Jang Dongwoo was never sure about many things unless it related to things that pertained to Korean literature. But he was sure of this: his subscription to life was going to be officially cancelled by Kim Sunggyu himself if he ever knew his involvement in the next event Woohyun was planning in Operation-get-Sunggyu-the-girl-and-have-him-keep-her-for-once-in-his-life.

Dongwoo wasn’t stupid, contrary to popular belief, and he knew that a man like Mr. Kim Sunggyu was not to be messed with. So, once he heard about Sunggyu’s less-than-appreciative reaction to the whiteboard fiasco, Dongwoo had been rethinking his life choices. He had promised Woohyun that he would help him until the bitter end of the operation—and clearly, based on the uncomfortable look on his face, he was regretting it.

If there was one thing he knew about Woohyun after meeting him in university, it was that once he put his mind to accomplishing something, he would never relent.

But in his defense, he hadn’t realized his life was at stake when he initially agreed. He had thought that Sunggyu would have appreciated the effort (and he had wrongly assumed that Woohyun knew what Sunggyu would have liked) and he would have never guessed that Ms. Jeon would never show up that day to classes. It was very unlike her to not go to school.

Furthermore, Dongwoo thought that Mr. Kim Sunggyu and Ms. Gayoung Jeon matched very well… they were both forces to be reckoned with. Dongwoo shivered.

“Oh, come on!” Woohyun pouted, crossing his arms like a petulant child who’d been robbed of candy, bringing Dongwoo back to reality (which unfortunately, was probably not going to exist any further than the end of the week, if Sunggyu sunk his talons into him for the next stunt they were pulling).

“You promised!” he frowned at the other man. Dongwoo sighed a little—Woohyun could be rather childish when he wanted to be, and this happened to be one of those times.

“Yea, but I didn’t realize how angry Sunggyu would be from the last stunt we pulled,” Dongwoo trailed off, thinking about the rumours flying around the school among the students that Howon hallucinated and needed to be put in the closest mental asylum there was.

The last thing Dongwoo needed was a bad reputation with the students. They already didn’t take him too seriously and barely paid attention while he was teaching. “You said it would work and he’d be grateful!”

He didn’t really know Sunggyu all too well but: the guy wasn’t as cute as Woohyun insisted he was, and things were not going to go well for either of them if Woohyun tried to pull a stunt like the whiteboard incident again. He would be considered guilty by association—all the teachers thought they were in it together, since Woohyun used to hang out with him all the time before Sunggyu had transferred in for the school year.

Well, he was sure Woohyun would live. He wasn’t too sure about himself. The crazy man had a soft spot for Woohyun from what he’s witnessed.

“Well I hadn’t realized that Ms. Jeon wasn’t going to show up for work,” Woohyun said, pleading Dongwoo with his puppy eyes. “It’ll work this time, I promise. Ms. Jeon will realize how cute our Ggol-Gyu Hamster is, and I will be finally at peace, knowing that he has finally got together with his one and only!”

Dongwoo winced at the nickname, hoping that Sunggyu wasn’t around to hear that.

The man had a way of appearing right when you really didn’t need him to. He once again contemplated his life choices and then chewed on his lips, “You know, I get that you guys are best friends and all… but why are you so invested in his love life? Howon thinks you guys are dating and this is all a conspiracy theory so that no one knows you guys are dating or something.”

Howon was also very keen on gossiping all the time, so Dongwoo wasn’t sure how much he believed him. He had to admit though, it did seem very plausible ever since Howon had brought it up with him.

Regardless, if anything, he believed Woohyun should be more concerned about his own love life. Dongwoo had no idea how this guy survived this long, being this socially clueless. And that was coming from him.

“What are you guys doing?” that came from a very-recognizable voice.

The two of them jumped apart, Woohyun hitting his head on the top of the table. They’d been having a meeting for Operation-get-Sunggyu-the-girl-and-have-him-keep-her-for-once-in-his-life, at Woohyun’s insistence, under his working table in the faculty office (which was also his thinking space).

Dongwoo was long learned that sometimes with Woohyun, you just shouldn’t ask because there would be no plausible answer.

“Ow!”

Peering from above was Sunggyu, lips twitching a bit in annoyance. His eyes narrowed at the two teachers who scrambled out from underneath the table.

“Don’t worry about it!” Woohyun brightly smiled at his best friend.

Sunggyu shuddered, “Oh, I’ll definitely not worry about it alright.” As if he didn’t hear the sarcasm in his voice, Woohyun chuckled, rubbing his hands together in glee, “It’s all under control.”

Dongwoo sometimes wondered if he understood sarcasm.

“Very reassuring,” Sunggyu muttered, looking downright glum. He definitely didn’t believe what his best friend said. What Sunggyu said seemed to go in one ear and out the other for Woohyun.

Sometimes, even though Dongwoo has witnessed and heard Sunggyu in his anger, he wondered if the man was a saint for putting up with Woohyun and his antics. Woohyun seemed to have a knack for doing things that made him all riled up and Dongwoo really couldn’t blame him… he sometimes wondered if Woohyun thought before he acted.

Sunggyu then eyed Dongwoo, making him shiver on the spot. His eyes promised pain. That was Dongwoo’s cue to leave.

“I need to go…” he searched his brain for a plausible reason but came up with nothing. He just concluded with, “Yea, I need to go.”

“Make sure to text me!” Woohyun followed him to the doorway of the office and yelled down the hallway in which Dongwoo sped off in. Sunggyu was very irked at that point, rubbing his temples.

That was when Howon decided to make his appearance, making Sunggyu’s cortisol levels spike again.

“Well, well, well…” Howon chuckled as he entered the office—it was just the three of them in the shared faculty office. They were the only teachers, including Dongwoo, who had run off, that had the period off. “Who do we have here? My favourite duo.”

Sunggyu rolled his eyes, not wanting to deal with the man who was obviously still annoyed about what had happened last week. Not only did Howon suffer from rumours about his sanity among the students, he had even placed last on last week’s Teacher Rankings. From what Woohyun had told him, it was also the first time Howon had ever placed last in the ranking. Sunggyu couldn’t help but smirk at that.

Howon obviously picked up on Sunggyu’s smug smirk that was obviously related to what had transpired last week and said, “You look like .”

Sunggyu was annoyed at that, his eyes narrowing at Howon. “That’s a personal attack, Lee.” They’d never gotten along in high school and always called each other by their last names. Nowadays they tried to keep it civil and called each other by their first names most days, but clearly it wasn’t working—it mainly pertained with someone whose name started with a W.

But even Sunggyu had to admit that he hadn’t been looking to sharp