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This Christmas, Junhui had decided, would be the best one ever. Not perfect, by most people’s standards (particularly not his friends, because god knows Minghao and Seungcheol especially had very clear images of the perfect Christmas and none of them included a turkey stuffed with shrimp and tiny plastic frogs wearing Santa hats in every nook and cranny of the house), but the kind of wild and fun and warm Christmas that people remember fondly for the rest of their lives.
It started, technically, on Christmas Eve, when his closest friends had appeared on his and Wonwoo’s shared doorstep. Mingyu first, carrying an armload of kitchen equipment and looking as determined as an Olympic athlete. Seungcheol followed shortly after bringing with him several bulging canvas bags full of food and presents, as well as what Junhui managed to identify as Joshua once the huge pile of gifts and Tupperware had been removed from his arms.
The others trickled in over the course of the afternoon, bearing snacks and gifts and little overnight bags, prepared for two full days of holing up inside the apartment against the bitter December winds buffeting the building and the threat of snow and rain that the weather forecast had predicted. Jihoon had made a beeline for the Bluetooth speakers as soon as he’d dropped his pile of Christmas presents under the tree, batting away Soonyoung’s hands as he defended his Spotify from being assaulted with slutty club remixes of Christmas pop songs.
It didn’t take long for the alcohol to start flowing, and with it came the legion of bad decisions that Junhui loved to encourage under his roof.
Besides, Wonwoo had already hidden anything fragile or flammable, so they’d have no repeats of the Molotov Incident.
Seungkwan had immediately hooked up the karaoke machine and had drawn Seokmin into a rousing rendition of some trot song that Junhui had no chance of identifying, and the entire apartment was full of raucous laughter and the smell of mulled spices. It had taken Junhui an entire week of preparations with occasional assistance from Wonwoo (when he could be dragged away from his computer and persuaded into helping to hang up wonky Christmas lights and neon-coloured tinsel), but the place felt perfect - exactly as Junhui had envisioned it.
Minghao was wandering around their apartment, appraising the decor with an expression drifting somewhere between vague amusement and thinly-veiled disgust. As he stopped by the doorway into Junhui’s room, he looked up and stared in disbelief. Catching hold of Junhui’s arm as he walked past, Minghao pointed at the offending item.
“...What the hell is that?”
Junhui shrugged. “I couldn’t find any mistletoe in the store.”
Minghao stared at him incredulously. “But you had a plastic frog and a small toy missile to hand?”
“Of course. I’m a man of culture.” Junhui grinned.
At that moment, Soonyoung walked past the pair of them and looked up to see what they were commenting on. He nodded approvingly. “Missile-toad. Nice.”
With that, he rocked up onto his toes and kissed Junhui lightly on the cheek.
The rest of Christmas Eve passed as all good evenings with friends should - pleasantly drunk and playing board games until everything devolved into a series of shouting matches. It was impossible to avoid that outcome when they played games together - too many of them were far too competitive, and Jeonghan was incapable of participating in any game without cheating so flagrantly that the entire table decided to band against him. It was tradition at this point.
When everyone was thoroughly pissed and full of good food, Junhui decided that it was time to break out the sea of air-beds and duvets so that they could, in his words, “huddle together for warmth like penguins”. When Chan suggested that they could just turn the heating on, he was shushed with a series of blankets being slowly piled on top of his head until all that could be seen of him were the ankles of his pyjama pants and his feet.
Seokmin, ever the cuddler, began dragging people into a pile around him, sparing only those who were fast enough to escape from his grasp. Mingyu, Seungcheol, and Vernon were the first to fall prey to his octopus arms, but none of them showed any real resistance. Jihoon and Minghao took up positions as far away from the main lump of bodies as they could, while Wonwoo slipped away into his own bedroom and Jeonghan and Joshua claimed Junhui’s room for themselves. Seungkwan made exaggerated noises of protest as he was aggressively snuggled by Soonyoung, only stopping when he managed to ensnare Chan as well. Junhui smiled at the bundle of people on his living room floor, and dove into the middle.
Everything was going exactly as he had hoped.
~
Christmas morning broke with the sound of Junhui’s alarm obnoxiously blaring ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’ by Slade at full volume through their Bluetooth speakers. Junhui ducked through the barrage of pillows that were thrown at his head as he switched on the coffee machine and began boiling the kettle, cheerfully turning up the music until the zombie-like figures of his friends shuffled out of their den of blankets and pillows and began bickering over access to showers, toilets, and coffee.
