Summary: Thinking of the perfect Christmas present isn’t easy, and for Yeosang, he wants everything to be perfect for his girl. It’s a shame ideas don’t seem to be coming to him...
Genre: Fluff, teensy bit of angst, mostly fluff tho, some comedy!
Warning(s): None, unless you hate angst or something, but it’s really really small, a tiny insecurity, nothing to worry about
Word Count: 1748
Theme Song: Days Gone By - Day6
AN: December 7th & 8th prompt combined - Christmas present shopping and Christmas present wrapping (credit @songi-writes). I cannot think of a title for this one so my apologies. I may change it later oop—also Days Gone By is also the song that plays as the fic fades out all cinematically and as the writer you can’t tell me otherwise haHA!
~~~
Bundles of bouncing fluff bounding around ‘snowy’ pens, chirrups and twitters echoing over crackled Christmas songs, the swathes of smiling people laughing with the children as they picked out a best friend for their growing years.
Yeosang felt out of place, on his own, leaning over a fence, fingers reaching down to a tawny rabbit with a lopsided ear to gently rub his tiny head.
He was just waiting for you, after splitting up to cover as much ground as possible to get all the presents you needed.
Neither of you had wanted to, he desperately just wanted to hold your hand, but if you’d gone round together it would have taken twice as long, and eaten into his schedule and you would never allow that—even if he was much more lenient when it came to it.
He still wasn’t sure what to get you for Christmas.
He’d got everyone’s gifts besides yours. He hadn’t panicked before, but now it was starting to seep in.
Just as the little rabbit hopped away, his phone rang.
Confused, he picked it up, and then instantly yanked his head away from the phone, the shouts of the dorm over the receiver ringing in his ears.
There was a few calls demanding quiet and hissed hushes until eventually Seonghwa’s voice echoed over the line. “Yeosang?”
“Hyung, hi, is everything ok?” he replied sheepishly, eyes scanning the room for any inquisitive—or worse: irritated—faces looking at him accusatively.
He found only one, and after nodding an apology, the lady indignantly turned away. She scoffed, but it allowed him to breathe a sigh of relief.
“Oh, yes, everything is just fine. Nothing out of the normal.”
“Hyung, how do you even...” he searched for the right words, “cope...? W-with all of that?”
He was so glad he’d moved out.
“What, the members?” There was a chuckle, interrupted by another yell. It sounded like San. God alone knows over what. “To be honest, I have no idea.”
Confused, but unsurprised, Yeosang opted to change the subject. “Seonghwa-hyung, can I help you at all?”
“Ah, yes, Hongjoong-ah wanted to know what Y/N likes. For her Christmas present.”
“Oh, has he not bought one yet? I thought he said he had?” he asked, looking back to the rabbits hopping around their little arena. He felt guilty for even asking that. It wasn’t like he’d bought her one yet either, and he was her boyfriend.
Did that make him a bad partner?
“Truth is, none of us have. He just wanted to know so we could organise a group-present, something big perhaps,” Seonghwa sighed, “I told him it was a bad idea, that he’ll never get everyone to agree, not with an entire Yunho and San—and between you and me, a whole Hongjoong—in the house, but he wouldn’t listen. Anyway, maybe a few ideas would help?”
“Oh, yes of course, well, my girlfriend, she is quite—”
At that moment, there was a knock from the outside of the nearby window.
His head flicked up, hoping it was the person he wanted to see.
As his eyes met yours, he immediately stood up, struggling to contain his happiness.
“Sorry, hyung, she’s right outside right now, so I’ve got to go, talk later!”
He heard Seonghwa begin to protest calmly in the way he always did when someone was inevitably about to do something he didn’t approve of, like chase a drone or play The Floor is Lava, but it did nothing, much like always, since Yeosang ended the call and dropped his phone back in his pocket without a second thought.
He didn’t hesitate, heading out of the door without a single glance over his shoulder, running over and very nearly knocking heads with you by how close he was when he came to a stop.
“Hey sweetheart,” you greeted, shifting your cacophony of shopping bags further up your arm.
He threw his hands into yours, bringing your fingers to his lips to shower them with kisses, as his beautiful eyes stared into yours relentlessly. “Hi,” he whispered sweetly.
“Have you got everything you need?” you asked with a giggle, trying to retain his gaze, but giving in to let your eyes drop to your hands.
You prayed that his answer would be a yes, you just wanted to go home and hide from the world with him under a blanket.
He hummed in thought, before nodding. “I think so.”
“Yay!” you cheered quietly, placing a kiss on his hand before pulling him by it, leading him towards the train station. Your eyes passed the window of cute animals, getting caught on the sight of a small girl holding a puppy above her head as if it was Simba.
You couldn’t help but smile, but it also sparked a thought in your own head.
Yeosang had just come from there.
Was he buying you a...?
