Archive of Our Own ^beta

When Yoongi emails in his last final, he spends approximately 5 minutes with his face smashed against the wood of the library desk he’s reserved, wondering if he can amorphize himself into a blob of spectral goo. He thinks life as a goo ball might be lonely, but he’d be willing to do just about anything that didn’t involve standing up to take the bus home. 

His phone alarm goes off then, signaling his period of reservation has come to an end after 6 grueling hours and that his desk now belongs to another doomed soul. He sighs, pats the desk once more in thanks, and gathers his last bits of will to stand up and go.

As he takes the bus home, he tears up a few times. A little bit from exhaustion and self-pity, but mostly from relief. He’s gotten an average of four hours of sleep for the past two weeks, and now he’s done. He’s finished the semester, and technically finished with classes forever. The rest of his PhD program doesn’t require taking any more courses, just research papers and teaching duties and a dissertation to deal with for the next two years or so. Never again will he have to deal with course requirements or group projects. He chokes a little on a wet but happy breath.

He has to avert his eyes when a businesswoman stares at him in half worry and half judgement. He sniffles into his mitten and shifts over to the next pole on the bus. 

He’s mellowed out by the time he gets back to his apartment, shuffling in through the front door with a package from the lobby for his roommate, Seokjin. It’s 6pm, and he isn’t expecting him to be home yet, but Seokjin is sitting at their kitchen island thumbing through a pile of student assignments when Yoongi comes in.

“Oh hey, you’re home early,” Yoongi greets, pushing the package onto the counter. “This was downstairs.”

“Ah!” Seokjin claps, reaching across the counter to grab a pair of scissors from the knife block. “I ordered us a new toaster, this must be it.”

“I don’t know if you should use the cooking scissors for-” Yoongi starts, but Seokjin’s already opening the package. “Ok.”

“Oh, that’s beautiful,” Seokjin breathes, pulling the toaster out of its packaging. “Isn’t it lovely, Yoongi?”

Yoongi looks at the plain black toaster in his hands, and then looks at the old plain black toaster next to their coffee maker. “Did we really need another one?”

Seokjin scoffs. “Of course we did. That one burns all the toast no matter what setting it’s on. It’s a sham of a toaster.”

Yoongi shrugs, watches as Seokjin hops down from his stool to plug in the new toaster and put the old one in their garbage can. “I don’t think that’s gonna fit-” 

Seokjin lifts up a leg and uses his foot to shove the old toaster deeper in the trash. When he’s happy with his effort, he hums in satisfaction and returns to the new toaster. “I’m gonna make toast to celebrate, you want any? Oh, and you had your last final today right? How’s it feel, free at last from the constraints of education?”

“I mean, I’m not really free. Seeing as how I’m aiming to be a linguistics professor.” Yoongi opens the fridge, starts reaching for one of the drinkable yogurts Jimin is always forcing him to buy, but his hand switches direction at the last second to grab a beer. 

“I don’t know why you’d want to be a professor, Yoongi. Sounds like a death wish to me,” Seokjin sighs, bent over the counter. He keeps pressing random buttons on the toaster, murmuring in delight as knobs light up each time he does.  

“Hyung. You’re a professor.” 

Seokjin hums condescendingly. “Well then you should really listen to me, shouldn’t you? I’m an expert on this kind of stuff,” he reasons. He pushes the lever up and down, and when something sticks in place and doesn’t spring back up, he picks up a knife to stick inside. 

“Ok,” Yoongi yelps, snatching the knife from Seokjin’s hand. “You really can’t do that.”

“Why not, I just want to poke around,” Seokjin says, still squinting down into the toaster as though it holds more secrets than the box details.

“You can’t stick a metal knife into an operating toaster. You’ll get shocked and die.” Yoongi puts the knife back into its drawer and turns to leave the kitchen.

“That sounds a little dramatic, Yoongi,” Seokjin calls after him.

Yoongi just shrugs as he walks away, but Seokjin pipes up to get his attention again.

“By the way, I had a change of holiday plans.”

Yoongi peeks his head back around the kitchen doorway, frowning. “Oh? Weren’t you going to head down to your parent’s house after you finished grading tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” Seokjin sighs, shuffling back to his stool, as if the mention of grading reminded him he should probably get back to it. “But my parents were gonna be flying to Australia for a wedding for New Years, and they decided they want to go early to, I don’t know, beat jet lag or something. So they leave in a few days and I don’t really see the point in going down to visit if I’d be coming back before Christmas anyways.” 

Yoongi hums, shuffling back and forth on his feet. “Well, I’m staying here too. My parents will be in Japan at my brother’s place, and I can’t really splurge on a plane ticket right now.” 

“Yeah, I remember you saying that.” Seokjin is already scribbling away at a student’s paper as he talks, but he pauses to look up at Yoongi. “That’s why I’m mentioning it, I hope I’m not disrupting any holiday plans you have. I know you were probably looking forward to having the place to yourself.” 

Yoongi is already shaking his head before Seokjin finishes. “No, no. That’s fine, I don’t have anything planned. Just sleeping, mostly. Don’t sweat it.”

Seokjin smiles softly, nodding before he turns back to his papers. “Cool. Well, good. As long as I’m not in your hair.” 

“You won’t be,” Yoongi assures. He watches Seokjin get absorbed back into his grading, and turns to leave the kitchen once more. 

To be honest, Yoongi had been looking forward to having the apartment to himself. Not because he didn’t like Seokjin, he was a great roommate. They had met two years ago through a mutual scholar friend, Namjoon, and when they found out they both needed a roommate, Yoongi had moved into the vacant room at Seokjin’s apartment within the next week. They got along fine, had grown comfortable within a much shorter amount of time than Yoongi had experienced with other roommates, but they still mostly lived separate lives. Seokjin was a nice person to chat with over coffee in the morning, or to occasionally order takeout with while they watch TV in their living room, but they both had their own lives carved out already. They were both grown adults at the point of meeting, and neither of them had really made the effort to entangle themselves further than just being friendly roommates.

So, it’s not that Yoongi needs time away from Seokjin, it’s just he was looking forward to some alone time, maybe even to inviting Taehyung and Jimin over without worrying about them being too loud. 

And now that neither of them would have job or school commitments for the next few weeks, they really did have a lot of time to just… exist in each other's space without the usual distractions of daily life. Yoongi's stomach twists in nerves at the thought, and he frowns to himself as he wonders why. 

(11 Days Until Christmas)

Yoongi jars awake at the sound of the front door closing, and he rubs at his eyes, wondering how long he’s been asleep. 

“Oh, sorry, did I wake you?” Seokjin asks, looking up as he takes off his shoes. His face is flushed from the cold outside, and Yoongi shakes his head, still in a daze.

“Wasn’t sleeping,” he mumbles, stretching his legs out on the couch, hand knocking at his laptop where it's still splayed haphazardly on his stomach. 

Seokjin huffs out a laugh, hanging up his coat before he walks over to sit on the arm of the chair adjacent to Yoongi. “You sure about that?”

Yoongi yawns, nodding his head as best he can, but frowns in confusion at the music coming out of his laptop speakers. “How did Christmas music start playing? I was listening to the Epik High album before.”

“First you say you weren’t sleeping, then you deny putting on Christmas music. Why are you so afraid of telling the truth? I won’t judge you, Yoongi. I think it’s great that you listen to Wham, it’s very festive of you.” 

“I don’t listen to Wham,” Yoongi mutters, shutting his laptop so the cheery music stops. He sits up, and pauses when his vision goes blurry. “What time is it?” 

“7pm. How long have you been not sleeping?” 

Yoongi grunts, thinking for a second. “About 5 hours.”

Seokjin hums, getting up from the arm of the chair. “That should be a nice kick to your finals exhaustion.”

Yoongi calls after him as Seokjin walks into the kitchen. “You know, as a professor yourself, you should be apologizing to me. Like, on behalf of all professors for the shit you put students through.”

Seokjin laughs. “I’m going to remember for when you're a professor one day," Seokjin calls back. "Gonna rub it in your face real good, it'll be great.”

“You have a terrible memory, there’s no way you’ll remember that,” Yoongi mutters to himself, getting up from the couch to follow Seokjin into the kitchen.

“Yes, but I’ve got great hearing, Yoongi,” Seokjin pointedly says. Yoongi just blushes and hides his face as he opens the fridge.

Seokjin just laughs again at his blush. “Well, I’ve officially submitted all of my grades for the semester. I’m going to have a very large glass of wine and watch a dumb holiday movie. You wanna join?” Seokjin pulls two wine glasses from the cabinet and cocks his head in invitation toward Yoongi.

“Oh,” Yoongi says, looking from Seokjin to where his own hand was nudging aside another yogurt to reach for a beer. He thinks about his vague plans to boot up his gaming laptop for the first time in months and mess around on it until he passes out by 11pm, but shrugs and pulls his hand out of the fridge. “Yeah, I’d be down for that.”

“Order us some chicken, yeah?” Seokjin asks, humming to himself as he snags a bottle of what should definitely be considered cooking wine from the fridge. After a few seconds, Yoongi recognizes the song Seokjin’s humming as the one that was coming from his laptop speakers a few minutes ago, and he huffs a laugh to himself.

“Who’s the Wham fan now?” 

Seokjin scoffs, popping the cork out of the bottle in a manner that’s just careless enough that Yoongi itches to reach out to make sure he doesn’t drop it. He focuses on keeping his hands at his sides. 

“I have no problem saying I’m a Wham fan, it’s you who’s trying to hide your dark holiday tendencies,” Seokjin raises an eyebrow at Yoongi as he pours wine into the first glass, but he tilts his head to the side as he thinks. “Wham fan, wham fan, wham fan. That’s fun to say, huh?”

Yoongi reaches out quickly to tip the wine bottle back up to the vertical position before the wine glass overflows. “Sure, lots of fun. I’m gonna put in the food order, don’t drown yourself in here, ok?”

By the time the food is ordered and they’re both cozied up on opposite sides of the couch, Seokjin has decided they should watch Die Hard 3. 

“That’s not a Christmas movie, though?” Yoongi questions, typing it into the search bar of their TV anyways. 

“Well the first Die Hard is, it takes place on Christmas Eve. And John McClane writes ‘ho, ho, ho’ on that one dead guy’s shirt.” 

“Right, but that’s the first movie. There’s no Christmas stuff in the third one,” Yoongi reasons.

Seokjin shrugs. “Well, I like the third one better.”

Yoongi sighs, and fights the smile working its way onto his face. “Die Hard 3 it is then.”

“Die Hard with a Vengeance, actually. Be respectful and use the full title,” Seokjin patronizes. Yoongi rolls his eyes just as the buzzer goes off, delivery here with their food. 

“You’re annoying when you aren’t in semester mode,” Yoongi calls over his shoulder, and when he comes back to the couch with the food bags, Seokjin has a smug look on his face. 

He flutters his eyelashes. “Thank you.”

“That wasn’t a compliment,” Yoongi huffs, taking out containers and passing one to Seokjin.

“Well, I’m taking it as one. I’m letting my hair down, if I’m being annoying that means I’m really shedding the mask I put on every day when I have to teach those twerps. I’m in vacation mode, Yoongi.”

“You love your students, since when are they twerps?” 

“Ever since they all seemed to forget how to write a proper bibliography for their final papers. It was mortifying to grade.” Seokjin doesn’t seem frustrated though, using his chopsticks to throw a piece of chicken into his mouth, coughing slightly when he inhales the seasoning too quickly. Yoongi feels a mix of fondness and disgust.

“Guess you did a bad job teaching them then, they probably deserve a better literature professor,” Yoongi suggests, leaning back into the couch as he presses play on the movie.

Seokjin squints his eyes in annoyance. “You’re just as cranky as you are during the semester,” he mutters.

Yoongi smiles at the TV, not peeling his eyes away. “Thank you.”

By the time the movie is over, they’ve finished the bottle of wine, most of the chicken, and half a box of stale cookies Seokjin found in their cabinet. Seokjin’s eyes are drooping, even after all the explosions and gunfire in the movie, so Yoongi nudges him with a foot before he starts clearing up containers. 

“Go to sleep, hyung. It’s your turn to sleep away finals,” Yoongi says softly.

Seokjin blinks his eyes a few times, trying to shake away his drowsiness. “I’ll help you tidy,” he murmurs. 

Yoongi shakes his head and pushes him towards his room. “I’ve got it. Go sleep for 12 hours, yeah?”

Seokjin doesn’t put up a fight, just shuffles to his room, calling out a muffled goodnight as he yawns and shuts his door.

Hyung is kind of cute when he’s sleepy, Yoongi thinks, and nearly drops the empty wine bottle when he registers the thought. Well, cute’s a strong word, he backtracks in his head. Cuddly. Seokjin’s just cuddly-looking when he’s sleepy. And like- defenseless. Yoongi frowns, shaking his head to himself. Defenseless? What, is he some kind of prey Yoongi is hunting? No, not defenseless, just soft, in a way he’s not when he’s fully alert. Yoongi shakes his head again, shoving the trash in the garbage can and pushing the thoughts to the back of his head. 

