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Tae wasn’t sure how they had gotten to this point.
He leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. He raised an eyebrow as he took a glance around his living room. Lights were hung up on every wall, looking like little stars sprinkled all across. All the extra blankets and pillows from the sofa were thrown on the ground in some effort to build a fort in the center. His Christmas playlist was blasting through the surround sound system he had. A Christmas tree stood in the corner, the crimson and golden decorations strongly contrasting the dark green. Multiple presents from and for friends and family were scattered underneath the plant, some wrapped in a disarray of wrapping paper and ribbon. In the middle of it all, his boyfriend Jeongguk was shuffling through his movie collection, undoubtedly for the movie night they were hosting tonight.
He lightly chuckles at the memory of his boyfriend struggling to wrap presents. Even when he suggested that he could help, Jeongguk pouted refusing since he didn’t want to reveal the presents he had gotten. Jeongguk was excited once the holiday season hit; he had instantly lit up as soon as he saw the decorations flooding the stores. He insisted to Tae that they had to decorate their house.
[After the whole undoing spell phenomenon, the three boys were surprised to discover their old belongings reappeared once they all arrived at Tae’s and Jimin’s apartment. They saw that somehow with no explanation, they had their ID and other valuables with modified dates (spiritual work at play?) so they could have easy access to blending back into the human world. With the help of others as well (Mainly Jin with his connections) Yoongi and Hoseok were able to find a job at an upcoming entertainment agency with the former producing and the latter choreographing. Jeongguk was able to sign up for some online classes to further dive into his passion for filmography while also quickly building up a social media following. Kudos for his Youtuber boyfriend helping too.
He created his own channel where he posted short films/vlogs of their daily life and about other topics too. Fans, ones from Tae and new ones, fell in love with his perspectives and outtakes on life and created a huge name for himself in a short amount of time. Meanwhile, Jimin and Namjoon were getting closer, which resulted in them moving in together. Tae and Jeongguk were getting to know each other as the weeks went by, becoming more endeared to the other. They realized how quickly fond of each other they had gotten and Jeongguk was tired of cockblocking his hyungs in their new place so they decided to live together. About a month has passed and they couldn’t be happier.]
Queue two weeks later, Tae has been watching Guk stay up late nights in Jimin’s old room, which they had converted to a studio/recording room for their videos. It was quite funny seeing the rooms almost split in the middle, with one side adorning many cameras and film equipment that Jeongguk used for his films and the other side with bright backdrops and a table with various items that Taehyung deemed necessary for his videos. He knows that the younger one can stay on the computer for hours, no doubt looking at how much the world has changed. Sure he knew a fair amount, but as a human, it must be a whole new experience for him. However these past few days, he can tell that Jeongguk is hiding something from him, the way his eyes flick towards the room whenever Tae comes near the door. He hasn’t been able to talk about it with him, but he supposes it’s a conversation for another time.
Tae shakes his head before heading towards their shared kitchen. He turns on the Keurig to start on some tea for himself as he glances over to see a mug with remnants of coffee and a plate with some strawberry pancakes on them. He smiles, seeing that the brunette had gone out of his way to make little white snowflakes made out of whipped cream and decorating the plate to make it seem even Instagram-worthy.
He grabs his mug and fills it up with tea before shuffling out to the living room. He cooed over how concentrated Guk seemed to be in dividing the movies into different genres. He set aside his tea on a coaster and crouched down to hug the other from behind.
He felt a low rumble before Guk turned around to him. He looked up to see Guk grinning down at him.
“Good morning, love.” The younger said, planting a light kiss on Tae’s nose.
Tae smiled back, snuggling into Guk’s chest. It was quite funny the both of them just semi-crouching on the floor. He knew they couldn’t last in this position for long. He shifted, now both of them sitting on the floor and he quickly got on top of Guk’s lap. Guk chuckled as he wrapped his hands around the older who was snuggling into him, appearing small.
