Work Text:
December 20, 2018
“You don’t want to be here either, hm?” A voice asks to Jaehyun’s right after he downs his second glass of champagne in the course of half an hour.
“What? No, I’m happy to be here supporting the cause,” Jaehyun says, turning to face the man that had just spoken.
Jaehyun thought he believed in love the way the oldest sibling believed in santa; that is, to make other people happy. But when he meets the eyes of the stranger standing beside him, he seriously reconsiders.
The man’s hair is black and swept back from his forehead, allowing a look at his handsome features, his eyes glitter with the Christmas lights that have been strung up around the party. His tie is in a neat half-windsor and Jaehyun has the sneaking suspicion it isn’t a clip-on.
“It’s okay,” the man says, leaning in closer to whisper to Jaehyun conspiratorially, “I’m planning to leave when everyone is distracted by the gift exchange.”
He leans in close enough that Jaehyun catches the scent of his perfume, something light but intoxicating. Jaehyun finds himself unconsciously moving closer. They spend another couple of moments standing somewhat too close for strangers and then Jaehyun remembers he needs to respond.
“Jaehyun,” he says, apropos of nothing.
The man’s eyebrows furrow together cutely and Jaehyun blinks back at him.
“Should that mean something to me?” The man eventually asks, lips curling into an amused grin. Jaehyun feels his cheeks go hot and he ducks his head.
“Sorry, sorry. My name, it’s Jaehyun. Not that you asked, it’s just, you know, these work mixers are usually supposed to be for introducing ourselves to people we don’t get to work with day to day and I’ve never seen you before, so I figured I should probably introduce myself to you. I mean, especially if you’re divulging your plans to escape to me, that feels like something we should know each other’s names for–”
“Doyoung,” the man cuts Jaehyun off.
Jaehyun flounders and his fingers flex, wanting to move and cover his ears, but Doyoung just keeps smiling and it doesn’t feel malicious at all.
“Sorry, I didn’t think you were going to let me get a word in, so I just figured…”
They stare at each other and then melt into a duet of laughter. Doyoung’s laugh is like music from a bell and Jaehyun can feel how corny it is when he thinks that, but it doesn’t change the fact that he is completely transfixed and all it took was one smile, one teasing remark.
“Can I buy you a drink?” Jaehyun asks, thinking that might smooth things over. Doyoung looks pointedly at the glass Jaehyun just finished but ends up shrugging and nodding towards the cash bar.
They both decide on sparkling water, because Doyoung earnestly ends up admitting that he doesn’t drink and Jaehyun has found a reason to stay sober for the rest of the night.
The party itself isn’t bad, really. It’s typical Christmas music, typical cheap decorations, typical co workers taking advantage of the cheap liquor and free dinner to give each other great stories to laugh about for the next twelve months.
Jaehyun hadn’t been particularly excited about coming to the party because he didn’t have a plus one. And after his position had been switched to remote a year earlier (“to save money on the office rentals”) he hadn’t been as close with any of his colleagues. Truthfully, he had been worried about seeing them and making a fool of himself.
Doyoung fixed that problem.
“Whose team are you on?” Jaehyun asks once they’ve tucked themselves away on a loveseat in the lounge. The party is being hosted in a hotel ballroom and their spot is both close enough to still be considered a part of the event, but far enough away to not be bothered by as much of the noise.
“Oh, I’m not an employee. I came as my brother’s plus one. He just disappeared about five minutes after we showed up,” Doyoung explains.
Jaehyun tries not to feel letdown at the news that Doyoung doesn’t work with him. The idea of an office romance is incredibly enticing, especially the more Doyoung draws attention to his mouth as they talk.
“Not big on Christmas?” Doyoung asks later on, when they’re sharing a plate of hors d’oeuvres that Jaehyun managed to talk a waiter into parting with.
“It’s hard,” Jaehyun says, stopping his shoulders from sagging. “The holidays were something really big for me and my family. I moved away for this job, and don’t get to see them as often. Since we don’t live together anymore, they tend to go on vacation this time of year.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Doyoung says, reaching a hand out to squeeze Jaehyun’s shoulder. Jaehyun is distracted from the momentary disappointment in how his family celebrates the holidays by the heat he pretends he can feel from Doyoung’s palm, seeping in under his jacket and button up.
