Blue Sky Playground

Donghae love kids. He loves their straightforward innocent, their curiosity about the world around them, and how they are so earnest about everything. He just loves kids, okay. Which is why he became a kindergarten teacher in the first place and on most days, he thinks this is the best job in the world and his kids are the greatest--but today is not that day.

“Honwae, come back here with Kairi’s shoe!”

“Sunji, we do not eat crayons.”

“Jihyuk, didn’t we have a talk about pulling people’s hair? Specifically Saehan? And Saehan, don’t think I didn’t see you spitting in Jihyuk’s juice.”

“Great job guys! Next time let’s avoid painting each other’s faces, okay?"

Donghae sighs and leans back against his chair wearily, his back aches a numbing kind of pain from tiny hands and legs climbing on his back like it was an untouched hilltop ready to be conquered by the most adventurous kind. Donghae had quickly put an end to it before he ended up at the bottom of a pile of five years old and possibly with a broken back too.  

He keeps his eyes train on the little tyrants sleeping peacefully on the floor as he gets comfortable in his chair and pulls a white blanket, decorated with a mosaic of animals, plants, and what look like a drawing of a poop but he was assured by Jihyuk it was actually ice cream, over his lap. He had brought it to class one day and let the kids loose in art and craft period to unleash their masterful art skill onto the blanket and between reminding Honwae to keep his coloring marker on the blanket and not on the floor and stop Shumi from to taking over and turning the whole blanket into her canvas, it was very fun for him and the kids. Later, the kids had gather together to present the blanket to him and looked up at him in such earnest and delight that Donghae felt so blessed to be given a chance to be their teacher.

That was two weeks ago and his thought haven’t change. His kids are usually well behave but sometimes when one of them have an off-day and Donghae gets it, because kids also have days where they wake up and just feel wrong and like the world is out to get them so they’re a little grumpy and doesn’t want to play nice with the rest of the world. Who doesn’t have that kind of day? So, Donghae does not blame them for feeling this way but he doesn’t have a cure for that sort of stuff (he would have been a rich man by now if he did). Though he knows doing little thoughtful acts that would make that kid happy goes a long way to that child feel a little better so he has contingency plan for this sort of thing. Kyuhyun likes to make fun of how Donghae has a notebook that lay out his game plans for any possible scenarios that could rise up in his class, but Donghae just want ready for it and not be chase out of his classroom because he couldn’t handle it. Kids shouldn't be that terrifying but they really are.

He isn’t prepare though for when Minuke had crunched up his coloring paper and threw it at Inmei and everything had derailed from there. It was like watching the chain reaction of a horrible car crash that would eventually lead to a pile up of epic proportion and there was no way to stop it because he was only one person in a room with 18 terrible little monsters that just apparently decided to have an impromptu paper ball fight.

Donghae had broken it up as quickly as he could and ordered a quiet time before somebody’s cry over getting hit on the eye or something and if one of them cry, they all cry and even Donghae isn’t that strong enough to handle that. Unfortunately, the quiet time only last as long as Kairi’s patient when Saehan had flipped the picture book too fast for Kairi’s taste and she’d decided she rather play kicked the picture book than read it.

He ended up calling recess early and let them run wild outside, all the while hoping they would waste all their excess energy and be calm down enough for today’s lesson. Except that didn’t happen, and he spent the period trying to find where Honwae had hidden Kairi’s shoes and preventing Baekmin from trying to see if he can fly by jumping off the oak tree outside his classroom and making sure nobody else follow his example. It was exhausting and he felt like he had aged up ten years.

When it was time to go back inside, he had told them to stopped playing and they had look so outraged and upset that he was afraid that they might stage a mutiny right there and Donghae will have to go and explain to the principal why he let his kids bully him to have extra recess time. Luckily and god blessed Lee Jimin, who if he has a favorite student it would be him, had turned around and convinced his classmates that, learning about numbers does not equate to death and we don’t want to make Teacher Lee cry, right? Donghae might have tear up a little at how ridiculously awesome Jimin was, and honestly that kid might even become the President of Korea one day just the way he managed to wrangled his classmates to go inside.

