Half proofread sorry orz

It’s this time of the year again.

Where lights of different colors twinkle and blink, lighting up what would otherwise look like a cold and dull place. Jolly and upbeat songs are playing, mixing in with the chatter and the sound of cars and rushed footsteps. People are hurrying to and fro, not because it’s rush hour but because they’re genuinely excited to go gift shopping. Shops are offering all kinds of special holiday products, from coffee to cake to couple scarves, knit with reds, greens and white. Tall plastic pine trees of various shades of green stand at almost every vicinity, gold and silver ribbons and balls hanging from them, a dazzling star shining on the top, and boxes of presents carefully wrapped with striped and dotted paper and colorful bows sitting underneath. The weather is freezing and yet the festive atmosphere is more than enough to warm everything up.

It’s December. Christmas time.

Everyone’s favorite time of the year.

Everyone except for a particular Lee Hyukjae.

He hates Christmas.

No, he absolutely loathes it.

“ing hell,” he breathes, trudging through the horde of Christmas shoppers with an irritated scowl permanently etched on his face. “Oh bloody mothering hell. I should’ve known. I really should’ve known this ing place would be filled to the brim by all these…humans.”

Of course. It is, after all, a few minutes past seven o’clock in the evening, Friday, and most people have just gotten off from work. Not to mention it’s only a little over ten days before Christmas, and so, the shopping district where Hyukjae usually walks every night to get to the subway station is now 200% more crowded than usual.

He is not amused.

Barreling through the crowd and ignoring how his shoulders bump against various people left and right, he mutters curses under his breath, badmouthing the ridiculously overhyped holiday that caused his current misfortune. Some heads turn and frown at him, whether because of the colorful profanities spilling from his mouth or because they got annoyed with him bumping against them, Hyukjae doesn’t really give a .

He needs to get home.

Basically, he needs to get outta here before his brain combusts due to all the around him.

Truth be told, he has his reasons for disliking – no, loathing Christmas. Of course as a child, he also enjoyed this particular holiday. He loved receiving presents from his parents, relatives, and Santa Claus. But as he grew from a little kid with bright, innocent eyes to an awkward teenager who was confused about pretty much everything in life, he learned that Santa Claus was nothing but a lie—just like everything else in his parents’ relationship when they both started cheating on each other. It took approximately four years before Hyukjae realized what was actually going on, why his parents weren’t the same anymore, why Dad started not coming home, and why there’s this weird uncle who slept in his parents’ room with Mom whenever Dad was away. It took another year until his parents finally blew up and screamed at each other one fateful Christmas Eve, pointing fingers and having this mini contest where the one who brings up more flaws about the other is the winner of the argument.

It was what jumpstarted Hyukjae’s loathing of the widely celebrated holiday.

Of course, after the divorce papers were signed, Hyukjae lived with his mother and the weird uncle, whom Hyukjae belatedly realized to be not just an ordinary uncle, but rather, his mom’s lover. His mother was still as nice as ever, but for some reason, he couldn’t really bring himself to like her as much as he did when he was younger.

His dad called him and they met every now and then, and while Hyukjae used to be closer to him, he unconsciously started to distance himself away from his father as well.

Perhaps there was just this sense of them not being trustworthy anymore.

Upon graduating from high school, he took it upon himself to leave, because he really can’t be bothered to get to know the weird uncle, no matter how much his mother pleaded him to. His father was supportive and gave him enough allowance to live on his own as he studied in university, and after a series of failed coaxing to come back home, his mother gave in and supported him too.

It was sad, but Hyukjae understood very well that happens—not just to him and whatever remained of his once perfect family, but to everyone. And he should just it up, no matter how painful, because crying and being sad about it won’t change anyway.

His parents’ divorce wasn’t really enough reason for him to fully loathe Christmas though.

But it’s as if ever since that incident, a ing curse of some sort has been bestowed upon Hyukjae and every single year, there has to be a terrible incident.

Every single ing Christmas season.

No .

His first year in university, he was seeing some guy and then on the ever fateful Christmas eve, he caught the guy cheating on him. With a girl. And they were ing on his bed. After literally throwing them out of the room (not without a kick to the guy’s balls (must’ve caused him to become impotent but it’s not like Hyukjae gives a )), he had to bleach his eyes and buy a brand new mattress which was ing expensive and totally out of budget. He ended up not having enough money for a Christmas chicken (that he would finish by himself) and he was pissed as hell. After a month, he moved to a new apartment, which he shared with a roommate so that someone can guard the house when he’s away, and his future boyfriends wouldn’t get the opportunity to pull the same his ex did.

