Five days after the last runway training Yongguk found himself heading back to the backstage area once again.
His work for the day was stacking up on his desk but he'd completely ignored its existence when he dashed out the classroom right after his last class of the day.
He'd jumped into his car and drove off without a second of reconsideration, strong bass driven music blasting from his speakers as he made his way over to the show venue.

He already knew he was late for rehearsals but somehow he just wanted to at least catch a glimpse of the process.
Honestly speaking he'd never cared about the show too much before, barely recognized it's existence until the day the actual show was held and he sat somewhere along the audience following the runway with minor interest.
This year was different because he really wanted to take part in the process.
Part of it surely was Junhong's doing because he was looking forward to seeing the boy and he wasn't sure he'd be able to deny that fact if asked but there was more.
While watching Jiyong doing his organization and seeing the models do fittings and go through training he realized how much these people really worked to make the show a success.
It was more interesting than he had thought before.
All the preparations and things that had to be taken care off, little details like the exact position for the models to wait before stepping onto the runway, things he wouldn't even have thought of were arranged and planned out to perfection.
The busy atmosphere no longer seemed annoying but exciting instead and even people bumping into him as they dashed past no longer angered him.
He'd actually started to inwardly root for those people to succeed with whatever they needed to get done to move with such a hurry.
There were so many things that had him fascinated he was barely able to keep count of all of them.

The only thing that still angered him was the fact that the students had to basically take care of everything themselves.
He's barely seen any teachers at the venue and if they were present he felt like all they did was nag instead of encouraging and supporting the students.
Sure the venue had been organized and financed by the school, lighting and advertisement for the show as well but everything else was left for the students to figure out, expenses for materials, photographers and hair and makeup included.
He knew people like Jiyong actually liked it that way but when he thought of some of his other students he could only worry.
Even worse than seeing the students struggle was the fact that they got close to know recognition for their work, sure enough the headmaster always mentioned the students great effort during her speech but Yongguk knew first hand that that short sentence didn't do justice to what the students actually went through.
It made him sick just thinking about it.

 
He was close to sprinting up the stairs and through the corridors but the heavy fire doors braked his fast steps.
Some students greeted him when he past them but he merely nodded into their direction before continuing on his way.
Deep basses filled the air as soon as he stepped into the backstage area, the noise of people talking buzzed in between the walls and he could spot a couple of models of Jiyong's line-up standing at the side all dressed in Jiyong's collection.

Minhyun waved at him from where he stood in a kind of awkward position with his torso bend forward, a can of soda in his hand trying to sip on the sugary beverage.
Yongguk almost laughed at the sight.
His lips twitched into a grin and Minhyun whined when he stepped closer.
"We're not allowed to drink or eat anything except water and dry crackers!" he complained and Yongguk eyed the can in his hand with a raised brow.
"Jiyong said we'll dirty the clothes if we do...Please don't tell on me." The boy murmured with a wink and hid the can underneath a chair in the corner.
"Where's the rest?" Yongguk asked letting his eyes travel through the area.
"Jiyong took Junhong to one of the hair and make-up rooms for fittings. They’re trying to find him an outfit."

Yongguk nodded but then turned back to Minhyun with a frown.
"Why isn't he just wearing Tao's outfit?"
Minhyun shrugged.
"It's Jiyong. He said he wanted to check which one looks best on him. I'm glad I haven't had to change my outfit three times again like last time."
Yongguk just hummed in respond.
"Hair and Make-up you said?" Minhyun nodded but Yongguk had already turned to walk off into the direction of the Hair and Makeup department.
 

Yongguk reached the only closed door and knock before stepping in.

As expected he found Jiyong with Seunghyun who was putting the clothes back onto their hangers while Jiyong wrote down some notes.
Junhong was standing next to them with his hoodie halfway thrown over his head.
"Hyung!" he exclaimed as soon as his head popped through the neckline and he noticed Yongguk standing in the doorframe.
The teacher raised his hand a little mouthing a quiet -Hi-.
"Mr. Bang? You're here again?" Jiyong looked at him with a gaze that was quite hard to decipher but the upward curve of his lip indicated his amusement.
Seunghyun next to him just smirked a little before turning to put the clothes back onto the rack.
"Well yah. I was in the area and thought I'd drop by."
He wasn't sure why he lied to his student, the model and Junhong.
Maybe it was the latter that made him use those words because it would have been quite weird to admit he basically drove over for the sake of seeing the teen.
He looked over to the pink haired boy and Junhong smiled at him, his eyes almost sparkling and the intensity of his gaze made Yongguk turn his head to Jiyong instead.
"That's good! You can help carry these back into the car." The student pointed to the rack and Yongguk eyed the amount of clothes. 

