✌: Our muses argue over which Christmas movie to watch. 

-They have to watch Love Actually. 

It’s a classic, Sana mentions. The cast is outstanding and all very talented. There are ten different stories that are all interconnected at the end. The themes vary from story to story but the resolution leaves viewers feeling satisfied and warm inside. Isn’t that the point of the holidays?

-Well, Hari interjects. Nightmare Before Christmas is even more of a classic.

The movie does not lack in romance even if there’s only one story as opposed to ten. The musical score of the movie is also astounding. As far as unconventional Christmas stories goes, this is one of the best. It isn’t every day the dark fantasy genre can be heartwarming.

-The animation is outdated and creepy! We’re watching Love Actually, unnie.

-We’re not.

-We are.

-We are not.

A DVD is popped into the player. The two of them relax back into the couch– one is comfier than the other, of course. Hari sips on her drink when the scene opens and reveals an airport setting. 

✘: My muse runs into your muse while trying to buy them a Christmas present. 

Hari had the worst luck.

UNLUCKY THING 01: The one person who shouldn’t be here was actually in front of her and waving at her no less. ( She made the mistake of waving back so there was no way she could pretend she didn’t see him or didn’t recognize him. ) He definitely treated her wave as a signal to proceed forward. 

UNLUCKY THING 02: The bag the store gave her wasn’t very forgiving in terms of what it showed; in fact, the thing was as transparent as possible. The only exception was the area behind the logo. 

UNLUCKY THING 03: Had she only had one item, it’d be easier to pass it off as anything else other than his Christmas present. But she had multiple, multiple items that were all for him in that bag. 

She placed the bag behind her back nonchalantly. 

“I’m meeting a friend right now. Right at this moment. I can’t talk long. I’m sorry. I have to go now. Bye.” 

She walked backwards with one hand holding the big bag, and the other continuously waved at him. 

The fact that Hari was decorating the door of her and Seungyoun’s dorm wasn’t an invitation for people to mess with her, and ruin her concentration. Her concentration was a fragile matter, as was her patience with arts and crafts projects. She lacked the finer touches and tolerance for trial and error when it came to art but she always liked at least try. 

The ribbon she tried to put up, along with the garland, all fell to the ground. Gravity was no friend of hers when it unraveled the bow she worked hard to put together. It took her a minute to place the voice to a name, but when it finally clicked together she frowned. 

[ @advjaehyun ]

( Did she hear him right? She looked at her caller ID again to double check. Yep… This was definitely her tutor. )

“Jaehyun… Did you really call to ask me if my eyes can ‘see through the false pret–pretenses of smiles and the truth in the melodies of unspoken words’?”

( Hari-yah. He actually called her Hari-yah. She was certain this was a joke– Or maybe an impromptu test of her listening comprehension. She wouldn’t put it past him to pull something like this. He was somebody who taught by the book but his ambitions are unparalleled; she didn’t like to underestimate him. )

“Yes, I do see plenty. I’ll see you tomorrow too during our lesson.”

( She gets an earful of how people’s views are shallow. Either they see only what they want to see. 

“I had to wonder if men were so blinded by beauty that they would feel privileged to live their lives with an actual demon, so long as it was a beautiful demon,” he said. It was 2:00 AM on a Sunday night. It was far from being the right time to hear this type of philosophy as a test. )

“Jaehyun. Go to bed. Drink water please.”

( He asked for her to stay on the phone with him. She pinched the bridge of her nose now that he hammered in the realization that this was really not a test. )

[ @advxjongkook ]

They reminded Hari of herself. 

Not in the way that they wore clothes braved wear and tear well beyond their capacity. Nor the way their pockets probably only had a few wads of cash in them at a time. But the way that their eyes kept close watch of others, questioning the motives of anybody who got close to them. Even in a church that handed out free food, drinks, clothes to people who endured the long line of fellow homeless people.

With how some people weaved through the venue, grabbing exactly what they needed, then swiftly left signaled a deeply embedded familiarity. It brought her back. In order to get by with very little in your possession, you had to know how to make the most of the system ( and of people’s compassion ). 

Some people came up to her with their palms out already. Any hesitancy from her part only made the people wave their hands at her to tell her to hurry it up.

She sighed and feigned a smile whenever she glanced at the detective’s way. Among the entire crowd, the ones who were like her weren’t many, so she hoped he still found this experience fulfilling. 

⤿ drabble prompts

“Noona…” She tucked her embarrassment behind a wavering smile.

She held off on correcting him for a few reasons. She missed the first opportunity to do so, because she didn’t catch him calling her dongsaeng. She wanted to avoid seeing a kicked puppy reaction. She didn’t want to ruin a good thing they had going. Being doted on was nice, and biting the hand that was nice to her seemed terribly rude. 

( Yet it only dawned on her now that lying to him all this time was equally rude. )

⤿ drabble prompts

Her earnest argument bounced right off him once again.

“I. Really. Did.” Each word had an extra amount of stress behind them so she could get her point across. But given the napping cat nearby she kept her voice hushed for its sake.

“I.” She pointed to herself with both index fingers.

“Hit three.” Three fingers were held up clearly in front of him.

“Strikes.” Her hands paused in the air for a second or two. There wasn’t really a gesture she could act out for that one. The wrinkles rippled across her forehead as she gave it more thought, but nothing came to her. 

Short of actually attempting to hit another turkey in a bowling game, she didn’t know what else she could do to convince him. She didn’t have much to her name outside of small accomplishments like that one, but her pride wouldn’t take much damage if he didn’t believe her. The cat with the black patches over its yellow fur had given her its love and that was more than enough. She couldn’t feel anything but content ever since the cat made her lap its bed.

⤿ drabble prompts

Coming from not celebrating her birthday at all for a few years straight, it’s jarring to encounter the polar opposite experience like this.He’s a persistent one, she notes, but also rather thoughtful. The strange mixture can only make her smile at the sincerity at it all. He came with a wholesome intent and a single selfless inquiry of what she wanted for her birthday. And yet she still couldn’t stop herself from looking for the hidden motives behind it all. She searched through the so-called windows to his soul for stains and cracks of any kind, but couldn’t get past how undoubtedly kind they felt. 

That was when she started sinking into her own guilt and felt it filling her lungs. She asked herself if he’d come back for a favor down the line, or would use this opportunity to make unwarranted moves on her. The imaginary possibilities she constructed topple over as the tides pull them all apart, grain by grain. Yixing is a person who reached out to her with kindness, without prompt and without reason. She reminds herself that she shouldn’t perverse his Good Samaritan nature just because others exploited her trust.

Though she turned down the offer for getting her a present, she accepts the hug. Nothing extraordinary happens. They come together; they hug; they separate. Everything remains normal with a capital “N,” and she can’t be more grateful or happier about it.