Cho Kyuhyun's weekdays always start the same way.

He gets woken up at five thirty by the News blaring on his alarm clock. It's usually something boring and sensible; nobody wants to hear bad news in the morning. Sometimes there's news of a blizzard. "Schools are closed for the day," the presenter will say, and Kyuhyun will roll out of bed to see how much snow is piled outside his door and then climb back into bed, where he'll sleep the rest of the day away.

On the days there is no snow, he rolls out of bed and heads to the bathroom to shower and brush his teeth. Once he's finished, he heads to the kitchen where he spoons porridge from his rice cooker into a bowl and microwaves it before eating it piping hot, no dressings but for salt (he likes it with honey and raisins but it makes him sleepy), accompanied with a glass of orange juice, whilst still dressed in nothing but a towel. He's glad he lives alone, because there's nobody to lecture him about wetting his chairs and perhaps getting a cold. (And walking around the house is also a pleasure he enjoys.)

After this, he heads to his drawers in his bedroom and puts on some underwear and socks—always with a vest. He never used to wear vests, but now vests are a must. Then he moves to his wardrobe where he takes one of the multiple plain, long-sleeved, white button-up shirts from the rack and then a pair of black trousers from the trouser press, and gets dressed. He pulls a sedately-coloured tie, often blue, from his tie-rack and wraps it around under his collar, finds his shoes, and then, patting his pockets to make sure his keys and wallet are there, and his nose to make sure he hasn't forgotten his glasses, leaves the house, locking it behind him, and heads to his Kia Picanto, which he drives to work. The whole routine takes less than an hour and a half and he always makes it to school by seven o'clock. He feels like his father, and he's only twenty-seven.

He's also a Primary School teacher.

When he'd told his parents he was going to do a PGCE those many years ago, they had given him horrified looks.

"Why waste your Mathematics degree?" his father had said.

"But you hate children," his mother had said.

Neither of those things is true. He is a Primary School Mathematics teacher, and he, in actual fact, does not hate children. He is just incredibly awkward with them. In fact, Kyuhyun loves his job.

He loves it so much that all of his best friends are six years old (in a non-creepy way). Well, with the glaring exception of Lee Sungmin, who is thirty-one and in charge of a class of fairly vicious ten year olds, also teaching PE, and Choi Sooyoung, who is twenty three and teaches some rather sleepy nine year olds, focusing on Japanese.

This isn't to say he doesn't like or spend time with the other teachers. They're a reasonably small school, so there are only two teachers per year. This means there are fourteen teachers, the head teacher, the receptionist, the caretaker, the two cooks and the school nurse. Not a lot of staff. Kyuhyun knows all of them by their first name (there are a higher percentage of male than female staff members which is the reverse of most Primary Schools) and has been known to drink with them on occasion, but he prefers to head home after school and mark homework.

His form class is a group of particularly sweet six year olds in first year who call him Mr Cho and "Seonsaengnim~!" (except for the three sneaky little girls who won't call him anything but "Oppa~!!" when no other teacher is around) in tiny and excited voices. He teaches them how to multiply to twenty and that Mathematics is the same language spoken all over the world until they start to blink at him with glazed-over eyes. He's taught at this school for the three years since he graduated, a different class each time, but he can honestly say he loves this year's class. He also teaches other classes, Year 3s and 5s in particular, but this is certainly his favourite of all the Year 1s he's had. 

He also has a routine once he gets to school. He parks his car in the exact same space each time (Sungmin jokes that he's "bagged" it so it's his). He climbs out and locks the car via the key instead of the central locking. Then he heads indoors and nods a greeting to Kim Jungmo, the receptionist, before moving to the staff room and saying hello to all the teachers as he finds what he's teaching that day.

And since the new school year started, he's done one more thing, and that's not look at the new Reception teacher, Zhou Mi. He doesn't look at him. He doesn't ogle him. He does not stare at him out of the corner of his eye when Zhou Mi smiles. He doesn't.

He most definitely does not have a crush on him.

