SSS 2010: for bopeep_achu
For: bopeep_achu
From: Your Secret Santa
Title: Cookies and Kisses
Pairing: Jonghyun/Taeyeon (Taemin)/Key
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 4698
Summary: Taeyeon, Jonghyun, and Key have been best friends since they were very small. They spend every Christmas together. This year, things change and no one knows quite how to handle it.
“We are so late! Key’s going to kill us.” Jonghyun muttered darkly as he drove the car onward. Taeyeon really didn’t like to be in the same car as him when he was thinking such melancholic thoughts. Knowing Jonghyun, he was bound to lose concentration on the road and try to wallow in his own self pity. But Taeyeon had to agree with him on one thing.
“Correction, he’s going to kill you.” she said with an evil smirk. “After all, it’s your fault we’re two hours late to pick him up from the airport and I can’t drive yet.”
“My fault!” Jonghyun repeated, shrillness seeping into his voice. He glared over at Taeyeon, but she directed his vision back towards the road. “How-”
“Don’t even try to pretend that you don’t know.” Taeyeon interrupted with a laugh. “You were supposed to be at my house hours ago so we could go pick him up together, but instead you decided to take that time to preen your metaphorical feathers.” Taeyeon gave him a knowing look that Jonghyun chose to ignore.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” he lied. “I just forgot what time it was.”
“So you admit it was your fault.”
Jonghyun grumbled in annoyance.
-----
“Where the hell have you two been? I’ve been waiting for ages!” Key yelled as soon as he saw Jonghyun and Taeyeon running towards him.
“Sorry, Key!” Taeyeon called as she tried to catch her breath. Then she jerked her thumb in Jonghyun’s direction. “It’s his fault. He was supposed to pick me up hours ago and he forgot because he was trying to keep his non-existent sense of style from deteriorating any further.” She snickered when Jonghyun gave a rather loud protest, wondering why she could never be polite.
Key marched straight over to Jonghyun and whacked him on the arm angrily. “Idiot.”
“What did I do?!” Jonghyun asked automatically, even though he knew perfectly well what he did. That earned him another smack on the arm. Once Key was satisfied that he had hit Jonghyun enough (about twenty times), he turned around to face Taeyeon.
“Give me a hug, Tae! I haven’t seen you since the summer!” he said as he held his arms out. Taeyeon all but flung herself into Key’s arms. It had been ages since they had seen each other.
“What about me?” Jonghyun asked pathetically off to the side. “Doesn’t your best friend get a hug?”
“Not when he made me wait two hours for a ride.” Key said with a little bit of venom in his voice. Then he stuck his tongue out in Jonghyun’s direction. Jonghyun stuck his tongue out as well. Only Taeyeon seemed to realize that it was their way of showing how much they cared for each other.
Gee, boys were dumb.
-----
“Have you finished setting up the tree yet?” Taeyeon called from the kitchen. She was making chocolate chip cookies like she did every year. Jonghyun in particular seemed to like them a lot. Key liked pretty much anything sweet so it wasn’t a lot to say he liked Taeyeon’s cookies. But Taeyeon really only made them because they were fun to make.
“Not yet!” called Jonghyun from the living room.
“Mmmm, those smell good.”
Taeyeon nearly jumped out of her skin. Her arms flung around in surprise, smacking Key on the cheek by accident. Taeyeon gasped and retracted her hand. “Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry!”
“No it’s my fault.” Key said as he rubbed his reddening cheek. “I should know by now not to sneak up on you.”
“No, here let me make it better.” Then without saying any more, she leaned up and kissed his cheek. Key was stunned into silence and the red on his cheeks grew. Taeyeon didn’t seem to notice even after she pulled away. “There, all better.”
“Th-thanks…” Key stuttered. Then Taeyeon smiled and went back to her cookies. Key turned around and was about to leave the kitchen when he ran into Jonghyun. He tilted his head to get a look at Jonghyun’s face. He was surprised to find an angry expression. Then Jonghyun left without a word to finish setting up the tree.
Key followed him out and lowered his voice so Taeyeon could hear him. “What’s wrong with you?” he asked as Jonghyun picked up another ornament to place on the tree.
“Nothing,” Jonghyun said with forced cheerfulness, but he didn’t look at Key at all.
“You’re lying,” Key muttered. “You should know by now that I can tell when you’re lying to me.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jonghyun denied.
“Quite lying!” Key shouted, forgetting to be quiet. Sure enough, Taeyeon peeked her head out from the kitchen to see what was going on.
“Is everything all right?” she asked worriedly. Key spun around quickly in surprise. Jonghyun just stiffened.
“Everything’s fine,” Jonghyun muttered as he slowly placed another ornament on the tree. But the tone in which he said it was what clued Taeyeon into the situation a little bit.
“You’re lying,” Taeyeon said with unhappy confidence. An ornament fell from one of the branches of the tree and shattered on the floor, but no one went to clean it up.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, shut up!” Key said, clearly exasperated. “You do this all the time! We can tell when something is bugging you. Just tell us what’s wrong!”
“No, let’s just stop talking about it,” Taeyeon suggested with a slight tug on Key’s sleeve. “Let’s not fight. This is supposed to be a happy time of year.” At those words, Key looked slightly guilty. Taeyeon was right. It was almost Christmas and they were starting to fight.
“Alright,” Key conceded, “we can talk when everyone is cooled down.” Jonghyun just stared at the tree and all its ornaments. The one shattered ornament still lay on the ground. Jonghyun debated picking up the pieces, but Key beat him to it. As he was bent over the mess, he cast a glance at Jonghyun and managed a weak smile. Jonghyun grudgingly smiled back and continued to decorate the tree.
