Hey!! So, this is one of my first Jeongcheol fics and is pretty much a one shot/drabble. I love reading comments and and critiques, so feel free to leave them below! Thank you so much for reading!! <333

Seungcheol shimmied around at his desk as he awaited his students. 

His first students that he will ever have the pleasure of enlightening. 

After changing his major 4 times, he finally managed to settle down as a history teacher, and he couldn't be more excited. 

Nervous, but excited. 

He watched with a smile on his face as students started trickling in. 

They paid him little attention to him as it was the first day of the school year, and they were too busy catching up with each other to give any notice to him. 

Not that he minded. He was quite thankful for their laid back manor. 

Once the bell rang, he stood up from his desk to greet the class, who kept their laid back demeanor throughout the class. 

He explained the syllabus, answered any questions regarding him as a new teacher, and handed out candy (to hopefully get on their good side). His students were mainly 10th graders, with an 11th grade class somewhere in the middle of the day, so they were a lot easier to deal with than the middle schoolers he ended up student-teaching in college.  

Along with his 5 classes, he also had to monitor the halls during period 6, his lunch break during period 7,  and monitor the student lunchroom during period 8. He used this time to chat with his new co-workers, most of which were really nice (some a little too nice, he noticed), but it wasn’t until his shift in the lunchroom that he met someone that intrigued him. 

His co-monitor, Mr. Jeonghan Yoon, greeted him with the most angelic smile he’d ever seen, and entertained him throughout the period with stories about the school, antics he’d gotten into during his two years here, and the close relationships he’d kept with his students. He was the orchestra teacher at the school, so he had a lot of his students every year.  

 

Seungcheol didn’t want to get ahead of himself, but he let himself accept the fact that Jeonghan was definitely attractive. 

 

Over the course of his first week, Seungcheol began to borderline envy the relationship that  Jeonghan shared with students, being as close to them as to get his students to buy him cookies from the vending machine. 

Jeonghan shared with him that he constantly expressed to his students that he was there to help them, not just with school work but with everyday life, gaining their trust and becoming someone for his students to confide in. Seungcheol admired Jeonghan’s love for his students and took note of how to achieve that kind of relationship. 

Not long after Seungcheol’s first day did he and Jeonghan become close friends. Seungcheol acknowledged to himself that he thought Jeonghan was attractive, but he decided to respect the boundaries that the ‘coworker’ title held. 

That didn’t stop him, though, from allowing Jeonghan to become a big part of his life. He and Jeonghan quickly became inseparable, so much so that the students even began to ask about their friendship. 

Not in a romantic way, but since a lot of them got along with Jeonghan, they chose to get along with Seungcheol as well. 

Seungcheol found himself in a position for some of his students to confide in him and was happy to report to Jeonghan that one of them even brought him a doughnut from 7/11, securing the ‘cool teacher’ title he’d been aiming for. 

 

He and Jeonghan even had a little...gag? Joke? Seungcheol wasn’t sure what to call it, but they left apples on each other’s desks at least once a week. At first, Jeonghan was just being polite to his new friend by leaving an apple on his desk at the beginning of the year since Seungcheol was a new teacher and all, but that quickly turned into an odd exchange that their other co-workers often commented on in a joking manner. 

 

Seungcheol’s feelings for Jeonghan soon exceeded those that he deemed appropriate for work, but he chose to keep it to himself in fear of losing the friendship that he had build with Jeonghan 

Even if he wouldn’t allow himself to confess, he’d still be happy with Jeonghan in his life. 

 

In the blink of an eye, the school year was drawing to a close. Seungcheol stressed slightly over his students and his ability to prepare them for their finals. 

 

He held ‘extra help’ once a week and had review sessions on Saturday mornings, but he still found himself pondering over what else he could do. 

Jeonghan’s class was basically done after their final concert, so he took it upon himself to ensure that Seungcheol didn’t worry more than needed. 

He wasn’t sure why Seungcheol was stressing over his students, as he taught them really well and it paid off through their grades during the year, but he thought that Seungcheols actions were endearing. 

Seungcheol finally finished making their final at 3 AM the morning of. He ensured that his students would find the questions easy yet challenging, and prayed that his students retained the information he taught them throughout the year. 

Jeonghan and him had sleepovers frequently since they both lived alone, so Jeonghan decided to spend the night, keeping Seungcheol entertained with his ramblings on the latest episodes of the bachelor. 

 

After Seungcheol finished grading his exams, grinning ear to ear as he happily reported to his boss that the class average was a 92% on the final, he went home and got ready for the staff party he’d been invited to.

Apparently, the majority of the teachers at the school were counting down the days to get rid of their students, and celebrated by getting wasted at the staff parties at the end of the year. 

