"Kui Xian, please."

 

"I would rather take every single one of these exams myself. As it is, I just finished grading them and I am now going to sleep for an entire week straight."

 

Zhou Mi pouted down at him from where he stood hopefully next to Kyuhyun's desk. Kyuhyun stared back resolutely, hands full of freshly marked-up papers. Zhou Mi's pout became more pronounced.

 

"But you've finished now," he pointed out. "We should go and have some fun."

 

"I had fun once," Kyuhyun glared. "It was awful."

 

"This will be better," Zhou Mi said soothingly, "I promise."

 

"Your idea of 'better' is excruciating. And probably involves social interaction," Kyuhyun continued to glare.

 

"Only a little bit," said Zhou Mi. "And you don't even have to talk to anyone. Just do your best not to make small children cry."

 

"What exactly is this brilliant plan?" asked Kyuhyun suspiciously.

 

"I have free tickets to an amusement park!" Zhou Mi waved said tickets happily.

 

"A what?" Kyuhyun tried to figure out how a crowded park counted as 'a little' social interaction. "You want to go where?"

 

"An amusement park!" Zhou Mi repeated, beaming. "Spring is in the air! The flowers are in bloom, the sun is shining... You can ride the teacups until you're sick. You'll love it."

 

"I sincerely doubt that."

 

"Just for a little while. Please."

 

Kyuhyun sighed and Zhou Mi clearly knew he'd won because his face looked ready to split in half.

 

"You can sleep in the car there," Zhou Mi said. "I'll drive."

 

"Is that supposed to reassure me or- ... wait, what? We're going now?"

 

"The park opens in an hour!"

 

"Zhou Mi, I swear to god..."

 

"Yes?"

 

"Nothing."

 

 

As petty revenge for his abbreviated sleep schedule, Kyuhyun made it a goal for the day to find out what rides scared Zhou Mi and go on every single one of them. The renewed energy this gave him took Zhou Mi by surprise.

 

"I thought you only had one Monster...?" he asked cautiously while they stood in line to have their bags checked at the park entrance.

 

"Life goals are better than caffeine," said Kyuhyun, baring his teeth in what was technically a smile at the young girl who had been stepping on the backs of his shoes a second ago.

 

"Cho Kyuhyun, stop that now," Zhou Mi stepped on his foot with about a hundred pounds more weight than the girl had. "I shudder to think what kind of life goals these are."

 

"Nothing dangerous to the general public," Kyuhyun said sweetly.

 

"You say they're better than caffeine," Zhou Mi sighed. "I wouldn't be surprised if you'd sold your soul to the devil."

 

"Oh, I did, but not for this," Kyuhyun smiled. "They told me it was a prerequisite to be a TA."

 

Zhou Mi snorted.

 

"I'm sure your students love you," he said. "Try and keep the property damage to a minimum, please."

 

"I'm looking at a very localized blast area, believe me."

 

"I suppose that's all I can ask for."

 

Zhou Mi looked cheerfully resigned as Kyuhyun took him by the arm and steered them towards a swinging ship ride.

 

"I think we should start here," said Kyuhyun.

 

 

Two hours later, he was still nowhere near ruffling Zhou Mi's composure. Kyuhyun sat on a bench in the shade feeling almost defeated as he watched Zhou Mi buying three funnel cakes from a outdoor food cart.

 

("One for me, one for you, and one for the birds," Zhou Mi had explained.)

 

Maybe he should just give up now, Kyuhyun thought to himself. The swinging ship had been a complete failure to begin with. Zhou Mi had been unperturbed even as they hung upside down and Kyuhyun had remembered that all he had in his stomach was an energy drink and a bagel, which threatened to soon not be in his stomach.

 

Kyuhyun had then suggested a series of roller coasters, which had certainly made Zhou Mi scream, but considering his hands had been flung up in the air and he'd been laughing the entire time, Kyuhyun didn't think he could exactly count that a victory.

