#got7holiday

“Jaebum,” you whined, standing in front of him again and tugging on his wrist. He shook his head, the dazed look faded from his eyes, and you repeated: “I have an idea!”

“What?” he said, tugging his wrist from your hands and wiping at his eyes, as though he’d been sleeping. His cheeks, you noticed, were tinged slightly pink. Your heart grew heavy in your chest, but you pushed it aside. Heavy hearts and sad thoughts were for another time - tis’ the season, or whatever. You were determined to be...jolly.

Well...jolly-ish. 

“I have an idea!” you said again.

“Well...that can’t be good,” he said, smirking at you. Here he is, you thought, your Jaebum. How could one person be so different depending on who he was with? Su-Bin brought out the pathetic, needy, clingy Jaebum. The Jaebum that followed her around like a puppy dog and who hid away in his house for three days after the breakup. But with you...Jaebum was all confidence and clever smirks.

“I think that we should load up on spiked eggnog and TP Su-Bin’s office,” you said, putting your hands on your hips. 

“W-what?” Jaebum stuttered, all pathetic looks and cringy sighs again. Just her name, you thought, that’s all it took. You rolled your eyes at his response. “You want to TP Su-Bin’s office? At the company Christmas party?”

“Yup,” you nodded, grinning, “You need closure.”

“And toilet paper is really the best way to get closure?”

“Well...toilet paper and liquor.”

Jaebum watched you carefully, his heart pounding in his chest. This was a terrifying and thrilling idea. An idea that he was...surprisingly on board with. When you’d first mentioned it he’d been skeptical - TPing his ex-girlfriend’s office? How immature and unprofessional. And would she really take him back after that? But...the idea had merits. The liquor was a big one.

“You know what? Normally, I’d say no, but I’m on my fourteenth candy cane, so why not?”

“You’ve had fourteen candy canes?” you said in disbelief, crossing your arms. Jaebum looked down and you followed suit - clear plastic wrappers littered the ground by his feet.

“How are you not dead, Im Jaebum?”

“Bad luck,” he shrugged, looking back over at Su-Bin longingly. You rolled your eyes again, closing your hand around his wrist and tugging him to stand up.

“If you’re going to do this with me, Mr. Sugar High, there will be some ground rules.”

“Ground rules? For a prank?”

“Yes. One, no worrying about our coworkers or our boss; it’s Christmas and we have the right to pull a relatively harmless prank. Two, we have to use at least six rolls of toilet paper. Three, and this one is the most important Jaebum,” you said, putting his face between your hands and forcing him to look at you, “There is absolutely no pining for the princess during this prank. No longing looks, no deep heartfelt sighs, no ‘what-ifs’ - nothing, Jaebum, I mean it.”

“Okay, okay,” he sighed, and already you could see his gaze shifting over to Su-Bin in her tight red dress, with her hand on Mr. Park’s shoulder. You gripped Jaebum’s jaw firmly and forced him to look at you.

“Stop that!”

“Sorry!” he said, wiggling his head from your grip, “Force of habit.”

“Okay, well, stop it. That is not the point of the closure-prank - in fact, it’s kind of the exact opposite of what we’re trying to do here.”

“And what are we trying to do here?”

“Get drunk, TP your ex’s office, get closure, get over her.”

“Oh, is that all?”

“Shut up. The first step is the eggnog.”

The first part of Mission “Closure-Prank” AKA “TP the Princess” turned out to be a much more difficult step than you anticipated. Most of the office was distracted - singing karaoke, exchanging gifts, hell Mark was even in his cubicle finishing up an assignment from earlier. But alas...Jackson Wang. 

Jackson Wang was standing by the buffet table, directly in front of the punch bowl filled with eggnog, talking enthusiastically with anyone who would come near. Now, 99.99% of the time Jackson Wang was a much-needed reprieve from the everyday grind of office life. But today...today he was an obstacle on the road to closure.

“Well, should I take him out, Mrs. Claus?” Jaebum joked, brings his hands together to form a finger gun, when you’d delivered that last line aloud.

“No, Mr. Claus,” you said, “I think this mission requires more...subtlety. Keep watch.” Jaebum chuckled at your antics and watched as you snuck around the office like a spy, approaching BamBam.

“Sup?” you said. BamBam was sitting at one of the tables they’d pulled out of the break room and into the larger space for the party. He had a glass of eggnog in one hand and a gingerbread cookie in the other.

