It’s at a seemingly normal family dinner that Mingyu first finds out he’s going to be a married man.

“Oh, right,” his father says as his wife is refilling his rice bowl. Mingyu hopes it’s not another one of his dad’s lame puns. “We’ve arranged for you to marry someone, Mingyu.”

Well, that was unexpectedly funny. Mingyu finds himself laughing with his sister. “That’s a good one, Dad!”

“I’m serious. You’re meeting him tomorrow for a first date,” his father explains.

“No way!”

“It’s true,” Mingyu’s mother quips. “He’s an old colleague’s son, isn’t he, honey?”

“Yeah. Listen, son, I know you haven’t finished high school yet but you’re already of legal age.” The look on his father’s face is so serious that Mingyu almost believes him.

“He’s apparently a young professional and very handsome and very smart,” his mother chimes in. “We’d let him marry your sister but you know she’s too young. And we know you prefer men so you’ll have to do.” Oh man, they’re even using his gayness in this elaborate joke.

“I’m sure it’ll go great, he’s a teacher so he can help you with your studies,” Mingyu’s father continues. “But if it doesn’t, you can divorce him. But only after being married for a while. That’ll be okay, right, buddy?” He gives Mingyu the dashing smile Mingyu had inherited.

His sister laughs hysterically. “You’re so ugly they have to arrange a marriage for you!”

“You look like me so you’re ugly too!” Mingyu shoots back.

It’s a happy, light-hearted family dinner and Mingyu doesn’t think much of the prospect of marriage until the next day, when he’s in a suit and tie, sitting alone in a private reserved booth in a posh restaurant. He’s wondering how far his dad would go for this prank, it was kind of impressive, when he sees one of his teachers being led to him by a waitress.

“Kim Mingyu?” Mr. Lee asks once he’s thanked the waitress. He’s also in a suit, a navy blue one that contrasts with his pink hair. Mingyu nods dumbly as Mr. Lee shakes his hand. “I’m Lee Jihoon.”

“I know.” Mingyu’s giggling now. Really, how’d his dad get Mr. Lee to play along with him? Mr. Lee was like Oscar the Grouch or the Grinch, or Squidward, except he wasn’t green but with pink hair. He was always grumpy and Mingyu’s classmates hated him. He’d even made several students cry when he was their teacher during freshman year, but Mingyu thought he wasn’t so bad.

Mr. Lee is frowning at him, the default face Mingyu had remembered him to always have. “Excuse me?”

“Mr. Lee, I’m your student,” Mingyu says, biting his lip to keep from bursting into laughter again.

Mr. Lee’s eyes go wider than Mingyu’s ever seen them. “You’re still a high school student?”

“Yeah, I’m a senior!” Mingyu wants to laugh at the look of horror on Mr. Lee’s face, but why was he so horrified anyway? Wasn’t this a prank on Mingyu? “Hey, Mr. Lee, why’d you agree to go along with this prank?” he asks once they’ve ordered their food.

The teacher is massaging his temples with his fingers, slightly messing up his pink bangs. Mr. Lee had suddenly showed up to school with pink hair one day without any explanation, but rumors said a student had put pink dye in his shampoo during a school trip. Mingyu thought it suited him better than the blonde hair, so he concluded that that was probably why Mr. Lee had kept it that way.

The food is served to them, Mingyu in awe at how expensive everything looks but still thinking he could do better. They eat in silence, Mingyu sneaking awkward glances at Mr. Lee once in a while. His teacher looked serious and it scared him.

“It’s not a prank,” Mr. Lee says. He gives Mingyu a cold stare. “Look, kid, I need this marriage and I don’t have time to find anyone else, so you’ll have to do.”

Mingyu blinks as Mr. Lee produces a marriage application form from his bag. “Whoa! Is this for real?!” He sees that Mr. Lee’s already filled up his part of the form.

“I’ll be coming to pick up the form tomorrow. I expect you to have filled it up by then. There’ll be a small ceremony and then there’s an apartment we can move to.”

Mingyu chews his food slowly, staring at the unanswered questions on the form. “You sure this isn’t a prank?” he asks timidly.

That look that says “we already ing talked about this” Mr. Lee gives him is enough to get Mingyu to take the whole arranged situation seriously. And wow, did it scare him.