"Merry Christmas sleepyhead." Reen said, using a pillow to hit Joreen so she would wake up. She didn't know how Joreen could comfortably sleep well anywhere because she couldn't. Whenever she was in a new environment, she found it difficult sleeping well and she always woke up early. But it wasn't the case for Joreen. Once she hit the bed, she was gone.

"Hmm?" Joreen rubbed her sleepy eyes and relunctatly sat up while grumbling.

"How many times do I have to remind you that forcing someone awake can lead to brain damage?" Joreen complained groggily while trying to keep her eyes open.

"Wow!" Reen gasped before adding, "I had no idea you had a brain."

Feeing offended, Joreen threw a pillow at her before yawning widely. Unfortunately, the pillow didn't smack her head like Joreen had wished.

"Merry Christmas. Why am I starving?" She asked more to herself before standing up.

"You are already dressed?" Joreen looked at Reen with surprise when she saw Reen looking all fresh and ready for the day.

"Of course dummy! It's Christmas!"

"It's not even..." Joreen reached for her phone to check the time, "It's not even 7:30 yet." She whined.

"You always complain. If you cannot shower now, you better dress up let's head downstairs. I heard some gifts were kept under the Christmas tree."

"And you think anyone dropped a gift for you? What are you? 5?"

"Doesn't mean I cannot watch the happy smiles on the kids faces. It's always refreshing to see kids happy. Now hurry up and let's go! We'll just give the little kids their gifts later before Queen bugs us to death."

"You are such a bully." Joreen yawned again.

"Serves you right for being the younger one." Reen said smugly as Joreen found her way to the bathroom.

"You'll have to wait until I am done brushing my teeth!" Joreen called loudly from the bathroom.

"Just use the mouth wash for crying out loud!"

"It's uncomfortable so wait until I am done. I'll be quick. And while you wait, please find me something to wear."

"Am I your servant?" Reen asked but she was already walking towards Joreen's wardrobe.

"Siblings are always servants to siblings in case you do not know."

"I hate you!"

"I rooove you too!" Joreen said with a mouth full of paste.

By the time Joreen came out, Reen had an outfit prepared for her. It was a blue and white off shoulder play suit with long sleeves.

"Nice choice." Joreen commented as she stripped from her pyjamas into the playsuit.

She fixed her braids into a bun and was about to leave when Reen pulled her back.

"Powder and lip gloss now!"

"I don't want to. It's uncomfortable to do so when I haven't showered."

"Uncle Hoy is going to be there. You should always look pretty and always wiggle your butt when you walk pass him."

"Eww.. You are such a pervert!" Joreen shuddered.

But remembering there was actually a high probability of bumping into Li Hoy, she dashed towards the dressing table to pick up her powder brush. When she was done with her face and also done wearing a colorless lip gloss, she nodded appreicatively at her reflection.

"I don't say this often... but I am really pretty." Joreen said as she seriously looked at her reflection.

"What a narcissist!" Reen rolled her eyes before opening the door to go out. "Make sure you use some perfume. You don't want to be smelling when you meet him."

"I DON'T SMELL!" Joreen exclaimed while reaching for a bottle of perfume. When she was done, she left her room, wearing a white pair of socks and slipper.

Their floor was unusually quiet but when they arrived at the second floor, they noticed a few kids running around and heading downstairs while their parents were scolding them for running or yelling for them not to trip.

"I am glad we aren't staying in this floor." Reen said as she watched the pandemonium. She hadn't realised they were a lot of kids during the ship ride down here.

They took the stairs slowly until they arrived at the common room downstairs. Even before they got down, they could already hear the Christmas songs playing. There were a lot of people, some sitting, some standing. But they were all basically watching the kids who were searching under the big Christmas tree for gifts with their names.

They stood at the foot of the stairs and watched the kids just like the others.

They saw a little boy of about 10 years old, grab a box and excitedly began to tear it open. Everyone looked at the boy, waiting to see his reaction after seeing his gift. Only a few seconds passed and the boy opened it. The excitement in his face vanished as he looked inside the box and took out what looked like a video game. Before everybody's eyes, he yelled that he hated it and threw it on the floor before stomping on it repeatedly despite his mother's effort to control him.

"Spoilt brat. I would smack his face if I were his mother." Reen spat out.

Gasps left people's lips when the little boy pushed his mother, causing her to fall and he began to run towards the stairs, looking very angry.

When he tried to walk past Joreen and Reen, Joreen stood in front of him, stopping him from walking past her.

"Where do you think you are going to?" Joreen asked.

"Get out of my way!" The little boy said rudely.

"Turn around, go back and apologize to your mother." Joreen said in a demanding tone.

"Stay out of it!"

"Stop being a spoilt brat and go apologize to your mother." She continued, not minding the fact that all eyes were on her right now.

But she couldn't just see this and act like she didn't see anything.

"Why are you harassing my son?"

Joreen looked at the woman in disbelief and asked with a frown, "I beg your pardon?"

"You are standing in his way and forcing him to do something against his will when you are not even related to him. That counts as harassment." She said, looking like she was about to fight any moment.

"Oh..." Joreen turned to look at Reen who was also frowning at the woman.

"Now I understand why her son is like this." Joreen couldn't stop herself from speaking out.

"I agree." Reen said with a nod. "She is a nutcase."

"Poor child being raised like this. A lot of people are going to hate him in the future and too bad no one would care that it wasn't his fault."

The sister's began to speak like the woman wasn't there. Maybe the woman would have reacted if the others who had witnessed the scene wasn't talking about her. Everyone seemed appalled by her behaviour towards the girl who wanted to make her son apologize for embarrassing her. The woman pulled her son with her and they both left through the front door. She knew best than to try to talk down these two girls especially when her sharp ears had heard someone talking about the family the girls came from.

"Is Joreen and Reen the same person? Why is this person's gift everywhere?" A little girl who was invested in going through the gift boxes asked as she kept throwing some gift boxes to the side while looking for hers.

Joreen and Reen looked at each other. They had gifts? Their parents hadn't told them they were giving them with gifts?

It was the first time they looked around and noticed some members of the family were present including the two madam Lis with their husbands, Muchen and Sara, Minde and Eva and the three little children. There was a pile of gifts on the table the kids sat on.

The sisters went to join the kids who were searching for their kids. It was a bit awkward since they were only kids there but they went there anyway.

The kids didn't seem to mind the two grownups, they even scooted to give them a chance to search for theirs.

The Christmas tree was indeed big and they were currently up to, if not more than fifty wrapped gifts under and around the tree.

"This is for you." Reen handed Joreen a gift box.

"This is yours." Joreen gave her one with her name on it. They both wanted to stand from where they were squatting but coincidentally, they both saw more with their names.

"Wow! I think we got a lot of gifts this year." Reen said excitedly as she knelt down. The embarrassment she felt earlier was long gone. She began to find more gifts and looked surprised when she saw one which had 'Li Heya' written on it.

"I guess no one is too old to receive gifts." Joreen said with a broad smile as they kept that one beside them to give it to her later.

There was one particular one that caught Reen's attention and she picked it up to read the inscription before looking at Joreen who was busy trying to find any gift with her name or Reen's name on it.

"Look at this." Reen handed it to her.

Joreen took it and slowly read what was written on it,

To: Luo Joreen.

From: The one you love.

"The one I love?" Joreen asked in surprise.