-----
Later that night, Jonghyun snuck out of the house with the excuse that he needed to get back to his own place. But instead of going straight home, Jonghyun took a side trip to some shops around the city. He still hadn’t bough either Taeyeon or Key their Christmas presents yet.
As he looked in the windows of the shops he passed, the thought of what he had seen earlier that day passed through his head. It wasn’t like Key and Taeyeon had actually kissed, but for some reason it bugged him. The scary thing was, he wasn’t sure if he was upset that Taeyeon had kissed Key’s cheek or if it was because Key had stayed where he was instead of pulling away. He just knew he didn’t like that they both knew something was up. They had all been friends for way too long. He smiled at the thought.
He stopped in front of a little toy shop and thought of Taeyeon. She always did like fluffy things; maybe he should get her a new stuffed animal. Then he thought better. She was growing up more than he wanted to admit. She was not the girl who needed his and Key’s protection anymore, she didn’t need to be treated like a kid (she had too many stuffed animals anyway).
He moved on.
Next he saw a jewelry store. He pondered buying her something from there, but then he remembered that she was not someone who wore a lot of jewelry. If he bought her something expensive like that, odds were, it would just sit in her bathroom untouched.
The next store he came to was a store that sold all brand name clothes. He almost walked in, thinking of Key, but backed off when he remembered the comments about his nonexistent style. If he tried to pick out Key’s clothes for him, Key probably wouldn’t wear them because Jonghyun chose a top and bottom that absolutely did not work together because he bought the wrong shade of blue.
Rolling his eyes, Jonghyun moved on.
He spent at least another hour trying to find the best gifts for both of them. But by the end, he still couldn’t decide what to get them. He thought really hard, but he just couldn’t decide on anything. So instead, he played on their love for music and bought them both new boom boxes; they both loved to dance.
But even after bringing the items home, he didn’t feel like they were enough. He sighed and ran his hands through his hair in frustration. Then he headed to bed, only thinking of his two best friends. As he pulled the covers up to his chin, he asked himself, “Are they more than just my friends?”
Scared of that thought, he pulled the covers over his head in a vain attempt to hide from it.
-----
Taemin sat at her house alone. Key had left earlier to go to his hotel. He was only staying through Christmas and then he was going to go back home. The three of them always celebrated Christmas together. They had done so since they were very little and their parents were still setting up play dates.
What had happened earlier in the night had never happened before. It was strange for them to be fighting, even just a little. Had they grown apart as they grew up? She certainly hadn’t noticed any changes in Jonghyun. It was a little bit harder to tell if there was a difference in Key; he was so far away that she couldn’t be sure if his lack of sending letters was because he was just busy or something else.
“Oh, shoot!” Taeyeon exclaimed as she shot up from her seat. “I haven’t bought their Christmas presents yet!” She almost grabbed her coat right then and there and went shopping, but it was late, and everything was almost guaranteed to be closed. She groaned instead and began brainstorming present ideas. It wasn’t until an hour later when she had settled on something dinosaur themed for Jonghyun and a something pink for Key.
Then she went to bed, worrying slightly as she thought about the small fight earlier. What had caused Jonghyun to get so angry?
-----
Key didn’t really go back home like he had said he was going to. Instead, he aimlessly walked around with nothing particular in mind. His mind had been so fuddled by the events of the day. First, his heart sped up at Taeyeon’s kiss on his cheek. Then his heart hurt at the way Jonghyun had looked at him.
Why had his heart sped up when Taeyeon kissed his cheek? She was just apologizing for smacking him, but his cheek tingled with an interesting sensation that he could still feel. Was he possibly falling for the sweet girl he had grown up with?
And what was going on with him and Jonghyun? He had never felt so upset when Jonghyun glared at him before. He had almost felt like going to another room and crying, but he pushed it away and asked what was wrong instead. Did he like Jonghyun, too?
Key had known for years that he was bi, but Jonghyun remained firm in his belief that he was straight. If Key really did like Jonghyun, that was going to be a problem.
Key furiously ruffled his hair in confusion. Why was this all happening now? Why Christmas time when everyone was supposed to be happy? Maybe he could hold everything back until a while after Christmas. It would just be better for everyone, and it would give Key time to think if that was what was really going on or if it was something else.
-----
They were back at Taeyeon’s house the next day to finish decorating. Mostly they pretended the things that had happened the previous day had never happened. Jonghyun was wearing his usual smile, Taeyeon was her normal cheery self, and Key nagged at both of them to keep working instead of eating the cookies that Taeyeon had finished making the day before.
“If you keep eating them then there will be none left for Christmas day!” he yelled in mock anger. But he could not deny that both of them looked absolutely adorable with chocolate and crumbs all over their faces.
“Tae, I thought you said you had to go somewhere today,” Key pointed out as Taeyeon stuffed another cookie in her mouth. “Shouldn’t you be going?”
Taeyeon looked at the clock and her eyes widened. She shouted a cookie muffled response and ran out the room with her coat. A moment later, the door was heard slamming and Key and Jonghyun were left by themselves.
“Well, I suppose we should finish decorating the tree. We sort of left it unfinished yesterday when we had the little spat.” Key gave a tense smile, but Jonghyun just glared. That’s when Key realized that their fight was not over yet, even if Key still had no idea what Jonghyun’s problem was. “What exactly is wrong with you?” he asked, again feeling the twinge of pain in his chest at being the target of Jonghyun’s stare.
“Nothing,” Jonghyun muttered as he left the room in a huff. Key was not going to let him get away that easily. He marched out into the living room and watched Jonghyun take a seat among the ornaments that were not yet hung up yet.
“Tell me what’s wrong with you,” Key demanded. “Quit denying that something is wrong and talk to me. I’m your best friend!” At those words, Jonghyun stood up suddenly and glared at Key again. Key’s tongue got caught in his throat.
