𝐖𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐓𝐇 || ᵇ.ᵏᵃᵗˢᵘᵏⁱ

LXXX

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The winter rolled around quickly and before she knew it, Aeri was waving goodbye to the boy she'd spent pretty much all day every day with since summer, heading to Korea to see her family for Christmas.

Bakugou had spent the entire past few days grumpy, rarely letting her go even when their classmates were around—which was a shock considering he would usually immediately revert to the personality he had when she first met him whenever anyone else joined the mix. He was clingier and Aeri felt guilty to have to leave him for three weeks, even if it meant she would get to see her loved ones and further her career.

The plane ride to Korea was silent and comfortable, with the twins looking out the window at the snow-covered landscapes and their dad snoozing peacefully across from them. Hyunjin was too busy sulking in the corner, claiming to already miss Amajiki despite seeing him an hour ago—Aeri would be lying if she said she couldn't relate—Eri was playing a game on Aeri's iPad to distract herself. She'd never been on a plane before and was very nervous when they were boarding. It took all four of them to calm her down and reassure her.

There was already a Christmas tree set up in the living room when they got to their house (courtesy of Hyoseop), though Aeri wouldn't be staying there. She'd given her bedroom to Eri since there weren't any spares in their house on the Moon Estate, so she'd be staying with Jinyoung and Hyoseop because she was the closest to them out of her siblings, and she'd be away with Hyoseop filming ZombieVerse for the first week anyway.

"I'm gonna drop my suitcase to Jinyoung's house!" Aeri called after she got Eri settled in her bedroom, helping her unpack her toys and clothes before tucking her in for a small nap.

"Okay!" Her dad called from the kitchen.

Aeri grasped the handle of her suitcase and teleported outside the door, dragging her suitcase behind her as the snow crunched under her shoes.

She'd barely finished knocking when Hyoseop threw open the door wearing a white Christmas jumper with 'Let it snow!' written on the front in red sequinned letters.

"Come in quick, Jinyoung finally agreed to put down the paperwork and do Christmas stuff," Hyoseop whispered, ushering her through the door and taking the suitcase from her as she slipped off her shoes, running to the kitchen where Jinyoung was staring at a cookie recipe with furrowed eyebrows.

Aeri wasn't surprised that Hyoseop was so excited. He was very festive. He loved Christmas and New Year's more than anything.

"Why are you glaring at it like that?" Aeri stifled a laugh and Jinyoung's head shot up.

"Oh hi," he looked back to the recipe. "Hyoseop chose the most difficult recipe he could find...who the hell makes Christmas-themed macarons?"

"You like macarons! I wanted to make it rewarding for you at least," Hyoseop said with a click of his tongue.

"I like eating macarons, not making them," Jinyoung argued.

Unlike his brother, Jinyoung didn't care for Christmas. He liked buying people gifts but he wasn't interested in anything else that came with it, like the tree decorating, the festivities, none of that appealed to him.

"Aren't macarons the hardest dessert to bake?" Aeri asked as she shrugged off her black, thigh-length princess coat, overheating thanks to the heat being turned right up. She didn't know how Hyoseop was surviving in that sweater, even Jinyoung was only wearing a short-sleeved shirt.

"It'll be fine," Hyoseop walked to the sink to wash his hands.

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It was not, in fact, fine.

Hyoseop's macarons were flat, oddly shaped and so thin that they'd snap whenever he tried to pipe the cream onto them. In the end, they looked like the world's worst red Oreos but paper thin.

Aeri and Jinyoung still made a show of eating them and telling them how delicious they were, even if they looked like a toddler's art project. They didn't taste that bad.

They ended up making Christmas tree-shaped shortbread afterwards, something easy after the macaron incident, and Jinyoung almost turned into Gordon Ramsey with how he was shouting and swearing that they weren't following the macaron recipe properly (they added 2g more flour than the recipe suggested).

Shortbread was much easier. No one was shouting or stressed and Hyoseop bumped up the volume on the speaker that was blasting 'Last Christmas' by Wham! Hyunjin came over just as they put them in the oven, carrying Hoon and Eri who were dressed in little matching Christmas outfits with Hoon as Santa (fake beard and all) and Eri as Mrs Klaus.

"Well, don't you two look cute?" Hyoseop smiled before bending down in front of Eri. "I'm Hyoseop, Aeri, Jungwon and Hyunjin's brother, I've heard a lot about you Eri." He held a hand out which Eri took happily, a lot less shy after months of being surrounded by the Moon siblings.

"Nice to meet you," Eri said quietly.

"Apparently, I'm in charge of translating for the kids. Hoon wants to play with Eri but neither of them know each other's language." Hyunjin sighed. "Anyways, we'll leave you to it, they just wanted to show off their costumes."

"Come back in half an hour and you can have a cookie!" Aeri called from the kitchen, wiping spilt flour off the countertop.

"I don't think I trust anything you guys have baked, not with whatever the hell that is on the tray." Hyunjin grimaced at the sight of the messy macarons.

"I want a cookie!" Hoon cheered and so Hyunjin switched to Japanese to ask Eri if she'd like one when they were ready, to which she nodded and thanked Hyoseop in Korean, the one phrase she'd picked up from them.

They left afterwards, with Hoon chatting animatedly to Eri without any care that she couldn't understand and Eri looking between Hoon and Hyunjin as the latter tried his best to rush out a translation.

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