Aaah an update after what, months? A big thank you to everyone who reads this! I hope this extra long chapter makes up for the late update xD

After a satisfying but quiet buffet breakfast at the hotel, Jihoon had driven Mingyu home in silence, opting to plug in his earphones and not talk until they arrived. Then he had said a quick goodbye, leaving Mingyu alone in front of his house with a bag of leftover wedding cake.

Mingyu went inside, his parents asking him if he'd been on his best behavior and did he not embarrass them. He announced that he was going to take a nap. The hotel had been comfortable and he had been able to sleep well, better than he slept at home at least, the mattresses at the hotel softer than the one on his bed, but being with Lee Jihoon…

Mingyu liked to talk. And being with someone so utterly uninterested in listening and talking to him was exhausting, to say the least. It wasn't that Jihoon was rude to him, just sort of avoided talking to him much. And not being able to express himself was something that exhausted Mingyu a lot.

He goes inside his room, ready to collapse on his bed, only to find it gone and in its place, a bunch of cardboard boxes. Actually, all the contents of his room had been converted into boxes and boxes, stacked neatly on top of each other. He called for his mom.

"Sweetie, we've already packed your stuff," his mother cooed. "You're moving in with your new husband today."

Mingyu wanted to scream and cry, but he was a grown man now, so he it up. And took a deep breath before complaining in the most grown man possible way: "Why?! Why didn't I hear about this?!"

"Jihoon said he told you during your first date."

"Can I have his room?" his sister called from outside in her most charming voice. Mingyu stared at her in disbelief. This little !

"Hey, I'm not going anywhere, you can't have my room," Mingyu barked at her. He turned to his mom with pleading eyes, whining "Mom, I want to stay here! I don't want to move out!"

"Oh, honey, but you have to," his mother insisted. Mingyu clings to her and she reaches up to pat her oversized son on the head. "You'll be fine. Jihoon's a nice boy."

"He's not!" Mingyu cries. But the truth was he didn’t really know if Lee Jihoon was a “nice” person or not. How could he know if they didn’t even talk to each other?

-

Summer vacation was only summer vacation to students, not teachers.

Lee Jihoon knew that, but it still annoyed him that he had to report to work in the sweltering heat, instead of just listening to music in the comfort of his airconditioned room. Before going to the faculty room to fix his lesson plans though, he decided to pay a visit to the principal's office. He knocks on the wooden door before poking his head inside, calling out: "Yejin noona."

Yejin was arguing with her boyfriend on the phone again. She's twirling a lock of her long, wavy hair impatiently, slightly spinning in her chair from side to side. She motioned for Jihoon to come inside quickly and shut the door behind him, which he does. He sat down on the chair in front of Yejin's desk, waiting for her argument with her boyfriend about who would be buying orange juice to die down. In the few years Jihoon had known her she'd dated all sorts of problematic men, arguing with them on the phone all the time and complaining to Jihoon afterwards. Looking at her now, Jihoon could only think of relationships as bothersome.

Jihoon looked around the room absently, trying to block out the sound of Yejin's voice. The walls still had the faded yellow wallpaper that Yejin hated, but she had attempted to decorate the room in a more youthful style: airy sheer curtains on the windows, a few succulents on the desk and a corkboard behind her chair decorated with polaroids of her and her colleagues and students.

She was too young to be principal, Yejin had complained to him after work one day. He'd seen it coming; the old principal had been taking more and more breaks, leaving assistant principal Yejin to do all the work, the old obviously tired of work already and in a hurry to retire. When he finally did retire, of course Yejin had gotten the position. Jihoon thought she was doing pretty well, she was well-liked and students didn't want to worry her, so most of them stayed out of trouble. He kind of missed her though, she was busier than ever and never went home with him anymore unlike when they were still just co-teachers. She was one of the few people Jihoon considered his close friends.

"That's Principal Lee to you, mister," Yejin says after a few more minutes of phone conversation. Then she laughs, like she laughed at everything. Almost everything was funny to Yejin. "So, what is it, Jihoonie?" She crossed her long legs.

Jihoon chews on his lower lip before saying quietly: "I got married."

"Oh my god." Yejin's jaw dropped. Then, she smiled like he’d just told her a joke. "Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure," Jihoon huffed. How could anyone not be sure about getting married?

"But you didn't even have a girlfriend! Or a boyfriend!" Yejin accused. "Or did you?" she eyed him suspiciously.

"No, I did not." Jihoon sighed. "It was arranged."

"Oh, okay. That's good." Yejin looked relieved. Probably because she'd been wanting to get married, always complaining to Jihoon about it over drinks. "Well, who is it? And why didn't you invite me to the wedding?" She pouted, looking betrayed.

"Actually, that's why I want to keep it a secret. It's a student." Jihoon stared at Yejin's shocked face before continuing: "I don't know if you know him. His name is Kim Mingyu."

"No way!” Yejin looked surprised. She let out a giggle before saying with glee: “That stud muffin?!"

"Stud muffin?" Yejin sure made weird word choices sometimes.

"You know how many cat fights I've had to break up because of that kid? But really, I'd join them in fighting about him if I was 15 years younger," Yejin joked. "He's really handsome! Does he have an older brother?"

"Don't you have a boyfriend now?" Jihoon pointed out. "And no, he's the eldest in their family."

Yejin whined and stretched her arms out on her desk, laying her head down on them lazily. "Everyone's getting married but me."

