Written by: "Schaden" 

Pairing: Hogyu 

Prompt: Sunggyu is upset that he's the only one left in the dorms on Christmas Eve. He expects to spend Christmas alone, but someone surprises him. 

(4,095 Words) 

Sunggyu supposes, it’s not that bad of a day.

Sure, he is all alone in the apartment now with no one accompanying him, no food that he can eat, and nothing he can do. But at least, he can lay down all day and watch reruns of Home Alone even though he already knows the story in detail. On top of that, he can get a rest after having a busy schedule all year long even though it’s just for a day and tomorrow the pace of his schedule is going to quicken again.

He groans. Those are just the things he is trying to convince himself as the reasons that this is not a bad day.

His back is already aching from laying too much and his body refuses to go back to sleep since it has rested too much because Sunggyu forces himself to go back to sleep every time he wakes up. There is nothing interesting on TV—family-themed movies are not his thing—and he doesn’t want to go out all by himself. It’s Christmas, alright, where supposedly there is only happiness. But what Sunggyu feels is only laziness, dreads, and loneliness. The last part, Sunggyu would never admit it to other people, but he could admit to himself that he feels lonely.

Everyone else is gone visiting their family to celebrate Christmas with them or just spending a free day with them, so he is all alone moping that he can’t visit his family and it’s too tiring to go to Jeonju and then go back to Seoul in a day because he could only spend a day there. He had made a video call with them, but now he had nothing to do anymore. So, he could only try to pretend that he is Myungsoo and could stare at nothing for hours.

Well, he fails. He can’t even stare at wall for more than a minute. So he ends up curled up on the sofa watching a movie he doesn’t even know the title of.

He is startled when the apartment door suddenly goes open because it was opened so harshly. He turns his head so quickly, there is a sound of cracking from his bones that makes him groan again.

Howon walks inside the apartment with an oblivious face, as if there is nothing wrong.  Well, there is nothing wrong, it’s just the way he walks is annoying for Sunggyu.

“What are you doing here?” Sunggyu asks. He didn’t expect anyone to come and he thought Howon, like the others, are also visiting his family. So, it puzzles him that Howon suddenly shows up.

“I…live here?” Howon answers hesitantly, confused by Sunggyu’s question.

“No,” Sunggyu says, shaking his head and unable to find a way to make his question more clear, “I mean—aren’t you visiting your family?”

“My family’s in Busan.” Howon answers again, even more confused that before. He takes off his thick coat and put it on the coat hanger that is put in the middle of their living room.

“Oh.”

Sometimes, Sunggyu forgets that Busan is even farther than Jeonju. And sometimes, he also forgets that Howon is just like him, unable to spend a lot of holidays with his family because of the distance and time (and sometimes, because of awkward family situations.). Sunggyu guesses that his brain must be working really slowly today if he doesn’t realize that even though the others would go to their family, Howon won’t.

“Then aren’t you hanging out with your friends?” he asks again, because he remembers that last year, Howon was with his friends celebrating Christmas while Sunggyu, as always, stayed at the dorm because just like today, he had nothing to do. He barely remembers when was the last time he truly celebrates Christmas.

“They are unavailable.” Howon says, with a sigh. He plops down beside Sunggyu and then pulls his legs up before hugging them, trying to find warmness. Sunggyu wonders when has he been because Sunggyu is pretty sure that when he woke a up a few hours ago, everyone was already gone.

“Then, where have you been?”

“I went to the clinic to check on my ankle.”

“They’re open on Christmas??”

“Yes,” Howon answers and Sunggyu can’t believe that he went to a clinic on a Christmas day. Howon just shrugs and continues, “Hey, would you like to go out?”

He just came back and he already wanted to go out again?

“Where?” Sunggyu asks, even though he doesn’t feel like going out. But then again, he also has nothing to do staying here.

“Well, anywhere.” Howon says after several seconds of thinking. Sunggyu rolls his eyes.

“It’s cold outside, I don’t want to move.”

Now it’s Howon’s turn to roll his eyes.

“You’re going to hurt your body if you don’t move at all.”

“Say the person who got hurt because of moving too much.”

Sure, he once had to go to hospital because he lays down too much, but Howon’s case is more severe than him because in Howon’s case, his already injured ankle got worse because he refused to have a proper rest and insists on dancing when he hasn’t even properly heal. Howon’s always too stubborn.

