"hyung? sungyeol repeats a little louder, and doesn’t budge from his position just inside the door until sunggyu turns around to frown at sungyeol from where he’s seated on the floor, setting down the mug in his hand carefully. 

"what?" sunggyu unbalances a little just from shifting in order to see who it is, and sungyeol raises an eyebrow. 

"woohyun hyung wants to talk to you in the living room. haven’t you heard him yelling for you?"

sunggyu grunts and instead of getting up like sungyeol expects him to, leans back against the bedframe behind him, taking another drink from his mug and closes his eyes. 

“hyung,” sungyeol says again, slightly annoyed, and wonders what sunggyu would do to him if he grabbed one of sunggyu’s legs and dragged him out of the room to deliver him to woohyun. not that he would, but he was still curious. 

another few seconds pass and sunggyu doesn’t look like he is going to budge, so sungyeol gives a mental shrug and turns to leave. woohyun can come get sunggyu himself, especially if sunggyu is in one of his moods.

"sungyeol-ah."

sungyeol turns with his hand on the doorknob to find sunggyu smiling at nothing in particular, eyes still closed but holding out the mug to him. 

"wash this for me?"

sungyeol glares but it’s wasted on sunggyu. the only reason he is even in here is because he was on his way to his own room and woohyun had wheedled him into getting sunggyu, whatever woohyun was working on apparently requiring too much mental effort or physical strain for him to get up and get sunggyu himself. and he had agreed, because he’s nice like that. and now he is being asked to do menial chores even though his turn to do the dishwashing is still in three days’ time, and today is - today is sungjong’s turn, so why is sunggyu asking -

the mug thuds to the floor, sunggyu’s arm apparently having gotten tired of holding it up to sungyeol. a little bit of the water inside slops over the side and sunggyu’s hand, and sunggyu cracks open one eye. he brings his hand up to his mouth and off his palm and fingers, letting his hand fall to his side again when he’s done.

sungyeol watches all of this without a word, and immediately pads over to him and picks up the mug, swiftly bringing it to his nose to sniff. not water by a long shot.

"hyung, are you drunk?"

sungyeol tries not to make it come out sounding so scandalised, but even he was afraid of the consequences of being found drinking in the dorm - when did sunggyu get the soju? where is the bottle?

sunggyu appears to be thinking the question over. “not really. just a bit. it feels good,” he answers simply, shifting a bit so his head is more comfortable against the bed behind him. “i feel heavy all over. i’m quite happy.”

"hyung.. why are you drunk? at this time?”

sungyeol lets the hand holding the mug dangle forgotten, small frown on his face. sunggyu’s speaking in short sentences, tone light as if he can’t handle anything more complicated than that, and he’s practically boneless against the bedframe. sungyeol kneels down next to him and puts down the mug like sunggyu had earlier, worried without knowing why. sunggyu just laughs in reply.

"hyung, you know gonam hyung is coming by later. if he sees you like this you know you’re going to get it from him," sungyeol wonders how it is that of all people he’s the one reminding sunggyu of his responsibilities, and it hits him with a sharp shock that he’s never actually seen sunggyu drunk before in all their years together. the knowledge of that unsettles sungyeol more than it should and sungyeol cannot understand why.

"you think i don’t know how to act sober in front of gonam hyung?" sunggyu scoffs. "i’ve done it before."

sunggyu seems to realise that he’s said something he shouldn’t, even if sungyeol doesn’t, and he swallows. “not that i’ve had to do it a lot, understand,” he mutters up at sungyeol, a warning look in his eyes. sungyeol doesn’t know what to make of this at all and maybe he doesn’t even want to try.

"you smuggled soju into the dorm, hyung?" sungyeol asks, because part of him is still stuck on the fact that they aren’t allowed chocolate in the dorm but sunggyu has soju, and another more urgent part of him is trying to hammer it into his consciousness that sunggyu has secret soju; alcohol he feels the need to hide and drink quietly by himself at 6pm in the evening even though most of them are at home as well; secret drinking that is somehow so much worse than dongwoo bingeing on soju and getting royally drunk every time they have a night out at a bbq place - sungyeol feels his heart start to beat faster.

why did it have to be him to find this out? sungjong would have been perfect; he’d somehow have known what to do, how to handle this. sungyeol is never going to be able to keep this to himself - he’s going to cave, probably that very night, and whisper it all to myungsoo after the lights are off. myungsoo, infant that he is, will panic and blow it out of proportion and tell someone he isn’t supposed to tell, probably woohyun, who would confront sunggyu with it and all hell would break loose. 

"hyung.. don’t do this."

sunggyu looks at him as sungyeol sits down properly on the floor to be at normal eye-level, and sunggyu’s stare is quite impressively stable for someone who’s been drinking, sungyeol thinks. but then again his only standards to go by are of himself, who gets faced after the third shot of soju, dongwoo who can’t even walk once he gets going with the makgeolli, and woohyun and myungsoo who both get extremely emotional and all over the place once they’re drunk. sungjong and hoya - are sungjong and hoya, sungyeol thinks. somehow they’re always exempt from normal-people standards. the terrible words come back to him - you think i don’t know how to act sober? - and the horrifying urge to hug sunggyu comes over him. 

sunggyu shoves him a bit, grinning. “look at you, so serious with your eyes all huge.”

sungyeol frowns, looking down at his hands. “i mean it, hyung. don’t do this anymore. talk - talk to me, if you want. you don’t have to drink like this.”

sungyeol feels the blush creep up his neck before he’s even done speaking, the embarrassment making it impossible for him to look sunggyu in the face. he’s assuming a whole lot here and he doesn’t know how sunggyu’s going to take it, and when he finally dredges up the courage to look up, sunggyu’s back to staring at him with that strange level stare.

sunggyu reaches up a hand and sungyeol feels the warmth of sunggyu’s fingers his cheek once, twice. 

"when did you grow up?" sunggyu asks quietly, inconsequentially, and sungyeol is lost at sea. 

"same time you did," he mutters in reply, the backs of sunggyu’s fingers caressing the swell of his cheek. 

"hmm." it’s a mix between a snort and a genuinely contemplative sound, and sunggyu finally lets his hand drop. 

"i’ll stop drinking if you stop growing up," sunggyu tells him, and sungyeol finds himself agreeing no matter how ridiculous it is, as if something like this is a binding promise strong enough to keep sunggyu to his word. he finally gives in to his urge to hug sunggyu and does it quickly before he loses his nerve, grabbing sunggyu and squeezing before sunggyu realises what’s going on.

sunggyu lets out a little ‘oof’ as sungyeol tightens his arms around him, and the sound is so quiet and tiny that something breaks inside of sungyeol that sungyeol didn’t know could break. sunggyu’s body is warm, warmer than it should be probably because of the soju, and sungyeol welcomes the heat.

they’re both a little self-conscious when sungyeol lets go, but sunggyu had relaxed in his arms for just a few moments, and those few moments were enough. 

"now go wash my cup," sunggyu orders, and for once sungyeol goes without complaint.