It is the year 2014, winter, Taeyeon is twenty-five and Leeteuk is twenty-six.

“So, Taeyeon-ah, it’s that time of the year again…” He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close and resting his head on her shoulder. “And do you know what that means?”

“Enlighten me, Teuk.” She smiled, chuckling as she watched the snow outside. “It means… baking all kinds of treats, filling stockings with gifts, decorating the house and getting a Christmas tree… And who could forget snuggling by the fireplace?” Leeteuk replied, playfully nibbling her ear. She laughed softly.

“You just love snuggling by the fireplace, don’t you?” Taeyeon touched his fingers, tracing patterns on the back of his hand, the ring. “I love snuggling anywhere as long as it’s with you.” He whispered, sending goosebumps rising on Taeyeon’s skin.

“You are so cheesy.” She shuddered, shaking her head. “Only for you, yeobo.” Leeteuk grinned, stressing on the term of endearment. Taeyeon shook her head harder and wiggled out of his grasp. “My God, that’s too cheesy for me. My poor heart!” She clutched at her heart, pretending to be in deep pain.

“You are so dorky.” Leeteuk imitated her, causing her to hit his shoulder, hissing under her breath. And then she grinned too. This time she imitated him, with a sickly sweet voice. “Only for you, jagiya.” Leeteuk cringed and scooped her easily into his arms. She was as light as a feather. Carrying her bridal style onto the couch, he sat down beside her and poked her arm.

“Do you want to spend Christmas like that, Taeyeon-ah? I don’t want to spend it in a way you won’t like, you know.” He looked at her, now resting his head on her flat stomach. She smiled. “I don’t mind whatever way we spend Christmas… As long as on the day itself I get to put the star on top of the tree, I’m happy. And of course, snuggling by the fireplace sounds fantastic.” Taeyeon reached a little and took his hand, kissing each of the fingers.

“That’s great then. Christmas Eve is tomorrow, what should we do tonight? I’m glad I bought the Christmas tree earlier. It’ll be delivered by tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully it’s as pretty as I thought it would be.” He bit his lip, worried. Taeyeon took one look at him and laughed. “Don’t be so worried, it’s going to be perfect. And I was thinking tonight we’d bake cookies. Up for the challenge?”

“Bring it.” He grinned, standing up and holding out his hand. She took it, and heaved herself off the couch with a groan. “Taeng ajumma.” He teased, and before she could hit him anywhere that would probably cause a significant amount of pain, Leeteuk ran off into the kitchen, taking out the necessary things.

“What kind of cookies will they be, Teuk ajusshi?” She teased back, walking towards the table in the centre of the kitchen, where he was already busy putting all the required ingredients and equipment on the table. He chuckled and said; “Sugar cookies are on the Park house’s menu today. They’ll be as sweet as possible, maybe as sweet as a certain lady I know by the name of Park Taeyeon.”

Taeyeon blushed and smacked his head. “Stop fooling around, you douche. Let’s start making the cookies.” She snatched the recipe book away from him and read the instructions, nodding and memorizing everything at once. She began rattling off (for him to check) the ingredients so that he could make sure they had everything.

Once they were done with the basic preparations, Taeyeon began to make the batter, combining flour and salt into a huge mixing bowl to set aside and beat butter and sugar together until it became fluffy, while Leeteuk whisked together egg, vanilla extract, and milk in a separate blue bowl. Then, carefully, Taeyeon added the egg mixture to butter and sugar, beat it until it was blended and slowly added the floor mixture.

“Knead the dough on a flat surface until all flour is incorporated.” She read off. Even though she’d already memorized every step, it didn’t hurt to check. When she was about to knead the dough, Leeteuk stopped her and began kneading it himself. “Your hands are going to be sticky and they smell after coming in contact with the dough. Go grease the cookie sheets.”

Taeyeon smiled, kissing his cheek. “Forever so thoughtful, Teuk.” He kissed her cheek back, before she went to grease the sheets. Minutes later he’d finished kneading the dough and wrapped it in plastic wrap. “It says that we have to refrigerate it for two hours. What are we going to do until then?” Leeteuk questioned, putting the dough in the fridge.

Taeyeon looked out of the window. “The snow stopped. Want to go make snow angels?” She suggested, eyes gleaming with excitement. “Really? Okay, come on, but don’t forget to put on your scarf and jacket…” He smiled, helping her to put on a thick jacket and wrapping the scarf around her neck.

“You look so cute in that red scarf. If I had known I would have bought this last year!” He pecked her lips, and she prolonged it, pulling him closer. Leeteuk smiled, about to envelop her petite body in her arms before she cheekily pulled away, pulling him by the hand out of the house. “Aish, this woman…” He muttered under his breath, watching as she let go of his hand and ran outside to twirl around in the snow, like a little kid again.

Sometimes he wondered if she was an ajumma or a choding. Maybe she was both. But either way, he loved her.

****

“The tree is beautiful! And it’s the perfect size!” Taeyeon squealed in delight. If she jumped, she would be able to reach the top of the tree; so basically, the tree was only a few centimeters taller than her. Leeteuk smiled, glad that he’d chosen the right tree and that this one thing already made her so happy.

“Hold on, let me get the box of decorations we bought from the attic. Oh, and I went to buy the star… it’s really special.” He smiled more, quickly running upstairs to the third floor and grabbed a brown cardboard box of decorations, and then walking down, careful not to trip and fall down the stairs. (He was only careful because he’d fallen once, and almost broke his back while at it, so Taeyeon was really strict about running down the stairs.)