Seungcheol originally didn’t plan on showing up, but Jeonghan whined his ears off over it until he got a grumbled agreement out of him. 

 

Jeonghan even agreed to be his ‘date’ to make Seungcheol more comfortable.

It did. 

 

“You wanna hold hands?” Jeonghan asked, sporting his cheeky grin as he held out his hand. 

“Why..why would we do that?” Seungcheol’s face began to flush, but the poor lighting saved him from the embarrassment. 

“It’ll be fun!” Jeonghan gave no room for objection as he entwined his fingers with Seungcheols, quickly pulling him into the party hall. 

Seungcheol stumbled over his feet as Jeonghan seemingly raced to the hall, greeting his co-workers with a small wave. 

“Holding hands now?” Their co-worker and close friend Seungkwan asked, raising an eyebrow at them. “Are you sure you’re not together” He joked, earning a small chuckle from Jeonghan as he shook his head. 

“Me and him? Never.” He giggled, swinging their joint hands in the air. “He’s too out of my league, anyways.” 

Seungcheol once again felt heat rise to his cheeks, but he still smiled at Jeonghan. 

“ ‘Out of my league’ my .” He thought to himself. 

The duo later made their way to the bar, deciding to stay classy and order red wine. 

 

It was still quite early in the party, yet he noticed a few of the AP teachers already on their third drinks. 

 The sound of generic pop music filled their ears as the duo made small talk with their other co-workers.

 

Aside from Jeonghan and Seungkwan, Seungcheol was very close with the physics teacher, Jihoon. 

Jihoon was intimidating to Seungcheol at first, since Jihoon’s skills and ability to teach such a complicated subject to so many students with amazing results initially freaked Seungcheol out over his own skills, but Jihoon became a mentor for him after a while.  

Jihoon also wasn’t dense, and could read right through Seungcheol without having to bat an eye, so he always pestered Seungcheol on whether or not he was planning on confessing his feelings. 

Seungcheol tried to play it cool as Jihoon continued to poke fun at him at the party, avoiding Jihoon’s gaze as he once again denied Jihoon’s questions, but Seungcheol was caught off guard once Jihoon mentioned Jeonghan’s other friend, Joshua.

Joshua very clearly liked Jeonghan. It was barely a secret. And it’s not that Seungcheol had anything against Joshua; in fact, he was so sweet and helpful during Seungcheol’s first day that he’d be an if he didn’t like him, but he couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable by Jeonghan’s closeness to him. 

Jihoon smirked as he noticed his affect on Seungcheol once he mentioned that the two of them were off in a corner chatting, Joshua’s arm slung over Jeonghan’s shoulder.

 

“You sure you don’t like him, Cheollie?” Jihoon toyed, sipping his drink in satisfaction. 

“What does it matter, anyways.” Seungcheol whined, caving into Jihoons antics as he slumped in his seat, earning a coo from Jihoon as he patted his arm in condolences. 

“Wouldn’t this be easier on you if you just confessed?” Jihoon asked. “Come on, you’re both adults. You guys can handle this. It’s also pretty clear that he likes you too, anyways.” 

“Yeah, right.” Seungcheol rolled his eyes, returning his gaze to Jeonghan and Joshua, who were currently giggling at something on Joshua’s phone.

“I am right.” Jihoon stated, cocking his head to the side as he examined Seungcheol’s annoyed expression. “I was right about you, wasn’t I?” 

 

Seungcheol thought about what Jihoon said.

 

He wasn’t wrong in saying that he was right about his feelings, but how could he read Jeonghan as well? 

 

“But..look at them!” Seungcheol exclaimed, gesturing to the duo in the corner. 

Jihoon turned to look at them before shrugging. 

“I don’t see the spark. Also, I’m pretty sure Joshua is seeing someone now from the middle school near here. Jeonghan looks like he’s having a laugh with his friend when he’s with Joshua. He looks like he wants to use you as a cuddle bug when he’s with you. Two different things.”

“Really?” Seungcheol’s ears perked up at the news about Joshua. 

Jihoon nodded, humming along to the music as he swirled his drink. 

“Cheol.” He started. “I’m sick of your pathetic whining. Even though you try not to whine and talk about your feelings and act like you don’t like him, it’s annoying to deal with you pretending like you don’t like him when you clearly do. So please confess to him so I don’t have to be annoyed and drop you as a friend.”

Before Seungcheol could find a response, he felt a hand on his shoulder, followed by Jeonghan’s giggles as he tried his best to stabilize himself. 

 

“Cheollie bear…” Jeonghan trailed off, tracing his fingers over the hem of Seungcheol’s jacket. “Can we go home? I wanna go home now.” He grinned. 