“Maybe I don’t want to tell you,” Jonghyun spat. “Maybe I’m sick of your bitching and I don’t want to be your best friend anymore. You nag, you scream, you don’t give me space, and I’m sick of being treated like dirt by you.” He pushed Key roughly away.
Angry, Key pushed back. “If you had this much to say, why didn’t you say it sooner? If you hated me that much, why didn’t you stop being friends with me before Christmas? You’re going to ruin the whole holiday, idiot!”
Jonghyun shoved him once more. Key shoved Jonghyun in return as hard as he could. Jonghyun stumbled backwards and fell into the tree. Key looked on with a startled, stiff expression and watched the tree go down along with Jonghyun. Ornaments fell from the branches and lights flickered and went out as the cord was pulled from the wall.
“Ouch!” groaned Jonghyun as he sat up. Then he looked around and groaned in annoyance. “Shit, now look what you’ve done!”
“Me!” Key shouted disbelievingly. “You started the pushing match! It’s your fault!” They argued for a good twenty minutes, trading insults and blame. Then Jonghyun stopped midsentence and sniffed the air, smelling something off.
“Does something smell like it’s burning?” he asked. Key sniffed the air as well. He smelled it, too. Smoke was coming into the air and for a moment, Jonghyun wondered if a light on the tree had exploded or something and caught fire. But the smoke was coming from the kitchen.
“Oh, crap!” Key exclaimed as he scrambled into the kitchen. “It’s the turkey Tae has been working on since this morning!” Making his way into the kitchen as quickly as possible, he noted the smoke escaping from the edges of the oven and freaked out. Without thinking, he opened the over and barehanded, grabbed the burnt turkey and its tray.
His hands burned almost instantly and he screeched as he once more dropped the turkey in the oven and pulled his hands away. Jonghyun instinctively grabbed Key’s hands and moved him over to the sink, turning on the cold water and running it over Key’s flaming red hands.
“Stupid!” he chastised Key. “I thought I was the only one who reached into an over without oven mitts.”
“You sure did it enough when we were kids,” Key mentioned, thinking of how Jonghyun wanted to cook when he was little but always ended up hurting himself instead. He always managed to burn himself or cut himself. It ended up being a rule that Jonghyun was not allowed to cook.
Key made eye contact with Jonghyun and registered the older’s fingers still working gently at his burned hands under the water. There was a moment of soft, mixed feelings floating around in their gazes, but another moment passed and the moment was gone. Jonghyun let go of Key’s hands and pulled on oven mitts to get the turkey out of the oven. They were still pissed at each other.
Just then, Taeyeon walked back in with a couple bags under her arm. She paused and sniffed the air curiously. Then she gasped. “I didn’t forget the turkey in the oven, did I?”
“Yes, you did, Tae,” Jonghyun called to her, setting the burnt bird on the counter.
“I’m sorry, guys. I completely forgot about it,” she said, feeling guilty. She was approaching the kitchen when she noticed the tree down in the living room. Her mouth fell open in shock. “What happened to the tree?”
“Jonghyun knocked it over,” Key told her. Jonghyun spun around and fixed a glare to Key.
“And who was it that pushed me into it?” he growled.
“I’m out of here,” Key called as he began to leave, letting his fingers drip dry as he walked.
“Key,” Taeyeon called, “please don’t leave like this.”
“Let him go if he wants to,” Jonghyun said angrily. “I don’t particularly want to be around him right now anyway.”
“Jonghyun!” Taeyeon exclaimed in shock. Then she heard the front door slam and Key was gone. Then there was silence between her and Jonghyun as well. When Taeyeon finally spoke, her voice was breaking. “What is wrong with you, Jonghyun? What has you so upset that you refuse to get along with Key? He’s your best friend.”
“I think I like you.” Taeyeon froze at the words. Jonghyun continued, “I saw you kiss Key’s cheek yesterday, and I guess I was jealous.” But as he said the words, he felt like they were only half true. He still hadn’t figured out if he was angry with Key or Taeyeon even though he had been acting like he was only angry with Key.
Taeyeon just didn’t know how to react. She had not expected that at all.
“Tae?” Jonghyun said, worried about her inability to respond. “Taeyeon, are you alright?” But before he realized it, Taeyeon was running past him and closing the door to her bedroom. He stood there in complete shock, mouth hanging slightly open and tears edging his eyes. He stayed there for about two minutes, praying she would come out and tell him she was just kidding, but she didn’t. So he left without another word.
He had possibly lost both of his best friends that night.
-----
Taeyeon heard the door shut as Jonghyun left. She felt terrible for running away like that, but she got scared. She didn’t know what would happen to their friendship if something went wrong. She wasn’t even sure if she liked him that way. Even Key she wasn’t sure about.
All three of them had always been close, but it was hard to tell where sisterly and brotherly love became something more. In fact, now that it was drawn to her attention, she may have possibly been harboring those kinds of feelings. Her heart was beating like crazy and her face was incredibly flushed with embarrassment.
But then the current situation came into her head once more. Everyone was fighting. What was wrong with Key in all of this? Sure, he and Jonghyun were fighting, but he seemed to be upset over a lot more than that.
As if on cue, her cell phone began ringing. She picked it up and looked at the ID. It was Key. Without really thinking about it, she picked up the call and put the phone to her ear. “Hello?” she called into the receiver. She waited for a response, but there was none. “Hello? Key?” There was still no answer. “Kibum?”
Finally, there was an answer. “Is it wrong to be in love with two people?” he asked, his voice breaking in various places. He sounded like he had been crying.
“Key, what’s wrong?” Taeyeon asked, but after the words left her mouth, she realized that she didn’t need to ask. Then a thought occurred to her. She subconsciously lowered her head, the phone still to her ear. “This is all my fault, isn’t it?”
