PAIRING | lee know x reader
IDOLS FEATURED | lee minho, bang chan (mentioned)
WC | 2.3k
GENRE | fluff, very slight angst
WARNINGS | explicit language, crying, small arguments
SYNOPSIS | putting up a christmas tree with your boyfriend goes slightly awry as you realize that you both have very different tastes in decorations.
"I still don't see why we had to cut down our own tree!" Minho complained. You cast a withering glare over to your boyfriend, who was standing outside, hands on his hips in defiance as he stared up at the massive green tree tied down to the roof of your car. You stepped out of the car, nearly slipping on the slick ice in your driveway before catching yourself on the car door, breathing heavily. "And look, you almost just fell and died. I think it's the tree's fault."
"I'm fine, Minho," you replied, rolling your eyes at his dramatics. He continued to glare at the tree, arms now crossed across his chest and a pout upon his plush pink lips, obviously refusing to cut the rope and drag it inside the house. You carefully make your way over to him and press a kiss to his cheek, making him groan playfully. "Come on, you know it'll be fun. This is the last hard part. I promise."
Minho sighed, finally giving into your charms. "Get me the hedge cutters? This rope looks thick." You nod and run to the garage, retrieving the heavy metal tool that he had requested. You hand it to him and he angles them slightly awkwardly, trying to find the best position to cut the rope without snipping off any of the loosening branches or scratching the roof of the car.
"Try this way," you said, motioning your hands in a certain way. Minho mirrors your actions and the blade scrapes against the car, leaving a glaring silver line in the dark paint. Both the hedge trimmers and your jaw drop as Minho curses loudly, smacking himself in the face with his hand.
"Damn it!" he muttered, rubbing his eyes, and you meekly pick up the heavy tool and try to angle them yourself, only resulting in you dropping them back on the ground as your wrist turns in a way that it probably shouldn't in an attempt to get the bottom blade under the rope. "Just let me do it, (Y/N)," he says, but his voice is strained as he picks up the hedge cutters again and you can tell that he's getting more and more pissed off by the minute.
"I'm sorry," you say awkwardly, and he sighs as he finally clips through the tough beige rope and the tree is loosened, luckily keeping its balance on the curved slope of the car roof.
"It's not your fault, I should have been more careful," he sighs, and he places the hedge cutters back in their place. You're very happy to be rid of them now, not wanting any more accidents. Minho studies the scratch, and your heart catches in your throat as he scrapes at the edge of it with his fingernail. He sucks in a breath as he flicks away small flecks of dark paint. "It's fixable," is all he says before turning his attention back to the tree.
"I can help carry the tree inside!" you chirped, trying to keep the mood uplifted.
But Minho holds up a hand, stopping you. "I can do it myself. I don't want you to get hurt."
You wilt. "But it's a big tree!" you whine.
"I can do it," he grunted, and you know not to press any further. Minho was a strict, firm man, and you knew that he wanted to prove to not only you, but to himself that he could do it by himself. For what reason, you were unsure, but you simply watched as he tugged a loose branch just a little too hard and stumbled backwards, nearly falling onto his ass into a snowbank on the side of your driveway. Grumbling curses under his breath again, he finally gets the tree down, and starts trying to lift up the entire thing before realizing that it's impossible, and settles for dragging it towards the front door. "Open the door for me, babe," he said, his jaw clenched as he attempted to keep a firm hold on the cumbersome plant. You hurriedly unlock the door, and Minho drags the tree inside, and you realize with amusement that it's been leaking a trail of dark green needles all the way up the driveway.
You walk inside, closing the door behind you and taking off your winter gear as Minho huffs and puffs, trying to prop the tree up against the wall in the desired area. "How's this?" he asked brightly, smacking the tree with a gloved hand.
"Looks great, babe!" you replied proudly, admiring the tall green tree. It was indeed a handsome one, much taller than any fake tree you had ever had. And the smell of fresh pine needles brought you more joy than you thought it ever could. "Let's get out the decorations!"
Minho hummed in approval, finally shedding his outer layers of clothing and shaking loose needles out of his coat. "I have a few boxes in my car that I brought from my old place, I'll go get them."
You work on propping up the tree in the stand, making sure it had enough water and was screwed in properly before untying the netting and letting the rest of the branches free. They immediately began loosening and settling back into their natural positions, and you nodded happily to yourself before pulling out your own boxes of decorations, which had been sitting right nearby patiently, in the same place you had left them ever since you had put away decorations from Halloween. You opened the first box and took out red and green stars, hanging a few on just to see how they'd look. Delighted with the result, you started digging out old handmade decorations from your childhood. Your decoration collection was extensive, as you never threw out any, insisting that every single one had a meaning. Even the cheap ones from the dollar store. You supposed that one might see your taste as gaudy or tacky, but you absolutely loved your decorations, and the way those fake styrofoam birds looked sitting pretty on the branches brought you more joy than any porcelain baubles could.
Minho then re-entered the room, arms full of a few small white boxes. His gaze flickered between you and the tree, his smile fading. "Are these your decorations?" he asked, motioning to the ornaments strewn all over the floor with a sharp flick of his wrist.
"Yeah!" you replied happily, "aren't they cute?" You held up a messy, crumpled paper star that you had had for as long as you could remember. Minho's nose scrunched up in disgust. "What's the matter with you?"
"I don't know if those will look good on the tree," he said hesitantly, "they look kind of old... and fragile." He added the last part as the paper star you had been pinching in between your fingers fell to the floor; a single point had fallen off due to how old and worn the paper was.