“I didn’t feel you next to me when I woke up,” Tae pouted, “but then I heard Ariana Grande’s voice and knew you were already setting up for tonight. You do know that we have at least a whole 8 hours until the others arrive, right”
Jeongguk scoffed. “So? We have to make sure everything will go okay. What if Hobi recommends Step Up 2 again and we can’t find it like last time? He’d definitely have my head for that.” He looks away, mumbling under his breath.
“Hey!” Tae laughs, “for the last time, this is our Christmas party!! Why are you so hellbent on Hobi hyung insisting on Step Up 2? Either way, it makes sense to watch a Christmas mo—”
Jeongguk places a finger on Tae’s lips. With wide eyes, he says, “Never underestimate how much love he has for those movies. I once had to watch it for a whole two weeks. Every. Single. Night.” He shudders. “Just remembering about it gives me chills.”
Tae rolls his eyes. “Listen, he’ll have to go through me.” He puffs his chest a bit, hitting Guk as he snorts. “It’s Christmas Eve! I’m making sure we’re watching a Christmas themed movie.”
“I took and sorted all of them for tonight babe so don’t you worry about a thing,” Jeongguk smirked. He gets up from the floor and heads over to lower the music a bit, switching to some instrumental song. He peered over to the kitchen where he saw the untouched pancakes. He pouted over to Taehyung.
“You didn’t even eat my pancakes? After all the work I went through to make them.” Jeongguk dramatically sulks, warning a chuckle from the blonde.
Tae grabbed his mug back up and went over to Jeongguk, ruffling his hair much to the latter’s protests. “I can’t spend time with my boyfriend?” He stares at Jeongguk, doing his puppy eyes he knows that’ll make him weak.
Jeongguk with raised brow just pointed to the kitchen where the pancakes were. “Go eat up, we got a big day ahead of us and I can’t have you distracted eating the cookies I baked last night.”
Tae raised his hands in surrender before reentering the kitchen. “Okay, okay. At least promise me kisses for dessert?”
Jeongguk blushed and scratched the back of his head. “Anything for you…” He then smirked. “but I want dessert after too.”
Tae yelped and chucked his shoe at Guk, hearing a strangled laugh. He shook his head, plopping a strawberry into his mouth. That boy is going to be the death of him.
↤ ♡ ↦
A few hours later, things were looking to be in place. After eating and waking himself up, he and Jeongguk spent the next few hours tidying up the house. They took out some extra blankets and pillows for the others as well as preparing the table. Jin offered to bring some food, but Jeongguk insisted that they should mainly be in charge of the food. So while Jeongguk was busy prepping, Tae was in the living room putting some little decorations here and there, to make their place even more festive than it already was.
Tae took a step back and nodded. ‘This looks great.’ he thought, glancing towards the Christmas tree. His gaze drifted toward the back of the gifts. There laid a golden wrapped present. He looked back to see Jeongguk too enthralled into whatever he was making to see Tae staring at the presents.
He let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. He couldn’t let Jeongguk see that gift; he had spent way too much time making sure it hid well behind the gifts so that he wouldn’t question its origins. He struggled greatly thinking of the perfect present for him, and with the help of Hobi and Yoongi, he thinks he did it. There was one thing that they all knew Jeongguk had a soft spot for: photography.
He focused a lot of his talent on making films and recording videos, yet on his own time, he also liked taking photos. Whether it would be for Tae’s Instagram or for their own pleasure, he enjoyed taking as many photos as he could. He was a bit insecure about showing them online, much to Tae’s dismay. Yet he understands and respects the younger’s decisions; however, he wanted Guk to know how precious his photos were.
So, when Hobi called Guk to hang for a few hours (he still owed him for that one), Tae went through the mini photo album that he created. Some photos were some that he had taken when he was a ghost—although he still isn’t sure of how that was possible—while majority were of the two of them. Scattered here and there were photos of the other guys or of all of them, but most of them consisted of Guk taking them when Tae was unaware or just scenery shots from when they go out. He remembers spending time looking at all the photos, reflecting on certain ones such as a picture of the sunset over a field of daisies. The place they had their first kiss, a few days after Halloween. Another showcased one that he had actually taken of Jeongguk commemorating the success of his first film on the internet. It was all the little moments that they both treasured dearly.
