“Well, how do I look?”

    “You look like that Sesame Street character that belongs in the trash can.”

    “Are you calling me trash?”

    “Essentially.”

    Sungmin earned a smack from the taller male.

    “But really, how do I look?” Kyuhyun asked showing off his costume for the play.

    “Very… Green.”

    “Sungmin!”

    “Alright, alright!” The shorter male laughed, “You look good.”

    “You said more than that last night.”

    “Piss off, Cho.” Sungmin hit the taller male in the chest and he laughed.

    “I’m just teasing!”

    “Yeah, yeah.” Sungmin blushed.

    Kyuhyun ruffled the shorter male's hair before heading past him onto the stage. Sungmin sat backstage and watched as the cast ran through the performance. He sat in a chair and watched Kyuhyun act like a grouch on the stage.

    “Hey Sungmin.”

    Sungmin jumped at the voice next to him and turned around, “N-N-Naomi! H-Hi!”

    She pulled up a chair and sat next to him, “Enjoying the show so far?”

    “Y-Yeah,” Sungmin looked back at Kyuhyun who was reciting his lines and smiled, “I am.”

    Naomi looked out at the stage, then back to Sungmin, “Kyuhyun’s really good, isn’t he?”

    Sungmin looked back at his crush, “Y-Yeah.”

    ‘Does she still like him?’ He thought to himself.

    “Y-You’re a good actress.” Sungmin smiled goofily.

    “Awh, thank you.” She returned the smile.

    Sungmin looked back at the stage and noticed Kyuhyun was looking back at him. He smiled and lifted his arm to wave at the taller male. Kyuhyun smiled before going back into character. Sungmin felt his heart fluttering. Was it because Naomi was next to him? Or was it because of Kyuhyun’s sweet smile? Sungmin didn’t know but he loved the feeling.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

    “Here you go, Sungmin.” Yesung said handing Sungmin a couple of papers.

    He unfolded them and noticed they were the children’s letters to Santa.

    “I split them up evenly so we can buy the kids one gift from their lists.” Yesung added.

    “Awesome.” Sungmin was flipping through the pile and noticed someone’s paper was missing. “Do you have Keiko’s?”

    Yesung shifted through his papers, until he got to the last one, “No, I don’t.”

    Sungmin looked over at the little girl who was playing alone. He smiled and went over to the six year old.

    “Hey Keiko.” Sungmin smiled, “Can I sit here?”

    The little girl nodded, “Yeah.”

    Sungmin sat criss-crossed next to the small child, “What are you playing?”

    “Barbies.” She replied while brushing one of the dolls hair.

    “Fun!” Sungmin smiled, “So what did you wish for, for Christmas?”

    “Nothing.” She replied not looking up.

    “Nothing?” Sungmin asked shocked.

    She shook her head.

    “Well why not?”

    Keiko looked up at her daycare sitter, “I have nothing I want. I already have all I could want.”

    Sungmin smiled softly and played with Keiko’s hair, “You’re so cute, you know that?”

    She giggled and Sungmin tickled her.

    “Sungmin.”

    The boy stopped playing with the young girl and turned around to see Kyuhyun standing behind Yesung.

    “You have a visitor.” Yesung smiled.

    “Mr. Kyuhyun!” Keiko stood up and ran toward the taller male.

    Kyuhyun laughed and lifted the small girl from the ground, placing a small kiss on her cheek.

    “Hey Keiko!” Kyuhyun smiled, “Are you being good to our Sungmin?”

    “Yeah!” She said happily.

    Sungmin looked up from the floor and laughed at Kyuhyun and the small girl in his arms.

    Kyuhyun fakely gasped, “You’re playing Barbies?”

    “Yeah! Do you want to play with me?”

    Kyuhyun laughed, “Sure.”

    He set the girl down and she went running back to the dolls and big dollhouse. Kyuhyun followed her and sat next to Sungmin. Keiko grabbed one of the dolls and handed it to Kyuhyun.

    “You can be her!” She smiled happily.

    “Oh boy!” Kyuhyun joked, “What’s her name?”

    “Hyosin.” She replied.

    “Alright.” Kyuhyun cleared his throat before walking the girl around with his hands. In as high of a voice as he could go, he said, “Hi Keiko! I’m Hyosin, let’s be friends!”

    Keiko laughed, “No silly! My Barbies name is Barbie!”

    “Oh! Right, my bad!” Kyuhyun played, “Barbie.”

    Sungmin laughed.

    “Let’s be friends!” Keiko said. “And then they go in the house and have a party!”

    “A party?” Kyuhyun asked.

    “Yeah a big party with lots of people.”

    Sungmin looked around and spotted a male doll on the floor. He picked it up and made it walk. “I’ll come too.”

    “Yay a party!” Kyuhyun said in his terrible girly voice, making Sungmin laugh again.