“What? No!” Key said on the other end of the line. “It’s not your fault. I-”
“You did nothing wrong,” Taeyeon interrupted him. “If I hadn’t kissed your cheek, Jonghyun wouldn’t have gotten angry and none of this would have ever happened. Now he’s confessed to me and I don’t know what to do.”
“Then, what I have to say to you is going to confuse you even more,” Key announced to her. Taeyeon froze, praying that it was not- “I like you, Taeyeon; more than the brother I’ve acted like all these years.”
Frightened by his words, Taeyeon ended the call immediately. Then she just sat there and cried.
-----
Key sat on the other end of the line, sighing heavily. He had expected no less from Taeyeon. She was always a sensitive one. But after rushing out of her house, he realized a lot. He was positive of his feelings for both of his friends, and he was scared, but he was going to tell them both.
He called Jonghyun next. He was surprised when he actually picked up.
“What do you want?” he demanded angrily.
“I need to talk with you, please.” He tacked on the last bit, almost begging Jonghyun to listen to him. “Come to the park where we played when we were kids.”
“What if I don’t want to?” Jonghyun asked, testing his boundaries. “I told you I don’t want to be your friend anymore.” But Key could hear the longing in Jonghyun’s voice as he spoke. He knew there was something in his best friend that wanted them to mend their relationship.
“It’s important,” was all Key said.
A long moment passed. “Fine, I’m headed there now.” Then the line went dead. Key stuffed his phone into his pocket and took off running, the hope in him bursting forward and making him a little kid again.
He ran to the park and made it there within a few minutes. But when he entered it, Jonghyun was already there. How had he gotten there so fast? A possible idea came to mind. He slowly approached Jonghyun, still breathing hard from his run. “Where you here before I called?” he asked.
Jonghyun didn’t answer. Instead, he turned to Key and asked, “What is so important that you couldn’t say over the phone?” It was a cold voice, but it was like the cold that spring takes at the very beginning when winter is still leaving and the sun is barely poking through the clouds.
Key had finally caught his breath and stared Jonghyun directly in the eye. “You’re my best friend. I’ve known you for as long as I can remember. I don’t know who I would be without you. I can’t live without you. And…” Key quickly leaned up and pecked Jonghyun on the cheek. When he pulled away, Jonghyun was staring at him with a shocked expression on his face. “I like you.”
Something in Jonghyun seemed to brighten at those words, but he didn’t respond to Key feelings, so Key started to back away, tears forming at the edges of his eyes. Jonghyun was straight after all.
“Wait!” Jonghyun suddenly shouted when he realized Key was moving away. He pulled Key back gently by his arms. He wrapped him in his own strong arms and they just stayed together for a moment. “I’m sorry I was being stupid,” Jonghyun said. “I can’t believe I screwed everything up.”
“You weren’t the only one,” Key choked out, letting tears of relief run down his cheeks.
“And we still have to fix things with Tae,” Jonghyun mentioned. “Last I saw her, she was locking herself in her room after I confessed to her.”
“She hung up on me when I told her I liked her, too,” Key commented. They laughed nervously and separated from their hug. “Well, I suppose that if we can patch things up, we can patch them up with her as well,” Key said, smiling at Jonghyun with hope.
Jonghyun smiled back. “Yeah.”
-----
Taeyeon was still sitting in her room, wishing that the day had never happened. She heard the door open, but didn’t think much of it until she heard two people talking and things being moved around. Had someone decided to rob her house? She hadn’t checked the door after Jonghyun left to see if he locked it or not.
But after a few minutes of freaking out, she realized she recognized the two voices. They had come back.
But there was no yelling and no arguing. In fact, there was laughter coming from behind the door along with the sounds of things being moved around. Taeyeon listened carefully to everything, but couldn’t quite understand what they were doing. Finally, her curiosity got to her and she left the safety of her room.
She walked out and peeked around the corner at the two boys she had grown up with. They setting the tree back up and placing the ornaments on wherever they found empty space. They cleaned up the unfortunate mess of shattered ornaments and threw out the burnt turkey that still sat on the counter in the kitchen. The two were sharing pleasant conversation. It was as if they had never fought in the first place.
“I don’t understand,” Taeyeon muttered, barely managing to catch the attention of Jonghyun and Key, “I thought you two hated each other just a little while ago. What happened?” She was glad that they were getting along again, but she was just a little confused about how they had sorted things out and what was going to happen to their confessions to her. It was not like they never happened, no matter how much she wished they hadn’t because she could never choose between them.
“I confessed to him,” Key announced with a small smile across his face. “We went from there.”
That confused Taeyeon even more. Hadn’t Key confessed to her also? “But…”
“I don’t want to choose between you and Jonghyun,” Key said.
“And I don’t want to choose between you and Key,” Jonghyun put in. “We were sort of hoping you could forgive us for ruining a perfectly good Christmas. Then we want to ask you to not choose between us if you were thinking about accepting our feelings.”
Taeyeon looked at them both in absolute astonishment for a long period of time. But then her expression became calm and she smiled before going into the kitchen. Key and Jonghyun looked at each other nervously until she came back with a plate in her hands.
She held it out to them. It was a plate of the cookies she had made the previous day.
“Don’t scare me like that ever again,” she said, her voice breaking as she spoke. “I like you guys, too.”
Jonghyun leaned down to peck her on the cheek. Her tear filled eyes widened in confusion. Jonghyun just smirked in Key’s direction; his eyes filled with laughter. “Now we’re even.”
Taeyeon and Key both took the opportunity to smack Jonghyun on the shoulders.
“Ouch! What did I do?”
They all laughed, and things seemed to become perfect. They each took a cookie from the plate. Christmas was once again cheerful; broken ornaments, burnt turkey, and all.