“Oh, hey, y/n, find Jaebum-hyung yet?”

“Oh, yeah,” you said, taking a seat next to him and saying, “I need you to do me a favor.”

“Get you and Jaebum a room?” BamBam joked, smirking as he took a bite of his cookie.

“Um, no,” you said, a blush painting your cheeks despite your words, “Can you distract Jackson? I need eggnog, but I do not need a twenty-minute conversation with Jackson about fencing or self-love.”

“And how do you suppose I distract him?”

“I don’t know,” you whined, “Challenge him to rap battle or something,” you laughed.

“Oh, he’s so on,” BamBam said, already eyeing Jackson from across the room. Without your having to say another word, BamBam stood from his seat and quite literally challenged Jackson to a rap battle. Jackson, a man of pride and honor, could not refuse. They each took one of the karaoke microphones and went to it.

“Boom,” you said, approaching Jaebum with a wide, self-satisfied grin. He chuckled at you.

“You’re responsible for this cacophony?”

You rolled your eyes, “Come one, time for step one of our mission.”

Twenty minutes later, both sufficiently tipsy from the eggnog, you were hanging off of Jaebum as you approached the maintenance closet. You gripped the key to the closet tightly in your hand, giggling too hard at something Jaebum had said a moment earlier.

“How do you even have this key?” Jaebum said, leaning against a wall to steady himself as you tried to maneuver the key into the lock. Your face scrunched up as you had trouble getting it to work, and Jaebum found himself grinning at how adorable you were. You did a small cheer when the door opened before you answered him.

“I made out with the janitor one time,” you shrugged.

Jaebum felt suddenly sober, although he was unsure why. You were about to, somewhat literally, dive into the closet when he tugged on your arm. You spun around to face him a little too fast, and you put your arms on his shoulders to steady yourself. “Woah,” you giggled.

“You made out with Yugyeom?” Jaebum said, “He’s a college kid!”

You shrugged, “He’s cute. I was sad.” You remembered that day. The office Chusoek party in October and you’d gotten a little too friendly with some spiced rum, and the college kid who cleaned the office at night. Jaebum had still been with Su-Bin at that point, and it was a very PDA happy relationship. You hadn’t handled it very well.

“You were...sad?”

“Besides,” you said ignoring his question and going back into the closet, “Why do you care? It was only a one-time thing. I think he’s got a girlfriend now anyways.”

“No reason,” Jaebum whispered, looking away from you. Why did he care all of a sudden?

“Got it!” you cheered, emerging from the closet with six rolls of toilet paper crowding your arms. Jaebum grinned, taking some from you as they fell haphazardly from your hands, “On to the next step!”

You went through the break room, now bare of tables and chairs for the party, to avoid being seen by anyone. This wouldn’t have exactly been a company-approved activity. Once you were through there, you just had to make it past Park Jinyoung, your boss, and you were free and clear to Su-Bin’s office.

You peeked your head out of the break room and glanced at Mr. Park’s office. You sighed in relief, “The blinds are closed.”

“Perfect,” Jaebum grinned, sneaking by with you. As you walked by, though, a noise caught both of your attention. There was a loud girlish giggle, followed by Su-Bin’s voice: “Oh! Mr. Park, you’re so funny!”

You both froze in your tracks. You watched Jaebum like you would a deer in the headlights. You could see all of these brilliant Mission TP the Princess plans falling apart around you. It all depended on how he reacted. But before Jaebum had time to say anything, Mr. Park responded -

“Miss Kang, I am your superior! Any romantic relationship between the two of us would be highly inappropriate! Now I’ll be returning to the party. Good night!”

You looked at Jaebum quickly and he whispered, “Hurry!” Just as the office door started to open, you bolted past and stopped suddenly at Su-Bin’s door. Before he could see you both, you twisted the doorknob and lept into the room, Jaebum close behind you.

There was a long moment of silence where you and Jaebum leaned against the wall breathing heavily, trying not to make any noise. Mr. Park's footsteps echoed outside the office and then faded. Then there was nothing.

You sighed in relief, grinning up at him. He mimicked your actions, chuckling endlessly. Your stomach began to cramp at the laughter that just wouldn’t stop. You leaned on him for support and Jaebum had his forehead resting against yours, unable to keep himself upright.