The students shoved 2 clothe-bags into his arms handing some more to the other two males.

"Aren't your models already wearing you're outfits? What are all of these?" He asked and did a quick count on the bags that amounted to 9 in total.

Jiyong sighed.
"Not all of them...Some of the models gained weight so I need to do some adjustments."
He shrugged a little but Yongguk could tell the younger boy was kind of stressed by the fact, his eyebrows furrowed just slightly and his shoulders looked rather tense.

"Let's go! I want to do another rehearsal before the next group comes in." The boy said and led the way out of the room and through the corridors.

Yongguk followed the three out onto the parking lot, Junhong walking closely by his side.

"So what are you wearing?" The teacher asked but Junhong just patted to bags he was holding.
He send a big smile into his direction with the signature dimple forming on his cheek.
"It's a secret." He said sticking out his tongue just slightly and Yongguk couldn't help but snicker at the expression.

The taillight of a black sports car flashed and Yongguk's brows shot to his hairline as Seunghyun walked ahead to open the trunk.
The words flew out his mouth without a second thought and he blamed it on the minimal sting of envy piercing his chest.

"I hope the money you spend on this was earned legally."

"Earned it with my body." The tall handsome model replied with a sly smirk and Yongguk choked on his own breath.
He eyed the boy with wide eyes until Jiyong turned around to glare at him.

"He's a professional model...not what you think!" Jiyong almost snarled at the teacher while Junhong giggled at his side.
He turned to the pink haired boy how seemed utterly amused about his misassumption.

"I think I'm starting to figure why you want to become a model." Yongguk said to the boy who just shook his head.
"Not quite." He replied and walked up to the car to place the bags neatly into the trunk.



 

After quite a number of rehearsals despite the announced last one ,Jiyong finally let the models off as the next group arrived.

Yongguk watched from the sideline as Junhong and Minhyun chatted while Minhyun placed the clothes back on a hanger.

The two of them were slowly getting closer and Yongguk was glad to notice the slightly uneasy expression steadily disappearing from Junhong's face.
 

Seunghyun stepped next to him, gaze resting on the two laughing boys in the corner.
"You don't really have to be here right?" He said without turning his head to look at Yongguk.
The edler didn't reply but kept watching Junhong instead.
Seunghyun was right, there were a thousand places he should probably be, one of them being his classroom, behind his desk, grading a 5GB folder of graphic works but he wasn't.
Instead he was standing like glued to the spot inside the backstage area watching an underage boy cracking over Minhyun's aegyo.
"You're weird for a teacher." The model stated and Yongguk almost snickered.
"I'll take that as a compliment if you don't mind." He replied.
There was a little moment of silence between them and all Yongguk could hear were Junhong's clear laughter and the attempt of cute noises coming from Minhyun.

"Seunghyun..." he started without looking at the other but bit his tongue before the next word slipped his lips.
He'd never spend time with the models he'd casted, besides the fact that Seunghyun had never gone through the audition before he still felt sorry for referring to him and the other models as plain dolls.
After seeing Seunghyun and Minhyun, some of the others as well, he'd finally realized that those models were more than what the school made them out to be, that they in fact were breathing, living human beings who only did their job when they reduced themself to lifeless mannequins for the designers sake.
Seunghyun wasn't looking at him, smirking to himself as Junhong did a couple popping moves on the other side of the room and Minhyun laughed.
"I'm sorry." Yongguk finally finished his sentence though he knew Seunghyun had no idea what he was apologizing for but it didn't matter.
"Do you always just drop apologies randomly?" the tall boy asked and Yongguk almost rolled his eyes, Seunghyun did have a character, a slightly cocky one at that.
"Just take it or leave it." he replied.
Seunghyun raised an eyebrow.
"Very weird for a teacher indeed but well apology accepted."
"How does Jiyong even deal with you?" Yongguk praised the question before he was even able to think of swallowing it down instead.
He bit his tongue again and cursed himself for treating and talking to Seunghyun like he was a friend rather than someone more or less working for him, if it was even possible to say it like that.
When Seunghyung's deep laugh rung in his ears he exhaled a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.
"We complement each other and Jiyong can be worse than me trust me." the tall boy replied, eyes flickering over to the side where Jiyong was standing with a couple of sheets in his hand talking to one of the light assistants.

