Minseok stood seething as Sehun and Jongin took their seats in the last remaining spaces in the room.

The attitude that those two held sent off warning signals in Minseok’s head. Of course, their late arrival would rile most teachers up, but it was the smaller things that meant Minseok would definitely be keeping a close eye on them this year and no, he wasn’t just bitter that they were both taller than him. It was just their poorly presented uniforms that accompanied the mean confidence they oozed that had the class in silence as they stepped in.

It was also the fact that the Sehun kid wouldn’t stop staring at him. Even as Baekhyun whispered something into his ear from behind that caused a smile to tug at Sehun’s mouth and his eyes to crinkle, the boy’s eyes still locked on Minseok’s.

But Minseok didn’t stare back.

As much as he wanted to challenge this kid, his professionalism had taught him that playing along with a student’s tactics broke down the barrier between teacher and pupil, which was something that made his job a whole lot harder. So Minseok chose to ignore Sehun for the time being. It was already ten minutes past the hour and he hadn’t even done the register yet. This fact alone caused nervousness to push its way up his throat which he cleared before calling out the names.

Unsurprisingly though, one didn’t give a reply.

“Sehun, Oh” Minseok called.

Nothing.

The sound of low level chatting drifted its way up from the back of the classroom and Minseok rolled his eyes up from the document in hand - he had expected this at least from a student who showed up tardy to his class. Sure enough, Sehun was sat with his back to Minseok, waving his hands around in Chanyeol’s direction at something obviously very funny. It didn’t help that Chanyeol then joined in with a rather loud guffaw that increased the volume tenfold.

One of Minseok’s eyebrows twitched in a tell-tale sign of annoyance.

“OH SEHUN” Minseok yelled in the most threatening tone he could muster.

It had been a while since Minseok had had to raise his voice towards any of his students as it was something he avoided or rarely had to do. He wasn’t big headed as such, but Minseok found his students to be complacent with his instructions and respectful towards him and his teaching which helped keep the classroom in order.

However, Oh Sehun was obviously not one of these pupils.

He continued sharply and showing no lenience towards the boy in front of him. “You might be new to this class, but I am sure you are not unfamiliar with classroom etiquette.”

Sehun had swivelled round in his chair at the sound of his name and was now staring dully at Minseok – all previous signs of sass removed. His raised eyebrows were dropped over indifferent eyes and his mouth had formed a straight, resigned line. 

Minseok was unsure of what to make of this different Oh Sehun, but without the previously worn sneer distorting his features he looked weary somehow.

A little taken aback at the boy, but also at Minseok’s own lack of empathy for the new student, he scolded himself. He and Oh Sehun had obviously gotten off to a bad start and it was unlike himself to get so frustrated over a pupil’s behaviour, particularly as that behaviour was simply turning up late. Hell, he could have saved a kitten from a burning building on his way in for all Minseok knew.

He softened his tone slightly.

“I suggest that in the future you take note of how well the other students around you behave and take a leaf out of their books” Minseok said, offering a slight smile.

Upon hearing these words however, as quickly as it appeared, Sehun’s solemn expression was replaced by a cold grimace as he listened to Mr Kim.

“Whatever,” he spat towards the front of the classroom.

Minseok stiffened in surprise. Or was it really surprise, but just intense irritation at the boy that sat before him? The brat who he had been amiable towards for just a moment and the brat that gave this in return.

Despite remaining calm and composed on the exterior, Minseok was far from it on the inside. It took all his self-control not to hurl his pen at Sehun who just slumped an inch further down in his chair and was eyeing him lazily.

Sehun simply watched with amusement as this new teacher got even more flustered before him.

He would be lying if he said this Mr Kim hadn’t piqued his interest upon entry to his maths class which just encouraged Sehun to test his limits. It was the steady confidence with which Mr Kim stood by his desk that made Sehun want to breach this authority – and he could tell it was working.

Everything about Mr Kim screamed neat, from his stupidly neat hair in a stupid middle part and his neatly rolled sleeves of his stupid blue shirt.

He was too perfect and it pissed Sehun off.

The concept of perfection made him shiver, but the idea of slowly dismantling that made him shiver even more with mean anticipation as he blinked slowly at the teacher. Sehun was sharp and he knew that Mr Kim was sharper from one glance at his polished appearance. Presentation and perseverance were of great importance to this man and Sehun knew that he expected the same of his students.

