“Have you seen the new art teacher?” Kyuhyun asks. He’s got two cupholders of coffee in his hands so Minho takes one before answering.

“Not yet. Why, is there something I need to know?” he closes his planner, knowing full well that any time he had had to review his lesson plan for the day was now gone.

“Not that I know. You know I’m not good at the people thing,” Kyuhyun shrugs.

“And yet you still became a teacher. Fascinating.”

“Hey! Don’t forgot who bought you that coffee! Anyway, Leeteuk is parading him around so everyone knows him before they get there. Suho said something about him seeming like your type when he did the group interview and from what I saw of him I mostly agree. Just to give you a heads up. Also Chang says hi and to not forget it’s wine night.”

Minho laughs. At the sound of Leeteuk’s voice, Kyuhyun leaves. No sooner does the door finish closing when it’s opened again.

“Minho, this is Kim Kibum. He’s the new art teacher and guidance counselor. I thought it might be good to introduce him to everyone who wasn’t on the interview committee,” he explains.

When finally properly looks at Kibum, he’s glad that Kyuhyun came by this morning.

By the time his students start arriving, Minho’s had enough time and coffee to collect himself. He finishes checking his mini-lesson set and starts wiping down tables when he hears the first little knock on his door. He opens it and his three favorite girls, Seola, Sooah, and Yeri all come running in with what he assumes are pictures for him to put on the wall.

“Mr. Minho! Look! I drew you a picture of my cat!” Seola says first.

“Wow, that’s so good, Seola! Can I put it on the wall?”

She nods enthusiastically and after handing Minho her paper, pushes Sooah to show hers.

“What did you make, Sooah?” Minho asks, knowing she needs a little more encouragement than her sister.

“I wrote you a letter,” she says shyly.

“That’s so nice, Sooah. I’m going to put it on my desk so I can read it later, ok? What did you make, Yeri?”

“I drew you a pizza!!” Yeri exclaims, putting the paper as close to his face as her small arms can reach.

“Woah! That’s a good looking pizza! Did you have pizza for dinner yesterday?”

“No, but I wish that I did.”

Minho laughs, taking the picture.

“I wish I had pizza yesterday too. Is it ok if I put your picture up with Seola’s?” he asks, already knowing the answer.

Morning lessons go smoothly -- or rather as smoothly as kindergarten can go. Most of the morning has been spent talking about things that the children like, dislike, and don’t know if they like. When his timer goes off signalling its time for art, Minho’s suddenly shy at the thought of seeing Kibum again. He tells the children to put their things in their cubbies so they can walk over.

“Alright class. Remember how I said last week that there was going to be a new art teacher? Today is his first day so I want you to be nice to him, ok? I have stickers with your name on them so he can know who you are, so please try to keep them on.”

As they line up, Minho gives them their nametag, helping them put it on their shirt as needed. Seoeun, who’s had a good morning, gets to be the line leader; Seojun, who’s had a less than stellar morning, gets to walk in the back with Minho. He prays that there won’t be a meltdown between the twins and is pleasantly surprised when they make it to the art room without a single whine from anyone. When they all get inside the room, Minho stands in the doorway.

“This is Mr. Kibum. Please try to listen to him and have a fun time ok? I’ll see you when your projects are done!”

Kibum waves and introduces himself again. He beckons Minho over.

“So the first two teachers didn’t give me any warnings and Mr. Leeteuk didn’t really give me time to ask anything before. Is there anything I should know beforehand?” he whispers, looking a little shaken.

“They’re mostly a good bunch. Seola, Sooah, and Yeri are loud but harmless as long as you let them sit together. Chanyeol can be loud and clumsy but he means well. Seoeun and Seojun might fight but should be ok if you mildly separate them. If it gets to be too much, I’ll just be in the break room and I can come in, just phone me on the radio.” he explains, pointing them out. He tries to use as much of a reassuring tone as he can manage without sounding condescending. It seems like it works and Kibum relaxes a little.

“Thanks, go enjoy your lunch.” he steps away and addresses the class. “Okay, who likes stickers?!”

While Minho loves his class, he loves lunchtime just as much. He savors the quiet peacefulness of his sandwich without little hands grabbing at him. He’s halfway through his lunch when Suho walks in.

“So what do you think?” he asks, retrieving his own lunch from the refrigerator.

“I made a wonderful sandwich”

Suho laughs. “You know what I meant.”

“Do I?”

“What do you think of the new art teacher?” Suho asks as he sits down across from Minho.

“Is this his first teaching job or did the bigger kids just try to ruin his morning?”

“It’s his first proper teaching job. He did solely administrative work in his last job.”

“Leeteuk didn’t think it’d be rough throwing him in first day without at least a parent aide or something?”

“You seem awfully concerned about him, Minho. Take a liking already?”

Minho goes to answer, but is interrupted by the radio.

“Uh, Minho?”

Suho hands the radio to Minho, a smug look on his face.

“Yes, Kibum?”

There’s a pause before an uneasy “Can you come back to the classroom please?”

If he’s not mistaken, Minho can clearly hear someone trying to apologize in the background. He sighs. Seoeun and Seojun had almost made it through lunch without fighting. Though he’s sad about losing the last five minutes of his lunch break, he’s not upset about having to see Kibum for those extra minutes.

“I’ll be there in a second”

Suho continues looking smug as Minho cleans up his lunch.

“Are you coming to Changmin’s later?”

“Don’t worry, I am. I’ll see you later ok?”

