A loud knock on her front door the next evening, followed by several impatient rings of the doorbell jolted a surprised and disoriented Caden out of a nap she hadn’t realized she was taking.

She found herself lying comfortably on the couch and began blinking rapidly for a few moments before she managed to finally managed to right herself and begin making her somewhat wobbly way to the door.

She yanked it open rather more violently than intended before immediately yawning in the faces of the small band of students before her.

“Were you sleeping?” Seungri demanding, sliding past her into the apartment.

“Not on purpose,” she murmured, rubbing her eyes as she moved aside for the rest of the Monday students to follow suit.

“Wow, you must have been really tired if that’s the case,” Daesung joked as he took a seat in the nearby armchair. “Didn’t get much sleep over the weekend?”

“I got plenty of sleep Friday night,” she corrected, artfully stretching to avoid meeting Top’s gaze, which she could practically feel drilling into the side of her face. “It was Saturday night that I missed out on.”

Finally more or less awake, Caden was suddenly struck with a mildly alarming realization.  She did a mental tally of the students in the room before she jerked her head around to glare at Seungri, who appeared poised to add a snarky remark to her statement.

“What are you doing here?  It’s Monday,” she pointed out in an accusatory tone. “You’re not learning Japanese.”

Always quick to defend himself, said snarky remark was effectively diverted as he held up his hands to emphasize his innocence.

“I just came back to get my watch,” he insisted. “I took it off in the bathroom on Thursday and forgot it.”

Caden would have been happy to continue berating him, but as soon as he mentioned it, she remembered finding an expensive watch beside the bathroom sink at some point over the weekend.

“Alright… you’re off the hook this time,” she pronounced, still eying him rather suspiciously.  Seungri only beamed in an entirely self-satisfied manner.  Caden immediately rolled her eyes, although she couldn’t help but grin slightly.  She cleared in an attempt to hide her amusement.

“Fine.  In that case, let me just fetch it for you so you can be on your way,” she offered, making to go retrieve the object in question, but she was quickly interrupted.

“Forget about that for a moment, Teacher,” Seungri ordered with an even more sly grin. “First I’d much rather hear about the reason you didn’t get any sleep over the weekend!”  

Caden’s eyes narrowed and she opened to tell him off, but before she could get a word out, she was once again cut off - this time by GD.

“What our rude maknae is trying to say,” the leader assured her, suppressing a grin of his own, “is that we’d all love to hear about your weekend before we get started, Teacher.”

Caden didn’t respond right away, weighing her options as she glanced around at her students helplessly.  Her three Monday students were all smiling in a completely innocent (and therefore totally suspicious) manner, while the maknae was still smirking evilly.

She looked around at each of them pleadingly, wondering just what she had done to deserve becoming the object of obvious ridicule.

“Didn’t you mention something about spending time with college students?” Daesung prompted helpfully.

Caden sighed heavily, shooting death glares at each of them as she finally admitted to herself that she wasn’t going to escape their interest easily.

“Fine, you nosey brats,” she muttered to herself, only causing their grins to widen.  She took a deep breath, looking around at them in mild distaste.

“I did spend time with my friends - who happen to be college students - on Saturday,” she informed her overly interested students, all of whom were currently fighting to keep their expressions neutral. “I was meeting two of Daeho’s best friends for the first time at their weekly club gathering.”

“And where did you go?” GD inquired casually.

“We went to a pizza place in Hongdae,” Caden answered, eying him suspiciously. “Then to a bar.  Then outside a convenience store.”

“And how did you like his friends?” Seungri chimed in cheerfully.

“They were great!” she allowed - her enthusiasm toward her new friends breaking through her annoyance with the topic. “We hit it off right away!  You guys would be jealous of all the beautiful college girls I’ve added to my collection now~”

“I didn’t realize you had started a collection,” Top joked cheerily.

“I’m always open to collecting as many gorgeous and talented girlfriends as possible,” Caden replied smugly. “And once I’ve collected them all, we will rise up as one and take over the world with our fabulousness!”

