With Jin-kyu's help, Suzy slipped down off of Sammy's shoulders, landing safely in the snow. They then took a few respective minutes to admire their completed work.
"He looks so real!" a young boy from the crowd exclaimed.
"What are you going to call him?" Jin-kyu asked, nudging Suzy's shoulder. She frowned thoughtfully before her face lit up, "Jack! I want to call him Jack!"
"Would his surname be Frost?" Jin-kyu laughed.
"Hey - do you want to come play with us?" the boy called out again, motioning to Suzy.
"Go on then," Jin-kyu nodded to an excited looking Suzy.
She grinned back at him before wrapping her arms around his leg in a tight hug, "Thank you for helping me make him Uncle Jin-kyu!"
Suzy then turned and gave Sammy a hug before whispering loudly to him, "You know when it gets dark and the park is locked up and all the humans have gone home - the snowmen - they come alive!"
She giggled loudly before running off towards the other children. The crowd subsequently began to disperse, leaving Jin-kyu and Sammy staring up appreciatively at the snowman.
"Will he really come alive like me?" Sammy asked quietly.
Jin-kyu swallowed hard, "No. He'll just melt away when the sun comes out."
There was a sharp intake of breath beside Jin-kyu as he turned to see Sammy looking up at Jack. At that moment, the sun emerged fully from behind a snow-cloud, making the snow shimmer and sparkle.
"No!" Sammy cried out, looking up at the sky.
"Don't worry," Jin-kyu sighed, "He'll be here for a while yet. It takes a long time to melt a snowman."
Sammy walked forward, ignoring Jin-kyu to pull off one of his mittens, reaching out to touch the icy cheek of their Jack Frost. The heated pad of Sammy's finger drew a glistening line as if it were the trail of a tear.
Jin-kyu swallowed uncomfortably, "Not everything can come alive Sammy."
But the younger man still appeared to be lost in thought. Jin-kyu reached down and scooped up a handful of snow, weighing it in his hand before making a snap decision.
He launched the snowball at the back of Sammy's head whereupon it dissipated into a wintry firework of exploding powder.
"Hey!" Sammy shouted, whipping round with a shocked expression.
"Snowball fight," Jin-kyu shrugged before chucking another one.
A few minutes later and both of them were laughing and panting, ducking for cover behind tree trunks and frosted bushes as the snowballs flew fast and furiously. Suzy and her friends had come back to join them and soon seemingly the whole park was embroiled in a vicious snowy war.
"Cry Uncle!" Suzy screamed with laughter as Jin-kyu pinned her down on the ground, a large snowball poised above her head.
"Yup - that's me - Uncle Jin-kyu!" he grinned wickedly as she wailed.
"Noo - I'm calling Cry Uncle!" Suzy yelped as he made a threatening motion with the snowball, "Mercy!" she giggled.
Jin-kyu gave an exaggerated sigh, "Alright then - I suppose I can be merciful just this once."
Without warning, a cold hard ball of snow smacked into the side of his head, half of it disappearing down his ear and making him yelp in surprise.
"Sammy!" he snarled as he rose to his feet, looking up and seeing the younger man stood nearby with a red-faced guilty expression, his mittens caked in snow.
"We got you Uncle Jin-kyu!" Suzy laughed as she wiggled out from underneath him and scurried off towards Sammy, "Uncle Sammy got you!"
"Yeah," Jin-kyu grumbled, rolling his eyes as he fished the snow out from his ear, "he got me."
A little while later the sun started to disappear so they decided to make their way back home, although not before stopping for take-away pizza.
"Can we watch a movie when we get to your apartment Uncle Jin-kyu?" Suzy asked hopefully, struggling with her giant pizza box before Jin-kyu scooped it up from her and put it on top of his own.
"I'll have to call your Daddy and ask him," Jin-kyu nodded.
"We can watch one of Sun-hee's Christmas movies!" Sammy announced enthusiastically, turning to Jin-kyu and nearly dropping his own pizza box. Jin-kyu sighed and proceeded to take Sammy's box as well, adding it to the pile in his arms whilst Suzy and Sammy ran off to go and listen to a street choir doing a rendition of "Frosty the Snowman".
Jin-kyu found himself smiling softly as he watched the two of them swaying in time with the music.
*
When they reached home, Jin-kyu checked in with Lebedev and was able to inform a delighted Suzy that her father wouldn’t be picking her up for another few hours.
Sammy showed Suzy the plethora of Christmas DVDs that Sun-hee had lent them and she chose Home Alone.
When it was finally time for Suzy to go home she came and gave Jin-kyu another tight hug.
Lebedev stood in the doorway eyeing Sammy suspiciously, "You do look awfully familiar," he concluded.
Jin-kyu was about to make the 'life-model' excuse when Suzy grabbed Jin-kyu's chin where he was knelt down in front of her. She tugged his face towards her as she kissed his cheek, making his mouth drop open in surprise.
"Thank you for playing with me today Uncle Jin-kyu, I had lots of fun with you and Uncle Sammy - it was way better than school!"
"You're most welcome," Jin-kyu nodded, feeling a lump in his throat. "Suzy," he added, catching hold of her sleeve before she walked off, "Why did you call him Sammy right at the beginning before I had even introduced you?"
It had been a question that Jin-kyu had been mulling over in his mind all day.
