Tuesday, December 7th

Here they were, Jimin and Y/N had reached the mall that was already fully adorned in Christmas decorations. Jimin's heart instantly warmed as Christmas was a holiday that you should usually spend with your family, instantly making him miss the old memories of his.

They went to the first floor to go to a certain shop that Ms. Han wanted them to go to as Y/N had her eyes glued to the screen of her phone while Jimin looked around him in amazement. His excitement grew even more as he was able to catch a glimpse of the shop from the escalator. Once they stood in front of the shop, Jimin's eyes started glowing from all the joy he felt as he watched the window of the shop. Beautiful Christmas lights were plastered all around and there were big or small figures of snowmen, Santa Claus and many other things. 

Jimin stepped inside the shop, the feeling of warmness and amazement never leaving his heart. He noticed Y/N was still outside, typing aggressively on her phone, a small scoff left his lips as he walked towards her. She flinched when he gently grabbed her wrist and pulled her phone out of her hand, frowning, she was ready to protest but Jimin placed her phone into his pocket. 

"Let's go, we have to do this, not just me. Stop looking at the screen 24/7, that's why you are so grumpy, let your mind clear up from the internet. Just have some fun with me!" she eyed him weirdly before sighing and following him into the shop. Jimin looked at the list in his hand, so he would know what specific things Ms. Han needed from this shop. "So, first Ms. Han said that in this shop we have to buy the Christmas lights of our own choice. She said this shop sells the best ones..." Jimin smiled in her direction and she rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms.

Y/N's eyes landed on a very pretty light, it had a black string and around it was full of colourful lights shaped like icicles. She stared at them, those pretty lights reminded her of the ones that her mom helped her to display in her room twelve years ago. Y/N turned to look away from them with a hurt frown on her forehead, however, right as she turned around she bumped into someone. That someone, being Jimin...

"Those lights are pretty, aren't they?" he smiled down at her as he watched her frown melt away from her face, instead her cheeks flushed with a faint blush, "Should we get those?" he patted her head in an extremely gentle manner, somehow making her icy heart feel a sting of warmness. She coughed and moved away from him giving him nothing but a nod. Resulting a chuckle out of him. "Are there any more lights that you liked? We need to buy ten lights, that's a lot!" he beamed, smiling brightly at her. 

What was that feeling in her chest? Something twitched at his beautiful smile that showed off his perfect teeth. For a minute, she thought she forgot how to breathe until he grabbed her hand and made her snap out of it. Y/N looked down at their intertwined hands, as his warm palm was all over her hand, that twitch in her chest occurred again. 

Jimin grabbed the small cardboard box that contained the lights that Y/N chose and gave them to the cashier, so they wouldn't have to drag them around while they looked for more. 

"T-these ones aren't bad..." Y/N mumbled while pointing at fetching all-blue lights. This time, their string was white and tiny light-blue lights attached to them gave off a perfect wintery feeling. The blonde boy beside her gave her that mild eye-smile of his before grabbing that box too and placing it near the cash desk. 

"See? If you let loosen up a bit, and look around, you can find stuff that you like too!" his hand was still in hers and it felt empty when he suddenly let it go to grab her phone out of his pocket, "Here, take it back, just don't use it, okay?" she gave him a slow nod and he passed her phone to her, "Promise, okay?" she nodded once again, and Jimin, being finally satisfied, grabbed her hand again and continued his observation of the shop. 

"We still have a lot of stuff to buy... we need eight more lights, Christmas plates, Christmas figures to place around the house and m-matching sweaters?!?" she stuttered on the last sentence, and the boy that held her hand looked at her in amusement.

"Isn't that something you do every year? I heard from Ms. Han..." he squinted his eyes and she sighed,

"Yes, but I detest it..." she murmured in a low voice as if she was going to sing 'Singularity'. 

[Hehe, sorry!]

