For Everyone, love Julie and Keri
Julie pulled her scarf a little tighter and called to her friends. The pet shop would be closed soon; they were lucky it was open on Christmas Eve at all.
Keri and Tamra giggled happily to themselves and skipped next to Julie, grabbing her by the arms. They dragged her into the store and pointed to… well, all the animals they could find. Victoria and Alex sighed, being the responsible ones, and went straight for the new bunny they were going to buy.
They had been smart enough to come choose the bunny a few days prior. It was a soft, tiny thing, sitting quietly in the corner of the rabbit’s enclosure, watching her brothers and sister hop and play and chase. Her fur was a pure, snowy white.
While Keri and Tripp and Julie spazzed over a pair of kittens in the corner, Victoria picked the peaceful ball of fluff from within the enclosure and carried her to the front desk, Alex producing her wallet with a sigh. She would have to get Julie to pay her back later.
Keri pointed a pure grey kitten, and Tripp gasped, both squeeing over its cuteness. Julie looked around at the hamsters and birds, before Alex walked over, the newly bought bunny in her hands.
Julie's attention was now on the pure white fluff ball. She took it and smiled, jumping up and down. "This is Frost, cause she's all white and… and… wow, she's cold!" Julie laughed and placed her in her jacket.
It took them a few minutes to find the things they needed; Julie was insistent on buying Frost everything from a leash to a new, personalised food bowl. Alex glanced at her watch, thinking that they needed to hurry if they wanted to catch the grocery store before leaving, and eventually pulled one of them out of the store. The rest followed.
It wasn’t far, really: only through to the other size of the shopping centre. They had managed to forget the gravy (Again), and of course the younger ones insisted on hot chocolate that they didn’t have the ingredients for. Vaguely, Alex wondered why there was no-body around; It was a shopping centre on Christmas eve; What happened to all the last minutes shoppers?
"Oh, look! It's Santa! Can we go sit on his lap?" Keri asked excitedly, but it was no use. Julie and Tripp were already near the Santa, excitedly jumping up and down.
Keri giggled and ran after the two, not even hearing a "yes" from the father of the group. Victoria shrugged and followed Keri excitedly, all four girls being the only ones in line.
Did they feel awkward at all? Nope. They just loved Santa too. He's not just for kids, you know!
Laughing happily, Julie took the first turn, handing Frost to Alex to hold.
"Santa..." She started, not even hearing him say hello before beginning. "We all... Fyre Blue, that's our group name. Like a band of friends. Well, Fyre Blue wants Super Junior, a Korean pop band for Christmas! Can you do that Santa?"
Santa looked a little surprised for a moment, raising his white eyebrows (That looked real, on comparison to the stuck on or painted ones of normal shopping centre Santas).
“That’s an awfully big request, my dear… Are you sure you want it?”
“Yes~!!!”
“Well in that case,” He smiled, pulling out a notebook that glittered in the fluorescent lights on the ceiling, “Any other specifications?”
She looked around for a moment, pondering the question. Tripp cuddled Frost while Alex smiled, and her dongsaengdeul cooed over the small, white bunny.
“Well… if it wouldn’t be too hard, Mr. Kringle… What about if you put them under our tree, with big red bows around their necks? I think everyone would like that…”
Santa looked a little surprised, perhaps wondering why she didn’t ask for more, but never-the-less smiled and winked at her. Julie would have thought he’d made the notebook disappear, but it must have been a trick… Right?
Julie got off Santa's lap and jumped excitedly, half believing what Santa said. Keri, Tripp and Victoria followed Julie as she walked off, but Keri seemed to remember something…
Turning back around, she smiled. "Santa, can you make them… speak English? We want to communicate!"
Santa laughed and nodded before snapping his fingers and… disappearing!?
Keri rubbed her eyes in disbelief… Alex seemed to have seen the same thing she had. The two girls looked at each other before running off to the other three girls, a bit scared.
Alex shook her head as she walked. It couldn’t have been... Could it? She eventually disregarded it as a hallucination of some sort; She hadn’t eaten much all day (Mina’s orders; The dinner was going to be huge, so everyone had to save room), and looking after the “Things + Two” had been very emotionally draining. Sighing, she led the way towards the grocery store, forgetting all about Santa and instead wondering what else they would need.
The things + two (minus Nhi, who was tired and stayed home. Besides, they were buying her present, weren’t they?) immediately ran to the cookies and candies, marveling at the pretty colors. Turning to Alex with a smile, their faces turned to a frown when she shook her head.
"You'll be up all night. No sweets until Christmas."
Whining, the younger four girls ran over to somewhere else, forgetting about the sweets.
Alex found the things they needed quickly, buying several packs of gravy and an even greater amount of hot-chocolate mix. Sighing at the sad eyes of her ‘Children’, she added the ingredients for cookies as well, and hurried to leave the store.
