“Class, today is SM Valley’s eighteenth anniversary,” Miss Sooyoung announces, clapping her hands for attention. “So the whole school will be having a little assembly right after recess. The principal will being saying a few things, so I want you guys to be on your best behavior. Understood?”

Soft mumbling breaks out around the room as kids whisper amongst themselves in confusion.

“What’s a ami-ner-sur-y?” Kyung asks, raising his hand.

“A-nni-ver-sary,” Sooyoung enunciates, “is kind of like a birthday. Kind of like celebrating the day the school was born.”

‘Birthday,’ Youngjae thinks to himself as the teacher continues to explain. ‘Hm.’

“And that is what an anniversary is,” Miss Sooyoung concludes.

“Ohhh,” Kyung nods, “I see.”

“Yes,” the teacher smiles. ”Well, that’s the only announcement I have for this morning. So until recess, we’ll be working on these number charts.” She turns around and picks up a stack of worksheets. “What you have to do here is pick the correct number from this number bank and fill it into the right blank.”

Sooyoung places the stack of papers into Yoona’s arms. As the teacher’s aide walks along the rows of tables, handing out the worksheets, Youngjae ponders about what the teacher just said.

‘Birthday. It’s the school’s birthday. Birthday means presents! Everyone gets presents on birthdays! So the school should get a present too! But what do schools like to get on their birthdays?’

Youngjae waits for Miss Yoona to hand him his worksheet and pass out of earshot before trying to catch the attention of the boy in front of him.

“Hey,” Youngjae whispers, poking Jiho in the back. Jiho glances over his shoulder.

“What?”

“What do you give a school for its birthday?” Youngjae questions quietly. Jiho frowns, giving it some serious thought before replying, “I made my mommy and daddy a picture for their birthday. I drew it myself.”

“Hm,” Youngjae puckers his lips, thinking extra hard. “Picture. That’s a good idea,” Youngjae finally smiles.

“Why? You gonna make a present for the school?” Jiho asks, eyebrows raised in interest.

“Yeah, maybe a surprise?” Youngjae contemplates, biting his lip.

“Can I join?”

--

“So we’ll make the school a really big, pretty painting!” Youngjae stretches his arms wide open, illustrating just how big he wants the picture to be.

“Yeah,” Jiho agrees as Kyungsoo nods, smiling in anticipation.

“We can do it when we have the assembly,” Kyung suggests, tapping his chin. Jiho had decided to bring him along for the extra support. “They can see it when they come out! Everybody’s gonna be so surprised!”

Kyungsoo claps his hands, completely excited. “It’ll be the best birthday present ever!”

“Okay,” Youngjae waves everyone over, making a little huddle. “This is how we do it…”

--

“Single file line!” Miss Sooyoung calls after recess, lining up her students to walk over to the cafeteria where the assembly will be taking place. Jiho, Kyung, and Youngjae subtly try to move their way towards the very back.

“Everybody ready?” Sooyoung calls, counting down the row to make sure all her kids are present. After coming up with the right amount of students, she smiles, turning back around and opening the door. “March!”

The three children in the back glance around as they all file down the halls, checking for other teachers or grownups. Luckily, Miss Yoona decided to walk in the front with Miss Sooyoung, inquiring about next week’s spelling test.

“Okay, come on,” Youngjae whispers as they turn a corner into another hallway, waving the other two to stop. Jiho and Kyung stick themselves to the wall as Youngjae watches the rest of their class march away. He places a finger on his lips before quietly tiptoeing in the opposite direction, guiding them back to their classroom.

--

“Woo!” Jiho calls, high-fiving Youngjae and Kyung as the door closes behind them. “We did it!”

“Yeah! Now we just gotta get the stuff,” Youngjae smiles, turning for the art cabinet. Kyung helps Youngjae open the cabinet and pull down several bottles of different colored paint. Jiho runs to his backpack, emptying it out, and brings it over to Youngjae and Kyung.