“No, it’s okay. The older you get, the less you believe in magic anyways, right?”
When Jaehyun looks over to Doyoung for agreement, he catches Doyoung staring back at him with a soft glint in his eyes.
“Maybe not.”
Over the course of their conversation, they have gotten closer and closer on the loveseat. Bing Crosby is singing about coming home for Christmas and Doyoung leans in, his eyelids fluttering shut, his lashes fanning prettily across his cheeks. Jaehyun leans in too.
The kiss convinces Jaehyun that magic might exist.
Doyoung’s lips are soft and he tastes slightly like peppermint, the aftermath of the candy canes he had stolen off the Christmas tree next to them.
It’s a tentative kiss, the kind that people share when they’ve only just met, but somehow feel like they’ve known each other a lifetime. It’s something you see in Hallmark films. Jaehyun feels the stir of butterflies in his stomach and moves to slide his fingers into Doyoung’s silky hair.
Doyoung is a little less tentative after that, moving closer, nearly crawling into Jaehyun's lap. He sucks Jaehyun’s lower lip into his mouth and everything is a lot less Hallmark and scooting dangerously closer towards too HBO for a hotel lobby.
Of course, nothing this good can last. There’s a roar of drunken laughter and the sound of heels stumbling out of the ballroom. Jaehyun gently pushes Doyoung away, just to allow for a little decency. Doyoung’s cheeks are a soft shade of pink when he pulls back and Jaehyun thinks this is the best gift he could have asked for.
“Jaehyun!” Someone shouts from behind Doyoung’s shoulder at the tail end of the group heading out of the ballroom. Jaehyun looks up and sees Taeil from IT heading over to him. He has a lazy, drunken grin spread across his face and looks a little unsteady on his feet.
“Hey Taeil!” Jaehyun says, trying to divide his attention between his friend and the man he wanted to spend the rest of the night with.
Taeil almost makes it to Jaehyun before he tilts sideways and topples directly into a display of potted plants. Jaehyun hops to his feet and rushes over to try and course correct, not making it there in time to prevent the spill, but making it there to at least help Taeil brush himself off and stand up.
“Oh my god, Jaehyun, did you see what happened with Tiffany and Irene?” Taeil asks, grabbing Jaehyun by his lapels and staring at him very seriously. He isn’t even phased by the mess he just made.
“Oh, no. I’ve been out here with—” Jaehyun turns over his shoulder to gesture towards Doyoung, but when he looks, the loveseat is empty.
“Ahh, the pigs in a blanket,” Taeil says, nodding sagely at the platter they’d left on the side table like he completely understands.
Jaehyun steadies Taeil and leads him to sit on the loveseat, confused by Doyoung’s sudden disappearance. “Just… Stay here, please. I’ll be right back,” he says.
He wonders if maybe Doyoung had just gone to the bathroom or maybe to grab another drink. He checks the bar then waits outside of the restroom for longer than is strictly polite. As guests start making their leave from the party and Jaehyun makes himself dizzy from circling the ballroom another ten times, he slowly accepts the fact that Doyoung isn’t at the party anymore.
This feels a lot less like a Hallmark film. Jaehyun only knew Doyoung for one great conversation and four hours, but he thought there could be something there. He thought it might be a Christmas miracle.
He says despondent goodbyes to everyone at the party and then remembers Taeil.
Luckily (or maybe unluckily), the loveseat proves itself to not be a portal to another dimension or something equally as sinister. Taeil is curled up and snoring softly. Jaehyun gently shakes him awake.
They share a cab back to the apartment complex they both live at and Jaehyun makes sure Taeil is safe in bed before heading back to his own place.
“Those were some good pigs in a blanket…” Taeil mutters when Jaehyun jostles him after dropping him in bed.
Jaehyun laughs, albeit a little sadly.
-
“Someone with a brother named Doyoung?” Taeil asks over their video call the following Monday.