Like hell Sehun was going to give him what he wanted.

He breathed out one of his best ‘bored’ sighs and flicked his eyes up from his hands that were tapping lazily on the desk before him. He was met with a Mr Kim who had steam practically coming out of his ears as the small man boiled with kept anger at Sehun’s negligence.

When Sehun spoke he made sure to keep his voice velvety.

 “Sir,” he paused for emphasis, watching Mr Kim’s eyes fix on his in trepidation.

“I don’t want to sound rude, but I don’t ing care.” rounding it off with a beaming smile, making sure to get that aegyo in there. 

Needless to say, Minseok nearly had a seizure.

From Oh Sehun’s posture to his pure lack of effort, his badly dyed hair right down to his scuffed trainers, Minseok hated him. Not only that but his language. His language to a senior? This was something new and not something Minseok was going to tolerate. Nope, never in a million years was he going to let Oh Sehun walk out of this room without a weeks’ worth of detentions resting on his too-broad and too-lanky shoulders.

This punk who had come strolling into the room at his own leisure, speaking to the teacher at his own leisure meant that Minseok found himself giving one of his pupils their first detention in his two years of teaching - and he was ing over the moon about it.

Even Chanyeol stopped chuckling when the words ‘detention’ had made their way out of Mr Kim’s lips and Jongin’s hand stopped patting Sehun’s shoulder in encouragement.

Out the corner of his eye Baekhyun could see the class swivel their heads towards Sehun and he knew they were all thinking the same thing. What just happened?

It was like a ing tennis match in that classroom, with the heads of the students flicking back and forth between Mr Kim and Sehun, the latter’s grin leaving his face before briefly appearing there bigger than ever.

As always, Baekhyun took this opportunity to look at Mr Kim who was looking particularly hot and flustered.

He had never seen his teacher this far out of his comfort zone. I mean, yes there were the odd disturbances, like the time when Chanyeol had tried to flick parts of his peanut butter sandwich into a girl’s hair in front of him and it had turned out she was allergic to nuts which left her wheezing everywhere over a poor Mr Kim. In his usual fashion though, he had remained pretty cool about the whole thing whilst handing an apologetic Chanyeol over to the head teacher.

Today though, Mr Kim’s eyes seemed to have widened exponentially and his mouth had dropped open into a pout that didn’t match his insanely cute features. His little hamster teeth were peeking out from under his lips that (Baekhyun had always thought) reminded him of the deep pink cushions round his grandmother’s house – anyway, moving on. Mr Kim’s small hands looked sort of wrong but also kind of right clenched tightly into fists by his side as they began to turn a paler shade under the pressure of keeping his temper in place.

Baekhyun watched as a tiny bead of sweat snuck under Mr Kim’s collar where a vein he didn’t know existed throbbed and Baekhyun thought that he could quite easily get used to this new version of Mr Kim as he silently thanked Sehun for failing his last maths class which landed him in this one.

This was going to be interesting.

Minseok wondered in exasperation what exactly Oh Sehun had done to have moved into his class, and he continued to ask unknown gods why he deserved this awful turn of events as he made his way back to the faculty office for lunch break.

The lesson had continued in a similar fashion, with Sehun not scared one bit by the prospect of numerous detentions and instead choosing to ignore Minseok when he was spoken to - only answering with the bare minimum which in his case, was a series of grunts and curses.

Minseok was dreading the lessons to come which were undoubtedly going to be a challenge. He found himself wondering how he was going to tackle them, as well as the daily detentions that started tomorrow evening.  

He fought back a feeling of dread thinking about it as he troopsed up flights of stairs.

Minseok heaved a sigh of relief as he slid through the doors into the cool and quiet office. He was always the first to arrive back for lunch and he savoured these rare moments without the constant bickering between Jongdae and Joonmyun adding to unwanted background noise. They always took a trip to the cafeteria before returning to the office to eat, unlike Minseok who cooked and boxed his own lunch every evening so didn’t need to make that trip, thank god.

Kyungsoo was probably talking to various teachers and kids on his way here, because who didn’t like Kyungsoo with his sweet smile and sweet personality and sweet everything? It wasn’t that Minseok wasn’t liked by teachers and students, far from it; he just did things without hassle which meant navigating through the halls quickly and free of small talk.

When he reached his desk, Minseok dropped his satchel beside it and promptly sagged down in his seat; resting his forehead on the familiar wood.

