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The Griffindor’s common room is a place usually filled with students cramming for exams, planning pranks or discussing quidditch (or complaining about the Potions class only like, 80% of the time). It’s a place smelling of spices and cookies sneaked out of the dining hall in the conviniently oversized robes, where chatter never ceases and you have to fight for a cushion.
But tonight - tonight, the Griffindor common room is quiet. Fifth years and above are taking a trip to Hogsmade (and will definitely rub it in the others’ faces once they get back), and the younger ones are, in protest, organizing their own fun - a treasure hunt through Hogwarts that the principle has actually agreed upon. (Maybe because of the number of howlers sent to his office by some very passionate third years, even if he hasn’t even once mentioned the incident.)
It’s because of how quiet the room is that Soobin’s sigh when he lets himself fall onto the couch, diving nose-straight into the pillows, is more than resounding. He nuzzles his face in one of the cushions, only moving when he can’t breathe anymore, and lets out another long, suffering sigh.
Jin looks up from his bundle of wool that is starting to take the shape of a clumsy scarf and tilts his head, looking at Soobin like he’s trying to decipher his sighs much like one tries to make out bits in a language they’re vaguely familiar with. He’s not sure why Jin is knitting - Soobin didn’t even know Jin owned a knitting set - or why he’s even here - he loves Hogsmade, always tells Soobin about his adventures there and brings back treats for him. (Hobi says that’s because Jin doesn’t want to lose his position as Soobin’s favourite hyung, and Soobin doesn’t tell him he wouldn’t even if he were to stop bringing him sweets because, well, the chocolate frogs are really good .)
“Why the long face?” he eventually asks, after Soobin helpfully sighs again once or twice (or maybe ten times - it’s been a long day).
“Well,” is all Soobin can manage before another sigh climbs out of his throat and he buries his entire face in the cushion yet again.
The sound of the knitting sticks thumping against the table also reverbrates in the empty room. Jin scoots over, fingers playing in Soobin’s hair in that calming pattern Soobin has gotten used to, and he feels some of the tension melting out of his body. “Let it all out, Soobinie,” Jin mutters, his voice following the rhythm of the crackling logs, and Soobin finally starts talking.
❇✯❇
Most Christmas stories start in the snow, around a tree blinking with lights and sparkly globes, or with a box larger than you nestled into your arms. Not our story, though.
Our story, like most stories taking place in Hogwarts, starts in the dining hall. (The actual story probably starts on the train leaving platform 9¾, but that sounds much less naratively romantic.) There’s something about food feeding the best of ideas, and something about a never empty glass giving you the needed liquid courage to fulfill them, even when it’s not alcohol that you’re downing.
“So,” Yeonjun says as he plops down next to Soobin at lunch, his arm falling around Soobin’s shoulders like that’s the most natural place for it to rest. Soobin’s so used to it now that he wouldn’t bother fighting against it if not for how incredibly cold Yeonjun’s skin feels against his, so he shrugs him off.
Yeonjun wrinkles his nose and wraps his arm around his neck with gusto, tightening his hold the more Soobin tries to push him off, until Soobin eventually ends up with his head squashed in the crook of Yeonjun’s neck, much warmer than his arm. “So,” Yeonjun pointedly repeats, like he was rudely interrupted but is willing to forgive it out of the goodness of his heart. “Taehyun, have you brought the hat ?”
Taehyun nods sombrely, his hands disappearing into the robe and reappearing just a moment later with a mere beanie. He sets it on the table with both hands, so gently that if Soobin didn’t know Taehyun sneaked it out of Hueningkai’s drawer that very morning, he might think it was an heirloom passed down in his family for centuries.
“And the draws?”
The beanie is peeled open painfully slowly to carefully reveal 5 folded pieces of paper.
“So how does this work?” Beomgyu asks, eyes darting between Soobin and Hueningkai. “Is this like the sorting hat? Do you get the person you’re closest to?”
“Not really, it’s actually random-”
“Sounds like fate to me,” Beomgyu sagely says, eyeing the beanie with a level of respect that was foreign to him just one week ago, when he ripped it off Hueningkai’s head to ruffle his hair and then trap him in a chokehold.
“Who wants to draw first?”