“Yes, Taeil. He only told me his name, so we have to find his brother instead.”
“You know, I really shouldn’t be looking through these files…” Taeil says, even as Jaehyun hears the sounds of his mouse clicking and his keyboard clacking.
“If you hadn’t gotten too drunk to stand, I could have stayed on the loveseat all night and learned his last name… Maybe even gotten his phone number,” Jaehyun sighs longingly. Taeil scoffs.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, cut it out. Maybe if you weren’t so busy slutting it up on the couch, you would have asked for that information before sticking your tongue down his throat.”
“HEY!” Jaehyun shouts, probably too loudly into his mouthpiece. Taeil must have muted Jaehyun, though, because he doesn’t react. Jaehyun grumbles to himself and listens to Taeil working for a few more minutes before he makes a triumphant sound.
“Got him!” There’s some shuffling through the microphone and Taeil comes through again. “Well, I found him, sort of. Looks like he was a temp. The file only has his last name and employee ID.”
“What?” Jaehyun feels like his heart is being broken again.
“Kim Gongmyung. Employee 3432. And that’s all it says.”
“Okay, well we can do something with the last name, right?” Jaehyun sits up, already pulling up the search browser to look for any Kim Doyoungs in the vicinity.
“We need to get back to our actual jobs. Give it a rest for the day, Jae. The internet will still be there after the holidays.”
—
Jaehyun doesn’t listen to Taeil. That night he spends hours combing through the internet, looking for any hint he can find that Doyoung wasn’t a figment of his imagination.
The only thing he can find that seems to be remotely useful is a mailing address for an editor at a magazine three cities over. There’s no photo attached and nothing to prove that it’s Jaehyun’s Doyoung, but it’s the best he has.
That night he pulls out the fanciest piece of stationary he can find and writes a letter like it’s the 1800s. When he sends it the next morning, it’s pinned on the hopes that magic can be real for adults too.
—
December 24, 2021
“You’re not actually working right now, are you?”
“The news doesn’t stop for Christmas,” Doyoung snaps at his brother. He’s not working too hard, really. Just putting together a storyboard for something he wants to run on the 26th. They’ve had most of their content for the end of the year completed for two weeks, just to be sure that no one had to work during the holidays if they didn’t want to.
But Doyoung didn’t get to be head editor by just being prepared for two weeks in advance. He got the position by being cutthroat, having a good head on his shoulders, and occasionally being in office even when everyone else opted to take personal holidays.
“I think you really need to re-evaluate your relationship with work,” Gongmyung sighs. Doyoung breathes back the same sigh, tempted to end the call. He gets this lecture at least once a month.
“My relationship with my job is the best one I have, thank you very much. I can’t help that this time of year is also one of the busiest for me. I take my vacations in the spring and then you complain that you see too much of me. I can’t win.”
Gongmyung makes a less than pleased sound, clucking his tongue. Doyoung braces himself, because that sound usually means he’s about to get stuck in an hour long discussion about boundaries, and maybe stepping down from his current position.
“I miss you, though,” is all Gongmyung says. “You won’t be here too late tomorrow, right? We saved the star for you.”
“I promise I’ll be there early enough to make fun of dad for how he drinks his coffee.”
“It’s tea now,” Gongmyung corrects softly.
“Well, we can tease him for that, too,” Doyoung continues on, even though something about that makes his chest tighten. Usually whenever he visited his father, their morning routine was at least twenty minutes of light teasing as his father hand ground the coffee beans and launched into tirades about how instant coffee makers were ruining what coffee was meant to be.
It was one of the reasons his father ended up liking Johnny so much.
“Sure we can. Clock out soon, please?”
Doyoung hums dismissively.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, I love you,” Gongmyung says.
“I love you, too,” Doyoung replies before hanging up.
Truthfully, as much as he likes being the best at his job, he did also use it as a bit of an excuse for dodging Christmas. Ever since 2018, ever since he got that call that his mother was sick, the holidays were only that much harder.
Gongmyung was better than Doyoung in a lot of ways and the fact that he moved home to stay with their parents, the fact that he found a way to cope without ever getting callous, it made Doyoung have that much harder of a time coming home.