From: Your Secret Santa
Title: Cookies and Kisses
Pairing: Jonghyun/Taeyeon (Taemin)/Key
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 4698
Summary: Taeyeon, Jonghyun, and Key have been best friends since they were very small. They spend every Christmas together. This year, things change and no one knows quite how to handle it.
“We are so late! Key’s going to kill us.” Jonghyun muttered darkly as he drove the car onward. Taeyeon really didn’t like to be in the same car as him when he was thinking such melancholic thoughts. Knowing Jonghyun, he was bound to lose concentration on the road and try to wallow in his own self pity. But Taeyeon had to agree with him on one thing.
“Correction, he’s going to kill you.” she said with an evil smirk. “After all, it’s your fault we’re two hours late to pick him up from the airport and I can’t drive yet.”
“My fault!” Jonghyun repeated, shrillness seeping into his voice. He glared over at Taeyeon, but she directed his vision back towards the road. “How-”
“Don’t even try to pretend that you don’t know.” Taeyeon interrupted with a laugh. “You were supposed to be at my house hours ago so we could go pick him up together, but instead you decided to take that time to preen your metaphorical feathers.” Taeyeon gave him a knowing look that Jonghyun chose to ignore.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” he lied. “I just forgot what time it was.”
“So you admit it was your fault.”
Jonghyun grumbled in annoyance.
-----
“Where the hell have you two been? I’ve been waiting for ages!” Key yelled as soon as he saw Jonghyun and Taeyeon running towards him.
“Sorry, Key!” Taeyeon called as she tried to catch her breath. Then she jerked her thumb in Jonghyun’s direction. “It’s his fault. He was supposed to pick me up hours ago and he forgot because he was trying to keep his non-existent sense of style from deteriorating any further.” She snickered when Jonghyun gave a rather loud protest, wondering why she could never be polite.
Key marched straight over to Jonghyun and whacked him on the arm angrily. “Idiot.”
“What did I do?!” Jonghyun asked automatically, even though he knew perfectly well what he did. That earned him another smack on the arm. Once Key was satisfied that he had hit Jonghyun enough (about twenty times), he turned around to face Taeyeon.
“Give me a hug, Tae! I haven’t seen you since the summer!” he said as he held his arms out. Taeyeon all but flung herself into Key’s arms. It had been ages since they had seen each other.
“What about me?” Jonghyun asked pathetically off to the side. “Doesn’t your best friend get a hug?”
“Not when he made me wait two hours for a ride.” Key said with a little bit of venom in his voice. Then he stuck his tongue out in Jonghyun’s direction. Jonghyun stuck his tongue out as well. Only Taeyeon seemed to realize that it was their way of showing how much they cared for each other.
Gee, boys were dumb.
-----
“Have you finished setting up the tree yet?” Taeyeon called from the kitchen. She was making chocolate chip cookies like she did every year. Jonghyun in particular seemed to like them a lot. Key liked pretty much anything sweet so it wasn’t a lot to say he liked Taeyeon’s cookies. But Taeyeon really only made them because they were fun to make.
“Not yet!” called Jonghyun from the living room.
“Mmmm, those smell good.”
Taeyeon nearly jumped out of her skin. Her arms flung around in surprise, smacking Key on the cheek by accident. Taeyeon gasped and retracted her hand. “Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry!”
“No it’s my fault.” Key said as he rubbed his reddening cheek. “I should know by now not to sneak up on you.”
“No, here let me make it better.” Then without saying any more, she leaned up and kissed his cheek. Key was stunned into silence and the red on his cheeks grew. Taeyeon didn’t seem to notice even after she pulled away. “There, all better.”
“Th-thanks…” Key stuttered. Then Taeyeon smiled and went back to her cookies. Key turned around and was about to leave the kitchen when he ran into Jonghyun. He tilted his head to get a look at Jonghyun’s face. He was surprised to find an angry expression. Then Jonghyun left without a word to finish setting up the tree.
Key followed him out and lowered his voice so Taeyeon could hear him. “What’s wrong with you?” he asked as Jonghyun picked up another ornament to place on the tree.
“Nothing,” Jonghyun said with forced cheerfulness, but he didn’t look at Key at all.
“You’re lying,” Key muttered. “You should know by now that I can tell when you’re lying to me.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jonghyun denied.
“Quite lying!” Key shouted, forgetting to be quiet. Sure enough, Taeyeon peeked her head out from the kitchen to see what was going on.
“Is everything all right?” she asked worriedly. Key spun around quickly in surprise. Jonghyun just stiffened.
“Everything’s fine,” Jonghyun muttered as he slowly placed another ornament on the tree. But the tone in which he said it was what clued Taeyeon into the situation a little bit.
“You’re lying,” Taeyeon said with unhappy confidence. An ornament fell from one of the branches of the tree and shattered on the floor, but no one went to clean it up.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, shut up!” Key said, clearly exasperated. “You do this all the time! We can tell when something is bugging you. Just tell us what’s wrong!”
“No, let’s just stop talking about it,” Taeyeon suggested with a slight tug on Key’s sleeve. “Let’s not fight. This is supposed to be a happy time of year.” At those words, Key looked slightly guilty. Taeyeon was right. It was almost Christmas and they were starting to fight.
“Alright,” Key conceded, “we can talk when everyone is cooled down.” Jonghyun just stared at the tree and all its ornaments. The one shattered ornament still lay on the ground. Jonghyun debated picking up the pieces, but Key beat him to it. As he was bent over the mess, he cast a glance at Jonghyun and managed a weak smile. Jonghyun grudgingly smiled back and continued to decorate the tree.