Yeonjun releases Soobin to reach out for the beanie, which Taehyun protectively pulls out of the way. Yeonjun’s lips pull into the face of disgust™, words already pouring out of his mouth in a torrent of, “I can’t believe you, I came up with the idea in the first place-”
“Actually, Huening told us about this ‘Secret Santa’ tradition,” Beomgyu says, air quotes to emphasize the world he draws out like it’s a sacred ritual. “So maybe he should be the first one to-”
Hueningkai, already feeling all eyes on him, rushes to wave the idea away. “It’s really not that important who goes first-”
“Rock, paper, scissors,” Soobin eventually sighs. “Just do rock, paper, scissors.”
“Because it’s dictated by fate ,” Beomgyu whispers, as if the words are a prophecy, and Soobin can only roll his eyes - fondly, because everything Beomgyu does makes everyone fond - and throw out rock at the count of three/ beomgyu wins, and he breaks into the widest smile and a small yelp of surprise that attracts more than a few pairs of eyes, so he follows it up with a whisper-yell of victory that has everyone giggling at the sparkles in his eyes.
Soobin loses and has to wait everyone out as they take forever to pull out their “fated partner” in the form of a non-assuming scrap of paper torn out of Hueningkai’s Potions’ scroll. He doesn’t really mind - this isn’t middle school, where Secret Santa gifts decide your societal status and might even bring you close to your crush, just like in your favourite Barbie movies.
But our story wouldn’t be any fun if this little game weren’t dictated by fate, and so when Soobin reaches out for the last piece of paper, he has no idea that the person he’s supposed to craft a gift for is none other than Yeonjun, whose hand now rests on Soobin’s thigh (it doesn’t phase him anymore) and who’s biting on his lower lip, already strategizing about the gifts he’s going to buy, eyes darting in between all the boy like he’s trying to figure who everyone got and settling on Soobin with a smirk, like he knows .
Soobin feels lke such an open book when it comes to him that Yeonjun just might actually know.
❇✯❇
“You could try knitting,” Jungkook says. He’s come into the Griffindor common room about halfway through Soobin’s sigh-ridden story and quietly sprawled on the couch with his head in Jin’s lap, listening with eyes closed and understanding hums to harmonize with Soobin’s sighs. Jungkook points towards the set Jin abandoned on the table a while ago. “Jin-hyung’s mom gave me a set as a gift last year, but I’ve never actually gotten around to using it.”
Jin slaps the back of his neck - Soobin’s seen them do that to each other so many times that it feels like their version of a hug. “Ya, you could’ve used it to make me a scarf with those magical, good-at-everything hands of yours.”
“I’ve been spending my entire semester crying over Potions, hyung, because not all of us are born with a natural inclination towards that cursed subject-” Jungkook is protesting in the background as Soobin reaches for the forgotten knitting sticks. The weight of them is unfamiliar, and they seem small in his hands - like he’s too clumsy to even hold them, let alone knit something out of the yarn resting in the basket at the foot of the table.
He feels like abandoning the idea altogether and returning to his blank slate of despair, when his memory helpfully supplies that Yeonjun’s hands were cold today. They’re always cold in winter, but Yeonjun always forgets to buy mittens, instead gluing his hands to the back of Soobin’s neck, where the muffler can keep them warm. Soobin eyes the yarn again, touches the blue one carefully, like it could bite him if he wasn’t careful.
“Hyung,” Soobin mutters. It’s enough for Jin and Jungkook to pause their bickering and look at him. “Do you think you could teach me?”
Jin positively beams . “Kook-ah, bring your knitting set. This winter, we’re going to become professionals. ”
❇✯❇
They don’t - become professionals, that is. Jungkook, just like Jin predicted, is amazing at it, finishes a beanie in two evenings - and gets is stolen before he even has a chance to try it on, but it looks great on Jimin, much like everything does, so he only grumbles for a bit before he gets a request for a muffler to match.
This is how Jungkook and Soobin end up sitting side by side in Jin’s room - the only quiet place in the Griffindor tower, secluded at the very top and always clean -, knitting while also attempting to revise for Potions. Multitasking is neither of their strengths, so Soobin ends up having to unravel the last two rows as Jungkook bonks his head against the table.
