You and Mr. Byun talk about random things the entire time to your first sight that day. It feels like something has changed between the both of you, but you just don't know what. It could be just you, or it could just be your mood. You're feeling happy and easygoing today, making you wonder what made you like this in the first place. Maybe it's the messages from Sehun, talking to you about the cute girl. He seems to really like her and from what Sehun has described, the girl sounds nice, too. You've always tried being happy for him when he finds a girl he likes. But for the first time since your past relationship with him, you realise that you're genuinely happy for him. You just want things to go right for him.

Also, the seating arrangement in your group seems to be fixed with the boys sitting together while Mr. Byun sits with you. This seating arrangement doesn't change and it is permanent. The next two days are pretty uneventful, if you exclude the bus rides where you get to argue and talk to Mr. Byun. You realise that he is quite sarcastic for a male, like he is just full of sass or something. During the nights when you're finished with the long days, you update your parents and then spend a longer time talking to Sehun. You've also already bought some souvenirs like candies and postcards while you're out on expedition.

You don't go out in the evenings now, just staying in the lobby to use the wifi. Soonkyu is still as cold towards you, only speaking to you when necessary. Tonight is the fifth night here and for the first time, Soonkyu isn't in your room. Well, she did come back to wash up, but she had gone out again with a paper bag that was suspiciously shaped like a bottle of booze. You know the other students must be drinking again but thankfully in another person's room so you don't have to go looking to sleep in someone else's room. You've also already acclimatised yourself with the local clock. It's two in the morning and you're sound asleep when someone shakes you awake roughly.

"We're about to do something very rated, roomie," Soonkyu's words are slurred and the room smells like alcoholic breath. It isn't just Soonkyu who is back, but also another guy who is panting loudly. Soonkyu continues, "You can stay and watch. Or you can leave."

"What—"

"We're going to have , ," she cuts your sentence, sounding extremely irritated. "So?"

"Uh," is all you can say for now. You are sleepy and tired, your brain isn't really working.

"Or we could do a ," the guy behind Soonkyu suggests, a hint of excitation in his voice.

You pull the covers away from your body and stand. "Um... I'll leave you guys to do... your thing."

You fumble for your phone and room key before rushing out of the place. They're already stripping when you leave your room. You subconsciously take the elevator up one level and walk down the hallway until you stop at a familiar room that you had once slept in. You knock on the door. It takes a while, but the door is open and Mr. Byun is looking at you with a frown. He doesn't even need to say anything as he opens the door wider for you to enter.

"There's a door bell, you know," he murmurs quietly when you walk past him.

You stop and stare at him, suddenly aware of that fact. "Oh."

He pushes you into the room gently, his hand on the small of your back. He closes the door while you take a seat on his bed. Mr. Kim is already sleeping. And as expected, Mr. Byun's laptop is open.

"Soonkyu is having in our room," you bluntly inform your teacher.

He splutters. Trying to recover, he blinks at you, "Wh-what?"

"My roommate, Soonkyu," you're speaking slower now like you're talking to a child. "is having in our room."

"And she kicked you out?"

"I didn't want to hear them have , obviously," you roll your eyes. "I kicked myself out."

"Dammit, I really do not like your roommate," he mutters, running his hand through his fluffy hair.

"I'm sorry I always have to trouble you," you apologise sincerely and quietly.

Mr. Byun shakes his head. "No, not because you're always troubling me," he says, looking at you with soft eyes. "I don't like her because she's sort of abusing you. And you're too nice to do anything about it." He then walks to the side of his bed and pulls up the quilt after he takes his laptop. You notice that his headphones aren't plugged in, which is probably why he heard you when you knocked on the door. "Get in and go to sleep."

You slip under the cover and Mr. Byun does the same, though he sits up with his MacBook on his lap. "Save your work, Mr. Byun."

"Why?" He looks at you, curious why you're asking him for that favour.

"Because I'm a girl and girls like to do things together and I want you to sleep with me." You're not sure if you're just imagining it but you're sure you see a tinge of pink on Mr. Byun's cheeks. You laugh softly, "I'm kidding. But seriously, go to sleep."

"But my project..." He sees you semi-glaring at him with a serious expression on your face. He rolls his eyes, "Fine." As he saves his work, he mutters unhappily to himself, "I don't know why I can't just say no to you. It's not like you're my mother..."

"Love talking to yourself?" You tease.

"Yes," he snaps back, although in a joking manner. He places his laptop on the floor before sitting up. "I'll move over to—"

"Mr. Kim looks like he wouldn't give his bed up to anyone else," you point out. The said man is sprawled on his bed with his limbs wide. "Sleep here, it's fine. We've done it before."

"But—" He sees your face again. "Fine, but I'm not flirting with you."

"I wouldn't dream of it," you joke, laughing quietly though you feel a pang in your chest. It isn't that you wish for him to flirt with you. But when a man so openly declares that he isn't flirting with you, wouldn't it bring at least a little heart break no matter who this man is?

Mr. Byun goes under the covers with you, facing the ceiling while you're your side. He glances at you staring at him. "What?" he whispers.

"Sehun admitted that you're cool," you tell him and he eventually turns to face you.

"Really?"

