III

                Seunghyun should have been able to sleep.

He was exhausted. All he wanted to do was to lose consciousness for the next few hours and wake up to a new day. One that didn't leave his head pounding so hard.

                Since he'd gone back out with the others, his head stopped pulsing as badly. But as soon as he'd set foot in his room alone, it restarted. Seemingly worse than before. In the dark, under his sheets, he had nothing to distract him.

                But from what?

                Whatever was tailing him, whatever he'd been dodging, whatever predator he'd been trying to evade… Would have to wait.

                He and Jiyong had been the last to bed. They didn't talk about much else other than trivial topics, never brushing onto the sensitive subject that Seunghyun's mental health was becoming.

                Jiyong had taken the bathroom first. He'd been in bed first. And now Seunghyun was left awake last. He waited a good hour in the dark, twitching at a mental unrest, before he slipped outside of his door into the living room.

                His eyes scanned over the room. A laptop. He couldn't sit on the internet all night. That wouldn't help. The television was a no-go as well, as the sound would wake everyone up.

                The only light coming into the room was that of the moon; the dorm had many open windows looking into the gathering point. Seunghyun carefully lowered himself into the armchair he frequented, lowering his head in defeat.

                There.

                Partially under the couch. A lone cheerio, illuminated by the small amount of light. Seunghyun practically lunged off of his seat to pick it up and place it in his open palm. A few feet away was another stray piece of cereal, evidently having been lucky enough to have been kicked out of its landing place instead of crushed.

                Upon further examination under the couch cushions, Seunghyun found that the cheerio's brothers weren't as lucky. He pulled the cushions off the couch and brushed the crumbs of the crushed cereal into his open palm. Once he had cleared it, he stood up from his squatting position and went to throw away the remains of Youngbae's breakfast.

                He returned to the couch to give the area another once-over to make sure it was clean and free of cereal or crumbs. Another upturn of the cushions revealed nothing but the interior of the couch, not a cheerio in sight.

                Seunghyun ruffled his hair roughly, scratching the back of his head. Now that he had finished that task, he wasn't sure what to do with himself.

                He returned to his bed begrudgingly, convinced that he wouldn't be able to fall asleep. He laid down carefully and tucked himself in just so.

                As his arms and legs relaxed, Seunghyun's brain did not. Quite the contrary. Though it wasn't the pounding mess it had been earlier in the day, there was that odd feeling again. That he'd forgotten something. Almost like he was bored. The space between his ears was definitely trying to figure something out. Be just didn't know what. Or how to fix it.

                Maybe it was the fact that he didn't want to examine what was nagging at him that he was able to drift off to sleep.

                But everyone knows the problems you avoid are the ones that grow the fastest.

~Three weeks later~

                "Hyung, I need your help with something," Jiyong called, his head poked into Seunghyun's room. "Oh!" he exclaimed, stepping in and leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed. "You've rearranged your stuff." He said this in regard to the new way Seunghyun's toys were placed around the room. The effect they had was still the same, but it was very rarely that TOP would touch his toys. His favorites were still in their boxes, for god's sake.

                Seunghyun looked up from the pile of clothes he'd been folding. "Oh, yeah. A few nights - days - ago. It was getting old. Needed change." He replied nonchalantly. "What do you need?"

                "Nothing big. Just some help with the dishes. Youngbae and Daesung made such a mess before they left this morning."

                "And why should I help?" Seunghyun asked cheekily, a grin Jiyong hadn't been lucky enough to see for awhile playing across his lips as a shadow of his normal self.

                Jiyong stuck his tongue in his cheek. "Because I want you to," he said simply, examining his nails. "Why wouldn't you? I heard you cleaning up last night."

                Someone with an overly observant eye would have noticed the way Seunghyun stiffened the slightest amount.

                Jiyong noticed.

                "I guess since you're... Busy... you don't have to; I just wanted to get it out of the way since it’s making the kitchen look so bad." He treaded carefully.

                Seunghyun finished flattening the creases of his workout clothes and nodded. "No, no, I'll come out with you. Just give me a minute to finish."

                Jiyong nodded and pivoted out of the door. Seunghyun heard him starting to run the hot water in the kitchen. After picking up his clean and folded clothes from his bed and laying them carefully in his dresser, Seunghyun left his room to join his friend.

                "I've never seen your room so clean," Jiyong commented upon hearing Seunghyun's entrance. He was laying out towels for the pots and pans Daesung and Youngbae had used for their breakfast to dry on. "When do you clean it? We're busy during the day, and when you're not busy you're out here with us," he asked, answering his own question.

                "I've been having trouble sleeping," Seunghyun said in an attempt to be nonchalant. "I hate just lying in bed. I need something to do."

                Jiyong nodded. "I see. Can you get the soap?" he asked, pointing to a cabinet behind him near the sink.

                "Yeah," Seunghyun said as he crouched for the dish soap. "Hey, if you leave that water on any longer your skin will peel," he commented, noticing the steam rising from the faucet.

