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the harsher nights of december had crashed in only 3 months after dejun had first arrived at kunhang’s house. it had surprised the alien boy how quickly the weather had changed as september moved to october then november and suddenly there was a fine coating of snow everywhere. he liked it a lot, cold weather was both rare and vicious back home so the alien boy had never really experienced the tranquility of a calm winter day. especially, he liked snowball fights with kunhang and building snow men and how red the other boy’s nose was and how his face would flush the same colour after they kissed. life on earth was perfect, almost.
the older boy knew what christmas was. of course he did, despite only watching children’s tv (other than a couple of random shows) when he was back home, christmas was literally impossible to avoid. he had watched many children’s christmas films and had always been fascinated by how it would feel to actually experience those things himself. so, naturally, when yangyang asked him if he wanted to join on a ‘trip to go and meet with santa’s elves to ask about presents,’ he agreed in a heartbeat.
“dejun, are you ready to go?” the youngest boy asked as he slipped his shoes on in the hallway.
“yes, of course,” dejun replied simply with a bright and excited smile. he was so excited to meet the elves.
the alien boy’s head was spinning with possibilities of what they could look like. he’s seen so many different portrayals of them in films. some were small with pointy hats, others were average height with pointy ears, some weren’t even human like at all. however, he kept his excitement to himself at risk of seeming childlike and stupid. yangyang didn’t seem overly excited at all but dejun guessed that he must’ve already met with the elves so many times now that it didn’t feel like an exciting experience anymore.
as they walked on further, the older seemed to notice that they were heading towards the shopping centre. at this, he felt a little disappointed, he assumed that the elves would live somewhere really cool or that they would have to travel a long way to see them but as they rounded the corner and the shopping centre was right in front of them, dejun just had to clarify.
“yangyang,” he called the boy’s name to get his attention just before they stepped inside.
“yeah?” the boy glanced over to his friend.
“why are we at the shopping centre?”
yangyang cast him a confused glance, “to buy presents,” he spoke, “i thought you knew why we’d come here?”
“b- but,” dejun stuttered in confusion as his mind whizzed at a thousand miles an hour, “is this where the elves live?”
yangyang’s expression changed immediately into both one of utter fondness and one that showed how he was obviously trying really hard not to laugh. “oh that’s just an expression,” yangyang smiled brightly, “we buy the presents, not the elves.”
“oh,” dejun whispered quietly as his mind wrapped around the new knowledge. so the humans bought the presents and then sent them to santa, it made more sense now.
a less confused dejun then walked into the shopping centre, yangyang seemed like he knew exactly what he was getting each person and precisely where to find it whereas the alien boy had little to no idea at all.
they visited countless stores with yangyang purchasing an array of things like a new pair of shoes for kunhang, a bracelet for his mom and a new camera for yukhei. dejun followed him around aimlessly as he panicked slightly about having no idea what to buy for his boyfriend. the younger, however, seemed not to notice his friend’s distress as he worked through his list of presents to buy.
it was only when they reached the final store that yangyang noticed the fact that dejun had bought nothing at all.
“hey,” he spoke to catch the alien boy’s attention. dejun turned to face yangyang with a questioning gaze and the human boy took this as a signal to continue talking, “haven't you found anything you want to buy?”
“um.....” dejun trailed off as he placed back the snow globe he had been vigorously shaking, “i don’t really know what i’m supposed to get at all,” he admitted finally.
yangyang smiled softly at him before setting down the decorations that he was looking at and motioning at his friend to follow him. “do you have any really special memories with kunhang?” he asked as they walked past many shops that they had already been in.
