Chapter 16.

Kyungsoo had a lot on his plate. More specifically, he was overwhelmed.

He hadn’t realised how behind he was on work related tasks until he was firmly buried. As a result his stress levels had skyrocketed -- the sudden realisation that he had a lot of things to prepare but not very much time to prepare them had simply been too much for his usually uncluttered thought processes to handle. Kyungsoo was someone who had always been conscientious and careful: never in his life had he succumbed to distractions when faced with things that needed getting done. However, for the first time in his life he had spent the last two days more or less living in a blur. After having to hastily prepare three sets test papers as well as attend several meetings with his colleagues about upcoming school events, Kyungsoo had more or less burnt himself out. He had been utterly unprepared for the onslaught of work that he had found himself having to deal with.

It was with mild horror that he had slumped down at lunch beside Chanyeol, the coming to terms with the fact that he had let himself fall behind on important duties that he, as a teacher, was supposed to do unquestioningly being harder to deal with than the actual work load that had accumulated from his carelessness. The fact that he had always been one to be able to prioritise had been the main reason he had been able to get through high school and university with ease: not once had Do Kyungsoo felt stressed due to exams or assignments. Everything was studied, completed and prepared for with time to spare.

However, he had been careless and overlooked several things that needed to be remembered. Never in his life had he felt so disgusted with himself. He was a full time, qualified English teacher! He couldn’t believe that he had fogotten things that he was being paid to do.

“Woah there, looks like someone got out from the wrong side of the bed today.”

Kyungsoo lifted his head to glare at the person who had spouted the unwelcomed observation: of course it would be Jongdae. No surprise there, Kyungsoo rolled his eyes internally.

“I messed up today, its put me in a bad mood.”

Chanyeol snorted through his sandwich. “Wittle Kyungpoo was unorganised today! He was up until four AM last night writing up tests!” the tall English teacher picked up his bottle of opened chocolate milk and waggled his eyebrows in an annoying manner as he took a long sip from the straw.

Kyungsoo turned to his curly haired colleague, glare level set to kill. “Shuttup Yeol. Just because I take my job seriously and actually feel bad for not doing the things that are required of me.”

Jongdae, like Chanyeol, seemed to find Kyungsoo’s suffering almost comical. “Yes, yes. But you survived, didn’t you? All is well.”

“I guess.” Kyungsoo deflated with a weary sigh, too tired to argue his point like he usually would. “Never again, though.”

“That’s the spirit!” Chanyeol grinned. “Now that you’ve managed to catch up you can relax after school. You only got behind on things because you’ve been so busy doing all those after school tutoring lessons, anyway.”

Kyungsoo bolted upright, choking on the mouthful of sandwhich he had only just managed to steal from Chanyeol. “Oh no! Tutoring!” He scrambled to stand, nearly knocking over his friends flavoured milk in the process. “I forgot! I totally forgot! How could I forget?! I need to go prepare something otherwise the whole lesson will be pointless!”

“Woah, Kyungsoo?!” Kyungsoo heard Jongdae call, however, he was already bolting from the staffroom in the direction of his classroom where he had left most of his teaching material last period. Was the folder he used for storing the topics and teaching material he needed to provide Jongin there with all his other folders? He remembered stuffing it into the front pocket of his laptop case at his apartment the day before.

But he had forgotten his laptop on his bed in his haste to get to work on time that morning! Kyungsoo fought off the urge to pull his hair in frustration. The fact that he had le