Or at least, this is what he tells himself, sometimes aloud; quietly muttering. Sometimes he thinks his class must think he's a little touched in the head, but they like him too much to tell on him. If Choi Siwon, the Headmaster, thought he was mentally ill he'd be out of the school before he could blink.

His class, on the other hand, seem to think he and Zhou Mi would make the cutest couple ever. Kyuhyun begs to differ, but apparently his views do not count. He's never admitted that he likes Zhou Mi—nor does he intend to. Because it's not true.

Zhou Mi's a nice enough person. He's Chinese, one hundred feet tall, and all flailing limbs, a nose for a face and impeccable clothing. He seems to get away with wearing jeans instead of suit trousers to work, which Kyuhyun thinks is incredibly unfair. Then again, he does teach Reception. He has four year olds in there. They do like their paint, so it's probably safest.

Kyuhyun would like to be friends with him. Most of the time. In fact, he's sure Zhou Mi already thinks they are friends. He begs to differ.

---

Today is no different from usual.

He arrives at work slightly disappointed that there is no snow, as much as he loves his pupils, avoids Zhou Mi's bright smile when he nods a greeting to him, and then is faced with his class's slightly devilish smiles when he walks into the room a few minutes late.

"Oppa," Kwon Sohyun begins, and Kyuhyun hopes he isn't going to dread what she says. "Have you asked Mr Zhou out yet?"

"Is that why you were late?" Bae Suji adds and Kyuhyun is glad he doesn't have a habit of sweat-dropping or face-palming when gaming isn't involved, or he would have just embarrassed himself in front of his kids.

"No," Kyuhyun says as calmly as he can manage, and then says, "Good morning, everyone," trying to tell them the topic has ended.

He misses the sly grins Sohyun, Suji and Choi Jinri give each other.

---

He takes his midmorning break at ten o'clock as usual and heads briefly to the staffroom, where the first person he sees is Zhou Mi, head to toe in glitter. He sparkles in the light coming from the windows and Kyuhyun gets the urge to either cover his eyes or mutter, "Damn vampires." He does neither and instead glances at the older man on his way over to the kettle. He's nursing a mug in his hands and appears to be shivering.

Kyuhyun does not think about offering him his jacket. Nor does he imagine rubbing his hands along Zhou Mi's arms to warm him up, because that would be creepy.

To stop himself from not thinking such thoughts, he re-boils the kettle and lets the music of the bubbling fill his head. Whilst he waits for it to boil, he reaches above the sink to his cupboard (yes, he has a cupboard) and pulls out one of his many, many, many packs of Jaffa cakes. He rips open the plastic and promptly stuffs one into his mouth, whole. Jaffa cakes are his sustenance at school. They have been since he was in university.

Through the biscuit, he asks, "Want one?" and s the bag out towards Zhou Mi, who is standing much closer to him than he was when Kyuhyun had arrived. Kyuhyun thinks he probably wants a drink refill and nods to the cup. "Another?"

Zhou Mi nods and hands the mug to Kyuhyun gratefully, and then takes a Jaffa cake from the packet. Glitter sprinkles all the way up Kyuhyun's shirt sleeve but he can't bring himself to care. He doesn't even attempt to dust it off, just ignores it and hands Zhou Mi his new tea. He then pours himself a black coffee and nurses it until the bell rings, when he downs it. They sit in silence during the whole thing, though Zhou Mi looks a little antsy. Kyuhyun doesn't ask him about it. He just says, "See you," and heads back to class.

Somehow the walk redistributes the glitter and he finds himself in front of a class of giggly seven year olds who seem to think they know what he's been up to.

He mentally curses them and tries to get them to multiply by five, just to be particularly mean.

When his own class finds out by lunch, he really curses them.

---

He has no run-ins at all with Zhou Mi the next day, because he teaches three classes who are all covered in paint and seem to really badly want to touch his workbooks. He knows that if they look this bad, then Zhou Mi will look worse. So he just completely ignores Zhou Mi. It's probably not fair on the older man, but he'd rather his shirts stayed clean.

