By Zephyria It was past ten in the evening. I had made do with three crackers for dinner and was sitting in front of my monitor reading reports related to the H-Q12 product. Because I had been promoted to manager, responsible for establishing and executing all marketing strategies and activities for the new product, I had to cancel all the vacations I had scheduled for the end of the year.
It was a strange occurrence. I had been promoted suddenly, outside of the usual promotion or salary negotiation periods. My parents, who had been looking forward to spending the year-end holidays with their eldest son, were delighted by the news of my promotion—so much so that they booked a Southeast Asian cruise for themselves, leaving me out entirely. They were currently sailing the waters near Phuket.
On the other hand, with work piling up, I had no room in my life for boredom, let alone enjoyment. All I had time for was eating, working, and breathing. Even at this hour, on Christmas Eve.
About seven men and women were working overtime in the office. In the hollow office, under the sparse lighting, only the dry sound of typing echoed here and there.
“I’m bored to death!”
Reggie Eglinton, who had just returned from Europe, shouted as she stepped out of her private office. With a cute daughter and a kind husband waiting for her at home, she seemed utterly miserable to be plagued by heavy workloads until this late hour.
However, she was the cause of all this overtime. If it weren’t for the project she was pushing, I would be at my parents’ house in Baltimore right now, enjoying the holidays.
Over the partition separating our desks, a finger with a neat coat of red polish appeared.
“I can’t stand this.”
“Stand what?”
“What do you mean! It’s Christmas!”
She glared at me, her eyebrows twitching with a threatening expression. It was clear she hated working so much that she was picking a fight with me to relieve her stress.
“There are two people who have contributed to the desolation of my life; one of them is Zentence, the founder of Zentence Co.”
“And who is the other one?”
“Who else? Reggie Eglinton.”
Reggie let out a loud laugh that sounded like a noisy frog.
“I thought you’d say something else. I expected the name of some lover who dumped you in the Paleolithic era. You really only think about Zentence. That’s why, even while working on a holiday, I’m the only one you’re bad-mouthing.”
I gave a vague smile at her words. Not wanting to seem like a defective lifelong bachelor, I had lied to those around me, saying I had broken up with a lover a long time ago. When people meddled, telling me to meet someone new, I built a wall by claiming the scars of that relationship were too deep and that I never wanted to date again.
“Do we really have to finish this now?”
“I think things will get very problematic if we don’t.”
“Right. It’s so problematic that I’m stuck here. By now, my daughter has probably fallen asleep waiting for her mom, and Mark is probably drinking himself into a stupor while lamenting his life.”
“It’s still a long way to midnight. Finish up quickly and go home.”
After sending the file via email, I clicked on a new one. As I was checking the dizzying numbers, she leaned toward me and lowered her voice.
“How many years has it been now? Ain, do you have any intention of getting a partner?”
“Not yet… I guess.”
“What about sex? Do you have no desire at all?”
I blushed and bit my lip at the blunt question.
“I wonder why, since you’re so cute. Are your types not popular over there?”
“They aren’t.”
“No way. If I were gay, someone like Ain…”
“Stop it. If you go any further, I’ll sue you for sexual harassment.”
Reggie cackled. The sound of clicking high heels approached. Sitting in the empty seat next to me, Reggie pulled her chair close. She spoke in a complete whisper.
“How was it?”
“How was what?”
I glanced back at her while saving the modified file. The woman was looking at me with a meaningful gaze.
“Hakan Clause.”
The face of the man who mocked me flashed before my eyes like a phantom. I replied in a stiff tone.
“What about Mr. Clause?”
“What’s with this? From the brand manager in charge of Hakan Clause.”
“What about it?”
She let out a scoff of disbelief.
“Look at this. It’s suspicious enough that the manager changed so suddenly, but you’re even more suspicious. You get flustered every time Hakan’s name comes up. Did something happen between you two?”
“Nothing happened.”
She stared at me with a persistent gaze, as if determined to dig the truth out of me. I deliberately changed the subject.
“More importantly, how was it, Reggie? I heard you met Santa Claus’s second son.”
Reggie glared at me, clearly knowing why I was changing the subject, and answered reluctantly.
“He was a good person. He was kind.”
“How was he kind?”
“Just… you can tell by looking. He’s infinitely naive. He was a completely different person from his older brother, Hakan Clause. Hakan Clause is, how should I put it…”
She spoke while watching my eyes closely.
“As you’ve probably felt, he’s not easy. He’s also excessively handsome.”
“…Is that so.”
“A man that handsome is burdensome even as a romantic partner. But I’d love to spend one night with a sexy man like that. His shoulders are just so… broad. Phew, everyone has that kind of fantasy, don’t they? Right?”