“I don’t get hurt because of moving too much,” Howon protests, suddenly sitting up straight and giving Sunggyu a stare, “Come on, why would you stay at home alone all day on Christmas Day?”

“Because I am lazy.” Sunggyu answers nonchalantly. Well, sure, he feels lonely, but now that Howon’s here, at least he has a friend. So, why can’t they just stay at dorm all day?

“Please, Hyung, I want to go out but I don’t want to go out all by myself.” Howon suddenly pleads, his face softens and—it feels weird, having Howon suddenly looking at him like how Woohyun or Myungsoo sometimes look at him. He sounds desperate and his gestures are so uncharacteristic of him. It’s not often that Howon is being like this and being honest about what he wants—so that’s why, because it’s not often, Sunggyu can’t refuse.

He sighs.

“Fine. Let me take a bath first.” He says, getting up from the sofa. Howon looks at him in disgust and Sunggyu suddenly regrets accepting it.

“It’s already 1PM and you still haven’t taken a bath?!”

×××××

“So what should we buy for Sungyeol and Sungjong?”

“I don’t know.”

“You’re the closest to Sungjong, you should know what he wants!”

“Well, he rarely wants anything!”

Somehow, they end up going out to Mecenatpolis and starts to buy Christmas gifts for the other members after being confused on where to go. Howon wanted to go ice-skating, but then he shouldn’t risk harming himself again. Maybe it’s sad, how both of them doesn’t really know how to celebrate Christmas well when they are on their own. A lot of events that they have for themselves are suggested by other members while they just agree with them.

So, now, they’re buying gifts even though Sunggyu is hesitant to do so.

(“Let’s just buy gifts for the members.

“Why?”

“So you will be a santa instead of a Grinch.”

“Why am I the santa instead of you?”

“Because I don’t have money now and you will be the one who is paying.”)

And now, he has bought a new digital camera for Myungsoo (because he lost his when they were in Singapore when they had to rush to Jakarta), a condenser microphone for Woohyun (which is better than the cheap one he has because it costs a lot, but Sunggyu will occasionally use it too, so he guesses he is buying it for himself too), and a new shiny bag for Dongwoo (because he keeps stuffing his bag with unimportant things and it broke trying to hold them all).

They’re lost on what to give Sungjong and Sungyeol, though. Because Sungjong never really has anything he wants and Sungyeol is still obsessed with monkeys even though it has been more than a year. Sunggyu can’t exactly buy a monkey.

“Okay,” he says, “Let’s just buy Sungjong a watch.”

Sungjong rarely wears a watch, but a watch

“And Sungyeol?” Howon asks.

“…let’s buy him a watch too. Maybe a monkey-shaped one.”

“There is a watch like that?” Howon asks again, sounding amazed.

“How would I know?” Sunggyu says. Well, maybe there is a watch like that, but they need to look first.

“Hey, look, there is Santa.” Howon says, pointing to a direction, with a happiness that for Sunggyu, sounds fake. It’s like Howon is trying hard to sound happy and excited.

“He is fake.” Sunggyu says. He suddenly realizes that maybe he can be a Grinch.

“You don’t think I know that?” Howon says, pouting at him and making a sad face.

That’s scary.

He is about to comment on that before Howon exclaims, “Oh, I just remember! I bought this for you earlier.”

Howon hands him a plastic that contains a big box wrapped in gift paper, which he has been holding since thirty minutes ago when they split to check some bag stores to find a suitable bag for Dongwoo. Sunggyu actually wondered what it was.

“…for me?” He asks, not sure if he hears things right.

“Yes.” Howon answers confidently, “Consider it as a Christmas gift for me.”

“I thought you didn’t bring money.”

“Well, I didn’t bring much money, but I bring enough money to buy you one.”

“Why are you giving me a gift?”

Does that mean he has to buy Howon a gift?

“I just want to give you a gift?” Howon says, smiling at him. Howon is a nice person, but not like this. So, it creeps him out that Howon is acting quite differently from how he usually is.

“That’s so random.” He says, but he chooses to feel grateful, “Thank you. What is this?”

“Just open that later.” Howon says, starting to walk away from him, “Let’s buy the Sungs’ gifts, first.”

