Hong Jisoo had a bit of a schedule.

He would wake up every morning at 5AM, regardless of the hours of sleep he gets the night before. This was because all of his classes were usually scheduled in the morning and his apartment was a good 30 minutes travel away; why the university insisted that literature classes were held early baffled him, since his students were either barely awake— struggling to follow the lectures about books and poems— or running on coffee and energy drinks, jittery nerves usually getting in the way of focusing. The latter were usually the ones who ended up cramming the readings Jisoo would assign days before, but at least they also had stuff to recite when needed.

That being said, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, he had three straight classes to teach that started at 7:30AM, which meant he was usually on campus by 7AM. Tuesday and Thursday were his off days, but work really never stopped for a professor like him. He was one of those professors who was never late, of course, but he was lenient enough with tardiness so the students don't exactly hate him. Each class session lasted for only an hour unless he had a special lecture in mind, anyway, so it wasn’t too bad. 

To be fair, he tried his best not to bore his students since he was one just a year ago, but he’s received evaluation sheets from last semester that spoke of how his honey-like voice sometimes lulled them to sleep even if they desperately wanted to listen. That was out of his control. 

By 11AM, he would be free for the day until his Masters night classes, which started by 7PM and lasted all the way till 9PM.

Unless, the head of the humanities department decided to hold one of those meetings again. 

Such was his fate one Wednesday afternoon.

They never get anything done during the meetings, if Jisoo had to be honest. It was mostly just for show to the university superiors and other departments, but they're really not kidding anybody; everybody knows the humanities department was the chillest one. They hardly had problems or issues (other than the lack of funding, but that was normal.) The meetings were more like a chance for the professors to catch up, or for Humanities Dean Jung to announce a brand new innovative idea that she wants the department to pursue. Such was the life of being surrounded by philosophy and the fine arts, after all. 

"I want some of our courses to mingle," Dean Jung began to say once the 'meeting' was in order and the available professors were seated around the table. Her secretary sat next to her, although Jisoo was almost positive he was playing Solitaire rather than take notes of the meeting, if the way his eyes moved around his screen meant anything. He probably had a recording application open to help him once he needed to go over it later. Genius. The dean continued whether she knew of this or not, ending with her usual, "we should really start finding new ways to help our students enjoy their course. Suggestions?" 

One of the professors raised his hand.

"Air-conditioning for the painting room," he drawled out, before letting his arm drop. 

"Jeonghan, for the last time, you know why we can't do that. The paint fumes will be trapped and—"

"But it's the second semester," Jeonghan interjected, pouting just a little. "It's nearing summer. The seasons are changing, Ma'am. I'm melting, the students are melting, our wax figures and clay pots are melting, the Fine Arts funds are melting away with it." 

"The Fine Arts funds are fine, Professor Yoon." 

"If so, how about a pay raise?" 

"Any other suggestions that aren't from Yoon Jeonghan?" 

Silence.

This was a regular thing to Jisoo, too.

If there's anything that was constant during their meetings, it would be Jeonghan's quips and half-teasing complaints, even if it's only been for the year. He knew it was Yoon Jeonghan's first year teaching, too, because he's pretty sure they were the same age and graduated together just last year. The only difference was while Jisoo graduated with a business degree only to end up teaching literature (it was his best subject, the university accepted him immediately) while he took up a Masters course