Winter was just around the corner. You could clearly feel it in the air...the freezing cold air. Trees slowly dropped their leaves on the lonely ground forming little mountains in infinite shades of brown, were kids enjoyed playing around jumping over them or throwing bunches of them against each other; coats of all possible sizes, colors and shapes could be seen in every directions on the street; the sky, normally so clear and blue, now looked covered in this huge cotton like coat, and a cloudy but still sun shining weather had settled; and last but not least, there was a warm and cozy atmosphere floating in the icing space as the clocks around town marked seven o'clock at night and all the small yellow Christmas lights decorating trees, balconies, walls, windows and doors and twinkled gracefully in every single street at Seoul's downtown.

But, as much beautiful as the season was like, there was one specific person who wasn't enjoying it at all.

Choi Sooyoung had never really like winter. Why? It was very simple. She absolutely hated anything and everything that was related to cold things. She detested cold weather, and no matter how hard all her friends tried to make her like it, she just didn’t give in.

So that’s why she was, as it was her habit now, inside her apartment looking at the lights, the people, the happy atmosphere, but she just not felt even a single bit of joy. It had been like that since she was a little girl. Even if it was Christmas time and everyone seemed to be happier than ever, she just couldn’t feel that cheerfulness at all…maybe it was because, she thought sipping her coffee, she had no friends, relatives or any person she could rely on and share that happiness with her.

Thinking deeply about it as she listened some jazz song that was playing on the radio, she failed noticing someone opened the main door and walked silently to her, only to prison her in his arms from behind and squeeze her several times before whispering in her ear a “Hello Miss Grinch”.

When she felt some arms surrounding her she dropped her cup of coffee on the ground, but when was about to scream, she recognized that playful cute voice so she stopped struggling and just said “You’re going to buy me a new cup”.

Donghae just laughed and squeezed her once more before freeing her from his hug and bend down to pick up the broken cup.

“You’re really touchy, you knew that?” She said laughing as she walked to the kitchen to grab a mop and clean the wet mess on the tile floor.

“Just with you” He answered looking her eyes for a second before he walked as well to the kitchen and threw the ceramic pieces to the garbage can. Sooyoung snorted out and kept on cleaning, but she couldn’t avoid a light blush began appearing on her cheeks.

“Aren’t you going out with everyone tonight?” Donghae asked the shikshin when he returned to the living room.

“No, I’ll read this book I’ve been trying to finish a while ago” she answered cleaning the mop and leaving it back on its place.

“And as always, you can count with lovely Miss Grinch” Donghae teased and sat down in one of the couches.

“Thank you, that’s so nice from you” Sooyoung answered taking her place back in front of her ceiling to floor window.

“Why don’t you hang out with all of us? Come on Soo, its Christmas Eve today” The fish frowned from his place on the sofa.

“You know I don’t like cold. And I’m not like a huge fan of all Christmas cheesy stuff”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, I guess I was never so much into it”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know Hae, ok?” The brunette said in exasperation looking at him for a moment before turning her gaze to the street again “I just didn’t have someone that made me like these things, so I don’t know how the Christmas spirit is”

Silence reigned over the room for some long minutes before Donghae got up quietly from his seat, and grabbing her shoulder, he turned her around and kissed her.

Time now completely froze but there was no cold anymore anywhere, all that Sooyoung could feel besides the softness of his thin lips against hers was some warm fuzzy feeling in her heart, and she knew she was longing for this to happen from a long time ago, just that she hadn’t notice it at all.

So for that reason, she found extremely easy to encircle her arms around his milky white neck and tangle her fingers on his hair as she closed her eyes. He smiled against her lips when he felt her relax and correspond his actions, so he wrapped his arms around her slim waist and gently brought her closer, finishing with the remaining space left between them.

After what seemed hours, they both separated slightly gasping for air. Their eyes connected with the other’s gaze in a deeper level than ever and after some long instants of just observing each other, Sooyoung finally spoke in a quiet whisper, afraid to break the sudden calm atmosphere. “Why was that for?”

“I don’t know” Donghae said just as calmly.

“Yeah sure” She hissed and frowned again, her eyes never leaving his.

“Well, you said you never had someone that made you like cheesy Christmas stuff, so I guess I’m trying to emend that”

“What!?”

“Yeah well I know this is not the most romantic place in the world, we’re not eating turkey and there’s no mistletoe above us, but I just want you to know you’re really, really important to me Soo, and I’ll literally do anything to make you happy, especially in this time.”

“You mean it for real?” Sooyoung asked with teary eyes. Ok, she had to admit she always felt a special thing towards Donghae since she met him, but she had been content with being good friends with him and that alone, so his confession took her by surprise.

“Yeah, you kind of had been special to me since I met you” Donghae answered shyly scratching the back of his head “But I guess I didn’t want to ruin our friendship…it’s just that…mmm…well, it’s Christmas Eve today and this is supposed to be the time when people confess their truly feelings right?”

“Oh is it?” Sooyoung answered even shier showing a massive blush in her entire face. She had no idea why, but she couldn’t avoid acting like a stupid teenager in front of Donghae, she never had felt so nervous in her life and she wasn’t even doing anything, but having her major crush since a few years ago in front of her confessing his love for her made her want to scream and jump out the window, without dying of course…

“Yeah, so…mmm…what do you say?” Donghae asked getting close to her and taking her hands between his.

“A…a…about what?” She answered without been able to look at him in the eye.

“Would you…mmm…like to…eh………be my………girl…friend?” He asked in a barely audible whisper.

The brunette opened her eyes excessively and this time she was capable to look at Donghae’s big brown eyes, all the sincere and pure love he had for her were reflecting clearly inside them.

“Yes!” She almost screamed and unexpectedly jumped on him to trap him in a big hug, same that sent both of them to the floor.

“Well that’s good to know” Donghae said whining in pain but flashing a beautiful smile as he hugged her back tightly.

“So what do you want to do now?” The fish asked her after a couple of minutes of staying on the ground.

“What do you mean?” She asked as she lifted her head to meet his eyes.

“Do you want to hang out with the rest now? Or do you prefer us to stay here?”

“Mmm…that’s a tough one. I think I want…both”

“Eh?”

“We can hang out a while with the guys and then come back here to dinner. What do you think?”

“Seems like a great idea” Donghae beamed at her and got up from the floor to help her rise up as well.

“Ok, let me grab a coat and we’ll go…by the way, where are we going?” She said before disappearing through her room door.

“Heechul’s hyung house. He and Sica are the hosts this year”

“Ok. Having the diva couple as hosts, sounds like it’ll be entertaining”

After they both were fully ready, they went out of the house and walked down the street to be met with the dazzling view of a Christmas Seoul, Sooyoung grinning brightly at all the little details she never noted before, wondering why she never was able to appreciate the beauty of the season.

So fine, maybe she still didn’t like cold weather, Sooyoung happily thought, but she was sure from now on Donghae would be able to fix that…and she was also sure from now on this would be her favorite holiday, because surely Donghae would take care of that as well with another perfect Christmas kiss…even if it wasn’t under the mistletoe, that was just an insignificant detail.