Sungyeol power-walks down the street as quickly as he can, clumsily skidding over ice-covered sidewalks and haphazardly jaywalking across equally icy intersections in his eagerness to join Myungsoo at their designated meeting spot.

Sungyeol slows his pace when he spots Myungsoo in the distance, attempting to recover a normal breathing pattern as he self-consciously smoothes down his hair and straightens his coat.

It’s been one month since Sungyeol has started working at Infinitea, and he and Myungsoo have walked to the café together every morning since that fateful first day when Sungyeol had unknowingly walked in for an interview.

And despite the inconvenience of having to wake up before sunrise to traverse the hellishly frigid streets of Seoul in winter, just the thought that the gorgeous object of his affection will be waiting for him at the intersection has Sungyeol leaping out of bed in nervous excitement to repeat the routine every morning. Hoya has commented more than once that it would be “pathetic, if it weren’t so adorable.”

(Sungyeol usually retaliates with a well-placed pillow hovering over Hoya’s head, perfectly positioned to smother his of a best friend if he so much as utters another word.)

Myungsoo seems to have magically retained his characteristic tan even in the middle of winter, his complexion still the same beautiful gold color that it was a month ago. His eyes are shining especially brightly this morning despite watering a little due to the biting chill of the cold winter winds, and Sungyeol can’t help but lose himself in those eyes even as he attempts to mask his emotions for the boy in front of him.

“Morning, Yeol hyung,” Myungsoo greets in an affectionate tone, his cat-like eyes forming an eye smile as he grins brightly.

Sungyeol can feel his chest constricting as his heart hammers at the adorable greeting, but he willfully ignores his body’s response as he does his best to act aloof.

“Morning, Soo,” he replies casually, subtly admiring Myungsoo’s profile view as they begin to walk in the direction of Infinitea.

Myungsoo is dressed in his typical work attire: a crisp, tantalizingly tight white button-down work shirt that hugs his chest, an adorable black waiter’s apron tied snugly around his hips, and form-fitting black pants that cling perfectly to every contour of his muscular legs. The very core of Sungyeol’s being is begging him to look down and openly stare at those thick thighs as they flex powerfully with every step, but he somehow musters up the will-power to restrain himself.

“Hyung,” Myungsoo says brightly, completely oblivious to Sungyeol’s worshipful appreciation of his form. “I was thinking about where we should go after work today, and Momo told me that a new bubble tea place just opened up. It’s a few blocks away from the coffee shop we visited last week, the one near campus. Should we go?”

“Of course, Soo-ah,” Sungyeol replies immediately. (He’s never once considered turning down one of Myungsoo’s suggestions to spend time together, and he’s definitely not about to start now.) “Hoya went to that place right after it opened, and apparently it’s owned by a woman from Taiwan who makes bubble teas that she insists are ‘authentic.’ She makes them exactly the same way as when they were first invented in Taichung, which is where she grew up.”

Myungsoo’s eyes practically sparkle as he processes the new information, his enthusiasm evident in the way that he adorably shifts his head down to conceal the excitement on his face.

“I would love that, hyung,” Myungsoo says, his expression now openly eager. “Anything that could get Howon hyung to break his Spartan diet must taste seriously amazing,” he finishes with a laugh.

Sungyeol feels his heart once again racing as he begrudgingly admits that maybe he should give Hoya and his meddling a little bit of credit for his current closeness to Myungsoo. After all, Myungsoo has taken care to make good on the promise he had made to his “Howon hyung” over text a month ago. Like a dutiful dongsaeng, he’s been conscientiously taking care to stay by Sungyeol’s side and guide him as they work together at Infinitea (at least, as much as he can with Sunggyu constantly seeking to separate them).

However, Sungyeol himself will take full credit for how open Myungsoo has learned to be with him in the past month. He very quickly learned that Myungsoo had meant what he said about wanting to learn to be open with people the way that Sungyeol is, and of course Sungyeol was only too enthusiastic to act as the sounding board for Myungsoo’s honest expressions and emotions.

In fact, Myungsoo has become dramatically more open with Sungyeol than he was when they first met, by now having completely shed his quiet demeanor to speak openly and honestly about anything and everything. Myungsoo’s fairly rapid transformation from shy and embarrassed around Sungyeol to open and enthusiastic has attracted much attention from their coworkers, who have never seen Myungsoo shed his “ice prince” demeanor so completely around anyone but themselves.

And while Woohyun and Momo in particular have made their support for “team myungyeol” as obvious as is humanly possible, Myungsoo’s brother has made no attempt to conceal his less than welcoming feelings for Sungyeol and Myungsoo’s newfound closeness.

***

Sunggyu separates them as soon as they walk into Infinitea, not even waiting until Sungyeol has completely stepped foot through the doorway to turn around and glare at him, his beady little eyes sending daggers across the room.