“i remember the once back home after we got together we went star gazing, i pointed out your star to him,” dejun blushed softly as he recalled the memory. it felt like so long ago that they were so many miles away staring at a distant star that was now the one that ruled the sky they both lived beneath.
in his daze, the older boy had hardly noticed that yangyang had dragged them into a technology shop. “how about this?” the younger asked and when dejun finally zoned back in, his eyes became set upon the perfect gift.
it had just seemed like a normal projector at first but as dejun began reading the box it became clear what it was, “it projects all of the stars around your room,” yangyang explained with a bright smile, “you can plug it in and gaze at your star any time you want.”
the alien boy nearly teared up at the thought of being safely tucked in his bed with kunhang at his side and staring at the entire galaxy projected onto the wall. it was as close to his dream as they were going to get at that moment and dejun couldn’t pass the opportunity up, “it’s perfect,” he breathed out.
after buying that, shopping for the others became much more easy. it turned out that for yangyang, yukhei and renjun, dejun could buy anything he wanted and they would like it just because it was from him.
as the clock struck five and both boys were becoming increasingly tired from hauling heavy bags around numerous shops all day, they were ready to call it quits. yet just after beginning the long walk home, dejun cast his gaze over to a small independent jewellery shop on the side of the street. yangyang followed his gaze and instantly spoke up, “they have some really cool things in there but it’s so so expensive,” he chuckled.
this didn’t deter dejun at all. money was basically an object to him at this point due to the sheer amount that the weishen government were sending him everytime they sent a ship over. in return, he would write a small essay on the things he had discovered about human life but regardless, dejun was rich. he was definitely rich enough to buy kunhang something beautiful from the pretty jewellers on the side of the street.
“can we take a look?” he asked yangyang and the younger boy just nodded before following him inside.
the shop was like nothing dejun had ever experienced before. it was cramped and there were wind chimes and hundreds of small objects hanging from the roof and all over the walls. behind the desk sat a kindly looking old woman and he greeted her politely as he walked in.
“good afternoon,” she smiled, “is there anything in particular you’re looking for?”
“i’m looking for something for my boyfriend,” dejun told her without thinking and he heard yangyang suck in a short breath behind him. he had forgotten again. kunhang would always remind him that them being together was still not perceived as normal or even in some cases okay, despite how much they wanted it to be. the alien boy braced himself to be scolded and told to leave however the smile on the lady’s face never once faltered. if anything, she only smiled more.
“how lovely,” she spoke, “is there anything in particular you have in mind?”
“do you have anything space themed?” he asked and she paused to think for a moment before nodding slowly and reaching below her into a drawer.
“i have these two rings,” she began before placing two black bands on the table. they had chips of diamond, ruby, sapphire, emerald and amber dotted around them and dejun could only assume that they were meant to mimic the night sky.
he leant down to look at them closer and the shop owner began speaking again, “there’s a beautiful story that comes along with them too, would you like to hear it?”
“of course,” the alien boy spoke, fascinated.
“it was said that in this town there were once two lovers, she was born and raised here, the daughter of a farmer and his wife and he was mightily rich but had no home nor family,” she retold, “the story went that he came from another land, not japan or korea but another planet altogether, it’s said that the inscription on the inside is a promise of love from that place and that he moved here to find love after it was outlawed on his planet,” she smiled sweetly and dejun felt his heart racing. it couldn’t be? could it?
“may i take a look?” he asked her and she nodded slowly. he picked up the two rings and set eyes on the inscription inside the first
our love shall never wilt like the flowers on the bank of yedeego
he fought back the urge to audibly gasp as he read the weishen script on the inside. the second ring had it too:
instead it shall grow as mount khaofein does, eternally
his heart almost burst upon reading them and as he set them back down the lady was staring at him with an indecipherable look. dejun decided to ignore it before opening his mouth to ask how much they would cost.
“this shop is built on principle not profit, your connection to these rings are obviously far deeper than mine,” the shop owner cut him off, “you can take them, i have a feeling the original owner would rather see you have them than me.”
dejun stood shell shocked for a few moments before fully taking the situation in, “no i couldn’t possibly not pay,” he began but she just shook her head.
“and i couldn’t possibly make you pay,” she spoke firmly before placing the rings into a box and putting them in a bag, “i wish you, your boyfriend and your friend a very happy christmas,” she smiled as she passed dejun the bag.
