Page 25 of When Worlds Collide (Between Worlds #2)
“Ah,” Lee said, wagging his finger and eyebrow in admirable synchronicity.
“We know where these things are. Seokminee!” he called out to Ace, who had wandered away to look at the memorabilia on the shelves.
Hearing his name, Seokmin looked over. Lee said something to him in Korean, and at my confused expression, Jihoon translated for me.
“He’s telling Seokmin to get the boxes.”
This became self-evident, as the youngest member crossed the room to the wall behind the sofa and pressed open a discreet cupboard I’d not noticed.
He rummaged for a few moments, moving things aside, before pulling a large box out from the recess and dragging it across the wooden floor to where the Christmas tree stood, bare of ornamentation.
Lee walked over before kneeling down next to Seokmin and together, they popped the lid off the box, revealing a tapestry of colour I could see from where I stood.
“Jackpot,” Seokmin said, his accent sliding over the plosive sounds.
Irresistibly, I joined them at the box of decorations, dragging Jihoon with me, although he did drop the hand he’d clamped around my waist.
Seokmin pulled out a tangled string of fairy lights, giving it a look of disgust before putting it aside. There were indeed baubles of various colours and shapes, sparkly objects of indiscernible purpose or place without further inspection, and, to my surprise, tinsel. Lots and lots of tinsel.
Looking pointedly around the almost-sparse living room, I commented, “I never would have taken Kyungsoo for a tinsel guy.”
“I think his eomma bought it for him,” Seokmin remarked, looking at me shyly. “Kyungsoo-hyung is not so colourful.”
I laughed, which only made Seokmin’s grin widen. His hair was currently dyed a brilliant shade of blond, which when coupled with his warm smile, was like staring at the sun. It was impossible not to smile with him.
“Kaiya-ssi,” Lee said, addressing me directly and taking me by surprise. I turned to see him holding out a very gaudy, very glittery angel tree topper.
“What is the word for this?”
I considered him for a moment. “Cheon-sa?” I said it hesitatingly, not knowing if the affectionate term of ‘angel’ also covered the ornament in Lee’s hand, but his eyes widened and he loudly said, “Ne – yes, cheon-sa. What is the English word?”
“Angel.” I supplied.
“Angel,” he echoed in a way that made me suspect he was including me to include me, rather than because he’d needed me to inform him.
Jihoon knelt beside me and lightly smacked Lee on the back of his head, earning him a look of playful outrage.
“She is not your personal translator, dongsaeng-ah.”
This caused Seokmin to laugh so hard he fell backwards, holding his hands up to defend himself as Lee leaned over to smack him on the arm for laughing at him.
Watching their playful banter felt like being there during one of their lives. They were always a little bit clownish, and if I was honest with myself, I’d assumed some of it was exaggerated for fan service, but maybe it wasn’t.
Regardless of Jihoon’s threats of beating the younger members up – all in jest, I was assured – they both continued to ask me the English words for things they pulled out of the box, and then providing the Korean word for me to repeat.
It had… mixed success, but the further down the box we got, the less awkward I felt around them.
I won’t say I felt completely comfortable, but much like with Jihoon, Lee and Ace were quickly ceasing to be just idols in my mind.
It wasn’t just that they were the same lovable, friendly duo I’d seen online – it was the way they treated me, too. Not quite like a friend, no. There was still a bit of distance. But as their older brother’s girlfriend? A sort of big sister figure? That seemed to fit.
So, even if I wasn’t entirely at ease, they made sure I felt welcome. And for now, that was enough, on both sides.
Having emptied the tub all over the floor, we surveyed the explosion of festivity from the eye of the storm, Jihoon and Lee were locked in a heated debate over the merits of putting the lights on first, versus putting the ornaments on first.
I don’t know exactly how it happened, but at some point Ace caught my eye, or maybe I caught his.
Either way, we exchanged sly grins, and waggled our eyebrows in a secret communication that required no spoken language.
In silent agreement, we each began to pluck decorations off the floor, as many as we could hold in our arms, and bolted for the bare tree.
It was honestly quite impressive how much we managed to chaotically pile onto the tree in the time it took Lee and Jihoon to realise what we were doing.
Cries of “Hey!” and “Yah!” failed to distract us as we weaved around each other, stringing tinsel like we were dancing around a maypole, giggling like children.
A pair of strong arms wound themselves around my waist, nearly pulling me off my feet as I laughed, straining to put one… last… snowman on the tree.
“Sneaky girl,” he purred in my ear, his tone inciting a riot of goosebumps to break out over me.
I could have broken free of his grasp, but honestly, why the hell would I, when it was so enjoyable?
The other two weren’t paying us the slightest bit of attention – too busy trying to whip each other with varying shades of sparkly tinsel.
After a grievous injury that resulted in snapping one particularly gaudy length of tinsel in half, Lee declared himself the winner and set about ‘correcting’ the tree.
I watched with both admiration and deep amusement as he rearranged damn-near every ornament that Ace and I had chaotically clumped on the branches.
He wouldn’t let any of us near it. His movements were as precise as his world-famous dance moves, and even the way he moved around the tree told a story of how graceful he was.
This man had earned the title of best dancer in the group.
Not for the first – or last – time today, I looked around at the joyful chaos surrounding me, laughter echoing through the room, and felt it settle somewhere deep inside me.
This was my life now, if I wanted it.
I let out a breathless laugh, shaking my head at the absurdity of it all.
Holy hell.