just.... I’m gonna go now. And again, I am sorry,” the boy stuttered out and turned around before he finally walked away in a fast pace, as if he was trying to get away from Jongin as fast possible.

Which he probably was.

Jongin shook his head and looked after the little boy. Children! What to do with them?

He sat there for a few more minutes, before he started feeling cold. He took out his phone to check the time, and realised it was about time to head back home to his grandma, seeing as not only would it be a lot warmer, but his parents would soon leave the party anyways.

Grabbing the shopping bags from where they stood so perfectly on the ground, he started his walk back to his grandmother’s house, already looking forward to her famous pudding.

Yum.

★