    “I have to go change! Be right back!” Keiko played before standing and running behind the dollhouse to change her doll’s clothes.

    Kyuhyun bit his lip and looked over at Sungmin. He moved his doll toward the older male’s doll. “Oh! Hi Sungmin. I’m glad you could make it to the party tonight.”

    Sungmin looked over at the taller boy and held himself from laughing. He decided to play along, “I’m glad you’re here too.”

    “Now that you’re here, there’s something I needed to tell you.” Kyuhyun’s voice cracked in the middle of his girl voice, “Don’t laugh at my voice! I used to be a man.”

    Sungmin hit Kyuhyun playfully and then went back to the dolls, “What did you need to say?”

    “I wanted to say thank you for yesterday.” Kyuhyun dropped the voice and looked over at Sungmin with a small smile on his face, “No one else could have made it as special as you did.”

    Sungmin looked up and met eyes with Kyuhyun. He blushed and Keiko came running back around from the dollhouse, “I’m ready!”

    “Yay!” Kyuhyun said looking back at the small girl.

    “I-I’ll be right back.” Sungmin said excusing himself from the game.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

    He stood and stared at himself in the mirror. He rubbed water on his face to try and get the blush off his cheeks but it wasn’t working at all.

    *Knock, Knock*

    Sungmin turned around and saw Kyuhyun standing there. He grabbed a towel and dried his dripping face. “W-What’s up?”

    Kyuhyun approached the smaller boy, “I just came to check on you. You seemed really flushed.”

    Sungmin looked at the floor, “I-I’m fine.”

    “Listen, about last night…” Kyuhyun took a deep breath, “I-”

    “I’m sorry.” Sungmin cut him off.

    “H-Huh?”

    Sungmin sighed, “I-I know it was foolish of me to kiss you before a-and then last night when you kissed me I just… I don’t know what came over me that made me kiss you like that… So I-I’m sorry.”

    Kyuhyun didn’t say anything.

    Sungmin stared at the floor, “I-It was my first real kiss.”

    Kyuhyun’s eyes widened, “Really?”

    Sungmin bit his lip, “I didn’t really know what I was doing.”

    “Sungmin?”

    “I-It just kinda happened and-”

    “Sungmin!”

    Sungmin blinked out of his trance and looked up, “W-What?”

    Kyuhyun laughed, “It’s alright. I didn’t know I was your first kiss. I never would’ve guessed.”

    “Yeah…”

    “Do you regret it?”

    “Regret what?”

    “Kissing me?”

    Sungmin looked up at the taller male and noticed a sense of curiosity in his eyes and words. He wasn’t sure how to answer.

    “It’s okay, you don’t have to love me.”

    “What?”

    Kyuhyun smiled sweetly, “You don’t have to love me, I just wanted to know if you regret your first kiss, especially it being with me.”

    Sungmin turned his back to the taller male and looked up into the mirror. He knew more than he was willing to admit.

    “Well?”

    Sungmin stared at himself and then looked at Kyuhyun through the reflection, “No.”

    “No?”

    “If my first kiss was going to be with anyone…” Sungmin turned around and faced Kyuhyun again, “I’m glad it was with you.”

    Kyuhyun blushed, “Good. I’m glad you’re not unhappy.”

    Sungmin rolled his eyes.

    Kyuhyun smiled and rubbed his neck nervously, “To be honest, I didn’t know how to feel about it. I laid in bed all night, last night, just thinking about it constantly. I wanted to know your feelings but at the same time I wanted to stay away from you. I was so conflicted about how to feel, I was making myself sick just thinking about it.”

    “I-It made you sick?” Sungmin asked.

    Kyuhyun realized what he said, “Well, not the bad kind. I had so many butterflies in my stomach from thinking about it.”

    “Did…” Sungmin paused and looked away, “D-Did you enjoy it?”

    “I don’t know.” Kyuhyun looked the other way. “But I wouldn’t mind finding out for sure.”

    Sungmin looked up at him and caught Kyuhyun’s eyes. He hit his chest playfully, “!”

    Kyuhyun laughed, “You didn’t let me finish! I was gonna say over dinner?”

    “Tonight?”

    “Tonight.”

____________________________________________________________________________________________

    “Well if I had know you were bringing me to the Christmas ball, I would’ve dressed nicer than this.” Sungmin said looking down at his clothes.

    “Oh hush, you look fine.”

    After dinner, Kyuhyun took Sungmin out to the annual holiday ball.

    “So, you want to explain to me what we’re doing here?”

    Kyuhyun rolled his eyes, “I already told you, I just wanted to have a fun night with my new friend.”

    Sungmin looked up at him and crossed his arms, “I don’t buy it.”

    Kyuhyun sighed, “Alright, fine. I’ve heard you sing, now I want to see your dancing. Happy?”

    “You’ve already seen it.”

