Christmas Bonus: Once Upon an Onew Christmas

I had been crying and Jinki could tell as soon as he walked into the room. He gave me that tilted puppy head look of concern and came to sit on the bed beside me. He didn’t say anything, just leaned over and pulled me to him into a warm hug. That made me start crying all over again. He held me there, petting my head like a child and rocking gently back and forth, until I stopped.
Letting me go and tilting my head up to look into my eyes he said, “What is being wrong?”
“This will be my first Christmas away from my family. My first Christmas without a tree and lights and gifts and it makes me really sad.”
“I’m sorry. I’ve had some Christmas’ away from my family and it is hard. I am usually being having my other family, Key and Minho and Jonghyun, and Taeminie at those times so it isn’t being so bad but we are usually being working. It makes it easier not to think about it when we are being working.”
He smiled that crinkly smile and I couldn’t help but laugh through my tears. He’s so sweet.
“You’re right. I’m being silly. I…” I said.
“No. Not silly. And you can be having a big Christmas with your family as soon as we get back. I’m sure they are being waiting for you.”
“I’m sure too.” I was no longer crying. It was hard to look at his face and be sad.
“Besides,” he stood up to put more wood on the fire, “you have me. And I am being knowing how to make cider. The best cider you have ever being drinking! So, don’t cry. You will be being glad you got stuck with me when you taste this. I’ll be back.”
With that, he left the room. I stared at the doorway and silently thanked God for letting Lee Jinki be the one to find me in the snow a week ago.

He wasn’t kidding about the cider. He had used apple juice because there were no apples but you couldn’t tell it. I wondered why this cabin had been so well stocked but I decided not to ask and to just be grateful. I had a second mugful and then regretted it when I had to go to the bathroom. It was always such an ordeal to just go to the bathroom when you had a broken leg. As I worked to pull down my underwear, I wondered how Jinki had managed this whole process while I was delirious. I don’t want to know.
When that problem was taken care of, Jinki and I played cards. He had showed me a strange game that he played with his family when he was little and it was so much fun. Especially when I started beating him. He was a very poor loser. After the third time I beat him, he decided he didn’t want to play that anymore. So we lay down on the bed, stared at the ceiling, and talked.
“If you could being having anything for Christmas, what would it be?” he asked.
I didn’t want to rehash the whole “being with my family for Christmas” wish or to tell him that laying here with him beside me was the best gift I could get so I told him what I told my mom, “I guess a laptop. The one I have now belongs to a friend and it’s sort of crappy. I like to write and it’s missing some keys. What about you?”
“I’ve already gotten mine.”
“Oh? What did you get?”
“I’m not going to being working on Christmas and there won’t be being any cameras in my face all day. Also, I’ll be being spending Christmas alone with a beautiful woman. That’s the best things an idol can get.”
We were quiet for a few minutes and then I couldn’t help myself. “You think I’m beautiful?”
“Now you are being silly.”
He actually got that “being” right.
“You know I’m quite a bit older than you right?” I could feel the color rising in my cheeks.
“I don’t care about that.”
I don’t know if he even realized it but he reached down and grabbed my hand. He began rubbing my thumb with his. I didn’t know what to say so I didn’t say anything.
“Does it bother you that I am being younger than you?” he asked.
I thought about it for a few minutes and he rolled his head over to look at me. I didn’t look back.
“I guess that would only matter if you and I were in a relationship. So, no. It doesn’t bother me,” I said.
He rolled his head back over and we were quiet. He continued to rub my thumb
“I think you are beautiful,” he said.
I could feel one single tear roll from the corner of my eye and into my hair.
He laughed to himself a little and then a little more. “Key thinks so too. He would have loved to be the one being here right now.”
It was my turn to look at him. “What?”
“It’s true. He told me he sat on the right couch that night.” He rolled over onto his side to look at me. “But I’m the real lucky one. I picked the right time to be being looking for my clock.” He grinned.
“But you’re trapped.”
“With you,” he said.
“And I’m broken and a complete burden. You have to take care of me.”
“I like being taking care of you.”
He put his arm under my neck and pulled me into him. We lay like that for a long time and I knew I could lie like that forever with no problem. Then I had a thought.
“It’s called a watch,” I said.
“What?”
“A clock you wear on your arm is called a watch. A clock is bigger and hangs on the wall.”
I could tell he was thinking about it and then I felt him begin to shake with laughter. “I’m sorry my English isn’t being very good. It is a hard language to being learning.”
“I love your English.” I pondered on whether I should correct the “being” problem and I decided not to touch it. It was too cute and it stayed.
All of a sudden, Jinki detached himself from me and got out of the bed. “I have to be being fixing some lunch. Hungry?”
“Famished,” I said.
“See, English is being very hard. I’ll be back.” He leaned over and kissed my cheek. We both looked a little surprised at that but he left the room. As soon as he was gone, I reached up to touch the spot on my cheek where his lips had been and then I had a fit of the giggles. I started to roll over into the pillow and immediately regretted it.
Owwwww! My leg. Darn you Lee Jinki. Why do you have to be so charming? Are you trying to make me fall for you?