“I wouldn’t know.”
“Why?”
“He’s not that great. I didn’t find him handsome or sexy at all.”
I replied with a deliberately indifferent attitude.
At that moment, the lamp lighting the desk went out. Looking around, the entire office floor had gone dark. Screams erupted simultaneously from various places. The loudest scream came from right next to me.
“No! I didn’t save!”
Out of human decency, I couldn’t brag to her that I had saved my file just a moment ago. She wasn’t the only one; people were in a panic everywhere because of files that had suddenly vanished.
However, the situation did not improve. It was impossible to check if the files had been automatically backed up. The power had been out for over thirty minutes. The elevators worked on emergency power, but the power was cut on other floors as well. Eventually, those waiting for the electricity to return began packing their things one by one.
“Aren’t you going?”
A heartbroken Reggie Eglinton asked.
“I’m going to wait a bit longer. You go ahead.”
“What if it’s not restored today? It’s Christmas Eve; are you going to stay here?”
“It’s not like there’s anything for me at home anyway.”
“Still, it’ll be better than working overtime at the office.”
“If you feel that sorry for me, let me sleep between you and Mark.”
“You know, honey? The doghouse at my place is still empty.”
Reggie picked up her bag and snorted.
“Just go.”
“If you spend your whole life working like that, spiders will spin webs on your backside.”
“…I’m going to sue you for sexual harassment.”
At my lowered voice, Reggie realized she had crossed the line. She brushed off my threat with an awkward smile.
“Then I’m off. Merry Christmas, Lee.”
“Merry Christmas, Reggie.”
Long after the sound of her high heels faded, I checked the time. It was nearing eleven. I had always lived a workaholic life, but I had never pushed myself this harshly, even on Christmas Eve.
Even after everyone had left, the power in the office did not return. However, unlike the Zentence building, the city outside the window was still a sea of lights. It seemed to be an internal problem within the Zentence building. While it couldn’t compare to the view from an observatory, it was a wonderful night scape.
After staring blankly at the night view, I stood up, realizing the power likely wouldn’t come back. If I had known this would happen, I would have bought some snacks for the house. I thought of my empty refrigerator. It was only yesterday that Jeff had devastated all the food in the fridge before leaving.
In the dark interior, relying on a flashlight to pack my things, I let out a long sigh. It seemed I would have to finish the remaining work at home. Moreover, I had a meeting with a client tomorrow. Even though it was Christmas!
At that moment, the desk lamp suddenly flickered on.
“Huh?”
Strangely, the only place where the light came on was my desk.
I froze in place, feeling a chill crawl up my spine. Someone was sitting in my seat, where there should have been no one.
As I stared, frozen stiff, the chair spun around. For a moment, I was so startled that I felt my heart stop. Just as I was about to scream, someone sitting with the light behind them placed a finger to their lips.
“Shh.”
I clenched my fist, ready to swing my bag if necessary. The sound of leather rubbing echoed in the silence.
The entity, whether ghost or human, rose slowly from the chair. Although I was on the shorter side, the figure was overwhelmingly tall. In a world where Santa exists, there was no reason ghosts couldn’t exist as well.
“Stop. What if I were holding a gun? What do you expect to achieve by swinging a mere leather bag?”
Hearing the familiar voice, the strength in my fist gripping the leather bag vanished.
“Mr… Clause?”
“Hello.”
His hand, caught in the white light, waved in the darkness.
I instinctively tried to greet him back, but then clamped my lips shut. Hello? Were we on such casual terms? Instead, I hugged my bag tightly.
“What are you doing here?”
The man adjusted the angle of the lamp. His profile was revealed within the range of the light. Even seeing him again, it was a terrifyingly handsome face that I still couldn’t get used to.
“The Clause family is one of the largest shareholders of Zentence Co. Do I really need to make an appointment to visit?”
He stood up and approached me closely, bringing our faces near in an instant. With a sly expression, he seemed to enjoy my discomfort. To hide the fact that I was nervous, I answered curtly.
“No. Then I’ll be going…”
“Where are you running off to? I came here to see you.”
Clause snorted as if it were absurd.
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“Is there a problem with the contract… or is there a defect in the product?”
“There isn’t.”
“That’s a relief.”
I took another step back. If I just backed up a little more, I could exit the office.
“Why do you keep trying to run away?”
Why indeed! Because you’re uncomfortable!
I wanted to snap at him. However, swallowing the words I wanted to say, all I could do was shuffle backward to widen the distance between us. He spoke to me with a look of incomprehension.
