December 8, 1998

"Wake up, Yoonmi!"

......... Hmmmm?

"Lee Yoonmi! Get up!"

Yoonmi barely opened her eyes the tiniest bit, squinting at the blurry figure in front of her face.

"YAH. Get up already, you babo! It's snowing."

...... Snowing?

Right away, Yoonmi sat straight up with eyes of an alerted squirrel.

"Snowing?"

Baekhyun nodded eagerly at her, already dressed up and wide-awake with all but a small, brown strand of hair sticking up from his bangs. He stepped to the side to reveal the window behind him beholding a beautiful sight.

Yoonmi widened her eyes.

Sure enough, fresh, white, fluffy snow covered everything in her sight, starting from their old, red mailbox to the once sandy floor of the beach right below her.

"It's snowing..." She whispered.

Yoonmi turned and looked at Baekhyun with eyes sparkling in excitement.

"It's snowing!"

Before long, the two were rushing outside with jackets and scarves covering most of their bodies, eager to check out the first snow day for themselves. From the beginning of her doorstep to the vast opening in her frontyard was a layer of soft snow. The two kids ran around in excitement, checking everything out starting from the sparkly icicles formed on the edge of the roof and the small rabbit--Baekhyun argued that it was a squirrel--footprints scattered near the bushes.

Adding to the delight of winter, tiny dots of white snow fell from the sky like cotton, and Yoonmi couldn't help but try sticking her tongue out, wondering what the taste was like.

It tasted like nothing, much to her disappointment.

"Come on, Yoonmi!" Baekhyun called from ahead. Yoonmi yelled out an 'ALRIGHT.' before rushing through the snow to catch up with the taller boy. Her cheeks were already starting to become rosy, and the tip of her nose was a bit pink.

It took her a while to notice that Baekhyun was staring at her funnily.

She sniffled. "What is it?"

"... Nothing. It's just that... You look like Rudolph."

"..... What?" Yoonmi turned around to look at her reflection from a window, and almost jumped back in surprise. She touched the tip of her nose.

"Why is my nose pink?!"

"It's from the cold. Duh." Baekhyun crossed his arms as a matter of factly.

Yoonmi looked up at him, who also was beginning to form the first signs of a rosy nose. Immediately, she went on her tippy-toes and reached to lightly touch the tip of his nose, curious.

She took her arm back in disappointment.

"I thought it would turn my finger pink."

"That's not possible, you babo. And my nose is perfectly normal."

In peaceful silence again, the two continued walking through the snow, observing the parts of the neighborhood that had magically transformed into white overnight.

Along the way, Yoonmi tripped over a bump in the road, being Yoonmi.

"OW."

The girl formed a pout and rubbed her snow-covered knee, groaning.

"What kind of person would put a bump on the road?!"

"... God... I guess..." Baekhyun bent down to help her up, clucking his tongue when he saw the clumps of snow having gotten on her elbows and hair.

"Be more careful, you babo. Roads are meant to have bumps. You have to look where you're stepping if you don't want to get hurt." He scolded in a quiet voice as he dusted the snow off her hair and jacket.

"Here." He held his hand out. "Hold my hand so you don't fall again."

Yoonmi nodded obediently, reaching out to place her cold, tiny hands in his before they started walking through the neighborhood again, hand in hand.

"Oppa." Yoonmi suddenly said as she stepped over a snow-covered rock.

"Hmm?"

"If it's winter, then that means it's almost Christmas, right?"

"Yup. December 25. Today's Saturday, so it's only a few weeks away."

"Then are we going to build a Christmas tree?"

"Mmhm."

"And drink hot chocolate?"

"Mmhm."

"And go sledding and snowball fighting and building snowmans?.... Actually, I take that back. I don't want to go snowball fighting with you and the other oppa's."

"Why's that?"

Yoonmi stopped walking and looked up at him.

"That would be dangerous."

----------------------------------------------

That afternoon, all of the guys came over to Yoonmi's house.

"GATHER AROUND, CHILDREN."

Yoonmi's mother was the only one of the adults who had the youthful voice to yell over thirteen kids.

"I have an announcement--"

"SHE HAS AN ANNOUNCEMENT."

"GUYS LISTEN UP TO THE ANNOUNCEMENT."

"What's an announcement?!"

"LET YOONMI'S MOTHER SPEAK FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE."