 

Finally they'd gone on the drop tower, which went up so high they could see every corner of the park and Kyuhyun was pretty sure at that height they were technically supposed to be provided with oxygen masks. Zhou Mi's eyes had gone wide and Kyuhyun had been so sure that this was victory, but no. They went on the ride again two more times in a row before Zhou Mi was satisfied and declared it time to eat.

 

Kyuhyun slumped lower on the bench and stared blankly at a pigeon. No doubt it would be getting a generous helping of funnel cake soon, he thought.

 

"Oh, wow. Hi, Mr. Cho," said a voice behind him.

 

Kyuhyun turned and immediately wanted to bang his head on the bench. Or go to sleep. Or both. The girl standing there was definitely one of his students, and he was painfully aware now that he looked distinctly unthreatening with his shorts and uncombed hair and probably huge dark circles around his eyes. He wondered if he'd have to fail her on the next assignment to squelch any overfamiliarity before remembering that he had just finished grading final exams and she was not technically in his class anymore. He contemplated glaring silently at her until she went away.

 

"Hi, Amber," he said instead. "What are you doing here?”

 

“I’m here with my girlfriend, actually.”

 

Oh.

 

“So,” said Amber, “How was my final?”

 

“I don’t even want to think about it ever again,” Kyuhyun groaned, slouching further.

 

Amber winced.

 

“That bad?” she asked nervously.

 

“Not really,” said Kyuhyun. “I just didn’t really sleep last night and now-”

 

“-you’re riding the rides at a theme park,” Amber finished. “I know the feeling.”

 

She nodded towards where Zhou Mi was laughing and chatting with a tall, elegant girl as they both put frankly ridiculous amounts of powdered sugar on their funnel cakes.

 

“Yours?” Amber asked.

 

Kyuhyun hesitated before answering, but figured what the hell. It’s not like he needed to threaten her into turning in assignments anymore, so she could judge him on his choice of obscenely sunny boyfriend all she liked.

 

“Yep,” he nodded, “And yours?”

 

“Yep,” she agreed. “Looks like we both like them tall, cheerful, and Chinese.”

 

Kyuhyun barked out a laugh, making both Zhou Mi and the girl look over.

 

“Kyuhyun, come meet Victoria!” he called happily.

 

“No,” Kyuhyun continued to slouch. “You come over here.”

 

They did and the girl bowed with a small smile.

 

“You know Amber?” she asked.

 

“He’s my Chemistry TA,” Amber said.

 

Victoria’s mouth formed an ‘o’ of realization.

 

“Ah, you mean the cute one?” she asked and Amber facepalmed.

 

“I said that like one time,” her voice was muffled by her hands and Kyuhyun felt both amused and distinctly sorry for her.

 

“Well, now that this has been sufficiently awkward,” he said, standing up, “I think we’ll be on our way.”

 

He began to guide a snickering Zhou Mi away with a hand on his waist.

 

“You ladies can take care of pigeon feeding duty in this area, and Zhou Mi and I will cover the stretch over by the bumper cars,” he nodded to Victoria. “Nice to meet you.”

 

When they were safely out of earshot, Zhou Mi actually did burst out laughing. Kyuhyun looked as offended as he could manage.

 

“What’s so funny?” he asked. “You don’t think it’s plausible my students find me ridiculously attractive?”

 

“It’s not that,” Zhou Mi laughed. “Your face was a picture!”

 

“Of handsomeness, I hope.”

 

“Oh, of course. Very handsome mortification.”

 

“Damn right.”

 

 

Kyuhyun gave up on trying to scare Zhou Mi after that and eventually found himself genuinely enjoying the rest of the park. He would never actually admit it, of course, because that would mean that Zhou Mi had won, but he relaxed and let Zhou Mi drag him from ride to ride with a minimum of complaint. Zhou Mi kept him plied with cotton candy and pretzels the entire time, and Kyuhyun munched placidly on spun sugar while Zhou Mi won a ridiculously large stuffed animal for him to carry.

