Chapter Text
It was an early Christmas evening and an excited young Jungkook was sent to the grocery store to buy ingredients for his mother. The snow fell calmly down to the ground, brushing his red cheeks as he tucked himself tighter in his scarf. The air was ice cold, causing his breath to evaporate. He hurried to the store, figuring he'd want to be as efficient as possible so that his family could start Christmas dinner early.
As Jungkook excited the convenience store, his attention was shortly caught by a boy sitting alone at a park not so far away. He recognized the boy in an instant, seeing as it was Taehyung, who he shared classes with at school. Jungkook had never really spoken to Taehyung, no one usually did. He was looked upon as a social outcast. But there was something about him that Jungkook couldn’t resist. Taehyung would always avert his eyes, but occasionally, Jungkook would catch his glance, only to observe his sad, cold, but however beautiful eyes. Taehyung’s eyes were always red, and so were his cheeks. Jungkook never thought much of it, but he always had a thing for Taehyung. His tan skin, rose-red lips and those sad, but intriguing eyes. This was his chance, he thought. An opportunity like this might never arise again; Taehyung is sitting alone in a dim park, with no one else around. Jungkook inhaled deeply and puffed his chest as he approached the park.
"H-hey", he said abruptly, making a weird hand gesture that resembled a wave.
Taehyung looked up from the ground to meet Jungkook’s innocent half-assed smile. The swing Taehyung was sitting on top of moved a bit as he turned his head to face Jungkook.
“What are you doing here so late? Shouldn’t you be at home celebrating Christmas with your family?” Jungkook asked awkwardly, keeping a safe distance whilst fumbling with his grocery bags.
“Shouldn’t you?” Taehyung answered abruptly, moving his gaze from Jungkook’s eyes back to the ground again.
“I was out buying ingredients for dessert. My mom makes this amazing apple pie. It doesn’t really look good, but it tastes incredible! You should try it sometime, haha…” Jungkook ended his sentence awkwardly, instantly regretting what he had just spouted in front of someone he barely knew.
Taehyung didn’t answer. Instead, he only moved his gaze to the trees that were on the opposite side of Jungkook.
“Christmas, huh. What does it even matter”, Taehyung said, almost eating the ending of his short sentence.
“Christmas is the happiest time of the year! How could it not matter? There’s lots of good food, gifts and you get to be with your family.” Jungkook explained, looking for Taehyungs eyes to meet his.
Taehyung turned his head to the ground again, opening his mouth as if he was to say something, then closing it shortly after.
“I meant what I said earlier”, Jungkook said, shortly following up with another sentence. Taehyung looked up at Jungkook.
“T-the apple pie! I mean, I-I would like to invite you over if you would like to”, Jungkook said, fidgeting his fingers after finishing his courageous sentence.
“I’d like that very much”, Taehyung replied, getting up from the swing and grabbing one of the grocery bags Jungkook was holding.
Jungkook was left dumbfounded for a second, but was quick to react and assess the situation.
“Wai-wait! I can take the bag, you don’t have to-“, he said, chasing Taehyung who had started walking and left Jungkook behind.
“I’ll carry it, you lead the way”, Taehyung said, stopping to let Jungkook show the way.
As they stood on the front porch, Jungkook gave Taehyung an innocent smile before letting him enter first. On the way to his house neither of them had said a single word. Luckily though, Jungkook didn’t live far away from the convenience store. As they entered, Jungkook yelled in a soft manner,
“I’m home, I brought the ingredients and a friend to eat with us”. A female voice followed up shortly after.
“A friend? How fun! We’re setting the table so come sit down and introduce us to your friend!”
Taehyung was hit hard by the delicious smell of lamb and a mixture of apple and cinnamon both coming from the kitchen. Him and Jungkook were quick to remove their coats and shoes, and headed straight to the dining room. As they entered the room, Jungkook was met with a loud “Oppa! You’re home!”
Three children were quick to embrace Jungkook, who had kneeled to fit their heights. Taehyung stood in the entrance, trying to absorb the unusual environment surrounding him. A beautiful, smiling woman stood by the kitchen counter, preparing what seemed to be an apple pie. Beside her was a tall, handsome man, cutting up meat that had just been removed from the oven. Jungkook looked up from his siblings towards Taehyung, smiling even more than before. Taehyung felt a faint throb in his heart every time Jungkook smiled at him in such a manner.
“This is Taehyung, he’s a friend from school”, Jungkook said, introducing his “friend from school” to his family. “Come, let’s sit down by the table”, Jungkook said, leading Taehyung by his hand.
As they moved towards the table, Taehyung noticed a large tree standing tall with lots of decorations in the middle of their living room. Underneath the tree was an abundance of gifts, and beside the gifts, a tall table serving cookies (some half-eaten, courtesy of Jungkook’s younger siblings), and a glass of milk. Taehyung was shocked by the beautiful lights brightening up the space in amazing colours. He sat down beside Jungkook, his mouth half-open, staring at the tree from a distance. Jungkook laughed subtlety at Taehyung’s expression, not being able to take his eyes off him.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”, Jungkook said, startling Taehyung who was deep in observing the living room space.
