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“Chaeng! Chaeng!”
“What?!”
“Chaeng!! HELP!”
Chaeyoung rushed into the open room, holding a ladle in one hand and a frown on her face “What happened?!”
“We don’t have a mistletoe!” Lisa looked like she was about to cry.
“I swear to God I’ll kill you if I wasn’t so afraid of Jennie.” She let out an exasperated sigh and walked over to where Lisa sat on the floor, covered with glitter and an upturned box by her feet where Christmas decorations spilled out of. “Why not just kiss your girlfriend Manoban?”
“It’s different when it’s under the mistletoe… Christmas tradition and all...”
Lisa woke up earlier than usual today.
It was the twenty-fourth of December; and it was, according to her the most crucial day of the year. Not that it mattered, she just loves Christmas and was excited to spend it with her friends for the first time since they’ve graduated from Uni and got jobs in the busy city. Okay, okay… maybe, she wasn’t being completely honest there. What she meant to say was that; it was the first ever Christmas she’d be celebrating with Jennie, as a couple and kisses under mistletoes were a must.
“Hey love…” Lisa whispered against Jennie’s ear.
They were still in bed. It was the day before Christmas after all, and they were all on paid leave for the Holiday weekend. Lisa snuggled closer into the crook of Jennie’s neck, enjoying the warmth as Lisa wrapped her arms around her girlfriend’s still sleeping body.
“Jen-Jen?” Lisa tried again, this time a little louder.
She smiled against Jennie’s hair, amused that her girlfriend wasn’t budging at all. Jennie was all milk and nutmeg this season and it made her think of eggnog and warm cozy nights by the fire. She poked Jennie on the cheeks, her finger bouncing up and down against the soft skin making Jennie stir and give off a soft ‘hmmm…’ that made her chuckle.
“Whadayawant?” Jennie murmured, more like a grumbled response as she faced Lisa. “ItshtooearlyindamorningLeesha.”
“Do you want to build a snowman?”
Jennie groans in frustration as she covers her face with a pillow, trying to drown out Lisa’s singing -- her patience wearing thin.
Lisa inched closer, holding one side of the pillow that Jennie used to cover her face with up, giving her access to Jennie’s ear (that was slowly turning into a pretty shade of red). “Come on, let's go and play! I never see you anymore. Come out the door, It’s like --”
“Lisa! For the love of all that is Holy and Christmasy,” Jennie took a deep breath “NO MORE FROZEN!”
Jennie sat up to glare at her laughing girlfriend.
“We ….we ushed to be besht… best buddiieesshh…” Lisa almost choked on her own laughter.
Jennie took the pillow and hit Lisa straight on the face, making her go “oooof”, sneering at her but failing miserably and ended up with a funny looking lopsided smirk that made Lisa laugh even more.
“Babe! Where’s your Christmas spirit?” Lisa gave her a huge grin.
“It’s too early to drink.”
“What?”
The bed creaked and the headboard banged against the same spot on the wall where the paint was already chipped. Jennie laughed at the surprised look on Lisa’s face as she pounced on her, pinning her beneath her small frame.
“You’re so slow with jokes.” She held onto Lisa’s hands and pushed them against the mattress, making little dents on the foam.
Lisa felt Jennie’s breaths on her lips, making her hitch her own and keeping it suspended inside her chest. Jennie leaned closer and she closed her eyes.
“I’m not kissing you today.” Jennie whispered, her voice was so low it made Lisa think of brandy, husky and smooth at the same time.
“Hey….”
“That’s what you get for being so naughty, maybe…. If you’re going to be a little nicer. I might reconsider.”
"No fucking fair.”
Jennie let go of Lisa’s hands, and hopped off of bed. She was wearing one of Lisa’s oversized Stranger Things t-shirts, with the hem falling just above the knees and everytime she stretched to get rid of the tinges of sleep, the shirt would hitch and Lisa looked on as streaks of early morning sunlight ran lines on her girlfriend’s bare thighs. Jennie caught her looking and gave her a wink and stuck her tongue out in jest, wiggling her butt before skipping over to the bathroom.
“I need to find a fucking mistletoe.”
“Ho ho ho bitches! How was sleep? How’s your morning, how’s the --” Jisoo barged into the kitchen with a huge smile and a huge dose of Christmas spirit. She took one look at Jennie and burst out laughing. “What are YOU wearing?”
“I love ugly Christmas Sweaters” Lisa interrupted, handing Jennie her cup of hot cocoa with little marshmallows and a generous serving of whipped cream on top.
“Well, I don’t. Why’d you make me wear one too?” Jennie grumbled under her breath and rolled her eyes. Lisa had to tickle her into submission after her bath and made her agree to wearing matching Christmas sweaters.
“Cause it’s cute…” Lisa stuck her lower lip out and batted her eyelashes. "Red really looks good on you."
"I don't like Christmas trees…" Jennie took a sip from the hot cocoa and let out a soft sigh, relaxing into the chair by the counter.
"You do, you just don't like wearing them as designs...but you look cute." Lisa leaned over the counter, Jennie had a chocolate mustache that glistened everytime the light caught it, and she wanted to wipe it away.
