Chapter Text
Trying to keep his secret santa present for Kihyun hidden from him is quite the task, it turns out. You’d think that a small, wrapped voucher for a dog cafe wouldn’t be hard to keep hidden, but Changkyun had had the smart idea to put the voucher in a huge box to make it look bigger than it actually is.
He’s slightly regretting that decision now that he and Kihyun are on their way to Jooheon and Hyungwon’s flat for the Christmas party and he needs to try and hide the box from Kihyun’s view because if Kihyun sees the wrapping paper that Changkyun’s used for his secret santa and then is given that same present, he’ll know instantly who gifted it to him. Changkyun knows that Kihyun’s been looking forward to guessing who his secret santa is, so he doesn’t want to ruin the surprise for him.
So, Changkyun’s doing his very best to keep it hidden. Even if that means he’s sitting in the back seat of Kihyun’s car on his own so he can keep the present in his sight but out of Kihyun’s sight, even if that means he’s left the passenger seat empty.
“Why are you back there again?” Kihyun asks. He’s been rather confused by Changkyun’s behaviour since he turned up, and rightfully so. Changkyun is more than aware he’s acting strange today. Not only is it because he’s trying to hide Kihyun’s present, but he’s also feeling fidgety because of what might happen at the party.
Last night, he and Kihyun had finally sat down and talked about their relationship and how Minhyuk might fit into it and had decided together that they want to see if Minhyuk wants to pursue a relationship with them. So, now Changkyun is feeling restless knowing that they’re going to talk to Minhyuk about a relationship. While he hopes Minhyuk will say yes, he knows that nothing is certain, and that even if he is to say yes, it’s something new to Changkyun and so it’ll take a lot of work. He’s ready to put in that work, though, because he knows it’ll be worth it.
He’s getting ahead of himself, though. They still need to talk to Minhyuk later and right now Changkyun needs to answer Kihyun’s question, which he forgot to answer by getting too caught up in his thoughts.
“Uh,” Changkyun replies intelligently. He scrambles for any sort of excuse or answer that he can give and ends up throwing his legs across the back seats and saying, “I wanted to stretch my legs?” It ends up coming out as more of a question than a statement.
Kihyun raises an eyebrow at Changkyun through the rearview mirror. “Sounds convincing.”
“Yep,” Changkyun says, his voice a little too high-pitched.
Kihyun turns his attention back to the road and Changkyun breathes a sigh of relief, thinking he’s given up and let Changkyun have a free pass, but not too long later Kihyun’s parking up outside of Jooheon and Hyungwon’s flat and then turning back to look at Changkyun. “So, what’s really going on?”
Changkyun sighs. He was hoping he’d be able to avoid the Minhyuk conversation, but it’s probably worth telling Kihyun about if they’re going to do this. He also needs to tell Kihyun something that isn’t related to secret santa. So, he admits quietly, “I’m scared to talk to Minhyuk.”
Kihyun smiles sadly. “If you don’t wanna do this today, we don’t have to. And if you want me to talk to Minhyuk alone first, that’s okay too. Just tell me what you want.”
Changkyun feels himself melt at how much love and care he feels from Kihyun just through those words. “No, I want to do it today. It’s just scary, y’know?”
“Mm, I know it is. But it’ll be fine, yeah?” He reaches over to put his hand on top of Changkyun’s comfortingly.
Changkyun nods. He knows Kihyun is right and that whatever happens, it’ll surely work out for the best.
A knock on the driver’s seat window startles both Changkyun and Kihyun. Changkyun has to lean forward slightly to see, but then he realises it’s Jooheon outside the car peering in.
Kihyun rolls down the window. “What’s up?”
“We have a situation,” Jooheon says, sounding panicked.
“Which is?”
“Well—” He hesitates, then sighs. “There may have been a cake mishap.”
“First off, why is there a cake at a Christmas party? And second of all, do you need me to make a replacement?” Kihyun asks.
“I like cake,” Jooheon explains with a pout. “And yes, please. Just— be careful when you walk in the kitchen. There’s cake everywhere.”
Kihyun turns around to look at Changkyun, looking wildly concerned, and Changkyun has to stifle a laugh because Jooheon is clearly distraught by whatever occurred with the cake, and he doesn’t want it to seem like he’s laughing at Jooheon instead of Kihyun.
“Don’t worry,” Changkyun reassures, “we’ll get your cake sorted.”
Kihyun does, in fact, cook a new cake for their mini party. He also cleans up the mess in the kitchen, choosing not to ask what happened because everyone seems rather reluctant to talk about what occurred.
