[A/N]

to everyone who was kind enough and left me such loving messages, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I was so touched to see such a vast response that Ani wanted to cry ;; I'm not going anywhere for the time being, don't you worry~

Chapter 09~

That night as Sungmin lay awake in the bed, he couldn’t help but ponder about what Sunny had said earlier that night about Kyuhyun. 

Was Kyuhyun really in love with him?

No, it couldn’t be.

Kyuhyun was the perfect man in every sense - he had a good future in business; he was kind, generous, intelligent and damn was that man a looker? Kyuhyun was just drop-dead gorgeous. 

Now why would someone with all those flawless qualities want someone like him? Sungmin couldn’t help but think as he sighed looking at the steady rising and falling chest of the man sleeping beside him. 

“It’s all a delusion, Sungmin. Everything you feel is a lie - it’s not real,” He whispered as he tried to assure himself. Sungmin knew that his baby sister was lying, there was no way Kyuhyun could fall for him; him - Lee Sungmin,  the walking catastrophe, the man who attracts trouble more towards himself than any human possibly could.

With that thought raging his head, Sungmin patted the huge plethora of pillows arranged neatly to divide the bed into two halves - 

so that each of them could have their own spaces. That way, no one had to suffer second degree embarrassment on finding themselves all wrapped up in each other’s arms the next morning.

His stomach twisted strangely at that thought.

“Five more days until you can go back to your normal life. Slow down buddy, “ Sungmin muttered to himself before turning to his right side and letting the gods of sleep take him to dreamland in a gentle lull.

***

The next morning, Kyuhyun woke up to the sounds of loud yelling coming from the drawing room of their cottage. He rubbed his eyes as he looked over his right but the bed on the other side was made neatly with no sign of Sungmin anywhere. 

Curious and still a little drunk on sleep, Kyuhyun yawned as his feet padded against the wooden floor as he walked out of the bedroom. 

“Right hand yellow!” Sunny screamed as she laid bent over a thin plastic sheet spread out on the floor, “Sungmin, no cheating I can see you!” 

Kyuhyun almost ran into the couch when his eyes fell upon Sungmin stretching into a neat split under Sunny, with his hands fumbling around the mat searching for the yellow spot. 

“What in the world are you two doing?” Kyuhyun blurted out.

“It’s called Twister!” Sungmin cried out as he desperately stretched the fingers of his right hand to touch the yellow spot which was - just was his luck, located on an ungodly place on the white plastic mat. 

And he.... failed.

Sungmin felt all the air in his lungs escape as he lost his balance and abruptly fell onto the ground with a big cry of pain.

“You loose again, Sungmin! on that!” Sunny squealed in glee, bouncing around happily while her elder brother still lay splattered over the mat.

“Kyuhyun do you want to play?” Sunny asked walking closer towards the man not before stepping on Sungmin’s toes wickedly. 

“You old hag,” Sungmin grumbled as he finally sat up and pouted angrily at his loss.

“I would if I knew how to,” Kyuhyun admitted as he eyed the entire setup on the floor wearily.

“It’s as easy as cutting a slice of pie!” Sunny chirped eagerly, dragging Kyuhyun by the wrist and walking him closer towards the spot where they were playing previously.

After explaining all the rules and the tiny details to a game of twister, Sunny quipped in cheekily, “For your first time, you should play with Min. Don’t worry, he so you might actually have a shot on winning!” 

“Why you monster!” Sungmin cried out angrily, “it’s not true, I am a pro.” 

“And your performance just now completely supports your statement, doesn’t it?” Sunny deadpanned.

“Oh, whatever we shall see! Come on Kyu, bring it on.” Sungmin smirked as he motioned for Kyuhyun to step onto the mat while Sunny’s eyes gleamed in excitement.

As Kyuhyun glanced wearily down, he couldn't help but wonder whether it was safe for him to do all sorts of weird poses and stretching - considering the fact that he had barely woken up.

He sent a silent prayer to the heavens, hoping he wouldn't die an early death due to his bones cracking or some weird like that.

