On the morning of Mark’s moving out day, Youngsoon went off to work as promised, remembering to return the wave that Mark was sleepily sending her from the balcony. Then like usual, Mark crawled back to the comforts of his blow up mattress to squeeze in a bit more sleep before getting started with his day.

Later on, when a soft knock came from the door, Mark was still struggling to deflate his blow up mattress while simultaneously brushing his teeth in an attempt to multitask.

“Door is unlocked!” Mark yelled without turning around while almost choking on the toothpaste.

“Hey—”

Jinyoung froze by the doorway with his shoe dangling from his left foot. In front of him was Mark wrestling the blowup mattress and with toothpaste foaming around his mouth. Add the fact that his bed hair seemed beyond saving and the overall imagery was that of a rabid dog fighting a losing battle.

“Need help?”

Untangling himself from the monstrosity that the mattress had turned into, Mark scurried towards the bathroom and quickly rinsed his mouth before turning towards Jinyoung.

“That thing doesn’t like me so you deal with it,” Mark huffed with impatience. “I’m be packing my suitcases instead.”

Stifling a chuckle, Jinyoung commenced on his task while shaking his had at the state of the mattress that showed signs of being punched and kicked and choked.

“I called a taxi to arrive around noon so no hurry,” Mark added as he carelessly opened the empty suitcase, letting it fall on the ground with a loud thud.

Jinyoung had to hold back a horrified gasp when he saw Mark quite literally stuff his clothes into the suitcase without any sense of order. Even the previously neatly piled ones — which Jinyoung assumed was done by Youngsoon — had been unceremoniously bundled up and thrown into whatever empty space was available. At the sight, Jinyoung almost felt pity for Youngsoon who had to live with such a mess of a brother. However Jinyoung was in no position to comment and thus ripped his eyes away, focusing instead on rolling up the now flat mattress and sliding it into the bag it originally came in.

“What should I do with the bed sheets, pillows and blanket?” Jinyoung scratched his head.

Looking up from his growing pile of clothes, Mark hummed softly under his breath before responding.

“Could you strip the blanket and pillow and dump it in the washing machine along with the sheets? As for the blanket and pillows just put them aside for now. Youngsoon will deal with them.”

Mark had failed to mention where the washing machine was, however the studio flat was quite small and with some intuition, Jinyoung easily found it.

On his way to join Mark with the suitcase, Jinyoung caught sight of a pile of documents with complex graphs and numerical predictions sprawled on the dining table with the TF Group logo watermarked on each page.

“It must be tough but rewarding, being in charge of the Seoul branch,” Jinyoung commented.

Mark followed Jinyoung’s gaze and his lips curled in a casual grin at the sight of the research and reports he had been reviewing.

“I suppose, though I never really gave it much thought. I kinda just followed what my parents laid out for me. I got lucky that I don’t hate the job and don’t have a sibling competing against me for the role. Still, the most important thing is that I do love my job.”

The certainty and firmness behind Mark’s statement were like bricks hitting Jinyoung at full blast. Avoiding eye contact, Jinyoung squatted down and pulled out the clothes Mark had haphazardly thrown into the suitcase, deciding to take his time folding them and rearranging them instead.

“You can grow to hate a job that you initially loved though.”

“True,” Mark quipped in his usual cheerful tone. “That’s why taking a break is important, and right now, I’m taking a break. It's still all research phase and there’s no strict deadline really so I’m taking it easy.”

“You’re taking it easy,” Jinyoung repeated the words.

“Yep.” Mark grinned while popping the ‘p’ sound. “Gotta know when to take a break and enjoy life.”

By now Jinyoung was done reorganising half of the suitcase and Mark had realised that it was more efficient for him to pass on the clothes to