“merry christmas to you too,” dejun smiled kindly before taking the bag and leaving the shop.
as soon as the door closed behind them, yangyang spoke up, “what was all that about? was there something special on the rings? that man wasn’t from weishen was he?”
“the script inside the rings,” dejun began, “before relationships were outlawed it was one of the things that the people of weishen loved most, there were two old promises of love that would be said in union vows and one of them was inscribed in our language on the rings.”
“that’s amazing,” yangyang spoke with wide eyes that were full of wonder, “how did they end up in her shop?”
“who knows,” dejun replied, “but i’m glad i have them, it means a lot to me that i can give kunhang something that relates to back home.”
“i’m sure it’ll mean a lot to him too,” yangyang smiled softly.
they walked home in silence after that and dejun spent the next few days watching present wrapping tutorials online. he wanted his first christmas with kunhang to be completely perfect. he practiced by wrapping and unwrapping random objects he found in their bedroom while kunhang was out. of course, yukhei found this absolutely hilarious. there would be some days when he would walk into the two boys’ room and half of the objects in the room would be wrapped. there was even once where dejun wrapped kunhang’s laptop and proceeded to spend the next 15 minutes panicked whilst looking for it. renjun had been the one to find it eventually as he had arrived to visit whilst the three other boys were looking under every piece of furniture in the entire house.
needless to say, keeping the story a secret from kunhang when he arrived back home was a challenge. yet, the other boys just laughed about it in secret whenever kunhang wasn’t in the room.
true to the saying though, practice made perfect and by the time dejun wrapped all of his presents on christmas eve eve, everyone was in awe at his skills. he had used an array of papers, ribbons, bows, tissue paper and everything he could possibly find to make the most perfectly wrapped present. however, there was one gift that he wouldn’t be giving to yangyang to give to santa.
dejun was worried about the rings. it wasn’t that he didn’t trust santa, although he wasn’t sure that he did, he just knew that the rings were completely irreplaceable. if anything happened, if santa accidentally delivered them to the wrong house or if they fell from the sleigh, dejun didn’t know what he would do. so instead, he kept them in the drawer next to his side of the bed and decided to give them to kunhang after they had given out the main presents on christmas morning.
by christmas eve night, everything was meticulously planned for the next day. dejun had given the presents to yangyang ready to give to santa and he was able to spend the night cuddled up next to kunhang on the sofa as they watched christmas movies. it seemed like the perfect relaxing night but the alien boy simply couldn’t find it within himself to relax.
he knew it was stupid but something was massively bothering him. it was terrifying and maybe it was because he came from a planet where crime didn’t exist at all but he was so horribly afraid of someone he didn’t know being in their house. kunhang must have noticed how quiet he’d been all night because he was holding dejun against him tighter than usual and laying soft kisses on the top of his head every now and then. for the last half an hour, he’d been fiddling with dejun’s hands and threading their fingers together whilst admiring how perfectly they fit.
his presence was, of course, comforting and the fact that dejun knew that his boyfriend would be lying next to him all night made him feel a little better but he still couldn’t shake the fear. a man was going to slip down his chimney and commit reverse robbery.
“dejun, are you okay?” kunhang asked him after he’d zoned out for another 10 minutes.
“hmm?” the older boy sat up a little, “yeah i’m fine yeah i’m just a little tired.”
“ah well you’ll have to get in bed early tonight anyway or else santa won’t come,” kunhang joked but rather than calming his boyfriend this just increased his worry.
dejun couldn’t comprehend why they couldn’t see santa, if he was doing something good then why didn’t he want people to see him? it just didn’t make sense and it terrified him.
yangyang walked in then with 4 stockings in his hand and began hanging them on pins above the fireplace. “kunhang, what are the socks for?” dejun asked curiously as he watched the youngest hang the final one.
“little presents go in there, just small things that we’ve bought,” kunhang explained.
“oh that’s cool,” dejun spoke quietly. kunhang was still confused as to why he was acting so odd. he could be nervous, the younger thought, christmas was a big occasion and the fact that they would be spending it with kunhang’s family must have only added to the nerves. it made sense.
