“Well…he’s pretty…I guess,” Donghae awkwardly commented, as Eunhyuk groaned.

Kyuhyun snickered, overly pleased with the looks of disappointment on Donghae’s and Eunhyuk’s face. Unfortunately for them, the new music teacher was in fact, a man; a short, slim man who had yet to address the class and was too focused on writing on the board.

“Damn it. Why couldn’t it be a girl?!” Eunhyuk whined dramatically, careful not to be too loud. He slumped further into his seat, pouting at the loss of what could’ve been a potential new girlfriend.

“As if,” Kyuhyun rolled his eyes, mumbling under his breath.

“Okay class, now we can finally begin,” The teacher turned around, clasping his hands together. “Hello, my name is Kim Ryeowook or Kim-seonsaengnim. I know the change in teachers may be kind of sudden and some of you may be confused. But I hope we can work together-”

Kyuhyun stared at the teacher, shocked by just how pretty the music teacher was. He unconsciously leaned forward his chair, trying to get a closer look. He didn’t realize how long he was captivated until Ryeowook clasped his hands again, snapping him out of his thoughts.

Oh , did I just zone out?

“-Any questions?” Ryeowook concluded; smiling as a dozen hands rose in the air. Kyuhyun stiffened in his chair, anxiously looking away as Ryeowook looked at his new students. He suddenly felt very thankful that Donghae and Eunhyuk liked to sit in the very back row of class.

“How old are you?” A student asked, followed by a round of giggles from the female students.

“Twenty-two,” Ryeowook replied easily, leaning against his desk.

“Do you have a girlfriend?” A female student asked shyly.

“No questions about my personal life, please. I want the questions to be about the class.” Ryeowook easily avoided the question, laughing at the collective whines from the classroom. A few students even threw in a few bribes and comments to answer the question, but Ryeowook only shook his head, “Why are you guys so nosy? How about we get started on introductions and then, you guys can tell me what you learned with Park-sshi. This way, I’ll know what to start teaching you guys for the next lesson.”

 The class conceded begrudgingly, much to Ryeowook’s amusement. The introductions started with the front row, with students one by one introducing themselves – the entire process moving quicker than Kyuhyun expected. Kyuhyun fidgeted nervously in his seat, palms sweating when he realized he was just one person away from making his own introduction.

Eunhyuk stared at Kyuhyun curiously, vaguely wondering why his friend was so nervous. “Uh, hey. My name is Lee Hyukjae, but I prefer to be called Eunhyuk.”

“Interesting. Nice to meet you, Eunhyuk-sshi,” Ryeowook said, gesturing for him to sit down – just as he had done after every student’s introduction.

Kyuhyun stared at Eunhyuk enviously, wondering how his friend could be so calm. He didn’t even know why he was so nervous himself. Realizing it was his turn, Kyuhyun awkwardly stood up, avoiding his teacher’s expectant gaze by staring at his desk.

“Ah…hello, my name is Cho Kyuhyun,” Kyuhyun said, fumbling slightly when he bowed. He hesitantly glanced at his teacher, suddenly feeling queasy when he saw Ryeowook smile at him in amusement.

“It’s nice to meet you, Kyuhyun-sshi,” Ryeowook smiled warmly, before turning his attention to the next student. Kyuhyun sat down in a stunned daze, vaguely wondering why he still felt queasy after his introduction.

--------------------------------

Kyuhyun didn’t understand the anxiety he was feeling when he arrived first to music class. It wasn’t anything new for him to show up first to class; he preferred it this way, since Donghae and Eunhyuk walked too slow for him and spent too much time by their lockers for no reason. What made him anxious was the fact that he was all alone in the classroom with the new music teacher.

“Kyuhyun-sshi, correct?”

Kyuhyun dropped his pencil, shocked when his name was suddenly called. He looked up, watching his teacher in mute surprise as Ryeowook picked up his pencil from the floor.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I just wanted to know if you could help me erase the board. I’m not exactly tall and it’s too embarrassing to stand on a chair...” Ryeowook asked, slightly flustered at having to admit such a thing. “So could you help me?”