Jihoon gave her a pat on the head. "Aren't you going to scold me for marrying a student? It might cause a scandal."

"It's fine, it's fine." Yejin waved her hand lazily. "No one's getting knocked up so it won’t get out that easily. Just keep the marriage a secret until graduation, 'kay?"

"I will." Jihoon got up. "I have to do my lesson plans now."

"Oh." Yejin looked up, a smile on her face. "Congratulations, though, Jihoonie. I hope you enjoy being married! Ah, you're so lucky. I wish I was born into a rich family like yours so I could stop worrying about becoming an old maid."

"You're doing pretty well as a single woman though." Jihoon smiled. "Thanks, Yejin."

"Call me when he gives you trouble," Yejin yelled after him as he exited the room. "I'll give you a whole playlist worth of man-hating songs we can sing together at karaoke."

"I will."

He doubts he'd have any trouble with Mingyu though; he'd been avoiding him since they started living together.

-

Mingyu felt alone.

He moved to a neighborhood far away from his family and school, he couldn’t go to school on bike like he used to and would have to take the train every morning once the new semester started. He couldn’t call up his friends to hang out as much as he’d like to, as everyone was busy doing some advanced studying to have a headstart on the university entrance exams they would be taking after they graduated.

The worst thing of all was Lee Jihoon.

He was acting like Mingyu didn’t even exist. These days he went out a lot, Mingyu presumed he was working, and the only words he’d ever said to Mingyu were casual greetings when they happened to be inside the same area in the apartment. This wasn’t often, as Jihoon was usually holed up in his room whenever he was home.

“Mom, I wanna go home,” Mingyu bawled to his mother once over the phone.

His mother just cooed at him to stop crying and that he would always be her baby but now he was a married man so could he please stop crying and go back to studying for entrance exams.

He tried to get some chores done so he could establish a daily rhythm for himself. He cleaned up and did laundry, even cooked meals. He tried to be nice and would always wait for Jihoon to come home and have dinner with him, just so they could be at least on speaking terms, but Jihoon would always just shrug him off and tell him he’s already had dinner outside.

"Ah, I've eaten," Jihoon says again tonight as he passed by the kitchen on his way to the stairs, dragging his backpack, presumably filled with books and papers.

All the frustration pent up inside of Mingyu finally blows over and he bangs his fist on the dining table full of food he had painstakingly prepared, the sound stopping Jihoon on his tracks. Jihoon eyes him questioningly, mockingly, and Mingyu feels more pissed off than ever. "I have something to say!" Mingyu says loudly. being respectful to his elders, being respectful to his teachers. Lee Jihoon had gotten on his last nerve and he was going to give him a piece of his mind. "Sit down!"

Jihoon shrugs, infuriatingly unfazed, leaving his bag on the floor and walking to the dining table to sit at the chair across Mingyu. His eyes never lose contact with Mingyu. "What is it? I've got lessons to plan."

Suddenly feeling intimidated by the cold stare, Mingyu took a deep breath before letting it out in a rapidly spoken rant: "I have no idea what your deal is but you obviously need this marriage and I don't and if you look at it that way I've done you a favor by marrying you and I'm doing you a favor by staying married to you so the least you could do is at least try to be a little friendlier because we're living together and it is so ing awkward!!"

He's out of breath, his face feeling hot from all the excitement, and he has to take a gulp from the glass of water he'd prepared for his dinner. He doesn't miss the wide eyes and slightly agape mouth on his husband's face and he feels a sense of victory, but it's replaced by a twinge of fear when Jihoon directed his gaze at the table's surface instead. He contemplates taking his words back and apologizing for being disrespectful and that Jihoon can do whatever he wants, nibbling on his lip and looking at anywhere but Jihoon.

"You're… You're right."

Mingyu's head snaps up to look at his husband, his head of pink hair bowed towards him.

"I'm sorry."

Well, this was awkward. "I don't want an apology," Mingyu tries to say seriously, but his voice comes out all whiny and childish.

"Okay." Jihoon lifted his head up to look at Mingyu. "What do you want, then?"

"I just want… Like…" Mingyu's never been good with words; he always stumbled with them, unable to put his thoughts into coherent sentence at times. He sighed. "Just for you to talk to me, I guess. And eat meals with me sometimes. You've never even tried the stuff I cooked! I'm really good at this, you know." He scrunched his nose and stuck out his lower lip in a pout.

Nodding slowly, Jihoon takes the empty bowl Mingyu had prepared for him on the table, filling it up with rice and eating from the array of side dishes on the table.

Mingyu stared at him for a while, but gets over his shock and starts eating as well. "I thought you already ate," he mumbled.

"It was just a bowl of instant noodles at the convenience store," Jihoon admitted. He nodded in approval at the taste. "And you weren't lying when you said you were good at this."

Mingyu smiled. Then he remembered the words he spouted mindlessly earlier. "Mr. Lee, sorry for swearing earlier," he says with an apologetic bow.

"Jihoon."

"Huh?"

"Jihoon," Jihoon said through a mouthful of rice. He swallowed the food before continuing: "It's ing weird to come home and still be called Mr. Lee."

"You cussed." Mingyu stared at him in disbelief for a few seconds, before laughing. "You cussed. You're not supposed to. You're a teacher."

"It's after work hours. I'm at home now," Jihoon pointed out. "Teachers are normal people too, you know."

For the first time, Mingyu felt like he could actually get along with this guy.