But, as these things often do, the laughter faded and you and Jaebum were left standing in each other’s arms.

“Y/N,” Jaebum said, his closeness sobering you.

“Jaebum…”

“About that closure…”

“Yeah?”

“I think…” And now Jaebum was so close to you that you were almost kissing, but just before his lips touched yours -

Su-Bin barged into her office, flicked on the lights and started screaming: “What in the hell...What’s going on here!”

“Su-Bin,” Jaebum said, pulling away from you and bowing respectfully. You rolled your eyes and scoffed. Silly of you to think he would be different after what...two hours? But you had thought, hoped really, that you’d distracted him enough, that you were enough…

“Excuse me,” you said, pushing past Jaebum and Su-Bin and out of the office. You thought you heard Jaebum say your name, but it was drowned about by another of her exclamations -

“What is with all this toilet paper!”

Well, you couldn’t help but giggle at that.

The next morning you woke up with a hangover and a depressing cloud above your head. You stumbled out of bed, took some aspirin, and poured yourself a bowl of cereal. Your dog, Edna, watched you with a meaningful look.

“I don’t know Eds,” you said, “I thought he actually liked me.”

Another long look from Edna.

“I know it’s ridiculous to think his feelings might have changed that quickly, but it has been like three weeks since they broke up.”

Edna turned her head to the side.

“Okay, two and a half! But I’m serious Eds, it seems like there was a moment or something…”

Before Edna could respond in her customary way, there was a loud knock on the door. Edna barked sharply at the intrusion and you bent down to pat her head, “I know, how rude.” You set your cereal on the counter and looked down at your pajamas. Before you could decide whether or not to change, your uninvited guest banged loudly on the door again, “Guess this will have to do.”

The person was still knocking when you finally made it to the front door to answer, “Yes?” you said.

Jaebum stood in your doorway looking...gorgeous. He was holding flowers and a coffee cup and little white paper bag that you suspected might be some kind of pastry and he had this little smile on his face that was so infuriatingly charming.

“Jaebum?”

The little smile disappeared and he smiled fully, chuckling at your haphazard appearance. It was still infuriatingly charming.

“You look great,” he said.

“Shut up!” you said, blushing, “I’m hungover! And you were loud just now. What are you doing here? Why aren’t you hungover?”

He shrugged, letting himself into your apartment, “I don’t get hangovers.”

“Well that’s annoying,” you said, closing the door after him and watching him as his eyes scanned the place, “That still doesn’t explain why you’re here.”

“To give you these,” he said, holding out the flowers and the coffee and the little white bag.

“Thank you,” you said, taking them, “But why?”

“I’m sorry,” he said, “About what happened at the party last night.”

You shrugged, turning your back on him to get the flowers water. You opened the little bag and found a Danish. You grinned and took it out, munching on it and sipping your coffee. So much better than cereal.

“Oh, hello,” Jaebum said, looking down as Edna approached him and started to rub her face into his ankle, as was her habit when meeting strangers.

“So did you and Su-Bin reconcile?”

“Nope,” he said.

“No?”

“No,” he grinned.

“Why not?”

“Closure,” he said.

“Closure?”

Jaebum nodded, grinning, “I had more fun with you last night than I did the entire two months that Su-Bin and I dated. And when we heard her coming onto Mr. Park last night...I don’t know, it just sort of clicked in my mind.”

“Ah,” you said, “Closure.”

“And…”

“And?”

“And, there’s you.”

“Me?”

“You,” he grinned, walking towards you. Your coffee and Danish still in hand. He put his hands on either side of your face and kissed you softly, tasting the coffee and the Danish.

“Me,” you sighed, smiling and not opening your eyes even after he’d stopped kissing you.

“Yeah,” he said, “I like you a lot and everything, and we should go out, but you definitely need to brush your teeth.”

“Oh crap,” you said throwing your breakfast aside and running to the bathroom, “How embarrassing!”

But your goofy, dorky, loud boyfriend loved the holidays. He spent all of November talking about December and Christmas and trees and cookies and everything else. He was dancing around the apartment with various Christmas decorations, singing stereotypical Christmas songs and just generally being merry.

You did hate the holidays. But you’d put up with basically anything to see Youngjae this excited. He was stringing sparkly tinsel around the tree, skipping as he did so. He’d worked his way through “Silent Night,” “White Christmas,” “All I Want for Christmas is You” (which, truth be told, had been a very adorable and heartwarming serenade), “Baby it’s Cold Outside,” and he was now on “Jingle Bells.” Literally, the most annoying Christmas song in the world.