Kyuhyun stared at him for a few seconds, watching as Ryeowook furrowed his eyebrows, clearly expecting an answer.

“Oh, yeah, sure,” Kyuhyun blurted out, slowly rising up from his seat. He followed Ryeowook to the front of the classroom, maneuvering around opened instruments cases scattered on the floor. Ryeowook handed him the eraser for the board, fingertips brushing lightly against each other when Kyuhyun grabbed it.

“Thank you Kyuhyun, I really appreciate this. If you want, you can be the first one to pick an instrument you want to play before everyone else does.” Ryeowook promised, patting Kyuhyun gently on the back before grabbing a marker to write on the board.

Kyuhyun gulped nervously, struggling to focus on his task when he could practically smell the faint traces of cologne – a nice citrus blend – coming from Ryeowook, who was standing so close beside him. He watched from the corner of his eyes as Ryeowook scrawled in neat handwriting the assignments for the day. He couldn’t help but notice the obvious height difference between them, with Ryeowook standing on the tip of toes occasionally to write in the areas he just erased.

“Why are you staring at me like that?” Ryeowook questioned, startling Kyuhyun again.

Dammit, I really got to stop spacing out! Kyuhyun blushed at getting caught, quickly handing back the board eraser.

“Because I didn’t realize how short you are,” He blurted out hastily.

Kyuhyun froze when he realized what he said because not only was it disrespectful to a teacher, but he was extremely worried about his teacher’s reaction – after all, how is he supposed to get good grades if the teacher hates him?

Ryeowook looked stunned for a second, before bursting out into laughter. “Hey, I’m not that short! I’m a hundred and seventy-three centimeters.”

Kyuhyun stayed stunned, the corner of his mouths twitching upwards into a small, hesitant smile. He really liked the sound of Ryeowook’s laughter, and couldn’t help but feel a little prideful in knowing that he caused it.

“Are you sure you’re not a hundred and sixty-nine centimeters?” Kyuhyun teased, carefully watching as Ryeowook laughed again, slapping Kyuhyun’s arm. Ryeowook shooed Kyuhyun back to his seat, shaking his head.

“I’m not that short, you’re just too tall! Now, go back to your seat before I change my mind about you picking first,” Ryeowook warned playfully, the threat obviously harmless. He giggled when Kyuhyun pretend to whine on his way back to his seat.

Kyuhyun sat down, about to retort when suddenly students started filing into class with greetings and random comments thrown in, stealing Ryeowook’s attention. Kyuhyun bit the inside of his cheek, wondering why he felt weird like a sudden loss of…something. He quickly shrugged off the feeling as he spotted his friends settling down in their seats, arguing about nonsense like always.

“Kyuhyun?” Eunhyuk called him. Kyuhyun hesitantly tore his gaze away from their music teacher, turning to meet Eunhyuk’s confused stare.

“What?”

“Nothing, I’m just…surprised.” Eunhyuk said carefully, leaning back further in his seat.

“Yeah, usually you scold us for taking so long,” Donghae added, followed by a bad mimic of what was supposed to be Kyuhyun’s voice, “What took you guys so long?”

Kyuhyun frowned, “I don’t sound like that, and my voice is not even that deep!”

Eunhyuk couldn’t help but nod his head in agreement, digging through his backpack for a pencil. Donghae frowned at them, mumbling something along the lines of ‘you guys are mean’, before focusing on the board. Kyuhyun frowned, unsure whether to comfort his friend or not. He decided to just follow Donghae’s lead, by turning his attention back to the front of the class.

 “Last class was kind of a free period since we spent the time getting to know each other and discussing what Park-seonsaengnim didn’t teach you – which apparently wasn’t a lot, since you guys don’t even have instruments to play,” Ryeowook explained, smiling at the overly rapt attention he had over his new music class, “So today, we’re going to be picking instruments. Feel free to pick which one you want to play but, unfortunately, only one person can play the piano. Now, does anyone have any questions?”

