When there’s nothing better to do, friendly teasing can turn into a battle of stubbornness.

So when one soldier teased his higher-ranking friend about trying to hold hands during a walk back from lunch, the joke quickly escalated.

The end result was an epic battle of wills.

Keep reading for the full story.

My friend beat me at my own game, and I’ll never live it down

So my friend and I were on a deployment, and sometimes you just run out of things to keep life interesting.

He had an extreme aversion to physical touch from other people. He also had a stubborn streak.

We passed the time by messing with each other and trying to make each other uncomfortable.

Usually, I won these contests.

But this time, his friend had the clear advantage.

We were walking back from lunch one day and our hands bumped.

He made a joke about me trying to hold hands, and I reached over and held his hand, thinking he’d pull back almost instantly.

Cue the malicious compliance on his part.

He grabbed hold of my hand firmly and didn’t let go.

Trying to stay strong, he was determined to not let his friend win.

I figured, alright, I’ve got this.

So we walked halfway to our work holding hands.

We even started swinging our hands, both of us trying to make the other uncomfortable.

For reference, I’m a rank above him, and he was my soldier.

But he couldn’t hold on much longer.

After we walked past about ten people while swinging our hands, I finally capitulated.

I realized that his stubborn streak was enough to let him win no matter what.

He knew my breaking point would be before his.

I’ll never try that again!

This guy had finally met his match.

What did Reddit think?

This commenter shares a similar memory.

Turns out, the threat of hand holding can instill fear in just about anyone.

If there’s one thing a stubborn person fears, it’s finding someone even more stubborn.

You can’t win ’em all!

If you start a bit like that, you better be willing to follow through with it!

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.