“Don’t run. Stop right there.”
I had no choice but to stop moving.
“If it’s because of the wish you made, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. There are plenty of people who wish for things far worse than you…”
“S-stop. I-I don’t need to hear it!”
I waved my hands frantically to stop him. He stared at me silently and then wore a mischievous smile.
“Why? I actually liked your wish.”
“I really don’t even remember what I wished for. Please pretend you didn’t see it.”
I clasped my hands together as if praying and bowed my head deeply. I couldn’t bring myself to look at him.
“I don’t want to.”
I snapped my head up.
“What?”
“How could I forget something I’ve already seen? I have a very good memory. Besides, I came here because I wanted to see you despite being busy.”
“…Why?”
“You said your wish was to rest on Christmas.”
I asked in horror, pointing to the darkened office.
“Was that your doing?”
“Yep.”
He took another bold step toward me, thrusting his brazen face forward. My mind became turbulent at the sudden proximity of the man’s handsome face, and I shut my mouth tight like a clam.
Half of his face was shrouded in darkness, and the other half was brightly revealed by the pale light of the lamp. Like a mezzotint print with distinct contrast, light and shadow were clearly divided along the contours of his face. Looking at that painted-perfect face, I felt something swelling inside me. That feeling pressed against my chest, leaving me breathless. I felt as if I were floundering on the surface of water, yet I couldn’t even steady my shallow breathing.
Seeing me like that, the man let out a playful laugh.
“But am I really that bad?”
“…What?”
“Who would believe you said you didn’t find me handsome or sexy when you’re staring at me spellbound like that?”
It seemed he had overheard the entire conversation with Reggie. I had spoken coldly on purpose to block Reggie’s interest, but I had unintentionally bad-mouthed him. I bit my lower lip, my eyes darting anxiously. I couldn’t tell if I was flustered because I’d been caught talking behind his back, or because my heart was wavering due to his appearance.
He snatched the bag I was holding.
“Let’s go.”
Not stopping with the bag, he pulled my hand and glanced down at his wristwatch with narrow eyes.
“It’s late. Let’s get out of here.”
“What?”
“Is ‘What?’ the only thing you can say? I said it’s late.”
He pulled my arm and led me out the door.
Once in the elevator, he pressed the button for the highest floor. He gripped my wrist firmly, as if I might try to escape.
Having followed him obediently due to my earlier mistake, I suddenly felt a sense of injustice. He was the one who had raided the company and spied on me. But that was just how I felt, and I had no choice but to prioritize his mood over mine.
I glanced up at Clause’s face, which was far above mine. The man’s sharp features were turned toward me. To hide my racing heart, I blurted out whatever came to mind.
“W-where are we going?”
“To work.”
“At this hour?”
“Did you forget? I’m Santa Claus.”
December 24th, nearing midnight. What could possibly be the work of Santa Claus?
I naturally compared the image that came to mind with Clause’s attire. He was not wearing the official Santa civil servant uniform—a red coat with a thick white trim. Instead, he wore a black shirt under a cashmere knit of a red that leaned toward reddish-brown, paired with black casual suit trousers and Oxford shoes. He was dressed neatly, but if he entered someone’s house dressed like that, he would surely be mistaken for a thief.
“You don’t… seem to be in Santa attire.”
Perhaps my words sounded naive, as I saw one corner of the man’s mouth curl up.
The elevator soon reached the top floor. He had said it was late, but as the location changed, the atmosphere became considerably more relaxed.
With a slow gait, he stepped out of the elevator and opened the emergency door connected to the hallway. The entrance to the rooftop was a door that normally never opened, but when he tapped the locked door with his index finger, the sound of the lock turning echoed.
As if reading my mind and the questions I had about what was happening, he explained.
“It’s magic.”
He flung open the heavy iron door. A fierce, biting wind blew violently through the doorway. I couldn’t even open my eyes properly.
“Cold?”
“Ugh… y-yes, of course it’s cold. Aren’t you cold, Mr. Clause?”
“I’m not. I don’t feel the cold.”
His solid shoulders, which looked as if they were forged from iron ore, did not hunch from the cold, nor did he shiver like I was. He truly was a man light-years away from the cozy image the word ‘Santa Claus’ evokes. I even had the useless suspicion that the people of the Clause family were robots with frames made of scrap metal and covered in silicone.
He walked to the center of the rooftop. Beyond the vast expanse of the roof, the brilliant night view of Manhattan and the forests of Central Park, shrouded in pitch-black darkness, unfolded before my eyes.
