Junghan stands on a step ladder in the common room of his dorm, hanging a few final strands of garland from the roof. He'd been decorating all afternoon and had put Seunggwan on door watch to make sure nobody came in. This had been relatively unsuccessful, of course, because Seunggwan had stolen all his brownies and then took a small nap, during which Soonyoung had stepped over his sleeping body to enter the room Junghan was in the middle of preparing for a Christmas surprise. After that, Junghan made Seunggwan sit on the inside of the door with his back up against it, which, sadly, resulted in Seunggwan harassing him as he worked.

"Where should I hang the mistletoe?" Junghan asks cheerfully, glancing at Seunggwan, who'd started eyeing the gingerbread cookies.

"Put it on a fishing line so you can just hold it above you and Josh at any given moment," Seunggwan offers, shaking the gingery fringe out of his eyes. Junghan's face turned bright red. Seunggwan knew far too well Junghan was just trying to impress Joshua, whom Junghan had one of the worse cases of love struck Seunggwan had ever encountered for. Junghan had expressed that he wasn't looking to do anything big for Christmas except for a tiny get together to exchange gifts with only their closest friends, but the very next day, conveniently right after Joshua had confessed that Christmas in Korea just wasn't the same as Christmas in LA, Junghan had begun planning a holiday party with a guest list of roughly fifty people.

"I'm not looking to catch anybody under the mistletoe this year, alright? This party is just so we can all celebrate together," Junghan snaps, deciding on a nice arch that led toward the section of the room with the tv in it would be a fine place. 

"Yeah, us and our closest friends whose names I can't remember! How could I survive Christmas without them?" Seunggwan says with a roll of his eyes. "Junghan, I would be more willing to help you if you would admit that you're doing this for Joshua."

"I'm not!" Junghan barks, and when he does, he accidentally knocks a container of candy canes off the table with his arm, breaking them in the process. "Great. Thanks a lot."

"You are! I don't care if you don't want to admit you like him or whatever. You can say this is helping out a friend feel less homesick if you want, but it's for him," Seunggwan prods, standing up to get a broom out of the spare closet to sweep up the pieces of the vase. "Also, you should de-stress. If you have food, they're gonna be happy."

"Fine, fine. I'll calm down. Why's it matter anyway? I didn't want a big Christmas this year. That's what I said, right?" Junghan groans, burying his face in his hands. He's thankful for Seunggwan, who actually is a decent human being when he needs to be and has already cleaned up the mess Junghan made and found something different to put his candy canes in by the time Junghan has recovered from his breakdown.

"Thank you," he mumbles with a frown, looking up at Seunggwan. 

"Don't mention it," Seunggwan drones.

"Can you help me hang the mistletoe?" 

"I suppose," Seunggwan hesitates after a second. He'd probably seen too many romantic comedies, but this was usually the part where Junghan realized he was doing too much for his love interest, and he deserved better. Seunggwan certainly didn't want to get kissed by Junghan, nor be his friend who he ultimately falls in love with. He had better things to do.

Fortunately, this isn't quite the romantic comedy Seunggwan had suspected it was, and Junghan genuinely wants Seunggwan to hold the mistleote in place. Once they've completed this, Junghan thanks Seunggwan for his help and asks him to put away the ladder while he goes to get dressed before the party. Seunggwan obliges.

Junghan spends ten minutes fixing his hair. It's pathetic, and he really didn't think anyone would notice if one hair or so was out of place, but he couldn't help it. What if someone did notice?  He couldn't risk it. He puts on his best Christmas sweater and his reindeer ears, and he is ready to socialize until he drops. Or sees Joshua. Whichever is first.

When he gets back to the common room, however, he discovers that Seungchul and Seokmin have been through, and it's not pretty. They'd stolen a few of the treats he'd baked, then had gotten in a wrestling match, that they were still in the middle of when he arrived and resulted in ruining majority of the decorations. The only thing that was left standing was a single strand of garland and the mistletoe he'd hung just before going upstairs. Once Junghan is able to pull them apart (and then Doyoon is able to pull Junghan off Seokmin), he gets a good look at the place and basically wants to lay down and cry.

"How could you do this? The party starts in ten minutes! Couldn't you wait until then?" Junghan howls. He'd spent the past week vigorously planning, only for it all to be ruined. He just wanted to make Joshua's Christmas a little better, even if he couldn't be home. "You're so inconsiderate!"

"Oh, please, Junghan. It's not that big of a deal. People are going to eat your treats and talk about what they want for Christmas regardless of whether or not Seokmin's big fat head smashed your reef or not," Seungchul attempts to reason. This only makes things worse.

"My big fat head? What about your scrawny feet knocking over that entire table?" Seokmin exposes.

"Whatever, Seokmin, I can't believe you kiss your mother with that mouth."

"I can't believe you have the audacity to celebrate Christmas at all!"

This is when Junghan storms out, ordering Seokmin and Seungchul to tell everybody's the party's off, but they're welcome to take what they want.

When Junghan reaches his room, he flops down on his bed and buries his head into his pillows and just lays there defeated for a few minutes. Thankfully, his roommate was out of town already for Christmas so he was free to cry a little bit, too. It was more than a little ridiculous, he thinks, to let one little party destroy his holiday, so, after he's had his cry, he pops his copy of Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town into his laptop and enjoys a private showing, with absolutely none of the rest of the people he apparently called friends to bug him. This absolute bliss, however, is interrupted by a gentle knock at his door just before Kris and Jessica get married. 

He sighs dramatically, realizing it was probably Seungchul coming to apologize. Junghan wasn't angry, not really anymore, but he just really didn't want to pause his movie, and even less than that did he want to get up. He does so anyway, walking towards his door and opening it swiftly to find Joshua.

"Oh, um, hey," Junghan stutters, subconciously adjusting his hair and his sweat pants and pretty much his everything in attempt to not look like a homeless man who'd just been dragged out of a school he'd been trespassing in.

"Hey. I heard about everything today. Are you okay?" Joshua asks, leaning against his door frame. Junghan hoped he didn't look as embarrassing as he felt. Joshua was just ten times more at ease than he was at all times. It made him even more nervous.

"Yeah. I'll be okay. It's just a few fairy lights, right?" Junghan explains. 

"That's good to hear. I know you really wanted everything to go over well-"

"Oh, no. It really wasn't that big of a deal-"

"I talked to Seunggwan," Joshua interrupts him, bursting out laughing. Junghan turns bright pink. 

"Everything he says is a lie. He's a compulsive liar, you know. He tells people all sorts of unreasonable stuff-"

"Listen!" Joshua continues to laugh, which only makes Junghan less eager to be alive. "I really wanted to hang this from your door frame or something, but I figured you'd notice it before I could bring it up, so I sorta just kept it in my pocket."

He opens his palm to reveal the mistletoe that he'd undeniably swiped from the remainder of the decorations from the party. If Seunggwan were here, he'd be able to tell you the ending of this story, but Junghan hadn't seen half as many movies with Ryan Gosling in them, so he isn't quite sure. Maybe just one hint: Joshua holds it above their heads and Junghan's heart doesn't slow for a few weeks.