It took two full hours before everyone was clean and sitting in a close circle in the living room, cups of tea and coffee tucked into chilly hands and all sporting some form of sweatpants or pyjamas. Junhui had made it explicitly clear - outside clothes were officially banned in their home on Christmas day. No one had put up a fight about that; the only situation that could possibly have persuaded any of them to brave the icy December weather would be if they somehow managed to run out of alcohol.
Seungcheol, as the self-appointed father figure of the group, took his place by the Christmas tree to distribute the presents. Before long, there was a small mountain of wrapping paper in the centre of the room and the gifts were all having their desired effect. Seungcheol was staring tiredly at a pair of slippers shaped like Rudolph complete with a flashing red LED on the toe (thank you Soonyoung) and sipping coffee from a “World’s Best Dad” mug (thank you Chan). Jihoon had already begun playing the ukulele he’d been gifted (thank you Minghao) and was resolutely ignoring the shouted requests for Christmas pop songs (Seungkwan) and children’s songs (Seokmin).
Junhui himself had already donned the jumper he’d been given by Vernon, decorated in a Hawaiian-style pattern with dozens of little surfboarding Santas emblazoned across it, and was figuring out how to hook up the dance mat from Jeonghan and Joshua to their television with the help of Wonwoo (who had not been successful in his attempts to sneak away to his bedroom upon receipt of a new pair of headphones - thank you Mingyu).
“Hyung, I think something might be burning.” Vernon said offhandedly, tilting his head in Mingyu’s direction.
Mingyu, as the person who had taken on the title of chef for the holiday, jumped up and ran to the kitchen as quickly as his legs would carry him, managing to take out a small inflatable Santa as he went. There was a screech of dismay followed quickly by a plume of smoke billowing through the doorway, and the rest of the group scrambled after him to make sure that everything was alright.
When they entered the kitchen, Mingyu was looking forlornly at a baking tray full of tiny blackened lumps. He pouted down at the offending items, holding out the remnants of his brussel sprout experiment for the others to observe.
“I just wanted to make them a little more interesting.” He poked at one with a spatula, and it immediately crumbled into dust.
Soonyoung bounded forward, patting Mingyu on the arm comfortingly and snatching the spatula from his hand. “Don’t worry, Mingyu-ah, I’m sure they’re still perfectly edible.” With that, he scooped up one of the balls of brussel sprout dust and popped it into his mouth.
To his credit, while he didn’t manage to cheer Mingyu up by still eating the burnt remains, he did manage to make the entire assembled company burst into peals of unrestrained laughter at his attempts to maintain a positive expression. When he finally managed to swallow, Soonyoung smiled wide enough to reveal teeth and gums stained black by ash, starting the laughter all over again.
The sprouts were quietly disposed of while Mingyu was distracted.
Under Mingyu’s now-refocused watchful eyes, the final preparations for Christmas dinner went off without a hitch. Junhui, Seokmin, and Vernon found themselves banished from the kitchen and instead were told to focus on laying the table and setting out all of the food and drinks as they were completed.
Junhui had no issue with this. He had a vision already in mind.
~
The dinner table was exactly as Junhui had envisioned it. It was a real-life Mad Hatter’s tea party, covered in mis-matched plates, bowls, and cutlery, with a chaotic mix of wine glasses, plastic cups, and mugs full of a variety of drinks (both alcoholic and not). There hadn’t been enough plates and trays for all of the food that they had prepared, so the vegetables sat in a huge plastic mixing bowl and there was cranberry sauce in a cracked milk-jug.
Everyone dove into the mountains of food as soon as they were seated, sending compliments in Mingyu’s direction. Mingyu, for his part, looked incredibly pleased with himself as the dishes he’d been slaving over were quickly demolished. It was the quietest it had been all day, as everyone paused their conversations to shovel food into their mouths and make contented noises of appreciation.
After about half an hour, Junhui stood in his position at the head of the table and cleared his throat loudly, tapping his plastic spoon against the enormous mug holding his mulled wine. “Everybody! It’s time to take a break from the food so we can pull our Christmas crackers!”