Sunggyu looks at his gift in a confused but curious stare. He is staring at it only for a few seconds, but suddenly Howon is already far gone from him.

“Howon-ah! Wait for me!”

×××××

“You know, there are times when I think God is mute.” Howon tells him.

“Why?”

“I don’t know, sometimes I just suddenly think of that.” Howon shrugs, “It’s such random thoughts.”

You know what’s even more random?

Sitting at a bus stop in cold even though they are not waiting for a bus. That’s what. Amazingly, there are only the two of them there.

After finally buying the last two gifts, Howon decides that they shouldn’t go back to the apartment, yet, so he brought Sunggyu here. Sunggyu thought that they’re going to go somewhere, but they only sit there for the last fifteen minutes before Howon finally says that. It’s freezing and what Howon says is making him feel colder.

“Well, mute people have a lot of ways of communicating, so I’m sure even though God is mute, he has more ways of communicating.” Sunggyu says. He feels that what he says sounds kind of cool, he hopes he remembers that when someone randomly says something like what Howon just said again.

“Well, maybe.” Howon says, nodding.

Sunggyu doesn’t expect Howon to suddenly talk about God. It makes him wonder if there is something going on with Howon, because the way he is acting is kind of off today. Sometimes, he obviously pretends to be excited about something and distracts Sunggyu from the thing he is currently focusing, making everything takes longer than it should be. At first, he though Howon is trying to be Dongwoo. There are also times when Howon acts nervous, which is definitely not pretending because Sunggyu totally can tell the difference.

A crisis of faith? Or did he just gets a bad news from the doctor? Or what?

“Is there anything wrong?” Sunggyu finally decides to ask instead of just keep wondering. Howon is probably going to lie, though.

“What?” Howon says. Sunggyu doesn’t know if he is pretending not to hear his question.

“I’m just wondering, is there anything you need to tell me?” Sunggyu repeats, asking another question entirely.

“No, there is nothing I need to tell you.” Howon says without hesitations.

“Then, is there anything you want to tell me?”

Howon frowns. Sunggyu rolls his eyes.

“What’s the difference?”

“If there is something you need to tell me, then I have to know about it even if you don’t want to tell me, if there is something you want to tell me, then it’s the opposite.”

“Well—“ Howon stops talking, thinking for a few seconds, before finally says, “Nothing. There is nothing I want to tell you.”

“You’re not lying, right?” Sunggyu asks. He used to let himself believe every word that says, but after years, he has learned to question everything.

“No.” Howon says again, now sounding more sure, “It’s Christmas. I never lie on Christmas.”

That sounds like a lie. Sunggyu wants to talk more but he feels really cold and he wants to go somewhere warm before he becomes frozen there.

“Ah, seriously, what are we doing here?” He asks, frustrated, “It’s cold. Let’s go back to the apartment.”

“No.” Howon says.

“Why?”

There is a pause before Howon answers, “…I still want to stay outside.”

Sunggyu sighs.

“Can’t we at least go to somewhere warm?” Sunggyu requests, not wanting to stay there any longer.

“Do you want to go to Lotte World?” Howon asks, even though he doesn’t seem to like his own suggestion.

They need to drive for an hour to go there and there might be a traffic. But Lotte World can be fun and it has been a long time since he goes there just to genuinely have fun.

“Let’s go.”

×××××

Turns out, Lotte World is not fun.

Sure, it’s really pretty, being decorated in Christmas-related things and as a lover of art he can appreciate the performances that are being held. But there are just too many people there and it’s too crowded. Even though it’s warm there, but he hates it when there are too many people around him like this. Plus, most of them are families, so it’s depressing for Sunggyu to see them because they make him remember his own family.

“Let’s go home.” Sunggyu says to Howon, who is currently checking his phone.

Howon looks up to him, “We’ve been here only for two hours.”

“Well, I want to go home.”

“But there are so many things that we’re yet to see!” Howon exclaims, again with that face cheery tone. Sunggyu knows that Howon doesn’t really enjoy being among too many crowds, too. Howon probably doesn’t notice that Sunggyu notice him looking uncomfortable and nervous a lot of times.

“Well, I’m tired!”