"You always say I look cute…"
"Cause you are." Lisa kissed her instead, a light one to start the morning right and to calm the jittery butterflies inside her chest whenever Jennie tried to act all sulky. She lingers a bit over Jennie's lips before licking some of the chocolate off of Jennie's upper lip, earning a light punch on the shoulder to push her away.
"Ayyy! No kisses!"
"God! you two are so cringey, you're making me miss my girlfriend."
Lisa almost forgot Jisoo was still standing by the kitchen door. It happens whenever she's too distracted, or you know… too engrossed with her smol girlfriend; she blames this on Jennie.
"Chaeng not yet awake?" Jennie said in between chuckles.
"Nah, I'm letting her sleep in today. She's in charge of the cooking today so she deserves it. Which reminds me, we still need to buy some things for tonight. I hate the Christmas rush, let's leave early Jen." Jisoo liked talking while walking, and Lisa barely heard the last part.
"Wait. You're going out today?"
Jennie shrugged her shoulders, taking another sip of the cocoa and let out an "aaahhh" as she smiled.
"Yeah, we need a couple of things for tonight and I'm going with Jisoo."
"What things?" Lisa hated it when she whines. She's being such a baby.
"Things Lisa." Jennie laughed, placing the cup gently on the kitchen counter before standing up to stretch. "You'll know when we get back."
"That's… not…" Lisa bit the inside of her cheeks to stop herself from voicing out petty complaints. She wanted to spend the whole day decorating the place with Jennie.
"You'll be in charge of the decorating okay? Make the apartment look and feel all homey and warm … and that signature Lisa way of annoying the hell out of people because it's too Christmas-y." Jennie cupped her cheeks and squeezed lightly, pouting as her voice dropped to a whisper. "We'll spend Christmas Eve together, you'll get your kisses and your hugs and everything you want in between… but, Chu will never shut up and we'll never have peace for the rest of our lives if I don't go now, okay?"
"Okay…" Lisa whispered back, trying her best not to look at Jennie's eyes because she might not stop herself from acting on thoughts that might make her girlfriend stay.
"Please don't sulk, you big baby."
Jennie ran her thumbs up and down against Lisa's cheek, before standing on her tiptoes to give her a soft kiss right where she was drawing little circles. It wasn't much but it made Lisa smile.
"Okay...okay… I promise."
"Good. Now where's my goodbye ki--"
"Jen! We need to leave now!" Jisoo's dragged Jennie's name far longer than she normally would and that meant one thing: get-your-ass-here-and-fast.
"Ooops, gotta go. See you later poopoo, don't go around breaking things, yeah?"
Lisa nodded, pulled on Jennie's wrist gently and planted a quick kiss on the lips. "Yeah."
Lisa was finished with the Christmas tree in their small living room area. It's been the same one they've used ever since Freshman year and there were parts where most of the leaves were missing, and it was beginning to tilt to the side. They loved it though, loved the damn tree it felt like a part of their small family during the Holidays. Lisa strung the last of the white lights around the top part and smiled.
Tree - check.
She placed the boxes of gifts they've wrapped individually… away from each other, beneath the tree. Another Christmas tradition was to keep the gifts a secret and they did the gift shopping separately and on their own. Lisa loves this most, buying a gift for each one of her friends was a very therapeutic way of releasing the stress that usually comes when the year's almost over.
She placed Jisoo's gifts beside hers and Chaeyoung's beside Jennie's. Stacking them against each other in what she hopes was an artistic way of making them look candidly all over the place but not as messy.
"Off to the rest of the house…" she muttered under her breath as she stood up and smiled as she admired her handiwork.
Lisa took out boxes labeled "Christmas" and emptied them on the floor. These were specifically used to decorate the house (the tree had a box of its own labeled: tree). There were heaps of garlands thrown somewhere to the side, stockings, artificial candy canes (which Lisa remembers Chaeyoung once bit into when Jennie showed it to them three years ago), lots of Christmas lights that pooled and might take her an hour to untangle but… no mistletoe.
She remembered having three of those last year, stored along with the plastic poinsettias. She dug through the remaining decorations inside another box and almost choked on the amount of glitter that puffed when she pulled on a loose garland that covered something green...which turned out to be another goddamn poinsettia.
Where are the goddamn mistletoes!
“Chaeng! Chaeng!”
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
“What?!"
Chaeyoung had been spending most of the afternoon inside the kitchen where Lisa was banned from entering. A previous incident (two years ago) resulted in them almost celebrating Christmas Eve without the turkey… let's just say Lisa wasn't to be trusted with the oven, and every Christmas since was celebrated with as minimal Lisa-inside-the-kitchen interaction.
“Chaeng!! HELP!”
Chaeyoung rushed into the open room, holding a ladle in one hand and a frown on her face “What happened?!”
“We don’t have a mistletoe!” Lisa looked like she was about to cry. Felt like it too .
“I swear to God I’ll kill you if I wasn’t so afraid of Jennie.” She let out an exasperated sigh and walked over to where Lisa sat on the floor, covered with glitter and an upturned box by her feet where Christmas decorations spilled out of. “Why not just kiss your girlfriend Manoban?”