“Get some sleep, Yoongi,” he mutters to himself. He still blushes to himself when he passes by Seokjin’s closed door, flicking off the hallway lights a little more aggressively than necessary. 

(10 Days Until Christmas)

There’s a loud scraping sound coming from somewhere in their apartment when Yoongi wakes up the next day, and he frowns when he looks at the clock to see it’s 10am, figuring Seokjin would have slept later. He lays in bed for another minute, but when the grunting outside gets louder, his curiosity gets the better of him.

Yoongi stops abruptly as soon as he gets to the opening to the living room, hands frozen from where he was in the middle of pulling on a sweatshirt, skin cold now that he’s out of bed.

“What the fuck are you doing.” Yoongi gapes.

Seokjin looks up from where he’s hugging what looks like a 10-foot tall pine tree. There’s sweat on his forehead, springs of pine all over his jacket and through his hair. 

“Jesus, about time you woke up. I’ve been grunting for 15 minutes trying to get your attention,” Seokjin frowns in disapproval.

“Where did you get that? Why aren’t you sleeping?” Yoongi takes a step closer but hisses at a pile of cold pine needles that have somehow found their way to his side of the living room. He grumbles in sleepy aggravation while he shuffles back to his room to put on slippers.

“I slept for 10 hours, I don’t know how you expect me to sleep any more than that, I’m not some cave troll,” Seokjin says pointedly, looking Yoongi up and down when he comes back into the room. 

“How are you judging me when you’re the one body tackling a tree right now?” He takes another cautious step forward. “Seriously, where did you get that? You didn’t, like, cut down a tree in the park, right?”

Seokjin scoffs, leveraging the tree a little bit higher from where he’s bent over it. “No, I didn’t cut it down. There’s a guy down the street selling them. Hank, nice guy. He’s from Vietnam, he decided to move here and start a new life as a pine tree farmer. Apparently he’s getting over a pretty messy divorce.” Seokjin says this conversationally, as if they talk about Hank a lot.

“It’s way too tall for this apartment, fuck, why would you get such a big one?” Yoongi pulls his sleeves over his hands before he finally stands across from Seokjin, wrapping his arms under one side to lessen the weight.

“Hank’s going through some shit, Yoongi, were you not listening? The least I could do was buy a big one.” The strain of holding up the tree overshadows any exasperation in his voice. “Ok, on the count of 3, bring it up to the vertical position.”

“Hyung, it’s really not going to fit-”

“One-” Seokjin starts counting over Yoongi’s warning.

“Let’s just think this through, we can buy a saw and shorten the trunk first-” 

“Three!” Seokjin yells, ignoring ‘two’ entirely, and Yoongi yelps as he feels Seokjin push up. Yoongi pushes too, afraid Seokjin will strain himself otherwise, and before Yoongi can register what’s happening, dry plaster is crumbling onto his head. 

“Oh, I think the tree’s too tall,” Seokjin wonders out loud. Yoongi blinks the chalky bits of plaster out of his eyes and squints up to see the top of the tree poking through a hole in the ceiling. 

“What makes you think that, hyung?” Yoongi asks flatly, and his frown deepens when Seokjin peeks his head around the tree to look at him.

“You’ve got some stuff on your face.” Seokjin’s tone suggests he thinks he’s being helpful.

“Thanks.”

“Alright, well new plan. We go to the hardware store and buy a saw and some plaster. Probably a tree stand, too. Unless you think it can stand on its own?”

Yoongi sighs, leaning his head against a branch. He watches as a beetle crawls a few inches from his face and then onto his sleeve. “Bug spray too,” Yoongi suggests. 

“Ok! Lowering in three, two, one-” Seokjin counts down, and Yoongi yelps at the sudden loss of support, yelps even louder as he falls with the tree to the ground. 

Seokjin stands over him, hands on his hips. “I hope you didn’t break any branches.”

Yoongi rolls onto his back, staring up at the ceiling. Now with the hole, he can see some exposed wood beams, and he wonders if their landlord would let them get rid of the plaster entirely. He’s always wanted exposed ceilings. 

Seokjin claps loudly, shaking Yoongi from his thoughts. “Let’s go, buddy. No dillydallying, Christmas is in 10 days, I wanna get this bad boy up.”

Yoongi doesn’t bother getting dressed, just wraps himself in his biggest parka for the 5 minute walk to the hardware store. As they walk, they pass by Hank the tree salesman, and Seokjin gives him a friendly salute while Yoongi quickens his pace to avoid small talk. 

“This is fun, we haven’t gone shopping together in a while,” Seokjin says once they’re in the hardware store, holding a basket while Yoongi inspects the different saws available. 

“Super fun,” Yoongi says, voice flat. Seokjin smacks his shoulder, but Yoongi can barely feel it through the layers of padding. 

“I think it’s nice we’re getting this roommate time. We’ve lived together for how long and I know practically nothing about you.” 

“You know plenty about me. You’ve seen every side of me. You’re the only person on this planet who’s seen me crying into a tub of ice cream at 3am.” 

Seokjin tuts. “Well that’s just roommate stuff, that’s bound to happen. There’s still lots of things I should know about you that I don’t.”

“Like what?”

“Like…” Seokjin looks around, racking his brain. “Like- what’s your favorite saw?”

Yoongi pulls out a saw on the lowest shelf, and finally looks up from his perusing. “The cheapest one.”

Seokjin nods, like this makes sense. “Yeah, I probably could have guessed that. You’re a cheapo whenever it’s your turn to buy household supplies. Always buy the cheapest toilet paper.”

Yoongi huffs, but doesn’t deny it. “See, you know everything there is to know.” 

“Ooh, twinkle lights, we should get some for the tree!” Seokjin gets distracted, grabs a box down from the shelf, then grabs two more, depositing them in his basket while Yoongi walks down the aisle in search of a tree stand. “Wait,” Seokjin calls after him. “Are we more of a color lights family or a white lights family?” 

Yoongi blushes when an old lady by the tape section looks over at them. He backtracks to Seokjin so he doesn’t have to raise his voice so much. “Color,” he mumbles.

Seokjin nods in approval. “Rainbows everywhere, I like the way you think. Keep the gay in Christmas, and all that.” 

Yoongi shoves at him and walks away, blushing a little bit harder. It’s not that he didn’t already know they’re both gay, it was kinda the reason he so readily agreed to be roommates in the first place, not having to deal with possible negative reactions if he ever brought a guy home (not that he ever does, the first two years of his PhD program weren’t exactly conducive to socializing). But Seokjin bringing attention to it, in the middle of this hardware store, while buying lights for their shared tree, surrounded by all these hammers. Yoongi feels his face flush brighter. 

They head home afterwards, stocked with supplies, and Yoongi spends the afternoon arguing about the best way to fill the hole in their ceiling. After an over hour and half of a tub of spilled plaster, they give up and decide they like the way the hole looks. It’s not the worst afternoon Yoongi has had in his life. It’s one of his better ones, if he’s being honest. He’d forgotten how much he loves the smell of pine.

(9 Days Until Christmas)

The next day, they decide the four strings of lights look weird without ornaments, so they bundle up once more to go to the indoor shopping center a 20 minute bus ride away. They’ve never taken the bus together, so Yoongi gives Seokjin the window seat in their two-seater, not sure if he has a preference. He thinks he was right when Seokjin happily watches out the window, waving outside to a little girl walking with her father when they’re stopped at a red light. 

When they get to the shopping center, they head to a home goods store that has cheap decorations, and their cart is filled within the first 5 minutes.

“Ok, no. We do not need a talking fish that says ‘Merry Christmas’, absolutely not,” Yoongi argues, pulling the four-foot rubber bass out of their cart. 

“It’s funny, though! It sings Jingle Bell Rock every time you walk past it!” Seokjin tries to put the fish back in the cart but Yoongi rolls away quickly.

“And we are not getting this inflatable Santa, this is for people with front lawns, hyung. You don’t put these in your living room.”

“Grinch,” Seokjin murmurs, letting Yoongi dump the box back into his hands.

“I’m not a grinch, I just don’t want to listen to the engine on that thing all day while it continuously inflates itself,” Yoongi scoffs.

“Grinch, grinch, grinch,” Seokjin chants louder, trying to get a toddler in a stroller nearby to chant along with him. 

“Oh my god, stop it,” Yoongi mutters, embarrassed. He pulls Seokjin by the elbow to bring them over to the ornaments. 

“You’re blushing.” Seokjin sounds delighted by it.

“M’not,” Yoongi says lowly, letting go of Seokjin’s arm to look closer at the selection in front of him.

Seokjin just laughs quietly to himself and joins Yoongi’s side to start picking ornaments.

“Well, we need a few classic ones,” Seokjin says, picking up a 10-pack of gold and silver baubles.

Yoongi hums in agreement, picking up a similar pack of red ones. “Get lots of red too, my mom’s tree always has lots of red.”

Seokjin smiles at him, and picks up two more red boxes to add to the cart. “What else does your mom decorate with?”

Yoongi tilts his head and thinks, imagining the decorations his mom has used for every christmas since he was a child. “Lots of fake wreaths, just like, on every door of the house. They used to fall all the time, and I’d spend half my time hanging them back up. I hated them when I was younger.” 

Seokjin steers them towards an aisle with plastic wreaths lining it. “Well I think we’ve got five doors at our place, and we can put mistletoes over the empty doorways. That’s what we used to do at my house growing up.” 

Yoongi nods, loading the cart up with the ugliest wreaths he can find, knowing that’s what Seokjin would want anyways. 

“Guess we’ll be doing a lot of kissing this holiday season,” Seokjin calls out from where he’s crouched over the mistletoes further down the aisle. 

Yoongi trips over nothing and drops two of the wreaths on the ground. Seokjin looks up at the commotion, and Yoongi turns to look back at the shelves of wreaths, pretending to contemplate them.

“You dropped something there, Yoongi,” Seokjin calls out again, amusement in his voice.

“I meant to put them there, that’s the maybe pile,” Yoongi calls back, trying to keep the breathlessness out of his voice.

He sees Seokjin shrug from the corner of his eye and eventually go back to looking at the mistletoes, and when he does, Yoongi smacks himself on the forehead. He reopens his eyes, and a man is staring at him in bewilderment over the top of the next aisle, so Yoongi waves his hand around as though he’s swatting at a fly. He ducks down to pretend he’s looking at the bottom shelf, and he shakes his head violently when he imagines what would happen if him and Seokjin actually walked under a mistletoe at the same time. He chuckles, a little hysterically, because the odds of them actually- like actually walking under at the same time and then- and then actually, you know, actually kissing or something, it’s so- it’s absurd to even think about-

“Why are you laughing at that wreath you’re mangling,” Seokjin asks curiously, dumping 3 mistletoes in the cart. 

“There was a fly,” Yoongi says loudly, shoving the wreath back on the shelf and standing up to roll the cart away, scooping up the two wreaths where they still lay on the ground.

“You were laughing at a fly?” Seokjin asks, picking up a ceramic Santa on a surfboard and placing it in the cart.

“I was laughing with the fly,” Yoongi corrects, picking the Santa back up immediately and putting it on a nearby shelf.

Seokjin nods in understanding, just like Yoongi knew he would. “Dr. Yoonlittle.”

Yoongi coughs. “Bad pun.”

“It’s like Dr. Doolittle, get it?” Seokjin elbows him in the side a few times while they wait in line for check out.

“I got it, it’s still a bad pun.” 

“You don’t know anything about puns, I’m a literature professor, Yoongi. Take my word for it.”

“I’m a linguistics scholar, hyung. I think I have a leg up on you this time.”

“Grinch, grinch, grinch,” Seokjin starts chanting again, this time successful in getting two twin boys in line ahead of them to chant along with him, their mom ignoring them while she pays.

“Stop it,” Yoongi hisses, face going red again when Seokjin gets the twins to jab a finger in his direction every time they repeat the word. 

When the mom is done paying, she gives them both a weird look before she shuffles her kids towards the exit, the twins continuing to call out until they’re out of sight.

“You just taught those kids how to bully,” Yoongi sighs, placing items on the conveyor belt.

Seokjin shrugs while he tosses a few bags of candies onto the belt as well. “I’m a teacher, what can I say? Old habits die hard.” 

Yoongi smiles while he shakes his head, passing cash over to the cashier before picking up their bags. “Before we get back on the bus, let’s go to one of those kiosks outside to get some weird kitschy ornaments.”

Seokjin bumps shoulders with him as they walk out, taking one of the bags from his hands. “That’s the holiday spirit I’ve been looking for!”

When they get back home, they spend the afternoon hanging everything up. Once Seokjin puts a dent in the wall while trying to hammer in a wreath, he relinquishes all decorating duties to Yoongi, so the afternoon is mostly just Seokjin calling out words of encouragement from the couch and playing increasingly niche christmas songs off his phone.