After that, it wasn’t too terrible. He survived through today’s math lesson with just a few stops to the lesson because someone was doing something they weren’t suppose to be doing and moved onto lunch and that was mostly a war game where seating certain children with or not with each other is all about strategy and preventing an all out war. Once lunch was done, he just needed to get through art and craft and then peace but art and craft has always been a messy affair and he’d managed to come out of it with a stained apron that look like it had seen better days and green fingers.   

Everything he had endure, had eventually lead up to nap time and Donghae loves nap time. It’s his favorite period, where the kids became burned out from today’s activities and a messed of adorable tiredness as they gather together like a flock of ducklings and made a pile of pillows on the floor and fell asleep, limbs bumping each other and soft snoring can be heard.

It is time like this that Donghae remembers that he love kids and that they can be a handful from time to time but in the end they make the world just a little brighter just by being themselves. Donghae smiles as he spots Jihyuk’s left hand peeking out of his blanket and laying on top Seahan’s head. Donghae takes a moment to survey his classroom and making sure everybody is actually asleep, before he shifts in his seat and huddle down on his chair, and close his eyes just for a moment.

Donghae wakes up to Jimin calling his name and he rubs his bleary eyes, and trying to hold back a yawn. Donghae gives Jimin a smile and ask, “Did you have a good nap?”

Jimin nods. “Should I wake the others up?” he asks, looking expectantly at Donghae. Donghae glances down at the unstirring mess littering his floor and didn’t see anyone else up beside Jimin. And that he is all kind of thankful for, because last time Donghae had accidently fell asleep and overslept, the kids had woken up and decided to terrorize his unconscious body. Donghae had woken up with glue on his hair and a beard on his face that he was pretty sure that did not exist several hours earlier. Donghae can always count on Jimin to behave while the rest of his kids raze his classroom to the ground and it never stops making him curious about Jimin’s parent.

Donghae stands up and stretches the kink out of his neck. He reaches down and ruffles Jimin’s hair affectionately. “I would be very grateful if you would,” he says. Jimin nods in acknowledgement and moves to wake up Minjuck, who is the closest to him.

“Jimin,” Donghae calls out. Jimin stops and turns around, a curious expression on his face.

“You’re the best,” he says with a grin, and gives him a thumb up. Because, Donghae must have done something right in his past life to get Lee Jimin in his class and let’s be honest, that kid is totally his favorite.

Jimin gives him one of those rare smiles and Donghae melts a little at the sight. Yep, totally his favorite.

After all his kids has woken up from their nap and put away their pillows and blankets, they move about in a way that means they are still caught in midst of asleep and awake. Donghae grabs hold of this chance and uses it to start story time. Nap time is his favorite period but story time is a close second, because the kids always get so engrossed in the story and Donghae loves seeing how after their nap they are still a little dazed and laconic but comes alive as Donghae dives into the story and reenact some of the parts. It also doesn’t hurt that most of the kids think that story time is a sacred period not to be disturb by silly arguments like, Minjuck kicking Honwae’s feet and immediately scold the troublemakers, who are more bother by their classmates’ disappointed look than Donghae’s.

Story time is follow by a princess movie, chosen by Sunji this time, and Donghae has never meet a boy who is so into watching princess movies even more than some of the girls. Donghae had asked him one day about it and with a surprised expression on his face, like he couldn’t believe Donghae had asked him that, he said, “Because they are so cool! Mulan dressed like a man to save her family and fought for her country. I don’t know how many people could even do that.”

Truly, kids are just amazing.

The movie lasts till the time their parents come to pick them up and Donghae spends some time chatting to some of the parents about today’s activities and how their kids are doing. Most of the kids eventually cleared out and left just four kids scatter throughout his class playing with assortment of toys.

Donghae uses this time to clean up his classroom and in time the last of the parents arrived and Donghae hugs them all goodbye. This would be the time he would wrap up his stuff and close his class but Jimin is sitting near the bookcase and a book is opened on his lap.

Donghae walks over to Jimin and sits down beside him. Jimin is looking at one of the animal picture books that Donghae had bought for the class and usually Donghae knows when he should leave Jimin alone or stay around. The first time he had meet Jimin’s nanny, she had told him that Jimin is quiet child that don’t be surprised if Donghae find him alone in a corner; however, Donghae realized that just because Jimin likes being alone doesn’t mean he always want to be alone. So, Donghae always make sure that Jimin knows that if he like someone to be next to him, even just quietly watching him play with the blocks or draw, Donghae is always willing to keep him company.

