It was Christmas Eve, and the large house was bustling with activity. The entire household was getting ready for visitors. It was a yearly tradition for family to come spend the Christmas weekend at the Liu household. Amber’s mother always cooked a huge feast that left everyone’s mouth watering, and that was plenty of reason for them to come.

However, having guests over also meant that it was cleaning time.

“Amber, did you clean your room? Everyone's going to be here soon!” Amber groaned, looking around at the mess her room was in. No, she had not cleaned it. She hadn't even STARTED. Why did she have to clean her room? It's not like they'd go into her room. Their house was massive, almost bordering on the size of a mansion, so there was really no reason for anyone to go into her room.

Unless her cousins decided to invade. She belatedly remembered how nosy her two female cousins could get, and sighed in defeat. They were definitely going to invade her space.

She didn't have much time to wonder this before the door flew open and her little brother stomped in and collapsed on her bed. Well, on the clothes littering her bed.

“What the hell, Junhong!” she exclaimed.

He mumbled something into the bed, which sounded a lot like “Leave me alone,” before Amber pulled him up off of her bed.

“What's your problem?” she griped.

“That uncle is coming this year,” he muttered.

Amber paused, trying to place who he was talking about.

“Wait, you mean-”

“Yeah, him. He never comes to Christmas dinner, so why did he decide to come this year? It's so stupid!” Junhong complained.

Amber never really understood why Junhong disliked their uncle. Sure, he was extremely young, only being two years older than Amber herself (he was their mother's youngest brother, of 4 siblings), but Amber thought that was cool. He knew how to have fun. However, he never came to family get-togethers. He had a bad case of wanderlust, and spent most of his time traveling. Half the time, he was someplace that limited any sort of communication.

“I dunno why you're so uptight about him. He's cool,” she said.

“He weirds me out, okay? He always has this look in his eyes, like he's looking into your soul,” he replied, shuddering.

Amber rolled her eyes. “That's all you, man. Whatever. Get out of my room so I can clean this pigsty,” she said, pushing him out the door and shutting it behind him.

An hour later, she emerged from a freshly cleaned room, sighing in satisfaction. She skipped down the stairs and peeked into the kitchen, which smelled absolutely amazing, before heading to the living room and plopping herself down in front of the large fireplace. A large Christmas tree stood next to it, rising up and almost touching the high ceiling.

It wasn't long befo