-----
Later that night, Jonghyun snuck out of the house with the excuse that he needed to get back to his own place. But instead of going straight home, Jonghyun took a side trip to some shops around the city. He still hadn’t bough either Taeyeon or Key their Christmas presents yet.
As he looked in the windows of the shops he passed, the thought of what he had seen earlier that day passed through his head. It wasn’t like Key and Taeyeon had actually kissed, but for some reason it bugged him. The scary thing was, he wasn’t sure if he was upset that Taeyeon had kissed Key’s cheek or if it was because Key had stayed where he was instead of pulling away. He just knew he didn’t like that they both knew something was up. They had all been friends for way too long. He smiled at the thought.
He stopped in front of a little toy shop and thought of Taeyeon. She always did like fluffy things; maybe he should get her a new stuffed animal. Then he thought better. She was growing up more than he wanted to admit. She was not the girl who needed his and Key’s protection anymore, she didn’t need to be treated like a kid (she had too many stuffed animals anyway).
He moved on.
Next he saw a jewelry store. He pondered buying her something from there, but then he remembered that she was not someone who wore a lot of jewelry. If he bought her something expensive like that, odds were, it would just sit in her bathroom untouched.
The next store he came to was a store that sold all brand name clothes. He almost walked in, thinking of Key, but backed off when he remembered the comments about his nonexistent style. If he tried to pick out Key’s clothes for him, Key probably wouldn’t wear them because Jonghyun chose a top and bottom that absolutely did not work together because he bought the wrong shade of blue.
Rolling his eyes, Jonghyun moved on.
He spent at least another hour trying to find the best gifts for both of them. But by the end, he still couldn’t decide what to get them. He thought really hard, but he just couldn’t decide on anything. So instead, he played on their love for music and bought them both new boom boxes; they both loved to dance.
But even after bringing the items home, he didn’t feel like they were enough. He sighed and ran his hands through his hair in frustration. Then he headed to bed, only thinking of his two best friends. As he pulled the covers up to his chin, he asked himself, “Are they more than just my friends?”
Scared of that thought, he pulled the covers over his head in a vain attempt to hide from it.
-----
Taemin sat at her house alone. Key had left earlier to go to his hotel. He was only staying through Christmas and then he was going to go back home. The three of them always celebrated Christmas together. They had done so since they were very little and their parents were still setting up play dates.
What had happened earlier in the night had never happened before. It was strange for them to be fighting, even just a little. Had they grown apart as they grew up? She certainly hadn’t noticed any changes in Jonghyun. It was a little bit harder to tell if there was a difference in Key; he was so far away that she couldn’t be sure if his lack of sending letters was because he was just busy or something else.
“Oh, shoot!” Taeyeon exclaimed as she shot up from her seat. “I haven’t bought their Christmas presents yet!” She almost grabbed her coat right then and there and went shopping, but it was late, and everything was almost guaranteed to be closed. She groaned instead and began brainstorming present ideas. It wasn’t until an hour later when she had settled on something dinosaur themed for Jonghyun and a something pink for Key.
Then she went to bed, worrying slightly as she thought about the small fight earlier. What had caused Jonghyun to get so angry?
-----
Key didn’t really go back home like he had said he was going to. Instead, he aimlessly walked around with nothing particular in mind. His mind had been so fuddled by the events of the day. First, his heart sped up at Taeyeon’s kiss on his cheek. Then his heart hurt at the way Jonghyun had looked at him.
Why had his heart sped up when Taeyeon kissed his cheek? She was just apologizing for smacking him, but his cheek tingled with an interesting sensation that he could still feel. Was he possibly falling for the sweet girl he had grown up with?
And what was going on with him and Jonghyun? He had never felt so upset when Jonghyun glared at him before. He had almost felt like going to another room and crying, but he pushed it away and asked what was wrong instead. Did he like Jonghyun, too?
Key had known for years that he was bi, but Jonghyun remained firm in his belief that he was straight. If Key really did like Jonghyun, that was going to be a problem.
Key furiously ruffled his hair in confusion. Why was this all happening now? Why Christmas time when everyone was supposed to be happy? Maybe he could hold everything back until a while after Christmas. It would just be better for everyone, and it would give Key time to think if that was what was really going on or if it was something else.
-----
They were back at Taeyeon’s house the next day to finish decorating. Mostly they pretended the things that had happened the previous day had never happened. Jonghyun was wearing his usual smile, Taeyeon was her normal cheery self, and Key nagged at both of them to keep working instead of eating the cookies that Taeyeon had finished making the day before.
“If you keep eating them then there will be none left for Christmas day!” he yelled in mock anger. But he could not deny that both of them looked absolutely adorable with chocolate and crumbs all over their faces.
“Tae, I thought you said you had to go somewhere today,” Key pointed out as Taeyeon stuffed another cookie in her mouth. “Shouldn’t you be going?”
Taeyeon looked at the clock and her eyes widened. She shouted a cookie muffled response and ran out the room with her coat. A moment later, the door was heard slamming and Key and Jonghyun were left by themselves.
“Well, I suppose we should finish decorating the tree. We sort of left it unfinished yesterday when we had the little spat.” Key gave a tense smile, but Jonghyun just glared. That’s when Key realized that their fight was not over yet, even if Key still had no idea what Jonghyun’s problem was. “What exactly is wrong with you?” he asked, again feeling the twinge of pain in his chest at being the target of Jonghyun’s stare.
“Nothing,” Jonghyun muttered as he left the room in a huff. Key was not going to let him get away that easily. He marched out into the living room and watched Jonghyun take a seat among the ornaments that were not yet hung up yet.
“Tell me what’s wrong with you,” Key demanded. “Quit denying that something is wrong and talk to me. I’m your best friend!” At those words, Jonghyun stood up suddenly and glared at Key again. Key’s tongue got caught in his throat.