As Minho walks down the hallway, he tries to listen for crying but is vaguely surprised not to hear any. When he reaches the classroom, the class is seemingly ok. He waves at Kibum from outside. Kibum motions for him to come in. He’s greeted by a chorus of loving “Mr. Minho!”s. Something is off though. Instinctively, he does a head count. Then it hits him. His class is only ten students, but there’s eleven in the room. Haechan’s older brother, Minhyung, had snuck into class again. Though Minhyung was two grades above Haechan, there was a separation issue between the two of them once the younger had started attending school. The two tried to pretend like they didn’t know what was wrong. Kibum came over to Minho.

“You only have 10 students right? I don’t know where he came from but he keeps saying he’s in this class too.” he whispers, obviously confused.

“Minhyung, you know you’re not supposed to be in here. Come on, I’ll walk you back.”

He reaches for Kibum’s radio. Kibum tries to go back to teaching the activity.

“K1 to 2.”

“This is 2, go ahead.”

“I’m bringing Minhyung to you from art.”

“We’re in the cafeteria.”

Minho puts the radio on Kibum’s desk and takes Minhyung’s hand. He hopes Kibum realizes it’s time to clean up so that he can take his class back on time.

By some miracle, the rest of the day goes quickly. Seoeun and Seojun manage to not fight each other and the whole class is so happy that Minho gives everyone a gold star for the day. One by one they all leave and Minho starts tidying up for the next day. There’s a soft knock on his door, and he calls out that it’s unlocked. He had figured it was Suho or Kyuhyun coming to badger him about attending wine night, even though he’d already committed four different times, so he’s surprised when he sees Kibum shyly poking his head in the door.

“Is it ok if I come in?” he asks.

Minho nods and quickly finishes wiping down the last table. Kibum comes in and stands just next to the doorway.

“Is everything ok? I know first days can be rough, especially when you switch out so many students.”

“If I’m being honest, it was a little overwhelming,” Kibum admits. “Thank you for handling that for me earlier. I thought I was going crazy!”

Minho laughs. He grabs his cooler from behind his desk and offers Kibum a water before getting himself one.

“Minhyung and Haechan have separation issues, it happens at least once a month. You’ll get used to it. Every year there’s at least one set of siblings like that.”

“Really?”

“Oh yeah,” Minho says, laughing. “Siblings are almost always a challenge. Occasionally you get sweet ones like Seola and Sooah that get along really well, but usually its either a Minhyung-Haechan separation issue or a Seoeun-Seojun fighting situation, or a mixed feeling situation like Chanyeol and Kyungsoo.”

“Ahh. I’m an only child so I guess that’s why I wouldn’t know.”

“Is this your first proper teaching job?”

Kibum nods, taking a sip of his water.

“I worked in an advising center before but I haven’t taught a class since I got my degree. I don’t know how you guys handle it. It’s only the first day and I’m exhausted.”

“It’s a learning curve. You’ll get it.”

“Is that a teaching pun?”

They both laugh.

“It wasn’t intended, but if the shoe fits.”

“Thanks for putting nametags on your students by the way. It was incredibly helpful, even though you had the most manageable class.”

“Oh, you’re welcome. Part of it is because of the two twins. I’m glad it helped.”

Squeaks from the radio interrupts the conversation.

“K2 to K1”

Minho grabs the radio from his desk and motions for Kibum to stay.

“This is K1, go ahead”

“Are you clear?”

“Yes”

“Minho my sweet dear coworker, please tell me you have an extra pack of laminating sheets that I can use”

“I absolutely do, Sunny.”

“I have to leave, if you could drop it in my mailbox, I’ll bring you a piece of cake tomorrow.”

“Will do”

There’s a pause as the radio goes silent.

“That reminds me. Did they teach you about the radios?” Minho asks.

Kibum shakes his head, his eyes fixed on the floor as if he’s avoiding something.

“No, but it seems like there are a lot of things they didn’t properly tell me about.”

“If you’d like, I usually get here at around seven. I can try and show you around a little and maybe go over like procedural stuff that they didn’t go over with you.”

Kibum looks up and smiles.

“That’d be wonderful. Thanks, Minho.”

His phone rings and he waves goodbye before heading into the hallway. Minho finishes cleaning up, both excited and nervous to see Kibum again in the morning.

“So let me get this straight,” Kyuhyun starts, setting down his wine glass. “You don’t have any interest in Kibum, but you’ve already agreed, unprompted, to give up your precious lesson review time to give him a tour around and teach him how to use radios?”

Minho tries to think of a clever answer but comes up blank.

“It’s better than how we were, babe,” Changmin chimes in. “We actively avoided each other for 2 months before falling madly in love.”

Minho and Suho both roll their eyes. While Changmin and Kyuhyun had always been dating since they started meeting up regularly, sometimes they were a little too much. Even for romance junky Suho. While Minho was annoyed at everyone’s teasing, he’s glad that at least they aren’t making out.

“What are you going to do if Jonghyun is all googly eyes for him?” Suho asks, more than a little drunk.

“Jonghyun just found a new playmate. Maybe 2.” Minho replies.

“Ok. What are you going to do if Jonghyun is all hot for your man though?” Kyuhyun repeats.

While Minho usually greatly enjoys wine night, he’s just not feeling it today. Whether it’s because he refuses to have more than a glass on a school night or because of everyone’s teasing, he decides it’s time to go home. Kyuhyun and Changmin’s apartment is thankfully only a few blocks away from his own, so he doesn’t have to worry about driving. As he walks home, he finally has another quiet moment for himself. As he puts his key into the lock, he decides that he is interested in Kibum. To what level, he isn’t sure; but maybe, just maybe, he’ll allow himself to find out.