“Excuse me, do you know how to get to the dance studio?”

Donghae smiled charmingly at the group of girls he’d stopped to ask for directions, showing his slightly protruding canines and successfully gaining at least five more fangirls at once.

“Oh, it’s right over there, we can show you the way!” one of the girls squealed, eagerly and vaguely gesturing towards the front. “Which dance studio are you looking for? There are like ten practice rooms here. Are you looking for someone?”

“Yeah, but you can just show me the way there and I’ll find them by myself,” Donghae answered. “Do I go straight from here?”

“Who are you looking for, mister handsome professor? Do you have a girlfriend? Are you still single? Is she a dance coach? Oh wait, she can’t be a dance student, can she? How old are you, Professor? Are you really dating a student? She must be so lucky!”

The professor chuckled helplessly at the girls who were now starting to crowd around him as if they’d just met a celebrity. He was pretty sure that he also heard a few excited whispers from those who recognised him as that ‘super hot physio professor’ and his ears burned slightly in embarrassment. He hadn’t expected students from the other faculties to have seen or heard of him. It was a little awkward and slightly embarrassing, so he just did what he normally did best. Smile, and wave.

He cleared his throat and smiled awkwardly at the whispering girls. They immediately stopped whispering amongst each other, but still looked at him in pure adoration.

“Girls, I—”

“Alright, what’s going on here?” Donghae heard a sharp voice piercing through the girls’ soft gasps and panicked murmurs as they quickly dispersed to wherever they came from. “It’s Professor Kim! Quick, don’t let him catch you!”

In the blink of an eye, the entire hallway emptied out. Even the other students loitering at the benches disappeared in the blink of an eye. Donghae was mildly surprised at how quickly everyone just vanished into thin air. He turned around to see this almighty Professor Kim who instilled such fear in the art students’ hearts that they scrambled away like frightened mice at the sound of his voice. 

He’d been expecting a stern old man in a blazer suit and tie with a stick up his , but he turned out to be a lot younger than Donghae thought. And certainly, he didn’t look as if he had a stick up his , figuratively or not. 

In fact, Professor Kim was beautiful. He had comically large round eyes and a flawless porcelain complexion, reminding Donghae a lot of Hyukjae’s milky white skin he loved running his hands over. He also had long, shoulder-length hair, styled to look effortlessly elegant, that sort of completed the simple yet sophisticated look of a bright red plaid blazer with a white t-shirt underneath, matching plaid pants, and custom white sneakers with the hanja ‘Hee’ embroidered in red and black on both sides of the shoes. He emitted a powerful, no-nonsense aura that automatically demanded respect, which no doubt the art students had a lot for him.

Donghae quickly and correctly deduced that the man was in a more senior ranking than he was and so he bowed out of courtesy, eyes crinkling up in soft crescent shapes as he offered the other his friendliest smile. “Are you Professor Kim?”

“Speaking.” Prof Kim said, circling around Donghae slowly as he sized him up. “I’ve never seen you before, so who are you, what are you doing here, and why do you look so adorable?”

The anatomy professor blinked in surprise (and a bit of embarrassment) as he awkwardly scratched his nape. “Hi, my name is Lee Donghae, I’m also a professor, from the physio faculty. I, um, I was just asking for directions to the dance studio,” he said sheepishly, noticing how Professor Kim’s eyes raked over his entire body as he spoke. Damn, was this how Hyukjae felt every time he devoured the student with his eyes? , exposed, and vulnerable?

Wait, what was he thinking?

He subconsciously shifted on his feet, keeping the smile on his face. “I’m sorry for disturbing your students, Professor Kim. It won’t happen again. I promise I was just asking for directions.”

Professor Kim let out a soft laugh, his glossed lips tugging up into a wide smile. “Ah, you’re so cute, no wonder you have a whole fan entourage going on. You’re Prof Lee, you say? From Physio? Dang, Teukie never told me he was hiding such a fine little gem in his boring- office. What’s he up to these days?”

“Sorry, T-Teukie who?”

“You should know him, right? The Dean?” Prof Kim asked, posture relaxing as he grinned at Donghae, who was looking confused and a little stunned at the suddenly changed demeanour. “Oh wait, I forgot, he likes people calling him Jungsoo hyung.”