Tae grabbed many that he clearly could remember about and took a photo of them. Later on, with the help of Jimin, they were able to scan those photos onto polaroids and placing them inside a plain book Tae had gotten. His plan was for each photo to have a page dedicated to it, which Tae would decorate with little doodles and stickers as well as write messages for Guk. It almost seemed like diary entries, but he really spent a lot of time on writing perfectly for him, and now he just hopes his boyfriend will like it.
“—velvet would be best, but I don’t know if we have cream cheese frosting...babe?” Jeongguk paused.
Tae shook his head, deep in thought. “Sorry, I was thinking about something. What was that?”
He heard a bit of rummaging before, “Ah, never mind. I was thinking of making a red velvet cake but I thought we didn’t have frosting, but I found it!”
He chuckled and walked over to the kitchen. He plopped onto one of the stools across Jeongguk while he was getting the ingredients for the cake. “Don’t you think the cookies will be enough? We do have Jin bringing Chinese food from the restaurant near his apartment and we all know how many extra dishes he gets.”
“While that’s true, you do forget that for how small Jiminie is. He has a black hole for a stomach,” Jeongguk said, eyeing him with a knowing look.
Tae shouted, “Hey! Me and you both know you’re one to talk. Besides, we’ve only had pancakes and I’m sure the others have been busy today too.”
Jeongguk laughed, “Okay, maybe you have a point. Just maybe. Are you just going to just sit there or are you going to actually help me with the food?”
Tae shook his head before standing up. “Show me what to do, oh great one.” Guk threw his head back a bit, the bits of his hair that had fallen out of his little ponytail swept back on his face. He looked over to Tae. “Okay okay, so first…”
After baking one cake (and many frosting on the nose incidents) later, they were done. They sat on the couch watching a drama they were currently binge-watching to pass some time before their guests arrived. Tae was leaning on Guk’s shoulder while playing with their intertwined fingers in his lap.
Tae was too busy engrossed with what was happening on the screen to notice Guk smiling at him. He thought it was adorable how Tae was always subconsciously affectionate with him. He probably didn’t realize how he always touched him in small ways, whether it was a hand around his waist or just hooking his feet with his own under the table. The others would tease him about it, but Guk absolutely loved that about him. It’s one of the million things Guk could say as a reason he loved the man.
He felt a nudge as he shook his head to see Tae watching him with a smirk. “Get out your head, babe. I wonder what you were thinking about.”
Guk felt his cheeks warming up as Tae laughed into his chest. “Yah! It’s not my fault I have an incredible boyfriend that I always get distracted by.” Tae lifted his head, their proximity allowing him to see the little mole near his eye.
The dark-haired softly smiled before closing the gap between them. He could feel Tae smile into the kiss as he wrapped his hands around the blonde’s waist. The drama was long forgotten behind them as they continued kissing.
Guk broke the kiss first before going down Tae’s neck, earning a giggle out of him. “Guk, Jiminie and Joon will be here soon.”
Guk hummed but didn’t have any intention of stopping. He felt a slight tug as Tae pulled his head up to see Tae glaring at him.
He pouted. “I can’t help it,” which caused Tae to roll his eyes before planting a kiss on his nose. He grabbed the remote to pause the show and stood up.
“Come on, we should get dressed.” Tae smiled, grabbing Guk’s hand and pulling him up. He chuckled as he proceeded to drag behind Tae, making the elder yell in annoyance for him to hurry up.
↤ ♡ ↦
Tae banged on the bathroom door. “Come on Gukkie! Jiminie said they’re like five minutes away.”
A grunt could be heard on the other side before a muffled voice spoke. “I’m almost done don’t worry.” Tae walked back to their bedroom.
He stopped himself in front of their mirror and ruffled his hair a bit. He wore some black slacks that were slightly fitted with a red silk flowing shirt. He tucked some of it into his pants and paired it off with a simple black belt. The only thing truly standing out was his candy cane fluffy socks; as he wriggled his toes, he just knew he couldn’t resist wearing them. He then felt two arms wrap around him from behind and a familiar warmth. He looked back up from his socks to see Jeongguk staring back at him in the mirror.