“I’ve read this paragraph at least three times now,” he groans, voice muffled by the scarf. “Do you think I can make a living out of knitting if I fail this class?” Soobin sizes up the impressive pattern on the muffler (there are Griffindors ) and nods vehemently. Jungkook smiles and points out a stitch Soobin missed, chuckling when a frustrated sigh climbs out of his throat. “Why are you so nervous about this?”
Soobin doesn’t look up from the stitches, determined not to miss any in this row, but he feels the tips of his ears grow warmer. “It’s for Yeonjun-hyung.”
“Exactly. He’s gonna like no matter what you give him,” Jungkook says, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world - and well, it probably is, considering that Yeonjun ate all of the cookies Soobin baked during the lalst winter break, even learned how to use a camera to film himself while doing so. They weren’t terrible cookies (Soobin was actually rather proud of how they ended up), but Yeonjun praised him as if they were the best thing since sliced bread.
That’s the thing about Yeonjun - he’ll see the best in everyone, recognize their attempts and hype them up for trying their best for even the smallest things, like a gravitational field of warmth, and Soobin couldn’t help being pulled in.
“That’s poetic,” Jungkook says, smiles kindly when Soobin clamps a hand over his mouth. “It’s okay, I won’t tell anyone you can wax poetry about crushes - we don’t want the entirety of Hogwarts begging you to write love sonnets for them.”
“Thanks,” Soobin mutters drily. Jungkook just laughs, pats his back reassuringly and points out two more stitches he missed.
Soobin is this close to giving up when Jin eventually returns to his room. He takes a look at the papyrus scrolls, one look at the left mitten that looks more like a beanie, takes in Soobin and Jungkook muttering the name of the ingredients like they’re a chant, and strips of his robe to sit down in front of them and roll the scrolls away. “I’ll quiz you,” Jin says, once again solidifying his place as Soobin’s favourite hyung. (He lets them have a sip of the butterscotch too, and if Soobin wasn’t gone for his best friend, he might have developed a crush on Jin.)
❇✯❇
A story in one-act is boring, which is why Yeonjun, who might as well be a Griffindor judging by how he has all the paintings in the tower wrapped around his finger, shows up in the Griffindor tower without much of a preamble and drapes himself over the armchair Soobin is trying to read in.
“I’m bored~” Yeonjun sing-songs, a finger curling into Soobin’s fringe and pushing the hair in and out of his face. “You’d look really good with blue hair.”
“Thanks for that completely random opinion,” Soobin says, trying to move the book into an angle where Yeonjun’s pink hair doesn’t obstruct his view. The more he wriggles, though, the more he ends up buried under Yeonjun, who takes pleasure in acting like an oversized cat regardless of the chuckles he gets from the other Griffindors. (They’re used to him now, maybe even more wrapped around his pinky than the ghosts and paintings are.)
“Shouldn’t you be studying for your History of Magic quiz?” Soobin asks, closing his book with a defeated sigh.
“I’m almost done revising, but I got bored .”
“So you decided to come all the way to the Griffindor’s tower?”
“So I decided to see you ,” he says, like it’s not the cheesiest thing to say. Soobin is about to point that out, ignoring the warmth flooding the tips of his ears, when Yeonjun points at the couch and says, “That’s so cute!”
Soobin follows his line of sight and stifles a groan of mortification, because right there next to the cushion lies the freshly finished pair of mittens. In Soobin’s defense, he was waiting for Jin and Jungkook to come back from the library and give him constructive criticism (read: hints on how to make them look more like mittens and less like balls of yard) and did not consider the possibility of Yeonjun barging in and seeing them.
“Oh,” Soobin manages. “They’ve been here for a while, I’m surprised you haven’t noticed them before. Someone lost them, I guess, but we’ve asked around and no one has claimed them back.” He wants to pat himself on the back for his quick wit, but holds his breath instead.
Yeonjun’s weight lifts off his lap as he goes to pick them up and slide his hands into the blue mess. He wrigles his fingers, holds his hands up in front of Soobin’s hands like they’re muppets, lips pulled into a childlike smile.