"The winner gets an entire batch of sugar cookies, we know it's gonna be delicious because because Mom has been working on them since morning!" Sungmin declared as he dragged the sleeves of his pink sweater back to his elbows.

"Sugar cookies?" Kyuhyun's eyes twinkled. He hadn't tasted one in years.

To be honest, Kyuhyun couldn't remember even eating them in his childhood days. A batch of sugar cookies all to himself definitely sounded too good to be true.  A small smirk etched across his lips,"Bring it on shorty~" 

"Not a shorty, Kyuhyun." Sungmin objected with a small pout. He put on his game face, and walked towards the small board located beside the white plastic sheet.

Sungmin crouched down, placing his fingers over the spinner, he declared, "Kyuhyun you're going first." 

As the needle of the spinner moved, Kyuhyun held a breath waiting. 

"Left hand yellow!" Sungmin called out while Kyuhyun waddled towards the mat. "Get your up the air, Kyuhyun." 

While Kyuhyun crinkled his face at Sungmin's excessive use of crude language, Sunny couldn't help but giggle cutely.

"Right foot blue," Sunny smirked as she peered down the spinner board over the arm rest of the couch. Sungmin muttered about his luck and always having to start with his foot as he took position beside Kyuhyun on the twister sheet. 

And ten minutes later, they had quite a situation on their hands. 

Sunny was spread over the couch, clutching her stomach as she laughed in mirth while Kyuhyun and Sungmin were squabbling in a very compromising position if you'd asked her.

With Kyuhyun's right hand curled around Sungmin's waist and his left,  inches away from the shorter man's mouth,and his body on top of Sungmin who was trying his best to maintain his balance so as not to loose the game, it was hilarious. 

With breathy pants raining down on his neck and sweat dripping off his forehead, Sungmin wanted to curl up in mortification. Their position was embarrassing enough as it is without having Kyuhyun grunting into his ear as they wriggled and struggled to stretch to reach the colored spots on the mat.

"You're going down Kyuhyun!" He breathed out as the needle pointed to left foot green.

Sungmin for one knew that the green spot was too far away for Kyuhyun to comprehend and the sweet smell of success was so near that -

"If you two dorks are done ing each other, can we please go eat some cookies."

.... ah never mind.

Sunny rolled around in laughter as the two men suddenly turned tense - as though they just realized the exact position they were in. 

As she looked at the spluttering voices and blushing faces, Sunny couldn't decide who's face was more red.. Kyuhyun's or Sungmin's.

After detaching away, Kyuhyun was sitting beside the couch quietly whereas Sungmin had fled to the kitchen to presumably "check on the cookies" as he had blurted out before taking his embarrassed self away from his howling sister.

Later as Sunny sat in between the two men, nibbling on a batch of sugar cookies all to herself, Sungmin couldn't help but hate how he had been played.

"Stupid Kyuhyun, stupid body, stupid stupid stupid Sunny." He grumbled under his breath while Sunny flipped her hair cutely. 

Kyuhyun looked at the two siblings from the corner of his eye and then at the plate of cookies that were making a fast disappearence into Sunny's mouth. He decided to finally muster enough courage and asked, "Sunny, can I have a cookie -"

"No you can't." Sunny deadpanned before crunching onto a cookie savagely. 

"Cookie monster, you." Sungmin snided while Kyuhyun settled back into the couch sadly.

Sunny popped the last cookie into and commented intelligently,"You can eat Sungmin's cookie though, he likes sharing."

"Shut up."

And as the two siblings lunged at each other's throats yet again, Kyuhyun decided it was time for him to get a mug of much awaited coffee rather than wait around and be smacked by Sunny's palm or Sungmin's bony elbow. 

"What happened now?" Jaejoong asked him with his usual lazy drawl as he walked in at the exact moment Kyuhyun was about to leave the room.

"A game called twister." Kyuhyun muttered under his breath as Jaejoong eyed him in interest. 

"How'd you play it?" The man asked him curiously.

Kyuhyun felt a headache kick in. "Trust me, you don't wanna know."

***

After they'd were all finished with the supper which was basically a big serving of macaroni and cheese, accompanied by a bowl of piping hot chicken noodle soup and coleslaw sandwiches- a family tradition.