However, he can't escape the clutches of small children the day after. He reaches his own classroom to discover that they've just had Art (which explains why he saw Zhou Mi's dirty jeans heading the other way). They were playing with Plasticine and Sohyun, Suji and Jinri all decided to make him things for his window at home, Suji tells him in a matter-of-fact tone. Hers is a butterfly, because they're pretty. Sohyun's is a heart, because she wishes him luck in asking Mr Zhou out. Jinri's is a miniature statue of Zhou Mi, except it looks, to Kyuhyun, more like a pink head with a red square above it and a green and blue cone below it. He thanks them as sincerely as he can manage and sets them on the corner of his desk. They stain his fingertips and palms as he moves them and he mentally sighs, knowing that it's going to travel.

He's not wrong, as somehow he's got it all over his shirt by the end of class, and then, during his break, Zhou Mi hands him even more Plasticine to hold, including a yellow sun he doesn't take back.

Kyuhyun puts it on his desk with the others. He tells himself it's not because it reminds him of Zhou Mi but in case Zhou Mi wants it back.

Zhou Mi never asks for it back, and it stays a permanent fixture there, even when other teachers use his class. It does, however, gain glitter and a smile at some point, which Sohyun says is courtesy of Zhou Mi, but Kyuhyun refuses to believe it was for any reason other than fun.

---

After this, there's a very long time (about ten days, if that), where Kyuhyun is just nice to Zhou Mi when he sees him. He doesn't talk to him unless he has to, and he doesn't do anything for him, but he's still nice. During that time, Zhou Mi seems perfectly content to hang out with his fellow Reception teacher, Park Sunyoung, during the breaks, sharing stories. She also speaks fluent Mandarin as she teaches Chinese, and Kyuhyun thinks they probably yap a lot in Zhou Mi's native tongue. Kyuhyun considers asking her more than once to teach him simple things, but never asks, because that would be creepy.

However, Kyuhyun thinks that sharing stories is a good idea, so he sits at Sungmin's table each of these days. Today Sungmin is sitting with Sooyoung.

"Hi Kyuhyun," she says when she sees him. "I just had your class. They want to know how to say ‘congratulations Mr Cho' in Japanese." She raises an eyebrow. Sungmin snorts into his coffee.

Kyuhyun raises his hands. "Don't look at me. I don't know what they're on about." He shoves his hand into his newly-opened Jaffa cakes bag and takes one out. Sungmin takes two. "They're just mad."

"You love them though. You've said it yourself; they're your favourite class," Sungmin says through both of the biscuits. He reaches for a third one and Kyuhyun smacks his hand away. Sooyoung giggles.

"They are," Kyuhyun agrees. "Even though they're mad."

"Why are they mad?" Sooyoung asks, and helps herself to a biscuit, which she dunks into her tea. Kyuhyun wrinkles his nose. How dare she sully Jaffa cakes that way.

"They're convinced he has the hots for our favourite new teacher," Sungmin says before Kyuhyun can even open his mouth.

"Oh," Sooyoung says. "But…don't you?" She her head and looks puzzled. "I thought you did."

Kyuhyun buries his head in his hands. Sungmin steals all his Jaffa cakes.

---

The first thing Kyuhyun sees when he walks through the staffroom door several days later is Sungmin bent double with laughter and then he realises that Sungmin's laughing at Zhou Mi and Zhou Mi is looking pathetically back at him.

It takes three Jaffa cakes and some subtle earwigging for Kyuhyun to discover that Zhou Mi has clay in his hair and he can't reach it. Sungmin is apparently refusing to help.

"Oh, Kyuhyun," Sungmin says, as if he's just spotted Kyuhyun in the corner. "Do you think you could help Zhou Mi out? I've got to head back to my class."

"Oh, would you, please?" Zhou Mi says. "I can't find this clay at all."