“They’re so cute!” he coos, and Soobin’s heart is a treacherous thing that flips in his chest. “Look, Soobin!” He closes his hand around Soobin’s cheek like the gloves make up an oversized mouth and makes a nom nom sound. Soobin tries to say something about how childish he is over the sound of his chest caving in, expanding over. “Can I have them?” Yeonjun says, turns around to look at the other students in the common room. “They’re not anyone’s, right? I promise to return them if the owner is found.”
The girls giggle, but they nod without giving Soobin away, and he makes a mental note of baking them thank-you cookies. Yeonjun beams and uses his newly gaine weapon to tickle Soobin out of his armchair and into a heap of warmth onto the floor. He never really stood a chance.
❇✯❇
It’s back to the blank slate after that.
Soobin tries everything - him and Hueningkai squeeze together under the Invisible Cloak and sneak into Hogsmade for an impromptu shopping session. Soobin’s plan was simple - get the Nose Biting Teacups for Yeonjun, because he’s a Slytherin deep down to the bone and they’re always sold out around Christmas - and it seemed bulletproof.
Except on the way out, they have to go past Yeonjun, who’s returning from the library, and Hueningkai sneezes right then and there, like it’s out of a drama. Yeonjun, having spent as much time as he did with the boy, reaches out a hand towards the sound and tugs on the cloak.
“So you were going on an adventure without me?” he whispers, one eyebrow arched teasingly. “Where are you sneaking off to?”
And because Hueningkai, bless his soul, can’t lie to save himself, he says, “Hogsmade” before Soobin gets to stop on his feet.
Yeonjun’s eyes light up, all sparkles and excitement, the sort that is so contagious that Soobin finds himself asking, “Do you want to come?” before he can think it through, and when Yeonjun nods so quick he might get a crick in his neck, who is Soobin to take that back?
They end up squished under the cloak that was definitely not meant for three, having to sync up their footsteps and avoid the freshly fallen snow on their way, so as to not leave curious footprints with no owner behind. Yeonjun grips onto their elbows once they’re there, pointing at each and every hut with excited, wriggly fingers and half the stars in his eyes. Hueningkai loves everything (it’s his first time at Hogsmade, and Soobin knows he’ll spill the truth about it to Taehyun and Beomgyu as soon as their back in his excitement to share the magic), and Yeonjun, despite being 3 years older, gasps even more at every little trinket, tapping on Soobin’s arm at the same frequency as the warm buzz in Soobin’s chest.
Soobin is too swept up to think about the Nose Biting Teacups, and Yeonjun buys two whole boxes of them before Soobin can even blink.
❇✯❇
The Saturday two weeks before the exchange finds Soobin and Beomgyu looking up cookie recipes. (Actually, Friday finds Soobin fumbling through the recipe notebook Jin lent him at lunch, and Beomgyu, who was cuddled into his side as he thoughtlessly munched on a tangerine, catches sight of the cookie recipe and digs an elbow into his stomach in his frenzy to point at the recipe and say he’s always wanted to try home-baked cookies.)
“The ones we get at dinner are better-” Soobin says for probably the tenth time as he hands Beomgyu an apron, only for Beomgyu to wave him off.
“Baked cookies are made with love , they have to taste better.”
Soobin smiles, ruffling Beomgyu’s hair. Beyond the yellow sweater and fluffy hair, Beomgyu is a Hufflepuff to the core (Soobin is sometimes struck by how some people fit their house so well), sweet and caring and hell bent on making bear-shaped cookies. It’s fun and only marginally messy, and it reminds Soobin of baking with his mom when he was younger and running around the kitchen with batter on his nose, giggles filling the house.
The kitchen fills with the smell of chocolate chip cookies and laughter, real laughter that makes Soobin’s cheeks hurt with the force of it, that attracts Hoseok to the kitchen because he’s always where happiness is.
“You made cookies!” Hoseok excitedly chants, turning big, questioning eyes onto them.
“You should try one, hyung,” Beomgyu urges. “I made the bear ones!”
Hoseok does, and his eyes go even wider, lips parting in a delighted smile as he pats their shoulders and lets Beomgyu rants about how see, Soobin-hyung didn’t believe me but love does make food better! Soobin doesn’t have it in him to tell them that the secret ingredient is actually rum.