Suho's scolding quieted everyone down, earning him a thankful and amused smile from Mrs. Lee. The boy nodded back like a proper gentleman.

"As I was saying..." Yoonmi's mother smiled at the thirteen kids looking up at her with wide eyes. "I have an announcement to make of a decision Mr. Lee and I have made. Since it has started snowing, and the mountains are probably covered with soft snow by now..."

Yoonmi braced herself in excitement.

"We'll all be going on a trip to the Goeun Cabins next Saturday."

Like the kids they were, it took a second for the children to process what Mrs. Lee had just said. By the time it did, everyone erupted into cheers and 'YEAH's of excitement.

"The Goeun Cabins?!"

"I heard from my cousin that it's really far."

"REALLY far? Like, hours and hours away?"

"Awwww I'm going to get car sick."

"Who cares?! It's SNOW!"

Kai's last statement caused everyone to erupt in excitement again, echoing the word 'snow' like it was a the best thing in the world.

Yoonmi's mother chuckled in amusement before clapping her hands to get the children's attention again.

"I've already told your parents, so make sure to stay healthy until the day we leave, and listen to your mothers well!"

The next thing they knew, all thirteen of them were gathered around the neighborhood playground, taking over the swings and building the most snowmen they could before the spot of snow under them ran out... which wasn't much of an easy thing to do.

Luhan suddenly spoke up from the top of the slide.

"Do you think the cabins will have other kids?"

"I think so. It's almost Christmas, so a lot of families with kids will go there for vacation." Xiumin replied.

Kai perked his head up from the unusual snow creature he had been building.

"Then does that mean there's going to pretty girls there?"

"Eww." Chen made a face. "Girls are disgusting."

Yoonmi threw a snowball at him.

"Stop being a baby, hyung. There are a lot of pretty girls in this world." Kai sighed dreamily, which was definitely not so normal for a young kid like him. One could say he was mature, but others would say he was just a little seven-year-old brat with a flirty mind.

"And besides, what if there's pretty girls in our school there? That wouldn't make you think of them as disgusting." Kris pointed out.

Yoonmi rolled her eyes, immediately turning away from the conversation to finish building her snowman. Boys were just so weird. Either they thoughts girls were downright disgusting or extremely pretty. She didn't know which one was creepier. Why couldn't they think of a girl simply as normal?

"What do you mean pretty girls in our school?" Tao asked.

"You know... the nice, pretty girls with long hair."

Yoonmi had to keep from scoffing.

"Like who?"

"Like..."

Yoonmi stopped and looked up when Baekhyun started talking.

"Like... Well.... Kind of like--"

"Hey, guys!" A sweet voice of a girl interrupted him. Everyone turned to look at who the owner of the voice was.

Chanyeol suddenly grinned.

"Like her?"

"Yup." More than one boy chorused.

Eleven-year-old Im Yoona skipped towards them in her creme-colored coat and black boots, her long, brown hair in neat curls bouncing in the air as she took each step through the snow.

To the twelve guys, she looked like an angel having fallen from the snow.

Yoonmi rolled her eyes and went back to putting an eye on her snowman.

"Hey, noona~" Kai said with a grin. Yoona grinned back, and went into the long process of greeting the others as well. When she got to Yoonmi, she stopped and gave a light pat on the younger girl's head.

"Annyeong, Yoonmi!"

Yoonmi looked up with a polite smile. "Hi, unni."

Much to the other's disappointment, Yoona passed the seat next to Chen and the slide next to Luhan to sit down beside Baekhyun at the top of the stairs.

"So, I heard you guys are going to Goeun Cabins too."

.... Too?

"Yeah, we are. Are you going there too?" Kris asked as everyone held their breaths.

Yoona smiled. "Yup! And so is Jessica, Tiffany, and Minah."

Yoonmi crushed her snowman. Oh. My. G--

"M-Minah?!" Baekhyun's voice practically cracked. Yoonmi couldn't help but laugh at him before turning serious again to sulk about the fact that Minah was coming.

Yoona nodded. "Yup. And she also said something about taking Byunghun with her."

Chanyeol's ears perked up.

"But I think that's about it. Maybe a few more from our neighborhood. Overall, it's going to be really, really fun!"

Yoonmi looked up at Yoona, sitting next to Baekhyun and getting awed at by all the guys.

She made a face to herself.

Oh, yes. How fun it will be.