---
Julie carefully put Frost in with Cloud in his hutch, smiling as the two bunnies huddled up to each other in the cold. She turned on the small heater in her room, where their cage was, and after checking that they had food and water, ran back out into the living room. A sleepy Nhi was helping make hot chocolate, while Mina and a few others were helping with the cooking. The rest were all on decorating duty.
"Hey guys, guess who we ran into at the shopping center?" Keri bounced on her toes, excited to share the news.
All the girls turned to Keri, happily smiling. "Who?"
"Santa!" Julie blurted out before Keri could. Everyone gasped, or laughed. "We asked for Super Junior, under our tree."
Now everyone was skeptical. Super Junior wasn't really going to come under their trees, but they still could believe… couldn't they?
"Santa wouldn't do that to us." Julie smiled. "He's going to come through~"
Nobody wanted to break Julie's heart, so they all nodded in agreement.
Well, except for Soojin.
"I've been asking for hot guys under my tree for the past three years, and I haven't gotten anything. So, don't get your hopes up."
Tripp and Julie frowned, clinging to each other.
"Santa's real, right twin?" Tripp pouted and Julie nodded.
"Santa's real! Appajin is mean."
The apartment was noisy enough without all this fighting, but now the noise was out of control. Everyone else frowned at this argument as it escalated and went on for several minutes. After a while, Alex got fed up.
"Stop fighting!" She frowned, turning back to her cookies. “It’s Christmas Eve, relax.”
It didn’t take long before everyone forgot about the argument, and went back to their various Christmassy tasks. Erin was wrapping last minute gifts in her room, while Samku, Soojin and Stephanie hung Christmas lights and garlands around the apartment. Mina, Thea and Nhi were in the kitchen, Nhi making huge pots of hot chocolate to share around while Thea and Mina roasted vegetables that probably wouldn’t get eaten.
Tripp, having been kicked out of the kitchen after trying to sample Nhi’s hot chocolate, settled on the couch between an Alex, who was busily writing Christmas cards, and a Keri, who was suitably exhausted from all of the festivities. It didn’t take her long to start a viscous battle of video games with Keri, annoying their Unpa.
Victoria set down the last of her presents under the tree, giggling a little at Julie trying (And failing) to make a Christmas stocking for Cloud. She went to help her, trying not to think of how 15 stockings would fit on the mantelpiece that Sarah was currently decorating.
Dinner was an unruly affair, with a lot of stealing from each others plates, and flicking food at each other from across the table, and generally being the happy, giant family that they were. As predicted, the roasted vegetables ended up more on the ceiling and in the Thing’s hair than in stomachs.
The clock struck 10 and all the people in the apartment tried to think of something they could do until it was time for sleep. Some people started playing video games, some were cleaning up the kitchen. Some were even wrapping last minute gifts, away in their rooms. Then, after everyone finished or got bored, they decided to watch a Christmas movie. Julie sat by the window, along with Tripp. The older people sat on the only couch, while ViRi was sprawled out on the recliner. Some were laying on the ground, and some were sitting in the chairs they got from the kitchen.
“I haven’t watched Home Alone in years,” Thea said, stealing some of Erin’s popcorn and munching on it thoughtfully. “The last time I did was… Was it three years ago?”
There was a unanimous shrug, and the FB-ites turned back to the movie. The Things gasped and clapped at all the appropriate moments, and Soojin complained about the lack of manly blood and guts.
It didn’t take long, however, for most of them to ease off their sugar highs and settle down to watch the movie more intently. Tripp fell asleep, her head nodding onto Julie’s shoulder, who was looking a little sleepy herself.
“I know you’re coming, Santa... I just know you’re real” she said, staring up at the moon through the window.
At that moment, the clock struck 12.
---
Alex yawned, stretching her arms out in every-which direction, and rubbed her face into her pillow.
Christmas. Today was going to be absolute havoc.
Sighing, she un-wrapped herself from her warm cocoon of blankets (She was surprised for a second that she was in her bed... Didn't she fall asleep on the couch?) But she disregarded it in favor of going to fix a hurried breakfast. They would wake up any second now, and she should probably get something to eat before the havoc began.
She shuffled, stumbling a little on the way down the hall and squinting her eyes at the bright light filtering through the snow-adorned windows. She bumped into someone, and mumbling a small "Get out of the way, Eeteuk", she moved to go past him.
Wait...
She spun around, eyes wide, and stared at a bleary looking Eeteuk who was trying to pour orange juice in a glass. Yehsung smirked at him, and moved the cup so it was beneath the stream of liquid.
“You never were a morning person, were you, Hyung?" Yehsung smirked, taking a sip of his coffee. Eeteuk made a non-committal grunt and wondered faintly why there was orange juice dripping on his shoes. Donghae, who appeared to be sprawled all over the table, groaned as the small pool of juice found it's way to where he was lying. He rolled over, trying to get away from the offending cold liquid, and lay still again with his mouth hanging open.
"By the way," Yehsung said, looking up at Alex and taking another sip from his cup. "Your coffee is old."
