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The series against CJ Entus Blaze goes pretty well, all things considered. It’s a 2-0 and only Gwangjin dies in the first series and even if the second series takes over fifty minutes, a win is a win.
They’re backstage and packing up to go home while the staff prepares for Samsung Blue and Incredible Miracle 2 to get onstage for their series when someone runs up to them, out of breath, and with a cardboard box in hand.
“Wait,” she pants, adjusting the box in her arms before it falls apart. It jingles suspiciously and Sanghyeok narrows his eyes as Blaze’s roster, Cpt Jack’s face hidden in his hands while Lustboy laughs at him and Flame argues with Ambition over…something, passes by.
Byounghoon, halfway through shouldering his jacket on, pauses, eyes straying to the box. They linger there for a moment before he huffs, exchanging a look with Jeonggyun, who laughs and Jeonghyeon sighs.
“Oh, no,” he mutters under his breath.
The staff member shoves the box into Sanghyeok’s hands, pulling out a wrinkled sheet of paper—two, actually, stapled together with a single staple that looks about a single bad wind away from being torn out of the worn paper. “We need you to film something for us really quick. Just a Christmas skit.”
Eonyoung takes the script, Gwangjin and Seongwoong immediately leaning to look over his shoulders at it and Sanghyeok glances down at the cardboard box in his arms.
There’s a mass of red fabric inside, glittering in the yellow-ish fluorescent lights, broken up by masses of something fluffy and white and the occasional green or gold.
Sanghyeok reaches inside, taking out a pair of cheerfully sparkly antlers and he has to resist the urge to sigh too.
Eonyoung and Gwangjin gleefully steal the box from Sanghyeok’s hands, emptying out the contents onto a nearby plastic chair. Beneath five Santa costumes—though one’s missing a belt—is a variety of mittens, headbands, and scarves, one of which is an obnoxiously eye-catching gold.
It looks more like tinsel than anything, but Gwangjin happily takes it, twisted around a fluffy red scarf and draping it over his shoulders.
There’s a single beard in the entire box and Eonyoung plops it down in Sanghyeok’s hands. “You have to be Santa,” he says, adding what looks like a large bag dangling from a cord.
Wordlessly, Sanghyeok stares at it for a few seconds.
From the side, Jeonghyeon lazily raises a hand. “Ho, ho, ho,” he says tiredly.
“Come on, hyung,” Seongwoong says, playing with the ear flaps of a light brown bear hat, “you have to cheer up for the Christmas spirit!”
“It’s December seventh,” Jeonghyeon replies, but he doesn’t protest beyond a fond eye roll when Gwangjin shoves a green hat on top of his head, the bell dangling from the thick ribbon of the side jingling with the movement.
Sanghyeok doesn’t move to put the beard on yet. “What are we supposed to do again?”
“Uh, good question,” Eonyoung says, picking up the discarded script and squinting at it. “We’re just supposed to say something and film some random clips so they can put it together.” He scans the sheet, face brightening when he evidently spots their section. There’s a beat. Then he bursts into laughter, turning the paper around.
“We wish you a great time with your boyfriend or girlfriend,” Sanghyeok reads aloud. He looks up incredulously. “Really?”
Eonyoung shrugs. “Hey, we might not have girlfriends, but maybe other people do.”
Gwangjin barks out a laugh. “What, League players?”
“To be fair, not everyone’s sold their soul,” Jeonghyeon points out. “But also doesn’t Gyeonghwan have a girlfriend? I see him text her sometimes.”
Gwangjin waves him off. “We’re not all MaRin,” he dismisses.
“Or Ambition,” Eonyoung points out.
“Or Ambition,” Gwangjin agrees.
Jeonggyun pokes his head into the room before the conversation can keep going. “OGN told me to tell you to just change in the bathrooms,” is all he says, mouth ticking up at the corners as he takes in the sparkly headbands and laid out Santa costumes draped over chairs. “Try to finish quickly, we still need to go over the VOD.”
“Why are my legs so cold,” Gwangjin complains, even as he does an experimental spin, edges of his skirt flaring out.
“I can’t believe you convinced me to join you,” Jeonghyeon says, looking down at himself and his matching costume, brushing the bell out of his face.
Eonyoung shrugs. “Not our fault you wanted to wear the entire outfit. Hyung, help me put this on.” Seongwoong takes the ribbon Eonyoung holds up, tied into a bow and with its own little bell hanging from it, and complies, tying it around Eonyoung’s neck.
Sanghyeok, also standing there relatively comfortably with his own pair of black pants, can’t help but smile smugly beneath the privacy of the massive white beard on his face.
Gwangjin still notices and lightly punches the sack dangling from Sanghyeok’s hands in retaliation. Eonyoung gasps in mock offense as Sanghyeok jerks it away. “You punched Santa’s presents for you?”
Seongwoong stifles a laugh, trying to pitch his voice into something stern. “Shame on you.”
They push open the door, Byounghoon already with the camera ready on the tripod. At the sight of them, he laughs, gently tapping the bell hanging from Jeonghyeon’s hat when he passes by. “Ready?”
Jeonghyeon shakes his head lightly and the bell rings again. “Shouldn’t OGN be filming this?” He ignores Gwangjin, batting at it, the bell chiming away.
Byounghoon shrugs, just taking his place behind the camera. “Might as well. Now get in position.”
Surprisingly, filming doesn’t take too long, but maybe that’s a testament to how often they’ve had to do stuff like this. They really only have to restart twice, once because Seongwoong couldn’t stop laughing and once because Sanghyeok forgot the lines—this is why he likes the videos where he just has to stand there with a blank face—but they get through it.
Immediately, Jeonghyeon tugs himself free from Eonyoung, escaping behind Byounghoon who looks like he’s about three seconds from laughing.
“See, that wasn’t that bad,” Eonyoung says, putting his hands on his hips, the bell at his throat tinkling softly.
“That was terrible and I’m still cold,” Jeonghyeon deadpans back, taking the hat off his head and dumping it back in the cardboard box. “Are we done?”
“Don’t we still have to shoot some extra filler clips?” Sanghyeok toys with his bag, letting it knock against his legs, looking between the camera, still blinking, and Eonyoung, who lets his eyes stray up to the ceiling as he thinks.
Byounghoon leans down, checking the camera. “There’s a few extra seconds of you waving, which should work?”
“Well, I’m done then,” Jeonghyeon says, rapidly disappearing back into the bathroom, the sound of Gwangjin’s laughter chasing him.
“What do we even do for the extra seconds though,” Seongwoong says, the corners of his mouth ticking up as Gwangjin clings to his arm tighter.
Byounghoon tilts the camera towards them with a laugh. “That, actually. That works.” Then he pauses, considering. “You could also do, like, a heart or something.”
“Ah…” Seongwoong says, but that grin is already spreading over Gwangjin’s face, and he tugs on Seongwoong’s arm.
“Do it,” he says. “Come on, it would be funny.”
Sanghyeok takes the beard off his head, dropping it into Seongwoong’s hands with a matching smile on his face. “Now, you’re Santa.”
Eonyoung immediately follows that up by stealing the bear hat, shoving his own onto Seongwoong’s head and Seongwoong sighs, pouting a little.
“Fine.”