She added the last bit in English, causing GD and Daesung who mostly understood to laugh somewhat hysterically, while Top and Seungri were left shaking their heads, excluded.

“You know, this somewhat explains your bizarre behavior toward the 2NE1 hoobaes at Hyung’s party,” the maknae mused pointedly.

Caden, who had been chuckling at her own silliness immediately paused, shooting him a glare, while Top all but face-palmed at his bandmate’s terrible lack of restraint.

“What’s that?” GD started to inquire when he’d calmed down slightly. “What about Teacher and 2NE1?”

Seungri opened his mouth to explain, before Caden expertly cut him off.

“That’s not really what’s important,” she announced, shooting another death glare at the maknae. “Although I would happily add all of the 2NE1 members to my collection.”

“Why does that sound somewhat creepy the way you say it?” GD asked with a grin, mercifully allowing the subject to drop.  Caden returned his grin.

“It sounds like you’re happy about your new friends,” Top pointed out teasingly.

“It sounds like you’re in love,” Seungri threw out snottily, pouting slightly at being brushed off.

He had probably intended to get Caden worked up, but on the contrary she only chuckled.

“I can’t disagree with that,” she affirmed teasingly with a wide smile, “but compared to how in love Soonbok is with me, this is nothing.”

“How can you tell?” Daesung asked curiously.

“I think throwing herself into my lap and kissing me is a dead giveaway,” Caden joked without thinking.

When four sets of eyes turned big as saucers, she belatedly realized that she was conversing with her students, not her friends.

“Wait!  It’s not what you think!” she cried, but it was clearly too late.  All four expressions of surprise instantly melted into the most evil, self-satisfied, grinch-who-stole-christmas smiles of any human she had ever seen.

“No- wait, wait, wait!” she sputtered, immediately shifting into panic mode. “It wasn’t as dramatic as it sounds!  It was just a peck!  It was kind of a joke!  Totally innocent!  Get your minds out of the gutter, you erts!”

“We’re erts?” Seungri repeated skeptically, clearly enjoying himself. “How much did you have to drink that night to start going around stealing kisses from other girls?”

“I hardly had-  She drank way more-  I wasn’t the one- !” Caden jabbered, totally flustered by the accusation.

Finally, giving up she huffed loudly, fixing an entirely too self-satisfied Seungri her worst look.

“That’s it!” she announced, making her way toward him determinedly, expression intimidating enough to wipe the smile off even their maknae’s face. “Storytime is over.  All unauthorized students are hereby banned from this apartment until their assigned class time.  Let’s go, get moving!”

She began prodding the complaining maknae in the direction of the bathroom in order to retrieve the cursed watch in question before immediately turning to nudge him back through the living room and out the door.

Having closed it in his face with much satisfaction, she turned with a pleasant sigh, only to find her three Monday students staring at her with matching smirks.  She huffed at them once more.

“Not one word,” she warned in Korean, eying them distrustfully as they worked to suppress their grins.

She switched to Japanese, effectively beginning the lesson in earnest,

“Alright, let’s begin.”

“Yes, Teacher,” they all chimed in unison, setting up their workstations as innocently as they could manage.

Caden sighed to herself, shaking her head with a small smile.  Although she hadn’t intended to release that particular piece of information, and although she had managed to totally exacerbate the situation by panicking… all the commotion had managed to effectively prevent her from having to explain the way her night ended with Daeho and the real reason she hadn’t gotten any sleep.

‘Thank god for small favors,’ she mused with a private smile as she began writing out the day’s itinerary on the whiteboard.

==================================================================

Wow.

I am terrible at updating.

I totally forgot about it for a few weeks at a time... Sheesh.

Hopefully you guys liked this little silly chapter as a triumphant return for most of the boys and a little spilling of Caden's personal life into her work fam lol

I actually kind of forgot about this chapter while I was laboring over finishing the last one.  So I have a bit more than expected already written.  Now all I need to do is not forget to post it for 8 years ^^

Let me know what you thought!  Try not to scream at me for being an awful absent parent, lol.  More soon!