You sensed his negative feelings and huffed. "Fine, then what decorations do you have?" you asked irritably. You busied yourself with trying to reattach the point to the star.
Minho carefully set down his boxes and opened the first one, taking out a few individually wrapped ornaments. Each one was insanely detailed, pure white porcelain, as untouched as the freshly fallen snow. Glass baubles and pointy gold cones and shiny snowflakes soon littered the floor, mixed in with your own ornaments. "Aren't they pretty?" he asked proudly, holding a single clear ornament up to the light and examining it. "I bought them as a collection a few years back. I can't imagine not using these."
"Well, they're pretty," you admitted, setting down a gold sphere, "but I can't imagine not using these." You motion towards your mess of ornaments and Minho looks away.
"They'll make the tree look messy," he complained, hanging up his own ornaments, brushing away your red and green stars. You watched them fall to the floor and you narrowed your eyes in annoyance.
"Your ornaments are boring," you countered, carefully removing the delicate trinkets from the branches, placing them back inside their boxes.
"Stop taking off my decorations!" Minho said indignantly, immediately trying to rehang them.
"Then stop taking off mine!" you snap, throwing your stars back onto the tree.
"Stop throwing stuff!"
"No!" You tossed more ornaments at the tree, fed up with Minho's prissy attitude, until a medium-sized stuffed moose struck one of the glass baubles and it fell to the hard floor, shattering upon impact, sending tiny glass shards skittering across the floor. You clapped your hands over your mouth, immediately regretting it. Minho was frozen, hand mid-air, as he had been in the middle of trying to re-hang a porcelain snowflake. "Minho, I-"
"Don't say anything." You pressed your lips together shamefully as Minho stepped around the glass and retrieved a broom and dustpan, silently sweeping up all of the glass.
"Minho, I'm sorry," you try again, feeling guilt pool in your stomach.
He looks up at you, eyes hard. He doesn't respond, and only dumps the glass in the trash can before stalking off to the bedroom. You bite your lip, fighting back tears before sitting down and burying your face in your hands, ashamed at your childishness.
You sniffle as you put away all of your decorations, but leave Minho's untouched. But then as you reach for a chubby clay Santa, your knuckles brush up against an elegant gold cone, and you pick it up instead, staring at the half-decorated tree. Hesitantly, you clear the rest of your ornaments off and begin hanging up Minho's. In complete silence, you decorate the tree by yourself.
"What are you doing?" a sulky voice asks. Minho approaches you from behind, burying his face in your shoulder.
"I'm decorating the tree the way you like it," you say quietly, "because I feel bad about breaking your ornament."
"It doesn't really matter," he mumbles, snaking his arms around your waist and squeezing you gently in a tentative hug. "We should both be able to put the decorations we want on."
"I only want yours on here," you lie, still feeling guilty.
Minho frowns, but lets go of your waist and stalks over to your boxes, pulling out an old handmade ornament. It was a snowman, whose white clay base had long since been dirtied with time, and you could see Minho initially do a double take at it, but he hung it up, right next to one of his own glass baubles. "Then I'll only put up yours." He defiantly crossed his arms, and you let a small smile creep onto your face.
The both of you decorated the tree quietly, exchanging small comments when necessary, but the air was still slightly awkward. Minho placed the last decoration onto a high branch, standing on his tippy toes to hook the worn ribbon loop attached to a popsicle stick reindeer on a curved branch. "I think it looks beautiful," he admits, standing back to admire the tree, no longer just a plain dark green. You stand back too, and to your surprise, the two styles don't clash, and instead seem to fit just perfectly.
"It really does look perfect," you say softly, and Minho hesitantly pulls you into another hug.
"I'm so sorry," he says, nose buried into your hair, inhaling your familiar, comforting scent. "Your decorations have so much importance to you. And they're beautiful. Just like you."
You whine quietly. "I wanted to apologize first," you said softly, taking his hand in yours and stroking his thumb soothingly with your own.
"Technically you did," he said, "you apologized as soon as you broke the ornament."
You chuckle a little at that. "I suppose so."
Minho looks back up to the tree as you rest your head on his shoulder. "Is it finished?"
"We need a star," you say, frowning as you look at the bare top of the otherwise beautifully decorated tree.
"Do you have one?"
"No, I broke mine last year. Let's just use yours."
"I don't have one either, I think Chan stole it."
Your frown deepens. "Then we don't have a star."
Minho stands up quickly and runs to the bedroom, leaving you confused. He returns almost immediately, a framed photograph in hand. He stands on top of a chair to reach the top of the tree, carefully sliding the frame over the top nubby branches, and cautiously lets go. The photo stays in place, and you walk up to look at it closer. Upon further examination, you realize that it's a photo of the both of you, specifically the one that was kept on your desk in the bedroom. Both you and Minho wore ear-to-ear grins and clumsy matching outfits. Minho hated that photo because he swore his nose looked too big and he hated the way he smiled, but he seemed to be completely fine with it as it shone brightly at the top of the tree, glinting in the light.
"Does this work?" he asked, fidgeting with his hands. "I'll take it off if you don't like it."
"No." You take his hands in yours. "It's perfect."
Minho smiles, a genuine one this time, and gently pulls you into a gentle kiss, and you grin into it, finally feeling the awkwardness dissipate, relief flowing through your veins.
You just hoped he didn't find the perfectly-working, colorful star shoved into the bottom of the last box of ornaments.
And he hoped you didn't find the pointy silver star wedged in between the couch and the coffee table.
But even if either were found, the framed picture would remain at the top, in its rightful place. And you and Minho wouldn't change it for the world.