hands off my heart || n.h au

f i v e

Although Jena's not really in a festive mood, she decides to get a Christmas tree for her flat anyway.

After making sure that Ellie has everything under control at Butter & Bread (and after getting kicked out of her own bakery), Jena finds herself surrounded by trees after trees that all look the same to her. If her dad were here, he'd tell her that none of them look the same. And then he'd start pointing out how all of them look different and she'd pretend to get it but she really doesn't.

God, she wishes she's doing this with her dad. He'd know which tree to get, which one would be perfect for her flat.

"That's not the one," a voice — a familiar one — interrupts her thought, making her jump.

Jena doesn't have to turn around to know who's talking to her because every fibre of her being is suddenly aware of his presence.

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you," he apologises as he steps forward and stands next to her. His nearness makes her heart stutter and much like the liar that she is, she tries to convince herself that it means nothing. That her racing heart has nothing to do with a certain Niall Horan.

"It's fine," she says as she acknowledges his presence. He's wearing a dark blue jacket and a pair of black jeans, and underneath that jacket is a white t-shirt. And it's not just any t-shirts. It's the one she got for him four years ago — it has a small dog paw print on the left side of his chest — and it makes her wonder if he still keeps everything she gave him.

Reaching for one of the branches, he tugs at it the way she's seen her dad does before and makes a disapproving sound. "This is an old tree."

Before Jena can register what's happening, Niall moves to the next tree and does the same thing.

"This is a good one," he observes, nodding to himself. "But I think it's too big for your place."

Jena wants to ask how he can figure that out just by taking one look at the tree, but she chooses to swallow the question instead.

When he finally notices that Jena hasn't moved from her previous spot, he turns to her and shoots her a sheepish smile. "Sorry," he apologises, the tips of his ears turning red as he walks back to Jena. "You probably don't need my help."

"No, I do need help," Jena tells him, to which he responds with a tilt of his head like he's trying to figure out if she's just being nice to him or if she's telling him the truth. "I think it's obvious that I don't know what I'm supposed to look for."

"It's not that obvious," he replies. Now he's just being nice to her.

"A few minutes ago I thought this tree was the right one," Jena points at the tree Niall deemed old and he lets out a chuckle, the sound washing over her like a cup of hot chocolate on this cold day.

"Well, lucky for you I've been here with your dad a few times and he's taught me a few tips and tricks."

The following thirty minutes, Niall tells her everything her dad has taught him. It doesn't escape her that she'd know all of these if she had paid more attention to what her dad was saying on the rare occasions that she decided to tag along as he looked for the perfect tree. Niall, on the other hand, committed everything to memory.

Once again, Jena fails to pay attention to what Niall's telling her because all she could think about is how this is something they used to do every year — except on those years when she decided to stay at home while he spent the morning with her dad — and how he still remembers everything her dad told him. She wonders what else he remembers because so far, it seems like those two years away from this town haven't wiped anything from his memory.