“Would you like for me to read you a story?” Donghae asks. Jimin looks up and nods excitedly.

Donghae smiles and makes himself comfortable on the floor. “Okay, pick any story you like then.”

Jimin shuts his book and turns around to put it back to where it was. He skims through the titles on the top bookshelf and when he finds the one he likes, he pulls it out and it hands it to Donghae. “This one, Teacher Lee.”

Donghae opens the book and starts the story. One story become two and three as time passed and Donghae sneaks a peek at the clock between each break as Jimin picks the next book, and the more tick off he becomes.   

Jimin’s nanny is the one who usually pick up Jimin, but she had called in and said due to a family emergency she won’t be able to come pick up Jimin this week; however, Jimin’s father will do it. That had surprise Donghae a little, because since the start of the year Donghae had never meet Jimin’s father nor know anything about him except that he does some important job that keep him occupied most of the time (Donghae make it a priority to get to know all his kids’ parents and having them as involve in their kids learning process as possible so this had annoyed him a little). So, this would be the first time Donghae would meet Jimin’s father and he is late.

From his viewpoint of the window, Donghae could see the sun is hovering over a house and the sky is splashes of soft pink and orange. Jimin is such a good kid that Donghae would be incredibly lucky if he has a kid like him but Jimin’s father doesn’t seem to care so much about it though with making his son wait this long for him. On his fourth book, Donghae contemplates the idea if he should give Jimin’s father a call and yell out words that are definitely not-for-kid’s-ears.  

Luckily, there idea didn’t have time to bear fruit as Donghae’s classroom door slams open and a man dressed in a formal suit bends over and catches his breath. Donghae stares at him and pushes Jimin behind him protectively, and momentarily thinks about the bat he kept hidden in his locked drawer.

The man composes himself before he’s lifts his head up and Donghae’s heart stutters a little. “I’m--” he starts.

“Daddy!” Jimin shouts and Donghae turns and sees Jimin’s eyes light up. He lets shifts aside to let Jimin go to his father. Jimin nearly bolts out of the spot he was sitting and runs toward the man with an open arm.  

“Jimin,” the man says, smiling widely and bending down to pick up his son. “I’m sorry I’m late, please don’t be mad at me.”

Jimin shakes his head. “It’s alright daddy, I know you’re busy with work and Teacher Lee kept me entertain so I wasn’t bored!”

The man turns his attention to Donghae and sends a bright smile his way. Donghae stands up and walks toward them, all the while trying not look intently at the man’s face. He’s very handsome to say the least, dark locks of hair fan his angular face and full lips that Donghae’s mind immediately veers in the realm of wrong and wrong. An attractive parent is not new to Donghae’s profession but Jimin’s father is younger than he had initially thought and Donghae haven’t  meet a parent that manage to be in his age group and isn’t attach to someone so they won’t even be crushable. Goddamnit. Kyuhyun warns him this might happen.  

“You must be Hyukjae-ssi,” Donghae says by the way of greeting.

Hyukjae gently puts Jimin downs and holds his hand out to Donghae. “I am and you must be Teacher Lee, the one Jimin couldn’t stop talking about.”

“Dad,” Jimin whines in embarrassment and Hyukjae chuckles fondly at his son. Donghae finds this Jimin, who is so open with himself around his father, so interesting and erase all thought of possible bad relationship between the two.  

“I’m sure most of them are greatly exaggerated to make me look good,” Donghae says and winks playfully at Jimin.

“Just half,” Jimin responds with a grin and Donghae strikes a horror expression.

“Betrayal never tastes so bitter,” he says, and places both hands on his heart as if in pain.

Jimin giggles in response and Hyukjae ruffles his son’s hair.  His fond expression suddenly turns serious as he refocuses on Donghae. “I apologize for being so late, Teacher Lee, my meeting had drag on and when I got out there was an accident on the way, so I ended up stuck in traffic the last hour.”

He looks so regretful that Donghae doesn’t have to heart to gives him the tongue lashing that Donghae had reserve for this moment. “It’s alright. I don’t mind waiting with Jimin at all, it’s just I don’t want Jimin to stay so late into the evening.”