Suzy cocked her head with a confused expression, "Because that's what you told me he was made of!" she replied with a laugh before trotting back over to the doorway and hugging Sammy before nodding to her father that they could go.
"Thanks again Jin-kyu!" Lebedev shouted as they left the apartment.
"Jin-kyu - you okay?" Sammy questioned. The older man was still kneeling down with a look of shock on his face.
"You look as white as Jack Frost!" Sammy laughed, pointing at Jin-kyu's face and shaking his head. "I'm going to go get ready for bed - you can use the shower first though if you'd like."
Jin-kyu blinked up at him before going into the bathroom without another word.
***
Jin-kyu woke up to the sound of his phone ringing again, he stood up - carefully this time, in order to avoid stubbing his toe on the coffee table.
However, what he was not prepared for was to slip up on what felt suspiciously like marbles, sending him crashing back down onto the couch.
"Sammy!" Jin-kyu roared in a sleep-hoarse voice. He blinked around the apartment, suddenly noticing an entire arrangement of odd objects and bits of string. Sammy came rushing out from the bedroom wearing his new tartan pyjamas.
He must have been in the process of getting dressed though as the shirt's buttons were all undone, exposing his chest and a trail of hair down from his bellybutton that Jin-kyu remembered dipping inwards with a sculpting spoon.
Jin-kyu swallowed, clearing his throat before looking back up, "Sammy - what the hell have you done to the apartment?"
"Oh!" Sammy exclaimed with a sheepish look, "I wanted to make sure we weren't burgled."
"Burg..." Jin-kyu trailed off as he glanced down and saw that he did indeed slip up on a handful of strategically placed marbles that Sammy must have borrowed off of Suzy.
"Home Alone," Jin-kyu stated grimly. "You copied the kid in the movie."
"Booby traps," Sammy nodded seriously back at him. "I did them after you went to sleep."
"Sammy!" Jin-kyu growled, getting back to his feet and carefully avoiding the marbles, "Why the hell would you do this? We're four storeys up! I've never been burgled and even if I was - I'm sleeping on the couch, it's not like I wouldn't hear them before they got to the bedroom!"
"But they'd get to you..." Sammy trailed off, "the booby traps are to protect you too."
"You..." Jin-kyu sighed, running a hand through his hair and watching the way Sammy was worrying his lower lip between his teeth. "Just clear it up Sammy," Jin-kyu finished, "I'll make us breakfast."
Sammy nodded vigorously as he went to clear away the strange assortment of objects he had used to comprise the multiple booby traps. Jin-kyu hadn’t even been aware he owned half this crap.
"Jin-kyu?" The younger man called out as Jin-kyu walked towards the bedroom. "Can we go to the park again today?"
"Maybe," Jin-kyu muttered as he remembered what had initially woken him up. He walked back and picked up his phone. There was a voice message from Sun-hee.
"Morning bro - I'm guessing you're still snuggled up in bed so I won't call again but I just wanted to let you know that skating is happening tomorrow, six pm at Bryant Park - we'll have to rent Sammy some skates but it shouldn't be too much of a queue. It's the earliest I can get off work and afterwards we can have a look round the Christmas village. See you there and wrap up warm. Oh and don't forget the Eggnog! Love you little bro."
Jin-kyu sent a quick text back to confirm the details, before going to go get dressed.
"Hey Jin-kyu?" Sammy's questioning voice filtered through the bedroom door a minute later as Jin-kyu pulled on a dark blue sweater.
"What's up Sammy?" Jin-kyu asked, nudging the door open and sticking his head out. He saw that Sammy was stood in the kitchen, studying a packet that Jin-kyu couldn’t quite make out the contents of.
"What's a picnic?
Jin-kyu frowned in confusion as Sammy continued, "These bread rolls that we bought from the grocery store say that they are perfect for 'snacks and picnics'."
Jin-kyu nodded in understanding, "It's where people take food to eat outside Sammy. They lay out a blanket somewhere - normally a park, and then have lunch. Sun-hee does it a lot in the summer." Jin-kyu addded, calling out as he disappeared back into the bedroom to fish a clean pair of boxers from the drawers.
It startled him somewhat to discover that Sammy has rearranged all of his underwear so that it was neatly folded and assorted in colour-coordinated piles.
He didn't know whether to feel violated or impressed.
"Jin-kyu?" Sammy called out again, tapping on the door.
"Hold on," Jin-kyu huffed, nearly tripping over in his haste to clothe himself before Sammy inevitably came barging in the room.
"What is it Sammy?" Jin-kyu asked as he exited the bedroom, heading towards the kitchen to rustle up some kind of breakfast for the two of them.
"I think we should go for a picnic today," Sammy announced with an enthusiastic smile.
Jin-kyu paused from where he was reaching for the bread, "A picnic," he stated, "in thirty-eight degrees. In the snow."
Sammy blinked at him before nodding vigorously.
Jin-kyu knew how to say the word 'no'. He had been practising saying it his entire life to Sun-hee, and then later to Camille as well. To Helena when she told him to insinuate himself in social situations more, to Lebedev when he asked Jin-kyu if he could eat McDonalds in the studio, to the Jehovah's Witnesses who rang Jin-kyu's doorbell three weeks ago asking if he had found Jesus and if not, did he want to?
With all this under his belt, Jin-kyu was confident that he was pretty accomplished in the art of saying no.
Which is why it made it all the harder to understand when he found himself glancing up and Sammy and saying,
"Okay."
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