Kyuhyun sighs and crosses the room. Zhou Mi's chair is pressed against the wall so he can't get behind it, and Kyuhyun doesn't have the heart to ask him to move to another one. Instead, he stands awkwardly in front of Zhou Mi and leans over to feel around the back of Zhou Mi's head.

He finds the clay quickly, but his awkward tugging both makes Zhou Mi cry out in pain, and knocks Kyuhyun unsteady. He almost knees Zhou Mi in his awkwardness to catch his balance, and the older man's hand shoots out, resting on Kyuhyun's hip to help him steady himself.

His hand doesn't move after Kyuhyun's steady once more and Kyuhyun can feel it, a warm spot on his side, almost like it was burning through his trousers. He doesn't imagine what that hand would feel like on his bum. He doesn't. He also doesn't imagine what it would feel like against his thigh.

To clear himself of these non-thoughts, he busies himself with tugging at the clay, gentler this time.

"Oppa?" he hears from the doorway, and he turns hurriedly, almost upsetting himself into Zhou Mi's lap, as he recognises it as Sohyun's voice. She giggles, covering , and runs away, and Kyuhyun realises his class has started.

He swears under his breath and finally works the clay out. It only brings a few of Zhou Mi's hairs out with it.

"Thank you, Kyuhyun," Zhou Mi says, without commenting on Sohyun's use of ‘oppa'. "I think you should go after her." He pats Kyuhyun's thigh once more and then nods to the door.

Kyuhyun blinks at him for a moment before running to the door and down the corridor to his classroom.

"Oppa!" Sohyun squeals from where she's standing outside the door to wait for him. "Did you tell him? Did you kiss?"

"Sohyun," Kyuhyun says, warningly. "Not a word."

He should have known this was an impossible thing to ask of her, because once he gets inside, Jinri and Suji both squeal, "Mr Zhou touched you?" and Kyuhyun prepares himself for a long day.

---

It's a week later, and Kyuhyun is inside the staffroom picking up a packet of Jaffa cakes for the drive home when he notices that there's a giant, glittering chicken in the room.

"Argh!" he shouts reflexively and drops the packet.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the chicken says, with Zhou Mi's voice, and Kyuhyun subtly pinches himself. He's not dreaming.

"Um," Kyuhyun says. "Um?"

"I'm sorry," Zhou Mi's voice repeats. "The kids were supposed to be sticking feathers on this fake chicken toy we have, but instead decided I was a better sized statue. I couldn't stop them."

Kyuhyun looks closer at his words, and this time he can see Zhou Mi's nose and sad eyes under all the feathers. He can even spot the remainders of his jeans under all the ts.

"Oh, I understand," Kyuhyun says, even if he doesn't really.

Zhou Mi sighs. "I was trying to get everything off, but I didn't bring any spare clothes today. I think I thought I was going to be fine." He pauses. "Oh goodness, I'm going to have to go home like this, aren't I? The things my neighbours will say…" He sighs again.

It's out before Kyuhyun can stop it, can even think about it. "Do you want to come back to mine to wash up? I live nearer and the neighbours won't notice."

"Oh no, I couldn't possibly impose!" Zhou Mi exclaims, but in that tone where Kyuhyun knows what he really means is ‘yes please'.

"It's fine," Kyuhyun says with a sigh. "You're not imposing." He tugs Zhou Mi into a standing position and turns to lead the older to his car, when he becomes engulfed in warmth. He looks at Zhou Mi's arms against his chest, and his first thought, swimming through his very bones, is that they fit perfectly together. That he wants to be like this always. He feels safe in Zhou Mi's arms.

Wait, no he doesn't. He doesn't like Zhou Mi. Not like that.

He somehow manages to extract himself from Zhou Mi's hug and then leads him to the car.

Zhou Mi quietly folds himself into the car and they drive in silence until they reach Kyuhyun's house.

"We're here," Kyuhyun says, and then leads him up to the front door. He unlocks it carefully and kicks his shoes off once inside. Zhou Mi follows his example.

