The crowd exploded into screaming and loud cheers as Minseok scored. He was immediately buried by his team mates.

“We won!”, Jongin shouted at him, as if Minseok didn’t know. Luhan helped Minseok up and threw his arm around his shoulders.

“We need to celebrate!”, Luhan called. The others agreed happily while they were still jumping up and down in joy.

But Minseok was still looking around and didn’t pay attention to the others.

“Are you looking for someone?”, Luhan asked and frowned. Minseok turned around.

“Ah, no, no. I just thought I’ve… never mind. Let’s go celebrating!”, he said with a smile.

But as soon as Luhan turned away, Minseok’s smile faded. He didn’t know why, but he had expected Jongdae to be there and for some weird reason he couldn’t be as happy about their win as when Jongdae had been here and cheered along.

Jongdae also hadn’t been to their last two practice games and Minseok couldn’t help but wondering why Jongdae wasn’t coming anymore. He was also not waiting for Jongin after the soccer practice anymore. It had been a week since they last had talked in front of Jongdae's locker.

Minseok grabbed Jongin’s arm and pulled him aside.

“Hey, Jongin. Have you and Jongdae recently fought or something like that?”, he murmured. Jongin was still beaming.

“What?”, he called. Minseok hesitated. “Have you and Jongdae fought?” Jongin looked confused.

“No, why? Did he say something to you?”, he asked surprised.

“Ah, well no. I was just wondering… he’s not coming to our games anymore”, Minseok said and quickly smiled as if he didn’t care that much.

Jongin nodded. “Yeah I know, he’s probably studying with Suho!”, he said and shrugged.

Minseok looked away. “Right…”

They were heading to a restaurant when Minseok noticed that he forgot his mobile at his locker. He sped back into the school and since it was late in the afternoon, it was rather quiet and he barely met anyone. He found his mobile where he had left it and just as he shoved it into his pocket and was halfway out of the changing rooms, he noticed two people standing in the hallway.

“Thanks a lot, Suho”, Jongdae said. “Yeah… sure”, Suho said.

Minseok stepped back into the changing room and looked away as he saw how Jongdae pulled Suho into a tight embrace.

Why was there a sting in his chest as he saw how they hugged? Suho was one of his closest friends. Hadn’t he always wanted him to find a boyfriend? Hadn’t he just recently told Suho he would be happy for him if it would work out with Jongdae?

But he wasn’t happy, he flinched as he heard Jongdae laughing. His laugh was addictive, it made you laugh along and his lips curved upwards in such a beautiful way. Xiumin opened the door again and watched the two leaving together and he suddenly felt incredibly empty.

-

“Minseok…!” Minseok flinched and looked up. Luhan snapped with his fingers in front of his face. “What’s wrong with you?”, Luhan asked and frowned.

Minseok smiled. “Nothing, nothing”.

Luhan crossed his arms. “You’re playing horrible lately, don’t tell me that it’s nothing. Something’s bothering you…”, Luhan said.

Minseok looked away. He hadn’t scored even once in the last game and on top of that they had lost. During the practice he was constantly missing the passes and no matter how hard he tried to focus, his thoughts always ended up with a certain boy that he didn’t get of his mind. Jongdae still had not appeared on one of his games.

Tomorrow was the last day before Christmas Holidays and Minseok felt like he needed to see the boy before the long winter-break.

“You know that we have a very important game tomorrow again? If we lose that, we can forget the big tournament in Spring next year!”, Luhan reminded him and furrowed his brows.

Minseok got up. “Yeah, I know. Sorry…”, he murmured and left the gym towards the changing rooms.

He didn’t look at anyone while making his way to the lockers, so he bumped into someone who let some papers fall.

“Sorry”, Minseok murmured and looked shortly up.

“Jongdae!”, he called surprised.

Jongdae was biting on his lip, he couldn’t wait for Jongin to turn up. Why was that taking so long?

Finally the door opened, but it wasn’t Jongin who entered the changing room, but Minseok. He was looking down and before Jongdae could ask what was wrong with him,

Minseok had simply run into him. He looked up and suddenly it was as if someone had clicked a switch and a wide smile spread over his face.

“Jongdae!”, Minseok called.

Jongdae smiled back at him, while his heart was beating like crazy against his ribs. He hadn’t seen Minseok in a while and he had missed him. Isn’t it ridiculous that you can miss a person so much even though that person doesn’t care halfway as much about you as you do?

“You didn’t come to the games anymore”, Minseok suddenly said. Jongdae was surprised. He hadn’t thought Minseok would care if he came or not.

“Yeah, right… I was very busy so-“, Jongdae started, but he interrupted himself as Jongin finally appeared.

“Jongin, you won’t believe it. Look at that! Look at it!”, he called and stormed over to his friend and shoved the papers he had been holding all the time in his hands into Jongin’s face.

“Are those the results to the Math test?”, Jongin asked and grabbed them.

“Are you kidding me?”, he added. “Did you cheat or something?”, he called. “How did you get such a high grade?”

Jongdae grinned. “I studied a lot, that’s all thanks to Suho!”, he said.

