Since the beginning, when they first met one another, Sunggyu had known that Woohyun was a pain in the derrière.

Their fathers had been best friends in university and somehow for some reason (Sunggyu was almost sure that it was the gods conspiring against him for all the misdeeds he had done as a toddler), they had kept in touch afterwards when they started their respective careers. That ended with the two of them eventually working for the same company, once Sunggyu’s father’s company went bankrupt and Woohyun’s father had pulled some connections and helped Sunggyu’s father get hired at the company he worked at.

That was when Woohyun unabashedly entered his life, annoying voice and over-exaggerated movements, and his life had never quite been the same ever since. As in, he never had peace and quiet for more than a week.

Prior to that, Sunggyu and his mother had only ever saw Mr. Nam, who visited for dinner every other Sunday. Once his father and Mr. Nam started working at the same company, the frequency of seeing Mr. Nam increased to pretty much daily and with that increase in visits also led to more encounters with Woohyun, who was a brat in elementary school when they met. Sunggyu, on the other hand, had just entered middle school at that point.

Sunggyu abandoned his book on the table in the living room after quickly bookmarking where he was just reading. The doorbell had rung. His father opened the door and greeted Mr. Nam. Sunggyu followed suit, knowing that it was only polite to greet people as they came into their house.

It was supposed to be an ordinary Friday evening visit from Mr. Nam when two figures literally materialized out of nowhere right behind him as soon as he stepped through the threshold.

Standing there was a very tidy and strict-looking woman who was holding hands with a child who looked no older than Sunggyu.

After exchanging greetings with his parents, the unfamiliar woman adjusted her height slightly to address Sunggyu.

“Hello,” the woman said, grinning a little at Sunggyu. “You must be Sunggyu.”

Sunggyu nodded his head, affirming. He gave a small little bow, “Hello, you must be Mrs. Nam. Welcome to our house.”

“My, how polite!” she exclaimed and then she pulled a little at the hand that was holding hands with the young boy. “This is Woohyun over here. Don’t mind him,” she said as he shuffled backwards a little to hide behind her. “He’s a little shy around strangers. But I hope the two of you get along well.”

“Say hello to Sunggyu-hyung,” his mother prodded at Woohyun, giving him a small, gentle smile. Woohyun just gave a small nod to Sunggyu, hiding behind his mother.

“That’s not very nice. Come on out and say hi.”

At that point Sunggyu just smirked a little at the boy, wondering how he had lived this far in life if he were this shy meeting strangers.

“It’s alright,” Sunggyu said. “I don’t mind that he’s quiet and shy. I would rather read a book than play anyway. He can play by himself.” Sunggyu thought back to the book that he had previously set down. It was getting to the of the story and he couldn’t wait to continue reading.

He didn’t quite like playing with people younger than him—they were always so annoying and demanded so much out of him. They were always demanding so much energy that he didn’t have to give. He also got back pain occasionally (not that he would ever admit to getting back pain that early in life) and he would rather not.

Just as he went back to musing about the book he was reading, his thoughts were rudely interrupted by the one and only.

“Hi Sunggyu.”

Sunggyu snapped out of his thoughts immediately.

No honorific was added to the back of his name by the younger boy. Sunggyu twitched a little.

Woohyun was immediately scolded, “He is older than you! You have to add the proper honorific!”

Woohyun scowled a little and then addressed Sunggyu appropriately. However, the second his mother let go of his hand and turned her back to them, as did the other adults, as they headed towards the kitchen, Woohyun stuck out his tongue at Sunggyu.

Sunggyu was flabbergasted, wondering if he had imagined it. The elementary school child had the audacity to turn around once more as he tried to follow his mom into the kitchen to stick out his tongue once again, even embellishing it by lowering one of his lower eyelids to show Sunggyu the disgusting red tissue that was protected by the lower lids.

Sunggyu was ready to attack him right then and there.

Immediately, Woohyun straightened up to look up at his mother turned to look at the two children and told the two of them, “The adults are going to talk for a little bit before dinner so can the two of you go on to the living room and play together? We won’t be long.”

“Okay Mommy,” Woohyun nodded and then walked into the living room without even needing to be shown where to go, ignoring Sunggyu.

Sunggyu watched with an indignant expression on his face, mouth open wide. He followed the kid mutely and the kid turned back to sneer at him, his mouth still open, “Close your mouth, or else a fly will fly into it, ugly.”

That was how the adults found the two children roughhousing with one another about fifteen minutes later in dead silence (to not alert the adults that they were fighting with each other, o