She had a pile of books in her arms that reached over her head.

"What are you doing? Are you moving the library to your room?" Kibum took the first 3 books off the top of the pile so that they could actually see each other. He looked down at the title and read, "The Rise of Witchcraft" He looked at the other book: Humans with Power. "Interested in witches?"

"Yeah, since they made this watch," she grit out a reply under the weight of the books. He picked off a few more to relieve her from her struggles.

"Hmm..."

She shouldered open her door and plopped the books onto her bed.

"Why don't you just read in the library rather than carrying all these here?" Kibum asked as he set down a twin pile of books lightly on the dresser.

"I fell asleep last time and woke up to Jonghyun staring at me."

"Oh..." 'I'll never ever mention that I'm guilty of watching her sleep sometimes,' Key thought.

She sat crosslegged on the bed and went to open up a book to lay across her lap, but Key's hand held it shut. "Take a break from reading for a bit. If I were you, my head would have exploded by now." The girl bit the inside of her cheek as she stared at the offending appendage on her book and then that same gaze climbed to his face. Luna, who lay next to her on the bed, growled at Key.

"Er....I mean...," he removed his hand from wolf snapping range and straightened. "I need some help with something and I think it's a good break from your studying."

"I'm sure you can handle whatever you need help with Kibum-ssi."

"Come on. Humor me a little bit?" She sighed. He got riled up. "Yah! I'm letting you borrow my library!"

In the foyer, she stared up at a massive blue-green pine tree.

The two youngest members were struggling to right the evergreen. Taemin complained through gritted teeth, "Hyung, of all....," he panted, "the trees to...," he locked his knees as Minho slipped a little and almost let go of the tree, "pick...You...had to pick the biggest one in the forest." Jonghyun finished tying a rope to the top end of the tree and rigged it to some pulley system that she'd never seen in the room before.

"Hey, there's nothing else in this big empty space besides curtains that serve no purpose. So we got to fill it with a big tree!" Key's eyes were twinkling as the pine was finally erected and stable.

Taemin sat on the floor and craned his head back to look up at the tall tree he had helped stand. "This is probably as big as the one in Seoul Plaza. That's crazy Hyung."

"Don't exaggerate Taeminnie." Key practically skipped around the tree to admire it. "Do you think it needs to move a little to the right?"

"NO!" Taemin, Minho, and Jonghyun shouted in horror.

Like Taemin, the girl leaned back to look at the height of the tree. "...How'd you get it in here?"

"With the magic of the Christmas season! We should have put this up ages ago but we've been so busy." Kibum held a much too large box labelled 'xmas decorations' that he obtained from who knows where.

'I didn't even realize it was close to Christmas...,' she thought.

They all quieted as a sad aura surrounded the girl. Kibum forcibly tried to dispell it through his enthusiasm. "Here." Another, much smaller box that seemingly magically appeared, was dropped into her arms. "Let's start decorating!"

This was actually the SHINee members first tree decorating event in the mansion. Last year was spent in their dorms, and they didn't really celebrate.

Jonghyun came up next to the girl to also look up at the impressive tree. "How do we even start? Is this supposed to be fun?"

The fire demon blinked as he suddenly found himself wrapped in tinsel. "Kibum....don't do that if you don't want me to burn half your decorations."

"Let's make this thing sparkle SHINee style! Surprise Jinki-hyung when he gets back," Key dropped another box in front of Minho and one in front of Taemin.

"Are we even going to finish before hyung gets back?" Minho wondered out loud as he picked up a pair of silver bells with intricate patterns etched into them.

Onew walked through the front door with a cardboard box in hand. It had been a long day. Night had fallen and probably only the moon and stars were awake at this time. Luckily he could sleep in since he had the next day off. He set the box on the ground and then stared open-mouthed at the giant tree in the foyer. Despite having no lights strung on it, the iconic holiday centerpiece sparkled in the middle of the room. Literally sparkled as Austrian crystal and glass ornaments of various designs caught the moonlight. Sapphire blue tinsel garland spiraled around the height of the tree perfectly. Silver silk ribbon ran parallel to the blue garland, and every so often, the ribbon paused to turn into a giant silver and blue bow. Occasional rose gold ornament balls and sterling silver bells scattered themselves amongst the rest of the decorations. At the very top of the tree, a star sat and glowed like blue and white fire.

Despite the tree being massive and probably containing decorations that, when combined, were worth a car, what caught his attention the most was the bottom of the tree. What looked like fake, fluffy snow radiated from the base of the tree, and lying sound asleep on the top of it were all the members of the mansion. The only one that was awake, though, was Kibum. He sat crosslegged while sneaking pictures of his tree decorating partners who were passed out from exhaustion. Despite the obvious work that caused them to fall asleep where they lay, they each had a small smile on their faces. Even the sole human of the group.

She looked to have glitter in her hair. Jonghyun, wearing a santa hat, lay near her. Minho fell asleep sitting up with a scarf of red tinsel wrapped around his neck. Taemin had his face burried into the side of a snoozing Luna with gift tissue paper thrown over them.

"Hmm...I'm surprised she fell asleep here. And so close to Jonghyun too," commented the leader.

"I think she unconsciously scooted closer to him because it's cold." Key snapped a picture of Jonghyun drooling a bit. "I really should get some heat in here. Or at least a fireplace installed."

"Did she help decorate?" Jinki lifted the box that he brought in.

"Can't you tell?" Key gestured towards the scene.

Onew smiled. "Impressive." He set down the box next to Key. "And now I know where to put these. Fans gave us these."

Kibum looked inside the box and picked up two Shawol blue Christmas ornament balls. "Nuh uh. No way are we putting cheapass decorations on my tree." He looked closer at the balls and examined the cartoon images of Minho and Onew printed on the decorations. He picked up another ball. "Hmm....I look kind of cute in this." It was a cartoon image of him with his rainbow hair giving a peace sign. "...I guess we can hang them."

THEA's Corner

Yeppers. I have a very vague idea about how I want the next 3 chapters to go. Maybe then I can finally move the timeline into the year 2010...
Oh. and I actually looked up big christmas trees in seoul. The one in Seoul plaza in 2012-13 was 21 m high and 12 m wide.
 

Posted: 04 October 2013