When they’ve finished, Yoongi doses off on the couch, warmed under the twinkling lights of their tree, and when he wakes up, there’s a blanket laid out over him. The apartment is quiet, Seokjin probably having gone to hang out with friends, so Yoongi pulls the blanket tighter around himself, smiling as he falls back to sleep.

(8 Days Until Christmas)

The next day, Yoongi spends most of the morning and afternoon drafting a syllabus for the spring semester. He’s teaching the department’s intro class, and most of the material is just repeated from previous semesters, but it’ll be his first time teaching and over-preparing eases his nerves. 

When the sun starts to set in the late afternoon, there’s a knock at his door. He startles at his desk, because it’s rare for Seokjin to come to his room. Usually they interact in the common spaces, and if one of their doors is closed, they steer clear. He lowers his headphones around his neck and calls out for Seokjin to come in.

Seokjin peeks his head in just a bit, like he knows this is a little taboo for them as well. “Hey, am I interrupting?”

Yoongi turns further away from his laptop, hands on his knees. “Nah, I was winding down anyway. What’s up?”

At that, Seokjin opens the door a little wider, relaxing against the door frame. “What do you know about fire?” Seokjin asks, crossing his arms and tilting his head in curiosity.

Yoongi mirrors his movements, crossing a leg over his knee as well. “I don’t like where this questioning is going.”

“It’s a simple question, Yoongi.” Seokjin rolls his eyes, head still tilted. Yoongi doesn’t appreciate the extra effort to seem nonthreatening.

“I would say I probably know the average amount about fire.”

“Do you know how to build a fire?” Seokjin asks, finally straightening back up, hands slipping into his pockets.

“I mean, if I have a lighter and some newspaper, sure. It’s easy,” Yoongi shrugs. 

Seokjin claps once in excitement and comes forward to pull at Yoongi’s wrist, dragging him from his desk and into the kitchen. In the center of the floor is their metal garbage can, sitting empty with the garbage bag removed. Yoongi frowns at it and looks back to where Seokjin is watching him.

Seokjin sees his confusion and points at today’s newspaper where it sits on the counter. “Make us a fire. I’m sad we don’t have a fireplace and I want to be cozy.”

Yoongi stares at the garbage can for another minute before he turns around to walk away. “I can’t believe you’ve survived this long in life. It’s a miracle, honestly,” he calls out, not bothering to turn his head back for Seokjin to hear him clearer.

“What’s that supposed to mean,” Seokjin yells back, an affronted look on his face when he follows after Yoongi. 

“It means exactly what I said. You wanna set an open fire in a garbage can, in our 60 square foot kitchen. I can’t believe you’ve made it to age 30.” Yoongi shakes his head as he scoops up his wallet and keys.

“The metal will contain it! Are you telling me metal is flammable all of a sudden? So much for knowing an average amount about fire, Yoongi, seriously,” Seokjin scoffs. He keeps following Yoongi until they get to the front door, and then squints in confusion when Yoongi starts putting on shoes. “Woah, wait, where are you going? Are you really going to leave me here to die?”

Yoongi snorts, looking up from his shoelaces. “So you admit this plan was deadly?”

Seokjin shrugs, leaning against the wall of the entryway. “I was on the fence, but I wanted a second opinion. I wasn’t expecting such dramatics, though.” 

“Dramatics,” Yoongi mutters, shaking his head. “Well dramatics aside, I’m going to buy us one of those space heaters that look like a fireplace. I’ve been meaning to buy a heater anyways, but if you really need the visual aid of flames, they’ve got pretty realistic looking ones at the department store nearby.” He slips on his puffer coat, patting his pockets to double check for his wallet. “I saw them when I went for a crying walk a few weeks ago.”

Seokjin stares at him for a second, face screwed up in a mix of bewilderment and amusement. Yoongi just shrugs and reaches for the doorknob. 

“Wait,” Seokjin calls out from behind him, and Yoongi watches as he shoves his own shoes and coat on. “I’ll come with you.”

“You don’t have to-” Yoongi starts.

“You’re way too weak to carry that by yourself. When you went out to buy ice for Namjoon’s birthday party, it took you an hour to carry one bag from the convenience store two blocks away.”

Yoongi huffs and opens the door to leave, but walks slow enough that Seokjin can keep up, even while he squawks as he hops down the hallway, trying to shove his second shoe on. 

The train to the department store only takes a few minutes, but walking from the ground floor to the third floor where the home department is takes half an hour, as Seokjin keeps pulling them off the escalator to look at the displays of holiday gifts. Yoongi groans every time Seokjin grabs him by the arm to bring them to a different section, but he doesn’t bother hiding the smile on his face when Seokjin picks up every item within reach and asks Yoongi’s opinion on them.

“Who would need an electric corkscrew? What, are people so lazy they can’t turn their wrist a few times?” Seokjin asks, flipping the box over to look at the price. “Oh it’s half off, Yoongi. Should we?” 

Yoongi giggles as he pulls the box out of Seokjin’s hands and puts it back on the display table. “We mostly buy screw tops anyways.” 

Seokjin hums, picking up an apron with a reindeer on the front. “I think we should try baking more often. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. It’s silly we don’t bake more.”

“You hate bakin-” Yoongi starts, but is interrupted by a hand on his shoulder.

“Hyung! What are you doing here?” An excited voice asks behind him.

He turns to find Taehyung and Jimin, a pile of colorful socks cradled in Jimin’s arms with Taehyung’s arm hooked over his shoulders. 

“Oh my god, wait don’t look. Your gift is in this pile,” Taehyung says, bringing a hand down to shield the socks. 

“You get me socks every year, do you really think it needs to be a surprise?” Yoongi shuffles a little so his back isn’t to Seokjin. “You guys know my roommate, right?” He waves a hand between them in question.

Jimin rolls his eyes and Yoongi blushes when he sees the same expression reflected on Seokjin’s face. “Uh yeah, hyung. We know Seokjin hyung, the guy you’ve been living with for two years? And who we see once a month when you actually invite us over?”

“Yeah, come on, I smoked my first bong with hyung, how could you even ask that?” Taehyung frowns, shuffling away from Jimin to wrap a hand around Seokjin’s arm, hugging him to his side.

Yoongi’s eyes go wide. “Uh, when exactly did that happen?”

“At Namjoon and Hobi hyung’s New Year's Eve party last year. Hobi hyung’s friend brought it and me and Seokjin hyung hid in a closet because we smoked too much and thought everyone at the party was a cop.” 

Seokjin is giggling at Taehyung’s side, nodding at the memory, and Yoongi feels inexplicably left out. “Why wasn’t I invited?” He frowns.

“You were down in Daegu last year,” Jimin reminds him, patting his shoulder. Yoongi decides there’s been too much bonding time between the different people in his life. It makes him uneasy to know Jimin and Seokjin might have inside jokes together that he’s not in on.

Yoongi grunts, looking down at his watch. His coat blocks most of it but the gesture is enough. “Well, we should probably get going, we have some shopping to do.” Yoongi puts a hand on Seokjin’s arm closest to him and gives a gentle tug away from Taehyung. 

His eagerness to get away is enough to send a little grin to Jimin’s face, and he shifts the pile of socks in his arms. A few pairs tumble to the ground, but Taehyung bends down to pick them up without comment. Jimin’s eyes sparkle in amusement as he watches Yoongi twitch from where he stands under Jimin’s gaze. Yoongi curses the fact that they’ve known each other since middle school, because it means they can basically read each other’s thoughts at this point. 

“Are you at your parent’s house this Christmas, hyung?” Jimin asks Seokjin, ignoring Yoongi’s attempt to leave.

“Nah, me and Yoongi are both here for the holidays. Cut off all ties from our families, right Yoongi?” Seokjin asks, nudging his side.

Yoongi smiles at Seokjin, but it drops into a scowl when he looks back at Jimin, whose eyes are glimmering.

“Well perfect, then. We’ll have dinner together! Taehyungie and I are gonna be down at his parent’s house for Christmas Day, but we’re in Seoul for Christmas Eve.” Jimin pulls Taehyung closer, and kisses him on the cheek. From an outside point of view, the gesture would seem cute, but Yoongi can see the conniving edge to it. 

“You guys are gonna cook us Christmas Eve dinner?” Yoongi asks dubiously.

Jimin’s laughter twinkles out of him, and Yoongi shivers. “Of course not. We’ll have it at your apartment. We’ll bring wine, 6pm on the 24th good?”

Yoongi frowns, but Seokjin is already butting in. “That sounds nice! I’ll tell Namjoon and Hoseok to come too, I know they’re leaving for a vacation the next morning but they should be able to swing by for a bit.” 

Jimin wraps an arm around Seokjin for a side hug, and then kisses Yoongi on the cheek before he pulls Taehyung away. “Perfect. We’ll see you then!”

They watch them walk away in silence, and Seokjin claps his hands together after a few seconds, jerking Yoongi out of his feelings of dismay. “Time to get some fake fire?”

Yoongi nods quickly, following Seokjin to the escalators.

On the way up, he can’t focus, because his mind keeps flashing back to the time he got drunk over the summer with Jimin.

Seokjin had been away for the week, on a beach trip with some friends, so Yoongi had invited Jimin over to make sangria. Two pitchers and a game of Would You Rather later, the questions switched focus towards Yoongi’s roommate. Jimin had asked whether he’d rather punch Seokjin in the face or have to tell him about a sex dream he had about him. With a flushed face, Yoongi said punch, definitely punch, and after relentless needling from Jimin, Yoongi had admitted that he had in fact had sex dreams about his roommate. After a little bit more needling, he went into pretty explicit details about what exactly happened in those dreams. 

Yoongi realizes in retrospect, of course Jimin wouldn’t have forgotten that. Evil Jimin with his evil mind, he doesn’t forget anything. 

Sure enough, as they’re riding the next escalator up, Yoongi’s phone buzzes with a text. 

Jimin
ohhhh you SO wanna suck his dick

Yoongi
I DON'T
FUCKING 
IDIOT

Jimin
don’t lie to me u little perv
i remember those dreams
u nasty nasty boy
thinking about THAT in a DEPARTMENT STORE on CHRISTMAS
ur going to hell

Yoongi
i’m not thinking about it!!!!!
ur the one thinking about it!!!!!

Jimin
ur thinking about it right now
ur thinking about the part of the dream with the handcuffs

Yoongi
GET OUT OF MY HEAD
FUCK U

Jimin
i can't wait to see u guys in action on xmas eve
i'm gonna make an environment SO romantic
it’s gonna blow ur little mind

Yoongi
how are u gonna create a romantic environment at a dinner at MY apartment

Jimin
u guys will be surrounded by couples
there will be wine
and sexy cozy vibes
neither of u will be able to resist

Yoongi
no
i don’t even
stop
i don’t want sexy cozy vibes
i’m just here to buy a heater jimin
that’s all that’s happening

Jimin
tae says he felt the sex vibes between u guys too
u guys were playing with corkscrews when we found u
i mean
come on hyung

Yoongi
don’t talk to me anymore

Jimin
c u on xmas eve!!!!!

Seokjin is crouched over a space heater when Yoongi slips his phone back into his pocket.

“This one looks like the cheapest model. Does that bring you joy, Yoongi?” Seokjin asks, smiling up at him. 

Yoongi’s still blushing from Jimin's texts, but he still smiles back and helps Seokjin pick it up. “Perfect. Let’s go home, I’m tired of being around other humans.”

Seokjin laughs, bumping shoulders with Yoongi as they waddle back towards check out, each with a hand stuck in a cardboard handhold. “I’ll make us some hot cocoa, yeah?”

Yoongi steps below Seokjin on the escalator steps, and looks up at him as they ride down. His hair is still blown awry from the windy walk from the train, and his neck is red from where his scarf has scratched against it. Yoongi blinks in shock, because really, in a state like this, he shouldn’t still be so nice to look at. 

He clears his throat, and looks back down the escalator. “Yeah, hot cocoa sounds great.”

When the heater is set up next to the TV, fake flames flickering in the dimly lit room, Yoongi tucks himself onto the couch with his laptop, rather than going back to his room like he normally might. Seokjin sits on the other side of the couch, answering emails on his own laptop, and after an hour passes, he slides his computer under the coffee table and demands they watch another Christmas movie.

Yoongi clicks his own laptop shut, reaching for the remote before Seokjin’s even finished his sentence. “An actual Christmas movie, or another Die Hard situation?”

“I heard Mariah Carey has a holiday special, put that on,” Seokjin says, nudging him with a sock-clad toe. Yoongi looks at it out of the corner of his eye, wondering how his feet look so cute and small when he knows they’re only one shoe size apart. He flicks his gaze away when they poke his thigh again. 

10 minutes into the Mariah Carey special, Yoongi realizes something. 

It’s terrible. The production is terrible and everyone is lip syncing and he doesn’t even like holiday music very much and he certainly doesn’t care about all the celebrity cameos. It’s terrible, and yet he’s sitting there, Seokjin’s toes squeezed under his thighs for warmth, and he hasn’t thought about getting up and going to his room even once. 