If you'd ask Kyuhyun about eating a meal like that a month ago, he would have probably laughed and called it a very weird combination but now?

Kyuhyun was the first person to lay out his plate when Mrs. Lee was asking who wanted seconds.

Completely weird, but when they combined together it was quite a delight to eat.

Kyuhyun and Jaejoong found themselves in charge of washing the dishes that night, and oh sweet jesus - it was a pain to do chores beside him. Jaejoong kept pulling faces at every piece of soggy vegetable that came in contact to in the sink and it was driving him crazy.

His only solance was Sungmin throwing him amused looks every time Jaejoong whined about touching disguisting stuffs and Kyuhyun declared that he could handle hundreds of whiny Jaejoongs if he had one Sungmin by his side, drying up the dishes right beside him.

"Hey Kyuhyun now that all the dishes have been dealt with, do you wanna go on a walk with me?" Sungmin asked the taller man with a small smile, "I need to walk all those calories off, getting fat during holidays is a big no no."

Seeing Kyuhyun throwing him a look, Sungmin whined, "Are you gonna keep making those funny faces or come with me or what?" Kyuhyun nodded slightly and got up from the warmth of the fireplace before following Sungmin towards the door.

"Kyuhyun and I are going out for a walk, anyone wants to come with us?" Sungmin yelled loudly. Hearing everyone else refusing, he simply shrugged and marched onto the snow covered porch of the small cottage, and shutting the door after Kyuhyun with a loud bang.

"It's really a mystery." Sunny commented after silence had been restored back in the cottage. 

"What is?"

"How the hell did Sungmin get someone like Kyuhyun to fall for him." Sunny wondered while her husband facepalmed at her spacey gaze. 

Mr. Lee looked up from the newspaper he was reading and remarked coyly,"You know, they say... love is blind."

"And apparently deaf too, in this particular case." Sunny pointed out, earning earnest chuckles from her family at her little joke.

"But I must confess, I've never seen Sungmin so happy before.. he's always so grumpy during the holidays."

"Kyuhyun.. that boy is good for him." Mr. Lee muttered, offering a small smile to his daughter.

***

"Kyuhyun?" 

Kyuhyun hummed softly in reply as he gazed over the large expanse of black of the night, stretching as far as the eye could see. They found themselves in complete silence with the only sound accompanying them being the crunching of the snow underneath their feet.

"I was thinking." Sungmin startted quietly.

"Oh that can't be good." Dodging a punch thrown to him, Kyuhyun laughed.

Sungmin scolded the taller man with a pout, "I'm being serious here!"

"Alright alright, what is it?" Kyuhyun turned towards him with a fond smile as the two of them stopped in their tracks.

"Do you celebrate christmas with your family back at home?" Sungmin asked. 

Kyuhyun's eyes turned dark for a second, the previous sparkle of mirth completely disappearing as he looked at Sungmin coldly. That was when Sungmin knew that he'd crossed a certain line.

"Kyuhyun, look I'm sorry -"

Kyuhyun exhaled, "My parents weren't really around when I was a child, drowning themselves in business prospects and work.. celebrating christmas with their only son was the least of their concerns. Always out of country, the two of them." 

He spoke bitterly, "Leaving their small boy in the company of a nanny. Although the old lady did her best to see the boy was having a good christmas, it was never the same."

Sungmin's eyes were sad as he gave a small squeeze to Kyuhyun's hand.

"And when the boy had become a man, he had been swept into the whirlwind just like his parents had been." He spoke with a wistful smile.

"Christmas never meant anything to my family, it was just another holiday for them. Sure there were presents were bought but it was just a custom, it didn't mean anything. Sometimes you just need them to be there, you know? A parent's time is a far too priceless gift when compared to material things. " He finished.

Kyuhyun turned towards Sungmin and took his hand into his own, squeezing it gently, "But this year is different, isn't it?"

Sungmin's worries all melted to a beautiful smile at the small gesture. 

"I'm glad you're here with me, Kyuhyun." He whispered looking at the taller man fondly. 

"That makes two of us." 

-tbc-