“Maybe I don’t want to tell you,” Jonghyun spat. “Maybe I’m sick of your bitching and I don’t want to be your best friend anymore. You nag, you scream, you don’t give me space, and I’m sick of being treated like dirt by you.” He pushed Key roughly away.
Angry, Key pushed back. “If you had this much to say, why didn’t you say it sooner? If you hated me that much, why didn’t you stop being friends with me before Christmas? You’re going to ruin the whole holiday, idiot!”
Jonghyun shoved him once more. Key shoved Jonghyun in return as hard as he could. Jonghyun stumbled backwards and fell into the tree. Key looked on with a startled, stiff expression and watched the tree go down along with Jonghyun. Ornaments fell from the branches and lights flickered and went out as the cord was pulled from the wall.
“Ouch!” groaned Jonghyun as he sat up. Then he looked around and groaned in annoyance. “Shit, now look what you’ve done!”
“Me!” Key shouted disbelievingly. “You started the pushing match! It’s your fault!” They argued for a good twenty minutes, trading insults and blame. Then Jonghyun stopped midsentence and sniffed the air, smelling something off.
“Does something smell like it’s burning?” he asked. Key sniffed the air as well. He smelled it, too. Smoke was coming into the air and for a moment, Jonghyun wondered if a light on the tree had exploded or something and caught fire. But the smoke was coming from the kitchen.
“Oh, crap!” Key exclaimed as he scrambled into the kitchen. “It’s the turkey Tae has been working on since this morning!” Making his way into the kitchen as quickly as possible, he noted the smoke escaping from the edges of the oven and freaked out. Without thinking, he opened the over and barehanded, grabbed the burnt turkey and its tray.
His hands burned almost instantly and he screeched as he once more dropped the turkey in the oven and pulled his hands away. Jonghyun instinctively grabbed Key’s hands and moved him over to the sink, turning on the cold water and running it over Key’s flaming red hands.
“Stupid!” he chastised Key. “I thought I was the only one who reached into an over without oven mitts.”
“You sure did it enough when we were kids,” Key mentioned, thinking of how Jonghyun wanted to cook when he was little but always ended up hurting himself instead. He always managed to burn himself or cut himself. It ended up being a rule that Jonghyun was not allowed to cook.
Key made eye contact with Jonghyun and registered the older’s fingers still working gently at his burned hands under the water. There was a moment of soft, mixed feelings floating around in their gazes, but another moment passed and the moment was gone. Jonghyun let go of Key’s hands and pulled on oven mitts to get the turkey out of the oven. They were still pissed at each other.
Just then, Taeyeon walked back in with a couple bags under her arm. She paused and sniffed the air curiously. Then she gasped. “I didn’t forget the turkey in the oven, did I?”
“Yes, you did, Tae,” Jonghyun called to her, setting the burnt bird on the counter.
“I’m sorry, guys. I completely forgot about it,” she said, feeling guilty. She was approaching the kitchen when she noticed the tree down in the living room. Her mouth fell open in shock. “What happened to the tree?”
“Jonghyun knocked it over,” Key told her. Jonghyun spun around and fixed a glare to Key.
“And who was it that pushed me into it?” he growled.
“I’m out of here,” Key called as he began to leave, letting his fingers drip dry as he walked.
“Key,” Taeyeon called, “please don’t leave like this.”
“Let him go if he wants to,” Jonghyun said angrily. “I don’t particularly want to be around him right now anyway.”
“Jonghyun!” Taeyeon exclaimed in shock. Then she heard the front door slam and Key was gone. Then there was silence between her and Jonghyun as well. When Taeyeon finally spoke, her voice was breaking. “What is wrong with you, Jonghyun? What has you so upset that you refuse to get along with Key? He’s your best friend.”
“I think I like you.” Taeyeon froze at the words. Jonghyun continued, “I saw you kiss Key’s cheek yesterday, and I guess I was jealous.” But as he said the words, he felt like they were only half true. He still hadn’t figured out if he was angry with Key or Taeyeon even though he had been acting like he was only angry with Key.
Taeyeon just didn’t know how to react. She had not expected that at all.
“Tae?” Jonghyun said, worried about her inability to respond. “Taeyeon, are you alright?” But before he realized it, Taeyeon was running past him and closing the door to her bedroom. He stood there in complete shock, mouth hanging slightly open and tears edging his eyes. He stayed there for about two minutes, praying she would come out and tell him she was just kidding, but she didn’t. So he left without another word.
He had possibly lost both of his best friends that night.
-----
Taeyeon heard the door shut as Jonghyun left. She felt terrible for running away like that, but she got scared. She didn’t know what would happen to their friendship if something went wrong. She wasn’t even sure if she liked him that way. Even Key she wasn’t sure about.
All three of them had always been close, but it was hard to tell where sisterly and brotherly love became something more. In fact, now that it was drawn to her attention, she may have possibly been harboring those kinds of feelings. Her heart was beating like crazy and her face was incredibly flushed with embarrassment.
But then the current situation came into her head once more. Everyone was fighting. What was wrong with Key in all of this? Sure, he and Jonghyun were fighting, but he seemed to be upset over a lot more than that.
As if on cue, her cell phone began ringing. She picked it up and looked at the ID. It was Key. Without really thinking about it, she picked up the call and put the phone to her ear. “Hello?” she called into the receiver. She waited for a response, but there was none. “Hello? Key?” There was still no answer. “Kibum?”
Finally, there was an answer. “Is it wrong to be in love with two people?” he asked, his voice breaking in various places. He sounded like he had been crying.
“Key, what’s wrong?” Taeyeon asked, but after the words left her mouth, she realized that she didn’t need to ask. Then a thought occurred to her. She subconsciously lowered her head, the phone still to her ear. “This is all my fault, isn’t it?”
