If anyone had told him last week that he was going to be at the dead bottom of the Teacher Ranking in the teachers’ shared bureau, he would have laughed in their faces. He wasn’t the best teacher, of course, since he was new to the whole shenanigans after realizing that pursuing a doctor’s degree in applied statistical science was not what he wanted after he finished his master’s degree. But he was very competent and very promising and consistently ranked within the top five of the Teacher Ranking.

Teacher Rankings were consistently posted every single week on Friday, right after school clubs have finished meeting for the day. Sunggyu himself was the faculty supervisor of the Rock Club that was just formed this school year under his constant nagging and pushing for students who were interested in rock music to join. He had high hopes and wanted his club members to perform at a school event—from what he garnered, quite a few of the members in his club had some sort of musical background and they could probably pull something together. But that, of course, was something to think about in detail in the coming months.

As he stared in shock at the weekly Teacher Ranking, he couldn’t help but let his mind wander to one person that could have been responsible for this abysmal ranking.

Nam Woohyun.

It seemed that ever since his best friend had re-entered his daily life, he was causing so much trouble Sunggyu was too flabbergasted to even yell at the man seriously because he was sure Woohyun would definitely give him the “I can’t believe you think I’m evil and trying to ruin your life” puppy eyes. He had no one to blame but the Nams, who were quite oblivious themselves for Woohyun’s inability to read social contexts and situations properly.

Lee Howon, the physical education teacher at the school for the male students, much to Sunggyu’s dismay, was there to see his firsthand reaction. He could already see the news of how he reacted to the Teacher Ranking spread like wildfire to the other faculty members. Howon was a rather cunning and sarcastic man who loved stirring up drama for the heck of it, but from what Sunggyu had observed, he very much enjoyed front row seat to drama even more.

Howon apparated out of nowhere and sipped his tea in a very calm and collected manner. He made a small gesture that indicated he was checking the ranking with Sunggyu (and Sunggyu would swear that he planned to drink tea at that very moment just to annoy the hell out of him). If he could swear on it, he swore that he saw the other’s lips twitch slightly in a hint of a -eating grin. Of course, that was so quickly wiped away after it appeared that he almost thought he imagined it.

However, taking one good look at the very neutral and passive expression on the other teacher’s face was enough for him to know that he was definitely finding pleasure in his misery. They had been rivals in high school, often competing for the top grades in the entire grade. They had some sort of animosity towards each other, although it was mainly because they were both competitive and didn’t like being outplaced.

Howon’s little figurine sat proudly in the first tier. He ranked first this week.

“Well, look at that,” he drawled a little, though not to the extent that Sunggyu could call him out for being rather smug. He patted Sunggyu on the back, “You were ranked last this week. That’s alright, there’s always room for improvement.”

The rankings were decided by other teachers in the high school and it was based on aptitude, cooperation, responsibility and maturity when dealing with students and other faculty members.

Sunggyu twitched a little.

At least Woohyun was—then he did a doubletake and almost choked on his spit. How the hell was he above him in ranking!

It was only one ranking above him on the little tower plaque that had been constructed for the purposes of the Teacher Ranking, but Sunggyu was still very disgruntled by the fact that he was dead last.

“But this is great,” Howon said, slinging an arm around Sunggyu as if they were best buddies. Hint: they were not. It took every inch of Sunggyu’s willpower to not fling the guy’s arm to the other end of the Pacific Ocean just to get rid of the smug tone in his voice.

“We finally have a decent nickname for you, other than Ang-gyu.”

Sunggyu stared blankly at him. He had never heard of that nickname.

“You know, Angry and Sunggyu? Ang-gyu?” Howon chuckled at that. At that, Sunggyu was indignant, about to rebut the nickname when Howon added, “Well, you can thank Woohyun for that nickname.”

Sunggyu didn’t even know what to say anymore. The likelihood of Woohyun truly living to see the next sunrise was becoming slimmer at the moment.

“I have a better nickname, though,” Howon smirked a little. Sunggyu didn’t like the feeling of that smirk, if that made sense. Seeing the look on his face made Howon look every part of a cat that had caught a mouse in its trap. “Though, I won’t tell you. I kind of don’t want to die yet.”

He patted Sunggyu on the back, taking his arm back.

Good, was all Sunggyu could think, at least there was one less thing to stop himself from combusting at that very moment.

At the moment, he didn’t fully process the fact that Howon said he was going to spread a new nickname like wildfire for the next week. He simply filed that piece of information in his brain for future use. However, Howon was not done with torturing him yet, it seemed.

He wiggled his eyebrows a little, making Sunggyu have a really bad feeling about what was going to come out of his mouth next. And he was not wrong.

“Anyway, I’ve always thought of you as the whipped one in the relationship, although people may disagree since you’re always so angry. You’re totally whipped for him.” Howo