Taeyeon helped him with the box as he came down, setting it down on the floor. Like a child on the day of Christmas, she looked through the box, practically turning it upside down, looking for the star. She couldn’t find it. Pouting, she looked at him. He chuckled. “The star is with me. I’m not telling you where though. I’m only letting you see it on the day of Christmas. Now come on, let’s begin decorating!”

She nudged his side, but he didn’t give in. Seeing that he didn’t budge, she refrained from quarreling with him and quickly took out decorations to spruce up the plain, normal green tree. Their decorations were white and red coloured, chosen by none other than Taeyeon herself.

“You got the multi-coloured lights?” Taeyeon asked, eyes widening. “Mhm, I figured it would look more colourful. Plus, you were eyeing them from the start, but you just didn’t want to go with it because you, stubborn Taengoo, wanted to stick with the theme you so insisted on going with.” He replied simply, shooting a look at her. To which, she just grumbled under her breath, but hung up anyway.

“The tree’s going to look so beautiful after we’re done with decorating, I just know it.” He smiled, hanging up a few tiny bells.

“Because of my décor choices, don’t you think?” Taeyeon grinned, pleased with herself.

“All right, all right. Partially though, I got the tree, so I get half the credit.” He retorted, grinning back at her.

“Fair enough."

****

“Yeobo… wake up, ‘tis Christmas morning.” Leeteuk rolled onto his side, petting her hair gently, kissing her eyelids. They fluttered open seconds later, and she smiled. “Christmas morning? Finally. I thought it’d never come! I want to find out what you got for me for Christmas… You didn’t take a peek at what I gave you, did I?” Taeyeon narrowed her eyes, suspicious of her husband, who just laughed and got off the bed, leaving her kicking her legs in the air in frustration.

Quickly, they both finished their morning routine, and then raced each other to the living room, before sliding towards the Christmas tree with their socks on. “Oh, wait, the star—” Leeteuk began, about to go back and get it, but Taeyeon grabbed his shirt and said, “Will be put up later. I want to see what you got for me!"

He nodded, taking his stocking from under the tree and hers as well, handing hers over. Leeteuk waited for her to see her expression when she received her Christmas gift. Taeyeon reached in to the lock stocking, and pulled out an envelope. On it scribbled in pretty neat handwriting were the words “To Park Taeyeon”. She smiled, taking in a deep breath before looking in the contents.

They were airplane tickets to… Paris! Taeyeon had always harped on wanting to go there, but he could never clear out his busy schedule for to go with her. “Teuk… You… You got the tickets to Paris… But can you go? Won’t it affect your work?” She asked, concern filling her voice. “This is to make up for those times I worked overtime and left you at home waiting. And besides, it can be like… our second honeymoon, don’t you think?”

She smiled, nodding. “I’d like that. Hey, quick look… Look at what I got for you. It’s certainly not as expensive, but I thought you’d like it.” Leeteuk reached inside his stocking and in it were two necklaces. They were almost identical. He looked at it closely, and realized that their patterns were slightly different, and that it was not only a necklace, but also a locket. He opened one of them, and inside was a selca they had both taken when they were back in high school.

“You kept this picture…” He smiled, tearing up from the memories. “Of course I did… Aigoo… Don’t cry.” She chuckled, kissing his tears away. He shook his head at himself, and then put one locket in his pocket while putting one on for Taeyeon. She then reached into his pocket to take his out, and secured it around his neck.

“This way, I’ll always be with you. You just have to look at this picture.” She smiled, pecking his nose.

“You’ve always been with me, in my heart.”

****

Leeteuk set up the fireplace after they had their dinner, and called Taeyeon to his side. She finished clearing the dishes and was about to sit down, when she jumped and realized something. “Teukie, we forgot the Christmas tree star! Quick, go get it!” She hurried him to get off the couch, upset with herself that she’d actually forgotten about it for the whole day.

Leeteuk laughed softly, and then went to their bedroom, reached under the bed and grabbed the star. It was a bright white star that had words written on it. It said, in dark black print that stood out against the star, ‘Together Forever, Leeteuk and Taeyeon: 25^th December 2014’.

He smiled, quickly running back to the living room and handing the star over to her. “This is the star you’ve been wanting to see since two days ago, Taengoo-ah. I had it custom-made to fit us.”

She snatched it out of his hand, eager to see it. She gasped as she read the words, her heart touched. “Teuk…” She could barely whisper, smiling. Leeteuk hugged her close, holding her neck and kissing the top of her head. “We need to put the star up now, then we can snuggle by the fireplace, remember?” He reminded her, chuckling. She nodded, walking towards the tree. She tiptoed, but couldn’t quite get the star on the tree. Leeteuk smiled wider and lifted her by her hips, aiding her in successfully putting the star on the tree.

The tree lit up and Leeteuk went to dim the lights, so apart from the Christmas lights, the only thing that was particularly bright was the fire from the fireplace. “Taeyeon-ah…” He pulled her slowly to sit on his lap, combing his hand through her hair. “Merry Christmas.” He whispered, hugging her tight.

“I think this is the best Christmas I’ve ever had. And… the star’s so beautiful and shiny…” She smiled again, snuggling and leaning against him.

“I’m sorry, but the star can’t quite compare to the beauty of this magnificent woman before me.”