Christmas carols were blaring in the background – the good old-fashioned ones that he’d grown up listening to every year and gotten so used to but still loved the sound of. A glance at the sky and a peek at his watch told him he should be heading back to the dorms soon. The park would inevitably crowd on Christmas Eve, and Jonghyun had no wish to be recognized and be made a fuss out of – to  make things worse, he’d forgotten to bring his sunglasses. 

 

Frowning, he turned to leave, eyes still on the ground – and bumped headfirst into a man’s solid chest. Cursing inwardly and yanking at his grey scarf, trying to reveal as little of his face as possible, he looked up, and the apology was lost from his lips into a puff of mist into the biting winter air.

 

“Minho?”

 

“A man undercover, but you tore him apart~” Minho murmured along to the rendition of Last Christmas blaring from a nearby snack stand, a small half-smile playing on his lips as he looked down at Jonghyun. When Jonghyun remained reticent, Minho nudged him in the waist. “It’s your line here, hyung.” 

 

“My voice’s so good that even if I so much as croaked out those notes the paparazzi and fangirls’d be on us on seconds,” was Jonghyun’s scathing reply accompanied by a glare and Minho cracked a grin. If Jonghyun could find the wits to snap at him it meant he was feeling better. Still, Minho shook his fringe down further, adjusted his sunglasses, and tugged futilely at his collar to attempt to hide his lower face – failing which he wrapped an arm about Jonghyun’s shoulder and steered the older man in the direction of the dorms.

 

“You still look like yourself in that useless getup, what are you even trying to achieve?” Jonghyun sniped, reluctantly letting himself be dragged along. “And your arm is around me because I allow it, and not because you’re a bloody skyscraper.”  

 

The rest of the walk was silent, as the two of them headed further away from the crowded town centre and into the quieter residential streets of Seoul, keeping their heads down and pressing together against the frosty winter wind. 

 

Two minutes from the dorms – 

 

“Now I know what a fool I’ve been~” Jonghyun suddenly belted out, without warning, and Minho glanced out the corner of his eyes at Jonghyun.

 

“But I’m a shoulder to cry on,” Minho winked at Jonghyun, and Jonghyun punched him in the arm and stalked huffily into the warm lobby, and grinning widely, Minho followed.