Alex opened her mouth, and closed it again. This had to be a dream. A very... Good dream, yes, but a dream... A dream… A...
"Hey, who got me the Kyu doll?"
Her head snapped to the doorway, to see a sleepy Victoria and Keri examining what she immediately recognized as the real Kyuhyun. "Keri-"
"It's so rea- WHOEVER GOT ME THE KYU DOLL, I AM SO BUYING YOU KOREA.”
Kyuhyun moved slightly, scrunching up his nose and making a small, very real, very human noise. Keri jumped and squealed, backing up against the wall.
Erin rubbed her nose, staring around the corner of the room she shared with Thea. "What's... Going on…?"
"OH MY GOD WE KILLED DONGHAE." Julie cried, staring at the knocked-out body lying on their kitchen table. Yehsung stared at the second youngest (And her fellow Things), over the rim of his mug, not making any effort to explain to the contrary. Tripp screamed, turning tail on the Kitchen and running straight into Soojin’s and Stephanie’s room, Julie and Nhi following after.
There was stillness for a few seconds, as all the occupants of the apartment stared at each other.
“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!?! WHO DID THIS?”
The noise only got louder, as Soojin stormed out of the room, followed by three things and a Stephanie. “WHAT ON EARTH DO YOU THINK YOU’RE… Doing…”
Everyone poked their heads out of doorways, seemingly awake at last, to see what all the commotion was about.
“What do you mean, what are we doing? YOU’RE THE ONES THAT KIDNAPPED US?!?! AND WHAT WITH THIS BOW?!?! It’s choking me!!”
With this, Kangin ripped a bright red bow from around his neck. Julie’s eyes widened in recognition.
Kyuhyun groaned from where he was on the floor, and sleepily stood up and stumbled over to the couch. As soon as he was settled, Ryeowook took a death grip on his foot and cuddled it.
“Why did you all start without me?” Mina called, coming out of her room and running straight into a half asleep Eeteuk.
She stared up at him for a few seconds, Before her eyes rolled back and she sank into a dead faint. Thea caught her before she could hit the floor.
“…”
“…”
“…”
“…”
“… WE KILLED UMMA TOO~!!!” “No~! Eeteuk Killed Umma!” Keri rounded on the Suju leader. “Bad Eeteuk”
“WAIT”
All eyes turned to Soojin, who was rubbing her temples.
“Okay. Something weird is going on here, and it’s not of our doing. Look, can we just… Sit down and try figuring it out?
She was greeted with silence, which she took as agreement.
“Okay, we don’t know how you got he-“
“Santa~!”
“What?”
Julie bounced on the balls of her feet. “Remember what I said last night? About Santa? Well it came true, didn’t it!”
“…”
“Oh. My. God.”
Thea Fainted.
---
“Okay, so. Julie asked for Suju for Christmas, and we go to sleep, and without anyone kidnapping anyone else, you come here.”
“…”
“… I don’t get it.”
“Neither do I”
“Okay, okay, I know, but… We’ll just have to accept it as truth for now.”
"Super Junior conference!" Eeteuk called in Korean, and everyone but Alex (Who was giggling. "I can understand you!" She exclaimed happily.) was momentarily baffled. x____x;; Super Junior all huddled together. Julie tried joining the circle they created, but she got pushed back by a glaring Heechul.
"No girl's allowed!"
"But you're in there!" Tripp glared at Heechul, who glared straight back.
Everyone shrugged, and the FB-ites frowned.
"We want to have a meeting..."
Before they could have a meeting, however, Super Junior turned around and in a unified voice, said: "We'll stay!"
“You will?” Some of the older FB-ites looked surprised.
“We will” Heechul said, waltzing past a still gaping Alex to open the fridge door. “Now where’s all your food? Oh, look, there's ham. And kimchi!"
"GET OUT OF MY KITCHEN." Alex raged, running towards Heechul with a frown.
Her yelling had no effect, however, and it didn’t take long for the food to be set out on the table. Donghae was pushed off his spot, where he had sleepily returned after the band meeting in the hopes of getting a little more sleep. He fell to the floor with a yelp and a thud, making the younger ones giggle and Eunhyuk jump out of the way.
"Hey, don't hurt Donghae!" Julie frowned, running over to his side. She rubbed his head and he laughed, a little blush coming to his cheeks.
"Yo, I want some pie too!" Keri walked into the kitchen and smiled, standing next to Kyu, making a grab for the pie.
Alex pouted. Her perfect dinner was gone.
---
“You know…” Sungmin said, amongst a rousing chorus of “Noo Yell”, struck up by Victoria and a laughing Yehsung. “We should go out today… You know, like… To the park… And you can open presents later on?”
“Hey, yeah!! Nice idea! Come on, guys, let’s go to the park for the day!" All of Super Junior and Fyre Blue ran out of the apartment, to the park right by the building. Snow covered everything, about a foot of it and everyone grinned.