“hey, you know you don’t have to be nervous about spending christmas with my family right?” kunhang squeezed his boyfriend’s hand softly, “there’ll only be like 2 people there you haven’t met before and my parents love you anyway.”
“i know,” dejun looked up at kunhang from where he was sat in his lap. he could see the affection shining down from kunhang’s eyes. the alien boy thought for a second about telling kunhang what was really on his mind but he quickly decided against it again. it wasn’t that he thought kunhang would make fun of him for it, dejun just thought that it was something he shouldn’t be afraid of at all. he hated the feeling of not being accustomed to human things and despite him not being expected to know everything, he felt that, as a human researcher, he should’ve known more about his boyfriend’s life than he did.
it wasn’t long before yukhei walked into the room holding a plate with a carrot on it and a glass of milk. “that’s for the reindeer,” kunhang whispered quietly into his ear, “they still do it even at their big age,” he scoffed. yangyang walked in a split second later with a plate with a mince pie on it and a glass of wine, “and that’s for santa,” kunhang spoke.
dejun furrowed his brow softly as he lifted his head to look up at his boyfriend, “you’d have thought he wouldn’t be able to control the sleigh after drinking alcohol from every house.”
his boyfriend just let out a loud laugh, “maybe he has a really high tolerance, unlike you.”
“oh my god,” dejun cringed just at the memory of his first drinking experience when he came to earth, “i don’t even want to think about it.”
“it was really funny, you really let go,” kunhang commented and dejun just huffed.
“it was embarrassing,” he lay his head back down on his boyfriend’s lap to hide and kunhang just ruffled his hair affectionately. he carded his fingers softly through the older boys hair for a few minutes before he was called into the hall by yangyang to move the presents into an easier place.
yukhei and yangyang had planned to make dejun’s first christmas extra special by putting the presents out under the tree when he went to sleep. so of course, to make this both easier and quieter, they had to move the presents from where yangyang was keeping them in his room to in a storage cupboard. this gave dejun time alone in the living room and an opportunity to look around the chimney.
he was sure that when he’d moved in, kunhang had told him that the chimney was blocked. the alien boy had asked why no smoke was coming out of the top of it so kunhang had explained that most people now had their chimney’s blocked so things didn’t fall down. besides, their fire was electric.
when dejun stood up to try and look up the chimney, he couldn’t see anything past the front of the fire. it seemed impossible that santa could fit down the chimney in the first place let alone actually get past the fire into the house. there were so many things that could go wrong and it was terrifying, the roof was slanted and icy so the reindeer would probably slip off. dejun was just knocking softly on the wall to see if it was hollow when kunhang walked back in.
“dejun?” he asked in confusion and the older boy whipped around to face him, “what are you doing?”
“nothing,” he hung his head and stared at the floor.
“what is it?” kunhang walked over to him and pushed his chin up gently so they locked eyes and dejun crumbled.
“he’s gonna break into our house,” the alien whispered as he tried to hold back his tears. kunhang was immediately concerned and took dejun to sit down on the sofa.
“who? who’s gonna break in?” he brushed his boyfriend’s hair from his face and wiped away a stray tear.
“the ho ho man,” dejun spoke softly as his brain just pushed out any words it could think of in that moment.
“oh baby,” kunhang pulled him into a big hug and shushed him a little in an attempt to calm him down.
“it’s scary,” dejun told the younger and he clutched onto his christmas jumper for dear life.
“dejun listen to me, santa he’s not real,” kunhang told the crying boy who immediately snapped his head up with utter confusion on his face.
“w-what do you mean?” he managed to stutter out and the human boy couldn’t help but smile a little.
“he’s not real, it’s just something parents tell their kids to make christmas seem more magical, you’ve only ever watched kids christmas films haven’t you?” kunhang asked softly and dejun nodded in response, “i promise you no one is going to break in, you can even come and see where we’ve hidden the presents, yukhei and yangyang usually take them in the morning and put them under the tree when yukhei makes the food they put out look like it’s been eaten, he even bought glitter this year to sprinkle around and make it more exciting for you.”
