Work Text:
Sungyeol stomps into the house with a mean frown and some angry eyebrows that seem to challenge Howon’s resting face.
“What’s wrong?” Howon asks, not really curious about the answer. Sungyeol does this all the time - he comes in all riled up and ready to kill someone until Howon decides to put on his favorite show or cook his favorite meal and then he feels better almost immediately. It works most of the time.
“DON’T… even get me started,” Sungyeol spits. “My moron of a co-worker literally can’t do a single thing right, even when I ask him to do something simple like staple a stack of papers together. He gets through the whole thing and then realizes there were no staples in the stapler, and then he comes to ask me where the staples are when I told him that THEY’RE RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIS FACE. Like HOW many times do I have to tell you to do these things? That’s all he’s ever done since he started working and I’m just wondering who hired him because he clearly has no idea what he’s doing.”
Howon sucks in some air, clicking his tongue and thumbing through his book. “Seems like he’s not really qualified for the job, then.”
“EXACTLY. He just doesn’t know what he’s doing and it’s pissing me off because I have to deal with him when I have a billion other things I have to worry about.”
Howon hums and pushes up his glasses, looking up at Sungyeol now. “Sounds like you’re really stressed out.”
“I am! I have to meet other clients and finish up this project that’s due THIS friday, and I’m not even halfway done with it,” Sungyeol groans, pressing his fingers to his temple. “I’m so stressed out and having him fumble and mess up everything just makes things worse for me.”
“Yeah, it’s not really helpful when you have to look after someone else when you’re already busy with so much on your plate,” Howon mentions.
“Yeah,” Sungyeol huffs. His arms are crossed now and it doesn’t seem like he’s going to be cooled down anytime soon, but Howon still tries to get him to calm down.
Step 1. Food.
“You wanna eat something? There’s pasta in the fridge, if you want,” he says, nodding towards the kitchen.
“What kind?”
“Tortellini.”
“Is there anything else?”
“Soup.”
“Soup? When did we have soup?”
“It’s pho.”
“I don’t want pho.”
“Okay then what do you want?”
“I want to kill the imbecile that is my co-worker.”
Well, that didn’t work.
“Okay, but you should probably eat first. Can’t win on an empty stomach, you know. Even if you’re considering going into battle with someone you know.”
Sungyeol stares at Howon for a good three seconds and Howon doesn’t know how he’s feeling because his face is totally blank. Sungyeol’s good with things like facial expressions. He can keep his emotions contained for a bit (until he lets another emotion spill out).
But then he says, “Thanks.”
Howon’s eyebrows shoot up to the roof. This is a first. Normally Sungyeol doesn’t thank him for things like this, at least not directly. Sungyeol isn’t one to express things with words, so this is a big moment. Howon brings them back down onto his face and clears his throat, acting like nothing happened. “For what?”
“For… doing this. For everything. Calming me down when I’m stressed out. Thank you,” Sungyeol says, his shoulders slumped down from exhaustion.
“Anytime,” Howon says, getting up from the couch. “So… up for some takeout then?”
“Hell yeah, I’m starving.”