"Why?" he frowned, he just couldn't comprehend her hate towards such a cute tradition, "It's so cute! We are going to pair up, and then your grandma and your uncle will pair up together. Isn't it so lovely?" he was smiling so much to the point were his eyes arched almost up to being closed. Y/N was a bit of a weird person, she hated overly perky people, even though she could be like that herself sometimes, but with Jimin it was different. She didn't detest it, she liked it; it warmed her heart. 

The fact that he was willing to be like this to her even after her rude attitude towards him, touched her heart...

"And who the heck said I'd pair up with you?" she protested, even though in her mind she didn't quite mind it. Usually, the three of them, she, her grandma and her uncle, would all just have the same sweater. Maybe because this year they are an even number, she wanted to make pairs.

"Your grandma," he chimed, and then said with a bit of disappointment clear in his tone, "If you want you can pair up with someone else. I don't mind..." he lied and Y/N shook her head, putting on a careless-&-cool behaviour. 

"It's fine, I don't really care..." she said nonchalantly and he chuckled at her behaviour.

Oh, how much he likes her...

"That's awesome-" he trailed off when he saw a pair of lights that caught his attention, making Y/N look at them too. They were two lights neatly intertwined with each other, one had a thick, white string and its lights were shaped like a white snowflake. Meanwhile, the thinner string was gold and its lights were simple, just normal yellow-ish lights. "Do you like those two lights?" he cocked his head towards them and she tiled her head, in a confusing position.

"Those are two lights? I guess it's good then, we'd have to look for four more..." he laughed at her response and grabbed the two boxes, once again placing them near the others under the cash desk. They strolled further into the department with all the lights when all of a sudden, Y/N's gaze landed onto a curtain-like light. "Jimin! Look at those! We could put them onto a wall..." he eyed them with a smile before giving her a slight nod and carrying the box in his hands, being forced to let go of Y/N's. There was no point in walking all the way back to the cash desk, they have stepped really far into the shop.

After they had walked through the whole lights-department, they were finally able to get all the ten lights they needed and pay for them. "Wait for me here." Jimin said as they exited the shop, "I'll go and put these into your uncle's car and come back, okay?" he added as it would be nothing but useless and tiring to drag those ten boxes to all the other shops they had to go to.

Y/N took a seat on a made-of-stone bench at the side of the shop, near the glass railing of the huge mall. She looked around eyeing all the shops until her gaze landed on a particular shop, Swarovski. She had always wanted a necklace from there, but she never dared to buy one or to ask her uncle and grandma. Even though Y/N seemed like a very mean and bad kid, she wasn't as bad as some people claimed her to be. All the money that he ever had or that was ever given to her, she always split them in half, and gave one to her grandma and the other to her uncle. 

And they never knew...

She wasn't that mean, she could be nice and that was something that Jimin knew about her. He saw her laughing with Lori and hugging her warmly. He saw her smiling at her grandma with the most genuine grin. He saw her helping her grandma behind her back. Y/N always shopped for groceries without letting her grandma know, she would always think that her uncle bought them and never asked him anything about it. 

They didn't know, but Jimin knew... Jimin didn't just know, he saw it, he heard it and he understood it. That's why he desperately wished to get to her, to touch her heart. 

Y/N stood on her feet that were warmly contained in her brown winter-boots and stepped nearer to the window of the shop. Her eyes and fingers traced over a certain silver necklace, it had a swan-shaped white diamond. Probably the reason why her eyes landed on that one was that her mother had the same, it was classical Swarovski necklace with its logo. 

She sighed before turning around and walking back to the glass railing and leaning over it. Her eyes focused on the people below her, normal humans just living their life... she saw a few couples of different ages sweetly hopping around into different shops. She saw families doing the same, going around and searching for Christmas decorations just like she and Jimin were. 