He turned around to complain about Guk taking too long when the words were caught in his throat. Fuck, Tae thought. Jeongguk stood in front of him, wearing all black—black ripped jeans with a black dress shirt that was folded up his arms as well as a few open buttons, showing a bit of his collarbone. His hair was styled a bit back, showing his forehead as well showcasing his piercings. He quickly saw that Guk was staring at him with a knowing look as if he knew how he was making Tae feel. Tae quickly shook his head before throwing the pair of socks that Jeongguk had left on the dresser.
“Shut up,” Tae grumbled, causing Jeongguk to laugh. Guk sat down to put on the socks Tae had thrown at him; they were simple black socks with white snowflakes scattered all over them.
“I didn’t say anything though,” Jeongguk replied, staring at him expectantly. Before tae could retort, the doorbell rang.
Tae dashed out of the room to the door and yanked it open. There stood his brother and his best friend. “Jimin!!!” He yelled before tackling the man in a bear hug.
Jimin giggled, “Careful, I brought wine!” He stepped inside their house, removing his shoes and gesturing to the bottle he currently held in one hand.
“Sure, sure forget about your own brother, that’s totally fine too,” Namjoon muttered under his breath. Tae pouted playfully before hugging him as well.
Jeongguk emerged from their bedroom and went to hug Namjoon. “I got you, don’t worry about it.”
Namjoon smiled as the four of them went to the kitchen, “Thank you at least someone appreciates my company,” He looks at Jimin, “besides Mini of course.”
Jimin planted a kiss on his cheeks, his eyes forming little crescents. “You’re so sweet, oh my god I love you.”
“I don’t know what was worse, seeing that or having to deal with these two in the car.”
Tae turned back to see Jin, Hoseok, and Yoongi near the door. “How the hell did you get in?”
Jin raised a brow. “You never closed it…” Tae blushed and the others laughed. Greetings were shared left and right as they began to settle in.
The night went on as they caught up from the past few weeks. They sat around the table, eating the food Jin made and sharing funny stories. They talked about the upcoming collab photoshoot with Jin and Namjoon as well as the new trainees that Yoongi and Hoseok were working with. The atmosphere was nice and warm, full of laughter and celebration. They told more stories over wine and migrated with the desserts over to the living room. Tae, Jimin, and Jeongguk were sitting on a couch—well Jimin was practically on top of Namjoon who was talking with Jin about some modeling business. Jin was on a mini couch while Hoseok and Yoongi were on a loveseat cuddled into each other. All of them felt a bit buzzed, whether it was the alcohol it was unsure, but everyone was having a great time.
That was, until it was time to watch a movie.
Jeongguk stood up, “Okay I’ve set aside all the Christmas movies to watch, but does anyone have a suggestion first?”
“How about Die Hard?” Jin asked, causing everyone to stare at him, “Oh come on, it’s a Christmas movie!”
Jimin shook his head. “Oh god, no! Tae, why don’t we just watch your favorite Christmas movie?”
Jeongguk perked up, he hasn’t learned yet what his favorite movies were. Well, he knew one in particular but there’s no way—
“The Nightmare Before Christmas?! Oh please, can we watch that?”
They all heard a gasp and looked to see Hoseok with a disgusted face. “You really consider that a Christmas movie? What planet have you been living on that is a true Halloween classic.” Yoongi hums in agreement.
Namjoon cleared his throat, “I’m sorry but when does the movie take place? Oh that’s right, after Halloween.”
Jin laughed. “Oh god, this is gold. Let’s just have a few laughs. With what you may ask? Die Hard!”
Yoongi groaned, “Jin please stop. I’m with Hobi on this one, Jack Skellington is the king of Halloween, and even the ghosts agree.”
Jimin scoffed, “You’re ridiculous.”
Jeongguk was silent. Tae looked over to him. “What do you think, Gukkie?”