“Let’s just spend 30 minutes more here!” Howon finally decides, “It’s rare for us to be able to go out only by the two of us, so let’s cherish this.”

Sunggyu falls silent. He doesn’t realize that Howon wants to spend a time only with him. It touches Sunggyu, so of course, once again, he just obeys.

“Fine. More than that, I’m going home by myself.”

×××××

After spending one more hour at Lotte World, Sunggyu decided that he has enough. Howon was trying to stop him and won’t let him come back until Sunggyu finally manages to steal the car key from Howon and took over the driving.

There is no more reason for him to stay outside and it’s already pretty late anyway. Once he has arrived at the apartment building, he rushes right away, going to his apartment ready to lay down and sleep again.

Howon runs after him and seems to be in a panic after being antsy all the way home. Sunggyu really doesn’t understand why. When they are finally on their apartment’s door, Howon grabs his arm.

“Don’t come in.” Howon tells at him, but Sunggyu ignores him.. He can hear Howon grumbling before him when he is entering the passcode of the dorm, his desire to lay down is already unbearable.

He enters the apartment and the sight that greets him makes his eyes go widen and unable to react. Honestly, it’s a pretty hilarious sight, but it’s too unexpected, so Sunggyu can’t react right away. Now in that apartment, there are five grown-up adults dressed in sweaters in various colours, all looking at him with shocked faces. They are all frozen in their positions, probably not expecting Sunggyu to show up.

It takes a few seconds of silence before finally, Woohyun yells, “Merry Christmas!”

The others start echoing and a chorus of “Merry Christmas!” fills the room.

“…what.” Sunggyu says, confusedly. He takes a look at the surroundings and notice that there are Christmas decorations laying all over the floor. He frowns when he sees Dongwoo and Myungsoo are tangled up to each other with Christmas lights, frowning even more when he saw a big pine tree with a lopsided star on top.

“What is going on??” He asks once again, looking back and forth at s, the tree, and Howon.

“We’re trying to surprise you.” Howon tells him with a loud sigh, suddenly sounding tired.

Sunggyu doesn’t say anything, trying to process the situation. So, they’re trying to make a surprise for him. And what is Howon’s role? Getting him out of the house and keeping him from entering the apartment before they finish decorating?

He starts to smile, but then that smile quickly turns into a laugh, an obnoxious laugh.

“So, you’re all trying to surprise me, but now you fail.” Sunggyu says. His laughter gets louder after he said that, he has to hold on to Howon. Howon, being finally more normal than he has been today, gives him a face.

Sunggyu doesn’t know why, but he finds it funny.

Howon walks towards the sofa and plops down on the sofa, now looking really exhausted. Sunggyu realizes now that Howon was probably trying to stall when he kept preventing him from going home.

“I told you we’re not ready yet!” Sungyeol yells at Howon while lightly punches his arm. Sungyeol is wearing a big red ball on his nose, which makes Sunggyu raises his eyebrows.

“He was insisting to go home.” Howon simply says, punching Sungyeol back in the arm. “And you said that you’re going to start setting up everything at 5 but you have only started at 7!”

“Then you should have locked him somewhere.”

Now, it’s Sunggyu’s turn to give Sungyeol a face before he finally joins them. Sungjong hands him a bright red-colored sweater, which he eyes in disdain.

“Dongwoo Hyung wants us to wear rainbow-colored sweaters, but because a sweater with all 7 rainbow colors is tacky, we decide we will wear one color each.”

And only now Sunggyu realizes that all five of them are wearing different colors of sweaters with the same design. Howon is putting on his sweater—he is not surprised at all that Howon gets a violet-colored one. He is also not surprised that it’s Dongwoo’s idea.

Sometimes he really doesn’t know how to describe his bandmates.

“Why are you trying to surprise me, anyway?” He asks instead, accepting the sweater quietly. He can’t think of a reason why they would try to surprise him. He doesn’t feel like a good leader this year because of some reasons and he thought that his bandmates also think like that.

“We haven’t celebrated Christmas together for a while,” Dongwoo answers, “and we know you don’t have anyone to celebrate with and you have had a busy year, so you have to be given presents for being a good boy.”

It takes a while for him to process Dongwoo’s words, but when he finally gets it, he feels moved a little. It’s nice to know that they’re thinking of him, too, even though they have spent more times with him than their family. He never thinks that they would be like that. Even though they’re all can be loud, but they can be very silent about their own feelings.

