“Come in,” Kyungsoo called, answering the inquiring knock on the door which had pulled him from his contemplative thoughts about the next student on his list. Byun Baekhyun was adorable, but—like most eight year olds—he was also incredibly mischievous and prone to getting in trouble. Kyungsoo carried Baekhyun’s misbehavior like a burden, taking responsibility upon himself, and even questioning his role as an educator, whenever his student chose to act out. None of these musings were shared with Baekhyun’s father, however, because Kyungsoo was a man before he even thought about becoming a teacher, and Kim Minseok was simply too beautiful to bother with minor issues like his son’s penchant for singing distractingly in class. Or like Baekhyun’s borderline obsession with another one of Kyungsoo’s students, Kim Jongdae. (The obsession was mutual, but Kyungsoo, who expected Baekhyun’s mischief from experience, never seemed to notice that Jongdae didn’t really mind when Baekhyun held his hand, or kicked his chair, or kissed his cheek. And honestly, Kyungsoo thought Baekhyun’s crush would have been super adorable—if the two involved weren’t both in Grade 2 and far too young to be thinking about such things.)

Instead, Kyungsoo opted for the complimentary—and mostly true—“Oh, Mr. Kim, your son gets excellent grades and is a joy to teach. Please come in!”

Minseok stepped into Kyungsoo’s classroom, pausing to take an interested look around. He’d been to his son’s class often—without a mother in the home, the diversity of the maternal role fell to Minseok, so he had baked birthday treats, chaperoned field trips, and monitored lunch on more than one occasion—but the room now looked empty and almost sad without the majority of its regular occupants.

“Is it strange?” The question slipped out before Minseok could stop it, but Kyungsoo didn’t seem to mind.

“Without the kids around, you mean?” Minseok nodded, and Kyungsoo nodded back before slipping into total teacher mode and asking Minseok to be seated.

“Mr. Kim,” he began slowly, “I meant what I said earlier—Baekhyun’s antics make our classroom a little brighter each day—but your son also seems to struggle with respecting authority. School is a place for the students to learn, after all, so I don’t mind doing my best to gently correct him when necessary, but other students occasionally get roped into his misbehavior and that is when it becomes a problem.”

Minseok nodded along as Kyungsoo spoke, seeming to agree with his son’s teacher in regard to Baekhyun’s actions. “Kyungsoo,” he called his son’s teacher informally by the first name and Kyungsoo stiffened noticeably. “Baek responds well when you’re direct and assertive with him. Frankly, the kid’s a little diva, so I’m not sure “gentle” is necessarily the best approach with him.”

Kyungsoo tried not to be offended that this Parent-Teacher conference had somehow turned from a discussion of Baekhyun to an indirect jab at Kyungsoo’s teaching style. Rather than confront that particular issue, however, Kyungsoo remembered the valuable adage of “the customer is always right,” and instead focused his attention on an argument he could win.

“Mr. Kim,” he requested, somehow managing to remain polite while also laying on a little of his strict teacher tone, “call me Teacher Do. I feel that the maintaining of honorifics and formality is most appropriate between myself and the parents of my students.”

“But Kyungsoo, I—” Minseok tried to protest, puffing his cheeks and batting his eyelashes adorably for extra impact.

“Please, Mr. Kim.” Kyungsoo didn’t care that his name sounded wonderful coming from Minseok’s lips, or that Baekhyun’s father was being impossibly cute—well, he did, actually, but finding his student’s father attractive wasn’t very appropriate either. This was Kyungsoo’s Parent-Teacher conference though; they were in his classroom; this school was his domain; and he was going to insist on formality, damnit.

Minseok put his hands up in surrender and chuckled lightly, secretly loving the sight of his son’s pretty teacher all flushed and bothered at Minseok’s mere use of Kyungsoo’s first name. “Alright, alright,” Minseok conceded. “I won’t call you Kyungsoo.”

Kyungsoo nodded, pleased that he’d gotten through to Mr. Kim. It felt like he was finally reclaiming this meeting and turning the attention away from himself and back to Baekhyun—where it should have been the whole time anyway—but then Minseok kept talking and Kyungsoo’s internal chant of victory ended abruptly.

“On one condition,” Minseok added smugly, “Go to dinner with me.”

Baekhyun’s father had noticed that his son’s teacher brightened quite cutely when he thought he’d won. Since Minseok decided that a straight-laced and borderline angry Kyungsoo was actually a huge turn on, however, Minseok didn’t really mind the sensuously pouting look of irritation that crossed Kyungsoo’s features at his words. Especially since a furiously blushing Kyungsoo gasped indignantly, but didn’t explicitly reject Minseok’s invitation; actually, he ignored it, instead focusing on Baekhyun’s contributions as a student and meeting Minseok’s eyes only when necessary.

As the meeting drew to a close, Minseok thought he’d try one more time in getting Kyungsoo to agree to a date. “Kyung—I mean, Teacher Do—you work too hard. It’s clear that you love your students, but you should still eat, right?”

Kyungsoo nodded tentatively, seeing where the conversation was going, and not liking it one bit.

