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”Nope. No luck. We’re just gonna sit here and freeze to death,” Yoongi said with bitter disappointment as he turned off the TV.
The weather report had shown nothing but darkness, dramatic blizzard shots and snow-covered bumps allegedly representing parked cars along deserted streets, on the last day before Christmas when they should be filled with frantic shoppers.
”Aaah, there is no way you will freeze to death,” Hoseok loudly declared, making Yoongi wince as much from the sheer volume of his voice, as he did from the impact of his boisterous friend throwing himself half onto the sofa, half onto Yoongi’s blanket-wrapped body.
”You are like a big bulgogi wrap in all these blankets, hyung,” he cackled while prodding Yoongi’s poor body with long, teasing fingers through the layers.
He was just about to sign his own death warrant by pretending to take a big bite out of Yoongi’s shoulder, when Seokjin looked up from his impromptu cooking project, always sensing trouble before it had a real chance to erupt.
”Yah, Seok, no snacking before dinner, you rascal! You think your favorite hyung is cooking this delicious meal just for fun?”
Nothing like a bit of fake anger to defuse Yoongi and distract Hoseok, giving him something else to laugh about.
Seokjin wiped the steam off his glasses on his long, fuzzy sweater and returned to the simple ramyeon meal he was creating out of whatever he could find in a kitchen that had already been emptied of fresh foods in anticipation of all the members going to their destinations of choice.
This was supposed to be their big, no-work Christmas, and their individual vacations earlier in the year had given them all ideas of how that Christmas would be spent as well as possible.
Not surprisingly, none of their plans entailed spending Christmas Eve snowed in together, unable to leave their fancy but suddenly claustrophobic apartment.
Nothing cheered Seokjin's younger members up like food, though, so while Hoseok had immediately taken it upon himself to cheer everyone up as much as possible with fully dialed-up Hope-shine, Seokjin had gone his usual route of rummaging through cupboards and freezer in search of anything that might temporarily pacify the group.
”Right, no, I understand. Thank you so much, we are very grateful anyway. Yes. Yes, tomorrow morning, thank you again, and have a good evening now with your family. Don’t worry about us, Jin hyung will take care of us. You too. Good night and Merry Christmas,” Namjoon told whichever person on the phone list he had contacted last to see if there was any way out of their predicament, without being too much of an inconvenience to people who had just as much right to the peaceful Christmas of their dreams as Namjoon and his members, in his naturally humble and caring opinion.
After hanging up with a sigh and a distraught hand pushed through his long hair, he turned to all three of his hyungs: ”Hey, where are the kids?”
”They’re in mine and Jimin’s room,” Hoseok replied, slightly deflated. ”Jimin wanted to cry alone in the dark, but they wouldn’t leave him, of course. So I gave them some space.”
”Jimin’s crying?” Namjoon’s body was still walking up to the stove to smell Seokjin’s ramyeon magic, but his concerned face was already turned ahead of the rest of him as if it could walk on its own back towards Jimin’s room.
”You know how he gets with Christmas, Joon,” Yoongi rumbled softly from under his pulled-down beanie, ”everything has to be magical and perfect, just like he planned it.”
”Not true, hyung,” came a small, sullen voice from the doorway to the bedrooms.
All four hyungs turned to see the saddest impression of a Korean Tiny Tim, pale and sickly, supported on both sides by his loyal maknaes.
”I just love a good holiday surprise, and now my surprise for Jungkook in Busan is ruined!”
”We know, Jimin, you love giving surprises and getting them too,” Taehyung said with a tone made for comforting kids and puppies, while smoothing down Jimin’s hair with a big, warm hand.
”Almost as much as you love snow,” Jungkook offered without thinking, earning him an eye roll from both Namjoon and Yoongi, which he missed as he focused completely on wrapping Jimin in the tightest hug possible from his position at his side.
”Snow is no longer on my list of things I love, snow has betrayed me,” Jimin spluttered dramatically, his voice quivering on ”betrayed” and bringing a wet shine back to his already red-rimmed eyes.
Seokjin and Namjoon stared helplessly at each other for a second, hoping that the other would assume some sort of hyung/leader position and fix their broken songbird.
When neither of them came up with a solution quick enough, Jimin turned into Taehyung’s chest and let his tears fall freely, dampening the nice shirt that Taehyung had put on to cheer himself up and pulling a stumbling Jungkook with him into Taehyung’s double embrace.
”I wish all this snowing would just end,” Jimin mumbled into Taehyung, his warm, cry-puffy lips moving against expensive couture.
Just as Taehyung lifted his gaze over Jimin’s hair to meet the large desperation of Jungkook’s eyes, Jimin’s words rolled like a coin through the slot of a pinball machine and fired up his brain with a ding-ding-ding.