“Jungsoo hyung?” Donghae echoed. “Oh, you know Jungsoo hyung?”

“Can I not know him?” Prof Kim laughed. “We used to be buddies. Not anymore, but we still keep in touch from time to time. So yes, I can say that we know each other quite well. Especially from the physical aspect of things.”

“Oh.” Donghae felt a soft blush on his cheeks as he imagined his strict, prim and proper Dean being buddies with this boisterous art professor that he was starting to take a liking to. “I didn’t know that. Jungsoo hyung never mentioned you before, Professor Kim.”

“Course he wouldn’t. He’s got a couple of sticks shoved up his , always so rigid and old-school. Bet you didn’t know that his prudish attitude is just a front~”

So… maybe that was why Jungsoo hyung had always been kind of tolerant with him and Siwon’s public displays of affection. Donghae couldn’t help grinning to himself. “That actually kind of makes sense, though. Jungsoo hyung has always looked the other way with office romances at our faculty. But he never breathed a word about you to us, Professor Kim.”

“Why do you call him Hyung but call me Professor Kim? I’m a whole week younger than he is, that boring old man,” the professor said with a smirk. “Call me Heechul hyung.”

“Okay, Heechul hyung,” Donghae grinned, and let out an unmanly squawk when Heechul enveloped the younger in a tight hug.

“Aww, my cute little dongsaeng~ I’m gonna adopt you ‘cause I like you so much. Come, let me show you around the faculty. I’m from Fashion Design. Where were you going again?”

“The dance practice rooms,” Donghae replied, blushing a little when Heechul just grinned knowingly at him. “Is there something on my face?”

“Yep, you’re blushing like a cherry ripe for the picking. Let me guess, is Dance Coach Hyoyeon your cup of tea?” the elder asked, pinching Donghae’s cheek and laughing when he pushed his hand away. “Aww, don’t be shy, we’re all really free and open with office romances here at Arts. I’ve even already told you about Teukie and me. You don’t have to be scared of rumours here~”

Donghae let out a soft chuckle and shrugged. “With all due respect to her, I don’t even know who Dance Coach Hyoyeon is, but I am kind of seeing someone else already.”

“Ooh, who’s the lucky person? Maybe Acting Coach Kibum? I know he’s been seeing someone from Science…”

“Nah, the person I’m seeing is also from Science. I don’t really know many of the people here from Arts.”

“So who are you looking for here at Arts?” Heechul asked, a little puzzled. “Up ahead is my Faculty of Fashion Design, and Modern Dance is just across from my building. The dance practice rooms are in there.”

Donghae nodded as they walked towards the building. “Oh, one of the dance students volunteered for my research project and left something behind in my lab, so I’m just returning it back to him. He told me he’d be practising at the dance studio today.” Donghae shrugged when he felt Heechul’s eyes still on him. “I had some free time today so I just decided to take a look around.”

“Really?” the elder asked, a knowing smile slowly spreading across his face. “You could have just asked someone to pass it to him or let him come get it from you the next day. How urgent could that something be that you had to come and personally deliver it to him?”

“Uhh… It’s just really important,” Donghae replied, laughing awkwardly and looking away from Heechul’s piercing gaze, feeling caught. “For, for class.”

“Of course,” the elder professor said with a grin, pinching Donghae’s reddened cheeks again. “Aigoo, my cute little dongsaeng is so~ red~”

“Hyung!! That hurts!”

“Okay, okay, we’re here already,” Heechul chuckled as he let go of Donghae. “This is the building for Modern Dance. Just go straight in, turn left, and the studios should all be there. I’ll go say hi to Hyo while I’m here.”

“Thanks for bringing me here, Heechul hyung, I really appreciate it,” Donghae said with a bow.

“Run along now, Donghae. Go return that Very Important Thing to your Very Important Student,” Heechul said, laughing at how Donghae’s ears just turned immaculately red before walking away in another direction.

“Too obvious, my little dongsaeng, you’re too obvious~”

~

Donghae followed Heechul’s directions and found all the dance studios. He thought about texting Hyukjae to ask specifi