Before I'm Gone | Stray Kids FF

Christmas Presents

Areum POV

"Ugh... what time is it?" I rose from the bed to look at the time. 8:45 am my clock read.

Sighing, I got out of bed and went to the kitchen to make breakfast. By make I mean just chop up an apple and eat that while scrolling through my phone. First Christmas alone and I was not doing anything. As I went to the living room, I realized that I still had to organize the gifts I had gotten. First, I finished eating my apple slices then got to work organizing the gifts.

I looked at what each of them had given me, a smile appearing on my face at how thoughtful they were. I started by taking out some headphones. They were a navy colour and had a small A on the sides. Wrapping the cord, I also took out the card that had come with it. Have a good Christmas, Areum. Don't forget, we're here for you! Happy Holidays, Felix. The card was in English but he also wrote a few things in Hangul, just little things to decorate the card.

Enjoy the gift! Hang out with us more! From your dandy boy, Seungmin. I took a photo frame out of a bag and looked at the image in it. There was a collage of all of us. I never realized how much Seungmin had taken pictures, but I appreciated it. He had all our memories.

I continued through the gifts, sorting through it all. In the end, I had ten items lined up on the table. There was a pair of glasses from Jeongin. He told me he got them for me because when he saw it, he thought I would look really cute in them. A jar filled with some sweets came from Chan. He said he had made jars filled with random things for each person. Mine just happened to be filled with sweets and encouraging notes. From Woojin, I got cute teddy bear along with an invitation to eat chicken with him sometime. Changbin had gotten me a full outfit. It was a black cropped hoodie and black utility pants. In a box, there was a beautiful set of earrings and a necklace. The earrings were dangling ones with a feather at the end and the necklace had words in cursive writing that said Soar in English. Jisung has a good taste injewelery. I thought to myself.

I opened Hyunjin's gift for me. It was a pretty bracelet. It was simple, nothing more than a chain with an infinity sign on it. In his card, he told me that he got it for me because he wanted me to know that he would forever be by my side. Though he was giving up on crushing on me, he would always be my friend. He wanted me to know that.

In my hands was a bag. It was from Haneul. She had stuffed the bag full with kpop merch. Though I was not the biggest fangirl there was, she still had gotten me a whole bunch of stuff. There were photocards of many beautiful looking people. There were pins and mini posters too. At the bottom of the bag, I found a bracelet. It had a black drawstring and in the middle, it had a small stone within a metal cage that looked like a tree. In her card, she told me that she had the same one and she would always be wearing it. With a smile on my face, I put on the bracelet.

Finally, the last gift. I had not had time to open it prior to this so I was curious as to what Minho had gotten me. Maybe something cat related? I opened the small box to find a necklace and bracelet. My mouth was agape as I looked at it. It looked pretty and not something easy to get. The necklace was just a chain and a charm hanging on the middle. Looking at it carefully, I noticed on the front side, an A was engraved into it. On the other side was an M. I set it down and took the bracelet. It was a simple bracelet with a cord of some sort with many beautiful looking beads on it. I inspected every bead and realized that one of them had my name in Hangul on it. On another, I found a heart and on another I found M. He sure liked to mark these things with his initials. I chuckled to myself as I put on the bracelet.

~*~

"Appa?" Areum walked down the stairs to look for her father. "Oh... not here." She sighed and headed back up the steps towards her room.

"Yah, why are you awake?" Her brother called up from the top of the steps.

"I thought I heard Appa." She said sheepishly, headed towards him.

"He's busy, we both know that." Her brother looked sympathetically at her. "He'll be here for dinner though."

"I know." She let her brother take her by the hand and drag her back to bed.

~*~

"Jeonghui, Yeongsoo, Ap-" Areum cut herself off. She sighed as she continued walking down the stairs to the living room.

"Morning, Areum." Her mom said with a smile on her face.

"Good morning." Areum sat on the couch.

It was her first Christmas without her brothers or father. She was already down in the dumps about it. Her mother knew that. Throughout the day, she tried to make her daughter forget that it was just them. She tried to make her happy, but it only ended in more unhappiness.

"How could you just brush it off like they never existed in the first place?" Areum finally burst. "It's just not the same!" Areum stormed away to her room. "It'll never be the same." She said to herself as she collapsed onto her bed.

~*~

3rd Person POV

Areum let her tears fall at the memories. She was out on her balcony again. Yes, it was cold. Yes, she was just in a hoodie and shorts. And yes, she did not care.

She rest her head on her arms which leaned on the railing. She looked up slightly to her right to find that someone was watching her. Just like old times. She gave the person a slight bow before turning away and starting to inside. The person watched her leave. He sighed at the sight of her red eyes but smiled at the sight of what she wore. On her wrist was his gift to her.

Areum found herself sitting at her desk with ten sheets of paper. She was writing letters to her friends. Just in case I ever need to use these. She thought to herself. I'll have them ready now. She felt her tears brimming in her eyes. She did not want to do this. She thought it was foolish of her, but she just could no longer take it. It was just too hard for her to bear. She missed her family dearly, not only that, she missed her happiness, pride, and so much more. She had lost so much of herself in the recent months. What if she followed in his footsteps?

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I would like my readers to know that I am very thankful to you. I think my Wattpad Christmas wish came true! I wanted 9k (for nine or none) and I got that. Thank you so much. :) I hope you all had great Christmases and this is my Christmas gift to you. A very nice chapter with a chapter almost every day to come until I finish this book.

Thank you to Carmable_04 for supporting my book! :)

WARNING: The next bits will be going into very touchy subjects. I advise you steer clear if you can not handle things that include mental health issues (I don't want to give away the book so I can not really tell you what it is... but if you really are curious because you do not want to read about sensitive topics, private message me please).

Anyways. I hope you had a great Christmas!! Tell me what you got for Christmas in the comments!