Sometimes he thinks of that night and wonders where Jaehyun is.
It’s selfish, maybe, that sometimes he retreats to that night, that stranger, that last truly happy memory he associated with Christmas, but he can’t help it.
Being with Jaehyun felt like things could have fallen into place. He wishes he had thought to leave his number at the front desk or at least get a last name, an email address, anything. He wishes things were more like movies and Jaehyun would have shown up at his office, carrying flowers and a Christmas card, looking every bit the handsome love interest.
It was just a fantasy, but it was the best Doyoung had.
He sighs, fingers hovering over the keys of a blank web browser.
“Now, I know you aren’t sitting in your office pretending to work on Christmas eve and instead looking for your mystery man again,” Johnny says from the door. Doyoung flinches, slamming the lid of his laptop shut as if Johnny wasn’t his secretary.
“I’m not!” He says defensively— Johnny had stopped him before he got the search in.
“Good, because I just got a text from your brother and it’s time to play our favorite game.”
Doyoung groans, leaning back in his desk chair and throwing his arms over his face. “Please don’t.”
“Thaaaaaaat’s right,” Johnny says loudly, taking on a deeper voice to mimic that of a TV announcer’s, “Tonight on ‘Will Johnny Have to Throw Doyoung Over His Shoulder and Carry Him Out the Door…”
“Johnny…” Doyoung says in his most threatening tone.
“It seems like tonight will be an over the shoulder night, huh?”
“I can fire you, you know?”
“You wouldn’t. No one else can compare to me,” Johnny says smugly. Doyoung doesn’t counter it with anything because it’s the truth.
“Come on, Doie, can we go? There are at least three new shitty Christmas movies we need to watch before we leave for your parent’s place..”
Doyoung sighs long sufferingly, but acquesces. He knows Johnny will just stand there badgering him for the rest of the evening anyways, and most of his busy work is finished.
“Okay, but just let me check the mail before we leave, yeah?”
Johnny agrees to that, only because he had a gift he bought for Taeyong sent to the office and wanted to see if by some miracle it made it in time.
Unsurprisingly, the mailbox is almost completely empty. Doyoung rifles through his folder, dismissing what amounts to be five pieces of junk mail and stopping on the last letter in the pile.
He pulls out the envelope which looks like it’s seen better days. The paper should have been white but was stained a sooty gray. It was wrinkled, water stained, and had a hole in the bottom left corner. There were so many rerouting stamps and attempted “return to senders” that Doyoung couldn’t read who the letter had come from in the first place.
It was a wonder he could even see the mail was addressed to him at all.
“Oh, what’s this?” Johnny sing-songs, moving to steal the mail from Doyoung’s hands. Doyoung ducks away just before he is able to and turns his shoulder to him.
“I don’t know. Probably just another piece of junk,” Doyoung says. He runs his thumb over the worn seam of the seal and feels like he’s lying to himself as much as Johnny.
“Well, open it, then. Sometimes there are good coupons in your junk mail.”
Doyoung stares at the letter, noting that it is hand addressed, and not stamped like most junk mail is. One of the postage stamps on it dates it back to early 2019. He doesn’t know why, but his heart rate kicks up.
He chalks it up to being dramatic and slips his nail under the crease, opening the envelope.
He pulls out a letter that is just as worse for wear as the envelope had been. It’s handwritten, only about a page and a half, in handwriting that Doyoung isn’t familiar with. He wants to skip to the signature, but it feels like cheating. This letter was waiting for him for three years.
“What’s it say?” Johnny asks over Doyoung’s shoulder. Doyoung shushes him and starts reading.
Dear Doyoung,
Please don’t take this the wrong way, but I hope you’re my Doyoung. Three days ago, I met a Doyoung at my office Christmas party. We talked the entire night and apparently missed out on quite a scandal between our marketing coordinator and HR consultant. We shared pigs in a blanket and sparkling water. And we kissed.
I really hope you’re this Doyoung. I haven’t stopped thinking about that kiss for three days. I can’t focus on my work. I miss half the things my friends say to me. I dream about you— or, well, him. Maybe you.
