There are a lot of cameos in this chapter so beware.

Subin and Ilhoon made it to the CUBE building in a shiver,

but the heater greeted them with warmth. Ilhoon helped Subin with her coat and scarf before taking off his. Without a word, Ilhoon and Subin (in crutches) walked together down the empty hallway. They walked to the room where the loud Christmas music was blasting from.

As soon as they entered in, ignoring the mistletoe above them, it seemed like everyone was greeting them at once. “Ilhoon!” 100%’s Sanghoon was there first. He bro-shook Ilhoon’s hand before looking at Subin. “And you must be Snow’s maknae. Remind me your name again?” he said offering his hand.

“Subin,” she smiled shaking his hand.

“Well Subin, it’s a pleasure meeting you. Can I offer you a drink?” Sanghoon was suddenly shoved by another guy.

“How can you say that man? She’s clearly with Ilhoon!” Before protesting, Subin noticed Jungkook was the one who pushed him. “Hi, I’m Jungkook.” Subin shook his hand with delight. “I heard about your accident. Hope you recover soon!” Subin smiled and thanked him.

He then looked at Ilhoon. “Sup man!”

Subin thought Jungkook looked cuter in person. Actually, all of the maknaes here looked way better in person. “I’m sorry, my friend here has no respect,” Jungkook said patting Sanghoon.

“I just offered her a drink!” Sanghoon cried.

Subin wasn’t really paying attention to what was going on. She was so star struck by all the maknaes in the room.

“Don’t worry about it man,” Ilhoon said before leading Subin to one of the chairs.

She sat in one of the empty chairs by the wall. Ilhoon took her crutches and placed them on the floor. “I’ll be right back,” he said.

When he came back, he got her a drink and a foot stool to rest her leg. Subin couldn’t believe she was still getting pampered after what she said to Ilhoon earlier.

“Thanks Ilhoon.”

“No problem." Ilhoon semi-smiled. "Is there anything else you want me to get you? There's cookies.”

“ILHOON! OVER HERE!”

Subin and Ilhoon both turned their heads and saw Jongup call his name.

“Don’t worry about me anymore. Go ahead,” Subin told him.

“You sure you’ll be alright here? I can move you over there.”

“I’m fine, Ilhoon. But thanks,” Subin said before Jongup screamed his name again. Ilhoon nodded and left her sitting there.

Subin sipped her cup as she watched Ilhoon walk over to Jongup. Even after she rejected him, Ilhoon still seemed to love and care for her unconditionally. She felt lucky but guilty at the same time.

Subin didn’t want to think about right now. It was Christmas. It was time to have happy and lively thoughts. Her aching ankle didn’t help though. She sat back and roamed her eyes around the room. She spotted Hayoung in a cute polka dot dress. She was talking to Sohyun from 4 Minute and Dasom from Sistar. Subin wanted to socialize too, but she knew she was going to be stuck sitting in that chair all night.

Twenty-five minutes have passed and still, Subin was left in her chair. She looked at Ilhoon who was caught up in a conversation with Yano from ToppDogg. Everyone was talking to everyone that no one noticed her. Except for VIXX’s Hyuk who said “hi” to her then walked off. Other than that she was a loner. She was still a rookie after all. She wondered where Sungjae was in this big crowd of maknaes.

“OMONNA! SANTA’S COMING!” Subin noticed BamBam from Got7 burst through the door.

Everyone’s attention was on BamBam until shortly after him was a guy dressed up as Santa. “HO! HO! HO!” Everyone’s laughter filled the room. Santa had on a fake beard and round stomach. He was holding a bag that looked like it was full of gifts. He started passing out toys to everyone. “BamBam, you were a good boy this year so you get a toy car.” BamBam smiled with glee. As Santa passed out all the goodies, they all felt like little kids again.

“Jongup, let’s see if you’re on my naughty list.”

“I was good this year Santa." Jongup smiled like a little boy.

“LIE.” Santa dug into his pocket and handed him some coal. “Better be a good boy next year. I’m watching you.”

Everyone in the room laughed including Subin. “Who is that?” She asked the person beside her who happened to be Sungmin from SPEED. He just shrugged. Subin thought the guy dressed as Santa was really comical. She couldn’t wait for her turn. The closer Santa got to Subin, she noticed his black bangs that fell out of his hat. She noticed how tall he was and the way he awkwardly walked across the room. It was pretty obvious to her now that it was Sungjae.

After giving Ren a piece of coal, it was finally Subin’s turn. Her heart was pounding for some reason. She gulped before he looked at her. “OH HOHOHO! Who do we have here?” Subin smiled nervously. “Subin-ah!” Sungjae’s smile faded and felt a pang on his chest once he saw her cast and crutches. He swallowed hard then looked back at her with a smile again. “Ah, Subin. You’ve been a good girl this year so,” he dug in his bag, looking for the best thing to give her. “Here’s a teddy bear for you! Make sure to sleep with him every night, he’ll bring you comfort whenever you feel down.”

Subin smiled. “Thank you.” Sungjae smiled but still felt bad inside. Seeing Subin in crutches reminded him of the accident and how it was all his fault. He looked at Subin once more then continued onto the next person.

~

The party had been going on for hours now. Subin was still in her chair, watching other people dance and socialize with each other. It got pretty boring after a while. Her was getting tired and she felt like getting some fresh air. She reached to get her crutches and finally got up from her seat. She slowly walked through all the people, carefully trying not to hurt any of their toes with her crutches. She finally made it out the door.

Sungjae spotted Subin leaving out the door from across the room and realized she left her teddy bear. He’d been wanting to go over and apologize to Subin as he saw her just sitting there by herself, but he was trapped by Hayoung. When he saw Subin leave, he excused himself from her and headed out. “Sungjae-oppa! Where are you going?” She watched Sungjae slide himself through the crowd, taking a teddy bear with him out the door.