The first thing Eunhyuk and Donghae did was make snowballs and start a small snowball fight. Sammy, Zaku and Julie fought back, making it girls versus guys.
Nhi, Hangeng, Thea, Siwon and Erin were sipping Hot Cocoa that a vendor was giving away for free, while Mina, Eeteuk, Kangin, Soojin, Keri, Victoria, Kyuhyun, Ryeowook, and Yehsung were waging a snow angel war, claiming that the best one won a prize that no-body seemed to know. Eeteuk thought he would win, because, well… he's an angel. But Mina begged to differ and jumped in the snow next to him, trying to make the perfect angel.
Kibum and Alex were "talking" to themselves on the snow-covered bench, while the others played with the snow.
Sarah was running around, snapping pictures of everyon having fun together excitedly.
Things were wonderful, until...
"Watch out!" Eunhyuk shouted, as one of his snowballs went out of control and hit Victoria in the face. She blinked and sat up (destroying her angel, no less!) and grabbed some snow, threw it at Julie. It missed and hit Alex. Keri stood up and frowned, getting her own snowballs and attacking the others.
Sarah laughed, dodging snowballs and taking as many pictures as she could without slipping.
All 26 people in the park giggled happily and threw the snowballs back and forth. Before long, the sunset dipped over the horizon and the 26 goofballs were laying in the snow, drained of most of their energy.
Licking his lips, Eeteuk looked to the sky, and sighed. "I'm hungry."
Shindong nodded in agreement. "Yeah, let's go eat!"
---
They sung Christmas carols as they walked back to their apartment, huddling in a massive group to keep warm against the biting cold. All was peaceful; They’d had one of the best Christmases ever, spent the day with new friends, and ate a satisfying dinner.
By the time they got home, however, they were tired enough to find a place on the living room floor to fall asleep, curled up in a huge pile of blankets and limbs. The fire crackled, sending flickering light over the whole scene.
---
Sarah yawned, turning over and pulling the blanket up to her chin. She was exhausted from the previous day, when…
When…
She bolted upright, looking around for any of the super Junior members that she KNEW were there last night. But yet…
The living room was clean, devoid of any of the mess that had been made the previous day, and people were sprawled about in various positions… Julie and Tripp were next to the window, which was funny, she could have sworn they had fallen asleep at the door last night… Which brought to mind the fact that Alex, Soojin and Mina had been on the floor, not sprawled in various positions on the couch… And people were sleeping on the dining room chairs. Confused, she stood up, looking around.
“Mm… Kyu..?” Keri mumbled, turning over where she lay on the recliner (Wasn’t she by the fire before?) and she opened her eyes, lazily looking around. Thea swatted Steph’s arm from her face, and Steph reacted but smacking her over the shoulder. Gradually, the other members of the group of friends stirred to life.
“Whe.. Where are they?”
The question didn’t need to be repeated twice. The boys from the famous band had come home with them last night, but yet, they were gone.
They looked around, confused, wondering what on earth had happened. Somebody turned on the TV.
On the screen was displayed a cheerful pair of hosts, standing before massive crowds and what looked like a Christmas parade. They frowned.
“Maybe… It’s a repeat,” Alex said, staring at the television in bewilderment. They’d never repeated the Christmas parade the day after… Especially not this early in the morning.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Mina hurried to answer it, pulling her blanket closer around herself. There was quiet chit-chat, as Julie went to check her emails, hoping she’d received something from people back home.
“Merry christmas~!”
Mina shut the door, looking more and more confused by the second.
“That was one of my old friends… She said happy birthday for tomorrow… And merry Christmas? She’s not one to be a day off…”
At that moment, they heard a yell from the computer. “The date on this thing is wrong! It says it’s still the 25th!”
Suddenly, all of them froze, staring at the tv.
“So… It was... A dream?
There was silence, as they all contemplated the idea. “Well… It could be a… a really elaborate prank, or... Or…”
“It didn’t really make sense… It… It must have been.”
Alex sighed a little, disappointed. She’d had… so much fun, yesterday… Or today, if you looked at it that way. And she was sure, by the disappointed looks all around, that the rest of them had too. She got up, slightly sad, ready to make some soothing hot chocolate to make up for it.
On the table was a note.
“Hey… Guys…”
She picked it up, opening the blue envelope and pulling out what was inside. There was a big wad of Photographs, and a letter. She began to read it out.
“Dear Fyre Blue:
We had a great time with you today, but we can’t stay here much longer. Enclosed are our phone numbers, and the photographs that your friend Sarah took. We took the liberty of getting them printed for you.
We hope to hear from you soon,
Eeteuk.”
She let the package fall to the floor, and the girls snatched them up, greedy for any proof that their experience was real. As they chattered over the various photographs, Alex picked up the last one left; It was a large group photo, with all of them in it. She remembered that Sarah had put a timer on the camera, and they’d stood there with smiles frozen on their faces, waiting impatiently for the picture to take.