I try not to have a lot of regrets in life. Not getting your phone number or your name or anything else, is my biggest one. If this is you, please call me. Or write me back if you want to live out a nice mid-century romance. I think everyone is going to get sick of me missing you, especially since I only knew you for that one night.
Sincerely, Jaehyun
“Holy shit,” Doyoung breathes.
“Holy shit,” Johnny agrees. Doyoung turns over his shoulder and slaps Johnny’s arms.
“You’re so fucking nosey.”
“Not my fault you’re short,” Johnny shrugs. “Don’t try to distract me from the point, Doie. This is your guy, isn’t it? Like the guy?”
Doyoung ignores Johnny in favor of rereading the letter again. There isn’t any way it could be anyone but Jaehyun. Even if it was one of his friends trying to prank him, he never told them about the night in that much detail.
If Doyoung closes his eyes and thinks hard enough, he can almost get the timbre of Jaehyun’s voice right in his memory, he can almost hear the words in the letter spoken out loud.
“It’s him,” he says eventually. “It has to be.”
“Wow, talk about Christmas miracles,” Johnny hoots, ever the hopeless romantic.
“Shut up,” Doyoung shoves his elbow into Johnny’s side.
“Are you going to call him?”
The initial swell of excitement dies down as quickly as it had come. Doyoung stares at the words, stares at the numbers scrawled along the bottom of the letter, and then remembers this was sent three years ago.
A lot can happen in three years. Doyoung thinks that by now Jaehyun is probably married, probably has kids, is probably drinking hot chocolate and curling up in matching pajamas with someone on a loveseat right now.
“I don’t think so,” he says, carefully folding the letter and sliding it into his pocket.
“Doyoung!”
“What, Johnny? It’s been so long. He probably has a completely different life right now. That probably isn’t even his phone number anymore.”
“Come on, you have spent three years pining over this guy and you aren’t even going to give it a shot? What if he’s just as hung up on you as you are on him and he’s been saving himself for some uber romantic moment when you appear out of nowhere, play a song to him over the boombox, and whisk him away.”
Doyoung rolls his eyes. “That doesn’t happen in real life, Johnny.”
“Romantic letters from missed connections also don’t happen to make it to people three years later after traveling to all corners of the earth, either. But here we are. You’re betting a lot on a hypothetical when your life isn’t really any different after all that time.”
Doyoung withdraws at that.
“What the fuck, Johnny?”
Being friends with Johnny can sometimes hurt, because Johnny is a great listener but that means he knows everyone’s weakest points. And he likes being direct, because he says it helps them avoid miscommunication. But, god, it stings.
Doyoung hasn’t really changed.
If anything, he’s gotten worse. He’s obsessed with his job, withdrawn from his family and most of his friends, and attached to the idea of a romance that he thought would never come to a head, so he would never be hurt.
“Doie…” Johnny says softly.
“Don’t do that right now,” Doyoung brushes past Johnny and heads for the door, pretending he can’t hear anything that Johnny calls after him.
—
“I just don’t understand why you didn’t send a second letter,” Taeil says through a mouthful of his dinner. Jaehyun shoves a napkin towards him, imploring him to at least pretend he has some manners. Taeil throws the napkin back at him.
“Because, he must have gotten it, And he must have decided not to reply to me. I mean, it makes sense, right? He left the party the first chance he got. He didn’t want to be there.”
Jaehyun has had this conversation with himself so many times. He even thought he saw Doyoung in a cafe over the summer, but he was too scared to approach him. He thinks of Doyoung as the one that got away, no matter how much his friends tease him about it just being one night, just being one kiss.
He fights tooth and nail saying Captain America only got one kiss, too. Which is usually enough of a distraction to spark a debate within the friend group and take the heat off of him.
“You don’t know that for sure, though. The mail is not as reliable as it used to be. And, no offense dude, you have pretty shitty handwriting. That letter could have shown up at anyone’s house. Doyoung could be out there still waiting for you right now.”
Jaehyun just sighs and shakes his head.