Minseok turned around and opened the door to his locker, he tried not to listen to Jongdae’s and Jongin’s conversation.

-

“Did you even sleep last night?”, Luhan asked with a disapproving glance at Minseok.

Minseok grunted as he changed his clothes. “Are you fit enough for the game?”, Luhan asked and grabbed his shoulders. Minseok looked up.

“Yeah, of course. I just had a nightmare… but I’m fine. Thanks, Luhan”, he murmured and gently shoved his hands off.

Usually he was never nervous when it came to qualification games, he was rather excited, but right now he was torn between carelessness and tension.

The referee put the whistle between his lips and then the game started.

Their opponent was a strong team, they had made it to the second place in the national high school tournament. They snitched easily the ball away from Minseok, which usually never happened.

“What are you doing, Minseok!”, he heard his coach shouting.

“GO MINSEOK!”

Minseok turned around as he had heard that familiar voice in the crowd and right there he was, shouting and clapping his hands. Jongdae.

Minseok smiled and Jongdae waved.

“RUN! GO FOR IT!”, he shouted or maybe it was his coach who shouted at him, but suddenly Minseok felt stupid for stopping in the middle of the field and letting the other team stealing away the ball.

Maybe it was Jongdae’s cheers that took away the exhaustion of the sleepless night, but somehow his strength returned and the passes worked out as fluid as usual and just seconds later Luhan scored. And finally their team picked up on the game, but their opponent didn’t let them take the lead so easily. It was a neck and neck race.

Minseok glanced at his watch, only one minute was left and they were in lead, but their opponents fought hard back.

The seconds were running slower than usual and every time the other team came close to their goal, he tensed up. If they made one last goal, then they had won on the safely. “Minseok!”, Luhan shouted and the ball sailed through the air. Minseok’s eyes followed the ball and he started running and then his leg shot forward.

The goal keeper jumped and hit the ground, the referee whistled and the crowd screamed louder than ever before. The goal keeper had missed the ball for an inch.

“NICE GOAL, MINSEOK! WE’VE WON! WE’RE TAKING PART IN THE NATIONAL COMPETITIONS!”, Luhan shouted and lifted Minseok up.

Within seconds Minseok was buried underneath his team mates.

He still couldn’t believe it. They had made it.

“Oh gosh, guys. You’re heavy”, he coughed laughing and tried to free himself. Once they were all standing again and their coach had all pulled them into a tight and rare hug, they waved at the crowd and made their ways back to the changing rooms.

Suddenly someone grabbed Minseok’s arm and made him turn around.

“Jongdae! It’s really nice that you made it to the-“, Minseok started happily, but was interrupted when Jongdae pulled him into a hug.

“You were great. That last goal was awesome”, he called. Minseok hesitatingly put his arms around Jongdae’s back.

“T-Thanks”, he said. Then Jongdae let already go.

“Are you coming to the Christmas Party later?”, Jongdae asked.

His eyes were sparkling and his lips curved up just in the way that made Minseok’s heart stop.

“Yes… so, we’ll meet later?”, he said. Jongdae nodded. “Sure”.

Minseok felt somehow light despite all the exhaustion as he entered the changing room. He showered in record time and flung the door of his locker open to quickly dress. Although it was still 1 hour until the Christmas Party would start, he couldn’t wait… to see Jongdae again.

He had fallen for the boy before he had noticed it, he couldn’t even deny it, no matter how hard he tried to suppress it. He knew he shouldn’t get his hopes up, especially now since there was something going on between Suho and Jongdae…

He banished the thought of Suho out of his mind and dressed, he had pulled out his clothes so hastily that something that was lying on top of it almost fell down. Minseok caught it just in time.

It was a blue small box and when Minseok looked again into his locker he saw a little letter as well. He hesitated but hid it in the locker and sat down.

“What are you waiting for? Let’s go to the Party!”, Luhan said and patted his shoulder.

“You go ahead, there’s something I have to do… I’ll be coming after guys”, Minseok said. Luhan eyed him skeptically but left along with the others. Minseok waited until everyone had left, then he opened the blue box and the letter.

“Dear Minseok, I’m not really good at writing letters, sorry. I just felt like I needed to explain:
I’m not really your Secret Santa, so I can’t hand you the present at the Party in front of everyone.
I got your name by mistake at first, but even after the misunderstanding had been solved I wanted to get you something.
When I saw this, I thought of you and so I bought it for you. I hope it’ll bring lots of luck for your next soccer games (not that you needed that anyway…)
But you can be sure that from now on I’ll be there and I won’t miss one single game ever again.
I’ll cheer for you like I always did, as your motivation!”

Minseok closed the box and put the letter down.

“Jongdae?”, he murmured. This could only be a letter by Jongdae. He quickly got up and left, he needed to find him now!

The party was taking place in the assembly hall, it was nicely decorated. A large Christmas tree had been put up and a large buffet was found on the right hand side. But Minseok didn’t care for anything of that, he just needed to find Jongdae. He found Jongin with Suho and another guy at the buffet.

“Hey! Have you seen Jongdae? I need to find him, it’s important!”, Minseok called. Jongin looked up.