    “Then believe my first reason!”

    Sungmin laughed and shook his head. The two watched as people were dancing around. Some couples were together dancing, other people were eating the complimentary snacks, some were chatting away and then there was Kyuhyun and Sungmin, standing around awkwardly.

    “Alright everyone, the next song is our couples competition song. All couples get together and dance to this! The cutest couple will win the Holiday Ball Royalty!” A man said happily through the speakers.

The next song came on and it was a slow, romantic song. The lights faded and couples got together all over the room, slow dancing together. Sungmin looked around and saw all the happy couples and smiled while watching them dance together. Kyuhyun looked over and noticed his look and smiled at the smaller boy.

Sungmin felt eyes watching him and he slowly looked up at Kyuhyun. Kyuhyun smiled and held out his hand. Sungmin blinked at him cutely, confused.

“Do you want to dance?”

Sungmin blushed, “This is a couples dance.”

“No one said we were competing.” Kyuhyun replied.

The shorter boy smiled and slightly laughed before nodding and taking Kyuhyuns hand. Kyuhyun returned the smile and brought Sungmin out onto the floor. The two were hesitant at first, both their hearts beating like crazy. Kyuhyun made the first move and placed one hand on Sungmin’s hip while holding his other hand out. Sungmin placed his other hand on Kyuhyun’s shoulder and Kyuhyun took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. Kyuhyun led the dance and Sungmin followed. Sungmin looked down at their feet and tried not to trip over his own feet.

    Kyuhyun stopped moving, making Sungmin stop and look up at him confused. Kyuhyun stared into his eyes and said seriously, “Keep your eyes on mine.”

    Sungmin softened and felt his heart racing. He was feeling the same butterflies in his stomach as he felt last night. Kyuhyun led the dance again while the two stared deeply into each other’s eyes. The two were close, there was no doubt about that but in fact they were so close that they could feel each other’s heartbeat. They were both beating in perfect unison.

    Sungmin let out a shaky breath to try and calm his heart rate and broke their stare. Kyuhyun stopped moving again and moved his hand out of Sungmin’s and pulled his head to look up at him again.

    “Only look at me.”

    Kyuhyun sweetly smiled at the older male and moved Sungmin arms around his neck while he placed both his arms around Sungmin’s waist. The two swayed back and forth, though most the swaying was from Kyuhyun.

    Sungmin was too afraid to really do anything, “Kyuhyun…”

    Kyuhyun pulled Sungmin as close to him as possible, “Shh. Don’t speak, just dance with me.”

    Sungmin hushed himself and carefully laid his head against Kyuhyun’s chest, nuzzling into the taller man’s neck. He closed his eyes as he listened to the soft beat of the song and the words the flowed from the speakers.

    Just make it snow in California

    I’ll even settle for rain

    Don’t want him to go tomorrow morning

    Give me something to make him stay

    Wrapped in his arms by the fireplace

    Will be the perfect gift

    Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

    Let it snow

    In Cali-forn-i-a

    Sungmin enjoyed the warm embrace from Kyuhyun and the sweet song playing while they were so close together. Kyuhyun rested his head against Sungmin’s and closed his eyes as well. The two were the cutest couple on the floor and they weren’t even together.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

    Kyuhyun stood outside Sungmin’s front door and smiled at the shorter boy, “Thank you.”

    “For what?”

    “For an amazing couple of nights.”

    Sungmin’s face dropped and he looked away.

    “What?” Kyuhyun asked noticing the look.

    Sungmin took a deep breath and let it go, “A-Are you sure w-what we’re doing is r-right? I-I mean we’re doing what c-couples do and… W-We’re not a couple-” Sungmin caught himself, “We won’t be a couple.”

    Kyuhyun was hurt by Sungmin’s feelings but tried not to show it, “Y-You’re right.”

    “Exactly.” Sungmin looked up at Kyuhyun and immediately noticed something was wrong. Kyuhyun’s attempt had failed. “K-Kyuhyun?”

    Kyuhyun rejected all eye contact, “Good night.” He his heel to walk away and Sungmin stepped out the doorway.

    “That’s it?” Sungmin called, “You’re not even going to discuss this with me?”

    Kyuhyun stopped and turned around. Sungmin could see tears staining his face, “What’s there to talk about?”

    Sungmin realized he hurt his feelings and quickly felt bad but held his ground, “You’re right. There’s nothing to talk about.”

    Sungmin entered his apartment again and slammed his door. Kyuhyun sadly went home and also slammed his front door. Both boys leaned against their doors and stared at the blank walls in front of them. Kyuhyun pulled something out from his pocket. It was a small white box. He clutched it tightly in his hands and quickly got angry.

    Both boys screamed though neither of them heard the others yells.

    Both boys cried though neither of them could see the others tears.

    And both boys were broken but neither of them realized it.