“He isn’t.”
—
Doyoung starts walking home and isn’t at all surprised when snowfall follows him. He isn’t overly fond of the cold and with the way everything else seemed to be going, a little snow, a little ice hazard, was just the way to round off the night.
Johnny’s words rattle around in his head, stinging every synapse they bounce off. His life hadn’t changed, no, but Jaehyun had so much he wanted to accomplish when they talked. There was no way he stayed the same.
Unless, maybe, he never got that promotion he was talking about. Unless, maybe, he didn’t get the chance to leave the country. Unless, maybe, he really did think of Doyoung still.
The letter is burning a hole in his pocket.
He can see his apartment building up on the next block. The snow is falling. The Christmas lights glisten. There are couples walking arm in arm, giggling just ahead of him, and it all seems to mock him somehow. Like this holiday and every missed chance was specifically something the world was using against him.
“I shouldn’t call him,” he mumbles to himself. He can’t imagine how embarrassing it would be to pin his hopes on that phone call only to have the number come up disconnected or, worse, for Jaehyun’s partner to answer the phone or, even worse, his kid.
There was too much that could go wrong.
“I really shouldn’t call him,” he says again, stopping at the crosswalk just in front of his building. He makes a deal with himself, if he can get the number in before the light changes, then he will call Jaehyun.
He is slow as he pulls the letter out, slowslowslow unfolding it, slow pulling out his phone and pulling up the dial pad. The light stays green.
Doyoung tries to go as slowly as possible typing in the number. The light stays green.
“Okay,” he says, when the only option is to hit the call button. “Actually, I’ll only call him if the light changes.”
As if by magic, the light immediately switches to yellow.
Doyoung glares at the light and walks across the street.
He figures he has no other choice, so he hits the call button and tries to pretend he’s only shaking from the cold.
He doesn’t think it’s ever taken this long for a call to dial through. Every time the line rings, he feels his anxiety ratchet up. He convinces himself that there is no one to answer the call, that the line must not even be in service and that there won’t even be an answering machine to leave a message on.
He’s just about to hang up when—
“Hello?”
Doyoung freezes. The voice is the same. He would recognize it anywhere.
“Jaehyun?” Doyoung asks, or, well, squeaks.
“Yes, who is this?”
The voice is the same. Doyoung can’t find any other words to say. It’s Jaehyun. The Jaehyun he’s been thinking about and hung up on for three years. It’s Jaehyun.
“Hello?” Jaehyun asks again.
“Hi.” Doyoung says, the only word he can manage to conjure up.
There is silence over the airwaves and Doyoung can’t think of anything else to say. This is his chance, his big chance, and somehow he is floundering the same way Jaehyun did back when they met.
“Can I ask who this is? Sorry, I’m just in the middle of something right now…”
Doyoung feels that sliver of hope deflate like a balloon three days after a party. He’s busy, probably with his family.
“Sorry, I— Sorry. It’s, well, you probably don’t remember anyways. But we met a few years ago.”
“Doyoung?” Jaehyun asks after another beat.
That one word is all it takes to knock the breath out of Doyoung. His name in the mouth he’d been missing as long as he had known him.
“I— yeah. Hi. Sorry, I know it’s Christmas Eve and you’re busy, just. I just got your letter.”
“Holy shit,” Jaehyun says.
“Yeah,” Doyoung agrees.
“How did you— I mean— why. Well, I mean. Wow. Hi.”
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
“—Excuse me,” someone taps on Doyoung’s shoulder and pulls him from the little game he’s in with Jaehyun. Flushed, he moves aside to let one of his neighbors into the building.
“Sorry, you said you’re busy. I can call back a different time. I don’t know what I was thinking—”
“No, no! It’s really great to hear from you. I’m not that busy, I just thought I was getting a prank call. Wow. Doyoung. Wow.”
Doyoung doesn’t think he will ever get tired of hearing Jaehyun say his name. He wants to wrap himself up in it.
“Yeah, yeah, it’s me. And it’s you. Jaehyun.”
At the same time they both say: “The one that got away.”