Kyuhyun turns to look at Zhou Mi, at the feathers cloaking him, and ponders his options for a few minutes. "I think we'll have to pick those out before you can shower," he says. "Come and sit in the kitchen."

Zhou Mi trails behind him and sits on one of Kyuhyun's kitchen chairs.

Kyuhyun stands behind Zhou Mi and carefully begins to pluck feathers out of his hair. Luckily, a lot of the hair feathers are just tied or stuck in. The glue is on Zhou Mi's face, and Kyuhyun knows it'll be a type that comes off skin with warm water. He just doesn't want to have to empty his shower drain afterwards, so it's easier to get it off before the shower.

It takes Kyuhyun just over five minutes to pick out the feathers, during which time Zhou Mi tries to spark up a few conversations and Kyuhyun merely grunts a response. Zhou Mi stops after a while, and Kyuhyun heads to his sink to fill a bowl with warm water. He fetches a cloth from the cupboard under the sink and takes it to the table. He settles it down, soaks the cloth, and starts to wash away at the edge of Zhou Mi's face. Despite the situation, he doesn't feel maternal at all, like a mother washing her son's cheeks. In fact, he feels more like a lover. It's incredibly awkward. He doesn't like Zhou Mi, after all.

He's trying to clean a particular spot above Zhou Mi's left eyebrow when he leans in a bit and slips on what was probably some spilt water. The only way he can catch his balance is to fall onto Zhou Mi's lap. This isn't like before, except it is. Only better. But no. He doesn't like Zhou Mi.

Zhou Mi doesn't even seem to mind. Instead, he smiles at Kyuhyun and settles his hands on Kyuhyun's hips, like before.

Kyuhyun thinks his heart is pounding harder than that of a teenage boy in the presence of his first crush, and he gulps and stands so fast that Zhou Mi's hands go flying off him. "Sorry," he shoots out, and continues to wash Zhou Mi's face, a little more brusquely this time.

Zhou Mi doesn't turn a hair; instead he keeps smiling like he's just learnt a really interesting secret. Kyuhyun hopes he doesn't think he liked that, because he most definitely didn't enjoy it. Really.

Once all the feathers are off Zhou Mi's face and hair, Kyuhyun says, "I'll get you something to change into," and scurries away so he can find some clothes for the other man. He gets a few awkward thoughts where he panics that Zhou Mi's going to be wearing his clothes, and how that'd look to anyone else—not that there's anyone else to see—but he writes them off as worry over the fact that Zhou Mi is several centimetres taller and therefore not likely to fit his clothes. He's also skinnier, so they'll probably hang off him. Not ily. Weirdly. They won't hug his body so there'll be nothing to ogle at. Not that Kyuhyun ever ogles Zhou Mi. He doesn't like him. It's just that he envies Zhou Mi's legs. Really.

He scurries in his wardrobe for a few moments until he hears Zhou Mi in his doorway and he freezes momentarily.

"It's okay, I'll be fine if you've just got some sweatpants or something," Zhou Mi says, looking around the room.

Kyuhyun looks around at what Zhou Mi is looking at and blushes, realising that he'd been throwing clothes behind him constantly. "Um," he says, and then stops, because he doesn't really know how to explain this. "Okay." He heads to his drawers and feels around for a pair of baggy sweatpants that won't be too short and a t-shirt. He hands them to Zhou Mi, who's covering his mouth but not enough that Kyuhyun can't see he's laughing. "Bathroom's next door," Kyuhyun says, unable to stop the pout from forming as he realises Zhou Mi's laughing at him. "Leave your clothes outside, I'll wash them."

Zhou Mi smiles gratefully at him before heading next door. It's a few moments before Kyuhyun can hear the shower running and then he fully pinks, realising that Zhou Mi is completely next door.

"Don't think these things," he mumbles to himself, aloud. "You don't like him."

He quickly changes, himself, out of his suit and into jeans and a long-sleeved polo shirt, before scurrying around his room, picking up all his clothes and hanging them back up. It's not five minutes before Zhou Mi shouts, "Kyuhyun? Where are your towels?"