“How much did you drink?” Seungcheol pestered, too worried over Jeonghan’s sobriety to pay any means to the nickname. 

 

“Well... Joshua was telling me about his girlfriend- he has a girlfriend now! He was telling me about that and we were drinking wine and talking about Joshua's girlfriend that he now has now and then we kept drinking the wine and talking about the girlfriend that Joshua has now and then Joshua decided to go home because he has a date with the girl he dating now so then I decided to come here because I missed you and I wanna have another sleepover don’t you want to have another sleepover I had so much fun-” 

 

“I’m gonna head out now.” Jihoon interrupted, bidding the duo his goodbyes as he left, winking at Seungcheol as he walked away, leaving him with Jeonghan’s slurred antics. 

“Let’s get you home now, Hannie.” Seungcheol quickly called for transportation back to his apartment, dragging Jeonghan with him as he listened to his blubbering mess. 

 

“I’m home!” Jeonghan exclaimed, plopping himself down onto Seungcheol’s couch, startling his cat in the process. 

“Home?” Seungcheol asked, gathering some water and some pain killers for Jeonghan. “You don’t live here, silly.” He tried feeding the water to Jeonghan, but he just pushed him away, whining about not being thirsty.

“Hmm..I don’t live here. But I should.” Jeonghan giggled to himself. “I wanna move in with you!” He exclaimed, reaching over to pet Seungcheol’s cat, who quickly turned to hide in his bed. “I don’t wanna go back to my apartment all alone.”

“Awe, Hannie.” Seungcheol cooed. “There's only one bedroom, so you’ll have to sleep on the couch if you move in.” He pointed out. 

“No.” He stated firmly. “We’d just share the bed. Wouldn’t that be nice? And we can cuddle at night!”

 

Seungcheol stared down at Jeonghan, who extended his arms to embrace Seungcheol in a hug. 

 

Jeonghan looked so cute like this. His face was slightly flushed from the alcohol, but he looked perfect nonetheless. Seungcheol’s heart swelled bigger than it ever had before. He knew he couldn’t hold it in anymore.

 

“Jeonghan…” Seungcheol started. 

He knew this wasn’t the ideal time to confess, but he hoped that if the response was negative, Jeonghan wouldn’t remember it. 

“Hm?” Jeonghan asked. “What’s wrong?”

Seungcheol took a deep breath as he mustered up all of his courage.

“I just thought you should know...that I-” 

 

“I like you too.” Jeonghan interrupted, stunning Seungcheol, his eyes widened in surprise. 

 

“Wha..huh?” Seungcheol asked. “How’d you know I was gonna say that?” 

“I just did.” Jeonghan shrugged. “I know you. I thought you’d catch on to my feelings too, but apparently not.”

Seungcheol stayed quiet as he tried his best to divert his gaze, but Jeonghan grabbed his hands, bringing him back to reality. 

 

“Are you sure you’re not just drunk?” Seungcheol stared back at Jeonghan, looking for any hints of him still being out of it. 

Jeonghan shook his head, smiling down at the carpet below him. 

“I sobered up on the way here. I’m a bit tipsy, but I’m present.”

Seungcheol stayed silent, unsure of what to say next. 

 

“I like you, Jeonghan.” He finally said. 

 

His shoulders relaxed, and he felt himself breathe easier. 

He didn’t realize all of the tension that he’d held onto until he finally let go of his feelings. 

Jeonghan looked up at him, grinning. 

 

“I like you too, Seungcheol.” 

 

The summer flew by, and before they knew it, they found themselves right back in their classrooms. 

While they tried to hide their relationship, it came out after a week of being back at school that they were together. It was painfully obvious from their constant staring at each other. 

They also began to commute together once Jeonghan moved in, which wasn’t long after their confessions, so students saw them entering the parking lot frequently. 

While they kept their PDA to a minimum at work, Seungcheol couldn’t help but put his arm around Jeonghan as they walked back to their car, showcasing his relationship for all to see.

 

Seungcheol still stressed about his class, and Jeonghan continued to be the parental figure to his students, but now they were in this together. 

The kisses that they shared in the privacy of their home during their stressful nights, the small dates they managed to fit into their schedule, and the apples that they continued to leave for each other brought them together. 

 

Jeonghan decided that the apples were their way of showing affection without PDA at school. The apples they left for each other was no longer a running gag, but rather an act of love. 

 

But now that they thought about it, haven’t the apples always been an act of love? 

 

Seungcheol changed his major four times before deciding on becoming a teacher. 

He felt a lot of fear and anxiety from constantly having changes of heart, but when it came to Jeonghan, he knew early on into their relationship that his heart would never change. 

 

Never.