“oh,” dejun now smiled softly, “i’m sorry i ruined it.”
“no, no it’s okay,” kunhang told him as he pressed a soft kiss to his forehead, “i understand why it can be scary to you but just know that nothing will happen to you and even if he did exist i will be by your side all night anyway, i’d never let anything happen to you.”
“i love you kunhang,” dejun looked up at the younger boy who smiled back down at him before he pressed their lips together quickly.
“i love you too,” kunhang smiled before resting their foreheads together, “now let’s go to bed so we’re not half dead when we wake up tomorrow.”
“okay.”
dejun slept soundly for the first time in a week that night with the new knowledge that there was no magical old man about to break into their house and commit reverse robbery. it was also comforting that kunhang slept with his arms wrapped especially tightly around him. the alien boy must’ve slept for hours before yangyang burst into their room the next morning demanding that they wake up.
“get up!” he yelled as he slammed the door open making the human boy jump.
“what time is it?” kunhang asked whilst still half asleep.
“christmas time?” yangyang spoke back, “i don’t know but we have presents to open so wake up.”
the youngest walked out at that and kunhang was left to place a soft kiss on dejun’s cheek in an attempt to wake him up nicely. that was one thing about dejun that kunhang could never understand, he could sleep through pretty much anything. it must’ve been a difference in the way the people on the two planets had evolved or it was that dejun had very quickly gotten used to living with yukhei and yangyang. whatever it was, dejun was still asleep and it was up to kunhang to wake him to celebrate his first ever christmas.
“good morning,” kunhang whispered as he softly shook his boyfriends arm. dejun began to groan as he cracked his eyes open and squinted at the light filtering through kunhang’s curtains.
“good morning,” dejun smiled back as he turned around to lay his head on his boyfriend’s arm.
“merry christmas,” the younger replied and dejun’s eyes widened as he sat up quickly.
“that’s today isn’t it?” he asked.
“yes it is, do you want to go downstairs now? the other two are waiting to open the presents.”
“of course.”
they walked hand in hand down the stairs both still in their pyjamas and yawning. when they reached the living room, dejun’s eyes sparkled in excitement as he saw the pile of gifts under the tree and he quickly pulled kunhang to sit on the floor in front of the fire.
“are we ready?” yukhei asked and all three other boys nodded before they started handing out the presents.
dejun received so many things: a build your own alien spaceship kit from renjun which made him laugh, a drone from yangyang because dejun had always been fascinated by his, a personalised paint by numbers of kunhang from yukhei because dejun had always expressed how much he wanted to paint his boyfriend but he couldn’t because of his poor art skills. the alien boy was almost overwhelmed with how much they had all thought of him.
in return he had bought them all cool gadgets that he had found in the technology shop yangyang took him to. yukhei received a code your own robotic cat which came with a special app to control the cat, the eldest swore that it was because dejun was sick of his complaining that they weren’t allowed pets.
when they got towards the end of the pile, there were only three gifts left. two were from kunhang to dejun and one was from dejun to kunhang.
“open this one first,” the human boy passed a rectangular looking item to his boyfriend.
dejun carefully and slowly tore off the rapping despite how curious he was to see what kunhang had bought him. his heart almost burst when he finally set eyes on what was hidden behind the wrapping.
it was the cat he had drawn but kunhang had framed it ready to be put on the wall. dejun’s mind immediately went back to that moment, they had hardly known each other then and kunhang had insisted that there was nothing dejun wasn’t good at. of course, the older had had to prove him wrong.
“do you like it?” kunhang asked nervously from beside him and dejun just nodded quickly.
“i love it,” he grinned and pressed a soft kiss to kunhang’s cheek causing yukhei and yangyang to coo softly.
the next gift to be picked was dejun’s to kunhang. it was the star projector that the alien had bought for their room. he hoped that kunhang would understand the significance of the gift.
as the human boy pulled back the wrapping, dejun felt his breath catch in his throat. what if kunhang didn’t like it? what if it was weird and cringy? however all of his worries were brushed away when his boyfriend tackled him with a huge hug.