Taehyung and Hueningkai must hear the commotion (or crave sweets, no one will ever know), because they join them in the kitchen. When Beomgyu proudly points to his baby bears, Taehyung’s lips curve into a boxy smile, and Hueningkai’s fists come up in childlike wonder. Something warm thrums in Soobin’s chest, like Christmas came early, hidden in a batch of cookies that seem to work better than happiness spells.
It’s why, when more and more Hufflepuffs gravitate towards the noisy kitchen and Beomgyu introduces his bears to everyone, Soobin doesn’t have it in him to tell anyone that these were supposed to be for Yeonjun. He doesn’t regret it, either - he watches Beomgyu laugh so loudly that he bends over, and figures that this was more than worth it.
❇✯❇
The library is quiet, and as much as Soobin loves hanging out with Jin and Jungkook and witnessing their childish fights (sometimes being dragged in them too, with questions like “Soobin likes mint choco because he has taste , right, Soobin?”), he does actually need to study for the upcoming exams. Whoever set the exam dates for one week before Christmas must have either hated Christmas, snow, or both, because on a perfectly snowy Sunday, Soobin finds himself trapped in the Defense Against the Dark Arts section of the library, stiff in a chair across from Taehyun.
Taehyun looks much more comfortable in the library, like this is where he belongs. A part of Soobin is certain that they wouldn’t be such good friends with Taehyun wasn’t always here when Soobin escaped to the library, a calming presence and always an open shoulder to lean on. Taehyun is keen, but he never oversteps, lets Soobin open up on his own accord, which is sometimes past midnight on a perfectly snowy day.
“Have you found your Christmas gift?”
Taehyun looks up from his Herbology notes and nods. Soobin sighs, burying his head in the pile of papyrus scrolled open atop of each other, like an intricately woven carpet of knowledge he needs to drill through his head. “This has been erally weighing down on you, huh?” Taehyun asks.
Soobin grunts in both confirmation and pain. He feels Taehyun’s hand on his arm, patting it rhythmically. “Yeonjun-hyung is going to love whatever you give him.”
“That’s the problem,” Soobin groans. “I don’t want it to be some average gift - wait.” He snaps to an upright position, eyes squinting. “How did you know I had Yeonjun-hyung?”
“Isn’t that why you’re acting like it’s the end of the world?” Taehyun says, putting on an innocent angel face.
Soobin just sighs and returns to his pouting state, nose buried in old paper and Taehyun’s hand placatingly on his shoulder. “Do you think hyung knows too?”
Taehyun shrugs. “Who knows?”
That doesn’t really set Soobin at ease, neither does it give him any idea of what present he should get Yeonjun, but Taehyun’s hums when he lists an entire catalogue of possible gifts are calming, and Soobin’s grateful for that.
❇✯❇
Exams pass in a frenzy of stress and groans of “I’m going to fail”, even when no one in their group actually does. Soobin would even go as far as to say that he’s done a pretty good job, and he receives a letter from his mother a day after sending home the news that he’s done with warm words and excitement to have him back for the holidays soon. Soobin’s excited to be back home, taste his mother’s pumpkin soup and listen to his sister’s stories about the high school life he’ll never quite have, but before that, he must still figure out what to give Yeonjun, and the slight panic clutching at his heart takes away from the Christmas excitement.
Post-exam celebrations always include sneaking into one of the towers and playing board games until everyone passes out from the laughter and exhaustion, feeling full and warm and bloated from all the snacks. It’s Hueningkai and Taehyun’s first time experiencing the chaos of squeezing themselves in Yeonjun’s room, designed for two but now filled with five, and trying not to wake everyone up with their laughter. It proves to be a real challenge when the game they’re playing is Cards against humanity (everyone was fascinated when Soobin brought it with him from home. It makes Soobin think that sometimes, there’s more magic in the ordinary.)
Everyone passes out sometime past midnight, Beomgyu’s head resting on Hueningkai’s thigh, Hyuka’s own head on Taehyun’s chest, and Taehyun’s head safely on a pillow. It makes draping a blanke over them without suffocating anyone a more difficult challenge than anticipated when you only have two blankets at your disposal, but Soobin and Yeonjun somehow manage in this blanket gymnastics.
Yeonjun holds out his hand for a high five, and when Soobin quietly hits it, Yeonjun weaves his fingers through his and whispers, “Want to go on an adventure?” and really, who is Soobin to say no?