He took several deep breaths and inhaled the faint smell of polish and paper. It calmed him. Familiarity, safety and comfort were his favourite things and he was gaining them back slowly breath by breath after that lesson a few hours ago.

His nose then picked up the most soothing scent he could possibly think of - fabric softener mixed with a faint floral lilt and instant coffee granules - Kyungsoo.

Just the presence of a small palm that had appeared and had started rubbing circles between his shoulder blades worked its magic. Minseok felt his breathing soon slow down; smiling into the wood as a low hum made its way to Minseok’s ears. His heart rate steadied; Kyungsoo’s voice could work wonders.

He stood and Minseok sat there in the office for minutes that felt like hours; as if time never moved. Even the breeze passing in through the window seemed to stop, and a drowsy fly that had been buzzing around for days shushed in its escape.

“Min,” Kyungsoo began in a barely audible voice, “I got you a coffee if you’d want one?”

A muffled thunk indicated a mug being placed on the table next to him and Minseok slowly dragged his head up from the table. Too tired to smile at the man above him who wore a worried expression.

“Jesus Min, you look a state” Kyungsoo started, “what happened? You love this whole coming back to school thing” he rambled in surprise at his colleague’s hooded eyes and down-turned mouth; lines decorating his forehead from the knobbly table, his hair upturned.

Minseok smiled weakly.

“I er-- come across some trouble with a student Soo, nothing to worry about” he sighed, “thanks for the coffee by the way”.

Minseok tried to reassure Kyungsoo with what he hoped was a smile, which Kyungsoo returned with a simper and crescent eyes. He brought up a hand to pat down a stray bit of hair that had been disturbed from Minseok’s moping about and gave the crown of his head a quick pat.

“Yah Min, chin up pup” he encouraged. “You’re a trooper. You’re the dude who picks up Jongdae at 3am from Hongdae, don’t let a kid get you down!”

Kyungsoo continued to rub circles into the base of Minseok’s neck in comfort, his tone softer this time.

“Who is this kid anyway? I mean, he can’t be much worse than Park Chanyeol can he?”

Minseok gave a resigned sigh and glanced up at Kyungsoo.

“I don’t know if you know him, but its um—Oh Sehun? Tall kid with light hair? Hangs around with Kim Jongin?” he asked.

Kyungsoo’s face showed no recognition so he continued.

“Anyway, he turned up late of all things and when he apologised it was all sarcastic like ooh sir, I’m sorry. Then it was ok for a maximum of two minutes before he didn’t answer his name in the register. I was already running late by this point and you know how much that stresses me out” he gave a pointed look at Kyungsoo, "so I yelled at him but then he gave me these stupid sad eyes so I let him off.”

Minseok took a deep breath, “but then the brat swore at me, he said the ‘f’ word Soo, like, to a teacher? So yeah, that annoyed the hell out of me and I tried to keep my composure I really did and--”

, he was rambling. The very topic of Oh Sehun made Minseok heat up.

“Well yeah,” he concluded with a slump of his shoulders, “long story short, he ended up with a weeks’ worth of detentions starting tomorrow and I lost all my evenings for this week.”

Minseok drooped down even further until every one of his chins was showing when the reality of this sunk in.

Every. ing . Evening.

Kyungsoo, as always, seemed to sense his disappointment. He lightly tapped the side of the coffee mug with a finger and smiled reassuringly, “drink up Min! Coffee always cheers you up which is why I made you a super big mug today. No more moping around okay?”

Nodding in thanks and with a genuine smile, he looked up at a cheerful Kyungsoo.

“As always, thank you.” Minseok said, now sincere.

He bowed his head in embarrassment and added “you errr- you always know how to make me happy so yeah… thanks for everything.”

Kyungsoo just beamed even more brightly than before and nodded in response before padding over to the over side of the room.

Before long the sound of peaceful humming filled the silence.

Sehun found himself zoning out at lunch as Baekhyun balanced empty noodle cartons on his head to great applause from the canteen and namely his biggest fan, Chanyeol.

He just too was preoccupied with the whole deal surrounding this new teacher whom he couldn’t shake his mind from.

Okay. Sehun always played up to his teachers, because education to be honest. the rules and his parents who sent him to this hole in the first place. But he had never gone as far as swearing at a teacher before.