I held my breath and looked down at my feet. Turning my head, I could see the giant Christmas tree, the installations, and the ice rink in front of the Rockefeller Center on 5th Avenue in the distance. And above all, the most impressive thing was—
“A sleigh?”
The snow that had accumulated throughout the winter was frozen solid on the rooftop. The same was true for the helipad, which had no use.
Sitting calmly upon it were seven reindeer. Each reindeer was tied with a sturdy rope, and at the end of the connected ropes was a sleigh entirely wrapped in red velvet. In the back seat of the sleigh was a giant red sack.
A cold wind brushed past my cheeks and vanished. A dream that doesn’t break even when hit by a cold wind—it was excessively surreal. A cold gust blew, creating a blizzard of accumulated snow before my eyes. If it hadn’t been for the reindeer snorting air, I would have remained entranced by the sleigh, my soul completely stolen away.
The reindeer at the front of the long procession looked back at me. Its red nose twinkled, and stark white breath billowed out like rough steam. Today’s sunglasses brand was Fendi.
“It’s a bit problematic if you’re this surprised.”
Looking back at me with indifferent eyes, he pulled on my interlaced fingers. He seemed to be smiling slightly behind his nonchalant tone, and feeling strange, I looked up at him. We exchanged glances for quite a while. His expression was blank, but it felt as if he were hinting at something.
“Are you afraid of heights?”
“No.”
“Then get on.”
“What? Get on?”
“Ha, you really talk a lot.”
Sighing, he pulled me toward him.
“Unless you’d much prefer staying home and talking to a wall like an idiot, just get on.”
He checked the watch on his wrist again. His thick eyebrows furrowed.
“We’re going to be later than planned.”
Having ended up on Santa Claus’s sleigh in a daze, I perched awkwardly on the edge of the seat. Strangely, as soon as I climbed aboard, the wind that had been howling from all directions died down, and warm air enveloped me.
“What is this? It’s not cold here.”
“It has a heating function. It’s warm now, but it’ll get a bit chilly once we fly.”
“Fly in the sky?”
“Yes. So don’t complain about the cold and wrap this around you.”
Clause handed me a long blanket. It was a cloak with a hole in the center for the head, similar to a traditional Mexican poncho.
I found the small hole and popped my head through. As I did, my hair rubbed against the dry fabric, creating static electricity that made it stand on end.
“Ah… it stings.”
I kept stroking my hair with my palms to flatten it, but it only had the opposite effect. Watching my hair splay out in all directions, Clause let out a hollow laugh and spent a long moment gathering his breath into both palms. Eventually, he reached out toward me with his moistened hands.
“Stay still.”
He gripped my head with both hands and pressed down firmly. Seeing me wait obediently for the static to settle, he let out a smirk. It was a smile that seemed to find me cute, which made me feel odd.
Once my hair settled, he immediately withdrew his hands. I fought the urge to assign meaning to the gesture and gripped the edge of the cloak.
Suddenly, Clause yanked the reins. Because of that, I slammed my head against the rim of the sleigh. While I groaned and clutched my dizzy head, the reindeer bolted without a moment’s hesitation. Rudolph, leading the pack and accelerating, leaped lightly from the rooftop railing. Following him, the rhythmic sound of thump, thump echoed as they stepped off the railing and jumped. With a terrifying sensation of floating, the massive sleigh quickly distanced itself from the ground and soared into the sky.
We rose far above the city nightscape I had seen from the rooftop. The city looked like diamonds embedded in pitch-black Lego blocks. Rockefeller Center became smaller than a ballpoint pen, and the snow-covered forests of Central Park looked like mounds of sherbet scraped with a spoon. The forest of buildings, which had been nothing more than suffocating shapes of steel, glass, and cement, had transformed into a collection of Christmas trees filling the city.
Forgetting the fear that I might fall, I became entranced by the city lights, like a primitive human seeing fire for the first time.
“It’s fantastic.”
Having completely forgotten the awkwardness from before, I looked back at his profile and spoke. Instead of looking at the city landscape unfolding outside the sleigh, he was resting his chin on his hand, openly staring at my profile.
“You look like Little Red Riding Hood right before she enters the wolf’s belly.”
A moment later, I realized he said that because of the cloak I was wearing.
I didn’t have a sturdy build or masculine looks, but I was still twenty-seven years old. To call me Little Red Riding Hood… and the expression “right before entering the wolf’s belly” felt a bit eerie.
“Why do you make jokes like that?”
“I’m not joking.”
His statement that it wasn’t a joke made me tense. I tried to calm myself, pretending not to care about his words.
Fortunately, I soon stopped caring entirely. My attention was stolen by the city nightscape once again. The sleigh rose much higher than before, passing through the boundary of the clouds. We flew through the sky, repeatedly becoming trapped in and then breaking free from thick mist.