Changkyun, rather unsurprisingly, did nothing to actually help and instead snacked on a bowl of crisps that was probably meant to be saved for later on while he watched Kihyun sort everything out. He likes to think that his commentary of the possible situations that could’ve led to the state of the kitchen are compelling enough that it makes up for his lack of actual assistance in the kitchen. He’s not so sure Kihyun agrees.
Once the new cake is in the oven and the kitchen is spotless, Changkyun and Kihyun make their way to the living room where Hyungwon and Jooheon appear to be attempting to set up some tinsel along the top of the window.
“Doing alright over there?” Changkyun asks.
Jooheon jumps, dropping his end of the tinsel and almost falling off of the chair he’s standing on in the process, and whips around to glare at Changkyun. “Announce your presence when you enter a room next time. You scared the shit out of me.”
“You mean you don’t simply feel my presence when I walk into a room? Highly disappointed.”
Jooheon rolls his eyes and returns to (attempting to) stick the tinsel to the wall.
“Knock, knock,” comes Minhyuk’s voice from the entrance to the living room, “the eye candy has arrived.”
“I was already here?” Kihyun says with a frown.
“Sorry, darling, I think you’re mistaken. I’m the attractive one out of the two of us,” Minhyuk teases.
Kihyun takes a step forward and Changkyun just knows that Kihyun and Minhyuk are about to start bickering, so he decides to intervene. “Right,” he says loudly with a clap of his hands, “who wants to pick out a Christmas movie with me?”
Picking a Christmas movie doesn’t help much with stopping Kihyun and Minhyuk’s bickering, as they instead end up arguing over which movie to watch.
“Home Alone is obviously the best Christmas movie,” Kihyun states, shaking the DVD as if it proves his point.
“Incorrect,” Minhyuk argues. “It’s Elf. So, we should watch Elf.”
“No, we should watch Home Alone.”
Minhyuk raises an eyebrow. “Elf.”
“Home Alone.”
“Elf .”
“Right, that’s enough of that,” Changkyun says, getting between the two of them. “We can just watch both.”
When neither replies, Changkyun looks to Kihyun for confirmation, and he sighs, then says, “Okay, fine.”
Changkyun then turns to Minhyuk who’s grinning cheekily. “Sounds good.”
Kihyun shoots one last glare at Minhyuk before he leaves the room to answer the door that’s just been knocked on.
“You just wanted to rile him up, didn’t you?” Changkyun asks.
Minhyuk nods, grinning. “It’s fun. You should try it sometime.”
“You two will be the death of me,” Changkyun complains dramatically.
Kihyun returns to the room with Hyunwoo and Hoseok trailing behind him. “We brought mulled wine,” Hoseok announces. He holds up said bottle of mulled wine with a huge grin on his face.
Changkyun sighs in relief. “Oh, thank god. I need some of that right now.”
After finishing the cake Kihyun made (Changkyun’s still confused about the cake because it wasn’t Christmas themed at all) and watching Home Alone, the seven of them decide it’s time to exchange their secret santa presents.
All of the presents are sitting under the Christmas tree in the corner of the living room, so Jooheon collects them all and hands them out to the correct person. Changkyun’s present is rather haphazardly wrapped, so that at least gives away that it wasn’t Kihyun who got him because he’s seen Kihyun’s present wrapping skills and he always does it neatly.
They decide to open their presents in reverse age order and so Changkyun gets to go first.
His present is squishy, which is strange, and he’s curious to find out what’s inside. He tears into the wrapping paper without care, too excited to open it to do it neatly.
The first thing Changkyun notices is that his present is grey and soft. He turns it over to take a proper look and is met with a raccoon face.
“Oh my god,” he mumbles as he looks at it, all of the memories rushing back to him at once. You see, back when Minhyuk and Changkyun were together, Minhyuk once pointed out that Changkyun reminds him of a raccoon and from then on he kept referring to Changkyun as ‘my raccoon’. It became a dumb inside joke between them, one that Changkyun looks back on fondly.
And so there’s only one person who could’ve been his secret santa.
He looks up from the raccoon plushie and over to Minhyuk, who’s looking at him with a small smile, and that confirms that his assumption was correct.
“Thank you,” he tells Minhyuk, smiling at him.
Minhyuk nods in acknowledgement, and Changkyun realises that all of the attention is on the two of them.
“Well, I already guessed who my secret santa is. Oops,” Changkyun says to the rest of them. “You can go next, Jooheon.”