“Seonsaengnim!” Donghae yelled, “What instrument do you play?”

Kyuhyun stared at Donghae in disbelief, surprised by his friend’s outburst. He didn’t think Donghae was really interested in their music teacher, and briefly wondered why that thought sounded so unsettling.

“I can play the piano fairly well,” Ryeowook replied with a shrug.

“Why don’t you show us?” Another student shouted, though the question wasn’t posed so innocently as Donghae’s. It sounded more like a challenge, though Ryeowook didn’t look all effected. He merely pursed his lips, watching as the class started to get rowdy.

“Play us a song!” A classmate – Kyuhyun thinks his name is Junsu – goaded, quickly earning the agreements of other students.

Kyuhyun watched with uncertainty, but curiously – he actually wanted to see how well Ryeowook’s music skills were. He watched as Ryeowook relented, walking towards the piano without even showing the slightest bit of nervousness. Ryeowook sat down, glancing at the class once more before looking back down at the piano.

“This is a song I composed in college,” Ryeowook announced, staring tenderly down at the polished piano keys. “It’s called Memories in Breeze.”

The song was beyond Kyuhyun’s expectation; a soft melody that stunned the room to absolute silence, the song carrying a sweet, sorrowful tone, accompanied by the gentle humming coming from Ryeowook. Kyuhyun couldn’t help but think Ryeowook looked prettier when he played the piano; eyes closed, long lashes faintly touching high cheekbones, and lips pursed in concentration - completely entranced into his song.

He felt like the song ended too soon when Ryeowook stopped the song slowly, thin fingers hovering gently over the keys. Ryeowook flinched in surprise, the spell broken by the mixture of noise of students clapping and complimenting him.

Kyuhyun couldn’t help but smile, looking back down at his desk to doodle.

“That was so sad, seonsaengnim!” One of the girls cried out. “But it was so beautiful!”

Ryeowook just smiled bashfully, “Then should I play something happier?”

Before the class could react, Ryeowook was already playing the theme song of the videogame, Super Mario; amusing most of the class once they recognized it - especially Kyuhyun.

“Okay, enough playing around – we’ll do that later,” Ryeowook stepped away from the piano with a smile, walking back towards his desk to pick up a few sheets of paper and held it up for the class to see. “We’re going to do this row by row, where you guys will come up and pick the instrument of your choosing. I need to know who picked what, so please write your name down on this sheet of paper with the instrument you actually picked – not the one you wanted to, understand?”

Kyuhyun stopped doodling on his notebook, unexpectedly meeting Ryeowook’s gaze when he glanced up. He suddenly felt queasy again, and he quickly looked away, feeling his cheeks heating up when he heard a low chuckle coming from the front of the room.

 “I almost forgot, but I promised Kyuhyun that he could go first since he helped me out earlier,” Ryeowook mentioned, grinning as he looked directly at Kyuhyun.

At the mention of his name, most of the class had turned around to glance at him, obviously curious. Kyuhyun fidgeted in his seat, purposely ignoring his friends’ blatant staring as he walked towards the front of the room. He moved around awkwardly, uncomfortable underneath the scrutiny of the class as he quickly tried to find the most appealing instrument. He could practically feel the stares on his back, as if burning a large hole – this is why he never liked attention on him, unless he was singing. He knew he had to make a decision and make it quick to get out of this uncomfortable situation, so he hastily chose the first thing he saw.

“I want to play the piano.”

A/N: Ryeowook really did compose a song called 'Memories in Breeze'. When I first heard it (it was in a kyuwook video that I watched), I thought it was so sad but really nice at the same time - his piano skills truly are amazing. Ryeowook did play the Mario theme song in a Chinese program too, I remember because Kyuhyun looked so excited when he did. Anyways, I'm tired of editing this part so many times, so if I made any mistakes please let me know and thank you for reading! (I honestly didn't expect this many subscribers - so thank you so much.)