There was a momentary kerfuffle as brief arguments broke out over how best to pull the crackers, but eventually everyone had a cracker in each hand with their arms crossed over their chests, forming a giant cracker-circle. Junhui looked incredibly proud of himself - he’d made the crackers himself, and even if the ‘pop’ was a little lacklustre the reactions to the treats inside weren’t.
Each cracker contained a slightly misshapen paper crown (carefully constructed by Junhui at 3am, hands shaking with residual energy from the 2 double espressos he had chugged to get everything ready) and a small slip of paper, but the real gift came in the form of the thirteen matching silver rings cradled carefully in each of their hands. Junhui smiled round at the assembled party, the family that he had chosen.
“I just wanted us to have something to keep us together. Now we’ll all match, and we can be together even if we’re apart.”
There were sniffles and a collection of distinctly misty eyes looking at him from around the dinner table, and he grinned even wider. “But don’t get too sappy. Have a look at the papers.”
Each of them looked down at the pieces of paper that had fallen from their crackers. There was a smattering of laughter.
Jihoon’s ears started burning red. “Dare: perform aegyo every time you need someone to pass something for the rest of dinner.”
There was a chorus of hysterical laughter as Jihoon’s blush spread from his ears across his cheeks and down his neck.
Junhui clapped his hands delightedly. “I’m so glad you got that one!”
Chan stared at his paper in disbelief. “Dare: fit as many vegetables into your mouth as you can in 30 seconds.”
Jeonghan cackled and smiled evilly at him. “Come on then, Channie, you have to complete the dare.”
Chan looked around at his hyungs, hoping desperately that one of them would step in and save him, but they all looked far too amused by his suffering to step in and help. He sighed, took a deep breath, and began shovelling vegetables into his mouth at an alarming rate.
“Aw, you look like a little hamster!” Seungcheol cooed as Chan’s cheeks began to bulge.
“I’ve never seen a hamster with a mullet before.” Seungkwan teased.
Chan choked at that, sending chunks of roasted vegetable flying and splattering onto the tablecloth. There was a beat of silence. Then the laughter started. Seokmin cackled so hysterically that he tilted backwards on his chair, tipping back onto two legs. Joshua and Jeonghan, on either side of him, saw the disaster about to happen and decided to simply watch the chaos unfold.
Seokmin tried to catch onto the edge of the table to save himself from tumbling backwards, but it was too late. His desperate flailing just managed to catch the edge of his plate, flipping it off the table and onto his lap. By the time he hit the floor, his thighs were covered in mashed potato and gravy and there were bits of turkey that had somehow ended up in his hair.
There was a chorus of bangs as all around the table people began slapping the table in their hysterics, collapsing against each other as Seokmin stood and brushed himself off, laughing so hard at his own calamity that there were tears running down his face.
All in all, everything had worked out exactly as Junhui had planned.
By the time they had cleared up the debris from the cracker dares (including the remnants of the bread rolls that Junhui himself had been challenged to juggle) and tidied everything into the kitchen, evening was already encroaching on their perfect day. Minghao and Joshua took control of preparing a round of hot chocolates, each piled high with cream and marshmallows. The group returned to their pile of mattresses, blankets, and duvets, hot drinks in hand and ready to settle in for a marathon of cheesy Christmas movies on Netflix.
By the end of the first one, half the group was fast asleep, and only took half of the next for the rest of them to drift off.
The last one left awake was Junhui.
Junhui looked around at the pile of snoring, snuffling bodies wrapped in mountains of blankets surrounding him and knew that he’d achieved his goal. The best Christmas ever, one his friends would always remember.
~
He doesn’t make it to Valentine’s Day.
Junhui is rushed to hospital, accompanied by a panicked and frightened Wonwoo who had found him on the floor of their shared bathroom unmoving and unresponsive. As soon as the hospital staff had taken Junhui into their care and ushered Wonwoo out into the waiting area, he’d made a round of calls that became increasingly distressed as they went on. It took less than an hour for the entire group to assemble at the hospital.
Junhui is pronounced dead six hours later, to a group of twelve exhausted and terrified young men who have not moved since their arrival. Seokmin is the first to break into heaving, bone-shattering sobs.
They are told, by a doctor startled that none of them were aware, that by the time they'd found the tumor, it was too late. They’d given him around six months.
That had been in September.
The next Christmas is quiet, uneventful, and unmemorable.