Heung-soo woke up blearily in the middle of the night with a shiver. His hands and feet were numb; why was it this cold in Nam-soon’s house? Still weighed down by sleep, he turned his head from side to side, eyes squinting to see in the dark, finally landing on Nam-soon’s curled up form.

The boy had completely curled into the fetal position from the cold in an attempt to conserve body heat. Heung-soo reached out with one arm to shake his friend awake, scowling in annoyance when Nam-soon proved too far for even his long limbs to reach. In a feat of pure laziness – he was too cold to sleep but too tired to actually get up, dammit all – Heung-soo lashed out with his right leg, prodding at Namsoon’s back with a frozen foot and flinching at the feeling of pinpricks that resulted from the motion.

“Yah, you bastard, get up. I’m freezing.”

“Mmnhh,” Nam-soon grunted, shifting away slightly before slowly uncurling when Heung-soo refused to let up, “What do you want? Go back to sleep you crazy person. What time is it?”

“I can’t sleep, your house is freezing. And I don’t know what time it is, around two?”

Nam-soon grumbled under his breath while rubbing at his hair in frustration, “Why are you waking me up at two? We still have school tomorrow, you bastard.”

“I told you! I can’t sleep, your house is too cold. Go get a blanket or something. Aish, I would have never slept over if I knew it was this cold,” gripped the slightly taller boy as he flopped back onto his back uselessly, “Hurry up!”

“Alright, alright. Aish, all you do is whine, you useless person,” Nam-soon complained as he slowly stumbled to his feet and made his way to his room.

After several minutes, Nam-soon had yet to emerge from his room and Heung-soo was unable to go back to sleep no matter how hard he tried. The thin mat they were sleeping on simply did nothing to conserve heat and he could feel the coldness from the floorboards seeping through. “Where did you go, you bastard?” he called out, annoyed, “I’m freezing to death here.”

“I’m coming, geez, you’re so impatient!” the other boy called back.

Finally, Nam-soon emerged from his room with the spoils, arms laden with a pillow, two thick blankets and, most importantly, a small, portable floor heater. He dropped them unto Heung-soo’s sprawling form unceremoniously, ignoring the yelp of pain when the edge of the heater clipped Heung-soo’s head.

“What are you doing you crazy bastard? Are you really trying to kill me? I’m going to be in a coma this time!”

Immediately after those words had left his mouth, Heung-soo wished he could take them back. Nam-soon’s expression had flickered between pain and guilt before shuttering and becoming blank.

“Sorry,” he eked out shortly, casting his eyes towards the ground and looking away from his friend.

He hadn’t been thinking; it was never an issue for them - a little pain in a prank was harmless. Dropping stacks of comics on each other or throwing bottled drinks was the norm; once Heung-soo had even hit him repeatedly with a keyboard when Nam-soon made him lose a game he had been playing. But now it was different, every possible injury brought them back to that time. That unforgivable thing that Nam-soon had done that couldn’t be wiped clean no matter how hard he tried, no matter how much Heung-soo said he was forgiven.

Clearing his throat awkwardly, Nam-soon made his way over to the kitchen counter and poured a cup of warm water from the thermos for Heung-soo; he shoved it into his friend’s frozen hands without looking at him. “Here, drink this.”

Heung-soo watched on awkwardly as Nam-soon busied himself with spreading the blankets and plugging in the heater, turning it on max and placing it as close to the blankets as he could without worrying that the bedding might catch on fire. Why had he said that? Nam-soon was just finally loosening up around him, things were finally going back to normal, why did he have to blurt that out?

“Yah, are you suddenly being nice to me now?” he tried to joke, gesturing to the cup of water, “This is scary, you’re getting me things without being ordered to.”

Nam-soon just sighed before sitting down on the make-shift bed, “I’m tired, let’s just go to sleep.”

Without a word, he crawled under the blankets on his side of the bed. Heung-soo barely stifled his own sigh before he set the cup aside and slipped under the covers.

Underneath two blankets, it was much warmer than before and combined with the warm water, he could feel his body starting to thaw. He laid his head on the pillow before realizing that there was only one. He opened his mouth to tell Nam-soon they should just share it like old times before closing it uselessly, the words he wanted to say lodged heavily in his throat.

Heung-soo stared at Nam-soon’s form feeling frustration overtake any lingering sadness; the punk was lying on his side as far away from Heung-soo as he could. He exhaled loudly, finally letting his annoyance out, “Yah, you bastard, didn’t we talk about this already? Why are you doing this again?”

“Doing what?” came Nam-soon’s stiff reply, voice muffled by the crook of his arm.

“This! I told you, I only have you left. Are you going to turn your back on me again? Move away again and just hang around in the distance where I can't reach you?” he spat out gruffly.

“How am I doing that again?” Nam-soon questioned.

“You are, right now. You never used to sleep with your back turned to me and you’re so far away even though we’re both frozen half to death. Back then you’d be clinging to me and whining about how I didn’t give off enough body heat.”

“But that was back then,” came Nam-soon’s stubborn reply.

Heung-soo huffed angrily before deciding he would try another way to get Nam-soon’s attention. He toed off his other sock and lifted both legs slowly, inching them toward’s Nam-soon’s unsuspecting back before burrowing his frozen toes into the gap formed where Nam-soon’s shirt had ridden up slightly.

Nam-soon yelped and squirmed to get away, “What are you doing, you crazy bastard? Your feet are disgusting!”

He whirled around angrily, forgetting his self-pity and moodiness in the moment, hair obscuring blazing eyes that Heung-soo was so familiar with.

“I told you, I’m cold. So get over here you bastard,” Heung-soo demanded before reaching out with lightening quick reflexes and yanking Nam-soon into his side.

The slightly smaller boy fell forward with a squack in a wild tumble of limbs, “Yah, let go of me.”

“No way, I’m cold. You’ve used me as a heater so much before, this is my turn now. Aish, why are you so boney? Don’t you eat?”

Nam-soon half grumbled an incomprehensible reply, struggling to move away but Heung-soo’s arms s around his torso, clamping down like steel bands to keep him in place.

“Aish, stop moving and just go to sleep. I’m too tired to deal with your ,” Heung-soo ordered before closing his eyes and going still, effectively ending the conversation and pining Nam-soon to his side.

Nam-soon tested his friend’s hold again before slumping against Heung-soo’s shoulder in defeat. It was warmer this way, he sighed to himself, before closing his eyes and succumbing to sleep.

When Nam-soon finally stilled, Heung-soo peeked one eye open slyly. Nam-soon’s sleeping face greeted him and he allowed himself a small smile at the half-opened mouth; that bastard still looked the same while sleeping even after all these years. Still smiling, he closed his eyes again, unconsciously pulling Nam-soon closer to his chest, tucking the boy’s head firmly beneath his chin.

“Don’t turn your back on me again, you bastard,” he mumbled sleepily into his friend’s hair.