Chapter Text
You weren’t really sure what to expect from a winter in Seoul. It was hard to tell from dramas how cold it got, although pictures of idols and celebrities made it obvious that the weather was indeed cold. The thing was that there was never any snow, so it was hard to tell if it got cold enough for snow but there wasn’t any, or if Seoul just didn’t get as cold as you thought it would. In your first winter, you learned that, yes it was really quite cold in Seoul, you hated the wind, and you were glad that it didn’t get as cold as it could be.
That was also the year that you adopted Namjoon and cemented the fact that Seoul and South Korea would be your new home for several years to come; you'll have to get used to it. And invest in a really good scarf. Several scarves, because Namjoon had a habit of losing his. That was something you would learn the following year, since Namjoon didn’t come into your life until the tail end of winter, when the weather argued with itself whether it wanted to warm up for spring or prolong the frigidity of winter. You were also still debating if a kid was something you wanted in your life, and Namjoon didn’t leave the house often enough to lose his scarf in the first place, so you still had some things to learn.
This year, you’ve bought at least five different scarves for your absent-minded charge, six pairs of gloves, and at least another three hats. Thankfully, his coat is too big to lose otherwise you would consider putting a lock on the zipper and deal with the consequences later. Still, your kid was good, thoughtful and well-behaved, and you enjoyed spending time with him as much as you had earlier in the year when you first brought him home. He was intelligent and inquisitive and you didn’t have trouble indulging him when you could, which was more often than not. You had worries that he would get spoiled, but liked the idea of being able to. Namjoon was not the type of kid to get a big head and fly off the rails. He didn’t take your kindness and care for granted, even if he was all of seven years old.
“Can we celebrate Christmas?” Namjoon asked one evening after dinner. You didn’t pause in cleaning up the kitchen, but you didn’t answer him right away. Last year, you celebrated Christmas alone, with a brief video chat to your family back home and a slightly expensive dinner because you had disposable income and decided you deserved something nice. You weren’t planning to do anything much different this year. Christmas was mostly celebrated by couples as a sort of date night in South Korea.
“What did you want to do?”
“Can we decorate and cook and invite Yoongi-hyung and have presents?” You laughed at Namjoon’s enthusiasm, unsurprised that the big idea was having his friend over and getting presents. Namjoon had recently taken to watching Santa movies.
“You’ll have to check with Yoongi’s parents first, but yes, to all of it. You just want to decorate inside, or did you want to do our door too?”
“We can do the door?!”
“I’ll assume that’s a yes then,” you grin at him, turning off the water and drying your hands on a towel. “So, tell me what you want to do and we can go shopping over the weekend.”