He peeks at Seokjin from the corner of his eye again, watches him laugh as Mariah Carey sings in the middle of an enchanted forest, and thinks, fuck. I might really be enjoying this, actually.

“It’s like she’s not even attempting to sing on queue. She knows she’s lip syncing, we know she’s lip syncing, she’s just having a good time in her incredibly bejeweled ball gown. This is amazing,” Seokjin says, eyes bright when he looks over at Yoongi. 

Yoongi doesn’t really agree with his assessment, but he nods anyway, smiling before Seokjin turns back to the screen. Yoongi hugs his mug closer to his chest, and lets the warmth seep in. 

(7 Days Until Christmas)

“Yoongi,” comes a hiss from somewhere in the apartment, and Yoongi looks up from where he’s pouring hot water into a cup of instant noodles. 

A few seconds of silence pass, so Yoongi goes back to stirring in the seasoning. Feet patter down the hallway and into the kitchen, and Yoongi feels a paper clip hit the back of his head. 

He looks down at where it lays on the ground, and then back up at Seokjin where he’s peeking his head around the doorframe. “Ow.”

“Don’t ignore me,” Seokjin whispers loudly. He waves violently for Yoongi to follow him, and Yoongi blinks in confusion.

“Why are you whispering?” Yoongi asks at a normal volume, and ducks when another paper clip gets hurled at him. “How many of those do you keep in your pockets?”

“There’s carolers, Yoongi. Here,” Seokjin says, fear written across his face.

“I don’t hear them.”

“They’re down the hall, I saw them when I came home. They’re coming, Yoongi.”

“Ok,” Yoongi says slowly, and then gradually turns back to his soup.

A third paper clip goes over his head, pings against a cabinet and falls straight into his bowl. 

He sighs when he turns back around. “What exactly do you want me to do about these carolers? Do you want me to eliminate them?”

Seokjin stares at him for a moment, looks like he seriously considers it. “No,” he mutters to himself. “Hiding all those bodies would be too hard.”

“I was joking-”

“I don’t know what to do when I open the door,” Seokjin rushes, like he can feel them approaching outside. “Do you just stare at them? Do you sing along?”

Yoongi thinks about it, and shifts where he stands, starting to understand Seokjin’s urgency. The possibilities leave Yoongi feeling sweaty. “I… I don’t know. Should I google it?”

The doorbell rings, and they both jump. 

“Fuck, fuck, ok. It’s happening, Yoongi. Hurry, it’s happening,” Seokjin rambles, waving his hands around as he paces toward the door, and then back again to grab Yoongi. 

“It’s fine,” Yoongi assures. Even as he says it though, he feels dread building in his throat. He doesn’t excel at new types of social interactions, and he can’t remember a time anyone has ever sang so close to him before.

Seokjin grabs his hand before he opens the door, and Yoongi feels himself go even sweatier. “We can do this, Yoongi.”

Yoongi gulps, and pulls open the door with the hand Seokjin isn’t gripping, and immediately puts on a fake smile. 

“Oh my, Yoongi, look! Carolers!” Seokjin exclaims, squeezing Yoongi’s hand tighter and waving jovially at the six people in front of them.

They smile back before they break out in a rendition of O Holy Night. Yoongi can feel bile rise in the back of his throat, the way it always does when he’s overwhelmed. He thinks that between the six strangers singing about Jesus on his doorstep, and the fact that his roommate, who he’s recently come to the decision is a very cute roommate, is gripping his hand in front of the aforementioned Christ singers, he’s lucky he hasn’t vomited all over the doormat.

About a minute into the song, the grip on Yoongi’s hand tightens even more, and he feels Seokjin lean towards his ear. “Fuck, do we give them a tip or something?” He whispers anxiously, even while he smiles at the singers, nodding along to the lyrics.

“That doesn’t seem like a very Christ-y thing to do,” Yoongi whispers back as quietly as he can.

“You don’t know shit about what a Christ-y thing to do is, you’re an atheist,” Seokjin argues. He gives a thumbs up to a teenager in the front of the caroling group, nodding aggressively as if to convey his enjoyment.

“So are you, idiot.”

“Go get the fruit bowl,” Seokjin whispers again. His lips brush against Yoongi’s ear, and it takes all of Yoongi’s willpower not to shiver at the touch. 

“This isn’t halloween, they don’t need to pick a treat out of a bowl.” Before Yoongi can argue more, Seokjin lets go of his hand and shoves him towards the kitchen.

Yoongi stumbles inside and grabs the bowl. He sends one sad glance towards his rapidly cooling noodles, but heads back quickly because he can tell the song is wrapping up.

As soon as he rejoins Seokjin at the door, the final notes come to a soft end, and Seokjin claps a few times before ripping the bowl out of Yoongi’s hands. “Oh, that was lovely. I loved, like, all of that. Didn’t you love it, Yoongi?” Seokjin asks, eyes wide as he looks at him.

“Uh, yeah. Wow. Goosebumps.”

Seokjin pushes the fruit bowl into the teenager’s arms, and pats them on the head a few times before snatching his hand away like that might be a weird thing to do. “Please, take a fruit bowl. From our homestead to yours.”

The carolers all look at the fruit bowl curiously, but before any of them can say anything, Seokjin is waving enthusiastically and closing the door in their faces. He slides to the ground, looks up to Yoongi with a look of despair on his face. 

“That was my grandmother’s bowl, Yoongi. How could you give it away?”

Yoongi sputters. “What- you’re the one that made me get it, I had no part in what just happened! You should have just let them leave, why would you give them the bowl, that was so unnecessary.”

Seokjin laughs, grabbing onto one of Yoongi’s hands to pull himself off the ground. “I’m just kidding, that bowl was from IKEA. Actually, I think it was yours.” He shrugs as he walks back into the living room.

Yoongi leans his head back against the front door, and takes a deep breath. 

“Think your noodles are cold!” Seokjin calls out. A second passes before coughing comes from the kitchen. “Oh yeah, super cold, gross. You’re not gonna want to eat these.”

Yoongi sighs deeper, and pulls out his phone to order them both dinner. 

(6 Days Until Christmas)

Taehyung texts Yoongi the next morning to help him pick out a necklace for Jimin’s present, so they spend most of the day together arguing whether Jimin is more of a ruby or sapphire person. They land on a panther pendant encrusted with onyx and emerald, and they share hotteok on the walk back to their separate trains.

When Yoongi gets home, he finds Seokjin bent over a book at the kitchen counter, glasses perched low on his nose. He looks up when Yoongi comes in, smiles as he pushes the glasses higher, and manages to smear a bit of flour on his cheek. 

“Baking?” Yoongi asks, going to wash his hands at the sink.

“You know what I love about you, Yoongi?” Seokjin asks, flipping through the book, puffs of flour coming up every time he turns a page.

Yoongi rolls his shoulders as he surveys the mess on the lower side of the kitchen island. Covering the surface are bags of flour and sugar, as well as five bowls holding doughs of varying textures. Yoongi feels like he’s being generous in his assessment that they are in fact doughs.

“No, hyung, what do you love about me?” Yoongi asks, leaning a hip against the opposite counter. He crosses his arms while he waits for Seokjin to stop flipping through his cookbook. 

“I love that you’re always ready to pitch in a helping hand. Whenever hyung has a problem, you swoop right in and always volunteer to help out.” Seokjin looks up, perching his chin in a hand, more flour covering his face now.

“Doesn’t sound like me,” Yoongi quips, and starts to walk out of the kitchen.

“Yoongi.” Seokjin slots himself between the doorway and Yoongi’s body, and Yoongi stops short. Yoongi sometimes forgets that Seokjin is taller than him, and he looks up now into his playfully begging eyes. Yoongi feels his heart stutter in his chest. “Please, help hyung. All my doughs are lumpy and I can’t figure out why. I just want to eat a sugar cookie in front of our beautiful hearth.”

Yoongi rolls his eyes before stepping over to the cookbook, mostly just so he isn’t standing quite so close to Seokjin’s broad chest. He wills the flush out of his cheeks as he scans the recipe before him. “There’s only 3 steps to this recipe, how are you fucking it up?”

Seokjin swats him on the butt with a clean wooden spoon he’s pulled out nowhere, and walks back to his bowls to inspect them. Yoongi leans further over the cookbook to hide how the flush has spread to his neck. 

“Don’t be rude, Yoongi. Baking is a science, one tiny misstep and you’re dealing with a total collapse in dough chemical structures.”

Yoongi walks around to stand by his side, and drags a spoon through the closest bowl of dough. “Well in this one you didn’t cream the butter.”

“That’s what he said,” Seokjin quips.

Yoongi’s brow furrows in confusion. “When would someone say that?”

Seokjin thinks for a second, then shrugs. “I don’t know, but it certainly sounds sexual. It’s been a while for me, though,” he says offhand. 

Yoongi clears his throat, and focuses on the spoon. “Well, sex aside, this butter is cold. You need it to be room temperature.”

Seokjin sighs, and dumps a few of the ruined doughs into the garbage disposal. “See, this is why I need you. You watch that silly foreign baking show and learn so many things.” 

“Great British Bake Off is a delightful show and you should watch it,” Yoongi refutes, rolling up his sleeves so he can start measuring out flour for the new batch.

“Well, next time you watch it, do it in the living room so I can join you,” Seokjin suggests, and Yoongi glances at him from the corner of his eye before he turns back to the flour.

“I will,” he says, clearing his throat.

Yoongi gets to measuring out the dry ingredients, and then starts combining the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Seokjin watches him from a few feet away, following all the movements of his hands. He helps when Yoongi shows him what size dough balls he should make for the baking sheet, and Yoongi meticulously spreads them to be two inches apart.

“You’re a very capable person, Yoongi. Has anyone ever told you that?” Seokjin asks as Yoongi closes the oven door after depositing the baking sheets.

Yoongi barks out a laugh. “No, I don’t think so. Awkward and anxious are usually the words that are associated with me, I’d say.”

“I think those adjectives live more in your head than they do out here in the world,” Seokjin says, watching as Yoongi piles the bowls and measuring cups in the sink, and then uses the sponge to clean down the counter. “You’re being very capable right now.”

Yoongi turns back from dumping crumbs into the sink and finds Seokjin hoisting himself up to sit on the now clean counter. “I’ll have to wipe that down again now,” Yoongi notes.

Seokjin hums as he settles, swinging his feet back and forth where they hang. “You’re very clean, too.”

Yoongi huffs out a laugh, and turns back to the dishes. “Gonna go through the whole alphabet to find words for me?” 

There’s a moment of silence before Seokjin speaks again. “Well, ‘doltish’ would have to go next, I guess.” 

“Could have just said ‘dumb’,” Yoongi remarks, scrubbing at a bowl.

“What kind of teacher of literature would I be if I took the easy way out on an insult?”

Yoongi hums in response, not bothering to fight down his smile since Seokjin can’t see him.

“Hmm, for E I’d say Elusive,” Seokjin says next.

Yoongi scoffs at that. “You’re just picking random words now.”

“No, I’m not! You’re a mystery, constantly slipping in and out of here at all hours of the day. God knows where you actually go.”

“To my university and to the grocery store. That’s all I do, and I leave at very normal hours of the day.”

“Mmm, next, let’s see: Fiscal, Gay, Handy.”

“Handy and capable mean the same things, don’t be redundant.”

“Jeez, fine, ‘hostile’, how about that?”

“Better.”

“Intelligent.”

Yoongi’s hand slips on a bowl before he gets a grip on it again. “How can I be doltish and intelligent at the same time?” Yoongi asks, dipping his head down.

“I make the rules here, I say you can be both.” 

Yoongi’s run out of dishes to wash so he turns back to face Seokjin. “That doesn’t sound fair.”

“Judicious, kind, laudable,” Seokjin continues.

“If I ever run for office, remind me to hire you as my communications officer.”

Seokjin’s eyes twinkle in response. “Mirthful.”

“Back atcha,” Yoongi agrees with a grin. He looks down to where his feet shuffle on the ground, uneasy by the compliments.

“Nascent.”

Yoongi’s eyes flick up at that, not sure how Seokjin means it. “I’ve just been born?”

Seokjin’s eyes are warm when he looks back at him. He shakes his head. “You’re just at the beginning. You’ve got potentials laid out in front of you.”

Yoongi cheeks heat up once more. He clears his throat. “What kind of potential?”

Seokjin shrugs playfully. “A few from my perspective. What do you want it to be?” He asks, leaning forward from his perch.

Before Yoongi can answer though, he smells burning. 

“Fuck!” Yoongi grabs an oven mitt to pull the cookies from the oven. “Fuck, hyung, I forgot to set a timer. I’m sorry.”

Seokjin hops off the counter to look down at the baking sheets on the stovetop, now lined with dark brown cookies. They aren’t black, which is something, but since they’re supposed to be a pale gold, Yoongi thinks they’re probably past being enjoyable. 

Seokjin shrugs and breaks one in half, blowing on it before he takes a bite. “I mean I wouldn’t sell these at a bake sale, but I’m no cookie snob.” He munches on the other half, humming in approval. He holds the last bit up to Yoongi’s mouth. “Taste?”

