The next day was the dinner at Sun-hee's and Sammy took this first opportunity to wear one of his new sweaters. The one with the penguins.
Jin-kyu was pretty sure that wanting to claw your own eyes out was a totally normal and healthy emotional response to knitted festive penguins.
He downed another couple of Tylenol before ordering a cab to take them to Sun-hee's place, not wanting to endure another half hour of Sammy reading out subway adverts.
"Jin-kyu!" Sun-hee cried happily as she swung open the door, a glass of red wine already in her hand and a disturbing twinkle in her eye as her gaze landed on Sammy.
"And you must be Sammy?" Sun-hee asked with a questioning eyebrow raise, "It’s so unusual for my brother to introduce us to anyone!"
"He's an unusual person," Jin-kyu muttered as he pushed past her, ignoring the way she tutted and batted at his shoulder.
"Jin-kyu - don't be so rude. You should introduce me properly."
Jin-kyu sighed, feeling exhausted before the dinner had even begun. "Sammy, this is Sun-hee my step sister. Sun-hee this is Sammy, my life model who's only visiting New York for a brief amount of time," Jin-kyu emphasized.
"You only mention the ‘step’ part when you’re feeling extra grumpy,” Sun-hee sighed dramatically before shaking her head and grinning, “well come on in Sammy and meet everybody!"
By the time they were finally all seated around the dinner table Jin-kyu was left wondering if it was possible to get a repetitive strain injury from eye-rolling.
"So Jin-kyu," Amanda, one of Sun-hee's friends from work, began, "How's the sculpting going? I hear that you have an exhibition coming up in the New Year's? I will, of course, be going."
Jin-kyu bit down a knowing smirk, Amanda had always used these dinners as a thinly veiled excuse to attempt to flirt with him.
"Yes, we'll both be going," Dave, Amanda's long suffering husband, added.
"Camille told me he's finished a new piece quite recently," Sun-hee stated happily.
Jin-kyu supposed he should just thank his lucky stars (actually fuck that), that Camille wasn't there that night. Apparently one of her other artists was having a ‘crisis’.
Jin-kyu took solace in the fact that it wasn’t just him.
"So Sammy," Will began loudly with a wink at Jin-kyu.
Sun-hee's partner knew that Jin-kyu hated talking about himself or his work and normally Jin-kyu would be grateful for the diversion in conversation, however this time...
"Yes! Sammy..." Amanda echoed with a mischievous grin, "we hear you're a life model? Now tell me, what exactly does that entail?"
"A lot of standing around stark naked I should imagine!" Dave chuckled.
"I did start off very naked," Sammy nodded thoughtfully, "but then Jin-kyu gave me some clothes."
Jin-kyu had learned not to have anything in his mouth when Sammy spoke, otherwise he would be choking on roast beef right about now. Instead, it was Sun-hee who nearly spat out her roasted potato.
"Sounds a bit strange," Simon, one of Will's friends, commented with raised eyebrows, before tracking his stare up and down Sammy's (now clothed) form.
Jin-kyu felt his hackles raise for some reason, it almost looked like Simon was trying to imagine Sammy in a state of undress.
"Do you ever need female life models Jin-kyu?" Amanda enquired innocently as Jin-kyu groaned into his honey-glazed carrots.
"Well I think it's great that you're working with a model Jin-kyu, and Sammy - thank you so much for putting up with my brother long enough to help him out with his sculpting!" Sun-hee beamed. "Given that you're staying at Jin-kyu’s at the moment you'll definitely have to come ice-skating with us next week!"
"Sun-hee, no..." Jin-kyu whined, he had totally forgotten about their annual ice-skating trip.
"Ice-skating?" Sammy asked quietly, looking a little unsure.
Jin-kyu frowned as he realised that the younger man had been surprisingly quiet the whole evening. Jin-kyu would have thought he would be wanting to run around Sun-hee's apartment investigating everything, as he had done at Jin-kyu's.
Instead, Sammy had chosen to stick close to Jin-kyu, his fingers constantly twitching - as if wanting to reach out to the older man's sleeve.
