Chapter 10.

There was a bounce in Kyungsoo’s step that had not previously been there. For the first time in several weeks, he felt like he had done something right.

Of course, it had everything to do with the fact he had successfully talked to Jongin the day before, but he would never admit to that. He was content with simply going about things like usual, albeit a little more enthusiastically than normal. He just couldn’t help but smile when he thought about how extremely well things had gone. Jongin hadn’t snapped at him or left the classroom in a rage, which was what Kyungsoo had more or less been expecting. All in all, the teen seemed to have taken his proposal well.

“You look cheerful” Chanyeol’s deep voice jolted Kyungsoo from his reverie, and the smaller English teacher had to bite back a sudden wave of guilt at his friends appearance. Chanyeol looked positively miserable. 

“Oh, hey Yeol. Are you alright?” Kyungsoo asked, somewhat bewildered by the dark aura surrounding his colleague. 

Chanyeol seemed to wilt at his friend’s question, his reply coming back somewhat muffled due to the fact that he had dropped his face down onto the tabletop in apparent misery as soon as he was asked. “No. Jongdae is avoiding me like the plague”

Kyungsoo frowned. “No good, huh?”

“No good” came the tall mans muffled response. “Minseok tried to talk to him, but he refused to talk about our fight and changed the topic as soon as Seok tried to bring it up”

“Oh, I see.” came Kyungsoo’s only response. He felt his face turn down as he took in Chanyeol. Of course Kyungsoo could understand where Jongdae was coming from, but it didn’t mean he pitied Chanyeol any less. It was with a drawn out sigh that the smaller male finally relented, his mind made up. He was going to go against his life’s motto for the second time in the short span of 48 hours.

“Would you like it if I went and tried to talk to Jongdae?”

Kyungsoo certainly didn’t feel comfortable getting himself involved in other peoples affairs, but if it was for the benefit of mankind (a.k.a Chanyeol and Jongdae’s friendship) he would try (in cautious hesitancy). He had barely .1 of a second to prepare himself before he was face to face with a rather alarming looking Chanyeol. 

“Would you really do that for me, Soo?” Chanyeol’s eyes were bright, his voice somewhat breathless and his expression one of wounded puppy dog looking up (or in this case, down) at his saviour with nothing but hope and adoration. Chanyeol was well and truly desperate, and of course Kyungsoo couldn’t take his words back. He suppressed a groan, regretting the way the conversation had turned out more and more with each passing second.

Kyungsoo bit his lip slightly, choosing his words carefully as he replied. “I can try. I mean, I can’t guarantee anything though.”

“No,no. That’s fine, that’s good. The fact that you’ll try is enough for me, really Soo. I’d try again myself, but I need to go and find Byun Baekhyun. He’s still having problems in class and I really need to do something about it. It seriously means a lot to me that you’ll do this for me.” came Chanyeol’s breathless reply.

Kyungsoo huffed before smiling almost timidly. “Alright. If the outcome is good, you’ll owe me one. I’ll find him later today during my lesson free hour”

Chanyeol simply engulfed Kyungsoo in a bear like hug, cutting off his friends air supply and effectively silencing the small English teacher in the process. Chanyeol really was desperate to make amends with Jongdae, Kyungsoo thought to himself blearily as he struggled to break free and breathe. 

Jongdae wasn’t a particularly hard person to find. Kyungsoo had been teaching at Malhana long enough to know the habits of many of the teachers, and the normally raucous economics teacher was no exception. Kyungsoo had almost memorised the teacher timetable by heart, and he was almost 87.3% sure that Jongdae had a free, which meant that the he would most likely be hanging out in the teachers parking lot, directly behind the art class blocks.  

It took less than five minutes for Kyungsoo to walk down to the art block, and five minutes of self-prep to try and get him in the right mindset for talking to Jongdae. By the time he had reached the parking lot, all he had managed to do successfully was turn himself into a nervous wreck. He had always been awful at confronting people.

“Hey! Well, would you look at that? What is our latest staff addition doing down here?” A deep and oddly gravelly voice called loudly, causing Kyungsoo to just about have a heart attack. The English teachers eyes scanned the area wildly until he spotted two men sitting at the back of the art class on the steps of the small back exit. Kyungsoo exhaled a breath of air once he recognized them. Jongdae, was one, and the other was Wu Yifan, the school’s head art teacher. 

“Hi guys” Kyungsoo smiled timidly. “What are you doing?”

“I’m teaching” Yifan grinned widely, patting a spot on the step next to him – an invitation for Kyungsoo to join them. Jongdae snorted at Yifan from beside the art teacher, but his eyes were warm when they met Kyungsoo’s.

“Yeah, what Yifan really means is that he’s meant to be teaching the class that he left inside there-” a quick jerk of his thumb in the direction of the door behind them “-but couldn’t help but use me as an excuse to come out here, gossip and have a smoke” Jongdae shook his head.

“Hey!” Yifan said, having the audacity to sound insulted. “I know you were hovering around here in the hopes of me spotting you. You were just itching for me to bound out this back door to join you”

Jongdae rolled his eyes and Kyunsgoo laughed as he settled himself down on the step beside Yifan. If being around Chanyeol made him feel small, the blonde man beside him made him feel like he was suffering some sort of height abnormality. Kyungsoo repressed a sigh. He was finding himself associating with people who made him feel like a dwarf on far more frequent intervals than he had ever thought possible. Yifan practically towered over him.

“We were just talking about Joonmyeon before you appeared” Yifan said with a smile. “Well, I was complaining and Jongdae was here as my shoulder to cry on” Although the art teacher seemed to be joking, Kyungsoo didn’t fail to detect the hard edge that had entered his voice.

“Joonmyeon and Yifan are good friends” Jongdae spoke to Kyungsoo, having obviously caught onto the English teacher’s apparent confusion.

“Were friends” Yifan corrected, the bitterness no longer hidden. “I guess he decided he couldn’t be bothered with me anymore”

Kyungsoo frowned in worry, turning slightly to take a better look at Yifan. He had grown quite fond of the