snowballing: a holiday story | ft. jungkook
welcome to a holiday story! the first of a collection of drabbles that encapsulate the magic in the air during this special time of the year. join me as I romanticize and bask in these warm, fuzzy feelings.
snowballing // 2300 words
pairing: jungkook x reader tiny oneshot genre, content notes: fluff, so much fluff, jk manhandles in a good way, snowball fights, pink noses, and hidden crushes
inspired by this prompt list! enjoy~
“You’re kidding right? I’m not going out in that snowstorm.” You say as you peer out of the 14th floor window of your office building.
It was 5 pm on a Friday and admittedly when you left for work this morning, you were not anticipating a 30 cm snowstorm, i.e. you didn’t bother to check the weather forecast.
Tugging your pencil skirt lower to cover your bare thighs, you looked down at your knee high boots, hoping that the faux leather would hold up. The heels wouldn’t hold up however, on what would probably be black ice hiding beneath the fresh snow’s innocence. Relenting, you sigh and blow your bangs out of your face.
Beside you, Jungkook, your cubicle buddy, zips up his full length black parka and pulls on a baseball cap. Smirking, he says, “It’s not even that bad. We can walk.”
You roll your eyes and turn back towards your desk, desperately refreshing your phone screen to see if there are any Uber drivers around. Your company’s holiday social was tonight at a bar a couple of blocks over, but with 30 cm of a fluffy, white canvas awaiting your first steps outside… Safe to say, the only fluffy, white anything you were willing to jump into, was your bed. Slumping down in your chair, you crunch numbers in your head, trying to figure out your escape plan. You felt sick? You left your hair straightener on?
Jungkook walks over to your cubicle corner and sits at his desk beside you. Spinning around to face you, he knocks one of his boots with your toe. You look over at him with a scowl on your face, lamenting your idea to stay an hour behind everyone else to submit last minute documents for your boss to review before the weekend. You could have caught a ride with one of them before the outside world became a frozen tundra. Jungkook said he’d stay behind with you to finish up one of his projects, though every time you peered over at his desk, he was playing 2048.
“So?”
“So… there’s no Ubers.”
“So, we’re walking then. Let’s go.” He says, grabbing one of your elbows and pulling you up towards the entrance.
You barely have enough time to grab your trench coat off the back of your chair before Jungkook is pulling you into the elevator. You wrap your scarf around your neck one too many times, preparing yourself for the onslaught of the cold. Peeking out of the tiny hole you’ve made of your scarf/ski mask, you see Jungkook looking over at you, amused.
The elevator dings and opens up to reveal the marble lobby of your building. Jungkook gestures for you to enter the revolving door ahead of him, but instead of jumping into his own door, he jumps into the same one with you. His knee knocks the back of your thigh as you look back at him scoffing.
“What? I didn’t want to touch the door.”
You roll your eyes, shaking your head as you finally step outside. Thankfully, the sidewalks were starting to get cleaned up as the snow had only come up to your ankle.
“God, why did I choose to wear heels today?” You groan, as you wrap your coat tighter around you and walk a little faster.
“At least your ass looks great.” Jungkook says, running to catch up with you.
“Thanks,” you say nonchalantly, avoiding eye contact. Cheeks turning pink, you thank the snow gods that you could blame it on the cold.
Jungkook was always teasing or pestering you while you worked. There was one time you found several sticky notes stuck to your back all autographed by him. He was trying to see how many he could stick on you before you noticed, he’d say.
His tenure at the company was longer than yours and he was very good at his job. Though it might seem surprising, considering he sat and fooled around for most of your shifts. When you were both assigned to the same presentation for the higher-ups, you were the one nervous and about to have a meltdown before Jungkook talked you down and helped lead a professional, charming presentation. Since then, you’ve become somewhat of a team. Despite his constant badgering in your life, you looked forward to seeing and working with him everyday -- much more than you’d like to admit.
Being a good team had come with its fair share of rumours however. You don’t miss the way people look at you both whenever you laughed with each other a little too loud in your cubicles, or the way that the work moms looked at you with knowing smiles on their faces. You’d be lying though if you said you didn’t like the attention. From the office. Or from Jungkook.
Truth be told, you’d been harbouring a small crush on him ever since he helped you recover an important report that had seemingly been eaten by your hard drive. That’s just how Jungkook was, full of heart and full of help. Albeit, a little (a lot) flirty.
The city streets had become sleepy, silent as a blanket of snow covered nearly everything in sight. You both walked as the street lights had started to turn on above your heads. With Christmas lights decorating the shop windows you walked by, everything became a little blurry and romantic. You both had been walking in silence, before Jungkook cleared his throat.
“Is there anything special you want for Christmas?” He says, glove covered hands swinging at his sides. You shove your non-gloved hands further into your pockets.
“Eh, nothing in particular. Maybe a full 9 hours of sleep.” You smile at him, “Why? Thinking of getting me something nice?”
“Yeah, I’m just waiting for the pound of coal I ordered from Home Depot to come in.”
“Ha ha. Sounds like just the gift to show your appreciation to your favourite co-worker.”
“How do you know you’re my favourite co-worker? It could also be Hana in marketing, she always makes sure her files are saved before--” Jungkook starts to say before slipping, completely wiping out in a snowbank beside the city park.
Before you can help it, you’re bent over laughing, laughs coming out of your mouth in white clouds. You run over to help him up, barely choking out an “Are you okay?”. Chuckles bubbling in your throat, Jungkook stands up and brushes himself off. Cheeks red. Tailbone and ego bruised.
You turn away from him intending to keep on walking, all the while holding back your laughter.