“I-I’ve never seen anything like it”, Taehyung said, not fully closing his mouth after finishing his sentence.
“What do you mean? You’ve never seen a Christmas tree?” Jungkook said, raising one eyebrow towards Taehyung’s words.
“Well, we never had one at our home, and I’ve never seen one decorated like this before either”, Taehyung replied softly, realizing how he had missed out on something this beautiful.
“Never had a Christmas tree…”, Jungkook thought to himself, moving his eyes towards the table where his hands were locking together due to him being nervous.
“But where do you put your gifts then?” Jungkook asked, generally curious. Taehyung bet his lip and averted his eyes.
“I never had any”, Taehyung explained, now removing his eyes from the beautiful picture to the table. Jungkook was at a loss of words, and decided not to comment, mainly because he did not know how to respond.
“Christmas dinner is officially served!” A proud voice exclaimed, laying down a big plate of lamb on the dinner table.
Taehyung hadn’t eaten meat, especially not warm meat for such a long time. He was shy at first, waiting for Jungkook to make a move. Jungkook noticed Taehyung’s hesitation, and placed a big piece of meat on his plate.
“You like lamb, right?” He asked, hoping for a rectangle smile to answer him.
Taehyung looked at his plate and then nodded once towards Jungkook. Jungkook smiled and gave Taehyung some potatoes, sauce and some vegetables. Taehyung started smiling and bet his lip waiting for Jungkook to start eating so that he could too. Jungkook served himself and noticed how Taehyung was waiting anxiously for him to start eating. He thought it was quite cute that Taehyung waited for him to start first. After Jungkook had taken a piece of lamb meat and some potato boats into his mouth, Taehyung followed up shortly after, shoving a huge piece of meat down his throat. He had dirtied his mouth with sauce, something Jungkook found very amusing, reacting with a broad smile. Taehyung was embarrassed, but too busy eating to care.
After dinner came dessert and a weird-looking apple pie stood before Taehyung.
“I-I know it may not look the best, but I promise the taste won’t disappoint!” Jungkook’s mother proclaimed.
Her husband was eager to get a bite and had already started digging in. Jungkook found Taehyung’s expression funny, as he was looking quite questionably at the cake.
“Here, I’ll cut you a piece”, he said, as he knew Taehyung was too shy to do anything himself.
Taehyung tested the cake’s taste with a small spoonful, and was surprised by the sudden explosion of taste.
“Wow..”, he said quietly, with his mouth now filled with apple pie.
Jungkook laughed at Taehyung’s expected reaction.
“I told you! Haha, it tastes amazing, right?”, Jungkook said excitedly.
“It really does”, Taehyung said, some crumbs escaping his full mouth.
As they finished eating, Taehyung realized it was about time he left. Jungkook followed him out to the entrance, feeling sad that he must leave.
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay a bit longer? We’re going to dance around the Christmas tree and sing Christmas songs”, Jungkook said, realizing how lame it sounded once he said it out loud.
Taehyung didn’t want anything more than to stay longer, but he knew it was not in his place to overstep, and that he should be happy he got to eat dinner with them at all.
“Thanks, but I should get home to my family. Thank you so much for the dinner. Oh- and the dessert”, Taehyung said, flustered and nervously.
“No problem. So…I guess I’ll see you around then?” Jungkook said, hoping this would not be the last time he got to be this close to Taehyung.
“Yeah, merry Christmas”, Taehyung said, happy that Jungkook wants to spend time with him.
“Merry Christmas, and happy new year!” Jungkook answered, closing the door behind Taehyung, who was wearing a broad, rectangle smile, that wore off the instant Jungkook shut the door behind him.
A few steps away from Jungkook’s house, Taehyung tried to image how such a home could exist. He had never had a proper family dinner without any yelling, glasses being shattered against walls or children struck by their ill-tempered mother. The short while he had spent with Jungkook and his family felt unreal. He looked back at the house, which lit up the whole neighbourhood with Christmas decorations both from inside and outside the house. If he looked closely, he could see Jungkook hugging his siblings as they moved towards the Christmas tree, getting ready to dance around it.
For Taehyung, there was no Christmas. No big family dinner; no dinner at all. No gifts. Why would he receive gifts? From who? No one loved him enough to send gifts. He tried imagining what could be inside all the gifts he observed at Jungkook’s house. What would Jungkook wish for? Maybe clothes? He dressed quite fashionably. Or maybe video games. Taehyung had always wanted to try out video games.
As he headed home, he recollected memories from his past Christmases. Taehyung remembers one Christmas especially well. It was the year when his father had walked out on him and taken with him Taehyung’s younger siblings. He was only 6 years old at the time. That Christmas he looked at a candle that was placed on the dining table, observing its beauty. “Mommy, when will Santa come?”, he would ask, big, round eyes looking hopefully at a mom, who only had cold, piercing eyes in return. “Santa? Why would Santa come here? You know Santa doesn’t visit bad children”.