In the envelope, beside the negatives for the picture, was a long list of phone numbers.
Alex grinned.
Keri and Tamra giggled happily to themselves and skipped next to Julie, grabbing her by the arms. They dragged her into the store and pointed to… well, all the animals they could find. Victoria and Alex sighed, being the responsible ones, and went straight for the new bunny they were going to buy.
They had been smart enough to come choose the bunny a few days prior. It was a soft, tiny thing, sitting quietly in the corner of the rabbit’s enclosure, watching her brothers and sister hop and play and chase. Her fur was a pure, snowy white.
While Keri and Tripp and Julie spazzed over a pair of kittens in the corner, Victoria picked the peaceful ball of fluff from within the enclosure and carried her to the front desk, Alex producing her wallet with a sigh. She would have to get Julie to pay her back later.
Keri pointed a pure grey kitten, and Tripp gasped, both squeeing over its cuteness. Julie looked around at the hamsters and birds, before Alex walked over, the newly bought bunny in her hands.
Julie's attention was now on the pure white fluff ball. She took it and smiled, jumping up and down. "This is Frost, cause she's all white and… and… wow, she's cold!" Julie laughed and placed her in her jacket.
It took them a few minutes to find the things they needed; Julie was insistent on buying Frost everything from a leash to a new, personalised food bowl. Alex glanced at her watch, thinking that they needed to hurry if they wanted to catch the grocery store before leaving, and eventually pulled one of them out of the store. The rest followed.
It wasn’t far, really: only through to the other size of the shopping centre. They had managed to forget the gravy (Again), and of course the younger ones insisted on hot chocolate that they didn’t have the ingredients for. Vaguely, Alex wondered why there was no-body around; It was a shopping centre on Christmas eve; What happened to all the last minutes shoppers?
"Oh, look! It's Santa! Can we go sit on his lap?" Keri asked excitedly, but it was no use. Julie and Tripp were already near the Santa, excitedly jumping up and down.
Keri giggled and ran after the two, not even hearing a "yes" from the father of the group. Victoria shrugged and followed Keri excitedly, all four girls being the only ones in line.
Did they feel awkward at all? Nope. They just loved Santa too. He's not just for kids, you know!
Laughing happily, Julie took the first turn, handing Frost to Alex to hold.
"Santa..." She started, not even hearing him say hello before beginning. "We all... Fyre Blue, that's our group name. Like a band of friends. Well, Fyre Blue wants Super Junior, a Korean pop band for Christmas! Can you do that Santa?"
Santa looked a little surprised for a moment, raising his white eyebrows (That looked real, on comparison to the stuck on or painted ones of normal shopping centre Santas).
“That’s an awfully big request, my dear… Are you sure you want it?”
“Yes~!!!”
“Well in that case,” He smiled, pulling out a notebook that glittered in the fluorescent lights on the ceiling, “Any other specifications?”
She looked around for a moment, pondering the question. Tripp cuddled Frost while Alex smiled, and her dongsaengdeul cooed over the small, white bunny.
“Well… if it wouldn’t be too hard, Mr. Kringle… What about if you put them under our tree, with big red bows around their necks? I think everyone would like that…”
Santa looked a little surprised, perhaps wondering why she didn’t ask for more, but never-the-less smiled and winked at her. Julie would have thought he’d made the notebook disappear, but it must have been a trick… Right?
Julie got off Santa's lap and jumped excitedly, half believing what Santa said. Keri, Tripp and Victoria followed Julie as she walked off, but Keri seemed to remember something…
Turning back around, she smiled. "Santa, can you make them… speak English? We want to communicate!"
Santa laughed and nodded before snapping his fingers and… disappearing!?
Keri rubbed her eyes in disbelief… Alex seemed to have seen the same thing she had. The two girls looked at each other before running off to the other three girls, a bit scared.
Alex shook her head as she walked. It couldn’t have been... Could it? She eventually disregarded it as a hallucination of some sort; She hadn’t eaten much all day (Mina’s orders; The dinner was going to be huge, so everyone had to save room), and looking after the “Things + Two” had been very emotionally draining. Sighing, she led the way towards the grocery store, forgetting all about Santa and instead wondering what else they would need.
The things + two (minus Nhi, who was tired and stayed home. Besides, they were buying her present, weren’t they?) immediately ran to the cookies and candies, marveling at the pretty colors. Turning to Alex with a smile, their faces turned to a frown when she shook her head.
"You'll be up all night. No sweets until Christmas."
Whining, the younger four girls ran over to somewhere else, forgetting about the sweets.
Alex found the things they needed quickly, buying several packs of gravy and an even greater amount of hot-chocolate mix. Sighing at the sad eyes of her ‘Children’, she added the ingredients for cookies as well, and hurried to leave the store.
---
Julie carefully put Frost in with Cloud in his hutch, smiling as the two bunnies huddled up to each other in the cold. She turned on the small heater in her room, where their cage was, and after checking that they had food and water, ran back out into the living room. A sleepy Nhi was helping make hot chocolate, while Mina and a few others were helping with the cooking. The rest were all on decorating duty.
