Christmas was just around the corner and it’s suddenly that time of the year again. Fairy lights, decorated trees, and mistletoes are the essentials to remind everyone that it’s time to go back home to their loved ones and celebrate a year back over warm dinner and surprise presents. Everyone, except for a few.

Living life in quite an opposed circumstance from most people, Jongin had to forget the ideal plan to come home on the 24th to his family because he still has schedules he’s yet to finished. Christmas concerts and special TV shows are the jolliest for people to watch with the entire family, but the worst nightmare for celebrities for they have to sacrifice another precious moment all over again for how many times they don’t know. Therefore, to make up for his absence on the jolly eve, he came home two days before the eve to have early Christmas dinner and stayed for two nights before heading back to his reality as EXO Kai. At some point, he even wonders if Kim Jongin still exists in this world, because all about his life seems to rotate around EXO Kai. Thanks to his family and best friends, Jongin is able to preserve his existence in this world because there are still people who love him for who he is. Grateful is an understatement as Jongin said. He’s beyond grateful to have them in his life, including Jung Soojung in it.

Having Soojung in his life as a girlfriend feels like a dream to him every day. To have her around even if not physically is enough to give him a daily dose of vitamins that could boost his dopamine, thus making this world a better place to live. Their relationship proceeded slightly the way it should be with sweet message exchanges and long hours of calls day and night, even when both of them were very busy with their own schedules–Jongin as EXO Kai and Soojung as a university student who’s now a professor assistant who’s going to approach her last year of study. Everything is almost perfect except for the fact that they barely meet each other very for the past two months–making time to meet once every two weeks is considered lucky already. As Soojung put it into jokes, she told Jongin that she’s lucky to be friends with Jongdo, so that she still gets to stare at Jongin’s features compared to Jongin who has no one to look for when he misses her too much. This kind of joke would at least make Jongin sulk for two hours long.

As a substitute for their seemingly impossible dates, Jongin would instead send her presents and food to her house, her campus, or wherever she is. It’s also not rare for him to whine over Jongdo to accompany Soojung on his behalf to places Soojung wanted to go. Sometimes, it even worries Soojung to just tell him her thoughts, afraid that he would take the sign too immediately because it kind of burdens her to receive everything in a blink of an eye, though sometimes she didn’t really mean it.

“What if the company asks me to paint my hair rainbow?” said Jongin over the phone before when they’re talking about EXO's upcoming comeback schedule in the next year.

Soojung laughed while imagining Jongin in rainbow hair. “What the… You’ll look like a rainbow cake! It’s okay though. I like rainbow cake so I’ll still like you with that hair,” she said out of the blue, and about an hour after that, she got a delivery for a rainbow cake she’d never ordered before.

That’s just one example. The silliest one, according to Soojung herself, happened after she told Jongin that she thought about working out after seeing a re-run of Paris Fashion Week she randomly bumped on TV. She wished to form abs on her abdominal and the delusional target would be for the next summer. Not even half an hour later, someone from SM office called to tell her that she’d help her manage her workout schedule, also that there’d be a personal trainer calling after to help her start the program. Turns out, Jongin sent someone from the company to help her with the workout when in fact, Soojung was just daydreaming randomly without any particular intention. She herself wasn’t sure if she wanted to spend her time in the gym and ditch delicious food along the way to become an abs star. Soojung is quite an eater herself and speaking about that, let’s not start on how much food Jongin sends to her every day, even almost sending a professional chef to her apartment when she didn’t feel like cooking.

That boy really doesn’t know when to stop when it comes to Jung Soojung.

It’s two days before Christmas and Jongin was knocked out the moment he arrived home in the morning. He hadn’t been home for about one month and a half, so he’d been missing his bed way too much. Jongdo, on the other hand, arrived in the afternoon after staying over at his friends’ house for a farewell party because one of his childhood friends would be leaving for Switzerland for good.

