The latter reached forward to poke at Kyungsoo's small mouth and whined, "But I like you! You're so cute!"

 

Luhan knew that Kyungsoo's parents wouldn't really mind this interaction, because what first grade students were really "dating," anyway; but when Kyungsoo earnestly corrected Jongdae to say he was "y since that's what my noona says about the boy she likes," Luhan felt it was his job as an educator to put a stop to things.

 

"Boys," he called, crouching down to speak with them on their level so they could feel a part of the conversation instead of just victimized by a lecture, "that's not a word we use, alright?"

 

Kyungsoo looked confused, and Luhan just knew Jongdae was going to be an unintentional smart and ask "Which word?" so Luhan just took the initiative and continued to explain without pause. "Cute is fine. You can also say thinks like "beautiful" or "pretty" because those are really nice ways to talk about people you like." Luhan looked at each one kindly until both nodded in childlike understanding and then skipped away together, hands clasped tightly between them.

 

At lunch later that day, Luhan was further amused by the pair. Kyungsoo and Jongdae were seated side by side, making pictures with their rice on the wood of the desk. Jongdae, Luhan saw, was trying to assemble a tree with the tiny grains as he painstakingly set each one precisely with his chopsticks, while Kyungsoo, and uncharacteristically so, too, just kind of moved his small pile around to make a smiley face and left it at that.

 

Luhan knew he shouldn't allow how students to play with their food because if it was okay at school, the six year olds would equate that to alright everywhere else, too; but he didn't bother intervening as he ate his own lunch until he watched Jongdae dump all the rice from his tree back onto his plate so he could eat it.

 

"Jongdae," he stopped the boy from eating right as the chopsticks drew near his lips, "if you're going to take your food off the table, you can't eat it again if you put it back onto your plate. The desk can't fit into the dishwasher; that's why we don't eat on them."

 

"But we have snack at this table, too," Kyungsoo quietly pointed out, brow furrowed in concentration as he thought hard about what he wanted to say in defense of his favorite friend against his favorite teacher.

 

"You're right," Luhan agreed gently, silently applauding the tiny child's observational and debate skills, "that's a very good point, Kyungsoo. Don't you think, Jongdae?"

 

The child in question had just tried stuffing some of the "contaminated" rice into his mouth, but stopped suddenly when caught by his teacher's words and Kyubgsoo's little, though no less intimidating for it, glare. "Our Kyungie's the smartest!" Jongdae confirmed, pouring on the smarm to make up for his very obvious guilt.

 

Luhan didn't doubt that, as six year old intelligence goes, Kyungsoo had a lot. The teacher had met with his student's fathers at the beginning of the year, and Luhan had been amazed by the genius of the two men, one of whom was a neurosurgeon—Kim Junmyeon—and one of whom was an army pilot—Oh Sehun; it made perfect sense to him, then, that Kyungsoo would be smart, just like Jongdae, with parents like Park Chanyeol and Byun Baekhyun, would be mischievous, but also just as smart, too.

 

"At snack time, though," Luhan pressed on with a proud smile, "we do something different, don't we?"

 

Jongdae's hand flew into the air. "I know!"

 

Luhan's smile was more indulgent this time. "Okay, Jongdae. Why don't you share?"

 

"Tissue!" Jongdae exclaimed excitedly. "So we use them like plates; right, Teacher Luhan?"

 

"That's exactly right!" Luhan cheered with the two boys as Kyungsoo's small hands clapped in congratulations and Jongdae fist pumped into the air.

 

Luhan left the two to their own devices after that, though he made sure to keep a closer eye on them during the rest of their lunch period, even after returning to his own food. It turned out that Kyungsoo's rice drawing was actually quite characteristic, because the Do boy hadn't used all his food for the artistic endeavor, while Jongdae very clearly had. Luhan tried not to laugh, then, as Kyungsoo took small, almost demure bites of his rice right in front of a practically drooling Jongdae's face. There were even a few times when Kyungsoo would appear to offer his best friend some of his own food, but then just as Kyungsoo's chopsticks made it to Jongdae, the former would snatch them away and stuff his own mouth as he, and Luhan, giggled. Jongdae pouted every time, yet was still quick to fall for the trick with a hopeful grin whenever Kyungsoo pulled it on him again.

 

After lunch was outside play time, which Luhan thoroughly enjoyed because he and the children not only got fresh air, but they, at least, also got tired out enough to go down pretty easily for rest time, which directly followed recess. Technically, rest time was supposed to include reading, too, for those students who were interested, but Luhan's first graders were all young, still, and six isn't much different than five in terms of the need for a nap. Frankly, Luhan would nap too, if he he'd been allowed.

 

Instead, though, his job during rest time was to make sure all the kids were actually, well, resting. The whole endeavor was supposed to be about an hour, so he made rounds every twenty minutes or so—unless he heard a noise, in which case he appeared among his students and away from his desk a little sooner—and it was on one of those check up walk throughs that he saw something so adorable it practically stopped his heart.

 

There, laying next to each other on their sleeping mats, was Jongdae and Kyungsoo. Faces to each other and hands held between them, the two boys were breathing in rhythm with one another, and Luhan just couldn't handle the sweetness of the whole situation. This became particularly true when he walked a little further past the two and watched Kyungsoo's eyes flutter open to gaze at Jongdae with a small, heart shaped smile; he was awake, probably had been the whole time Luhan had stood there, actually, but he didn't seem to need a nap because just being with Jongdae was apparently all the rest he needed.

 

If Luhan remembered correctly, the Park-Byun family and the Kim-Oh family were quite close outside of their sons' personal friendship. Though he knew Kyungsoo's dads wouldn't have too worry too much about their son dating in first grade, from the way Kyungsoo looked at Jongdae—and the way Jongdae followed Kyungsoo almost like a lost puppy—Luhan wondered what might happen if the two continued growing up together. Maybe not now, or in middle school, or even high school, but give them enough time, and Kyungsoo and Jongdae would end up together, Luhan was sure of it.