"Hey guys, guess who we ran into at the shopping center?" Keri bounced on her toes, excited to share the news.
All the girls turned to Keri, happily smiling. "Who?"
"Santa!" Julie blurted out before Keri could. Everyone gasped, or laughed. "We asked for Super Junior, under our tree."
Now everyone was skeptical. Super Junior wasn't really going to come under their trees, but they still could believe… couldn't they?
"Santa wouldn't do that to us." Julie smiled. "He's going to come through~"
Nobody wanted to break Julie's heart, so they all nodded in agreement.
Well, except for Soojin.
"I've been asking for hot guys under my tree for the past three years, and I haven't gotten anything. So, don't get your hopes up."
Tripp and Julie frowned, clinging to each other.
"Santa's real, right twin?" Tripp pouted and Julie nodded.
"Santa's real! Appajin is mean."
The apartment was noisy enough without all this fighting, but now the noise was out of control. Everyone else frowned at this argument as it escalated and went on for several minutes. After a while, Alex got fed up.
"Stop fighting!" She frowned, turning back to her cookies. “It’s Christmas Eve, relax.”
It didn’t take long before everyone forgot about the argument, and went back to their various Christmassy tasks. Erin was wrapping last minute gifts in her room, while Samku, Soojin and Stephanie hung Christmas lights and garlands around the apartment. Mina, Thea and Nhi were in the kitchen, Nhi making huge pots of hot chocolate to share around while Thea and Mina roasted vegetables that probably wouldn’t get eaten.
Tripp, having been kicked out of the kitchen after trying to sample Nhi’s hot chocolate, settled on the couch between an Alex, who was busily writing Christmas cards, and a Keri, who was suitably exhausted from all of the festivities. It didn’t take her long to start a viscous battle of video games with Keri, annoying their Unpa.
Victoria set down the last of her presents under the tree, giggling a little at Julie trying (And failing) to make a Christmas stocking for Cloud. She went to help her, trying not to think of how 15 stockings would fit on the mantelpiece that Sarah was currently decorating.
Dinner was an unruly affair, with a lot of stealing from each others plates, and flicking food at each other from across the table, and generally being the happy, giant family that they were. As predicted, the roasted vegetables ended up more on the ceiling and in the Thing’s hair than in stomachs.
The clock struck 10 and all the people in the apartment tried to think of something they could do until it was time for sleep. Some people started playing video games, some were cleaning up the kitchen. Some were even wrapping last minute gifts, away in their rooms. Then, after everyone finished or got bored, they decided to watch a Christmas movie. Julie sat by the window, along with Tripp. The older people sat on the only couch, while ViRi was sprawled out on the recliner. Some were laying on the ground, and some were sitting in the chairs they got from the kitchen.
“I haven’t watched Home Alone in years,” Thea said, stealing some of Erin’s popcorn and munching on it thoughtfully. “The last time I did was… Was it three years ago?”
There was a unanimous shrug, and the FB-ites turned back to the movie. The Things gasped and clapped at all the appropriate moments, and Soojin complained about the lack of manly blood and guts.
It didn’t take long, however, for most of them to ease off their sugar highs and settle down to watch the movie more intently. Tripp fell asleep, her head nodding onto Julie’s shoulder, who was looking a little sleepy herself.
“I know you’re coming, Santa... I just know you’re real” she said, staring up at the moon through the window.
At that moment, the clock struck 12.
---
Alex yawned, stretching her arms out in every-which direction, and rubbed her face into her pillow.
Christmas. Today was going to be absolute havoc.
Sighing, she un-wrapped herself from her warm cocoon of blankets (She was surprised for a second that she was in her bed... Didn't she fall asleep on the couch?) But she disregarded it in favor of going to fix a hurried breakfast. They would wake up any second now, and she should probably get something to eat before the havoc began.
She shuffled, stumbling a little on the way down the hall and squinting her eyes at the bright light filtering through the snow-adorned windows. She bumped into someone, and mumbling a small "Get out of the way, Eeteuk", she moved to go past him.
Wait...
She spun around, eyes wide, and stared at a bleary looking Eeteuk who was trying to pour orange juice in a glass. Yehsung smirked at him, and moved the cup so it was beneath the stream of liquid.
“You never were a morning person, were you, Hyung?" Yehsung smirked, taking a sip of his coffee. Eeteuk made a non-committal grunt and wondered faintly why there was orange juice dripping on his shoes. Donghae, who appeared to be sprawled all over the table, groaned as the small pool of juice found it's way to where he was lying. He rolled over, trying to get away from the offending cold liquid, and lay still again with his mouth hanging open.
"By the way," Yehsung said, looking up at Alex and taking another sip from his cup. "Your coffee is old."
Alex opened her mouth, and closed it again. This had to be a dream. A very... Good dream, yes, but a dream... A dream… A...
