as soon as hyunjin set foot inside the warm, cozy house, he wanted to leave immediately.
a heavily-decorated pine tree was set up beside the door, where he could see into the living room.
two individuals, one wearing a glittery snowman headband and the other a candy cane one, were standing in front of the tv, singing loudly into horribly echoing mics.
gifts were piled underneath the christmas tree lazily, a few tossed on their sides and badly wrapped, others in pristine condition.
shoes were tossed together in another pile beside the door, and hyunjin glumly added his boots to the pile.
quite a few others were lounging on the two plush couches, eating candy canes and wearing more of those silly sparkly headbands.
chris forced hyunjin to step in further, and felix closed the door.
too late. he was trapped.
hyunjin tried to force the awkwardness from his body as felix called attention to him, introducing him to the group.
the two that had been singing before even paused their karaoke to ogle him standing stiffly by the door.
"hi hyunjin," a few of them chorused chaotically, but enthusiastically.
hyunjin simply did a short wave in greeting.
chris beckoned him over to introduce himself further, striking up a conversation with a black-haired boy wearing another glittery christmas tree headband.
hyunjin stalked over and tried for a patient smile. "hi. i'm hyunjin. i'm chris' friend."
"hey, hyunjin. my name's changbin, and this is my friend, yeonjun," he motioned to a brooding, pink-haired boy wearing a candy cane headband beside him.
hyunjin nodded and frankly was ready to leave it at that, but chris did not seem to want to bestow mercy upon him today.
"yeonjun isn't dating anyone right now, right?" chris elbowed hyunjin's side.
changbin exchanged a glance with his friend. hyunjin felt mortified. this was so embarrassing.
"right..."
thankfully, chris seemed to finally take in the awkwardness in the air, and so he clutched hyunjin by the shoulder and lead him along to further introduce (read: humiliate) himself to more people.
during this ordeal, a trilling melody started up in the background, and everyone suddenly began to scream along with varying levels of excitement, the lyrics to "all i want for christmas is you".
hyunjin gritted his teeth amidst the noise. jisung would have hated a party like this.
or he would have been among the loudest in the room, depending on how comfortable he felt coming out of his shell.
and, normally, hyunjin might have been singing right along with everyone.
had he not been nursing a broken heart.
after he had been fully introduced to everyone in the room, hyunjin sat down in the corner, bringing out a sketchbook. he didn't think he'd be able to work in this environment, but he figured if he looked busy they'd be less likely to bother him.
a fluffy, brown dog came bounding over then, and hyunjin felt his heart swell up with warmth.
the dog began to sniff him extensively, and hyunjin waited anxiously to be approved.
as soon as the dog let him, he lightly scratched at the dog's ears and made cooing noises at her.
"berry's cute, huh?"
hyunjin raised his eye level and made eye contact with a familiar face. "oh, hi hannah."
chris' dark-haired little sister was crouching beside him. "'sup, hyun. i can't believe sir in-love-with-felix over there dragged you here, too."
hyunjin shrugged a bit. "it's... nice, i guess. to step outside and... interact with people."
hannah angled her head. she seemed to have been lucky enough to evade the sparkly headband treatment. "how're you holding up, though?"
hyunjin pressed his lips together. "oh. i'm managing."
it wasn't surprising that chris had blabbed to his younger sister about hyunjin's unfortunate breakup, but now he wondered if everyone else here knew about it, too.
hannah pet berry a few last times before getting up. she sent hyunjin a peace sign before going over to sit down on the couch beside chris.
with a quiet, long sigh, hyunjin pulled berry to his chest and buried his face in the dog's poofy fur.
for some reason, all he could think about was his ex and their dog.
and the cracking fireplace sending out puffs of smoke made tears sting as they pooled in his eyes.
i'll be taking a break on updates for this book, therefore i will not upload any chapters for the next two days. happy holidays!