The second year, he was happily single and was having a fun Christmas party with his friends from university, then some stupid son of a brought snow inside the house for no ing reason. It melted on one of the steps of the goddamn stairs, and the next thing Hyukjae knew, he was slipping on it and rolling down the ing steps, yelping like a ing idiot and ending up with a twisted ankle. It’s an understatement to say that he spent that Christmas pissed as hell again, because due to his pitiful ankle, he couldn’t go out, and none of his friends had enough free time to do him a favor and buy him the goddamn Christmas chicken. Even his roommate was away, spending the special holiday with his lover so Hyukjae didn’t have anyone. The chicken was all he needed to make everything better, and yet for the second consecutive year, he couldn’t have it again.

On the third year, Hyukjae was very happy to finally have his Christmas chicken. Only to end up nearly dead due to food poisoning. And he spent the whole Christmas day either throwing up or ting and cursing in the bathroom, swearing to the heavens that he absolutely hates, loathes Christmas.

And now it is the fourth year, and Hyukjae is still angrily making his way through the crowd of shoppers. He is finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel – the entrance leading to the subway, and he starts quickening his pace when he is suddenly blocked by a mothering Santa Claus.

He moves to the left.

Santa moves to the left.

He moves to the right.

Santa moves to the right.

.

“Excuse me,” Hyukjae says through gritted teeth.

“Hello!” Santa hollers with an irritatingly loud voice, pushing a goddamn flier into Hyukjae’s face and causing him to step back with a grunt. “It’s holiday season and we are offering a lovely promo! Buy any product from our shop every day until the 24th and you are eligible to get a free Christmas chicken!”

Although the words Christmas chicken makes him feel as if a vein would pop in his temple, Hyukjae pays it no heed as he tries to sidestep Santa, only to be blocked again by the persistent little .

“It doesn’t have to be an expensive product! You can buy anything and it will still count!” Santa chirps happily as he pulls the flier back and starts to gesture to it with his gloved free hand. “And we only give away the biggest, juiciest Christmas chicken! Don’t you like the sound of that? Doesn’t it make your stomach grumble-mumble?”

That’s it.

He’s had enough.

“Jesus ing Christ, get out of my way!” Hyukjae finally screeches, roughly shoving Santa out of the way with his arm as he stomps towards the subway entrance, ignoring the hushed whispers and dirty stares thrown at his direction.

He really, really hates Christmas.

♦

Of course the moment he arrives home, Hyukjae is greeted by yet another irritating thing – one that comes in the form of his roommate, Choi Siwon, who is crying dramatically on the phone as he walks back and forth from his bedroom to the living room, every time with a new article of clothing in hand as he tosses each of them towards the opened luggage sitting on the sofa.

“But I’m packing already and I’m coming to see you!” Siwon wails. “I thought we’ve talked about this?”

Hyukjae raises a brow as Siwon pauses to listen to the other person on the line, obviously his long-time on and off boyfriend Kyuhyun.

“What? But Kyu! You can’t do this! Where will I go?”

Rolling his eyes, Hyukjae tosses his bag onto the small table adjacent to the sofa before heading towards his own room. He leaves the door open as he is planning to go to the kitchen after changing into more comfortable clothes. He is just about to hang his coat when he hears the blasphemy coming from Siwon’s mouth, effectively causing him to halt his movements and slowly turn to stare at the wailing guy stomping his feet childishly at the living room.

“But Kyuuuu! I already found Hyukjae a new roommate and he’s arriving tonight so I won’t have any place here anymore!”

Hyukjae unknowingly drops the coat to the floor.

Of course it isn’t news to him that Siwon is leaving. They’ve discussed it a month ago, and while they get along pretty well, Hyukjae had been rather glad to hear that Siwon is leaving to move in with his boyfriend Kyuhyun. Not that he had anything against Siwon, but honestly…the guy’s a bit overdramatic, and always makes a big deal out of literally everything. No wonder his boyfriend is always pissed off with him.

That aside though, Hyukjae does not remember anything about a new roommate. He vaguely recalls Siwon telling him that he’d help him find one, and Hyukjae remembers declining the offer because he’d rather find one by himself as he refuses to live with a total stranger.

And now Siwon is saying that he found a roommate for Hyukjae.

ing son of a .

The moment Kyuhyun hangs up (evident as Siwon cries even more and tries to call him back), Hyukjae steps into the living room, arms crossed over his chest and a dangerous aura surrounding him.

As if feeling the darkness, Siwon stops fiddling with his phone and turns to look at Hyukjae.

Only to shriek in terror because his doom is about to come.

♦

“But Hyuk! I already promised him that he can move in tonight!”

“You didn’t discuss it with me!” Hyukjae yells angrily, breathing heavily through his lips as Siwon cowers behind the sofa. He grits his teeth in utter irritation. “I told you clearly that