Surprisingly cold and damp clouds brushed past my cheeks. When a flash of lightning struck through the clumped dark clouds, I instinctively huddled close to Clause. In the meantime, the sleigh climbed higher, and we were suddenly floating above the clouds.
A vivid darkness welcomed us. The sky was entirely black, pearlescent starlight twinkled in the infinite depth of the dark, and a large moon hung at the lowest point in the center of the night sky. It felt like I was having an enchanting dream.
“It’s beautiful. …Really.”
“Do you like it?”
“Of course! Who gets to experience this in their lifetime?”
Gathering my courage, I gripped the railing of the sleigh and stood up. As I reached out and waved toward the stars floating at a dizzying height, it felt as if a long-lost childhood innocence was being revived.
I took a deep breath of the fresh night air. While staring blankly at the sky, a sudden question occurred to me, and I looked down at him. He was observing me with his arms crossed.
“Now that you’ve seen your fill, shall we go? It’s time to start working.”
The sleigh began to descend slowly, at the same speed it had ascended. After descending for a while through thick layers of clouds, it flew low and fast over the luxury restaurants and designer boutiques lining Midtown. We passed between brilliant electronic billboards that filled the lower sections of the buildings, but no one seemed to notice our presence.
I recalled the story about the Claus family I had read in Reggie Eglton’s email. My gaze naturally drifted to the profile of the man sitting beside me.
Clause was focused on steering the sleigh, looking straight ahead. I grew increasingly curious. I wanted to know why he had gone to the trouble of cutting the power to the buildings to prevent overtime and taking me flying through the midnight sky. It was because it felt as if he held some kind of twisted affection for me.
“If you have something to say, say it. Stop glancing at me.”
Brushing his fluttering hair back from his forehead, he leaned toward me. Remembering Reggie’s warning not to ask any personal questions about the Claus family, I kept my mouth shut.
“Nothing.”
“Your eyes are full of curiosity, though.”
“…Can I ask?”
“As long as it’s something I can answer.”
Unexpectedly, he gave his permission readily. I leaned toward him, but because of the height difference, my lips didn’t reach his ear. He tilted his head sharply toward his shoulder and leaned his upper body diagonally toward me.
“Ask. What are you curious about?”
“Are you human?”
It was a question I had posed with a fair amount of caution, but he scoffed coldly.
“Something like that.”
“If it’s ‘something like that’… then you’re not human.”
I muttered “alien” so softly that he almost couldn’t hear. He noticed with uncanny precision.
“Why? Are you afraid I’ll kidnap you for human experimentation?”
“…You won’t, right?”
He crinkled the bridge of his nose while looking at me.
“I’m not from another planet, so don’t worry.”
Since Clause’s reaction wasn’t bad, I felt a bit more confident and asked another question.
“The sleigh isn’t built for flight, so how can it fly in the sky? Same for the reindeer. Is that red-nosed reindeer really the Rudolph from the fairy tales?”
He moved a bit closer to me so my voice wouldn’t be drowned out by the wind. The tip of his high nose poked my cheek. The tip of his nose, touching my chilled skin, was warm.
“It might sound like a cliché answer, but people call it magic. It’s a common technology used in the Claus family.”
Looking straight into my surprised eyes, he said,
“And that guy is indeed Rudolph.”
Rudolph, who had been leading the way, looked back and snorted. Rudolph’s sunglasses sparkled in the moonlight.
While flying through the dense forest of buildings, he told me the things I was curious about. He said he had lived for a length of time I couldn’t even fathom, and that there was an island in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, not precisely markable by GPS, where the Claus family lived. I felt as if I had returned to my childhood. I couldn’t ignore the curiosity I had suppressed due to Reggie’s advice, nor could I stop my interest in him.
“There’s something else I’m curious about.”
“Wait a moment.”
Before I knew it, the sleigh came to a stop atop a mixed-use residential building. Clause stood up and rummaged through the giant sack at the back of the sleigh. Taking out several large red boxes and clutching them to his chest, he leaped lightly from the sleigh.
“I’ll let you continue after I get back.”
Walking across the snow-covered rooftop, he looked back. His gaze was slightly furrowed.
“I’ll be back soon, so don’t move a muscle.”
Only after I nodded vigorously did he walk forward, take something out of his pants pocket, and open a door. Watching the door where he had disappeared, I realized one thing. He walked across the snow without leaving a single footprint. What kind of mysterious magic was this?
While I was repeatedly marveling, he soon opened the door and came out. He was empty-handed.
