With watery eyes, Mi Ra sniffed herself to check if it was body odour that made Kyuhyun hate her so much. Maybe he hates the smell of that cheap shower gel I bought at that 24 hour mini mart.

As silly as it sounds, she just couldn’t think of anymore reasons why Kyuhyun treated her as such. There was a pending headache waiting to happen at the back of her head. She was thinking about this too much as she walked her way home. Her phone rang inside of the pockets of her apron.

“. Why didn’t I take this off?!” she quickly took it off, thinking that was the reason why people were giving her odd looks just now. She answered her phone after acknowledging that it was Leeteuk who called her.

“Is something wrong, Mi Ra ssi? You left without taking your last pay..” Leeteuk asked with a lot of concern in his voice.

“Aniyo sunbae..” she was glad her voice didn’t crack after sobbing real hard couple of minutes ago. “I had to leave. Uhh—My little brother is not well, so..” sorry I had to lie, sunbae..

“Ah. Gurae? It’s okay it okay.. I guess we’ll just see you tomorrow then. Don’t forget the Mokpo trip, arraso?” he sounded cheerful again.

“Ahh. About that..” she suddenly remembered she agreed to join them. But after what had happened just now, she felt like cancelling it. “Sunbae.. I—uhh---“

“Nope. No way. You promised”

“I did?” Mi Ra squinted hard trying to think if she did promise, but failed to. “Neh..neh.. sunbae. I’ll try to make it,” she said, just so that Leeteuk would stop pestering her.

“Good girl. I’ll see you tomorrow then.. anyeong..”

Why is this happening..  Mi Ra placed her fingers on her forehead, easing the headache pounding her head.

***

“Eomma! Eomma!” Sehun’s voice woke Mi Ra up.

“What? What?” she was startled. Looking around, she lost track of the time and wondered what had happened to her.

“Mi Ra ya.. Ppali. Your friends are waiting outside,” Her grandmother was smiling and packing something that looks like food into a bag.

“What?!” she was still in daze. How long have I been sleeping? What year is this?!

“You looked really tired coming back from work yesterday. I didn’t think you would sleep all through the night until this morning. And you didn’t tell me you made plans with your friends. I would have prepared more food. Yah!  Ppali! Get ready!” her grandmother seemed excited.

This was a rare occasion. Her granddaughter never had friends over and when a silver SUV honked on their driveway, she was surprised, especially when Donghae introduced himself as a friend and told her about their trip to Mokpo. He actually remembered the way to Mi Ra’s house just after sending her home that one night.

Mi Ra on the other hand was the least excited. She had planned to purposely-accidently forget about the trip. But having them already waiting outside didn’t give her much choice but to drag herself and just play along.

Mi Ra’s grandmother and Sehun waved them goodbye as they waved back from inside the car.

“So that was your little brother? How is he?” Leeteuk asked remembering that Mi Ra had told him about how Sehun wasn’t well yesterday.

“Ahh—Umm—“ Mi Ra stammered. “He’s okay now..” she hated to lie. She would rather avoid talking about Sehun.

“Wow.. your brother is really young, Mi Ra ssi..” Sora exclaimed, putting stress on the ‘really’.

Mi Ra quickly turned her head and saw Sora sitting next to Kyuhyun and next to Kyuhyun was Changmin, who was grinning feverishly to her. She didn’t notice them sitting there when she first got onto the SUV.

“Ohh..” she felt sick having to keep the ball of lie rolling. “Yeah.. My mother had him at a quite late age, before she died.. ” she said, not looking at the back anymore, probably because of the look Kyuhyun was not giving her. It’s like she wasn’t even there. It was so obvious he was trying hard to look away.

We’ll see how long you can keep this, Mi Ra ssi.. Sora smirked. She was feeling contented. Why wouldn’t she? She has Kyuhyun by her side and the truth about Mi Ra having a ‘son’ will sooner or later be revealed. If that doesn’t make Kyuhyun lose interest in Mi Ra, then she doesn’t know what will.