Yoongi looks down at the cookie in his hand, then up into his eyes. Seokjin bumps the cookie against his bottom lip, and if Yoongi weren’t confused about whatever was happening between them right now, he’d probably feel quite aroused. 

He bites into the cookie, brow furrowing at the burnt taste, before lifting back up slightly once the aftertaste is just butter and sugar. Seokjin watches the progression and laughs softly. “See? Not so bad.”

Yoongi nods, lifting a hand up to brush some of the flour off of Seokjin’s jaw, hoping to seem at least a little bit nonchalant about it. “Not so bad,” Yoongi agrees, dropping his hand back down. 

There’s only a few inches between them, and Yoongi can’t tell if he’s imagining the way Seokjin’s eyes drift lower. He’s probably just looking at the crumbs on your mouth, Yoongi reasons with himself. Slob, he adds for good measure.

Just when the silence feels like it’s gone on for a few seconds too long, the buzzer at the front door goes off. Seokjin’s eyes flicker in confusion, before they go wide. “Oh fuck, I’m seeing a movie with Jungkook tonight.”

Yoongi steps away, suddenly very preoccupied with dusting any remaining flour off of his pants. “Oh cool, yeah. Have fun, hyung,” he says, maybe a touch more enthusiastically than necessary. 

Seokjin opens his mouth to respond, but Yoongi is already turning to leave the kitchen, slipping quickly into his room. It’s a few minutes before he hears the front door close, signaling Seokjin’s exit, and Yoongi uses the opportunity to scream into his pillow.

(5 Days Until Christmas)

Yoongi spends most of his morning watching ASMR food prep videos in bed, until his stomach starts growling around noon. He makes himself lunch and returns to his desk, answering some last minute emails before everyone in his department goes offline for the final week of December. 

He’s trying to decide whether to sign off an email with “happy holidays” or “enjoy winter break”, frowning in concentration, when there’s a knock on his doorframe. He looks up to see Seokjin standing there, a cable knit sweater drowning his frame, smiling as he watches Yoongi swivel toward him in his desk chair. 

The door is ajar, and Yoongi tries to think back to whether it was a conscious decision to leave it open, or whether he had done it by mistake. Either way, he thinks he rathers it this way, isn’t sure why it’s always been his instinct to close himself in. Especially not if he’d miss out on sights like this, with Seokjin standing before him, shuffling his feet in ugly reindeer slippers. 

“Those new?” Yoongi asks, clicking his laptop shut. He’ll figure out appropriate holiday email greetings later.

Seokjin looks down at his slippers and blushes. “Ah, yeah. My aunt mailed them as a gift. They’re pretty hard to walk in, the antlers keep tripping me up.” 

“They’re cute.” Yoongi shrugs, keeping his eye level somewhere around Seokjin’s ankles.

“Thanks,” Seokjin says, shuffling again. “Hey, it started snowing.”

Yoongi looks up in surprise, and then over to the window over his bed. Sure enough, snowflakes are drifting down from grey skies. “Oh, I didn’t know we were supposed to get snow.”

“Me neither. But I was thinking about going for a walk? If you wanted?” Seokjin asks, hands in his pockets.

“Didn’t you just get back?” Yoongi asks, remembering he heard the door open just a while ago.

“Yeah, but I was just picking something up from my office. I wanna like, go for a winter stroll, you know?”

Yoongi doesn’t particularly like snow, hates the way it feels when it gets stuck on his eyelashes, hates even more when it starts turning into dirty slush in the city streets. All the same, Yoongi still finds himself nodding as he stands up from his desk, scooping up a hat before following Seokjin to the entryway.

“You sure?” Seokjin asks once they’re bundled up, even as he puts his hand on the knob of the front door.

Yoongi rolls his eyes and pushes through the door, taking the stairs down to street level and waits for Seokjin to catch up before he walks toward the park that’s only 5 minutes away.

And even though the snow has already started going brown around the edges in the streets they pass through, the flurries have turned the sky white, and the bare trees lining the sidewalks have a soft coating of snow on the branches. When they get to the park, there’s a decent amount of people enjoying the first snowfall of the season, but for the most part they have the paths to themselves. Occasionally they’ll pass a couple, and Yoongi finds ways to distract Seokjin from looking at them, like if Seokjin sees them he’ll know what they look like from an outside perspective too.

“Look, a wood pigeon!” Yoongi points to a tree, on one such attempt at distraction.

Seokjin follows where his mittened hand is pointing, and frowns at the tiny bird in the distance. “How can you tell it's a wood pigeon?”

Yoongi frowns too. “Do you not trust me?”

“On bird knowledge? No.” 

Yoongi huffs and shoves at his shoulder. “I know plenty about birds.”

“Ok, then tell me what identifies that as a wood pigeon.”

Yoongi squints at the bird, and then at Seokjin. “Well it's in the woods, for one.”

“Strong analysis so far,” Seokjin nods.

“And it looks like it’s grey. And all pigeons are grey.”

“I’m not sure that’s a fact,” Seokjin laughs. He points to a closer tree. “And what kind of bird is that, master bird watcher?”

Yoongi looks at it, and startles when he finds it staring right back at him like it knows about his extremely limited bird knowledge.

“Well, it’s got a green belly,” Yoongi supplies. Seokjin nods, stopping in front of the tree so they can stare up at it.

“It does have a green belly. So that means it’s a…” Seokjin waits, amusement coloring his voice.

Yoongi lowers his face and subtly lifts his eyes to look up at Seokjin, hoping he can discreetly learn the answer just by looking at him. 

“A… goose?” Yoongi guesses. He isn’t expecting it when Seokjin tips forward, laughing hard as he buries his face in Yoongi’s jacket.

“A fucking goose? Is that really your guess?” Seokjin squeaks, wiping tears from his eyes. He grips at Yoongi’s coat to drag himself back up to a standing position. 

“Why can’t it be a goose? I’ve seen geese with green on them before,” Yoongi argues.

“It’s in a tree, Yoongi. Geese have webbed feet,” Seokjin continues to laugh, and Yoongi’s cheeks go red. Not from embarrassment, just from how close they are.

“Ah, right. Probably too slippery for tree branches.” 

Seokjin giggles again, letting his hands fall from Yoongi’s jacket when his laughter calms down. “Yeah, slippery little devils can’t get a good grip.”

Yoongi feels his own giggle slip out of him, and Seokjin watches him with something like fondness. 

“You have snowflakes in your eyelashes,” Seokjin points out. 

Yoongi shrugs. “That’s ok.”

Seokjin tilts his head to signal for them to continue down the path, and Yoongi breathes a sigh of relief when he doesn’t have Seokjin’s eyes on him anymore. 

“Thanks for putting up with me this week by the way,” Seokjin mentions at some point.

Yoongi makes a questioning noise and Seokjin just shrugs one shoulder, walking down the path with his hands tucked behind his back, kicking at clumps of snow as he goes.

“I like doing the traditional holiday stuff and you’ve been really cool about joining in. I miss being home, but it’s been nice getting to do stuff with you,” Seokjin shrugs again, looking a little awkward at the honesty.

“I wouldn’t call that putting up with you,” Yoongi chides softly. “I’m getting the same level of enjoyment out of it as you are.”

“Yeah?” Seokjin asks, ducking his head forward and sending a surreptitious glance.

“I know we were kind of already friends but-” Yoongi softly kicks a clump of snow out of his way, and Seokjin sends it back his way in a playful volley. “But, it’s been nice, you know. Getting to hang out.”

Yoongi sees Seokjin grin from the corner of his eye, but Yoongi focuses on kicking the growing snow clump back over to him. 

“I agree,” Seokjin says. He kicks the snow into a nearby bush, forcing Yoongi to look up. “Wanna find a roasted chestnut stand on the way home?”

Yoongi shivers, thinking about having some nice warm chestnuts to snack on, followed by a night spent in front of their silly little fake fire machine. 

“Hell yeah, come on. I’m freezing,” Yoongi says, pulling at Seokjin’s arm to guide him towards the nearest park exit. 

Seokjin laughs at his urgency, and buys Yoongi his serving of chestnuts as an apology for any possible frostbite. Yoongi doesn’t tell him that he feels warmer than he has in a long time.

(4 Days Until Christmas)

By the time Yoongi wanders out of his room, he’s read half of a newly published book on sociolinguistics and has listened to the Justin Bieber Christmas album four times through. (He uses headphones, fearful someone might overhear). Seokjin’s door is ajar, and his room is empty, and when Yoongi pokes his head into the kitchen, there’s a note on the counter. 

with Jungkook for the day,
made him some soup and left 
the extra in the fridge, EAT!!!

Yoongi stares at the note for 5 minutes before he crumples it up, embarrassed by the fact that he’s just spent so long reading 17 words over and over again. He stares at the balled up paper in his hand, and then nearly twists his ankle rushing over to the fridge. 

He stands in front of the microwave while he waits for the soup to reheat, even though his mother made him promise that if he were ever to have a microwave in his home, he’d never stand near it while it was on so that he wouldn’t get cancer from the radioactive waves. Now, he stands inches from the glass door, bouncing on his toes as he waits for it to be done.

It’s not the first time Seokjin has made him food. He makes dinner a few times a week, and whenever he does, he offers to make enough for Yoongi. Yoongi almost always turns him down, especially during the semester when he’s nearly never home for meal times. But once in a while, they share a home cooked dinner together, and it’s always delicious. Yoongi tells himself that’s why he feels like he’s about to vibrate out of his skin right now, and definitely not because Seokjin has never left him a note like this before. 

There’s been notes, of course. Notes like, “do NOT turn on faucet”, and “stole your umbrella because you have two, i promise not to lose this one!!”, but never… letting Yoongi know what he’s up to for the day. And never ones demanding he eat, even if there are leftovers in the fridge that Yoongi knows are up for grabs. They have a rule that unless something is explicitly labelled with a post-it that says “MINE”, then the other person can feel free to have some, whatever it is. They split groceries all the time, it’s just easier that way. So if Yoongi had opened the fridge and saw the soup, he would have probably eaten the soup. He’s never had Seokjin tell him to eat the soup.

Yoongi whines out loud, feels himself spiraling. It’s mortifying but this is what he does. He’s done it ever since the first time a boy stole one of his toys at recess, and Yoongi would spend weeks wondering if they stole it because they wanted his attention, or if they stole it because they just thought he had cool toys. Inevitably, when you think about someone’s actions that much, whether they were positive or negative actions, you start to… think. Think about whether they hate you, think about whether they like you, think about whether you like them, maybe think about whether they give good hugs. Yoongi’s an overthinker. He overthinks and he gets crushes, it’s who he is.

When he’s finished with the soup he pulls out his phone.

Yoongi
so if like
taehyung was going out for the day
and you were sleeping when he left
would he leave u a note?

Jimin
he wouldn't leave without kissing me goodbye
i don't understand your question
is taehyung leaving to go somewhere?

Yoongi remembers then that Jimin’s an overthinker too. It’s why they’ve been friends for so long. Some kind of mutual respect for what they both suffer through. He sighs and goes back to the texts.

Yoongi
no
ok say you’re like super asleep
you’re sick and tae doesn’t want to wake you up

Jimin
oh
is this a somnophilia thing?

Yoongi
NO
jesus 
no

Jimin
ok..
well he still wakes me up even when i’m sick
listen this man needs his kisses
he throws a fit if he doesn’t get them

Yoongi
ok
new scenario

Jimin
are we roleplaying?

Yoongi
??
no
of course not

Jimin
seems like we’re roleplaying
i should probably tell my boyfriend if we’re gonna continue any further

Yoongi
this isn’t roleplay
there’s no need for tae to hear about this

Jimin
he says it’s ok
he’s watching over my shoulder to monitor the situation tho
he says hi!!
and he says he would never leave without kissing me goodbye

Yoongi
for fucks sake
ok
say taehyung is out
and you’re leaving the apartment
but you know tae is coming home soon
and you’ve left some soup in the fridge that he can eat for lunch
do you leave him a note?

Jimin
where are you in this roleplay scenario?

Yoongi
this isn't roleplay
i told you
i'm just asking about your relationship

Jimin
mmmmm
lets see
yeah i’d probably leave him a note
it would probably be a sexy note tho
i don’t really make soup
would you like to hear what the note might say?

Yoongi
no
absolutely not

Jimin
i’d probably start with telling him how much i miss his body
oooh
tae says he likes when i leave notes next to lingerie telling him to put them on
yeah i would leave panties with the note definitely

Yoongi
no
no no
this isn't what we’re talking about
we’re talking about me
this spiralled
this was supposed to be a quick question about whether notes are romantic
i don't want to hear about lingerie

Jimin
why do u care if notes are romantic?

Yoongi
idk

Jimin
omg
hyung
did seokjin leave u a note?

Yoongi
idk

Jimin
what did the note say????