But there he was, singing “Jingle Bells” and skipping around the tree with red tinsel. At your feet was a pool of untangled Christmas lights, but you stopped working and got up from the couch. Coco whined at your movement but nonetheless put her head back down to snooze. You walked up to Youngjae and put your hands on his shoulders, forcing him to be still. He looked at you with wide eyes, innocent as a puppy.

“Youngjae, I love you, but sing one more word of ‘Jingle Bells’ and I’ll kill you.”

At your remark, Youngjae’s eyes grew even wider and more puppy-like, his mouth downturned into a frown. You sighed, immediately feeling a rush of guilt, “Sorry,” you said, resting your forehead against his shoulder, “It’s just...the holidays.”

“I know,” he whispered, bringing his hand up to stroke your hair, “I’ll take it easy.”

“That would be helpful for my sanity,” you murmured, turning your head to press a gentle kiss on his neck. He chuckled pulling away from you to kiss you fully on the lips.

“Anything to help your sanity,” he said, going back to the Christmas tree with his tinsel and you turned and went back to the couch with your lights.

It only took you two minutes to realize there was something off about the atmosphere now. But you couldn’t place it - you thought maybe you were hungry, or you needed a shower. Maybe you were just tired of all the Christmas decorations. There was a particular Santa figurine on the coffee table that seemed to be always watching you. Coco was suspicious of it, too.

“Now what?” you said, at the end of your string of lights, feeling an odd sense of accomplishment at the completion of your task. Even if everything else seemed off. Youngjae glanced up from the tree.

“I’ll take care of it,” he said, walking over to you and picking up the lights.

“I can help,” you protested, standing up.

“That’s okay,” he said, smiling warmly at you before turning back to the tree. You stared at his back, his muscles moving beneath the fabric of his sweater as he raised his arms to start tangling the lights in the tree. You picked up Coco and put her in your lap; she licked your hand for a second before resting her head on your thigh and falling asleep. You scratched her head and watched Youngjae’s back, thinking…

He wasn’t singing.

Well, hot damn. You’d never noticed before, but Youngjae was always singing. Always. Not even just for Christmas, but at any given time, he was singing - GOT7 songs, other K-Pop songs, American songs, commercial jingles, his own thoughts aloud… Whenever he was home there was music because that’s what he does, he sings. It’s his favorite thing to do and it made the apartment you two shared homey and warm.

And you’d shut him up. Crap.

“I’m a dick,” you announced.

Youngjae burst into laughter without turning around, bowing his head at the weight of the humor. He slowly turned to look at you, lights still in hand. He was grinning from ear to ear when he said, “You’re a dick?”

“Yes,” you sighed, putting Coco on the ground and walking up to him. You wrapped your arms around his waist and rested your head on his shoulder, “I’m the worst relationship person.”

“You’re an amazing relationship person,” he said, dropping the lights and hugging you back, “You’re my favorite relationship person. I love you.”

You pulled away enough so that you could look in his eyes, “I love you, too.”

“Good,” he joked, smiling and kissing you softly.

“But,” you said, pulling away again.

“But?”

“I’m sorry I told you I would kill you for singing Jingle Bells,” you sighed.

“To be fair,” he smiled, “I didn’t think you’d actually kill me.”

You shoved him playfully and continued, “I’m your relationship person and I hate the holidays, so you’re sacrificing your favorite thing in the world - singing - for me. And I appreciate it and everything but -”

“No buts,” Youngjae said, shaking his head and blatantly interrupting you, “My favorite thing in the world is Coco, not singing.” You stuck your tongue out at his joke and he kissed your nose gently before continuing, “Okay, you and Coco are tied for first. And then singing is somewhere below that. The point is that it’s not a sacrifice, jagiya, I love you and I want you to be happy and comfortable.”

You scrunched up your face and said, “Then...do you think you could start singing again?”

“Oh really?” he smirked, his eyebrows raised.

“Yes please,” you buried your head in his chest, “It’s too quiet without your singing.”

“Even holiday songs?”

You groaned, “Even holiday songs.” And at that simple statement, he began belting “Jingle Bells” at the top of his lungs without any hesitation.