It’s rare for Jongdo to come home and found his brother sleeping soundly in his room. Seeing how Jongin could sleep peacefully without having to be wakened up every few hours for work or training warmed his heart. He decided to just let him sleep more as he headed out to help his mother with the Christmas tree. It took them about two hours and a half to magically turned their homey living room into a festive one. When they thought it’s enough time for Jongin to sleep, Jongdo rushed to his room immediately after their mother asked him to wake him up.

“KIM JONGIN, WAKE UP!!! MY NINI! MY LITTLE BROTHER!” Jongdo annoyingly jumped on top of Jongin and snuggled him as if there’s no tomorrow. The cranky Jongin of course immediately countered and in a split of seconds, Jongdo was suddenly on the floor.

Not giving up, Jongdo hopped to the bed again toward his side this time. “Honey~ Please wake up~ It’s me, Soojung.”

Shrieking in horror, Jongin immediately jotted up and shuddered in disgust over Jongdo’s impersonation of Soojung. “FIRST OF ALL! SOOJUNG NEVER CALLS ME HONEY AND TALK LIKE A SQUEAKY CHILD LIKE THAT. SECOND OF ALL, GET OFF ME! YOU’RE DISGUSTING!”

Jongdo always enjoys his time toying over his brother's feelings. The more frantic he reacts, the happier Jongdo is. He just laughed when Jongin ran outside and screamed for their mother for help. After he heard no more noise from Jongin’s whiny voice, he followed him outside.

He saw Jongin sitting beside their mother on the couch while clinging like a koala. Jongdo playfully sneered at him with a judgmental stare, of course jokingly. “So, this is how the super-hot ily tempting beast EXO Kai acts at home. How disgusting.”

Jongin replied with no words but throwing a couch pillow straight to his face. Not wanting to lose the silly bicker, this time Jongdo ran and wrestled him down to the floor, making them laugh in between.

“Jongdo is being like that because he’s been lonely at home. He misses you so much,” their mother said as she continued folding the Christmas napkins for the dinner later. “Aigoo, just keep fighting. It’s been forever since the last time I see you wrestling each other like this. Never thought I’d missed moments like this because I really hated it back then.”

After fighting over nothing for a while, the twins obediently followed their mother’s order to help her in the kitchen. Their task was to wash the vegetables and cut the pork meat into bite-size because sour and sweet pork would be one of their Christmas dinner menus. Meanwhile, their mother focused on the stuffed turkey which would be the star dish for that night.

Knowing that there would be sweet and sour pork, Jongdo couldn’t let Soojung skip this one because he’s been bragging about his mother’s sweet and sour park all these times, for Soojung is an avid lover of it. Therefore, a sudden idea came to his mind. “Mom! Can I invite Soojung over?”

Hearing her name, Jongin almost choked in his own saliva. ! How could I not think about inviting her over, he mentally cursed.

“She loves sweet and sour pork so much and I’ve been wanting to brag your dish to her. I think it’s the right time!” Jongdo added.

And how could he know about her favorite dish while I don’t?! Of all the food I sent to her, there wasn’t even a single of sweet and sour pork, he thought again as he pretended to be cool with it. When in fact, he wasn’t.

“Soojung? Sure. I love her. She’s very sweet,” their mother accepted the idea easily and continued cooking. She’d met Soojung a few times and thought that she’s a lovely person, though in the first seconds she thought she’d be rude due to her cold expression. However, everything changed the moment Soojung opened . Her charismatic smile, her soothing and calm voice, her sparkling eyes–everything about her is endearing in her eyes.

Of course, she’s sweet. Hey, she’s my girlfriend, said Jongin proudly inside his head that's currently clouded with jealousy.

“Talking about Soojung… I’ve thought about this for a while. Why don’t you just date her, Jongdo? It’s been too long for both of you to be this close. As a man, you should’ve fallen for her already. I mean, look at her, son,” her mother surprisingly uttered her honest thoughts, and this time, both of their sons choked and coughed very loudly.

Jongdo could feel his cheeks hot from the sudden blood flush which came from shock, while on the other hand, Jongin’s face was also read but from how mad he was at the time. Jongdo spaced for split seconds since he didn’t know what to say, it’s not like he could reveal Jongin’s relationship with Soojung without his twin’s consent.