Along the way to Mokpo, which was a really long way, they shared jokes and stories, and Changmin would end up choking on the chips after laughing real hard to Sungmin and Leeteuk’s hospital jokes, Ryeowook giving annoying comments whenever Sora shared her stories working at Quiche Qafe, and Leeteuk would bash him for being mean to Sora. Donghae, being the driver just smiled as small laughter would occasionally escape his mouth. Most of the time, he would be stealing glances of Mi Ra from his rear view mirror.

He couldn’t dismiss the look Mi Ra had on her face today. She seemed solemn and quiet. Very much different from her usual self. What was bothering Donghae was that Kyuhyun was acting the same way too. Several years of learning psychology made him realize that the two were not on talking terms. But what are they fighting about?

“Kyuhyunnie.. you want some of this?” Sora asked holding up a piece of bungeoppang (fish-shaped waffle) in front of him, ready to feed him like an endearing girlfriend.

But he just shook his head.

“I want!” Changmin snatched the waffle from Sora’s hand and gobbled it down, making Ryeowook and Kyuhyun, finally, laughed. A small smile slowly appear by the corners of Mi Ra’s lips hearing Kyuhyun’s laughter. She couldn’t recall the last time she heard it.
She continued looking outside of the window, her thoughts flying by just as the view was outside. She thought hard how on earth did she fall for Kyuhyun. Then, she remembered how Kyuhyun cared for her so much, to the extend she felt overwhelmed by his kindness towards her.

The way he would look at her, making her feel shy but loving it at the same time. The times he would spontaneously grab her wrist, feeling his warm palm against her soft skin. She greedily thought she could have more of that after working as a maid at their house. But of course the opposite had to happen, she thought to herself and started tie up her hair.

The simple action of her hands going here and there tying her hair caught the attention of Kyuhyun, who was sitting behind her anyway. He just let his eyes feast upon her, without any expression on his face. He thought of how he used to tell himself that the last thing he would ever do to Mi Ra was hurt her. How ironic of me.. and all I’m doing to her is hurt her in every way possible. I just hope you will be happy after you discover that your debts are  settled- mysteriously.

He made it clear to the clerk that she shouldn’t know who paid the fees for her, making the clerk blush at Kyuhyun’s act of kindness  towards Mi Ra. ‘This Kim Mi Ra ssi must be really special’ she said, to which Kyuhyun nodded in silence. She is so special and I had to be the who treated her like she isn’t.

“Toilet break!” Leeteuk screamed as Donghae pulled over at a rest area. Everybody got off the SUV. Some head to the toilet to do their business, while some went for the food stalls. Mi Ra leaned against the SUV and checked her purse from the inside of her bag, hoping nobody sees the distressing amount of money she has left in her purse.

“Hey..” she quickly shoved the purse deeper into her bag and looked to her side to see a smiling Hae standing there with his hands in his pockets, looking as cool as fu##.

“Sunbae..” she smiled to him. “Aren’t you tired? You know-- from driving this far,” Mi Ra gave him a concerned look, to which he just smiled in respond.

“Why? You want to drive?” he asked teasingly.

“Aniyo.. I mean- I would, if I could..” she said quietly, ashamed that at this age, she has yet to acquire a driving licence.

“No need to..” Hae cut her words. “You know you can always just call me and I’d drive you anywhere, whenever you want..” he smiled a little bit too much, trying to contain from laughing at himself for that cheesy line he just passed her.

“Why are you like this, sunbae..” Mi Ra shook her head, rejecting that idea, causing Hae to secretly be disappointed. “You know I’m not that kind of a person. I won’t just ask you to drive me here and there-- like you’re my driver or something,” she cupped as she giggled, thinking that it was funny of him to offer such assistance to her, a nobody like her.

“What if I was your boyfriend?” and immediately Mi Ra looked into Hae’s eyes and discovered the serious look on his face. “Would you still not allow me to drive you to places?”

Mi Ra slowly looked away from Hae and bit her lips trying to comprehend what Hae was attempting to say. “Tch.. Sunbae..” she faked an irritated expression. “I’m pretty independent, you know? Ohh? Do you smell gunbam?” she begin to trail after the smell of roasted chestnuts.

Hae looked at her as she found the stall selling piping hot roasted chestnuts. He shook his head as he laughed at himself. “Mi Ra.. you just won’t let me in, will you?”