“What? No!” Key said on the other end of the line. “It’s not your fault. I-”
“You did nothing wrong,” Taeyeon interrupted him. “If I hadn’t kissed your cheek, Jonghyun wouldn’t have gotten angry and none of this would have ever happened. Now he’s confessed to me and I don’t know what to do.”
“Then, what I have to say to you is going to confuse you even more,” Key announced to her. Taeyeon froze, praying that it was not- “I like you, Taeyeon; more than the brother I’ve acted like all these years.”
Frightened by his words, Taeyeon ended the call immediately. Then she just sat there and cried.
-----
Key sat on the other end of the line, sighing heavily. He had expected no less from Taeyeon. She was always a sensitive one. But after rushing out of her house, he realized a lot. He was positive of his feelings for both of his friends, and he was scared, but he was going to tell them both.
He called Jonghyun next. He was surprised when he actually picked up.
“What do you want?” he demanded angrily.
“I need to talk with you, please.” He tacked on the last bit, almost begging Jonghyun to listen to him. “Come to the park where we played when we were kids.”
“What if I don’t want to?” Jonghyun asked, testing his boundaries. “I told you I don’t want to be your friend anymore.” But Key could hear the longing in Jonghyun’s voice as he spoke. He knew there was something in his best friend that wanted them to mend their relationship.
“It’s important,” was all Key said.
A long moment passed. “Fine, I’m headed there now.” Then the line went dead. Key stuffed his phone into his pocket and took off running, the hope in him bursting forward and making him a little kid again.
He ran to the park and made it there within a few minutes. But when he entered it, Jonghyun was already there. How had he gotten there so fast? A possible idea came to mind. He slowly approached Jonghyun, still breathing hard from his run. “Where you here before I called?” he asked.
Jonghyun didn’t answer. Instead, he turned to Key and asked, “What is so important that you couldn’t say over the phone?” It was a cold voice, but it was like the cold that spring takes at the very beginning when winter is still leaving and the sun is barely poking through the clouds.
Key had finally caught his breath and stared Jonghyun directly in the eye. “You’re my best friend. I’ve known you for as long as I can remember. I don’t know who I would be without you. I can’t live without you. And…” Key quickly leaned up and pecked Jonghyun on the cheek. When he pulled away, Jonghyun was staring at him with a shocked expression on his face. “I like you.”
Something in Jonghyun seemed to brighten at those words, but he didn’t respond to Key feelings, so Key started to back away, tears forming at the edges of his eyes. Jonghyun was straight after all.
“Wait!” Jonghyun suddenly shouted when he realized Key was moving away. He pulled Key back gently by his arms. He wrapped him in his own strong arms and they just stayed together for a moment. “I’m sorry I was being stupid,” Jonghyun said. “I can’t believe I screwed everything up.”
“You weren’t the only one,” Key choked out, letting tears of relief run down his cheeks.
“And we still have to fix things with Tae,” Jonghyun mentioned. “Last I saw her, she was locking herself in her room after I confessed to her.”
“She hung up on me when I told her I liked her, too,” Key commented. They laughed nervously and separated from their hug. “Well, I suppose that if we can patch things up, we can patch them up with her as well,” Key said, smiling at Jonghyun with hope.
Jonghyun smiled back. “Yeah.”
-----
Taeyeon was still sitting in her room, wishing that the day had never happened. She heard the door open, but didn’t think much of it until she heard two people talking and things being moved around. Had someone decided to rob her house? She hadn’t checked the door after Jonghyun left to see if he locked it or not.
But after a few minutes of freaking out, she realized she recognized the two voices. They had come back.
But there was no yelling and no arguing. In fact, there was laughter coming from behind the door along with the sounds of things being moved around. Taeyeon listened carefully to everything, but couldn’t quite understand what they were doing. Finally, her curiosity got to her and she left the safety of her room.
She walked out and peeked around the corner at the two boys she had grown up with. They setting the tree back up and placing the ornaments on wherever they found empty space. They cleaned up the unfortunate mess of shattered ornaments and threw out the burnt turkey that still sat on the counter in the kitchen. The two were sharing pleasant conversation. It was as if they had never fought in the first place.
“I don’t understand,” Taeyeon muttered, barely managing to catch the attention of Jonghyun and Key, “I thought you two hated each other just a little while ago. What happened?” She was glad that they were getting along again, but she was just a little confused about how they had sorted things out and what was going to happen to their confessions to her. It was not like they never happened, no matter how much she wished they hadn’t because she could never choose between them.
“I confessed to him,” Key announced with a small smile across his face. “We went from there.”
That confused Taeyeon even more. Hadn’t Key confessed to her also? “But…”
“I don’t want to choose between you and Jonghyun,” Key said.
“And I don’t want to choose between you and Key,” Jonghyun put in. “We were sort of hoping you could forgive us for ruining a perfectly good Christmas. Then we want to ask you to not choose between us if you were thinking about accepting our feelings.”
Taeyeon looked at them both in absolute astonishment for a long period of time. But then her expression became calm and she smiled before going into the kitchen. Key and Jonghyun looked at each other nervously until she came back with a plate in her hands.
She held it out to them. It was a plate of the cookies she had made the previous day.
“Don’t scare me like that ever again,” she said, her voice breaking as she spoke. “I like you guys, too.”
Jonghyun leaned down to peck her on the cheek. Her tear filled eyes widened in confusion. Jonghyun just smirked in Key’s direction; his eyes filled with laughter. “Now we’re even.”
Taeyeon and Key both took the opportunity to smack Jonghyun on the shoulders.
“Ouch! What did I do?”
They all laughed, and things seemed to become perfect. They each took a cookie from the plate. Christmas was once again cheerful; broken ornaments, burnt turkey, and all.