Kyuhyun freezes when he realises that they're in his airing cupboard, which isn't in the bathroom. "Um, I'll get one for you," he says, outside the bathroom door, a little nervously. He shuffles down the corridor and grabs the first towel he can see. He then knocks on the bathroom door, noting the pile of clothes next to it.

He hears the door unlock and then Kyuhyun opens it slightly and s the towel through the crack. "Here!" he says.

Zhou Mi laughs. "Oh, you're funny, Kyuhyun," he says, and Kyuhyun feels a wet hand close over his, before the towel is taken.

"How so?" Kyuhyun can't help but ask reflexively.

Zhou Mi chuckles and opens the door. He's completely topless, dressed in nothing but the trousers Kyuhyun had given him, and is running the towel over his hair. Kyuhyun finds himself staring at the build of the other teacher, admiring his body, before Zhou Mi chuckles again and Kyuhyun raises his eyes to Zhou Mi's. "You just really are," Zhou Mi says, and Kyuhyun has the feeling, once more, that Zhou Mi knows something that he doesn't know. About him.

"Ah, since you're dressed, I'll just, um, take these to the washing machine," Kyuhyun says hurriedly and scoops down to pick up Zhou Mi's clothes. His dirty clothes. That were against his skin.

For the first time, Kyuhyun thinks the part of his brain that says he doesn't like Zhou Mi might actually be wrong.

No. It can't be. He really doesn't like Zhou Mi, right? Right?

He doesn't notice that whilst he's been thinking this, Zhou Mi's been getting closer and closer to him until they're almost touching. "Oh, did you want to go out?" Kyuhyun asks, slightly panicked. "I can move to let you—"

He breaks off after Zhou Mi tilts his chin up gently and kisses him.

Oh.

The part of him that was adamant about him not liking Zhou Mi shuts up immediately and settles to a calm, and the part of him—a much larger, but quieter part, Kyuhyun realises—that knew he liked Zhou Mi coos. It sounds a bit like his class of children, but who wants to think about their kids when they're kissing their crush? Nobody, because that's creepy.

Zhou Mi pulls back, a little worried look on his face. "Oh—I thought you wanted me—?" he mumbles. "Was I wrong?"

It's only after he says this that Kyuhyun realises he hadn't kissed back. And that he doesn't want this to be it. "Oh, shut up and kiss me again," he grumbles, drops the clothes, and pulls Zhou Mi's mouth back down to his, where it appears to remain for much of the evening.

"Making up for lost time," Zhou Mi says later on. "I've liked you all along; couldn't you tell?"

How could he have known? He didn't even know that he liked Zhou Mi.

"Oh, Kyuhyun, you are so silly," Zhou Mi says affectionately. "At least your kids won't tease you anymore."

Kyuhyun suddenly ponders what to do about them. "Should I tell them?" he asks.

"They'll find out soon anyway," Zhou Mi assures him. "Let's see what happens."

---

The next day, Zhou Mi kisses him lightly before getting out of the car after they arrive at school, before Kyuhyun can protest that they may be seen. He can only hope that he wasn't spied on during that time.

He should have known not to hope, especially with his class, because Suji giggles really loudly when he arrives.

"What's so funny, Suji?" he asks.

"I saw Mr Zhou and Oppa kissing this morning," Suji says cheerfully. "It was really cute."

His entire class coos. Jinri and Sohyun chorus, "Finally!", and Kyuhyun briefly entertains the idea of asking them to do a quiz on multiplications up to thirty just to be cruel, but then he notices the Plasticine sun on his desk and smiles to himself instead. Another time, maybe.

After all, they were actually right all along.

He later learns that it was Zhou Mi's plan all along, and considers throwing the sun at Zhou Mi's face in the staffroom. Zhou Mi just gives him a packet of Jaffa cakes. Kyuhyun forgives him instantly.

He does, after all, like this idiot.