“Well,” Minseok finished hopefully, “I have to eat too, so why don’t we just eat, you know, together?”

“Mr. Kim,” Kyungsoo began his response icily, “I should have known from the start of this meeting that you were going to be consistently informal. You came to see me tonight—like many other parents—to hear about your child’s progression in my class. Doing anything else—particularly asking me out for anything—is completely inappropriate.”

Minseok tried to pout convincingly at Kyungsoo’s harsh words, but was mostly just having a very uncomfortable time suppressing the—equally inappropriate—thoughts which surfaced in the face of a disciplining Teacher Do.

Kyungsoo, not realizing the emergence of Minseok’s little problem—or pointedly overlooking it—continued his lecture. “Yes,” he bit out, “I have to eat. But I’m in a happily committed relationship,” he held up his wedding ring as evidence before saying, “so I will not be eating with you.”

That produced a genuine grin from Minseok, despite Kyungsoo’s quite obvious rejection of his advances. “Alright, then,” Minseok appeased—not for the first time that night—“I guess that’s my cue to leave.”

Kyungsoo’s response was a curt nod of dismissal—the same he often used on his students when the gentle approach didn’t work—and Minseok tried not to dwell for too long on how attractive the teacher was. Instead, he rose from his seat at Kyungsoo’s desk, grabbing his jacket from the table, and pushing his chair back into place, before turning to shake Kyungsoo’s hand once again.

“Thank you for your insight regarding Baekhyun, Teacher Do,” Minseok said, sounding surprisingly grateful. With his hand still grasping Kyungsoo’s, Minseok smirked. “Good night,” he added, “Kyungsoo.”

This is why I work with children, Kyungsoo thought in exasperation as Baekhyun’s father exited the classroom and closed the door behind him. Parents are the worst.

Two or so hours—and three more conferences later—Kyungsoo walked into a darkened apartment, dropping his keys on the counter before jumping in surprise as strong arms s around his waist and a chin rested itself comfortably between on his shoulder. He hummed in pleasure and relaxed into his husband’s hold.

“Today was so tiring,” he complained, the toll of the day evident from the exhaustion in his tone.

“I’m sorry, baby,” his lover replied soothingly. “Tell me about it?”

Kyungsoo nodded gratefully. “The kids were fine,” he shared. “Although, Jongdae managed to write a whole paragraph in cursive today and Baekhyun was so excited about it that he kissed him in congratulations.” Kyungsoo looked up to see his lover’s eyebrow raised in surprised interest and clarified quickly, “It was only on the cheek, but still!”

He continued. “And then tonight was the Parent-Teacher night.”

“Oh really?” was the intrigued response. “And how did that go?”

Kyungsoo groaned as his husband started placing small kisses along his neck. “Well,” he said teasingly, “there was this one dad—Kim Minseok—who absolutely insisted on being inappropriate. I asked him repeatedly not to, but he called me Kyungsoo the whole meeting, and even asked me out to dinner!”

“The nerve,” Kyungsoo’s lover said with sarcasm evident in his voice. “And what did you say then?”

Despite knowing Minseok couldn’t see him from where he still stood with his chest at Kyungsoo’s back and his mouth ministering to Kyungsoo’s neck, Kyungsoo rolled his eyes exaggeratedly. “No,” he replied in faux annoyance, “I told him I was married and that his advances were inappropriate.”

“But not unwelcome?” Minseok questioned in amused curiosity.

Kyungsoo’s low groans turned into a sustained moan when Minseok’s tongue the inside of Kyungsoo’s ear and his teeth tugged lightly on Kyungsoo’s ear lobe. “Obviously not,” Kyungsoo managed, amid his continued vocalizations of pleasure.

Minseok turned his husband around so that they were now facing each other, and lifted Kyungsoo’s chin so that his lips met Minseok’s own in a heated kiss. “Yours weren’t unwelcome either,” Minseok whispered smugly against Kyungsoo’s heart-shaped lips.

“Idiot,” Kyungsoo replied, before leaning into his husband’s embrace for another kiss.

“Well,” Minseok rationalized his behavior from earlier, “it isn’t like you were available to go to our son’s conference, with you being both Baek’s teacher and his dad.”

Kyungsoo pulled away at his husband’s words, suddenly reminded that Minseok had the nerve to insult Kyungsoo’s teaching abilities. “That’s right!” he hissed angrily. “I can’t believe you basically told me how to do my own job!”

Minseok grinned and Kyungsoo wasn’t sure whether he wanted to wipe it off with his fist or with his lips. “Oh good,” his husband said cheekily, “I was hoping you’d remember that.” He winked at Kyungsoo and kissed him firmly, the heat from their previous kisses returning immediately as if it had never left. “You know how I love when you go all strict teacher on me.”

Kyungsoo groaned—this time at his husband’s erted cheesiness—and tried to pull away. Minseok just winked again and pulled Kyungsoo close for more kisses.

As I said in the Foreward, this was very very minorly inspired by the ending of a YoungSang fic I read multiple times but can't seem to find anymore. (Sadly.) Regardless, please let me know what you thought! Author-unnie