sungjong has had enough. he throws down his phone onto the sofa and howon watches it bounce with an alarmed look on his face, but luckily it doesn’t fall onto the floor. 

'lee sungjong! do you need me to tell you again?'

sungjong gets to his feet and storms off into the kitchen where sunggyu’s waiting for him next to the sink. 

'finally. wash that.'

sungjong stares at him in disbelief. ‘it was my turn to do the dishes yesterday, hyung. today it’s woohyun hyung’s turn.’

'so? i'm asking you to do it now. hurry, i need that pot.'

'why can't you wash it yourself? in the time you've been standing there nagging at me you could have washed five of these pots, hyung.’

sungjong ends up washing the pot, nearly scrubbing a hole into it. sunggyu beams and pats his head, sungjong growling under his breath.

sunggyu nags and teases and pushes and pulls and sungjong sometimes thinks all his hair is going to fall out from the stress of it, and he knows it’s showing on his face. he doesn’t bother hiding his annoyance when sunggyu makes him get up and wash things or find things or help him do things things things, and the others watch the show the two of them put up like a comic trainwreck. woohyun slips sungjong extra chocolate secretly and howon tries to cover for sungjong on days he just cannot bring himself to get up and go see what sunggyu wants without ending up yelling in sunggyu’s face. sungyeol and myungsoo watch everything with uncharacteristic silence, exchanging looks they refuse to share with anyone else. dongwoo shrugs at their mysterious behaviour and scolds sunggyu as firmly as he can to no avail. it’s throwing everything off balance because sungjong is permanently moody now and sunggyu refuses to acknowledge it.

'it's lucky sungjong doesn't have pigtails,' myungsoo mutters one day after dinner, the sounds of sunggyu nagging sungjong over the laundry coming through loud and clear from the service yard, the rest of them exchanging looks.

'what's that supposed to mean?' woohyun raises his head from his phone.

'you know little kids? when a boy likes a girl but he doesn't know how to show it properly so he annoys her and pulls her hair just to get her to notice him?' sungyeol answers instead, and myungsoo nods.

howon’s jaw drops.

'sungjong's going to end up killing him,' dongwoo breathes, not sure whether to laugh or not.

'possibly,' myungsoo says, looking at sungyeol. sungyeol ducks his head and grins, and woohyun throws his hands up in frustration at the two of them and their secret messages. 

~

'stop being lazy, sungjong. there's a shirt left in the hamper, go get it-'

sungjong snatches up the shirt viciously and all but throws it at sunggyu to put into the washing machine. this is too much.

'go get the detergent. where did hyoan hyung put it the last time?'

'up your ,' sungjong mutters, and of course sunggyu hears him.

sunggyu makes an instant grab for him and it’s halfway between trying to evade him and realising that he’s cornered next to the dryer and the dirty clothes hamper that sungjong finally, finally snaps. the slap lands squarely across sunggyu’s left cheek and it’s a lot harder than sungjong had intended it to be, his own hand stinging at the contact. sunggyu stumbles in shock, managing to catch himself with the help of sungjong, who throws out an arm to fist in sunggyu’s hoodie to stop him from falling. it goes without saying that the kiss that comes next, sungjong pulling sunggyu to him, hand still clutching the front of sunggyu’s hoodie, takes sunggyu by even greater surprise.

the kiss isn’t gentle in the least, and sunggyu gasps into sungjong’s mouth, hands coming up unthinkingly to cradle sungjong’s face. sungjong kisses with the full force of his frustration and indignation built up over the past weeks and when he finally pulls away he rests his forehead on sunggyu’s, breathing faster than normal.

'enough, ok, hyung? i get it. just stop all this. you can have my attention without making me act like cinderella.'

'um,' sunggyu answers intelligently.

'the laundry's done,' sungjong continues, pulling away fully. 'it's not my turn to do the dishes or sweep the dorm until next week. if you need help carrying things down from the top cupboards in your room or whatever ask woohyun hyung. tomorrow you're going to take me out on a proper date, understand, hyung? i want patbingsoo. then we can go for a walk or something.'

'okay,' sunggyu nods, in a daze.

'good.'