You couldn’t stop yourself from prying.
You were an adult! You were allowed to avoid surprises now and ask about your presents, right?
“Hey,” you swung his hand at your side to get his attention (as if you didn’t already have it—let’s face it he’d been captured by your face again so he was already staring right at you), “why were you in a pet store?”
He paused, unsure of an answer himself. “Uh...”
“Last time I checked, we don’t have a pet...”
You added ‘yet’ in your head.
“No, we do not,” he agreed.
“Were you buying one? For someone?” you added quickly.
He sighed, shaking his head. “No, I was just waiting for you, and didn’t know where to go so I went in there. It was warm. And the animals are kind of cute.”
“Oh, I see...!”
You let your head fall, trying to hide your disappointment.
Your optimistic side wanted to believe that that’s what someone who was buying you a pet would say.
But you could hear the genuine undertones in his voice.
Oh well, the present he would give you would surely be amazing anyway.
He watched your face fall and instantly regretted his words, even though he wasn’t sure what it was that he’d said that had hurt you, or if it was what he said at all.
What had he done?
.
.
.
Back home, and sat up the dining table, surrounded by a multitude of slates of red and silver and gold, shimmering in the already-dimming sunlight, Yeosang was pouting.
He wouldn’t call himself a perfectionist, but he liked things to be well done and neat.
And his wrapping, in his eyes, was not going well.
The thing was, it wasn’t half-bad at all, but he’d looked at your wrapping one too many times, with your precision and calligraphic handwriting, and couldn’t look at his slightly rustically wrapped presents with the same appreciative eye.
You’d noticed his puffed out cheeks and smiled reassuringly. “Sweetheart, your wrapping is fine! Don’t worry about it.”
“Yeah, but...”
“No buts!” you asserted. “You aren’t comparing your wrapping to mine, right?”
He shrugged, ears bleary. “I know I shouldn’t, I just... wish I could do what you do.”
“Honey,” you sighed pleadingly, hand reaching across the table to hold his, “I run a craft business that you don’t have time to help out in, it’s no surprise that your wrapping lacks the professional finesse,” you explained, hastily continuing, “but that doesn’t mean it’s bad! It means yours looks like you meant it, and took some time to do it. Mine just looks like I mixed up my friends with my clients!” You laughed, picking at one of the corners of the jewellery box you’d finished covering. “I should really make mine look more like yours, if I want to look genuine.”
He exhaled in a chuckle. “Sure, I guess.”
Not convinced, you continued, “Also, I wish that I could do the things you do—sing, dance, model, act, stare into people’s souls and make them spill everything they know because your eyes are so deep... but how useful would sharing the same skill set be?”
You’d made a good point, one of which he couldn’t disagree with.
“Please don’t compare yourself to others, Yeosangie,” you pleaded softly, “you’re of a completely different level to everyone else—”
He tried to interject but you shushed him, pressing a finger to his parted lips.
“—and so comparing you to another would be like comparing a star to a campfire. Gosh, you’re so damn beautiful, Yeosang, as an entire being. And I know you can’t see it but I wish you could, I’d do anything for you to see yourself through those ethereal eyes of yours as you see everyone else.”
Your words had moved him, and he felt his heart sink and rise over and over, as if caught in the crests of a turbulent sea.
He blinked, speechless and taking a deep breath, worked up the courage to look down at his handiwork.
Perhaps it wasn’t so bad after all.
“You ready to carry on?” you enquired.
Your answer was a smile, and the request for the roll of sellotape.
Cheering internally, you grinned back, passing him the tape and booping him on the nose as he leant across the table to meet you halfway.
“Yah, that’s my little bunny,” you cooed, deliberately being corny just to elicit a reaction.
And his grimace was exactly what you were after, sending you into a fit of giggles.
“Hey, I’m not that bad!” you resisted, words rushed as you struggled to keep another burst of laughter at bay.
It was that moment though that sparked his brain into gear, bequeathing him with the perfect idea for your Christmas gift.
How had he not thought of this before?
Admittedly it would be a little bit expensive, yes, but with some help from the guys still stuck at the dorm sharing their rooms the losers hehe it could quite easily become a reality.
And it would also help them out in the predicament in trying to work out what to get his girlfriend for Christmas.
Two birds, one stone.
Genius Kang Yeosang.
“Yeosangie?”
You had your head tilted to match his own, which he’d knocked to the side subconsciously as he thought.
“Yes, love?”
“You ok there? You... really zoned out then.”
“Ah,” he nodded vigorously, “yes! Everything is... perfect! Let’s get these presents wrapped.”
It only occurred to him then, the question of how he was supposed to be able to wrap up a rabbit hutch.
~~~
AN: Welp this turned out longer than expected again. Yeosang is working his way up my bias list—slowly, gradually, but up nonetheless—and it’s slightly scary.