“Well, thank you.” He says, finally. No, he’s not going to cry, because sometimes even though he wants to, he can’t cry easily, “I thought you are all going stay with your families until tomorrow?”

“We have told them about this.” It’s Myungsoo’s turn to talk, now, after being quiet and just watching the others,  “They’re okay with it, we have had a little party earlier.”

Sunggyu nods and smiles. He was thinking of scolding them for leaving their family just for him, but that would ruin the mood. So, he just smiles and says, “Well, since you fail, let’s just finish the decorations.”

“Yeah, let’s finish the decorations and then drinks egg nogs!” Sungyeol yells and then starts to decorate the Christmas tree furiously. Sunggyu shakes his heads at him, though he is glad that Sungyeol seems to be in a really good mood.

“You just want to drink alcohol.” Sungjong says to Sungyeol with a sigh, and then help him with the decorating

Dongwoo moves to give Sunggyu a hug and because he is tied to Myungsoo, he ends up dragging the boy with him and the hug becomes a three way hug. At least, both Dongwoo and Myungsoo love hugging, so Myungsoo probably doesn’t mind.

“How do you two get tangled like this?” He asks, after Dongwoo and Myungsoo finish hugging him. He looks at the cable that is tangled around their body, but can’t seem to understand how it could be like that and how he could help them untangle themselves.

Instead of answering, Dongwoo says excitedly, “Hyung, we have gifts under the tree!”

“Is that why Howon made me buy gifts for all of you?” Sunggyu asks, suddenly remembering that he forgot to take out the gifts out of the car and that tomorrow he has to come down again to bring those gifts upstairs.

“He made you buy gifts for all of us?” Myungsoo asks, confused, “We were actually doing Secret Santa, we gave a gift to one other members.”

What?

He turns to Howon, who avoid looking at him and walking away from him, pretending that he doesn’t know anything.

That’s it. Howon is going to be the one who brings the gifts from downstair.

×××××

Sunggyu doesn’t expect them to get really drunk from their Christmas party. Well, considering that a lot of the things that he unexpected happen for real, he should expect it. He wants to shake his head, seeing s passes out all over his dorm’s floor, wasted after drinking eggnog and then soju. They really go all out tonight and he would just scold them tomorrow if they complain that they can’t practice because of hangovers.

He lays back on the sofa, watching his bandmates sleeps on the floor, some of them cuddles up to each other. Somehow, the only one who survives now are him and Howon, who was drinking water instead of alcohols. They are both sitting in silence, both feeling tired after a long day.

“I can’t believe you make me feel worried just to prolong their time.” Sunggyu says, finally. He really wanted to say that even though he realizes that Howon doesn’t even know that he feels worried.

“You’re worried?” Howon asks, confirming Sunggyu’s belief that Howon doesn’t even realize that they way he acted today is worrisome for Sunggyu.

“You’re different today,” Sunggyu tells him, “I thought you really want to talk to me.”

Howon doesn’t answer right away and seems to think about something, but then he just shrugs.

“I’m fine.” He says, “I did want to talk to you alone though, it’s not only because of the surprise.”

“You did?” Sunggyu asks, surprised, “Why?”

Howon grins at him, “Just because.”

He gets up and walks to his room before Sunggyu has a chance to talk again, indirectly dismissing Sunggyu. Sunggyu can only stare at Howon, confused and for the ninth time that day, wondering what the hell is going on.

Lee Howon is too puzzling and too weird today.

(The next day, Sunggyu finds out that the gift Howon bought him was a back brace. It came with a note that says, So when I can’t help you stand firm, it can replace me.

Sunggyu really can’t understand him. He is sure if other people knows this story, they won’t understand, too. )

___

Author’s Note: Hello, receiver! I hope you like it. You probably can tell that there are a lot of parts that got cut (honestly, I was unable to finish this in time because a lot of things are happening to me) but I hope this is satisfying enough for you TT I hope you will have a good Christmas (if you celebrate it) and holiday, stay healthy and be happy!

Admin's Note: This fic was really warm hearted and highlighted Infinite as close friends ;w;  I'm sure your receiver will love this story! Awesome job writing this C:

- KyashiiKun