Over time, woohyun seemed to be getting along with sunggyu a little too well since he had to see him every day as his boss plus a grumpy neighbor. He was starting to enjoy it unlike how he used to be annoyed at the very existence of the said man. But being sunggyu’s neighbor seemed more work for him more than being his subordinate at work.

After a dreadful defeat on a bet during a game night at sungjong’s house, he was now sunggyu’s personalized butler. Well not that it was something very shocking since sunggyu somehow convinced him into carpooling so basically he was also his driver even before that night. Also not to forget how he got annoyed with the amount of takeout boxes sunggyu’s trash had when they used to go down together to dispose it, so he offered to cook for both of them which sunggyu usually denied but would agree to it eventually after a few scolding he threw out.

It was one of the days were he asked sunggyu to come over to his house for breakfast before they head to work,

“Can you set the table as I finish up the stew?” woohyun called out to sunggyu who was sprawled across his couch watch TV while cutting the tofu.

“Don’t tell me you are making tofu again, how I wish I could go and have a bagel for breakfast instead of being stuck with you to eat this crap” sunggyu grumbled annoyed as he placed the cutlery with the rice bowls on the table.

Woohyun giggled watching sunggyu continuing to nag, “Well your mom made me promise to feed you more home food after how weak your body went last month from all the junk you ate and of course with what happened”

“I shouldn’t have let you both meet, worst decision ever” sunggyu threw him a glare as woohyun placed the ceramic earthen pot boiling with hot stew in the middle of the table so they could start eating.

“I wasn’t the one who broke a rib from falling down after doing pushups on a cloths hanger” woohyun laughed at how pouty sunggyu.

“Howon told me he used to do it, so I just wanted to try” sunggyu tried reasoning,

“Well that’s because of the inbuilt closet they have it’s fixed to the wall, yours is a movable one with wheels. It’s common sense to not act like a monkey with it, even a kid would know how dangerous it is to hang on it” woohyun shook his head in disagreement while take a sip of the soup,

“You don’t know how worried your mother was when the doctor said you had anemia too when they were treating your injury, I had to make her stop crying which is why you have to eat everything I cook irrespective  of you like it or not. Plus it’s not that bad, we even get the side dishes your mom sends for us every week. I only make the stew so shut up and eat fast we are getting late for the meeting” woohyun spoke trying to stop sunggyu from talking more.

“I hate you all” sunggyu whined while obeying woohyun as he gulped the food.

It would be a lie to say if sunggyu wasn’t happy that he gets to spend most of his day with woohyun on his toes, though the younger annoys the out of him. He would feel guilty to be still having his feels grow for woohyun as days went by but he wanted to stick to his promise of being good friends. Well it was going more than well in that aspect, at times sunggyu would just stare at woohyun when he was working in his cabin, he would sneak out to the break room when he sees him and sungjong head there through the blinds of his room. He found it strangely comforting that he could at least love him from afar since if he was anywhere near the younger he couldn’t gaze at him lovingly without looking creepy and freak him out, without sugar coating it was pure and utter torture to be stuck in a friend zone with a person whom he actually confessed to before. But he had to hold in his façade so he didn’t want to lose woohyun completely if he kept insisting or forcing the younger to like him back when he wasn’t ready or didn’t want to. The forced reality was every time woohyun would put his hand over his shoulder or waist, or when he hugs him casually when they greet where he knows clearly that woohyun thinks of his as a really close trustworthy friend crushed him inside, but he had to accept what fate gave him. He definitely can’t change the reality, not until woohyun does something about it. He might not know what the future held for them but he wouldn’t lose hope ever, at least a tiny strand of wishful thinking could keep him being friends with the man he was slowly falling in love with, forever.

“A penny for you thoughts, boss” woohyun walked inside sunggyu’s room as he watched the elder sitting quietly staring outside his window.

His words went unheard as sunggyu juggled a lot of his thoughts and feelings inwardly, this time wondering of possibilities of what would have happened if he met woohyun way earlier. If he had approached him on the day he first spotted him, it wasn’t the bar that they had first met but he knew he would never have the courage to tell the younger the real truth. Not like it was a big thing, but it definitely was a precious memory to sunggyu at least since he was sure woohyun doesn’t even remember meeting him before the bar incident, hell he didn’t even remember many things from the very night itself. Woohyun would always grow uncomfortable every time he would bring that topic so he just let go since he didn’t like the younger squirming in discomfort at the mention of it.

That was when sunggyu turned to face his table and was about to get back to work when he sensed a presence in front of him, he saw a bemused looking woohyun in front of him studying him with his usual knitted eyebrows whenever he looked serious, “When did you get here?”

“What were you thinking about?” woohyun didn’t avert his gaze from sunggyu as he walked closer to sit in the chair in front of him while placing the files he had got with him on the table.

“Nothing serious” sunggyu shook his head as he knew where this was going and certainly wanted to change the direction of the conversation that was leading to; he started fumbling on the files woohyun had got him.

This wasn’t the first time woohyun had caught him thinking deeply, it had happened a number of times in the past few months they grew close. At first he evaded woohyun’s curiosity with some dumb excuses but lately the younger didn’t seem to be buying it and kept insisting on wanting to know. Although he wanted to snap at him for being nosy, looking at the innocent eyes woohyun had while he asked him if he was okay sounding genuinely concerned he would almost give in admitting his true feeling, but a quick distraction had been saving him a lot of times. The one time he was in trance while they were heading back from home, he was awfully quite after woohyun hugged so closely and tightly saying how he was excited about some football team winning, he didn’t even like football in the first place but pretended to be happy for him when his heart was doing somersaults that he was afraid woohyun would hear it beating loudly against him chest, he didn’t want to really talk after they got into the car till they got home as he rushed inside without even telling bye to woohyun like he used to. Woohyun pestered him the next day at office of what got him into the other day but he quickly gave him a bunch of reports so the conversations wouldn’t build further.

The scariest one was the day he fell from doing his monkey act fracturing a rib, woohyun almost looked like he was going to cry when he took him to