The next day was Christmas Eve and I couldn’t help but feel a little sad. Even with one of the most beautiful men I had ever met sleeping just a foot away from me on the floor next to my bed. I had offered to share the bed. It wasn’t like anything could happen between us in my condition but he was too much of a gentleman and he refused to go into the other room to sleep on the couch. It made me feel guilty.
I looked down at him and once again he was just a mass of blankets and a tuft of red hair. He began to stir and roll around under the covers and when he finally emerged, his clothes were twisted and I got a glimpse of his stomach. Wow! So hot! The boy had a seriously great body. It was hard to look at it everyday and know that all I can do is look.
“Good morning,” said Jinki.
“Good morning to you too and Merry Christmas Eve.”
“Oh yeah. I almost forgot.” Jinki got up and folded his blankets. We took care of the everyday things like breakfast and bathroom and a nice hot bath. Just for me. Jinki preferred a shower. Then, he did something unexpected. Instead of putting me back into my bed, he made me a comfortable place in the other room on the couch. He set up the radio and had magazines on the table for me. He had a mug of hot cider ready along with pork rinds that I had no intention of touching. Yuck! What is he up to? Is he leaving me to go get help?
He made sure I was comfortable and could reach everything.
“Are you going somewhere?” I asked.
“Where would I go? It is still being snowing.”
“Then why am I in here now?”
“I thought you might be liking a change. Annnd I have some things to get done.” He said this as he fluffed up my pillow behind me and took a sip of my cider. Then he took another.
“Like what?” I asked.
“Like cleaning.”
With that, he patted my head and left the room.
Patted. My. Head.
I turned on the radio and found a song I liked and picked up a magazine. Then, I began hearing a commotion. Things were being moved and scooted and dropped. I heard a lot of angry frustrated Korean words and I was glad I didn’t know their meaning. Then I heard the door open and close and it was quiet. He lied! He totally left!
I tried not to think about it but the longer he was gone, the more anxious I got. I looked at a section of the magazine and couldn’t remember one page. I looked out the window and the snow was so thick I couldn’t see the trees across the field. What if he gets lost? He could freeze to death or he could make it back to the lodge and not be able to find me again. I could end up here alone. What if he breaks his leg? What if he gets hurt? What if wild dogs attack him? “Okay Elizabeth. Now you are being ridiculous. He’s fine.”
I heard the door open and I let out an audible sigh of relief. I felt a cold rush of wind and knew that the temperature was dropping and that Jinki was taking his sweet time closing the door. I heard the strangest sounds coming from the other room. Dragging, and swooshing, and sounds that I had heard before but I couldn’t place.
“Is everything okay in there?” I yelled.
“Yep!” he yelled back.
“What’s going on? Where did you go?”
He popped his head in the door and his hair was wet. I was a little overwhelmed by how sexy he looked. Even wearing that stupid red toboggan with that giant red ball bouncing around on top. He said something and I was too engrossed in my own thoughts to hear it.
“Ummm, what?” I said.
He laughed a little breathy laugh and repeated himself, “I said, don’t be worrying about it. I’m not leaving you and you will be being happier when this place is being cleaner.”
“Okay. Sorry.”
He winked and his sexy head disappeared, toboggan, ball and all.
I finished all of the magazines and slept a little and sat there bored for awhile until Jinki brought me the cards and I played solitaire. All the while I listened to that crazy Korean man in the next room making all kinds of strange noises.
Finally, I heard him go into the bathroom and take a shower. I tried to be good and not imagine him in there naked. That stomach, those thighs, tan skin… stop it! Just stop it!
Jinki wasn’t making it easy to be good. He came into the room only wearing a towel around his midsection. I felt myself melting into a puddle. He’s doing this on purpose!
“It’s almost ready. Let me be getting dressed and I’ll come back to get you.” He grabbed a soda from the refrigerator and walked back out. I think I died a little. After a few minutes, he returned, dressed and smiling.
“What are you up to?” I asked.
“I’ll show you.”
He picked me up and I looked at this neck and almost nuzzled it but I resisted. We went into the next room and I was struck completely silent.
I couldn’t speak.
“Merry Christmas Elizabeth.”
Tears began to flow and there was no stopping them. Jinki had transformed the room from a boring cabin bedroom into a Christmas miracle. It was the most touching and beautiful thing I had ever seen. There were candles flickering everywhere. He put pine branches around the fireplace and I don’t know how but he found or made glittering decorations from things he found around the cabin. The best part was in the corner of the room. Lee Jinki had put up a Christmas tree. It was decorated and glowing. He had strung popcorn for garland, cut out at least a hundred little snowflakes and hung them and I think he taped two flashlights to the bottom of the tree. They glowed up through the branches, bouncing off of them, and making the whole tree shine. The more I looked, the more I found. He had somehow tied candies with metallic wrappers to the branches to make it glitter and at the top was a star that looked like he made by way of origami.
He sat me down gently on my good foot and I leaned on him for support. I had no choice because all of my strength had left me.
Jinki tucked his index finger under my chin and lifted my head up to look into his eyes. Then he looked up at something so I looked too. He had hung a beautiful green plant in the doorway. He looked back down at me and grinned that crinkly-faced grin that I was so enthralled with. He wiggled his eyebrows at me and I couldn’t help but laugh out loud through my tears.
“That’s not mistletoe,” I said.
“I don’t care,” he answered and put his mouth to mine. It was the most sensual, slow, satisfying kiss I had ever experienced. And it went on and on. Be bad Elizabeth. Be bad. Be bad. Be bad.

Notes