Doyoung is glad they’re on the phone because he feels himself blush again. He remembers himself being a lot cooler when he first met Jaehyun, and especially when Jaehyun was the one that kept going various shades of pink throughout the night.
“You got the letter, then? You’re still in the area?” Jaehyun asks, like he’s not even phased.
“Oh, yeah. How did you even find me? Not that I’m not impressed or anything. Just curious. I tried to find you, too, and there wasn’t much.”
“Yeah, I’m not big on the internet,” Jaehyun says with a warm chuckle. “Although, thinking back on it, maybe I should have set something up so you could find me.”
“Well, I could say the same thing for myself. I just… I didn’t think you were looking,” Doyoung admits.
The cadence of their conversation is familiar, matching the one they had on that night so long ago, because Doyoung replayed as much of it as he could, whenever he had the chance. He finally remembers he has a body and moves into the building’s lobby.
“I thought you had gotten the letter and didn’t want to be found,” Jaehyun says.
“No, no. I really just got it. There are stamps on it from all over the world. Looks like it took a little trip before getting to me.”
Jaehyun laughs again and it feels like coming home. Doyoung tries to not think like that.
They spend the rest of the night on the phone. They trade stories back and forth and it feels like there was no time between when they first met and now. Like they left that party on the twentieth and picked back up on Christmas Eve.
When Jaehyun asks him where he’s living again, Doyoung tries not to be too presumptuous. But it turns out that they are less than a thirty minute drive from each other, and that they have been since 2019.
“What are you doing on New Year's Eve?” Jaehyun asks, when they’re inching dangerously close to midnight.
“Working,” Doyoung admits sheepishly.
“On New Year's Eve, after you already worked today?”
“The news stops for no one,” Doyoung says, well rehearsed.
“Well, if you decide you can take a day off, I’d love to see you. I’ll text you my address. The view from my balcony lets us see three different firework shows. It’ll just be me and a couple friends. You can invite some of yours, too.” There’s a tinge of nervousness in Jaehyun’s voice, and it makes Doyoung melt.
“I’ll let you know,” Doyoung says, even though he’s already made up his mind.
“Okay,” Jaehyun says, and Doyoung swears he can hear a smile in his voice. “And, Doyoung?”
“Yeah, Jaehyun?”
“Merry Christmas.”
—
December 25, 2021
“My son!” Doyoung’s father exclaims when he opens the door. They hold each other in a tight embrace, Doyoung tucking himself into the crook of his father’s neck and inhaling the familiar scent of tobacco and lavender soap.
“Doyoung? Here before noon?” Gongmyung asks from further in the house. Doyoung pulls away from his father and moves to give his brother an equally tight embrace.
“I told you I would get him here,” Johnny says from behind Gongmyung.
Doyoung moves from his brother to hug Johnny. They had already apologized to each other earlier in the morning, even though Doyoung assured Johnny that what he’d said wasn’t as bad as he thought it was.
That was the great thing about being friends with Johnny— he was easy to forgive.
“Alright, let's stop crowding the front door. Take your coat off, Doyoung. Can I get you anything?” Siwoon, his father’s caretaker, asks, poking her head out of the kitchen. Doyoung follows instructions, switching into slippers and hanging his coat.
“I’m okay, thank you.”
It’s the first time in a long time that Christmas feels okay. Johnny and Gongmyung are awful when they’re together, equal parts because they are disgustingly in love and because they always gang up on Doyoung. But they make his father laugh and even Siwoo feels comfortable enough to start in on the jokes.
Doyoung puts the star on the tree.
Later in the afternoon, Jaehyun sends a picture of himself, cuddled up with a reindeer plushie, cheeks maybe a little wine flushed, and pouting. It’s captioned “miss you.”
Doyoung sends one back and tags it with “see you soon.”
—
December 31, 2021
“Do you really think he’s going to come?”
“Jaehyun, whether or not he comes, I don’t want to have to pay for repairs when you burn a hole into the floor from all the pacing,” Taeil says, stepping in front of him and placing his hands on Jaehyun’s shoulders. “Relax. Even if he doesn’t come, you’ll still have someone to kiss at midnight.” Taeil winks and Jaehyun scrunches his nose.