Swearing at a teacher was kind of a big deal and he almost punched himself there and then when he remembered all the hours after school he had to endure with Mr Kim or whoever he thought he was. This teacher who riled Sehun up unlike any other. The one that Sehun just wanted to see being torn apart - polished button by polished button, the smile gone from his face.

Ew. Sehun shivered at the thought of his gleaming eyes, all positive and full of energy at the beginning of another ty term in what he assumed was a pretty ty job.

It pissed him off. 

What the was he supposed to tell his parents? He could never let them know about all the detentions.

He was still a little angel in their delusional heads. He was good boy Sehun who was well behaved and well liked. He achieved the highest grades and his favourite subjects were of course maths and physics, and he wanted to be an architect just like his mummy, la la la something about a lovely life, something about after school clubs.

After school clubs, that was it.

His parents didn’t need to know about the detentions. Sehun was staying behind in school to monitor the library whilst the librarian was on holiday, of course he was. Yes.

His parents never needed to know. Not about his detentions, nor his failing grades. They didn’t need to know about his friends he never brought round because who could let Baekhyun, Jongin and Chanyeol into a house without anything breaking.

His parents would never, ever know and that’s how it would stay.

They wanted the best for him and Sehun tried to give them his best, when in reality that was barely anything and never nearly enough. Not ever.

He wasn’t going to lie about the fact that he lived a kushy life.

He should be happy with his parent’s high paying jobs and a home in one of the priciest pads in the city. His life was perfect and it was this squeaky clean existence that covered up so many of his problems, and that eventually made him despise this concept – of perfection.  

He was Oh Sehun - notoriously popular bad guy with a super pretty face and pretty life to match. Wealthy and with so much money that he didn’t even need to be clever. In everybody’s eyes, including his parents, he could never be unhappy.

Well how ing wrong were they. Everyone (except his closest friends) were ing delusional.

Sehun would happily toss this life away if it meant he could do what he loved in another. Bye to all the expectations to live up to his parents’ names. See ya to all the teachers who pressured him into an academic career. Lastly, good-ing-riddance to Mr Kim who couldn’t help but flaunt his pure happiness and content with what he did for a living in front of him.

He was trapped, and for the foreseeable future there was no way out.

Across the table, Jongin was keeping a close eye on Sehun who would have usually joined in with the banter in the canteen.

He and Sehun were like brothers, twins. They mirrored each other in school and in dance practice. Looking at Sehun was like looking at himself and he could tell as soon as he entered his maths class period one, that there was something the matter with his best friend.

Jongin gave Sehun a subtle nudge as not to attract the attention of the others who would be sure to blow this situation out of proportion. He had visions of Mr Kim coming into class the next day in a full body cast if they ever found out that he was the source of Sehun’s discontent and he couldn’t help but smile a bit.

Sehun’s gaze deadpanned over Jongin with lifeless energy after he felt the tap on his wrist.

, this was worse than Jongin had thought.

After a moment of just reading each other’s expressions, Jongin mouthed two words.

“Dance studio?”

And thank god at that moment a small flicker of something appeared in Sehun’s eyes.

That night Sehun danced and danced and danced.

He sweat buckets and his head was pounding. The music, beat and the squeaking of his and Jongin’s trainers all merged into one rush of adrenaline. His breath seared his throat but the burn was good, it was fresh and it kept him going.

Unlike his impeccable home life, it was this unpredictability and madness that Sehun revelled in.

That night he practiced until 3am, because who knew when else he would be given this opportunity with a week of detentions heading his way?

Across the city in a small studio apartment, Minseok was up too, and hunched under a lamp. He made a mental note to hunt for a replacement for as cheap as possible when he had the time because he might as well be working by candle light it was so dim.

He could barely make out the lines of his next small architecture project as the metallic lead glanced across the surface of the paper.

It was late but he didn’t even care. Minseok was well aware of how restricted his time was to do what he loved.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

word count: 3595

yup chapter two is eventually here!

sorry it took so long, i'm one of those ppl who have a ton of new ideas and never continue with their old ones, but this this is a summer project i vow to complete so keep lookin for updates!

i'm hopefully gonna do these weekly but who knows when i will get a writing block who knows. this update was a bit of an insight into sehun's head as i brainstormed over the weekend the finer details of the plot i hope to create.

prayin u liked it, as always comments, subs and votes are always super cool! 

my twitter is here and tumblr here <3

much love,

heléna