The adventure, it turns out, is grabbing a third blanket and sneaking past the sixth years’ bedrooms (they have to be extremely careful when passing Yoongi’s room, because he’s known to have woken up when a cat meowed two rooms away) to arrive at a door that looks so rusty Soobin is afraid even the slightest breeze would make the hinges groan. He winces when Yeonjun’s hands curls around the knob and presses, but no ear-screeching sound is heard.
“It’s charmed,” Yeonjun whispers with a wink, squeezing Soobin’s hand and dragging him up the staircase that the open door reveals. He seems to know the way by heart, but Soobin has to fish for his wand and light it up to prevent himself from tripping over the uneven steps. “It might be a bit chilly,” Yeonjun warns as they reach a second door, which opens just as easily as the other one, but this time not into a staircase.
No, this door gives way to something resembling a rooftop, covered in a blanket of snow, something that makes Soobin think that Hogwarts is, indeed, magical. Yeonjun pulls him out into the snow, their feet leaving marks in the untouched pile of white, and throws the blanket over both of them as they settle on the stone of the wall.
The stars always shine brighter at Hogwarts, without the cars and the air pollution, but Soobin likes to believe they shine brighter because they’re closer to the stars here. “It never looks like this in the city,” he hums, cuddling into Yeonjun’s side, both for warmth and because it feels right , with a sight that seems so magical, to cling onto what is real and breathing.
“Right?” Yeonjun hums, raising his chin so Soobin can nuzzle his head comfortably in the crook of his neck. “I love coming here - it’s really quiet and sometimes you need that. It’s like my secret place or something.” Yeonjun says is lightly, half a joke, but those words hold a lot of weight, because Yeonjun’s not alone here tonight.
It means a lot more than soobin can put into words.
They stay there for a long time, until Soobin’s hand grows cold in Yeonjun’s. He’s like a burning furnace, his body never running cold despite his hands always being frozen, but panicking when Soobin sneezes and ushering him inside. Soobin’s nose is runny, but he wishes he would’ve stayed more, because as soon as he walks out of that door, it feels like the moment will never come back again.
Yeonjun chides him in a low voice all the way back to his room for staying there without saying he was cold, makes him drink butterscotch as soon as he’s bundled in bed with the blanket all to himself and cuddles him to sleep. Soobin doesn’t get a say - not that he would’ve complained. He really likes being the little spoon.
❇✯❇
Soobin doesn’t catch a cold, despite all of Yeonjun’s fretting, but he does catch an idea, one that has been loitering around in his head with no concrete place to manifest until that night. It’s the main reason why Soobin excuses himself from most story nights and house parties for the next few evenings, instead seeking Namjoon’s company in the library.
“You’re getting really good at this,” Namjoon says on the 20th of December, and Soobin lets out a sigh of relief. “I think you can make it now.”
“Thank you, hyung.”
Namjoon shakes his head like it was nothing, but lets Soobin hug him anyways.
And so, on the evening of December 21st, the story comes to its climax when five boys gather in the dining hall with five bags poorly hidden behind their backs. “It is time,” Beomgyu dramatically says, placing his bag on the table.
“Should we all pass our gifts at the count of three?” Hueningkai suggests, earning a nod from everyone.
It’s maybe the most tense three seconds in Soobin’s life, even more so than the last three seconds of the Potions exam, but when Taehyun says three , he lets go of his bag and receives one from Beomgyu, who’s grinning at him widely. Soobin opens the bag to reveal bear-shaped cookies, a bit clumsy but definitely smelling like rum, and feels something in his chest ache. They taste like home-baked cookies, a bit charred on the corners, and maybe the secret ingredient is love after all.
It’s a mess of thanks and Soobin catching Beomgyu in a bone-crushing hug, and it’s only after he’s released him that Soobin dares steal a glance at Yeonjun.
He’s awfully quiet, holding his gift with two hands, like it’s too fragile to even be put down, lips parted in wonder as he shakes the snowglobe. Inside, a miniature version of him and Soobin are blowing out steam in the frozen starry night, Soobin cuddling into him for warmth on a never-ending loop.