“Hand.”
Walking back toward the sleigh, he held out his hand. As I grabbed his large palm and pulled firmly, he used the momentum to leap over the railing.
“You came back quickly.”
“The security was lax. Now we just move to the next building.”
“How many more times are we doing this?”
“I just need to hit a hundred places.”
“A hundred? That doesn’t seem like a small number.”
“Not really. Last year, I went around until I was exhausted.”
“Then why are you doing fewer today than before?”
At my question, he gazed at me blankly before speaking.
“It’s because of you.”
“Me? Why… me?”
He turned his head away without answering. The gaze he left behind felt as if he were interrogating me, making me shrink back for no reason. When he snapped the whip in his hand, Rudolph at the far end began to move.
The gifts in the giant sack gradually decreased, and the night grew deeper. Every time the sleigh passed through the surrounding luxury residential areas, the size of the sack noticeably shrank.
While he was away, I sat in the sleigh and watched the lunar halo blurring into the clouds. The color of the moon had grown deeper red than before, and the clouds seemed to be thickening ominously.
“What are you looking at so intently?”
“The moon. The color is very deep.”
“It looks like it’ll snow soon.”
As he said, the clouds thickened and the light of the lunar halo approached a shade of vermilion. Brushing back his disheveled hair, he pulled a box from the limp sack.
“The last one.”
“I guess so.”
It wasn’t even two in the morning yet. As Santa Claus’s sack emptied, I felt a growing sense of regret. The memory of his rude first impression had already vanished. Lamenting the passing time, I threw a childish question at him.
“Have you ever been caught for trespassing?”
“Never once. Not even the dogs kept inside the houses bark. Don’t you have any more original questions?”
He sighed, knitting his brows. Since the range of questions I could ask was identical to the limits of my imagination, I was bound to disappoint him if he wanted originality. I was a very predictable person. However, I spoke up firmly.
“How do you get in when there are no chimneys?”
“Good grief. I wondered why you didn’t ask that.”
He burst into a laugh and shook his head. He said,
“Hand.”
I obediently held out my hand to him.
He gripped my hand, spread my palm, and moved his index finger aiming for the center of my palm. His index finger, touching my palm, extended outward through the back of my hand. It looked like an arrowhead passing through an apple. The tip of his finger wriggled like a caterpillar, but I couldn’t feel any sensation. However, the sight was so gruesome that I shuddered.
“Ugh… ugh! This is weird.”
He withdrew the finger that had pierced my palm and pulled my wrist. Pressing his body close to mine, he whispered in a breathy voice against my ear.
“You understand now, right? I can break through and enter anywhere I want.”
Releasing my hand, he focused once again solely on driving the sleigh.
But his words didn’t sound ordinary to me. He can break through and enter anywhere he wants. He had spoken in a monotonous tone, but my delusions kept trying to veer in an erotic direction. I pulled away my elbow, which had been lightly touching his side. I needed to block such thoughts, even if only consciously.
The sleigh was racing toward its final destination, passing the Harlem River to the north. The place where Rudolph’s hooves landed was a redevelopment district in the southern Bronx, bordering the Harlem River. Most of the residents had been evicted, leaving the area as desolate as ruins, but there were still people living their lives there.
The sleigh stopped on a roadside lined with modest houses. Leaping from the sleigh, Clause passed through a narrow garden covered in dead grass and weeds and opened the door of a building with the lights off.
“There’s a chimney, but he opens the door and goes in.”
Inwardly, I had expected to see him climb down a chimney, but he walked right through the door.
Hearing my monologue, the seven reindeer shifted their bodies and groaned. It sounded exactly like they were mocking me. Rudolph, in the lead, shifted his entire body with the loudest sound and laughed boisterously. Feeling offended by the reindeer’s mockery, I grumbled.
“I mean, I can expect a little. I learned that Santa goes down chimneys.”
Rudolph’s laughter grew even louder. However, as soon as Clause appeared by opening the door, Rudolph stopped mocking me instantly. I glared at Rudolph in disbelief, but the fellow primly sniffed the hay on the ground.
“What’s wrong?”
“…Nothing.”
He checked on me, sensing the unusual atmosphere, but I didn’t tell him anything. I felt that if I asked why he didn’t go through the chimney, he, as Rudolph’s owner, would probably mock me too.
Clause pulled the reins and made the reindeer run again. The reindeer, galloping down the empty road, gradually increased their altitude like a taking-off airplane and began to fly in the sky.
The gift sack in the back seat was empty and hanging limp. The exotic Christmas event was now over.
“The gift deliveries are all finished.”