Yoongi
idk

Jimin
was it about lingerie?? 
fuck u guys are further along than i thought

Yoongi
NO
god
it just said where he’s going for the day and telling me he left some soup in the fridge

Jimin
ooooooooooooooooh
there’s SOUP in the FRIDGE

Yoongi
there’s no need to emphasize those words
they mean nothing

Jimin
u wouldn’t be texting me if u thought they meant nothing

Yoongi
shut up

Jimin
are u ready to admit u have a crush on him?

Yoongi
i’m just asking because i’m wondering if i should be leaving notes too
as like
roommate etiquette 
no one is crushing on anybody

Jimin
you’ve lived together for 2 years
u dont give a shit about roommate etiquette
u want to **** his ****

Yoongi
i want to what?

Jimin
sry tae made me put the asterisks 
he doesn’t want me talking about sucking dicks during a roleplay scene he’s not directly involved in
he thinks it would make him feel jealous
unless ur cool with him joining?

Yoongi
i don't want to suck his dick

Jimin
taehyung’s???

Yoongi
NO
seokjin’s

Jimin
dont u dare lie to me min yoongi

Yoongi
i'm your HYUNG
treat me with respect

Jimin
tell the truth COWARD

Yoongi
I DON'T KNOW THE TRUTH

Jimin
ooooh now we’re getting somewhere

Yoongi
no we’re not
i have to go
i’m in the middle of a book review
go away

Jimin
YOU texted ME

Yoongi
goodbye

Jimin
alright alright
the note sounds sweet
you should be sweet back
just saying

Yoongi
u think?

Jimin
yeah
go be the sweetie i know u can be

Yoongi
whatever
thanks
bye

Jimin
this roleplay sucked btw

Later that night, Seokjin sends a text that it’s snowing pretty hard outside, so he’s going to sleep over Jungkook’s place. If Yoongi hadn’t met the kid, he might be jealous. Not that he has a reason to be. Or the right. But either way, he knows they have a strictly platonic relationship, and he knows Jungkook is extremely well off from streaming on twitch and youtube, and that Seokjin sleeps in the guest room when he stays over. 

Yoongi slams his head back on his pillows. What is he, some creepy possessive roommate now? So what if Seokjin shares a bed with Jungkook, why should he care? That’s Seokjin’s life, he can platonically cuddle whoever he wants. Hell, he could non-platonically cuddle whoever he wants, and Yoongi didn’t have any right to do anything other than congratulate him on all the non-platonic cuddles he’s getting. He almost pulls out his phone right then to text Seokjin that he definitely should share a bed with Jungkook tonight, but he thinks that would come across as weird.

He thinks back to the soup, and smiles. 

It was a sweet note, Jimin was right.

(3 Days Until Christmas)

It feels like a breath of fresh air when Seokjin comes home the next morning, the apartment going from quiet to noisy in seconds.

“That damn elevator, Yoongi, I swear it gets slower every time I use it. It took 4 minutes for it to come to the lobby to bring me up. I could have walked up the stairs faster than that,” Seokjin complains as he yanks off his boots, snow still caked into the heels. 

Yoongi watches from the couch, where he’s drinking a yogurt. “Why didn’t you then?”

“Why didn’t I what?” Seokjin asks, trudging over to the heater to flick it on, plopping down on the carpet in front of it.

“Why didn’t you walk up the stairs if you knew it would be faster?”

Seokjin scoots around so his back is to the heater, and his affronted face is aimed towards Yoongi. “I’m supposed to climb 3 flights of stairs every time I want to enter my home?”

Yoongi snorts into his yogurt. 

“Sorry, that was a silly suggestion, you’re right.”

Seokjin sighs, resting his head against the TV stand while he stretches out in front of the heater. “Of course I’m right, I’m always right.”

“Your jacket is melting.”

“My jacket is wha- Oh, fuck,” Seokjin hisses, jerking his windbreaker away from the scalding vent of the heater. There’s not much damage done, but enough that Yoongi is pleased he was here to point it out. 

He thinks back to Seokjin’s alphabet of adjectives for him. Handy. He smiles to himself. If handy means helping his hyung to stay alive and not be melted, he can be that.

He lets them settle back into silence for a minute, Seokjin cradling his arm away from the heater, but otherwise looking happy to bask in the heat, eyes shut and a low contented hum deep in his throat. Yoongi would hate to disrupt the peace, so he lets himself stare just a bit longer.

But all good things must come to an end.

“I hate to break it to you, but we have to go grocery shopping,” Yoongi announces. He snorts out a laugh when Seokjin’s face scrunches up, even with his eyes still closed.

“No.”

“Yes. The shops will be crazy tomorrow and Christmas Eve is two days away. We have to plan the dinner that you signed us up for.”

“That I signed us up for? They’re your friends!” Seokjin squawks, finally opening his eyes.

“Yeah, and I would have said no to my friends, but you butt in. And then you invited our other friends too. Now we have four more mouths to feed than usual.”

“Five,” Seokjin groans, laying flat on his back now, arm swept over his face.

“Five?”

“I invited Jungkook. He’s working on Christmas Eve so he’s not leaving to visit his parents until Christmas morning. He’s coming over after his stream ends.” Seokjin sounds like he regrets this fact now, like cooking for one additional person will be the thing that breaks him.

“What are we, a collection center for lost kids,” Yoongi mumbles to himself.

“God, I hate cooking for multiple people, Yoongi. There’s so many dishes to wash afterwards. We have to cancel.” 

“Listen, we’ll keep it simple and traditional. Bulgogi, japchae, and everyone brings a side dish. And we’ll buy the cake, fuck making a cake ourselves.”

Seokjin smiles up at him from his place on the floor. “Baking isn’t a strong suit in this household.”

Yoongi smiles back. “It’s not.”

Seokjin groans as he rolls himself into a sitting position. He sighs once more, deep and long, like Yoongi’s asking him to donate one of his lungs. “Alright. Let’s fucking do this, I guess.”

They get to their usual grocery store and it’s already a bit busier than normal. Yoongi rolls the cart while Seokjin inspects the produce, holding items up to Yoongi’s face every minute or so to ask him if it smells fresh.

“You go get some bulgogi, I’m gonna find some makgeolli,” Seokjin announces once all the japchae ingredients are in the cart.

“Don’t get too much,” Yoongi calls out after him, and Seokjin tuts loudly.

“Of course I’m getting too much, Yoongi. It isn’t the holidays unless we get just a little bit drunk, right?” 

Yoongi flushes when two older women laugh nearby at Seokjin’s announcement, but he rolls their cart away before anyone can see. He buys a few pounds of beef, and stops on his way back to find Seokjin to get some disposable plates to help cut down on the amount of dishes they’ll have to wash. There’s an 8 pack of makgeolli bowls for cheap, and even though they usually just drink it out of regular glasses when they’re home, Yoongi think Seokjn will get a kick out of serving people with traditional drinking bowls. 

He’s right, because when Seokjin comes waddling over with an armful of bottles, he yips in delight when Yoongi shows him the bowls. “We’re the best hosts, my god. We’re gonna show these losers how a real dinner party is thrown.”

“We’re gonna be eating around a coffee table, off of paper plates with Christmas trees on them.”

“And they’re gonna be drinking out of proper makgeolli bowls and they’ll love every second of it.”

Yoongi rolls his eyes, but nods, guiding them towards checkout. “You’re right, hyung.”

Yoongi feels a light hand on his lower back, Seokjin steering him to the shortest checkout line, and he doesn’t think he’s ever felt a touch so acutely. Seokjin’s arm hovers behind his back, connecting with his body every few steps as they walk through the store, and even through the layers, the pressure of the hand feels overwhelming. Yoongi’s heart is in his throat as they wait in line, Seokjin’s arm still gently settled behind him, as if he’s forgotten he’s put it there.

He finally removes it when they start loading items onto the counter for the cashier to ring up, and Yoongi listens while Seokjin makes friendly conversation with them. He chances a glance up at Seokjin while he's paying, and after a moment, he must feel Yoongi’s gaze because Seokjin looks over and flashes a smile at him. When Yoongi smiles back, Seokjin refocuses on the keypad in front of him, before wishing the cashier a happy holiday as they leave.

As they waddle back home, arms laden with grocery bags, Yoongi thinks about how domestic it all feels. Thinks about how much he likes that.

Thinks he’s ready to admit it now. Thinks, maybe I have a crush.

(2 Days Until Christmas)

Yoongi is making himself a late morning smoothie when his phone rings. 

“Ah, fuck,” Yoongi mutters when he sees the screen. It’s his brother, and it’s a facetime call. Yoongi takes a deep breath before he swipes to answer.

The chaos is immediate. Multiple people call out his name all at once. From the dizzying movements of the camera, Yoongi can vaguely see what looks like his mom holding up one of his nephews, both of them waving their hands in excitement. On the corner of the screen, Yoongi can make out his brother’s face, grinning like he knows Yoongi hates being put on the spot like this.

“Hey, everyone,” Yoongi sighs, smiling when he sees his nephew reach out for the phone. “Hey buddy, having fun with grandma and grandpa this week?” 

His nephew nods in excitement, holds up a garland of popcorn they must have just made together and Yoongi gasps in awe. 

“Holy hell, that’s gorgeous, kid,” Yoongi snickers when the phone gets jerked away and his brother’s face comes fully on screen.

“What have I said about teaching my kids your filthy curse words?” Geumjae sighs, exasperated. 

“Ah, what kind of uncle would I be if I didn’t teach them a few curses?” 

Yoongi’s mom peeks her face onto the corner of the screen. “Tell him we want to meet his roommate,” she whispers, nudging his brother’s shoulder while he rolls his eyes.

“I can hear you mom,” Yoongi sighs.

Her face comes fully into view. “Yoongi, introduce us to him. I want to know you’re being taken care of over the holidays.”

Yoongi flounders, looking around to make sure Seokjin is hovering somewhere nearby. “I don’t need to be taken care of, I’m 29 years old,” he hisses. And then, under his breath. “If anything, I’m the one taking care of him.”

“I’m waiting, Yoongi,” his mom says, tone final. 

Yoongi whines in frustration, and makes eye contact with his brother, who shrugs. He doesn’t look like he wants to argue with their mom either. If anything, his brother looks amused.

“Fine,” Yoongi mutters.

He finds Seokjin on the couch, blanket over his lap while he reads. He looks up when Yoongi comes in, smile already on his face, but tilts his head in confusion when he sees Yoongi’s grimace.

“My family wanted to say hi, is that ok?” Yoongi asks, hovering near the door.

Seokjin’s eyebrows go up in surprise, but even so, he tucks his book onto the arm of the couch and waves Yoongi over. “Of course, it’s about time you introduced me,” he says loudly, aiming to be heard.

Yoongi hears his mom laugh victoriously as he settles onto the couch cushions. 

“I’m glad you agree that it’s time we finally met,” Yoongi’s mom calls through the phone, like she’s not sure how loud she needs to be for Seokjin to hear.

Seokjin laughs under his breath at her volume, and glances sideways at Yoongi. “Ah, I’ve been telling him to bring me down to Daegu for a while now, I think he’s just shy about sharing me with other people.” Seokjin winks at Yoongi when he bristles at the lie.

“You’ve never-” Yoongi starts.

“How is Japan? I heard Geumjae-ssi moved there recently,” Seokjin asks, ignoring Yoongi’s protests.

“It’s lovely, the house is all set up and I got to bring some family heirlooms with me to make it more homey,” Yoongi’s mom says, proudly squeezing his brother’s cheek.

“Yeah, mom’s been real helpful with decorating this past week. She’s moved the couch four or five times already,” Geumjae says, widening his eyes to convey his desperation before his mom smacks his shoulder.

“Listen to your mother, Geumjae. I’ve lived twice as long as you, I know what I’m talking about,” she chides.

“Well, Yoongi and I have been keeping up the holiday traditions even though he’s not with you this year,” Seokjin interrupts their bickering. “We hung up lots of beautiful wreaths because he said it reminded him of his childhood.”

Yoongi’s mom looks touched. “Did you? We always have lots of wreaths, I love the way they look.” She turns her attention to Yoongi. “Yah, why wouldn’t you send me pictures of your decorations, don’t you want your mother to be happy?”

Yoongi rolls his eyes, but he can’t help looking back to the smile on Seokjin’s face before he speaks. “Yeah, mom, I’ll send a picture later. You’ll love it.” 

His mother though has already moved on. “You have a lovely face, Seokjin. Has anyone ever told you that?” 

Yoongi jumps up from his seat before she can say more. “Alright, we’ll let Seokjin hyung get back to his book. Say bye, hyung.” 

Yoongi aims the camera down to Seokjin where he’s silently laughing. “Bye, eomeonim!”

Yoongi trips a little in his haste to get to his bedroom, shutting the door behind him. He sighs in relief when he knows they’re out of earshot. 

“Well that was rude, Yoongi- Hey! Joonwoo, put that down! That’s an heirloom!” Yoongi’s mom vanishes from the screen, and Yoongi leans his head back against his door, feeling a very acute kind of relief that he’s in Korea and not Japan.