“Uhm,” Soobin says. “I’m not really good at enchanting figures, so Namjoon-hyung helped a little.”
Yeonjun pries his eyes away from the globe, turning that same expression of wonder onto Soobin, and his insides turn to liquid. “It’s so pretty,” Yeonjun more so mouth than says, because the sound that comes out is only a trickle of his voice. “I love it,” he says louder, but still in disbelief.
A weight lifts off Soobin’s shoulders, which sag with relief as he says, “I’m glad.”
Yeonjun keeps staring at it for the rest of the meal, and Soobin feels like there’s something else he should say, but doesn’t know how to.
❇✯❇
“Hyung, are you done packing?”
Yeonjun opens the door. His room is clean, a far cry from Soobin’s, his luggage neatly packed by the door. “Almost,” he hums, returning to his backpack and the snacks laying on his bed. “What do you think, Soobinie, chocolate frogs or the teacups for the train?”
“Frogs,” Soobin automatically says, because he has a weakness for chocolate. Yeonjun throws him a grin and puts the teacups back in his drawer. He picks up a few more trinklets, stuffs them in his backpack for his parents, and then picks up the snowglobe from his bedside table and stares at it.
Soobin feels like he should say something again - like this is another one of those moments that will be over onc he walks out the door, one that he will only be able to capture by making another snowglobe. “Hyung,” he says, holds Yeonjun’s gaze when he turns to look at him. “Thank you for taking me there. It means a lot.”
Yeonjun smiles, half the stars in his eyes, and ruffles Soobin’s hair. The words lodge themselves in Soobin’s throat, because he’s not sure what to say to get this feeling across, is scared that the only words that he can say are going to erase Yeonjun’s smile and that way he looks at him with wonder. He catches the hand that Yeonjun is now running through Soobin’s hair, probably about to say “You’d look great with blue hair” again, and says it before he can lose his guts.
“I like you, hyung.”
And Yeonjun - his smile doesn’t falter. It grows bigger after a second, warm and toothy. “I know, Soobin-ah.”
Soobin blinks, doesn’t exactly drop Yeonjun’s hand because he squeezes it back, but he can feel his mouth opening with no words coming out. “I mean - I like you-”
Yeonjun laughs and does something so Yeonjun that Soobin couldn’t have seen it coming, but really should have. He leans in and presses his lips to Soobin’s, and he’s a few centimeters taller, but right now, Soobin feels small and warmer than after a sip of butterscotch, suddenly highly aware that he has hands and doesn’t know what to do with them.
“I like you too,” Yeonjun says when he pulls away, sending Soobin’s brain in overdrive. He chuckles and pushes Soobin’s chin up to close his mouth, taking a step back to put the snowglobe in his backpack and zip it up. “Come on, we’ll miss the train.”
“Wait-” Soobin’s saying, but it only makes Yeonjun laugh harder. “Hyung, you can’t just-”
“I’m not just ,” Yeonjun protests, shuffling into his jacket. “I was waiting for you to say something for about a year now, Soobin, just is the last word to use for my patience.”
“Oh,” Soobin mouths uselessly. Yeonjun laughs even harder. “What am I supposed to say to that?”
“Say you’ll write to me during the break.”
“I always write to you during the breaks.”
“I know, it’s cute,” Yeonjun grins. It doesn’t even look smug - it just looks excited and cute, and now that the initial shock has passed, Soobin kind of wants to kiss him again, properly. “Come on, we’ll really miss the train,” Yeonjun says, picking up his suitcase and pulling Soobin along with his free hand. He’s wearing the blue mittens.
“They’re really warm,” he says when he sees Soobin staring at them. “You did a great job.”
“You knew?”
Yeonjun grins again, and it’s smuger this time. “You were too flustered about them for you not to somehow be involved. And then Jin-hyung told me.”
“He promised not to,” Soobin pouts.
“I think it’s cute.”
Soobin’s pout deepens. “I’ll knit better ones by next Christmas, just you wait.”
The grin softens into a smile, and Yeonjun pinches Soobin’s cheeks again, dragging him down where the rest of their friends are waiting. Soobin searches knitting tutorials after dinner at home that evening, ignoring his sister when she teases him about his crush showing. All he feels is warm, from good food and hot chocolate and something that wraps around him like love.