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“Jae hyung, have you gotten all your stuff packed? You don’t want to be late to your parents’ house for the fourth Christmas in a row.” Younghyun called out to his roommate in the kitchen, who merely grunted loudly in response. He knew better than to let that man out of his sight when it comes to packing for the holidays, considering the fact that the taller man was prone to last-minute misplacement of important items; Jae had forgotten his passport the previous year, his phone the year before, presents the year before that, and- well, you get the point. Younghyun was fairly determined in not letting Jae or any of the others screw up their holiday plans, as he had nothing better to do.
Any other normal 20-something year old man would return home for Christmas, and Younghyun was no ordinary man. Well, he kind of wished he was, with an ordinary family, but what do you expect from his parents who always preferred going on a cruise for Christmas rather than spend time at home? He did not resent them for that, of course, as he was not the biggest fan of Christmas either. It was too close to his birthday to his liking, having been on the receiving end of ‘birthday/Christmas’ presents since birth, and everyone was forced to socialize for god knows how many hours with relatives and whoever else you’re supposed to invite to a party. So yes, he would much rather focus on getting his roommates home instead of thinking about how alone he would be for the holidays. It would be much more preferable, Younghyun thought sullenly.
“Hyung, have you seen my favourite pair of socks?” Dowoon approached the man lounging in the living room, who shook his head.
“You’re looking for the fuzzy blue ones with the dogs on them, right?” Younghyun asked, to which Dowoon nodded, his eyebrows slightly furrowed together. “Try looking for them in Wonpil’s room, he likes to steal your socks and wear them to bed.”
Dowoon made a disgruntled expression, then begrudgingly headed towards the accused thief’s room to check. Barely a minute later, Wonpil, still in his silk pajamas, stalked out of his room, pointing his index finger towards Younghyun with a frown. “Why did you tell Dowoonie about the socks? I thought you promised to keep that a secret!”
Younghyun merely scoffed and shrugged, unsure of what to say. Wonpil did steal Dowoon’s socks that the latter wanted to wear, and Wonpil stealing Dowoon's socks, in general, was a regular occurrence, so what else was there to discuss? “You told Sungjin hyung about the fuzzy slippers, you’re in no position to argue with me.”
This callback to previous incidents managed to shut Wonpil up for a moment, the younger man attempting to find a loophole in Younghyun’s statement, but he came up with nothing that could be of use. “Okay, you win.” He sank heavily onto the couch next to Younghyun with an exaggerated sigh. “Are you sure you’re gonna be okay alone here? You could come with me, you know, I’m pretty sure my mom likes you way more than she likes me.”
Wonpil was looking at him with his big, doe eyes, the copious amounts of concern and sympathy were practically dripping in his soft voice… Younghyun hated it. He knew that the boys talked amongst themselves about Younghyun’s practically joyless holiday behind his back when they thought he could not hear, so he knew that they were worried about leaving him alone in the apartment they all shared on what was supposed to be the most joyous time of the year. Yeah, it sucked, but it was not like he could really do anything about it even if he wanted to.
“It’s not a big deal, Wonpil, it’s like this every year,” Younghyun spoke emotionlessly, years of carefully constructed words of reassurance that tumbled out of his mouth like a reflex whenever anyone asked about his strange and rather pitiful arrangement. “I’ll be okay; I’ll re-watch Love Actually and get some takeout as Christmas dinner, you don’t need to worry about me.” He shot the dark-haired man a barely convincing smile, which merely made Wonpil respond with an uneasy smile and he did not press on, knowing how Younghyun is when he made his mind up about something.
After all, Younghyun was sure he would be okay as long as he had Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, and the rest of the star-studded cast of the 2003 classic Christmas movie Love, Actually… right?
-
It was 11 pm on Christmas Eve, and Kang Younghyun was sobbing his eyes out as Emma Thompson’s character realizes that her husband played by the late Alan Rickman was cheating on her. He was not quite sure why this scene hurt so bad, as he was happily single and never had been cheated on before in past relationships, but he found himself blowing his nose into a tissue, his shoulders shaking heavily as he continued to let his emotions wash over him like a tidal wave. At this rate, Younghyun was not even sure what caused him to cry this much in the first place, but he had a sneaking suspicion that the movie was not the main contributor to his sadness.
He was crying so much that he did not hear the front door of the apartment being unlocked from outside, and it was only when Sungjin called out his name that Younghyun realized that he was no longer alone in the apartment. As the still-sobbing man glanced at the doorway, he was taken aback by the sight of his four roommates/friends with their luggage, all of them gawking at him as if they had caught him doing something bad. Well, crying over a rom-com alone on Christmas Eve was pretty bad, Younghyun thought in horror, the awkwardness of his current situation sinking in.
“Hey, guys, what are you all doing here?” Younghyun mustered the widest smile he could manage, attempting to ignore his teary eyes and the movie playing in the background. It obviously did not work.
Within seconds, his friends abandoned their stuff and practically rushed to the couch, all of them displaying so much pity towards him that Younghyun began to feel overwhelmed, which caused a fresh batch of tears to fall onto his slightly-reddened cheeks. It was so, so embarrassing to cry this much in front of his friends, and it felt so foreign to be so vulnerable like this but he could not seem to stop.
“Yah, Younghyun-ah, why are you crying?” Sungjin asked, his face full of alarm as he was probably trying to process the fact that his friend was caught crying on the couch. It was the first time he cried in front of Sungjin, in front of any of them, really, so it was no surprise that they did not know what to do with the blubbering mess that was Kang Younghyun.
“Oh, this is a great movie, I used to watch this every year.” Jae pointed at the TV, clearly distracted by whatever scene was playing, and Wonpil smacked him in the arm to bring him back to Younghyun’s current predicament. “Ow- oh, right, Brian. Crying. Yeah, this isn’t good, what happened?”
Younghyun sniffled and glanced at his roommates, still trying to wrap his head around the fact that they were here in the apartment, instead of boarding their trains (and in Jae’s case, an airplane) to return home where their families would be waiting. “I’m just crying over a movie, w- why are you guys still here?”
Dowoon glanced at the others before answering, “We didn’t want to leave you here all by yourself, so… we’re spending Christmas with you!” He grinned, the others nodding along in agreement.
“We know you don’t want to admit it, but you’re sick and tired of being lonely on Christmas every single year, right?” Sungjin deduced, and the silence from Younghyun gave a definitive answer, despite the latter being a bit too prideful than to accept that the little void in his heart during the holidays was due to loneliness. “So this year, you’ll have us!”
“But… what about your families? I doubt they’d want to miss Christmas with you guys, especially yours, Jae hyung, since they live so far away…” Younghyun trailed off, already starting to feel bad for them, having to miss out on their family gatherings just to keep him company for Christmas.
Jae scrunched his nose, waving Younghyun’s concerns away with a ‘pffft’ noise. “Please, I think we can all agree that not having nosy aunties asking us about girlfriends and whatever is a considerably brilliant excuse to stay.”
“Plus,” Wonpil began, nudging Younghyun’s shoulder with his own in an almost conspiratorial way, sending a bright smile towards the other man. “Who says you’re not family too?”