Jeongguk spoke, “Well...I can’t help but also agree with Hobi,”
Half the room groaned while others rejoiced.
“...I mean I can see where you’re coming from but you have to understand some of the ghosts praise Jack like religiously, and the movie is about him realizing that he should just be the king of Halloween.”
Tae’s mouth dropped slightly. “Babe, you can’t be serious!”
Thus was the beginning of a huge argument. Words were thrown back and forth (a pillow or two) between the guys. With the ex-ghosts claiming about how the whole message behind the movie was about how Jack Skellington belongs to Halloween Town and the Kim brothers with Jimin brought up the facts of how Santa is the one who helps Jack realize he shouldn’t take over Christmas.
“Santa always teaches life valuable lessons; that’s the essence of Christmas!”
“The director himself has even stated that it’s a Halloween movie!”
“November 1st to December 25th is after Halloween!”
“He goes back to Halloween Town!”
“Yippee-ki-yay!”
“Jin, kindly shut the fuck up. Please.”
“How are we supposed to come to an agreement about this? Can we please just watch it then we can watch something else.” Jimin huffed, rummaging his hand through his hair.
“If this whole thing ruins my surprise present for Tae, I will be blaming you, Jin.” Jeongguk angrily points at Jin. Jin yells in protest, “What? I didn’t do shit!”
“...Surprise present?” Tae asked.
Shit, Jeongguk thought. He didn’t realize that he had slipped until he looked over to see Tae with furrowed brows. He looked confused and was waiting for Jeongguk to answer.
With a hand behind his neck, he said, “Damn, I…Tae, I had a surprise present for you this Christmas.” His shoulders slouched. He went over to the Christmas tree and pulled out a gift Tae hadn’t noticed before. This one was actually wrapped nicely—a light blue wrapping paper with little snowmen on it. Guk brought it back to where they were all sitting and softly placed it in Tae’s lap.
Tae was about to say they would open present later in the night, but Guk seemed to know what he was going to say and he said, “It’s alright you can open it now.”
Tae looked at the other guys and they either smiled or nodded. His gaze shifted to the small box in his lap as he began to slowly unwrapped it. He let out a gasp, looking up with a watery gaze at his boyfriend. “Babe...”
Inside the box sat a glitter globe. The glitter globe had a dark blue base, and it looked to be snow resting on the edges. Surrounding the base were miniature figurines of characters from The Nightmare Before Christmas. In the glass sphere were the main couple, Sally and Jack Skellington were standing before each other in front of a full moon. He saw a small golden knob and twisted it. A tune started to play and he instantly recognized the song.
“I—I don’t know what to say,” Tae said, at a loss for words.
Guk smiled, “I asked Namjoon for some help about your favorite movie, but I had no clue it was you considered it a Christmas movie. I still wanted to get it for you because I know you always sing this song,” He chuckled, “Also, it’s my favorite Halloween movie, so this makes it more interesting.”
Tae sniffed, then moved over to hug Jeongguk. “Jeongguk, I—I love you so much. This is the best thing I’ve ever gotten. Now my present is gonna look dumb compared to yours.”
The guys laughed. Then Guk said, “I’ll be the judge of that. Let’s watch the movie first and then we’ll open the rest of the gifts.”
Tae nodded and placed the globe back in the box before snuggling into Guk’s chest. The next hour or so was them all munching on cookies while watching the movie, once in a while some of them belting out in song but overall a good experience. Then came the opening of gifts, which had lots of laughter (Jin screaming at the bright pink pants Hoseok got him and Hobi laughing at the ‘wrong move’ whistle Tae got him for his trainees) and tears (Jimin getting a necklace from Namjoon and Guk showering Tae in kisses for the photo album). At the end of the night, after the boys left and just the two of them remained cleaning up. They quickly cleaned up and were soon in bed cuddled together.
“Tae, I love you,” Joengguk said, smiling down at him.
Tae leaned up to plant a soft peck on his lips. “I love you too. You’re my love.”
“You’re my everything.”
FIN