“And you’d just leave Yuta to fend for himself?”
That shuts Taeil up.
Their friends slowly start filtering in. Yuta arrives first under the guise of helping Taeil with the decorations, but they slip away to Taeil’s room and Jaehyun knows for a fact there aren’t any decorations in there.
Every knock on the door after that sends Jaehyun into a slight spiral. He isn’t disappointed to see Kun, or Donghyuck, or Yeri, or Mark, or Giselle. It’s just, he’s expecting Doyoung.
Taeil coerces Jaehyun into a couple of shots with Yuta’s help and Jaehyun is able to relax a little more into the swing of the party. The door opens a few more times and in come Wendy and Joy, followed closely by Yangyang who swears that his girlfriend is on the way with the weed.
They start playing flip cup and Jaehyun is happy that he and Taeil were close with everyone in the building, because otherwise he thinks he would be getting noise complaints. The fun things about parties like this is when they open the door and the party spills into the hallway and when one party blends into another and the whole floor is celebrating.
While it’s fun most of the time, this year Jaehyun wishes that they could keep the door closed, make it easier to find Doyoung.
“Relax, dude. I’m sure he’ll be here,” Taeil says. They’re projecting a countdown on the living room wall and there’s only about an hour left until the new year. Jaehyun isn’t attached to the idea of a kiss as midnight as much as he is attached to seeing Doyoung again.
The party is great, but Doyoung would be better.
As if an answer from fate herself, a cheer erupts in the crowd closest to the door.
"Doyoung! Doyoung! Doyoung!” The crowd starts to cheer and Jaehyun can feel his heart thundering in his chest. By now, all of his friends knew who Jaehyun was and if they were chanting, well. It could really only mean one thing.
It’s almost funny how cliche it is, when the crowd separates and Jaehyun sees Doyoung standing in the doorway.
He’s just as gorgeous as Jaehyun remembers, this time with his hair styled down, parted across his forehead. He’s wearing glasses. He looks cute in glasses.
“What are you standing there for? Kiss him!” Someone shouts, Jaehyun is pretty sure it was Donghyuck.
Everyone whoops and cheers while Jaehyun and Doyoung walk towards each other. It’s picture perfect and completely sappy and Jaehyun feels everything warm bubbling up inside of him. He reaches for Doyoung’s waist and Doyoung goes on his toes to meet him.
Their lips meet and the kiss is… magic.
It’s also done under the watchful eye of all Jaehyun’s friends, who somehow manage to make even more noise.
“Is there somewhere a little more private?” Doyoung whispers when they manage to untangle themselves.
The party has dispersed around them, but there are people everywhere. Jaehyun looks around and laughs. There really isn’t anywhere for them to go.
That is until Taeil comes in through the window from the fire escape, giggling while Yuta follows behind. Jaehyun slips his hand into Doyoung’s, notes how their fingers seem to fit perfectly together, and pulls him through the crowd.
“I have to tell you,” Doyoung starts, once they’re both standing outside, “I don’t really like the cold.”
Jaehyun tips his head back and laughs, wrapping his arms around Doyoung and pulling him closer to him.
“I’m sorry, I just didn’t want to share you with anyone else.”
Jaehyun loves the feeling of Doyoung melting against him.
“I can’t believe I’m actually here,” Doyoung mutters against Jaehyun’s chest. “I can’t believe you found me.”
Jaehyun smiles and nuzzles his nose into Doyoung’s hair. “I’m happy that letter finally made it to you. I know it was only one night, Doyoung, but I haven’t stopped thinking about it. I haven’t stopped thinking about you.”
“I haven’t either. My friends thought I was insane to be so stuck on it but, something about it. Something about you…”
Jaehyun smiles and tilts Doyoung’s chin up to catch his lips in another kiss.
“Christmas miracle,” Jaehyun mutters.
“Yeah,” Doyoung agrees.
Inside, the party erupts in a countdown from ten. Jaehyun and Doyoung countdown together and this time when they kiss, the fireworks aren’t imaginary.