Before Jongdo could even open his mouth, his mother added. “I would really love to have a daughter in law like her. I also see that you both match really well. You’re both very mature and–“

“Mom!!!” Jongin whined while unconsciously throwing down the washed vegetables. “Holy shi– Ugh! See? I need to wash this all over again!”

Completely lost, their mother furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. “What’s wrong, honey? You don’t like Soojung?”

“No! No, no, no! Not in a million years will I ever hate her. Of course, I like her–“

“It’s official then! Kim Jongdo, you have to marry her after graduation–­“

“MOM!!! SHE’S MY GIRLFRIEND!!!”

There was a long silence before their mother burst out in laugh­–literal laugh. “Soojung?! You?! A woman as mature and wise as Soojung is willing to date a childish, whiney kid like you? What kind of joke are you trying to play here, Kim Jongin?”

Jongdo wanted so bad to pity him but instead, he burst out laughing. Meanwhile, Jongin had already put on the usual sulking, angry kiddy face he always uses as a weapon his entire life.

“Don’t lie to me. Soojung must not be in her right mind to date you,” their mother continued nonchalantly while kneading the chicken stuffing on the stainless bowl.

“No, Mom. It’s true. Soojung is dating Jongin. She's his girlfriend and you better not put any hope in me because she's going to be my best friend for my entire life,” Jongdo defended his little brother this time instead of continuing his laugh. Not that he’s happy to be paired with Soojung, but it’s funny to see how red Jongin face was when his mother said that he’s too childish for a person like Soojung.

This time, their mother seemed to believe it and dropped her jaw in shock. “Really? Really, Kim Jongin?”

“Of course! Is there something wrong with me that made you act like that, Mom???” he asked frustratedly.

“Oh my God, poor Soojung,” their mother joked. “May God blesses her all day and night through the thick and thick because there's nothing thin when living with Kim Jongin.”

Despite knowing his mother’s personality too well, that she’s very blunt and sarcastic yet a very loving mother, it kind of bothered him this time. Not that she doesn’t favor Jongin, she’s actually very proud of Jongin that her life is filled with overflowing proudness over his achievements, but she knows how childish Jongin could be. Compared to Jongdo who’s a thousand times more mature, Jongin’s nothing but a ticking bomb that could explode anytime, anywhere which makes him hard to deal with.

His mother’s jokes though successfully emerged some serious thoughts in his head. If he put his thoughts carefully, as well as observing intensely through the past months, there was something off about his relationship and Soojung.

Communication.

Weren’t they keep contacting each other through text, phone call, and video call? Yes. As often as possible.

But what was lacking in the relationship was real communication. Through all those seconds they spent online or sometimes offline if they’re lucky, they’d never had a serious conversation, just light talks that are almost unnecessary to hear. It would often be Jongin who shared his thoughts and problems, while Soojung was only there to listen and calm him down, also to encourage him. The other way? Not at all. She wouldn’t even talk about herself if it’s not him who asked first. Even when they’ve started talking about her, she would always say things are just going like usual and would divert the conversation as if she didn’t want him to know deeper things about her and things she’s going through.

He cursed to himself, why did I just realize this now?

Behind all of the deep thoughts, he could slowly hear Jongdo’s voice talking over the phone which was definitely Soojung judging from his casual tone that sounds almost like talking to a guy because how close they are. He asked her to come over and immediately, Jongin snatched his phone to tell her that he would be on his way in fifteen minutes. With all the question marks inside his head, Jongin was ready to meet Soojung and demanded her the truth.

Does she or does she not trust him?

---

It’s entering the second month of their relationship, but it was actually the first time Jongin ever went over to pick Soojung up outside–not going upstairs to spend a lazy day dating in private inside Soojung’s apartment. Instead of using his car, he used Jongdo’s to cover his personality as he didn’t want any fans to tail him behind. Being very careful while keep checking left to right, he parked his car near the entrance to wait for Soojung to come down.

It was still 5 pm in the late afternoon. H