***

“Yah..!! what is taking that punk so long!” Ryeowook shivered in the cold outside the SUV while most of them are already in, leaving Mi Ra and him outside. They didn’t want to get in unless all the people who were sitting at the back had gone inside through that one door. It was burdensome.

“Ah! Screw him! I can’t stand this cold!” Ryeowook yelled in annoyance and climbed into the SUV to sit in the back with Sora and Changmin.

“Yah! Why are you sitting in Kyuhyunnie’s place?!” Sora shouted.

“Shut up, woman,” Ryeowook dismissed her as he was too cold, making Sora sulk foreseeing that her precious Kyuhyun will end up sitting next to Mi Ra.

And that was what exactly happened. Kyuhyun ran up to the SUV and stopped when he saw Mi Ra standing outside, slightly fidgeting from the cold. He took a look at the back window and saw Changmin giving him a thumbs-up sign and Ryeowook and Sora both sulking at each other. He let out a small laughter, which was really just a puff of air, and gestured Mi Ra to get in first without even looking at her.

***

The ride this time was awfully quiet, perhaps because most of them were asleep. Kyuhyun and Mi Ra were definitely not asleep nor were they sleepy as they were busy-- trying to avoid bumping and gliding their shoulders and legs into each other- although sometimes, it just couldn’t be helped and they ended up bumping anyway.

This time, Kyuhyun accidently bumped his right hand to Mi Ra’s left hand.

“Sorry,” he mumbled. Yah! Are you a vampire or something?! Why are your hands icy cold? He shrieked in his mind.  It was really cold today- even in the SUV. He was contemplating whether he should do it or not. Should I? No! Should I? No! Shouldn’t I ? And when he saw Mi Ra slowly curling her fingers into a fist, revealing white tips on the edge of her fingers he reached into the pockets of his pullover without hesitating and took out his gloves.

He threw them lightly on her lap without looking at her, but he could feel her looking at him- perhaps in admiration? He felt so cool and awesome, he was almost smiling.

“Put those on before your hands turn blue,” he said quietly, not wanting the others to hear him. He smiled to himself whilst facing the window when Mi Ra started to move a little. Then, he felt something on his laps.

It was his gloves. The gloves he placed on her laps had returned to him. Dejection much?

Instantly, he turned to look at her, who was just facing in front, ignoring him. He could feel heat ascending on his face, like a mercury thermometer going up. He saw her jaws twitch a little. Her chest was beginning to move up and down in a rapid manner as her breathing started to grow rough.

She was angry. Who allowed him to be kind to her after what he had said and done these passing weeks? Was she just a piece of rug he could walk over whenever he wants to? Damn you Kyuhyun. You have no idea what you made me feel inside. You don’t know how I feel when you ignored me, when you yelled at me, when you left me. And now you expect me to happily accept your act of thoughtfulness?!

She heard the ruffling noise of Kyuhyun’s puffy pullover and then felt her hands slipped into the gloves. Her eyes lurked downwards.

Kyuhyun was putting the gloves on her left hand. He slowly shoved her fingers, one-by-one into the finger holes and pulled them over her hand. She figured he would stop, but he didn’t. He pulled her right hand, which was further away, but that didn’t stop him. Once he was done, he took off his own muffler and wrapped it around her neck several times, slightly covering so only her eyes and cute nose could be seen.

She stood as still as she can, afraid she might burst out in anger and that might spoil everything including the trip. Warmth was starting to kiss the tips of her fingers, being bundled in Kyuhyun’s gloves like that. Her cheeks felt tepidly comfortable wrapped in his muffler. Although she felt like a snowman, the anguish in her slowly melted until she felt strangely calm- so she just sat there quietly while Kyuhyun was adjusting himself, slumping his body, ready for a nap. 

Show's over, Donghae thought and he returned his attention from the rear mirror to the road in front of him. He turned up the volume of the song currently airing on the radio a notch. 

Just like the Christmas day sonkkoba gidarideon
Just like the Christmas day oh! Neol saenggakhamyeon
Geuttae geu sijeol eorinaecheoreom manyang deultteugon hae
Youre just like Christmas day