Deep regret was evident in my voice. I was simply sorry that he had delivered only a hundred gifts this Christmas of all times.
“Yeah. It’s over.”
Unlike me, he spoke in a tone that felt light, as if he were glad to finally be finished. I wondered if I was the only one who had enjoyed the time spent with him, or if I had assigned too much meaning to his small kindnesses.
“I have one last thing to ask.”
“Again? You still have things you’re curious about after all that?”
“Yes.”
“Go ahead. What are you so curious about?”
Contrary to his grumbling expression, his tone was soft. Gaining courage, I asked in a deliberately nonchalant tone.
“Why are you being so nice to me?”
He sank into thought, as if chewing over the meaning of my words. After a long while, he spoke.
“It’s what you wanted.”
“I did?”
“You said you wanted to welcome a Christmas without overtime. I thought that if you’re going to be the brand manager in charge of me from now on, it would be good to grant at least one wish.”
He spoke in a casual manner and shrugged his shoulders. His answer brought a strange sense of disappointment. To think that the time spent with me was merely the kindness of a Santa granting a good child’s wish. Honestly, I felt that on this special night, we were on something like a date. But it had all been my delusion.
“You’re very kind.”
To hide my gloomy mood, I intentionally raised my voice.
“How did it feel to fly in the sky?”
I looked up at the cloud-covered sky. Recalling the memory of facing the clear night sky beyond the thick layer of dark clouds made me feel a bit better.
“I was happy. I probably won’t forget it until the day I die.”
“I’m glad you were happy. You wanted to fly above the clouds.”
“…I did?”
“You did. It was the wish you made around the age of eight.”
I turned my body completely toward him. He was already resting his chin on his hand, staring intently at me.
“After reading a biography of the Wright brothers, you spent all your time saying you wanted to fly. You made a similar wish during the Christmas season. That’s why your mother gave you a toy airplane as a gift.”
Clause spoke while looking at me with eyes that seemed to want to see what effect his words had on me.
“At six, you prayed for the girl next door with childhood cancer to be discharged from the hospital quickly. Around nine, you prayed that the hamster your younger brother was raising would stay healthy and live a long time, and after watching a movie called Santa Claus on TV, you said you wanted to deliver presents with Santa.”
He chuckled.
“You were so innocent when you were little.”
It seemed the embarrassment I felt during our first meeting had given me some immunity. I didn’t feel insulted or flustered by his words as I had before. I was a bit—no, a lot—embarrassed, but not to the point where I wanted to jump off the sleigh.
On the contrary, I was touched by his story. I looked at him with a brazen expression.
“I’m still innocent.”
“I don’t think that’s what’s in here.”
Clause cupped my head with both hands. His hands, covering the sides of my head, pressed down firmly, just as they had when he calmed the static electricity a moment ago. By the time his warm hands enveloped my cold cheeks, my face had already turned a disastrous shade of red.
He gazed at me for a long time before speaking with a smile.
“At ten, you prayed that the handsome older boy next door would kiss you. Remember?”
His lips landed very lightly on the rim of my ear. He whispered in a very low voice, so softly that no one but me could hear.
“In the end, your dream came true. But even after that, your strange wishes continued. You were a good child, but… you made Santa Claus very flustered. Your wishes were the kind of desires I simply couldn’t grant. Besides, you were a minor.”
The tip of his high nose poked my cheek. When I flinched, he approached a bit closer with a sly smile.
“W-why were you peeking?”
“I wasn’t peeking. You put the note with your wish inside your sock.”
“I got rid of it before anyone could see.”
“What can I do? Once it’s in the sock, the wish is automatically registered.”
The wishes I had made over the years flashed through my mind. Feeling somewhat wronged, I glared at him for constantly triggering my shame. He locked onto my gaze as if welcoming it.
“It’s okay. You can tell me everything honestly.”
Though his eyes were full of mischievous interest, they were undeniably tender and warm. It seemed my list of dirty desires was no problem for him. No, if anything, he showed a deep interest in that list.
Was he sending me a signal? Was he hinting that we were moving to a certain stage?
I felt that if I didn’t find the courage now, I never would.
“What happens to the registered wishes?”
I squeezed out my voice, trying to hide the trembling. He replied,
“I am Santa Claus, after all.”
“And?”
“I intend to grant your wishes, one by one, every single one.”
He moved closer. I was so nervous that I worried he could hear the sound of me gulping.
“Starting with the wish you made when you were sixteen.”
His lips slowly parted. The red inner flesh became visible, and soon, warm mucous membranes covered my lips. It felt as if someone were gripping my heart in a fist and squeezing it.