“Here, we can use this to take it outside,” Jiho offers, opening his backpack wide. Kyung drops the bottles into the bag. After zipping it up, Jiho swings the bag over his shoulder and Youngjae closes the cabinet.

“Yay, let’s go!”

--

“Where is he?” Jiho asks as he leans against the cafeteria wall, slightly worried that Kyungsoo hasn’t met up with them yet. The three had watched the rest of the school pass through the entrance before coming out of their hiding spot behind the bathroom.

“He’ll come, don’t worry,” Youngjae says absentmindedly as he pulls out all the paint bottles. “Here, help me open this.” He hands Jiho a bottle. “Let’s just get started. He’ll come.”

Youngjae opens up a bottle of pink paint and dumps it onto the ground. After pouring out a decent amount, he places the bottle down and dips his fingers into the little puddle.

“I’m gonna make a cake!”

Feeling reassured by Youngae’s excitment, Jiho and Kyung pick their colors and follow suit.

“I wanna draw a robot!” Kyung crows, pouring out a generous amount of gray paint.

About five minutes into their drawing, Kyungsoo runs up to them, completely out of breath.

“Sorry,” huff, “I brought,” huff, “sparkles,” Kyungsoo smiles through his heaving, shaking bottles of glitter.

“Cool,” Jiho smiles before turning back to his blue and orange dinosaur. Kyungsoo places the glitter bottles on the floor and picks up a bottle of purple paint.

The four of them work in silence, painting pictures of puppies, and cars, and their classmates, and ice cream cones, and aliens, and dinosaurs. Twenty minutes into their work and each child is covered in a colorful variety of smears and splotches.

In the middle of making a big purple tree, Kyungsoo turns to Youngjae, smiling, before rubbing a green and purple hand down Youngjae’s cheek.

“Ewww,” Yougnjae moans, retaliating with a yellow and pink palm.

A paint battle then ensues, Kyung adding to the flame by tossing a handful of glitter into Jiho’s hair. As Jiho climbs on top of a fallen Kyungsoo, ready to smear a glittery blue hand across Kyungsoo’s forehead, a loud rumble snaps his attention towards the cafeteria doors.

Miss Yuri is standing there with a hand over , eyes wide, as her fifth graders surround her from behind, murmuring and pointing at the messy kindergartners.

“Ohhh, trooouble.”

“Oh my god,” Miss Sooyoung gasps, pushing her way to the front. “Oh. My. God.” She turns to the principal standing beside her. “I’m so sorry, I swear they were with me when we walked down here for the assembly,” she trails off at the end, unable to find her voice.

Jiho quickly scrambles off of Kyungsoo, pulling him up into a standing position. The four color-coated children stand side by side, looking down at their shoes and waiting for their punishment.

Kyung’s bottom lip quivers.

Principal Lee walks over to the kids, glancing down at each child, before turning to the large pink cake Youngjae had drawn. He examines the rest of the wall in silence for a few moments before turning back to the boys with a smile.

“This is actually a very lovely artwork you have here,” Principal Lee says, kneeling down to eye-level with Youngjae, Kyungsoo, Jiho, and Kyung. “Did you make this for the school?”

Youngjae nods vigorously. “It’s a birthday surprise! Because it’s the school’s birthday!”

“I see,” the principal hums, “that is very thoughtful of you.” He stands back up and turns to the other teachers. “I think this is a very brilliant idea. If you could bring more paint and supplies, I would like to have all of the student body make their own addition to this wall. In honor of SM Valley’s anniversary. What better way to commemorate the anniversary of the day the school was open than having the pupils leave their mark on the school itself?”

The children cheer in excitement as a few teachers take off to bring more art supplies from their classrooms.

Youngjae, Kyungsoo, Jiho, and Kyung briefly glance at each other, ascertaining that, no, they are not in trouble, and break out into huge grins.

Yes! The surprise is a success!

a/n: lol principal lee ~ lee soo man TuT imagine black suit and calm voice. yeah. definitely principal material.