Ilhoon noticed that Subin was gone when he looked over at her chair. He was going to go look for her, but saw Sungjae run out the door, already knowing he was too late.

~

Subin stepped out into the biting winter air under the moonlit sky.

She didn’t care if she was wearing a dress. She liked the cold.

She looked at the moon and remembered what she told Hongbin before leaving for Seoul.

Remember to look up at the moon at night and think of me. We both will be looking at the same moon.

She thought about Hongbin and her parents celebrating Christmas at home. She missed them so much. She wanted to cry, but told herself not to.

She had to get used to this.

She closed her eyes as the cool breeze wiped against her bare skin. The air was fresh and crisp.

She stood there, meditating to the soft whistles of the wind, and tried to clear her mind.

~

Sungjae stepped out and saw Subin standing outside in the cold. What is she thinking? It's freezing!

He took his coat off and slowly walked behind her.

At that moment, he remembered the time he first saw Subin. When she offered her hot drink to that old man on a cold day like this.

He thought she was crazy but beautiful at the same time.

He’d seen her suffer in the cold before and remembered how much he wanted to offer her a warm drink; how much he wanted to wrap his arms around her.

The same thing was happening right now, except Sungjae wasn’t nervous anymore.

~

Subin opened her eyes, unaware of who just placed their coat over her.

She turned her head and saw Sungjae, feeling embarrassed all of a sudden. “Sungjae-ssi?” He didn’t have on his Santa costume anymore.

“What are you doing out here? It’s so cold,” Sungjae said shivering under his button up shirt.

“Just wanted to get some fresh air,” Subin fake smiled then looked back down.

Sungjae noticed her frown. “Hey, what’s the matter? It’s Christmas!” Sungjae said too cheerfully that he regretted it later. She would’ve been happy to see Sungjae, it’s just that right now she wasn’t. She had too many emotions going on right now. Sungjae thought he saw a tear fall from Subin’s face, which shocked Subin herself.

Then Sungjae instantly thought it was all his fault again.

“Sorry, I’ll head back in,”

“No,” he heard Subin say. “I mean, I’d rather have someone out here with me...if it’s okay with you.”

Sungjae turned around and stood next to Subin. He looked at her broken ankle and crutches feeling guilty all over again. Sungjae took in a deep breath and exhaled a large cloud through his nose.

“Subin-ah,” he began. Subin’s eyes were on him now. “I’m sorry. It’s all my fault you won’t be able to perform at our concert. Aish, I just feel terrible for everything.”

Subin wasn’t really worried about the concert to be honest. Accident happen, but she didn’t blame Sungjae for it. Not at all.

Sungjae bent down and pointed at the side of his face. “Just slap me as hard as you want.”

 “I’m not going to slap you!”

“It’s okay. I’ve got slapped by Eunkwang before.”

Subin giggled. “Sungjae, you don’t have to be sorry. I didn't think it was your fault. Things like this happen to me all the time.”

“Really?”

Subin nodded. “It just so happens to be the week before our concert. But I got over it already.” Subin shrugged and smiled.

“Wow, you really are okay with this?”

“Yeah, so don’t blame yourself. I should be thanking you.”

“For what?”

“For helping me practice and for taking me to the ER.” Subin smiled which made Sungjae cringe inside.

Sungjae shrugged, trying to keep his cool. “No biggie.”

Subin smiled then saw that Sungjae was holding her teddy bear. “My teddy bear!”

“Oh yeah, you left it on your seat. Santa would be upset if you left it there.” Sungjae tried handing it to Subin, but her arms were full with crutches.

“You can just hold it for now,” Subin said chuckling.

It was quiet for a moment. Subin looked up at the moon and thought of Hongbin again.

Sungjae noticed her mood change again. He knew exactly what was going through her mind. “You miss your family don’t you?” Subin looked at him. He noticed tears brimmed in her eyes. “Ah, I was just like you when I first debuted.” He placed a hand on her back. “But now I have all these friends around who make it feel like home. But still, we’d all rather be with our families.” Subin sniffled. “Don’t worry, it’s always hard at first. At least you have people here who care about you. There’s your group, there’s Ilhoon, the rest of the Cube family, and me. So don’t cry.” Subin smiled with tears in her eyes. Sungjae was glad he was able to cheer her up a little bit.

Just then, they noticed it started to snow. Flakes gracefully fell over their heads.

Moments later it started to snow even harder. It was beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

“SNOW!” Sungjae ran out and spun in circles. He then started dancing to the chorus of 5now’s song.

“Sungjae, what are you doing?” She couldn’t hold in her laugh. She watched Sungjae act like a child and he jumped and spun around in the snow. She wanted to join him, if only she hadn’t had crutches on.

~

Ilhoon stepped out of the party room to go to the bathroom. As he walked down the hallway, he heard a mixture of laughing and weird, squeaky cackle noises. He followed the noise which brought him outside. He saw Sungjae running around in circles and doing parkour over things. He was the one making those weird cackle noises (what a surprise). Ilhoon heard laughing coming from the corner. It was too dark to see who it was, but he was pretty sure it was Subin.

Without thinking, Ilhoon opened the door and shouted at Sungjae. “Yah, what are you doing out here?”

“Oh hey, Ilhoon!” Sungjae waved.

“It’s cold out here! You don’t want to get sick before our concert!” Ilhoon shouted in the bitter cold air.

“Right! I’ll be right in hyung!” Sungjae waved again.

Ilhoon looked at Subin who remained silent, then walked back into the building.

Team Sungjae or Team Ilhoon? Team Sungjae of course.

Comment your thoughts below ^^