All Jooheon had done that weekend was eat and sleep but it was less than an hour into his shift and he was already exhausted. So when he’d heard Minhyuk was bringing some of the younger children up for a visit, so they could get used the pre-school room before they started he’d initially been relieved. Monday was a quiet day anyway and Minhyuk was only bringing two children, Beomgyu and Yuri. Since the ratio upstairs was one to eight, in theory this meant they should be overstaffed for a couple of hours and he could sit and down and do some work that didn’t necessitate him being on his feet. They had their pre-school graduation ceremony pencilled in for the end of June and there was still lot of planning to do. Maybe he’d be able to get some of that done while Minhyuk did something with the kids.

Only what Minhyuk decided to do almost as soon as he arrived was push the tables in the creative area one side and cover the floor in paper, taping it down at the edges. Then he encouraged their group of eight children to choose whatever art supplies from the shelves that they wanted.

So Jooheon was now sitting on the floor with Chaeyoung and Dahyun, helping then make a rainbow using pompoms and glue. He was avoiding the other side of  creative area where things were a lot more chaotic. Doyoung, Wonwoo and Mingyu had removed socks, shoes and trousers and were now covered from head to toe in paint. Doyoung was stomping around, making green footprints, roaring like a dinosaur as he went and Mingyu and Wonwoo were sitting on the floor, surrounded by paint, spreading it around with their hands. It had made for some good pictures and observations for the Creative Arts and Design section of their learning journals but Jooheon was dreading cleaning them up later. Minhyuk however seemed unconcerned by the mess and was standing between Taehyung and Jisoo helping them sprinkle what looked flour onto the floor.

Jooheon tilted his head as he tried to work out what they were up to. Then Jisoo gave a twirl, throwing a handful of flour into the air as she did so and started belting out the chorus of ‘Let it go’. They were pretending the flour was snow he realised, making a note to jot down an observation about Jisoo using representation in play when he next had a moment. And as he watched Taehyung take a shy looking Beomgyu by the hand and lead him over to Minhyuk to get some flour so he could join in he made second mental note, this time to make sure Taehyung got a sticker at circle time. He deserved a reward for trying to make the younger boy feel welcome, not many four year olds had such a high emotional IQ.

And as he watched Taehyung trying to include Beomgyu he realised there was one person who wasn’t joining in and instantly felt terrible. If he hadn’t been silently cursing Minhyuk for sweeping into the creative area like a tornado and worrying about the mess they would have to clean up later and had focussed on doing his job he would have noticed three year old Yuri sitting in the corner looking scared and lost before now. He was going to be her keyworker when she moved rooms, he was supposed to be getting to know her, it was the main reason Minhyuk had brought her up to visit and he’d been so caught up in feeling sorry for himself that he’d forgotten she was there. Yes he was tired, and yes he had a headache but that was no excuse. The kids should come first.

So after scolding himself for not doing his job properly he told Chaeyoung and Dahyun that he’d be right back and made his way across the room to sit beside Yuri instead.

She was a tiny little thing, smaller than most children her age and Minhyuk had told him that she hadn’t been around other children much before she’d started nursery. It had taken her a while to settle in the 2-3 room when she’d first started and she still got shy around new people. So it was no wonder she looked so overwhelmed, the children in Jooheon’s key-group were a lot bigger than her and very energetic .

“Hi,” he said quietly, watching Yuri watch Doyoung who was now standing over Chaeyoung and doing his best impersonation of a t-rex. Chaeyoung didn’t look all that impressed.

Yuri didn’t answer but she did turn to look at him which was a good start.

“He’s pretty loud but he’s nice.” He told her.

Yuri didn’t look convinced.

“A bit like Minhyuk.” He said, nodding at his colleague who was now singing Let it Go with Jisoo and was encouraging Taehyung and Beomgyu to join in too. Loud but nice was a pretty accurate description of his friend. “He’s loud sometimes but you like him don’t you?”

Yuri gave an enthusiastic nod. “Mr. Minhyuk’s funny.” She told him, offering him a shy smile.

Jooheon’s headache had been steadily worsening all morning and Minhyuk’s singing wasn’t helping but Yuri was so adorable that he couldn’t help smiling back.  “Doyoung is just trying to be funny too.” He told her.

Yuri thought about this for a second. “Dinosaurs are scary…” she said at last, still looking a little wary.

“If he comes too close and you don’t like it then I’ll tell him to stop, how does that sound?” Jooheon offered.

This time Yuri didn’t have to think, her “Okay,” was immediate.

“So…” Jooheon continued, glad she no longer looked so nervous, “… I think we should make our own picture before we have to tidy all of this away. What do you want to use?”

“Paint!” Yuri exclaimed, sounding more confident.

“And how should we put that paint on the paper?” Jooheon asked, encouraging her to keep taking the lead.

“The sponges!” Yuri said excitedly, arm shooting out and pointing at the shelves behind them.