“thank you, thank you,” he grinned, “i love it!”
“i’m glad you do, i was scared you wouldn’t,” dejun wrapped his arms tightly around the boy.
“of course i like it, i would love anything you bought me,” kunhang replied before sitting up and motioning for yangyang to pass over the final gift.
this was the one dejun had been the most curious about since he had walked down the stairs that morning. it was a simple red envelope with his name written on the front of it and the alien boy simply could not even guess at what it could be.
yangyang passed it over to him and dejun just held it for a few seconds with a confused gaze before kunhang hurried him up, “open it then.”
as per his boyfriend’s request, dejun ripped open the envelope and his eyes then set upon a christmas card which he lifted up and was about to open before a folded piece of paper fell out. he set the card to one side for a moment before picking up the paper and opening it carefully. as soon as he read the text printed upon it, his eyes filled with tears and kunhang instantly wrapped an arm around his shoulders.
booking confirmed: 3 night stay in master mountain lodge
“we’re going to the mountains?” dejun asked to make sure before he fully allowed excitement to take over his body.
“yeah we are,” kunhang responded and this time it was dejun’s turn to tackle him with a hug. ever since he came to earth the alien boy had been longing to go and see the beautiful natural world first hand but getting settled in and accustomed to human life was more work than he expected. it was awful being too busy to see sights you had been waiting your entire life to see but now, dejun was going to be able to lay eyes on a mountain. he was going to be able to climb to the top and look out for miles over the countryside with his boyfriend at his side and he simply couldn’t wait.
“i love you so much,” he told kunhang with a beaming smile when they finally stopped hugging, “i can’t even explain how happy i am.”
“you don’t have to,” the younger beamed back, “and i love you too, i’m glad you’re finally going to be able to experience nature.”
dejun felt glad of this too but the part he was glad of the most was that kunhang would be going with him. his boyfriend was literally everything to him, his best friend, his lover, his saviour. kunhang had been able to show him every flaw in the way he was living life in weishen and he was able to offer him a new home filled with love and the freedom to live. dejun could simply not be more grateful.
“wait i have another present for you,” the alien boy suddenly remembered. kunhang looked at him in confusion but dejun just stood up and held out his hand for his boyfriend to take. when he did, the older boy led them back to their room and finally let go of his boyfriend’s hand to fish in the drawer for the rings.
“sit down,” dejun told kunhang as he hid the box between his two hands, “i have a story.”
“i love stories,” kunhang chuckled.
“a long time ago in this town there was a couple, she was the daughter of a farmer and he had no home or family but he was extremely rich, no one knew where he came from or how he got his fortune or anything, it was said he came from a different planet altogether,” dejun began and kunhang listened intently before gasping at the last line.
“they had these matching rings,” dejun opened the box, “when i walked into a jewellery shop a few weeks ago, i asked the lady if she had anything relating to space and she brought these out, they had inscriptions on them.”
the older boy took the rings from the box and placed them in kunhang’s hand allowing him to pick them up and look at the inscription on the inside for himself. “isn’t that…?” he spoke and dejun nodded in reply.
“weishen text.”
“what does it say?” kunhang asked curiously.
“before love was outlawed there was a very famous promise of love, it was very meaningful and was only said by those who had the deepest of loves, it says ‘our love shall never wilt like the flowers on the bank of yedeego,’ and then the other one says ‘instead it shall grow as mount khaofein does, eternally’” the alien boy finished and kunhang looked back at him in awe.
“it’s almost like you were meant to find them here,” the human commented and dejun nodded.
“maybe we’re meant to be.”
“i think we could be,” kunhang grinned as dejun took his hand and slid the ring on to his finger, “do you mean it?” he asked finally after a few seconds.
“mean what?” dejun questioned in wonder.
“that our love will grow eternally?”
“i’m certain of it, i promise.”
dejun sealed his promise with a kiss and a whisper of ‘i love you.’