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“Dongiya did the tooth fairy costume. It’s your turn.” Jinwhan shook the white-fur-trimmed red jacket at Hanbin.
“Why can’t Yunhyeong hyung do it?”
Bobby grimaced. “Because he did it last Christmas, and they ate so many cookies, she puked all over his boots.”
Hanbin eyed the black boots sitting beside the costume box.
“We got new ones.”
Jinwhan tossed the jacket at him. “Stop being so difficult.”
“Junhoe then.”
“He took her caroling, and they ended up screaming ‘Jingle Bells’ at people ‘till she lost her voice,” Bobby laughed. “We can’t trust him as Santa.”
“Chan—“
“No!”
Hanbin faced his two best friends; one, annoyed, with his arms crossed and a white beard dangling from his little finger, and one smirking at him from the couch.
“Fine. Give me the beard. And this gets me out of having to do anything for Easter.”
Jinwhan reassured him. “Don’t worry. Easter is Bobby’s thing.”
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Hanbin crept into the living room where the tree was, a sack of gifts over his shoulder, and an itchy beard on his face. At least someone left the tree lights on, or he’d be stumbling around in the dark at midnight.
He dumped the bag in front of the tree, and immediately reached up to tug the beard down. Damn thing was more annoying than a face mask. He scratched his cheeks, while he cursed his best friends.
This was ridiculous. Last year wasn’t this bad. He and the other guys just had to be at his niece’s beck and call all day, which didn’t amount to much more than playing some games and sneaking her treats, while watching Frozen a million times (actually, Donghyuk really enjoyed himself).
Both her Ra-On cousins had come over, and the three of them got into enough trouble to keep the uncles hopping, but it wasn’t anything too out of the ordinary. Not like wearing a fat suit and a beard made out of nylon that smelled like mothballs. And Ji Woo wasn’t even awake to see it.
“Santa?”
Hanbin froze. Well, shit.
He quickly yanked the beard back up. Thank god his back was to the room.
He pasted a smile on his face and turned around.
“Ho ho ho, little Ji Woo! What are you doing out of bed? That’s very naughty!”
Seriously. What was she doing up? Hanbin felt flop sweat trickle down his back. And he was just complaining she wasn’t awake to see him. He wished he could take that back.
Ji Woo sleepily staggered further into the room, dragging her Pooh bear behind her. She stopped in front of him and peered closely.
“Uncle Bin, why are you in Santa’s suit?”
Double shit.
“How did you know it was me?”
Exasperated, he yanked the beard off again. He probably should have denied it, but he knew his niece — she was too smart to fall for it.
She pointed at his face. “Your nose. It’s as famous as you are.”
Hanbin couldn’t help but touch it. What was with people and his nose, anyway?
“Plus, Santa only comes when I’m asleep. And since I’m awake....” She shrugged. “It couldn’t be Santa.”
He couldn’t fault that logic, even though he wanted to.
He put his hands on his hips. “Why are you awake, anyway?”
Dramatic as ever, she sang, “The sky’s awake, so I’m awake!”
“Nope. Not buying that line.”
Ji Woo tried the truth. “I woke up and wanted to see if Santa came yet. Why are you dressed in his suit?”
Jinhwan was gonna kill him.
“Uh, he, um, got super busy, and was afraid he couldn’t get to every house. And when I, um, saw him outside, I offered to deliver my favorite girl’s presents to her, so he could get going.”
Ji Woo just stared at him.
“And he said that....uh, ‘helpers’ had to wear a suit, so he let me borrow one. So yeah, here I am!”
The flop sweat was now under his armpits.
Ji Woo seemed to believe him, and tried to peek around him into the sack. Hanbin cleared his throat.
“Uncle Bin wants to live to see New Year’s, so let’s not tell your Papa that I was here helping, okay? He might not understand.” He winked, but instead of it looking jolly, it looked desperate.
Ji Woo thought about it.
“Gimme that present on top, and I’ll forget you were here.”
“Deal. And let’s raid the cookies while we’re at it. Just don’t puke on my boots.”
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