"Hey, who got me the Kyu doll?"
Her head snapped to the doorway, to see a sleepy Victoria and Keri examining what she immediately recognized as the real Kyuhyun. "Keri-"
"It's so rea- WHOEVER GOT ME THE KYU DOLL, I AM SO BUYING YOU KOREA.”
Kyuhyun moved slightly, scrunching up his nose and making a small, very real, very human noise. Keri jumped and squealed, backing up against the wall.
Erin rubbed her nose, staring around the corner of the room she shared with Thea. "What's... Going on…?"
"OH MY GOD WE KILLED DONGHAE." Julie cried, staring at the knocked-out body lying on their kitchen table. Yehsung stared at the second youngest (And her fellow Things), over the rim of his mug, not making any effort to explain to the contrary. Tripp screamed, turning tail on the Kitchen and running straight into Soojin’s and Stephanie’s room, Julie and Nhi following after.
There was stillness for a few seconds, as all the occupants of the apartment stared at each other.
“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!?! WHO DID THIS?”
The noise only got louder, as Soojin stormed out of the room, followed by three things and a Stephanie. “WHAT ON EARTH DO YOU THINK YOU’RE… Doing…”
Everyone poked their heads out of doorways, seemingly awake at last, to see what all the commotion was about.
“What do you mean, what are we doing? YOU’RE THE ONES THAT KIDNAPPED US?!?! AND WHAT WITH THIS BOW?!?! It’s choking me!!”
With this, Kangin ripped a bright red bow from around his neck. Julie’s eyes widened in recognition.
Kyuhyun groaned from where he was on the floor, and sleepily stood up and stumbled over to the couch. As soon as he was settled, Ryeowook took a death grip on his foot and cuddled it.
“Why did you all start without me?” Mina called, coming out of her room and running straight into a half asleep Eeteuk.
She stared up at him for a few seconds, Before her eyes rolled back and she sank into a dead faint. Thea caught her before she could hit the floor.
“…”
“…”
“…”
“…”
“… WE KILLED UMMA TOO~!!!” “No~! Eeteuk Killed Umma!” Keri rounded on the Suju leader. “Bad Eeteuk”
“WAIT”
All eyes turned to Soojin, who was rubbing her temples.
“Okay. Something weird is going on here, and it’s not of our doing. Look, can we just… Sit down and try figuring it out?
She was greeted with silence, which she took as agreement.
“Okay, we don’t know how you got he-“
“Santa~!”
“What?”
Julie bounced on the balls of her feet. “Remember what I said last night? About Santa? Well it came true, didn’t it!”
“…”
“Oh. My. God.”
Thea Fainted.
---
“Okay, so. Julie asked for Suju for Christmas, and we go to sleep, and without anyone kidnapping anyone else, you come here.”
“…”
“… I don’t get it.”
“Neither do I”
“Okay, okay, I know, but… We’ll just have to accept it as truth for now.”
"Super Junior conference!" Eeteuk called in Korean, and everyone but Alex (Who was giggling. "I can understand you!" She exclaimed happily.) was momentarily baffled. x____x;; Super Junior all huddled together. Julie tried joining the circle they created, but she got pushed back by a glaring Heechul.
"No girl's allowed!"
"But you're in there!" Tripp glared at Heechul, who glared straight back.
Everyone shrugged, and the FB-ites frowned.
"We want to have a meeting..."
Before they could have a meeting, however, Super Junior turned around and in a unified voice, said: "We'll stay!"
“You will?” Some of the older FB-ites looked surprised.
“We will” Heechul said, waltzing past a still gaping Alex to open the fridge door. “Now where’s all your food? Oh, look, there's ham. And kimchi!"
"GET OUT OF MY KITCHEN." Alex raged, running towards Heechul with a frown.
Her yelling had no effect, however, and it didn’t take long for the food to be set out on the table. Donghae was pushed off his spot, where he had sleepily returned after the band meeting in the hopes of getting a little more sleep. He fell to the floor with a yelp and a thud, making the younger ones giggle and Eunhyuk jump out of the way.
"Hey, don't hurt Donghae!" Julie frowned, running over to his side. She rubbed his head and he laughed, a little blush coming to his cheeks.
"Yo, I want some pie too!" Keri walked into the kitchen and smiled, standing next to Kyu, making a grab for the pie.
Alex pouted. Her perfect dinner was gone.
---
“You know…” Sungmin said, amongst a rousing chorus of “Noo Yell”, struck up by Victoria and a laughing Yehsung. “We should go out today… You know, like… To the park… And you can open presents later on?”
“Hey, yeah!! Nice idea! Come on, guys, let’s go to the park for the day!" All of Super Junior and Fyre Blue ran out of the apartment, to the park right by the building. Snow covered everything, about a foot of it and everyone grinned.
The first thing Eunhyuk and Donghae did was make snowballs and start a small snowball fight. Sammy, Zaku and Julie fought back, making it girls versus guys.