Sungyeol has gotten so used to being the sole subject of Sunggyu’s unadulterated disdain that at this point Sungyeol doesn’t even need to see his employer in order to know that he’s glaring. It’s almost like Sungyeol has developed a sixth sense solely for the purpose of perceiving Sunggyu’s disdain as it travels to him across large distances.

“Myungsoo, go to the storage room. Momo needs your help with the inventory,” Sunggyu barks out immediately, not even waiting until Myungsoo has closed the door behind him to assign the task. “And Sungyeolー get to the kitchen. You’re on dishwashing duty.”

Sungyeol begrudgingly makes his way to the kitchen, having learned from prior experience that arguing with Sunggyu over dishwashing duty will only earn him more dishwashing duty.

Sunggyu often assigns Sungyeol random tasks designed to separate him from Myungsoo, with dishwashing duty being his go-to form of busy work. Sungyeol has been given a seemingly infinite amount of odd jobs in the past month, and his taciturn employer seems to take pleasure in creating new and inventive ways to make Sungyeol suffer. It started with Sunggyu commanding him to run to the local farmers’ market for seasonal ingredients once a week, but it’s progressed to the point where Sungyeol is expected to climb up onto the rickety old ladder in the storage room to clean the filters in the air vents at least once a day now.

Sunggyu has always justified his strange tasks with cold indifference, tersely telling Sungyeol that his “unnaturally long giraffe body” makes him the obvious option for running errands and doing maintenance work on the AC system. But Sungyeol would have to be a complete idiot to ignore how Sunggyu only ever assigns him these odd jobs when he’s working alongside Myungsoo. His employer’s openly disdainful expression at the sight of them together makes it clear as day that Sungyeol has been observed, evaluated, judged, and ultimately found unworthy of dating Sunggyu’s baby brother.

To their credit, Woohyun and Momo always try and find a way to cover for Sungyeol so that he can work alongside Myungsoo, oftentimes even taking on dishwashing duty or the assorted random jobs that Sungyeol is assigned. Granted, Sungyeol thinks they do this out of a erse desire to watch Myungsoo and Sungyeol’s burgeoning closeness in a similar way to how most normal, sane people would watch a romance drama online. But with Sunggyu often literally breathing down Sungyeol’s neck in his efforts to keep Sungyeol as far away from Myungsoo as possible while still keeping him technically employed, Sungyeol can’t afford to be picky about whose help he’s accepting in his mission to win over Myungsoo.

Of course, Hoya is prone to “helping” Sungyeol in his mission as well, a fact that Sungyeol alternately feels thankful and frustrated for at least once a day.

Part of Sungyeol’s revenge for Hoya tampering in his love life was stealing Hoya’s phone and using it to beg for a temporary job working as a line cook in Infinitea’s kitchen, which Sungyeol knew would make for an incredibly awkward conversation for Hoya the next day. He also used Hoya’s phone to send a text to Bora, in which he described the embarrassingly large crush that Hoya has had on her for months in painfully specific detail.

Fortunately (and unfortunately, as Sungyeol soon came to realize), both of his schemes for revenge went off without a hitch. And while Hoya was equally embarrassed and enraged at Sungyeol the following morning, he became significantly more complacent and even smug when Sunggyu offered him a permanent position working in the kitchen at Infinitea and Bora replied to his text with an invitation for a date.

“Aww, your boyfriend’s brother decide to banish you to the sink for dishwashing duty again?” Hoya taunts with a smirk as Sungyeol walks into Infinitea’s kitchen. “You know, it could almost be considered an achievement that you manage to make the salary of a waiter when almost all of your responsibilities here are based on dishwashing and AC maintenance,” he finishes with an amused laugh.

Sungyeol mentally kicks himself for ever making Hoya’s employment at Infinitea a possibility, wondering in what universe having Hoya as a coworker would result in anything but the constant urge for Sungyeol to throw himself off a cliff.

“For someone whose best friend constantly meddles in their love life and even makes snarky comments on the side, it could almost be considered an achievement that I haven’t smothered you with a pillow yet,” Sungyeol shoots back as he resignedly puts on his rubber gloves.

Hoya opens his mouth to fire yet another snarky comment at his best friend, but his comeback is interrupted by the loud banging of the kitchen door dramatically hitting the wall as Woohyun and Momo flounce into the room in typical over the top fashion.

“Hoya, out,” Woohyun commands loudly, barely sparing a glance at Hoya’s unimpressed expression. “Our demon overlord has finally retreated into his dark cave of devil work, and Momo and I have agreed to take on dishwashing duty and counter polishing duty so that the lovebirds can have time to themselves.”

“You know, you can always just refer to Sunggyu’s “dark cave of devil work” as “the back office” starting at any time,” Hoya says, exasperated. “I’ve already explained to you that math is not, in fact, evil.”

“Quiet, you!” Woohyun exclaims amid Momo’s stifled laughter. “If you weren’t so cute and straight I would have more mutually pleasurable ways of ensuring your cooperation, but for now I must simply ask you to refrain from being a complete . And to vacate the kitchen,” he reiterates.

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