Sungyeol spends the first hour and a half or so sleeping against the window. Woohyun and Howon talk quietly about little things like laundry and photographs while Sungyeol dozes, breath fogging up the window.

It’s about 8:40 when Sungyeol wakes, just in time to hear Woohyun say, “Maybe I went too far this time? He seems pretty upset.”

“It’ll be good for him,” Howon answers earnestly. “I think he needs something to take his mind off—“

Again, Sungyeol does not appreciate being reminded of things that shouldn’t be mentioned, so he stirs loudly and pretends to yawn, effectively cutting off his two friends, who immediately pretend they weren’t talking about Sungyeol.

“I’m hungry,” Sungyeol says flatly, after a slight pause.

Howon nods and says, “I think there’s a small café coming up in a couple of miles.”

Woohyun reaches into his backpack and pulls out a granola bar and Sungyeol’s mobile before tossing them to the back seat.

Sungyeol silently chews on the granola bar and scrolls through the morning headlines on his phone. He spies Woohyun glancing nervously at him before he asks, “So, um. What’s the weather going to be like?”

He sounds a little afraid of how Sungyeol might respond so Sungyeol decides to take pity on him (after all, he supposes, Woohyun just wants to help, even if he’s being an intrusive dolt) and answers, “It’s going to be sunny for the next three days.”

Woohyun gives Sungyeol a tiny smile. He’s testing the waters.

“Okay,” he says.

Sungyeol sighs lightly. “Yeah.”

Then, he gives Woohyun the slightest upturn of his lips.

Woohyun turns to face the front and Sungyeol can sense the massive grin spreading across his friend’s face.

Howon stops the car a few minutes later in front of a small café, just like he mentioned, and they buy some sandwiches and coffee for the road. Sungyeol’s feeling a little less violated now that’s he’s been suitably fed, so once they’re back in the car, he clears his throat and asks, “So where exactly are we going?” trying to sound as uninterested as possible.

“My cousin runs a bed and breakfast on one of the quieter beaches not far from the city centre. He invited us so we figured, why not, huh?” Howon explains.

Sungyeol pauses momentarily.

“Do I have to pay?” he asks, narrowing his eyes.

Woohyun snorts.

“No,” Howon chuckles. “I’ve got it covered.”

Sungyeol retreats into silence, engaging himself in a very thrilling quest to earn three stars on every level of Cut the Rope. Woohyun and Howon hum along pleasantly to The Beatles and secretly, Sungyeol feels himself lighten up. Just a tiny bit.

When they finally reach Haeundae-gu, Sungyeol is beyond glad to get out of the car, stretching languidly and rubbing the kinks out of his neck. They’ve parked in front of a charming beach house with a hand-painted sign that read, “Water’s Edge Inn. Bed and breakfast services since 1994. Enquire inside.”

The front door opens and a red-haired guy in a grey muscle tank comes out, hops off the porch and jogs towards Howon’s car. He’s smiling widely and his eyes are crinkling. Sungyeol thinks he looks a little like a hamster.

“Howon-ah!” he greets, excitedly. They embrace, Howon smiling just as eagerly.

Must be the cousin, Sungyeol figures.

“Did you have a good journey?” hamster guy asks.

“Not bad,” Woohyun interjects, before bowing and shaking hamster guy’s hand.

“It’s nice to finally meet you, Sunggyu-sshi,” he says.

So that’s his name, Sungyeol notes.

Sunggyu, Woohyun and Howon continue to greet each other and Sungyeol is beginning to feel a little like a lamp post so he clears his throat a little impatiently and says, “I’m so sorry to interrupt, but my clothes are going to wrinkle if they stay shoved in my suitcase so where can I go and unpack?”

It's a move, Sungyeol knows, but in his defense, he was forced into coming and therefore did not deserve to be ignored. He almost expects Woohyun to glare or for Howon, or maybe even Sunggyu, to punch him in the face for being such a jerk but instead, the red-haired man grins kindly.

“No, I’m sorry. You must be Lee Sungyeol-sshi. Let me get you some help,” he offers.

Sungyeol is almost disappointed at the lack of reaction.

“Sungjong-ah!” Sunggyu yells in the direction of the house. “Come help with the bags!”

When no one appears, Sunggyu rolls his eyes and calls again.

“Lee Sungjong!”

“I’m coming, I’m coming, god hyung, just wait a second,” someone yells back with a huff.

A skinny boy with floppy, shiny hair emerges from the house, clad in khaki-coloured Bermudas and a thin blue cotton t-shirt. Sungyeol vaguely wonders where his parents are.

“Ah, Sungjong, please assist Sungyeol-sshi here with his suitcase. He’s in room 3,” Sunggyu instructs the boy.

Sungyeol wants to laugh.

“Wait, hang on, you’re telling me that this kid is going to carry our stuff?” he says, one eyebrow raised in mocking disbelief.

“You're like, 12.”

The boy (Sungjong, was it?) scoffs indignantly. He then pushes Sungyeol aside and grabs the two suitcases still inside the car (belonging to Woohyun and Howon).

“You can carry your own suitcase. You’re on the third floor,” he says, glaring.

He flips his stupid girly hair before breezing back into the house, not even once flinching at the weight of the two pieces of luggage. Even Howon and Woohyun are shocked.

Sungyeol glares so hard he swears he can feel a hole forming at the back of Sungjong's head.

“Um. He’s 19. Summer job thing. Best not to insult his age again and get on his bad side. There’s a lot that he’s capable of,” Sunggyu interjects, scratching the back of his neck uncertainly.

Sungyeol is still glaring.

“Shall we, then?” Sunggyu says, motioning for the three boys to enter.

Sungyeol picks up his case and carries it all the way up to his room, fuming silently.

It's only 4 o’clock in the afternoon but Sungyeol is exhausted. Between the stuff that happened at the beginning of the year, being dragged halfway across the country against his will to a faroff beach town, and his fresh encounter with Sungjong, he feels all the anger he’d been slowly trying very hard to release over the first half of the year start to mount in his chest. Perhaps it’s childish of him to be sparked off so easily but it's been a hard six months and Sungyeol does not want to take crap from anyone, especially not from snarky teenaged girls.

Once in the safety of his own room, he s his suitcase and starts pulling out the stuff his friends had packed for him. He starts to calm down a bit, until he pulls a shirt out and his heart sinks. This was his shirt.

Sungyeol balls it up and throws to a far corner of the room, making a mental note to throw it out when he has the chance. He gets up from where he was seated on the floor and wills the discomfort in his chest to go away. He walks over to the bed and is about to plop backwards across the blue comforter when there’s a knock on the door.

"What now?" he sighs, irritable, and moves to open the door.

It’s Sungjong.

The younger boy shuffles awkwardly and brushes his bangs aside before saying, “Yeah. Sorry about just now. It’s just a sore point, okay?” he his lips nervously. 

“I’m sorry for overreacting. I was out of line,“ he says stiffly.

Sungyeol closes the door in his face.

Letting go has never been his speciality.