Yongguks lips twitched, slowly forming into a smile as he stood next to Seunghyun, both of them facing into different directions.
He wouldn't admit it or even think of voicing it out loud but he liked the way Seunghyun talked to him so casually.
There were few people who actually did so.
It was always either being overly formally addressed by students trying to show their respect, when all it did was making him feel older than the numbers stated or it was being spoken to in a degrading way by his superiors.
Yongguk decided he liked conversation with the tall model, it made him feel like they could speak on an equal level and it felt nice for once.

"Say..." Seunghyun started but let the word hang in the air, his eyes now set on Junhong who was gesturing wildly in the air, drawing figures and forms with his hands to underline whatever he was explaining to Minhyun.
Yongguk looked back at him waiting for Seunghyun to continue his sentence.
"Do you think you can teach Junhong how to walk?" The dark haired model turned his head to eye him and Yongguk couldn't help but returned the others gaze with a look of confusion.
"Me?" He asked with his hands automatically doing the slightly stupid gesture of pointing to his own chest.
"Well yeah...You want him to do good right? And Jiyong needs him to do well." Seunghyun paused for a second and ran his long fingers through the black mob atop his head.
"I think he's ok maybe more than just ok but he could do better so...since Ji and I are busy...You might as well do the fine-tuning."
Yongguk listened as Seunghyun talked, his mind momentarily wondering whether Seunghyun was just a tad supportive of the tall pink haired boy as well, the soft, slightly impressed tone in his voice seemed to indicated his assumption to be right. 
Yongguk was about to clear his throat and respond when Seunghyun spoke again.
"That is if you're ok with spending your free time watching him swaying his hips for you." The last sentence left Seunghyun's lips with a raised eyebrow, lips curved in amusement and a quick gaze in Junhongs directing.
The graphic teacher furrowed his brows, eyes darting forth and back between Seunghyun and Junhong.
He shook his head.
Whatever it was that was going on in the boys head Yongguk decided to ignore it and thought on the matter instead.
It was true that time was short and Junhong had yet to unfold his whole potential.
Yongguk wasn't all too sure if he was the right choice to teach anyone how to cut a fine figure on the runway but he was willing to try at least, after all he knew the basics and there were still the regular choreography trainings to get Junhong in shape. 
His eyes darted back to Junhong who was laughing loudly, holding his belly with both hands as his pink locks bounced left and right.
He wasn't opposed to spending time with Junhong, not in the least, not even a little because that boy just had the power to lighten his mood with his mere presence and Yongguk really liked that, he liked being around the teen.
He turned to Seunghyun with his lips already curved into a soft but confident smile once more. 
"I will if he's willing to."
A low sound, almost similar to a laughter left Seunghyun’s throat and he patted Yongguks shoulder lightly. 
"I bet he is."

A voice sounded from the speakers announcing the next group was starting their rehearsal now and ordering everyone else to clear the runway and backstage area.
Seunghyun excused himself and headed to the stage exit, leaving Yongguk to stand on his own for a moment.

He watched as Minhyun grabbed his bag and waved to Junhong before walking off.
The pink haired boy gathered his belongings and Yongguk wasn't sure what exactly he was doing but he spoke up never the less, not quite ready to see Junhong off already.

"Junhong! Want me to give you a lift?"

The boy spun around with a little smile on his face as he looked at him.

"It's ok I can use my board." He replied pointing to the skateboard to his feet.
Yongguk took a couple steps towards the boy and came to stand next to him.
 

"I discussed some things with Seunghyun that I need to let you in on and...I thought I could buy you some better drink while we're at it."
Junhong blinked a couple of times before he seemed to remember the promise Yongguk had made when he'd bought them drinks from the vending machine.
The boy nodded, a bright smile molding onto his lips, dimple forming on his cheeks along with little crinkles around the corners of his eyes.

"Ok!" He said and picked up the board along with his backpack.


 

(Note: Progress is still slow...I'm kind of in a slump with this story lately...)