12 Days of Ramenzo

gift exchange

Ramen only signed up for homeroom computer science because Samyang was taking the course and Ramen didn't want to be alone in all his classes. In retrospect, probably not the best reason; Eggi letting him copy off his work was the only thing keeping him above a failing grade.

The hot guy in his class was another excuse to stay, though.

Ramen spent long boring lectures staring above his monitor at the back of Kaizo's spiky-haired head- at this point he practically had its pattern memorized. Either Kaizo was extremely precise in his hair gel application routine, or the ridiculous hairstyle was actually genetic. Ramen, having experience with the painstaking process of gelling his hair into place every morning for almost half a year, was inclined to believe the latter.

This morning, however, he enters the empty classroom to the teacher tiptoeing on a stool, reaching up to pin a garland above the whiteboard.

"Need a hand?" he offers, but she's already stepping down and brushing off her hands.

"Thank you, but I'll be fine," she politely refuses and makes her way over to her desk, producing a card from a drawer within it.

She holds it out to him. "Do you need a pen?"

Ramen sets down his backpack on a nearby chair and gestures to Samyang and Eggi to come over, and the teacher gives them cards too.

"Uh, what is this for?" Samyang scratches the back of his head while Ramen searches for pens.

"The homeroom Secret Santa exchange," she grins, and Eggi pauses.

"Secret...santa?" He quirks an eyebrow.

The teacher gapes in disbelief. "Don't tell me you've never participated in a Secret Santa before!"

Eggi shakes his head, nonplussed, and Samyang pats his shoulder gently.

"A Secret Santa is like, uh..." he starts to explain.

"Basically you get a gift for someone, but the catch is, they don't know it's you," Ramen says helpfully.

"Ooh, so anonymous gift-giving," Eggi nods in understanding.

"Well, it's only a secret till they give you the gift on Christmas," the teacher clarifies, and Ramen finally locates his pencil case, haphazardly unzipping it, and two pens and a pencil tumble out.

"Careful," she warns, as he nearly drops the pencil case on a keyboard.

"Sorry," he grins sheepishly and quickly tosses it in his bag. "So we just write our names and fold it?"

She raises an eyebrow as he illustrates his point by folding the index card...very roughly in half. Samyang, meanwhile, is meticulously matching up the corners so the edges line up exactly, like the pretentious perfectionist he is. Ramen loves his friend, but sometimes he wonders how Sam and Eggi even get along with him and Mamee. Clumsy klutzes and precise perfectionists - either they balance each other out really well or it's sheer coincidence.

Eggi carefully writes his name in neat cursive, and folds the card exactly in half like it's been pre-folded for him. Ramen can only gape in shock.

"This sounds like fun!" Eggi smiles as he puts the folded card into the basket the teacher extends towards them.

More students file in, and she guides them through the same process, offering pens for those who came less prepared. Some of their card-folding techniques are just as careless as Ramen's, and he feels less self-conscious about his own. Their teacher finally collects the last one, scanning the room for any absent students - miraculously, there are none on this fine First of December - and shakes the basket to mix up the cards.