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It’s winter break: what better way to celebrate Christmas and New Year than renting a cabin with a good chunk of the campus population Jackson is friends with?
It’s Christmas Eve; they snowboarded, ice-skated and went through the various winter attractions the tourist facility offers for the whole day, activities that they’ll repeat for the rest of the last week of December, but they don’t know what tiredness is when it comes to party and get wasted.
“Okay, who gave Youngjae the eggnog?”
The million dollar question hangs unanswered in the cabin, whether unheard over the music or swiftly ignored it’s not given to know.
Jaebum sighs to himself after the umpteenth failed attempt at freeing his arm from the vice grip Youngjae suddenly seems to develop when drunk, more lightweight than he’s willing to admit. The sophomore also starts stripping every time he has too much alcohol in his body, and it’s usually Jaebum the one who has to stop him from going full monty.
Like in this case, where Jaebum managed to coax Youngjae to stay put on the couch, but only after relenting in front of the younger’s pout, who insisted to wear Jaebum’s knit sweater.
Only the sweater.
(At least he kept his boxers on.)
The two of them have been left virtually alone while the rest of their friends are busy either mangling songs at the karaoke station, playing drunk versions of more noble games like chess, or flailing limbs to music that clashes with the aforementioned karaoke.
With his free hand, Jaebum picks mindlessly at Youngjae’s clothes, that he managed to fold semi-properly and place on the armrest before being pinned to the couch and used as body rest. The good thing about this arrangement is that the two roommates are sitting close enough for the throw blanket to cover them both; the bad thing is that not only did Youngjae wrap himself around Jaebum’s arm like ivy (it’s just fitting that the sweater he borrowed is a deep green color), but also trapped it between his naked legs, occasionally causing some friction that makes Youngjae mewl and snuggle closer, and Jaebum pop a b… a vessel .
Jaebum drowns his struggles and indecisiveness over The Youngjae Situation, both current and in general, in his own mug of eggnog, and distracts himself by people watching.
The freshmen Bambam and Yugyeom are having a girl group dances face off against Hoseok, Jimin and Jungkook, while Momo does her thang with boy groups choreo. The “shorter Jimin” is trying to convince an equally tipsy and giggly, but not enough to get over her shyness, Yerin to dance together on top of a coffee table.
The usually calm and collected Jinyoung is cheering up a storm every time he scores at beer pong, getting all up in Junhoe’s space with a smug, if slightly unfocused, expression, and jaw acting Jaebum would be proud of. Someone is shouting ‘Chococo! Chococo!’ from the kitchen.
When Jaebum saw Jooheon, Changkyun, Namjoon and Yoongi around the karaoke console he had high expectations for a rap battle; instead, the four drunk dorks start wailing some songs in the mics (one of them may or may not have been Pororo’s theme song), only Jooheon able to carry a non-rapping tune but the alcohol in his system made him forego all decorum.
Jackson and Bobby are, as usual, flaunting their bodies, strutting around in a tank top under the pretense of feeling too warm, or maybe getting a head start on a strip poker tournament. Anything is possible with them.
Jaebum lost track of Mark, but the older exchange student has the tendency to retreat in the bathroom at some point of the night, without bothering to (or being kind enough not to) lock the door as he lays in the bathtub with whatever bottle he snatched from the open bar, uncaring of the people coming and going to take a piss or empty their stomachs.
The old grandpa clock by the stairs strikes midnight. Jackson lights up, still relatively sober, and starts shrieking about presents, his instructions to gather them under the big Christmas tree in the living room falling on deaf ears.
“I dun care whatcha doin’ under that blanket, hyung , come help me arrange the present sss ,” Jackson’s voice suddenly rings in Jaebum’s left ear, a knee dangerously close to his crotch as Jackson all but jumps on his lap to force “you lovebirds” apart (Jaebum’s half pained, half embarrassed squawk gets ignored). Youngjae smushes his face against Jaebum’s shoulder, muffling his groans of ‘dun wanna, I’m comfy like this’ before finally detaching himself from his roommate; with a fist covered by a too long sleeve, he rubs his eye and shoots Jaebum and Jackson a disarming smile that makes the apples of his flushed cheeks look even brighter, causing both seniors to blush at the cuteness of that sight.
Jackson hops off Jaebum and pulls him off the couch forcefully to drag him to the bedrooms upstairs, along with the couple of people he managed to rope into helping collecting the neatly wrapped and fancily ribboned presents they all brought to this get-together.
Jaebum has his eyes glassed over, not with alcohol but with the memory of Youngjae’s sweater paws, so he doesn’t notice he and Jackson walking together under a hanging spring of mistletoe; it’s his shorter friend who points it out with an obnoxious kissy face.
“I’m no Youngjae but we’re both under a mistletoe, so might as well…”
Jaebum consider himself safe since technically he’s a step behind. He doesn’t hesitate to push his friend away from him and towards the stairs, both of them grinning.
“Fuck off…”
Upon Jackson’s insistence, they all woke up early to open their presents together (1PM is early, considering they partied well into the night). The senior is giddy like a kid on, well, Christmas day as he distributes the presents; the card on the squared box currently in his hands says it’s from Jaebum to Youngjae.
“Oooh, thank you Jaebum hyung!” Youngjae exclaims while he envelops differently weaved leather bracelets in his hands, his smile so bright it competes with the shimmering snow outside. “Well, this one is from me!”
He stretches to take a colorful plastic bag; Jackson precedes him and hands it to him. Jaebum takes it with a timid and slightly expectant smile that turns into a full beam at the sight of a yellow mug in the shape of Bart Simpson’s head.
“Thank you, Youngjae.”