Nhi, Hangeng, Thea, Siwon and Erin were sipping Hot Cocoa that a vendor was giving away for free, while Mina, Eeteuk, Kangin, Soojin, Keri, Victoria, Kyuhyun, Ryeowook, and Yehsung were waging a snow angel war, claiming that the best one won a prize that no-body seemed to know. Eeteuk thought he would win, because, well… he's an angel. But Mina begged to differ and jumped in the snow next to him, trying to make the perfect angel.
Kibum and Alex were "talking" to themselves on the snow-covered bench, while the others played with the snow.
Sarah was running around, snapping pictures of everyon having fun together excitedly.
Things were wonderful, until...
"Watch out!" Eunhyuk shouted, as one of his snowballs went out of control and hit Victoria in the face. She blinked and sat up (destroying her angel, no less!) and grabbed some snow, threw it at Julie. It missed and hit Alex. Keri stood up and frowned, getting her own snowballs and attacking the others.
Sarah laughed, dodging snowballs and taking as many pictures as she could without slipping.
All 26 people in the park giggled happily and threw the snowballs back and forth. Before long, the sunset dipped over the horizon and the 26 goofballs were laying in the snow, drained of most of their energy.
Licking his lips, Eeteuk looked to the sky, and sighed. "I'm hungry."
Shindong nodded in agreement. "Yeah, let's go eat!"
---
They sung Christmas carols as they walked back to their apartment, huddling in a massive group to keep warm against the biting cold. All was peaceful; They’d had one of the best Christmases ever, spent the day with new friends, and ate a satisfying dinner.
By the time they got home, however, they were tired enough to find a place on the living room floor to fall asleep, curled up in a huge pile of blankets and limbs. The fire crackled, sending flickering light over the whole scene.
---
Sarah yawned, turning over and pulling the blanket up to her chin. She was exhausted from the previous day, when…
When…
She bolted upright, looking around for any of the super Junior members that she KNEW were there last night. But yet…
The living room was clean, devoid of any of the mess that had been made the previous day, and people were sprawled about in various positions… Julie and Tripp were next to the window, which was funny, she could have sworn they had fallen asleep at the door last night… Which brought to mind the fact that Alex, Soojin and Mina had been on the floor, not sprawled in various positions on the couch… And people were sleeping on the dining room chairs. Confused, she stood up, looking around.
“Mm… Kyu..?” Keri mumbled, turning over where she lay on the recliner (Wasn’t she by the fire before?) and she opened her eyes, lazily looking around. Thea swatted Steph’s arm from her face, and Steph reacted but smacking her over the shoulder. Gradually, the other members of the group of friends stirred to life.
“Whe.. Where are they?”
The question didn’t need to be repeated twice. The boys from the famous band had come home with them last night, but yet, they were gone.
They looked around, confused, wondering what on earth had happened. Somebody turned on the TV.
On the screen was displayed a cheerful pair of hosts, standing before massive crowds and what looked like a Christmas parade. They frowned.
“Maybe… It’s a repeat,” Alex said, staring at the television in bewilderment. They’d never repeated the Christmas parade the day after… Especially not this early in the morning.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Mina hurried to answer it, pulling her blanket closer around herself. There was quiet chit-chat, as Julie went to check her emails, hoping she’d received something from people back home.
“Merry christmas~!”
Mina shut the door, looking more and more confused by the second.
“That was one of my old friends… She said happy birthday for tomorrow… And merry Christmas? She’s not one to be a day off…”
At that moment, they heard a yell from the computer. “The date on this thing is wrong! It says it’s still the 25th!”
Suddenly, all of them froze, staring at the tv.
“So… It was... A dream?
There was silence, as they all contemplated the idea. “Well… It could be a… a really elaborate prank, or... Or…”
“It didn’t really make sense… It… It must have been.”
Alex sighed a little, disappointed. She’d had… so much fun, yesterday… Or today, if you looked at it that way. And she was sure, by the disappointed looks all around, that the rest of them had too. She got up, slightly sad, ready to make some soothing hot chocolate to make up for it.
On the table was a note.
“Hey… Guys…”
She picked it up, opening the blue envelope and pulling out what was inside. There was a big wad of Photographs, and a letter. She began to read it out.
“Dear Fyre Blue:
We had a great time with you today, but we can’t stay here much longer. Enclosed are our phone numbers, and the photographs that your friend Sarah took. We took the liberty of getting them printed for you.
We hope to hear from you soon,
Eeteuk.”
She let the package fall to the floor, and the girls snatched them up, greedy for any proof that their experience was real. As they chattered over the various photographs, Alex picked up the last one left; It was a large group photo, with all of them in it. She remembered that Sarah had put a timer on the camera, and they’d stood there with smiles frozen on their faces, waiting impatiently for the picture to take.
In the envelope, beside the negatives for the picture, was a long list of phone numbers.
Alex grinned.