A tongue that slowly parted his lips pushed into my mouth, and the hot tip of it touched my teeth. His lips, sliding in so smoothly and sweetly, were impossible to resist. I wondered if he had cast some wicked spell. As the kiss deepened, I lost the strength in my fingertips.
His warm hand cradled the back of my head. When I slightly opened my eyes, our gazes met.
Is this okay? Is it alright for us to be this close? Does he enjoy kissing me too?
His gaze felt as stinging as a scratch, so I shrank back and closed my eyes. The kiss deepened again.
“Haa…”
Even after his lips pulled away a while later, he didn’t stop kissing. His wet lips softly clung to my frozen cheeks, jaw, and lower lip.
A harsh gust of wind blew. My face, smeared with his saliva, cooled down instantly. Then, as if I had caught a cold, heat rushed to my entire face. Perhaps the wish I made at sixteen had been a kiss.
“Do you remember the wish you made at eighteen?”
He languidly rubbed my earlobe. In truth, a vague memory surfaced, but I shook my head, pretending to remember nothing. He gripped my chin and lifted it.
“You said you wanted a large hand to spank your butt. That you wanted someone to spank you while tormenting your fully erect genitals…”
“I-I never made a wish like that!”
Jumping from kissing to spanking. I felt I couldn’t handle such a rapid progression.
“If you don’t remember, I can show you the list I have. I’ve kept every single wish you ever made, without exception.”
My breathing grew shallow, and my face felt hot, as if I had been burned. He remembered all the lewd wishes I had made. I was a transparent man with no secrets from him. I wanted to disappear somewhere, but he had no intention of letting me go.
“Hng!”
“I won’t spank your butt. So don’t make a face like you’re about to cry.”
Cupping my cheeks with both hands, he stealthily licked my lower lip with his tongue. Shivers ran down my spine, and my lower abdomen felt tight. Heat rose to my eyes, blurring my vision.
“T-then what?”
“Do you remember this year’s wish?”
He smiled mischievously.
“Ugh…”
I couldn’t bear the embarrassment any longer. As soon as I saw his smiling face, I tried to stand up, but my shoulders were pressed down, forcing me back into my seat.
“This time, it was a wish I can actually grant.”
“I didn’t make a wish this year.”
As I shrank my neck and dropped my head, his warm lips enveloped my cold, frozen ear.
“You didn’t make a wish? You put a note in the wish sock.”
“Ah…”
“It said, ‘Please let me spend a night with a sexy, handsome, and charismatic man.’”
“No. I wrote that long before Christmas. I tore the note up immediately.”
“So, you don’t want to?”
I couldn’t say a word and only looked up at him. One of his eyebrows arched.
“Am I not your type?”
“No!”
I answered hurriedly.
“It’s absolutely not that!”
My heart was wavering, unable to find its center. To me, romance was something that required bold courage, so I had always chosen to be alone instead of crossing that line. Because I had always lived such an ordinary, plain, and unstimulated life, the man before me felt like a stimulus far too intense for me to handle. His appearance alone had already reached the peak of stimulation.
But he had lived for a very long time. He must have met countless people during that long span, so he would surely grow tired of an ordinary man like me.
“If it’s not that, then what is it?”
“That’s…”
“Am I not good enough as a one-night stand?”
I felt as if I had been doused with an ice bucket. It felt like cold ice water was streaming down my chin.
Ah, I had a tendency to get too far ahead of myself.
He wasn’t looking for a relationship; he just wanted to spend a night with me, yet I had already assigned excessive meaning to it and imagined myself becoming someone special to him.
It was so embarrassing. In that brief moment, I had imagined not only a messy romance with him, but also visiting Santa’s village to meet his family, staying as lovers for many years, and even Clause’s young face looking at my aged self with warm eyes.
I promptly snipped off the sprouts of delusion stretching far into the distance. It wasn’t even funny.
“…It’s not that you’re not good enough.”
“Then? Do you want to?”
His gaze slowly traced over my face. Feeling the urge to hide, I covered my face with both hands to conceal my expression.
“I want to.”
I lowered my head deeply, like someone who had committed a crime.
He laughed low, seemingly pleased with my compliant answer. As he pulled the reins, the direction of the reindeer charging forward shifted.
“Why are you hiding your face?”
“…Just because.”
Pulling my wrist, he mischievously lifted my head. My mind was cluttered with various thoughts, but I decided not to think about anything anymore. My chin was gripped firmly, and his lips overlapped mine.
I could hear the dissatisfied snorting of the reindeer. When I glanced sideways at Rudolph, Clause was taking something large and stone-like out of his coat and throwing it at the back of the creature’s head.