 

By the time the sun set, they had been on nearly every ride on the park and even Zhou Mi was beginning to show signs of flagging.

 

"Let's just go on one more and call it a day," said Kyuhyun, heading towards an observation tower.

 

"Don't you want to go on a real ride?" Zhou Mi asked.

 

"No, this one's okay," said Kyuhyun. "I'm getting tired."

 

"Only..." Zhou Mi bit his lip. "It's just that there are supposed to be fireworks in a little bit."

 

"Even better," Kyuhyun kept moving towards the tower with a reluctant Zhou Mi trailing behind. "We can get a good view from up here."

 

"We can see it from here too," Zhou Mi mumbled, but followed him into the elevator.

 

When they were at the top, Kyuhyun plopped the giant stuffed cat (he thought it was a cat, at least) on the ground and stretched out his arms over his head.

 

"See?" he said, feeling his back crack. "We can see great from here."

 

Zhou Mi gave a half-hearted noise and stayed next to the elevator as Kyuhyun wandered over to lean on the railing of the open observation deck.

 

"What's the matter?" Kyuhyun asked when he looked back and saw Zhou Mi looking tense.

 

"Nothing," said Zhou Mi, but stiffened as a strong breeze blew across the deck.

 

Kyuhyun came to a sudden recognition.

 

"You're scared of heights!" he said, pointing an awestruck finger at Zhou Mi.

 

"I'm not exactly scared of them," Zhou Mi shifted uncomfortably. "I just don't like high railings. Or people near railings."

 

"So if this were a glass wall, you'd be okay with it?" Kyuhyun asked curiously.

 

"... A thick glass wall. Or a normal wall."

 

"That's called being scared of heights," Kyuhyun crossed his arms and leaned back against the railing, making Zhou Mi's hands twitch toward him ever so slightly.

 

"It's different," Zhou Mi insisted.

 

"Uh-huh," Kyuhyun was unconvinced. "How is someone like you scared of heights? You're about twenty feet tall."

 

He stood up straight again.

 

"And," he went on, "You went on all those rides earlier! How can you be scared of this and be fine with every other ride?"

 

"I told you, it's different," Zhou Mi crouched next to the giant stuffed cat. "I'm not scared of heights; I just don't like high railings. And I really don't like people standing next to high railings."

 

"I'm not going to fall, Mi," Kyuhyun said.

 

"What if you go crazy with vertigo and jump?" Zhou Mi waved a hand. "What if I go crazy and push you?"

 

"You're not going to push me though," said Kyuhyun. "Are you?"

 

"No," said Zhou Mi. "I never said it was rational."

 

An explosion sounded and they both jumped as brightly-colored sparks filled the sky.

 

"Come on over here," Kyuhyun beckoned, "You're going to miss all the fireworks."

 

Zhou Mi hesitated before coming slowly towards him.

 

"Just... take a step back, okay?" he begged.

 

"Okay," Kyuhyun agreed, stepping away from the railing to stand close to him. "Here, hold on tight and make sure I don't jump."

 

Zhou Mi's arms wrapped around him and Kyuhyun heard a low chuckle and felt warm breath on his ear.

 

"What if I do push you though?" Zhou Mi asked.

 

Kyuhyun settled back lazily against Zhou Mi's chest and watched the fireworks go off.

 

"Well, I'll just have to trust you to keep me safe then, I guess," he said.

 

"Such a secret romantic, Kui Xian."

 

Kyuhyun could feel Zhou Mi's smile against his skin as he buried his face in Kyuhyun's neck happily.

 

"Maybe," he conceded. "As long as none of my students are around."

 

"We're in an amusement park right after the end of the school year," Zhou Mi pointed out.

 

"Not my students anymore then," Kyuhyun elbowed him in the stomach.

 

Zhou Mi laughed in his ear again and Kyuhyun counted the day as a victory all around.