Jessica slept peacefully in her room at her parents’ home. Her arms and legs were sprawled across the width of her full size bed. She was a restless sleeper and never felt quite comfortable in her single bed at the dorm. Jessica had the day off to rest up before the onslaught of holiday activities that she had grown accustomed to at the end of every year.

She was always jealous watching couples at this time of year. Christmas and New Year’s was a time for couples to share. Though she had gotten to spend time with Jaejoong during these holidays in the past, it wasn’t quite the same when they were both working in Music Show Specials and were surrounded by over a hundred of their friends and colleagues.

There was a gentle knock on her door, but Jessica didn’t move. The knock came again, but louder this time. Jessica stirred enough to whine at the door.

“Jessica, dinner is ready,” said her mom as she opened the door ajar. “You’ve been napping since you came back from shopping this morning. You didn’t even eat lunch.” Her mom waited in the doorway.

Jessica knew her mom wouldn’t leave until she got up. Jessica grumbled and to her side. She pushed herself up into a seated position, yawning as she struggled to open her eyes. Only now did she hear her mom close the door and make her way back downstairs. Jessica stretched her arms out and slipped on her slippers.

Jessica walked over to her desk and sat down. On her desk was a roll of gift wrapping paper, scissors, tape, and ribbon. She had prepared them before taking her nap that morning. She looked on the floor to her right. At the foot of the desk were three large bags filled with wrapped presents.

She opened the top drawer and pulled out two items, one large and one no bigger than her hand. She proceeded to wrap the larger present, but misjudged the amount of paper she needed and left revealing ends on opposite sides of the box. She frowned and looked down at the bags of presents again. The people at the store made it look so easy, she thought.

Jessica cut out pieces of paper and taped them over the revealing sides. She looked at the final product unhappily. She proceeded to wrap all sides of the present in ribbon to hide the many strips of tape she was forced to use. She pushed the box aside and faced the smaller present. This time Jessica did not take any chances. Without measuring the gift, she cut out a piece of wrapping paper and folded it several times. In the end she had an envelope. She slid the present inside and taped it shut. This one, at least, looked nicer than the first. On both presents she wrote:

To: Taecyeon

From: Jessica

She added her newly wrapped gifts to the other presents and went down for dinner.

Taecyeon sat waiting on a bench overlooking a large fountain near Jessica’s apartment. It was nearly midnight. He finally got to leave after many hours of filming the Music Bank Christmas Special. He yawned deeply and rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand.

Before the show started, he had bumped into Jessica and agreed to meet her there tonight. He smiled to himself and glanced to his left. Behind a tree was a gift bag that was hidden to anyone who approached. Taecyeon pulled out his phone to check the time. There were only 10 minutes left until midnight. She was late.

He cupped his hands around his mouth and breathed out in an attempt to warm them. His breath produced denser and denser vapor as the night grew colder. As he yawned again, he heard the thuds of quick, uneven footsteps approaching.

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Jessica glanced guiltily at her watch as she ran out her apartment door. She was supposed to meet Taecyeon at 11:30, but one of their managers had a family emergency and needed to leave. As a result, they had to wait for Tiffany and Yuri to finish MCing and change out of their outfits before they could head home.

Jessica shivered as the cold air hit her. She zipped the smaller present in her jacket pocket and hid the other inside her jacket before running off to the park a few blocks away. When the fountain came into view, she spotted him sitting on a bench with his shoulders all hunched up. She frowned to herself. He must be freezing, she thought. Jessica ran up to him. He looked up at her as she approached. He didn’t smile like he usually did when he saw her. He must be mad, she thought.

Jessica stopped in front of him and bowed a full 90 degrees and apologized. She explained what had happened and chanced a look at him. Upon seeing her guilt stricken expression, his usual grin spread across his face followed by a low chuckle. Taecyeon patted the seat next to him. Jessica sat down.

“Just so you know, I wasn’t mad, so you didn’t need to apologize. If I looked angry, it’s because my face is frozen,” said Taecyeon. He rubbed his hands together and touched his frozen cheeks. Jessica shoved him lightly.

“Don’t laugh,” she said while pouting. “I felt really bad for making you wait.” Taecyeon smiled.

 “Congrats on winning Music Bank’s end of the year award,” he said as he leaned back. “You did really well this year with Gee.”

“Thanks. I didn’t expect it to do so well when we recorded it,” said Jessica. “Actually, I should be the one congratulating you.” Taecyeon gave Jessica a surprised look.

“What for?” he asked curiously.

“For being chosen for the main role in the MBC Gayo Daejun skit,” said Jessica with a wink. A few days earlier 2PM and SNSD had met to rehearse for the Gayo Daejun’s where they learned the general storyline for the MBC skit and that Yoona and Taecyeon would be playing the main roles. Had the main roles not been boyfriend and girlfriend, she would have been happy for him. 

“We were surprised you were picked to be honest,” said Jessica with a shrug. She tried to seem uninterested when she was actually very curious about why he was chosen and how he felt about it.

“Why?” asked Taecyeon with a fake appalled expression. “Did you think they’d pick Changmin cause of his acting experience?” Jessica smiled. She knew he was leading her on to feel guilty about the implications, but she had long ago grown used to his antics.