My I「Junhao」

2.6

Minghao was seated in our living room on the floor, looking at the presents situated underneath our tree with wide eyes. He had told me once that he never received very many presents during Christmas. His mother was often sent abroad for uncertain amounts of time so she could earn more money so that she could help her son more when he really needed financial support, so he didn't receive much at all on birthdays either.

He looked at the Christmas tree as if it held all of the secrets to life due to the number of presents underneath, which was certainly more than normal, mainly due to my parents wanting him to feel more involved with our family especially because his mother was abroad. He had no clue of our plan to make him happy on Christmas Day, and was practically in a trance, looking at all of the presents.

Our plan (at this point,) was for our friends to come over and be included in our family gathering because honestly, they were practically family already. The boys were all joining us for lunch (so they would be able to spend the night with family) which was another reason there was more presents under our tree, but Minghao didn't know of this plan.

"Mama, Papa... are you 100 percent sure you want to cook Christmas lunch for all of us? That's 14 teen boys you will need to cook for." I asked, concerned. My mother looked at me, almost insulted. "Are you underestimating mine and your father's cooking skills?" She asked, her voice low.

"Nonono! I would never!" Minghao snapped out of his trance at my loud attempts to amend what I had said. "Wait... what's happening?" He asked in confusion and I just waved him off, "Nothing, bao bei. Shall we organise the presents into piles per person?" I offered in order to distract him.

His eyes lit up and he crawled over to the tree before pulling out the first present. "For... me?" He looked at me, confused, but I just smiled so he shrugged and put the present down near where he was sitting earlier. I pulled the closest present to me out and when I saw Seungcheol's name, I put that one to the side so that I could put it back underneath after we were done with the others.

We worked silently, having some sort of an unspoken system which worked by there being some sort of invisible line between the two of us, dictating who took what presents to sort. Soon enough we were staring at piles of presents for us and my parents and putting the ones for our friends back under the extravagantly decorated tree.

"Mama we're done." I informed politely and my mother stuck her head out of the kitchen to analyse the scene. "Well done. You boys are allowed to open your presents now." When neither of us moved, she spoke again. "What are you both waiting for, the new year? But still, thank you both for organising them all."

I put mine into a few separate piles so that they were in order of largest to smallest and waited for Minghao to organise his own pile. I could see in his pile the presents that I had bought and I noticed that there was a present that was the exact same size as one of mine that was from all of our parents. "Mama, is there any presents we have to wait until the end to open or can they just be opened in whatever order?" I asked.

"That one from us and Hao's mother. You have to open them together at the end." I nodded in understanding and put that one aside. Minghao did the same and I caught his eye and overexaggeratedly squinted in suspicion. He laughed at me and picked up a cushion off the couch, throwing it at me.

I ducked just in time and picked the cushion up from behind me and threw it back at Minghao, who giggled quietly and flushed with embarrassment when he realised he had giggled. "Awww you're so cute Haohao~" I cooed and he glared at me, which looked ridiculous with his red cheeks.

"Just- let's just open the presents." He muttered, flustered. I picked up my largest present and he picked up his smallest present, which I knew was from me (because of my awful wrapping skills). The present was a pair of earrings that I had seen him eyeing one time when we went out together. (The infinity earrings he wore during DWC era, remember those??? Yeah that's what those earrings are)