“Uh, he was here a second ago. Maybe he went outside to get some fresh air or something!”, Jongin said. Suho didn’t even look at Minseok, he was busy talking with the other guy. Dimples appeared on his cheek as he laughed. Jongin sighed.

“Mind if I come with you? I can’t stand them flirting all day long. Ever since Jongdae introduced Suho to us, he and Yixing are like this”, Jongin groaned and dragged Minseok away from the buffet.

“What? I thought Jongdae and Suho were… kind of seeing each other?”, he asked surprised. His heart though started beating hopefully.

Jongin gave him a side look.

“What? No, I guess Suho had a little crush on our Jongdae, but that was all forgotten once he met his prince Yixing”, he sighed and waved with his hands.

“Is it already time to hand over our presents?”, Jongin then asked with a look at the blue box in Minseok’s hands.

“I don’t know… I thought it’s up to you when you want to reveal yourself”, Minseok murmured and looked around. Jongin suddenly looked nervous.

“Okay, then I will… go and yeah… see you”, he murmured and walked away.

Minseok sighed and fought his way through the crowd. At the head of the assembly hall there was a glass door that leaded outside. Some students had sneaked out to smoke in a safe distance, but one guy was standing close to the door.

The hands in the pockets of his coat, his head in his neck, as if he was waiting for someone.

Minseok opened the door and stepped out into the cold winter air. He shivered and pulled up his shoulders. It had started snowing and the grounds were covered in a thin layer of snowflakes.

Jongdae turned around and looked at Minseok, as if he had expected him to come.

“Hey…”, Minseok started. Jongdae smiled shortly. “Hi”.

“Well… thank you for the present. It was from you, wasn’t it?”, Minseok asked and held up the blue box. Jongdae nodded.

“But I’m afraid… I can’t accept it”, Minseok said slowly. Jongdae opened his mouth, something in his eyes changed.

“Why?”, he asked. Minseok quickly waved his hands as he heard how hurt Jongdae sounded.

“It looks so expensive…”, he said. Jongdae breathed out and the air turned white between them. “Don’t worry about that… I want you to have it”, Jongdae said.

Minseok looked down at the blue box in his hands and Jongdae stepped closer. He carefully opened the box and took out the silver necklace with a tiny pendant in form of a snowflake.

He slowly put it around Minseok’s neck and placed it so it was lying right between Minseok’s collarbones.

“See, it looks great on you”, Jongdae said without stepping back. Minseok shortly looked down, it was really a beautiful necklace and he liked it, when he looked up to thank Jongdae again, the other boy had stepped even closer.

Minseok’s word got lost in the cold white winter air and they just looked at each other. Until Jongdae slowly leaned forward, he hesitated for a second, the tips of their noses were already touching and then he kissed Minseok.

Minseok closed his eyes and felt like flying and falling at the same time. But the kiss only lasted for a few seconds and Jongdae pulled back.

Jongdae watched Minseok slowly opening his eyes, he felt a bit dizzy. He couldn’t believe that he would really bring up the courage to finally kiss him.

“I love you”, Jongdae whispered.

The white air almost hid Minseok’s face, but he just stared at Jongdae. He couldn’t believe the words he just said. Jongdae looked for a long time at Minseok, but as he didn’t answer, he sighed.

“I better leave now…”, he murmured.

He was about to turn around when Minseok grabbed his arms and turned him back around.

“I was so jealous of Suho. I thought you and him were dating! And that this was the reason you didn’t come to the games anymore and I missed you a lot”, the words blurted out of Minseok’s mouth before he could think.

Jongdae’s eyes widened.

“What? No. Oh god, Minseok…”, he said and cupped his face.

“Suho and I were only studying together and I had some important exams, so I couldn’t come. I’m sorry”, he apologized.

“But that one time you and Suho hugged in the hallway, you thanked him”, Minseok started again.

“Yeah, I thanked him because I passed the test…”, Jongdae explained. He pulled Minseok closer.

“O-Oh… that’s how it was”, Minseok murmured.

But before he could say something else, Jongdae locked their lips again. And this time Minseok wrapped his arms around Jongdae’s neck and brought him deeper into the kiss.

“I love you, too”, Minseok whispered as their lips shortly parted.

“Great”, Jongdae said and leaned his forehead against Minseok’s. Then both had to laugh.

Jongdae intertwined their fingers and closed his eyes. Minseok quickly chased another kiss onto Jongdae’s soft lips.

“Did you know, that you fulfilled the wish I made… with the eyelash?”, Jongdae said quietly. Minseok smiled against Jongdae’s lips.

“Really?”

Instead of answering, Jongdae moved his lips against Minseok’s and neither of them felt the cold winter wind anymore.  

Okay, so since this is all about Christmas Eve I figured it might be kind of better to upload it directly on Christmas Eve.

haha *cough*

so... hope you enjoyed this a lot again, Penny~ ♥♥

sorry for the pinch of drama in here, I couldn't resist.

If you're curious how it will go on for Jongin/Kyungsoo

you can read it here (CLICK ME~)

Well then, guys:

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Eat lots of cookies and I hope you'll receive nice gifts.

Love you all ♥