While Jooheon and Hyungwon unwrap their presents, Changkyun realises that Kihyun is looking at him. He looks back at his boyfriend, head tilted, wondering what’s going on.
Kihyun just shakes his head and smiles.
Then it comes to Kihyun’s turn. He unwraps his present carefully, rather than just tearing off the wrapping paper like everyone had done so far. When he sees the plain brown cardboard box he frowns at it, then opens it up and pulls out the smaller package inside. “I was wondering why this box seemed so light.” He unwraps his actual present and when he reads the front of the card and sees what it is, he gasps and then grins. “A Starbarks voucher,” he announces to the group, holding it up to show everyone.
“Do you have a guess?” Hoseok asks.
Kihyun hums, then turns to Changkyun and gestures to him. “I knew it was Changkyun because he kept trying to hide his present from me so I didn’t see the wrapping paper.”
Changkyun pouts, sure he was better at hiding his present.
“Thank you, though, baby. I appreciate it,” Kihyun says.
Changkyun willfully ignores the blush on his face as the rest of the present opening continues.
They finish opening presents, eat a bunch more food, and then watch Elf, too. It ends up being a fun time and by the end of it Changkyun is exhausted.
Currently, he’s in the car with Kihyun and Minhyuk, because Kihyun realised that Minhyuk had walked the forty-five minutes to Jooheon and Hyungwon’s flat from his own and refused to let him walk home. So, instead, the three of them are driving back to Kihyun’s flat because it’s just easier to all sleep there and return to their own places tomorrow morning. Especially because Kihyun seems so tired and so making him drive to all of their different flats, which aren’t the closest to each other, wouldn’t be fair.
The talk with Minhyuk hasn’t happened yet, so Changkyun still feels antsy. The party had distracted him enough that he’d almost forgotten about it, but now they’re all sitting in the car together he’s been reminded that it’s meant to be happening.
When they finally reach Kihyun’s flat, they all head straight to Kihyun’s bedroom, too exhausted to even try to get ready for bed properly. Changkyun just changes into one of Kihyun’s shirts and a pair of his shorts and Minhyuk follows and does the same. Then, the three of them climb into bed together.
Changkyun starts nodding off, talk forgotten, when Minhyuk says quietly, “I need to tell you both something.”
Changkyun opens his eyes wide and turns his head to look at Minhyuk. He looks uncharacteristically small and nervous and Changkyun decides he doesn’t like that look on Minhyuk.
“What is it?” Kihyun asks.
Changkyun turns to look at Kihyun on his other side and he looks equally as confused as Changkyun feels. Then, he turns back to Minhyuk, who looks like he wants to be anywhere but in the room. So, Changkyun finds Minhyuk’s hand under the covers and squeezes it. “You can tell us.”
Minhyuk snaps out of his strange mood finally, and then says confidently, “I like you both and I have a feeling you both like me too, although I could be wrong, I guess, but if I’m not wrong then I hope you’d both consider giving this relationship between the three of us a chance.”
Changkyun doesn’t feel that shocked because he had a feeling this would end up happening. Instead, he just feels happy and warm inside, because this is the best thing that could’ve happened.
“That’s what we wanted to talk to you about,” Kihyun says. “But yes, 100% yes, we want to do this.”
“We do,” Changkyun agrees. “You’ll have to give me a chance to learn how to navigate a relationship with two people,” he says quietly, “but I really want to try it.”
Minhyuk squeezes Changkyun’s hand, the same as Changkyun had used to squeeze his previously. “Is it okay if I kiss you, then?”
Changkyun’s never agreed faster to anything in his life and when Minhyuk finally kisses him Changkyun ends up having to pull away just because he can’t stop smiling.
Minhyuk pokes the dimple in his cheek with a matching smile of his own. “Adorable. Right, Ki?”
“Absolutely,” Kihyun agrees.
Changkyun’s still facing Minhyuk, so he doesn’t see Kihyun, but he feels the bed shift as he sits up and then kisses Changkyun’s cheek lightly and pecks Minhyuk’s lips right after.
“Goodnight, my loves,” Kihyun says as he settles back into bed.
“Cheesy,” Minhyuk comments, but it’s easy to hear the happiness in his voice.
Changkyun shuffles around slightly until he finds the perfect position and then shuts his eyes once again, ready for sleep to overtake him.
Not once during the night does his smile leave his face, and when he wakes up the next morning, the sunlight streaming into the room through the gap in the curtains and Minhyuk and Kihyun both still sound asleep and squished as close to him as possible, he smiles even wider.
He feels wholly content.