Hyukjae looks down at his son guilty, who smiles brightly at Hyukjae, before turning back to Donghae with a determined look in his eyes. “I assure you it won’t happen again,” he says, with such vehemence that Donghae is taken back a little.

He remembers how Hyukjae was out of breath when he came in and the way beads of sweat had dripped down his floor. Donghae’s classroom is located in the back of the school and the way Jimin had look at his father like he was the greatest thing ever and that’s all Donghae needs to know.

“I believe you,” Donghae says.  

Hyukjae widen his eyes a little as if he is surprised by Donghae’s respond. “Thank you,” he says, looking relieve.

Donghae smiles and he bends down to Jimin’s level. “See you tomorrow, Jimin.”

“You too, Teacher Lee,” Jimin says, and coming forward to gives him one of their ritual goodbye hug that Donghae always give to his student.

He squeezes Jimin tightly before letting him go and stands up again to look at the surprise expression on Hyukjae’s face. Donghae puzzles over it for moment, thinking surely he didn’t do anything strange right? Donghae wonders if he should ask but before he could unwisely open his mouth Hyukjae says, “Oh, you have something on your cheek.”

He points at the area on his cheek and Donghae tries to mirror his action but--   

“No a little to your left, up more, upper left, wait just let me--,” Hyukjae reaches his hand out and grazes his left cheek. He scrapes away whatever was on Donghae’s cheek and grins happily at Donghae when he finally got them off. “There ya go, I think it was paint.”

“T-thank you,” Donghae says, feeling his cheeks heat up for some strange unnerving reason. Oh god, he thinks hopelessly, he doesn’t want to start crushing on his student attractive single father. That’s like ting where you eat... okay not his best analogy but he really doesn’t want to start crushing on Hyukjae. “That was probably from our art and craft session.”

Now, he suddenly feels self conscious of the way he looks in front of Hyukjae. How Hyukjae is standing in his expensive business suit and looking well kempt and unbelievably handsome and Donghae, with his disorderly hair from wrestling with the kids and paint all over his body, look like a total mess.

“It’s no problem,” Hyukjae says, glancing around the classroom, “that must have been a fun time. The way Jimin had gone on about your class it makes me wish I had you as my teacher when I was young,” then, he suddenly looks away, embarrassed, “though I don’t know how I could pay attention if you were my teacher.”

And now Donghae is completely charmed by this man. If it was even possible for his face to be even redder, people would have mistaken it for a tomato. And yea, he lost his brain somewhere between Hyukjae’s introducing himself and now, that he’s being honest with himself. .

“Thank you again,” Hyukjae says, nervously when Donghae still haven’t found his voice yet. “We better go before the sun goes down.”

“O-of course,” Donghae says, clearing his throat. “Have a safe drive, Hyukjae-ssi and Jimin.”

Jimin waves him goodbye and Hyukjae gives him an undecipherable look before taking Jimin’s hand and leading out of Donghae’s classroom.

“,” Donghae lets out. It’s high time he admits that he does have some sort of crush on Jimin’s father now and they only just meet too! Donghae had plenty of crushes before and they all crashed and burned out eventually, so there’s hope for him!

Except, Donghae still have all of this week seeing Hyukjae’s again, now that Jimin’s nanny is out, and that’s not going to help his kill his crush. Maybe within this week, Donghae can finds some awful flaws that make Donghae so turned off that the next the time he sees Hyukjae’s face he won’t have the urge to kiss him or something.

Then, Donghae thinks of Jimin’s face and just being around Hyukjae made it come so alive. If there’s anything Donghae has a weakness for is a man who loves their kid.

He’s going to break your heart, says his wise brain.

that, game on, says his stupid heart.

You went down on this road before and look where it got you, retorts his brain, eating a bucket of ice cream to a cheesy movie as you cried for days.

If you don’t take risk, how will you find your man duh, his dumb heart gives another unhelpful advice.

Shut the up, he tells both of them. Tomorrow, I will worry about it but tonight I’m eating out my feelings.

They both sighs.

A/N: hi -waves- I'm still alive. Just thought it was writer's slump until I found out this fic only took me this morning to start and finish it by this evening, so not writer's slumping but just lazy and uh writer's block on the other story I'm working on. Sorry :x. This fic is uh I have no idea?? XD Just spurred of the moment and a thank you for everyone being so supporting of me and yeaaaa you guys are the best ;A;.