                "Turn it off then," Jiyong brushed past him impatiently and shut the flow of water off himself. "So that means you think I'm doing the washing, then?" He asked flippantly.

                "I would assume."

                "You’re the one who's been doing the best at cleaning."

                "You asked me to help. You're doing it. I'll dry." Seunghyun said with an air of finality, picking up an extra dish cloth.

                Jiyong shrugged and put a pot back in the sink, filling it with water. He picked up the crusty sponge on the side of the sink and held it under the water, it having cooled down from its scalding temperature. He held the soap bottle upside down a foot above the sponge and watched the stream of yellow-tinted liquid detergent excitedly before returning the bottle to its corner of the sink and beginning scrubbing.

                Seunghyun watched him with his head tilted, not having a job to do himself yet.

                "Why can't you sleep? Aren't you tired?" Jiyong asked, not looking up from his work.

                "What? Oh... No, I'm definitely tired. At least I am all day. But then I get into bed and my head's still working."

                "What do you mean?" Jiyong continued easily, always having been the best conversationalist of the group.

                "You know. I'm still thinking about stuff. My brain isn't resting."

                "What kind of stuff?"

                "I don't even know," Seunghyun admitted. "That's the worst part."

                "Something bothering you?" Jiyong asked, hefting the dripping pot from the sink and resting it on the covered surface of the counter for Seunghyun to start on. He stood and looked at him for a moment before reaching for the next dish.

                "Maybe," Seunghyun answered lamely, picking up the pot and rubbing it with the towel. "I try not to think about it too much."

                "Why not?"

                "I don't know. Whatever I'm thinking might not be good."

                "So you're avoiding it?" Jiyong paused while pouring more (and too much) soap onto his sponge. "is that why you've been cleaning so much? A distraction?

                "No, I - I just don't know what else to do while I'm still awake."

                "Right." Jiyong said, obviously unsatisfied. "Why don't you just sit and think when you're awake? That's what I do."

                "Because I don't know what to think about."

                Jiyong started picking at a crusted-on piece of bacon on the saucepan with a fingernail. "You just said that your brain wouldn't rest, though. Like it won't shut up."

                "Kind of, but it's... It’s more like it’s empty."

                "Empty?"

                "Empty."

                "Huh." Jiyong said, stumped. "I don't know."

                "Me either," Seunghyun agreed, finishing drying the pot thoroughly and walking to put it away.

                Jiyong had just finished rinsing the saucepan and handed it to him directly. "Well in that case, I hope you start sleeping better. It’s hard to work without getting sleep."

                Seunghyun nodded vaguely.

                The pair washed and dried two more bowls before Jiyong plucked up the courage to speak again. He was never one for silences. "Are you excited for next week?"

                "Next week?" Seunghyun asked thickly. "What's next week?" he dreaded the thought of another draining photoshoot.

                "We’re going to be on Running Man, that game show!" Jiyong bursted, smiling hugely.

                "Running Man... Which one is that?" Seunghyun asked, unsure of which show Jiyong was referring to.

                "The one where they chase each other around and try to complete a mission. There are two teams." Jiyong had to explain most of the show's dynamic before Seunghyun clued in and remembered what it was.

                "We’re guesting on that?" Seunghyun asked, scratching his head, but regretting it as his hair got wet. "Since when?

                "Manager hyung just told me the other day after the video shoot. It'll be a lot of fun! Are you excited?"

                Seunghyun blew air through his lips and scratched his neck. “Yeah… But that sounds like a lot of running around. Obviously.” He said, catching how dumb the sentence had sounded. “I don’t like running.”

                Jiyong snorted almost inaudibly.

                “I mean, I just need to run more first. We’ll go to the gym tomorrow, alright?”

                Jiyong shrugged and handed him the last pan. “You should really get some sleep tonight, then. No cleaning.” He looked at him pointedly while drying his hands. He hung the towel up and stretched, scratching his stomach before going to sit on the couch. “Unless you’ll clean my room, no cleaning. Hey, you could organize my shoes. You’d be like my shoe closet fairy!” He added, swiveling around to face him and guffawing.

                “Yeah, no thanks.”

                “Whatever you say,” Jiyong said, reaching for the remote.
                Seunghyun scoffed at him and began to return to his room.

                “I like my clothes and shoes color-coded!” Jiyong shouted after him.

A/N Oh my god guys I really hope you liked that chapter because I've been so excited to post it since I wrote it, who doesn't love some Domestic!GTOP?? OTL Okay so I actually haven't finished the fourth chapter yet but I really wanted to post this on schedule and I PROMISE to finish the second half of the fourth one tonight! Thank you all so much for staying with me so far and reading and subbing and commenting, as a writer it just really means so so so much. If you don't know the feeling, the amount of warm fuzzies you get from a comment is insane. I really shouldn't leave A/N's but you are all so great and I need to remind you of that ^.^