"You've been before yes?" Sun-hee asked, her eyes going wide when Sammy shrugged with a sheepish smile. "Oh my god! You've never been? Well this is perfect - Jin-kyu can teach you and there's never a more magical time of year to learn. It's a Kim family tradition!"
"Some traditions are meant to be broken," Jin-kyu muttered, stabbing at his vegetables murderously.
Sun-hee made a 'tsch' sound as she threw her napkin at her brother. "Ignore him Sammy. He secretly loves skating. He's just grumpy because last year he had a little accident whilst trying to avoid mowing down some newbies."
"There should be an area for people who can't actually skate," Jin-kyu grouched as Sammy giggled, his posture relaxing.
"It's where I went for my first date with Will," Sun-hee sighed wistfully, "Jin-kyu insisted on coming with us and then wouldn't stop being ridiculously protective the entire evening - I have never seen anyone make an ice pirouette look more menacing."
"Sun-hee," Jin-kyu moaned as Will guffawed loudly,
"Oh my god I remember that!" The other man chuckled, "I thought he was going to decapitate me with one of his blades!"
"There's still time," Jin-kyu growled.
Sun-hee laughed as she turned to Sammy, "He's like the Grinch isn't he?"
"W-who?" Sammy looked confused as he twisted his head back to stare at Jin-kyu.
"The Grinch! The green monster who stole Christmas? Come on! Never been ice-skating, never seen that classic movie or even read the book? What town did you say you were from again?"
"He didn't," Jin-kyu interrupted, "but they don't really celebrate Christmas there."
"Halloweentown?" Sun-hee asked with a smirk but threw her hands up at Sammy's responding blank look, "Nightmare Before Christmas, really? Okay that's it." She got up suddenly, pushing her chair back and exiting the room.
"I - I'm sorry!" Sammy stuttered, looking as if he believed he was about to get kicked out from the apartment.
"Don't worry - she's not really mad," Will winked at Sammy with a kind expression. "She's actually loving this. Jin-kyu never brings anyone for us to meet."
Sure enough, a moment later Sun-hee reappeared in the doorway, beaming and carrying a large armful of DVDs.
"Okay Sammy - this is every Christmas movie that we own, and some that I'm pretty sure we never bothered returning to the video store. Anyway, consider this part of your New York education - you have to get Jin-kyu to watch every single one of these with you okay?"
Sammy's face lit up as Sun-hee went to place the pile of DVDs down beside Jin-kyu's chair, "I'll be keeping an eye on you to make sure you don't 'forget' them," she growled warningly in his ear.
"Thank you so much!" Sammy exclaimed, flushing with excitement and grinning widely.
"You're welcome," Sun-hee nodded, "now - who would like dessert? - I made Baked Alaska but it's really come out as more of a Stewed Canada."
*
A couple of hours later and more promises to Sun-hee that Sammy would indeed be joining them ice-skating next week, and Jin-kyu and Sammy were out the door along with an enormous tower of Christmas DVDs.
"Will they let me go ice-skating?" Sammy asked suddenly as they were getting into the cab.
"What?" Jin-kyu frowned, swearing as the DVD cases started to slip to the floor as the taxi sped off down the road at an alarming rate.
"I mean..." Sammy shifted awkwardly then lowered his voice, "it's not like the shopping cart is it? humans only?"
Jin-kyu sighed as he saw the worried expression on Sammy's face. "No, it will be fine Sammy. It's not just for humans."
Sammy brightened instantly, sitting back with a wide smile, "That’s fantastic!" he breathed out, "I can't wait! How many days until Thursday?"
"Five," Jin-kyu replied, praying with fervent hope that they would pass without incident. "We'll try to keep you inside for as much of it as possible."
Sammy made a disappointed noise.
Jin-kyu suddenly remembered Helena and groaned, "Shit - Sunday I've got an appointment so you'll have to come with me."
Sammy cocked his head questioningly, "What kind of appointment?"
"Therapy. It's something humans do." Jin-kyu grunted back.
"Do all humans do it?"
"Just the ones with interfering older sisters," Jin-kyu answered gruffly, swearing again as the taxi rounded the corner and 'It's a Wonderful Life' went flying across the back seats.
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