“It’s different when it’s under the mistletoe… Christmas tradition and all…
"Don't we have at least ten of those?" Chaeyoung crouched beside her and ruffled through the decorations, eyes darting.
"Three actually… but I can't find a single one!"
Chaeyoung let out another soft exasperated sigh. "Looks like they're no longer here, someone must've thrown them away."
"No!"
The sudden outburst made them both jump.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to…"
"Look, it's still early. Why don't you just make one?" Chaeyoung gave her a pat on the shoulder, and a grin before standing up.
"Make one?"
"Yeah… a handmade one…"
"You're a genius!" Lisa stood up a little too fast making her lose her balance and landing back on her butt.
Chaeyoung laughed, before heading for the door. "I've been told that, yes...but I have to go back. The turkey isn't going to cook itself."
Lisa spent an hour watching videos of handmade DIY mistletoes and the floor was littered with felt paper, ribbons, colored paper, a pair of scissors, some glue, red beads and some other things that were lost or buried under the chaos in front of her.
She held onto the finished product in her hands and wanted to cry out in frustration. It looked a little lumpy and the leaves were a mess between long strips of green felt paper that rustled and cut out colored paper that looked like stiff antlers. Red beads big enough to be cat's eyes were pooled together in the center and held together by a red string. It looked nothing like a mistletoe.
She was torn between crying out of frustration and laughing at it as she strung it by the door of the living room.
Lisa had fallen asleep on the living room sofa and woke up to a weird sensation on her forehead and the warm, familiar scent of Eggnog.
"Morning poopoo." Jennie was sitting on the floor by the sofa and was playing with her bangs. She had a mug of warm eggnog on the floor by her legs and she kept smiling at Lisa. "Want some eggnog?"
She was still a bit groggy from the sudden break in sleep that she said nothing but nodded.
Jennie leaned in to give her a quick kiss on the forehead before taking her own mug and offering it to Lisa who sat up.
"Here."
Lisa took a sip and smiled, suddenly feeling too giddy. Eggnog tastes like melted ice cream that's somehow hugging your throat as you drink it, and she loved it very much.
"Scoot, let me sit with you. The floor's too cold."
Jennie grinned and plopped on top of Lisa, the taller girl making room for her in between her legs. Lisa held the cup above them to prevent it from spilling from all the movement they were making as the sofa creaked.
Jennie settled, her head on Lisa's chest and Lisa's free arm wrapped around her, with her chin resting on Jennie's head.
Lisa was suddenly aware of her slow breathing and how it was in a way, in tune with Jennie's
"Can you tell me what things you went out to buy for?"
"You'll find out soon enough. Let's get some sleep before midnight… I like lying with you here."
She snuggled against Lisa's chest and wrapped her arms around Lisa's waist, "I've had a long tiring day."
Lisa nodded and kissed her on the forehead.
"Goodnight…"
Lisa woke up missing Jennie's warmth, and found herself all alone on the sofa. Was it a dream? She tried to make sense of the living room as she sat up to try and keep the drowsiness at bay. She heard voices outside the room and saw Jennie, Jisoo and Chaeyoung enter as they talked.
"Hey there sleepyhead, it's time for presents." Jisoo winked, dropping on the sofa beside her.
"Hey, come with me over there… I need to show you something." Jennie hugged her from the behind and whispered, making her shiver.
She got up and followed Jennie as they stopped right under the door away from Chaeyoung and Jisoo who were teasing each other with tickles.
"So … uhmmm… I wanted to give you your gift first."
Lisa liked it when Jennie blushed, she liked looking away and this time was no different. Her gaze was fixed on the tree as she talked.
"I found this at one of the shops we'd always pass by on the way home and they didn't have it in stock when I did my own Christmas shopping for the gifts a week ago…"
It's all clicking into place .
"So I had to do a reservation and they called me yesterday to tell me I could pick it up today…"
Jennie turned to look at her and smiled.
"I, uh… here … open it first."
Jennie took Lisa's hands and placed a small box tied with a pretty red ribbon on her palms. Lisa looked at it with a huge grin plastered on her face. It was a simple silver band that glinted under the subdued lights.
"Merry Christmas love, I … I'm so sorry for not being able to spend this day with you… but … I'm hoping we'd spend more Christmases together."
Lisa didn't know what to say… couldn't find the right words.
"Mistletoe?" Was all she could blurt out.
Jennie looked up and laughed at the weird thing hanging above their heads.
"You call that a mistletoe? It looks like a green ghost with red eyes and weird green wings sticking out…" she locked eyes with Lisa and leaned in. "But it's beautiful."
"You're just biased."
"Maybe I am."
Jennie pulled her. Kissing her softly at first, little bites on the lower lip before kissing Lisa deeply. Kissing her like she was her lifeline and the breath in between them was all that mattered.
Lisa pulled away a bit, and whispered "I love you…"
Jennie chuckled. "I love you… and I'm sorry for accidentally throwing away all the mistletoes last year."
Jennie pulled Lisa into another kiss beforeshe could protest.