As she watched, she felt a presence beside her and she turned around only to see the blonde boy that was warmly wrapped in a black winter coat. "I'm back..." he said before diverting his gaze from hers to the people below them, "I wonder if when all this will be over, we can be like those people down there..." Y/N's eyes widened at his words, but she didn't say anything just yet, "I wonder if my mom could peacefully deal with my dad... I wonder if when all that is over... if you could stand by my side..." 

"A-as w-what?" she stuttered, her heart pounding aggressively in her chest as she watched Jimin who seemed to be reflecting deeply. He then, reached over to grab her hand, 

"That's up to you..." he patted the back of her hand before pushing himself off of the railing and cocking his head towards the other shop they had to go to, "Come on, we have to buy Christmas cutleries and plates!" she nodded, still feeling shocked and befuddled before shaking her head and running up to him. 

Jimin and Y/N chose a variety of red, Christmas plates and they even bought an apron for Ms. Han. Then after they were finished with those, they bought some 'figures'. 

"Jimin! Jimin! Look at that snowman! We should buy it and put it at our door-step!" Jimin's heart melted as Y/N jumped up and down pointing at the white figure. It was pretty big, it reached Y/N's hips in hight, and had a black top-hat on its head, a red scarf was wrapped around its neck and lastly, it held a 'welcome' wooden sign. Wich was why it would be perfect to be placed outside on their door-step. However, the thing that melted his heart, even more, was when she said 'put it at our door-step'. 

...

"Well, now we have to buy the sweaters..." Jimin smirked as he counted the money and handed them to the cashier. "Wait for me again, okay?" he said as they exited their second destination before walking over to the very same bench as before. Y/N nodded and patiently waited for Jimin again when a though of realization clouded her mind. 

Han Y/N - hasn't taken out her phone even once, not even while waiting for Jimin. And the worse thing is that it felt so nice being without the pressure of replying to all of her notifications and texts. She was well known for being active on every social media almost 24/7, some people even talked behind her back about how she's an addict. One of those people was Oh So-Hyun...

"I'm back!!!" Jimin's soothing voice rang in her ears and made her stand up, looking at him waving in the distance. He was waving his arms like some crazy penguin and pointing at their last destination. The shop that sold the best, most awful, ugliest, prettiest and most uncomfortable types of sweaters, especially Christmas ones. You could find literally any sweater there, even ugly-pink unicorn ones...

"Coming!" she screamed back as she ran towards him, also looking like a penguin wrapped in a human winter coat. She had finally reached him and he put his arm around her shoulder before entering the shop. Jimin's eyes scanned through all the weird non-Christmas sweaters and he laughed, that twitch in her chest returning for the millionth time. 

"Look! Should we buy this one for us?!?" Jimin exclaimed as he pointed at a weird red sweater with Santa Claus. However, it wasn't just a normal Santa Claus, it was like some parody-thing, he was wearing those black meme glasses; if you know what I'm saying...

"Are you crazy?!? That's the most stupid thing-"

Yes, they ended up buying it and then they searched for sweaters that would go for Shinjae and grandma. They bought them red sweaters with a Christmas tree drawn on top, and that was when they realized that they had completely forgotten to buy Christmas bubbles...

They returned to the second shop and bought lots of different ornaments for their Christmas tree. Since they spent hours there, It was already very late by the time they were finished. it was almost ten PM and the mall was about to close, but there was a slight problem... Y/N desperately needed to go to the washroom.

...

They were able to find a toilet in the corner of the first floor of the mall and Y/N went in. Since the toilet was unisex, Jimin waited for her right outside as he washed his hands. Once she was done and had washed her hands, they were ready to go home. 

"Shit..." Jimin mumbled as he twisted the doorknob several times, making Y/N scoot closer.

"What happened?" she asked, standing on her tippy-toes as she glanced over his shoulder.

"We are stuck!" 

To be continued...

 Published for the first time: November 16th 2020

[Edited Date: 23rd December 2020]

-Jɪᴍɪɴᴀɴᴅʜɪsᴊᴀᴍs 💜