“Seokjin’s nice,” Geumjae says when Yoongi slowly drags his head off the door. 

Yoongi just hums tiredly as he walks over to his bed to sit. 

“Mom wasn’t wrong about the nice face,” his brother comments, and Yoongi’s eyes narrow on the screen. 

“Yeah? You thinking of leaving your wife, hyung?” Yoongi asks.

“You’ve talked about him a fair amount over the years, you never mentioned what he looks like,” Geumjae shrugs, trying to sound offhand. 

“Didn’t think that was important information.”

“Is it not?” His brother asks, clearly needling now.

“No, it’s not,” Yoongi bites back.

“You sure about that? Not even a little bit important? Seemed like you were pretty aware of it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just means you seemed to like looking at it while we were talking to him.” 

Yoongi scoffs. “You talked to him for like less than a minute.”

“Yeah, and all I’m saying is in that time you left quite the impression about how you feel about his face,” Geumjae smirks.

“Alright,” Yoongi announces, done with the conversation. “It’s been great catching up, hyung. We’ll chat on Christmas, ok? Your kids can show me their new toys and I can teach them a few new curse words.”

“Always the deflector, Yoongi,” Geumjae starts, but Yoongi cuts him off before he can continue.

“Bye,” Yoongi says loudly. He hangs up and tosses his phone under a pillow. 

He lays on his back, staring up at the ceiling for a little bit while he tries to ignore his brother's words. It’s disconcerting that Yoongi only just figured out that maybe he has a crush, and yet his brother is already telling him it's apparently clear as day. He wonders if Seokjin has noticed. He hopes he hasn’t. Having a crush on your roommate is one thing, but having to deal with the awkward tension of your roommate knowing about that crush… Yoongi shudders. It doesn’t sound like a fun time. 

He’s jarred from his thoughts when Seokjin calls out for him from the kitchen.

“You gonna finish making this smoothie, Yoongi? Cuz I’m pretty hungry, I wouldn’t say no to it,” Seokjin calls.

“Don’t steal my smoothie, you jerk,” Yoongi shouts as he stumbles out of bed. 

“It’s not stealing if you’ve abandoned it!” 

“I haven’t abandoned it!”

Yoongi hears a long sigh. “It looks yummy,” Seokjin says, not yelling anymore but still loud enough for him to hear.

Yoongi rolls his eyes, and schools the grin off of his face before he enters the kitchen.

“I’ll make you one, too,” he mutters. 

As he walks in, Seokjin whips around toward the doorway, frozen raspberry in his hand. He quickly drops it back in the blender, ignoring that Yoongi could blatantly see his attempt at stealing.

“You’re an angel, Yoongi,” Seokjin smiles. He skips out of the room when Yoongi pushes him away from the counter.

“Yeah, yeah,” Yoongi laughs. He blushes the entire time he makes the smoothies.

(1 Day Until Christmas)

Yoongi runs out in the morning to get a cake from a local bakery. He gets some cute snowflake cookies too, and before he pays, he adds two scones to the order, knowing Seokjin and him will probably be too busy to make a proper lunch. He walks back to their apartment slowly, enjoying the cold morning air, happy to see most of the snow puddles from the other day have evaporated.

He passes a bookstore that he’s been to once before, and before he can question his instinct, he heads inside. The shopkeep waves hello, but otherwise focuses on something behind the counter, and Yoongi is grateful for the lack of interaction. He thinks if he had to explain what he was looking for, he’d probably be scared off. 

He finds a section of beautifully bound books, and runs his hand along the spines as he reads the titles. When he reads one that he remembers Seokjin saying he teaches in most of his classes, his hand stops. It’s a chinese classic, something most intro classes cover, but Yoongi knows that Seokjin’s own copy is just a beat up paperback he’s had since he himself was in undergrad. 

The price point is a little steep, but the quality of the pages are lovely. The cover is embossed and the weight of the book in his hand feels like just the right side of heavy. Yoongi stares at it for a few moments, but before he can talk himself out of the gift, he heads to the cashier and lays it determinedly on the counter.

By the time he gets home, Seokjin has finished vacuuming and is trying to pull their short collapsable table out of their storage closet. Yoongi helps him with it, and they slide it up to one end of the coffee table so there'll be plenty of room for all 7 of them. Seokjin lays a plastic tablecloth over the two tables, and sighs in satisfaction when he steps back and appraises their work. 

“Perfect. All done!” He flops backwards onto the couch and Yoongi laughs, sitting on the arm of the couch to look down at him. He wraps a hand around Seokjin’s ankle to get his attention.

“We still have to like, cook everything. You haven’t forgotten about that part right?”

Seokjin sighs, no longer in satisfaction. “Christmas time is bad.”

“You love cooking.”

“No, you love cooking.”

“We both do.”

Seokjin pushes his ankle into Yoongi’s hand, and he tightens his grip. “Fine. We’ll cook for our loved ones and we’ll have a nice time.”

Yoongi smiles down at him, before he slides down onto a cushion, pulling Seokjin’s feet into his lap. “It’s early still though, we have time for an episode of that drama you’re watching.” 

Seokjin squeals instead of answering, wiggling his feet happily in Yoongi’s lap, but makes no move to actually pull them away. His hand flaps for the remote, and they spend the next hour like that, tucked away on their couch with a historical romance playing out before them. Yoongi thinks back to two weeks ago when they were sitting on opposite ends of the couch, and focuses now on the way Seokjin’s toes wiggle every time one of the leads say something particularly passionate. 

When the episode ends, Yoongi smacks one of Seokjin’s calves to rouse him, and Seokjin groans, but gets up when Yoongi does. They spend the next few hours cutting vegetables and preparing all the food, putting stuff in the oven as they go to keep warm until dinner. When they’ve finished cooking, Yoongi shoos Seokjin off to go shower, and he sets the table with the paper plates he bought, along with drinking bowls and wine glasses. 

When he hears Seokjin finish in the shower and head to his room, Yoongi takes his turn in the bathroom, and takes his time getting dressed. He stares at a nice button up he bought with Jimin a few months ago and then over at one of his usual comfy sweaters, and shrugs before he reaches for the button up. He can look nicer tonight, it’s a party after all. 

When his alarm goes off to remind him it’s 6pm, he heads out of his room and bumps into Seokjin where he’s wandering back from the bathroom, patting his hair like he’s just styled it. Yoongi blinks at his cashmere sweater, collar just wide enough to show off the tops of his collarbones, and he wills the flush he feels from spreading to his cheeks. 

“Hey,” Seokjin says, drifting a few steps closer, stopping in front of the doorway to the living room opposite from Yoongi’s bedroom. “You look nice.”

Yoongi slides a hand down his torso to smooth out some of the creases, embarrassed by the attention. “Ah, well. Figured I should dress for the occasion. You look nice too, hyung. Really.”

It’s dim in the hallway, but Yoongi thinks he can see the beginnings of a blush creeping its way up Seokjin’s neck. Yoongi’s eyes flick up above Seokjin’s head, and he sees one of the mistletoes they hung up last week. He jerks his gaze back down before Seokjin can notice, and is luckily saved by the front buzzer going off. 

“Time to get drunk?” Seokjin asks.

Yoongi grins in response, and pushes past him to get to the front door.

First to arrive are Namjoon and Hoseok, already apologizing that they’ll probably have to head out early since they have a morning flight. Jungkook comes a few minutes later, carrying a bag filled with bottles of red wine and a container of kimchi, and Seokjin smacks a loud kiss on his cheek, which Jungkook dramatically rubs off his face for a full minute. When Taehyung and Jimin get there, they pull everyone into tight hugs and proudly hand over perfectly wrapped gifts to everyone, and to no one’s surprise, they all get socks.

They drink through most of the makgeolli before Yoongi remembers to put dinner on the table. And by the time they’ve eaten a decent amount of the food, they’ve gone through another 3 bottles of wine. 

He’s laughing hard at a story Hoseok is telling (or at least attempting to tell, he hasn’t been able to stop hiccuping since his second glass of wine), when he feels a hand settle over his knee. He looks down and sees it belongs to Seokjin, then looks up to his face to find tears of laughter leaking out of his eyes. Yoongi’s suddenly forgotten what Hoseok is saying, but from the look on Seokjin’s face, it must be a riot. Yoongi is still chuckling under his breath, but he can’t look away from Seokjin, not when the weight of his hand feels so warm against his knee.

He’s not sure how long he zones out, but when he finally manages to draw his attention away from Seokjin, Jimin is leaning over the table from his place next to Yoongi, chin perched in his hand, directing his attention toward Jungkook where he sits at the head of the coffee table. 

"That workout plan looks like it's going really well, Jungkook. It's amazing what a few months of lifting can do to a body," Jimin compliments, fluttering his eyelashes as he does.

"Oh, um, yeah-" Jungkook smiles self-consciously, nose still tucked over the rim of his wine glass.

“You know," Jimin interrupts, "Tae and I are very open to the idea of polyamory."

Jungkook blinks at him, eyes flicking back and forth between Jimin and Taehyung, blush brightening on his cheeks.

“And service tops,” Jimin adds. “We’re very interested in that as well.”

Jungkook manages to upturn his entire glass of wine down the front of his shirt, and his face flushes bright red as he hurries to blot himself. Jimin just smiles serenely while Taehyung reaches across the table to shove at his shoulder, giggling even while he tells Jimin not to scare the poor kid.

Seokjin is shaking quietly with laughter next to Yoongi, and Yoongi is mortified when they make eye contact.

Sorry about them, Yoongi mouths, nodding his head towards Taehyung and Jimin where they’re now asking Jungkook what his zodiac sign is. 

Seokjin leans forward to murmur in his ear, and Yoongi shudders a little at the feeling. “Don’t be, Jungkook’s always talking about how hot they are whenever they come to Namjoon and Hoseok’s parties.”

“Oh god,” Yoongi mutters under his breath. “Make sure they don’t all disappear at the same time to go to the bathroom.”

Seokjin laughs softly, brushing a hand down Yoongi’s back in reassurance, before they tune back into the table’s conversation, which has shifted towards what Jungkook usually looks for in romantic partners. Before it can spiral any further, Yoongi makes Namjoon tell them about the book he’s working on. He asks him in part to overshadow whatever sexual tension is happening between Taehyung, Jimin and Jungkook right now, but mostly because Yoongi is genuinely interested, and he hasn’t hung out with Namjoon in a while. 

Hoseok watches warmly as Namjoon explains the interviews he’s been conducting, but after half an hour, he kisses his cheek to let him know they should head out soon, or else they’d end up sleeping through their flight. Yoongi wraps up a few snowflake cookies for them to take, and once they’re gone, he brings the bakery cake to the table, and cuts everyone a slice. 

Jungkook has ended up between Jimin and Taehyung somehow, and Yoongi turns sideways so he doesn’t have to watch them try to feed Jungkook forkfuls from their own plates. He angles himself towards Seokjin, resting his side against the bottom of the couch, and Seokjin tilts his head back against the cushions, watching him.

“Fun night?” Seokjin asks, voice starting to sound drowsy. Yoongi inches forward, under the guise to hear him better.

“Yeah, I’m glad we did this.” 

“Me too.” Seokjin smiles softly, closing his eyes as he speaks. It’s near midnight and Yoongi feels the same sleepiness settling in him. “You know, I’m kinda happy I didn’t go home this year.”

Yoongi chews on his bottom lip, watching Seokjin’s face carefully. He looks peaceful, so Yoongi doesn’t know if he should read into what he’s saying. 

Still. “Me too. Think this was my favorite Christmas yet.”

The corner of Seokjin’s mouth quirks up into a grin, and Yoongi feels his own face mirror the movement. His eyes flutter open and find Yoongi’s. “Christmas hasn’t even happened yet. You sure you wanna make that call so early?”

Yoongi pretends to think, knees hugged to his chest and toes just barely pressed against Seokjin’s thigh. He hums before he answers. “Yeah,” he says, just above a whisper. “I’m sure.”

Seokjin’s eyes seem a little bit more awake now, and the shift in his expression makes Yoongi’s heart rate speed up just a little bit. But even with the shift, Seokjin’s eyes are still so warm, and it’s hard to think about ever looking away.

Until Jimin speaks up.

“Well,” Jimin emphasizes, like maybe Yoongi and Seokjin’s conversation wasn’t as private as it felt. Yoongi’s face is already flushing pink at the realization. “Jungkook is gonna come back with us to our place, our wifi has been spotty lately and he’s gonna check out the router to see what’s up.” 

Yoongi looks at Jungkook, whose face has been bright red for the past hour, and watches as he looks anywhere in the room but at Seokjin. 

“You’re shameless,” Yoongi says.

Jimin grins. “Incredibly. But it’s a part of our charm, isn’t it?”

“You have no charm,” Yoongi refutes. Taehyung rubs a hand over Jungkook’s thigh, just visible over the table’s edge. 

“Do you think we’re charming, Jungkook?” Taehyung asks.

Jungkook nods quickly, and Yoongi worries he’ll hurt his neck with how enthusiastic the movement is. Seokjin makes a quiet gagging sound next to him. 

