"That was amazing," Sammy laughed as he sped off of the ice and nearly crashed into Jin-kyu, ending up pressed all up against Jin-kyu's front, his thigh in between Jin-kyu's.
Jin-kyu made a pained expression that he was pretty sure Will caught, given the man's amused raised eyebrows a second later.
"Aw, I'm so glad you enjoyed it Sammy," Sun-hee beamed, "but we're not finished yet! We've still got to go around all the Christmas shops in the Winter Village."
Sammy nodded his head enthusiastically before beginning to march off in the direction of the cute festive themed huts.
"Sammy," Jin-kyu stated before reaching out to snag the younger man's scarf and yank him backwards, "you've still got your skates on."
"Oh," Sammy remarked, looking down with an expression of surprise, "is it not icy in the Winter Village?"
Jin-kyu rolled his eyes before dragging Sammy off in the direction of the shoes counter to retrieve his sneakers, which Sammy had even threaded with Christmassy red and green laces.
The first place they headed for was the food shack where they all ordered a large cup of hot chocolate. Sammy and Sun-hee got theirs with extra cream and marshmallows.
"Hot chocolate is my favourite," Sammy whispered conspiratorially to Sun-hee.
"Mine too!" she whispered back with a delighted expression.
"What am I going to do with all this eggnog then?" Jin-kyu sighed, lifting up the as of yet untouched flask.
"Oh I'm sure you boys can drink it tonight or something!" Sun-hee announced with a mischievous glint in her eye.
"It's movie night tonight!" Sammy announced.
"We watch a movie every night," Jin-kyu interjected but everybody ignored him.
"Ooh which one?" Sun-hee asked excitedly.
"The Nightmare Before Christmas," Sammy replied, having already memorised all the titles of the movies that they were meant to be watching.
Sammy had even stacked them super neatly in an ordered pile by Jin-kyu's television set. Galatea and Coppélia regularly knocked the tower down but Sammy simply built it back up again.
Jin-kyu had nudged it by accident with his foot the other day and Sammy had glared at him until Jin-kyu had felt the need to go out to 'buy milk'.
"That's a good-un," Will told him, grinning, "Sun-hee always makes us watch that one."
"The Nightmare Before Christmas," Jin-kyu said thoughtfully to himself, "isn't that you Sammy?" he snorted, grinning and looking round expectantly.
Jin-kyu coughed awkwardly as he realised that no one else was laughing. Sammy just looked puzzled, Sun-hee was glaring at him and Will looked as if he too, may need to go 'buy some milk' in a minute.
"Ignore him Sammy," Sun-hee huffed, "he's just mad he didn't get mini marshmallows on his hot chocolate."
"I-" Jin-kyu floundered, "No - I don't even like mini marshmallows..."
"Lies!" Sun-hee hissed before taking hold of Sammy's hand and leading him over towards a wooden shack bursting full of hand carved wooden Christmas decorations.
"I -" Jin-kyu started again, closing and opening his mouth like Helena's pet fish. Will just shook his head consolingly before clapping Jin-kyu once on the back and walking over to join the others.
"Jin-kyu, come look at these toys!" Sammy called out, gesturing for Jin-kyu to come too, "do you think Coppélia or Galatea would like these wooden mice?"
Jin-kyu smiled, "I doubt it Sammy, the cats don't even go after real mice. And besides, these aren't actually toys."
"What are they then?" Sammy asked, looking confused and picking up the nearest 'The Nutcracker' inspired mouse. "They've all got gold loops of string on them."
"That's so you can hang them on a Christmas tree," Jin-kyu told him, "remember we saw a Christmas tree in that movie the other day?"
"Oh yeah!" Sammy exclaimed, looking pleased to remember the reference, "but...where's our tree?"
"Oh, Jin-kyu doesn't do trees," Sun-hee chuckled, "waay too festive for old Scrooge over here."
"You never have a Christmas tree?" Sammy asked Jin-kyu with wide eyes.
Jin-kyu shrugged, feeling slightly embarrassed, "Pine needles go everywhere, the cats would try to climb it or something."
"Oh pish posh!" Sun-hee snorted, "you're just a Grinch!"
"I thought I was Scrooge?" Jin-kyu muttered, wincing at how much he sounded like a child.
"So all of these shops are selling decorations?" Sammy questioned in an amazed tone of voice.
"A lot of them," Jin-kyu nodded.
"Can we..." Sammy trailed off, biting his lip anxiously before moving closer to Jin-kyu and dropping his voice to a whisper. "Hey, Jin-kyu? Do you think maybe we could get a tree if I promise to pick up all of the pine needles every single day?"
Jin-kyu blinked at Sammy before glancing over at Will and Sun-hee's expressions. Both his sister and his brother in law immediately started up a loud conversation about wood carving and pretended to be looking intently at a painted Santa Claus marionette.
"We...I don't have any decorations to put on it Sammy," Jin-kyu stated lamely, feeling his chest drop at the crestfallen look on Sammy's face.
"I mean, wait," Jin-kyu said reaching out to stop Sammy from turning away. "What I mean is we would have to buy lots of decorations today because I don't have any at home."
"That's okay!" Sammy half shouted, as he clutched the wooden mouse to his chest as if someone might try to take it from him, "I like all of these decorations!"
"Really?" Jin-kyu asked, cringing. "All of these incredibly ornate, hand crafted, wooden, probably imported from Europe, decorations?"
"Scrooge!" Sun-hee coughed unsubtly into her hand.
"Struggling artist," Jin-kyu gritted back at her, clenching his teeth and trying not to strangle his sister in public.
"Inheritance you refuse to touch," Sun-hee coughed again, although this time she managed to get a full sentence out before Sammy gave her a concerned look.
"Hot chocolate went down the wrong way," she explained with a smile.
"I hope you choke on your mini marshmallows," Jin-kyu grunted before lifting another mouse up to check the price. As Jin-kyu had suspected, it was horrendous. But he guessed that was what you got for doing all your Christmas decoration shopping in Bryant Park's Winter Village.
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