That’s when you feel it. The sickly, sly path of cold water dripping down your neck that followed a soft, ball of snow that expertly landed on your shoulder. You turn around to look at Jungkook, mouth open and a new burning heat in your hands.
“You did. Not. Just--” You start, as you feel another snowball hit you just above your heart. Jungkook can only laugh as he retreats further into the park’s entrance, slipping and sliding as he runs away from you. You quickly run after him, using a cheat code and stepping into his footprints in the snow carefully.
An all-out war starts between the two of you, as Jungkook hides behind pine trees and as you duck by park benches. The once innocent, fresh snow now corrupted by your footprints and desperate attempts to form snowballs faster than each other.
You land a huge snowball square into his back as you say, “How’s that for your favourite co-worker?!” While Jungkook runs away from you, you busy yourself crouching into the snow to make another. You don’t even mind at this point that your hands are bright red and on the brink of frostbite.
But as you stand up to look for your opponent, you realize you’re alone. You spin around a few times, on alert for any sneak attacks but Jungkook was nowhere to be found. Knowing his competitive streak, you start to worry that maybe you got yourself into something you couldn’t get out of. Cautiously, you drop the ball in your hands and raise them.
“Hey Jungkook? Let’s call it even, yeah? My hands are freezing.” Silence. “C’mon. I’ll buy you a drink at the bar, two drinks even, for laughing at you!” A few seconds pass by and you consider leaving your safe zone, before Jungkook runs around the snowbank behind you.
“Boo!” He says, holding onto your waist. You spin around and shriek, your legs and your heels finally giving up on you as you hold onto him and fall into the snowbank.
You blink up at the sky as snowflakes continue their descent, the lights hung up in the park twinkling above you. You question if you hit your head too hard, seeing real stars despite the bright lights from the city. Jungkook groans beside you, his arm caught underneath you as you both lay there catching your breath. You speak first.
“Truce?”
“Buy me 3 drinks and we’re even.”
“Say I’m your favourite co-worker.”
“Fine. I would have said that even without the drinks.”
Small victories, you think as you roll off of his arm and push yourself to stand up. You reach out your hand to pull Jungkook up and he can’t help but notice how red your hands are. You begin to brush off the white powder on your coat before you see Jungkook reach out before you, eyes elsewhere as his arm holds out his gloves for you to wear.
“Wear them.” He says. You raise your hand to protest, but Jungkook just rolls his eyes and takes your outstretched hand to pull his glove over. It doesn’t take long until the matching pair adorns your other hand.
You look up at him, his long lashes dusted with snow, framing his dark eyes. You note how sparkly they look under the lights. “But what about your hands?” You say softly, scowling at him.
He rubs his hands together in front of his face, blowing hot air into them before placing his hands on both sides of your face.
“See?” He says, eyes flickering between both of your eyes. “They’re warm. I’m fine. Promise.” He says, sliding his hands down to your shoulders, to your arms, and finally to hold onto your hands. Your heart beating against your rib cage, you feel it grow in size as if it’s a snowball rolling down the side of a hill.
For a brief second, you let your eyes travel down the planes of his face and his cute pink nose, to blink at his lips almost so fleetingly you’re so sure he didn’t see.
But he did.
A beat passes and a snowplough drives past, honking at the cars in the intersection. You break your gaze and let go of his hands, as you walk ahead of him once again.
“Alright then, we should get going. The bar is just up ahead, you know, let’s go before there aren’t any more drinks left for me to buy you.” You stammer as you smile shyly at him over your shoulder, the snow falling from the sky in a much less angry fashion than before.
You walk towards the bar, silently cursing yourself for being so obvious. You glance down at your now clothed hand, before balling up a fist and shoving it into your pockets. What just happened?
The bell above the bar door is just within earshot, as the butterflies in your stomach float around like the snowflakes above your head. As you’re about to reach the door, you feel Jungkook pull you back again.
“Wait, Y/N,” He starts before Ara, another coworker of yours, pops her head out of the bar.
“There you guys are, we were wondering what happened to both of you.” Ara says, eyes twinkling, indicating she was already a couple drinks in. “Well, come on now, let’s go.” You giggle at her while a frustrated Jungkook follows behind you.
Ara turns around to stop you and Jungkook just before you both cross the threshold of the bar.
“Pay the toll or buy me a drink.” She says smirking, arms folded across her chest.
“Toll? What toll?” You say, as Ara points a slender finger up above you.
Of course. There was no mistaking what that sprig of leaves and berries was above you. You and Jungkook look at each other, panic blooming in your chest.
“I’ll let you both decide.” Ara says before winking and closing the door to the bar, the bell softly jingling above as it shut closed.
“I can buy her a drink, besides I’m sure there aren’t any mistletoe police or anything.” He says, looking at your face for any sign of life. “I mean. If you want.”
Jungkook towers over you, eyes piercing into yours just like at the park. Before you’re able to talk yourself out of it, you hold his face, much like the way he held yours softly earlier. You press your lips onto his.
Cold meeting cold. You deepen the kiss, wrapping your arms around his neck as he pulls you in by the waist. Your lips fight, yours opening his slightly to further melt into each other. Your heart snowballing until you’re sure he can feel it beat against his chest.
You pull away faintly and smile, not letting go of each other, as Jungkook kisses the corner of your mouth. You shiver as a gust of wind blows your hair into your face. Jungkook doesn’t miss a chance to tuck a strand behind your ear. You speak first again.
“So.”
“So?”
“Favourite co-worker, right?”
Jungkook, still holding onto your waist, shakes his head and laughs lightly.
“Let’s get you inside.”
sintatae © 2021
an: i wrote this in one night so excuse any typos please :) this is my favourite time of the year, so safe to say, i was feeling inspired. let me know what you think!
see my other works here