“Sponges it is!” Jooheon agreed, trying to smile through his headache and match her enthusiasm. He hadn’t brought any painkillers with him, his headache hadn’t started until he’d gotten on the bus, he just hoped that someone in the staffroom at lunch would have some. If the pain got any worse he was going to have even more trouble concentrating. The kids deserved his full attention and he should do his best to give it to them.

~~~~~~ ~~~~~~

The children had been cleaned up and had been let loose in the small world area, close enough so he and Minhyuk could keep an eye on them as they tidied up but far enough away that they wouldn’t get under their feet.

And Jooheon’s head was pounding. Every time he leaned over to pick something up it felt like his brain was smacking against his skull, a sharp piercing pain hitting him between the eyes, an unwelcome highlight to the dull throbbing pain he’d been feeling all morning. And to add to that he’d downed a whole bottle of water while helping Yuri with her painting, thinking staying hydrated might help but all this had done was make it so he now really needed to pee. This wasn’t helping his mood any.

And neither was Minhyuk’s constant chattering about what he’d done at the weekend.

Oh, and now he’d just nicked his finger on the edge of the paper he’d been pulling up from the floor. He hissed, bringing his finger up to his mouth, levelling a glare at Minhyuk as he did so.

Minhyuk, catching the dirty look Jooheon was sending his way, raised an eyebrow.

“I hate you.” Jooheon said flatly, taking his finger from his mouth and inspecting his new paper cut, satisfied the kids were too far away to hear him.

“No you don’t.” Minhyuk told him, not fazed by his attitude in the slightest. “You’re just moody because it’s Monday morning and you don’t want to be at work.”

“No, I’m just stressed because you walked into my already set up and creative area and turned it upside down!” Jooheon countered.

“Firstly,” Minhyuk said, raising a warning finger, “this was for Taehyung. He wanted to do something on the floor and we’re supposed to listen to what the kids want to do.”

Jooheon couldn’t really argue this, learning was supposed to be child-led, but that didn’t mean he had to be happy about it so his answer to this was a ‘hmm’ and a scowl.

“And secondly,” Minhyuk continued, not finished yet, “I’m tidying it up.”

“We’re tidying it up!” Jooheon snapped. “Not you, we.”

“Because we’re setting a good example.” Minhyuk said airily, again completely unperturbed by Jooheon’s attitude. “We’re friends and friends help each other.”

Minhyuk was ridiculous but what was worse was that he was also right. They should be setting a good example to the kids and whining and complaining was hardly a good example. So with a huffed “Fine…” and a roll of his eyes Jooheon went back to pulling up the artwork from the floor, trying his best not to damage it.

And then Minhyuk suggested they sit down for a circle time before going outside and Jooheon’s resolution to stop complaining went out the window.

“No, no we’re not having a circle time.” Whenever Minhyuk led a circle time things tended to get chaotic and he wasn’t in the mood to deal with chaotic.

“Why not?” Minhyuk asked, sounding genuinely surprised.

“Because as soon as you ask someone to choose a song and they hesitate to answer you’re going to suggest ‘down in the jungle’, then they’ll all be roaring like lions and screeching like monkeys and my head already feels like it’s going to explode!” Jooheon told him, the words coming out a lot louder and a lot faster than he’d intended them to.

Minhyuk simply stared for a second, a slightly stunned look on his face. And then he was smiling. “I’ve told you before, you shouldn’t drink so much on a Sunday when you have an early shift on a  Monday.” He reminded him, doing his best impression of a disapproving parent.

“I’m not hungover!” Jooheon spluttered and only belatedly remembering that the kids were in earshot and might be listening lowered his voice to add “And if I was I wouldn’t be asking you to feel sorry for me. I wouldn’t even have mentioned it. But this headache isn’t self-induced and it’s been getting worse all morning and all I’m asking is that you try and keep the noise to a minimum.”

Minhyuk, never one to give up on teasing someone before he had to, pretended to think about it for a moment and then sighed. “Fine.” He said, “Let’s pretend I believe you and we’ll take the kids straight outside when we’re done. I’ll keep an eye on them and you can sit in the corner and pretend you’re doing observations or something.”

“Thank you,” Jooheon breathed, relief evident in his whole posture not just his voice. Minhyuk might delight in winding him up but he was a good friend.

“You’re welcome.” Minhyuk said gently, Jooheon’s heartfelt thanks clearly making an impact on him. “Why don’t you start getting them ready? You do shoes and coats and I’ll finish up here.”

“Yeah, yeah okay.” Jooheon agreed. Shoes and coats was definitely the easier job. Maybe having Minhyuk with him for the rest of the morning wouldn’t be too bad after all.

~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~

Minhyuk had done as he’d promised and supervised what was going on the garden, stepping in whenever there was any drama and calming the situation so Jooheon and his headache didn’t have to contend with any screaming children. He’d been such a help that Jooheon had been a little sad when he’d taken the younger children back to the 2-3 room when their visit was over. He didn’t feel as comfortable whining to the rest of the staff as he did to Minhyuk, especially since he was supposed to be in charge so he’d had to go back to pretending he didn’t have a headache and get on with his job.

But an early shift meant an early lunch so as soon as he was satisfied that the kids were sitting down to their own lunch and happy he was heading for the staffroom to hunt down some painkillers.

And when he walked in the door Minhyuk was the first person he saw.

“Head any better?” Minhyuk asked as he closed the door to the microwave and started hitting buttons.

“Not really.” Jooheon admitted, nodding to Hani and Jeonghwa as he passed them to join Minhyuk in the small kitchen area. They worked in the baby room and he didn’t work with them often but that didn’t mean he shouldn’t still be saying hello. “You don’t have any painkillers, do you?” He asked quietly, not wanting them to know how much his head was bothering him but unsure why. It happened to everyone and it wasn’t as if they were the type to make a fuss and start babying him either. They had actual babies to baby, they didn’t have time to be babying him.<