”Jin hyung? Can you please go get your guitar,” Taehyung asked as softly as possible, as if trying not to startle a cute but wild animal on the front steps of his grandmother’s home.
Seokjin looked as if he was about to launch into a rant about nearly being ready to serve the food, but he closed his mouth as soon as he had opened it, and nodded at Yoongi.
The group’s unofficial Sous-Chef nodded back from where he had been observing the whole scene together with Hoseok, the latter smoothly jumping to his feet to help pull up his dear brother from the groove he had created over the course of hours of sitting in his favorite corner.
Jungkook and Taehyung tightened their vice around Jimin while Seokjin gestured wordlessly over the pots and pans to Yoongi, who took over with practiced ease so that his only hyung could stride past the maknae line cluster and retrieve his instrument.
”Jimin? Would you like to sing with me? You know, my Christmas song,” Taehyung asked with his lips moving against Jimin’s hair, looking into the dark roots of Jungkook’s. ”We never got a chance to sing it together for Christmas like I imagined when I wrote it...”
Judging from the sudden stillness, Jimin was at least thinking it over.
”I can’t sing… I’m so sorry, TaeTae, my voice is all ruined from all this crying, I won’t be able to do it well,” Jimin said with honest regret, now focused on Taehyung’s wish and the desire to fulfill it like a good friend, like his best friend.
”Your voice is always great, Jimin-ssi,” Jungkook spoke against the back of Jimin’s neck, grateful to have an opportunity to be his usual supportive self after the mindless snow comment.
”Listen to the boy,” said Yoongi from behind the kitchen counter, ”your voice will be good enough. Genuine, real. I like it already.”
By the time he had spoken the last of his soothing words, Seokjin had already returned with his guitar clutched against his stomach, tweaking the tuning as he walked toward the kitchen counter to grab himself a stool as well.
”Where do you want me and what am I playing,” the softest version of Seokjin asked Taehyung, after sneaking a quick peek to see that Yoongi had kept the food from getting ruined somehow during his brief absence.
A few minutes of shuffling, clearing of throats, rearranging of furniture and lighting of candles later, six of them were gathered around the low sofa table, while Yoongi maintained his position by the stove, ready to start serving them all the moment the intimate performance would end.
Seokjin had run through the chords quickly to make sure he remembered them, and Jimin had just finished double-checking the lyrics with Taehyung, when Jungkook popped back up from the sofa and darted out of the combined living room and dining room.
”Wait for me! Just gonna grab something,” he shouted as he ran back to Jimin’s and Hoseok’s room.
Not a minute later, he returned triumphantly, wielding Hoseok’s tiny, plastic Christmas tree in his hand and sporting a giant, nose-scrunching grin.
”Now we can listen to a Christmas song!”
”Just don’t plug in in, though,” Hoseok cautioned, ”or it will start spinning and playing that awful tune again. Really, I swear, I had no idea when I bought it!”
The big windows rattled and shook with the strong winds, making it seem almost impossible for the candle flames on the table between them to burn without even the tiniest flicker.
Their light reflected like new constellations in Jungkook’s eyes, replacing the invisible ones above the massive clouds outside, as he made himself small under his Hobi hyung’s arm where they curled up together on the sofa, leaving the entire other half for Namjoon to stretch out his long legs on.
Seokjin perched on his stool with the air of a professional singer/songwriter ready to enchant his audience with his guitar, and the singing duo opted for cuddles over voice control in the wide armchair that fit one leg-spreading Taehyung perfectly and one snuggly Jimin in his lap, tiny feet dangling over the wide armrest.
A guitar intro fitting a real 50s Christmas standard gently rocked them all into a peaceful state of mind, making them momentarily forget all of their troubles.
Then Taehyung’s unique voice, leaking a bit of air from being voluntarily trapped under Jimin, filled their ears with musical poetry.
”Happy Christmas
At the end of this winter
You and I will spend a happy Christmas together
When you smile under the lights
Even the stars get shy
Your smile shines brightly”
Namjoon closed his eyes and tilted his head against the back of the sofa in blissful anticipation.
Taehyung gave Jimin an encouraging little squeeze, and right on cue, Jimin found it in himself to make his voice carry the beautiful melody made specifically for his voice.
“Happy Christmas
At the end there will be happiness
You’re so dazzling, I feel your smile
When you smile at me, I feel shy, feel good”
The soft, sensuous hum of Taehyung’s lower voice and the sheer angel bells of Jimin’s voice harmonized effortlessly for the rest of the song, fitting together as naturally as their bodies in the armchair.
By the time Seokjin strummed his final chord and added a small flourish, every bit of tension had left their home, leaving room only for feelings of gratitude for the way they all knew how to care for one another, and the delicious smell of the meal they would soon be sharing.