“Don’t miss your train down to Busan in the morning,” Seokjin warns as they all start standing up.

“Oh, we have an early train to Daegu anyways. We’ll make sure he gets to the station.” Jimin says it sweetly, like he isn’t explicitly bringing Jungkook back to his apartment to watch him rail his boyfriend.

“Thanks for the socks,” Seokjin calls out before the front door slams shut, finally leaving the two of them alone. 

They sit quietly for a few minutes, enjoying the sudden quiet. 

Finally, Yoongi pats Seokjin’s thigh, and gets up to start clearing the remaining dishes from the coffee table. Since most of the plates are disposable, there’s only a few things to wash, and Yoongi decides to do it in the morning, focusing instead on rolling up the dirty tablecloth to throw in the garbage.

“I hate that I know Jungkook is about to have a Christmas threesome. I kind of want to wash my brain with bleach,” Seokjin says, still splayed out at the foot of the couch.

“Yeah,” Yoongi agrees. “Better to just pretend he’s actually attempting to repair their wifi.” 

Seokjin sighs. “You sure bleach wouldn’t be better?”

Yoongi hums sympathetically. “Sorry, hyung. Think that would fuck up some other key brain functions, and I value your mind too much.” 

Seokjin snorts, and finally stands up to help Yoongi shove all of the garbage into their trash can. 

“You head to bed, I’ll take the trash to the garbage shoot,” Seokjin says, pushing Yoongi toward the bedrooms. Instead of protesting, Yoongi just smiles in thanks, feels a slight ache in his bones from sitting on the floor for so many hours.

“Night, hyung,” Yoongi mutters, shuffling to his room, but stops at the opening to the living room to look back at him.

Seokjin pauses by the front door, trash bag in hand. His voice is soft when he speaks, eyes are warm. “Merry almost-Christmas, Yoongi.”  

Yoongi resists the urge to go over and kiss him, trash bag be damned.

Instead he goes to his bedroom, and dreams of tomorrow.

(0 Days Until Christmas)
(Christmas Day)

Yoongi wakes up on Christmas morning feeling a little more drowsy than usual, an idle hangover pressing at the base of his skull. He goes out to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee, leaning his face against the fridge while he waits for it to be ready. By the time he’s had his first sip, he just feels like he does most mornings, which is tired and slightly regretful he didn’t stay in bed. He pushes through the feeling though, wanting to wash the dishes in the sink before the clutter stresses him out.

Afterwards he goes to shower off the feeling of alcohol in his pores, and when he emerges from his room a little later, dressed in a fresh pair of pajamas, he finds Seokjin puttering around in the kitchen, pouring some of the coffee that Yoongi made and putting some fresh grounds in for another batch. 

“Morning,” Yoongi says, walking to settle next to him where he’s popping bread into the toaster.

Seokjin looks up with a smile, nudging their shoulders together in greeting. “Merry Christmas.”

Yoongi smiles back, reaching for a banana and knife, knowing Seokjin likes his toast with it and some nutella. They stand there together, Seokjin spreading nutella on two pieces of toast, as Yoongi passes him slices of banana to put on top. Seokjin slides him one of the pieces, and they eat at the island, feet brushing against each other where they hang from the stools.

Suddenly, Yoongi remembers the gift he bought, and sits there while he finishes his toast, wondering if he should give it to Seokjin or not. He doesn’t want Seokjin to feel weird that he didn’t get Yoongi anything. He also doesn’t want to come on too strong if the gift is crossing a line between roommates and… whatever it is Yoongi wants them to be. At the same time though, Yoongi kind of does want that, to toe that line. He’s happy with what they are now, happy they’ve gotten to know each other better the past few weeks, but he’d also be happy to find out if there could be something more between them. And weirdly, that idea, of letting Seokjin know he’d be interested in more, doesn’t make him nervous. He doesn’t think Seokjin would fault him for pushing at the boundaries, he thinks he might even be proud of Yoongi, even if he doesn’t return the same interest.

Yoongi nods to himself, feeling a little more determined, and pushes away from the counter silently as he goes to his room to fetch the gift. Seokjin watches him go with a curious look, but eventually goes back to his newspaper. Yoongi wants to squeal at how much he enjoys the domestic feeling, even if he is currently teetering on a precipice.

He holds the book behind his back when he comes back into the kitchen, and stands patiently next to Seokjin’s stool, waiting for him to look up. When he does, the same warm curiosity returns to his face, and he tilts his head.

“I got you something,” Yoongi blurts, trying to sustain his confidence but waning just a bit. “It’s not much, but, you know. I just thought of you, like, when I saw it. So.” He shoves the book into Seokjin’s chest.

Seokjin lets out a soft grunt when the book collides with him, but it sounds like it’s only a little bit out of pain, and mostly out of surprise. 

Seokjin looks down at the book, and brushes his hand over the embossed leather. He’s smiling bright when he looks up. “Yoongi,” he looks back down, and then up at Yoongi again, like he can’t decide where to land his attention. “This is lovely, thank you.”

Yoongi shrugs, tugs one of his sleeves over his hands. “I thought you could add it to your bookshelf, spruce it up a bit since all your other books are pretty grubby.”

Seokjin laughs, smacking Yoongi’s arm. Instead of pulling his arm away afterwards, he slides his hand down to grip loosely at Yoongi’s wrist. “Yah, there’s a lot of love in my book collection.”

Yoongi just nods, shuffling on his feet, tries not to dislodge Seokjin’s hand. “Yeah,” he says, ducking his head a little. “I wanted to add to it.”

Seokjin doesn’t say anything for a few seconds, and Yoongi’s cheeks heat up even more. But before the heat can spread to the back of his neck, Seokjin pats his wrist and slides down from the stool. 

“I got you something too, hold on.” Seokjin slips out of the room, and Yoongi has to stop himself from jumping up and down and silently screaming from all the nervous giddy energy bundled up inside. He hasn’t felt the full force of a crush in years, and he’s a little dizzy from how powerful they can be.

Seokjin is back before Yoongi can decide to make a fool of himself, and he passes a mug into Yoongi’s hands. On it are two owls, one saying “who” and the other correcting it with “*whom”. 

“It’s dumb, right?” Seokjin asks, grin on his face. 

Yoongi grins back, eyes creasing as he nods. “Yeah, really dumb.” 

“If I had known you were gonna get me such a sweet gift, maybe I would have rethought mine.”

Yoongi shakes his head, smoothing a thumb over the owls. “No, it’s perfect. My gift wasn’t sweet anyways, it was just a book.”

Seokjin hums, slides his hands into his pockets. “Nah, I’d say it was pretty sweet.”

Yoongi shakes his head again, giggles this time when he looks up from the mug. “This is really dumb, the more I look at it the dumber it gets.”

“Good. That’s our favorite brand of humor, isn’t it?” Seokjin asks, and it’s then that Yoongi realizes how close they are. Both of them had their heads bent over this dumb novelty mug, but now that they’re standing up straight, there’s only a few inches between them.

“Yeah,” Yoongi breathes.

Seokjin’s gaze slips down to his mouth, and Yoongi’s heart rate picks up more than it should from one glance.

“Think the lighting is better in the living room,” Seokjin says suddenly, tugging at Yoongi’s wrist. “Come on, I want you to get the full effect of this mug.”

Yoongi grunts when Seokjin drags him down the hall, and stops in the doorway before they enter the living room. Yoongi makes a sound of confusion, especially when Seokjin turns him sideways to face him, eyes shining with mirth.

“Oh, would you look at that,” Seokjin mumbles. He glances up and waits for Yoongi to follow his gaze before he speaks again. “Mistletoe.”

Yoongi feels a grin spread across his face, matching Seokjin’s. 

He doesn’t need him to say anything else. He gets it now. He understands the way they both have been dancing around each other, maybe even for longer than the past two weeks. It’s in the look on Seokjin’s face and in the way he’s still gripping at Yoongi’s wrist. It tells him everything he already kind of knew.

They fit well together. They both want more. They like each other.

Yoongi crouches to put the mug on the ground, and in the next movement he’s pulling Seokjin down by the back of the neck and kissing him. 

Seokjin wraps his hands around Yoongi’s lower back without a moment’s hesitation, and Yoongi almost wants to laugh at how sure they both are, can’t believe it took them this long to get to this moment. Seokjin kisses like he already knows the curve of Yoongi’s mouth intimately, and maybe he does, just from how long they’ve lived together. But he also bites at Yoongi’s bottom lip in a way that no amount of time of them living together could have taught him, and Yoongi gasps at the feeling. 

Seokjin’s hands spread over Yoongi’s hips, thumbs digging into either side of his belly button, and he pushes them so Yoongi walks backwards, stumbling and separating just for a moment when the back of Yoongi’s knees hit the couch. Seokjin holds Yoongi’s face to his, tongue peeking out of his mouth and into Yoongi’s when he lays Yoongi out on the cushions, bracketing his knees around Yoongi’s hips so he doesn’t crush him. The way he covers Yoongi’s body with his, pushing him into the couch just firm enough so that Yoongi can feel him from his head to his toes, makes Yoongi lose his breath.

Seokjin pulls away for a moment, catching his breath too. They rest their foreheads against each other, apartment silent except for their breathing.

“If it wasn’t obvious by that very subtle mistletoe ploy, I like you,” Seokjin says, breath still shallow but growing a little steadier as time passes.

Yoongi breathes out a giddy laugh. “If it wasn’t clear from the way my tongue was down your throat a minute ago, I like you, too.”

Seokjin nods as he brings his head back down, done with talking for now. Yoongi slips his hand into Seokjin’s hair and tugs on it in agreement. They’ve talked plenty. 

They kiss like that for what must be hours, and Yoongi's mouth sort of feels like it’s been rubbed raw by the time they start slowing down. Eventually, they’re really just resting against each other’s foreheads, occasionally dipping forward to nibble at each other’s lips. It feels good, and Yoongi can’t remember a time he’s been kissed so thoroughly without it derailing into sex. Probably hasn’t been kissed like this since high school, when sex wasn’t really a possibility most of the time. Yoongi giggles at the thought of making out with Seokjin in his high school bedroom while nervously listening for one of his parents to come up the stairs.

“Was’funny?” Seokjin murmurs, pulling back to look at Yoongi. His eyes look sleepy and content and mirror exactly how Yoongi feels.

“We should make out in my childhood bedroom sometime,” Yoongi says, not bothering to explain the background to the thought.

Seokjin furrows his brow, but there’s laughter in his eyes when he smoothes a hand down Yoongi’s side. “You’re a real freak, huh?”

Yoongi nods, feeling a little bit like this could be what love feels like, but pushes the thought aside as he angles his head up to press his lips to Seokjin’s again.

They’re interrupted when Yoongi’s phone starts ringing from the carpet at the foot of the couch. Seokjin’s hand fumbles out to get it for him, and when they see who it is, Seokjin laughs into Yoongi’s neck.

“Fuck, I forgot they were gonna call,” Yoongi groans when he sees his brother’s facetime call on the screen.

He pushes at Seokjin’s shoulder until they’re both sitting up on the couch, and Yoongi swipes at his hair trying to get it to look presentable.

Seokjin’s still laughing, but shuffles away a few inches so he won’t be on camera. “Your hair’s the least of your worries, your mouth looks ridiculous.”

Yoongi puts up a hand to touch his lips, and feels how swollen and chapped they are, knows they must be bright red. He blushes a little at the thought of how obvious it must look. But he knows his brother will just keep calling until he picks up, so he pats his hair one more time as he steels himself to answer. 

"How bad is it?" Yoongi asks, thumb hovering over the phone screen.

Seokjin glances between the phone and Yoongi's lips a few times. "Maybe the connection will be bad?" 

Yoongi groans and swipes to answer in the next moment before the ringing stops.

As soon as the call connects, his mom, brother, and both of his nephews are on screen, crouched in front of the Christmas tree in a truly picturesque scene of holiday familial joy. 

The scene is broken, however, when his oldest nephew leans forward to stare at the screen in confusion.

“Uncle Yoongi, what’s wrong with your mouth?” 

Yoongi can’t hear much after that, too preoccupied with how hot his face feels when it flushes, but he distantly notes his brother explaining something about an allergy to mistletoe, his mother loudly asking if Seokjin will be joining the call, all while Seokjin sits at his side squeaking with laughter and pointing at Yoongi’s embarrassed face. 

Through the chaos, Yoongi sneaks his hand into Seokjin's. That is, the hand that's not pointing teasingly at his blush. He ignores all the noise and manages to flush even brighter when he feels Seokjin squeeze his hand back.

It's not so bad, really, he thinks.

It's nice, even, to be laughed at when it's like this. To be teased when it's like this, to be held when it's like this, when it's with someone like Seokjin.

He squeezes Seokjin's hand tighter and pulls him into the view of the camera. It’s not the way he thought his Christmas would go, being interrogated by his family over facetime, but actually, he doesn't think he'd trade it for anything else in the world.