You nod, "I meant to tell you in the bus tomorrow— today but since I'm here..."

"Aw," Mr. Byun grins. "That's cute."

You chuckle, hitting his chest lightly. "You're lucky he's not here to hear you. He doesn't like hearing me call him cute."

"You must be very close to him," your teacher deduces, staring at you.

"Yeah," you smile. "We've basically done everything together. He's many of my firsts."

"First love?" He guesses. You nod. "First kiss?" You nod again, slightly shy now. "First... First time?" You're blushing even as you nod.

You explain hastily, "We promised that we were going to lose it to each other!!! It was a joke but when we got together... Yeah... Ah, why am I even telling you this..." You cover your face in embarrassment.

Mr. Byun chuckles softly, "Nothing to be embarrassed about, sweetheart. We'll all experience our first time eventually, won't we?"

"Have you?" You whisper, peeking from behind your hands.

His lips quirk up in some sort of a smirk. He tells you, "When I was 16."

"That's younger than I was," you comment.

"Well, I never even pegged you down as a girl who's already had her first time." He teases, making you blush again. You move to hit him, but he grabs your wrist in time. "Stop hitting me."

"You deserve it," you grumble, hitting him with your other hand.

"Ah!" he yelps shortly. He shoots his eyes over to where the other teacher is still sleeping soundly. He whispers when he turns back to you, "This is not how you repay someone for letting you sleep with them."

"Should I give you a kiss then?" You pucker your lips. He laughs, covering your mouth with your own hand. You giggle. "You're making me more awake, Mr. Byun!"

"Then we can stay up and you can entertain me while I do my work," he grins, already reaching to the side for his laptop.

"Nah-uh," you wag your finger at him. "You're a workaholic, you know? What will happen to your wife in the future? Or your children?"

"I'll just see what happens then." If anyone can even shrug their shoulders while lying down on their side, that would be Mr. Byun.

"It's a bad habit," you chastise.

"Unless you're gonna be my wife, I don't think you have much say. And I'm not gonna stop working hard," he rebuts. "Because that way my family can have a good life."

"You're stubborn."

"So are you."

"You're worse than I am."

Mr. Byun stoppers your mouth with his hand. "Okay, brat. Go to sleep."

When you wake up the next day, it's not because of your alarm but because of the murmurs around you.

"This is wrong, Baekhyun, you know that!" Mr. Kim is saying. He sounds stressed.

"We weren't even doing anything inappropriate!" Mr. Byun counters.

"You sleeping with a female student is already enough to be frowned upon." The older teacher sighs, "What if you're too careless? Huh, Baekhyun? What will happen then?"

"Then you're my hyung and you're going to get me out of that ," Mr. Byun mutters.

"I'm talking about liking her— or any other student, for that matter. Not some situation you can easily run from."

"Yes, Junmyeon hyung, you're still gonna help me out of that ." The male next to you unconsciously drops his hand to twirl your hair around his fingers. Your veins on your neck are throbbing and you're feeling warm. You hope you're not blushing because who blushes the moment they wake up?! "You know I don't fall in love easily. Besides, I don't think I feel anything for her."

You feel like someone has punched you in the gut. Maybe it is from yesterday's dinner.

"What do you mean by you 'don't think'? Shouldn't you know your own heart?" Mr. Kim says after a long pause. "Well, at least I know you won't like her." Your heart stops at the realisation of him talking about you. "She's not your type." And just like that, your heart drops like it weighs a ton.

"Why do you guys think that?" Mr. Byun groans, letting go of your hair. As if Mr. Kim had been giving him a curious look, he explains, "She said the same thing."

"Okay, I don't want to go into why she said that," Mr. Kim says in an accusatory tone. "But it's just that your exes were — no offence — the three B's; brainless, y and beautiful." So if you're not his type, that just means that you're the opposite; brainy, nice and ugly. Or that's what you thought, until the teacher continues, "But then again, this girl is beautiful too, I could see you crushing on her."

"Seriously, hyung," Mr. Byun sounds exasperated. "My last relationship was two years ago, my taste in women has matured just as I have." Then he concludes, "I'm not going to crush on her, okay? I can't."

"Why can't you?"

"Weren't you the one warning me not to?"

"Well of course if you love her then I can't stop you," Mr. Kim speaks in a matter-of-fact tone. You can feel Mr. Byun's exasperation at his friend's contrasting views. "Just make sure you don't get her into trouble with you."

"Of course I won't," Mr. Byun scoffs. The alarm rings then, telling you that the teachers were up even earlier than they were supposed to. Someone nudges you and you hear Mr. Byun muttering, "Rise and shine, problem child."

Today is the worst day ever. You have never blushed so much in your entire life. Every time you see Soonkyu, she winks at you almost sleazily and you try not to think about her having with one of the guys here. You still don't know who the guy is. And every time you catch Mr. Byun's eye, your cheeks go pink and you look away with a thumping heart. Even when you're in the bus and he's trying to create conversation, you're looking everywhere but at him when you try to keep the discussion going. Your face is most of the time red, too.

"Okay, what's up?" Mr. Byun asks you finally when you're on the way to the next sight from the first. You your head in an attempt to look innocent. "You haven't been looking at me in the eyes, you're constantly blushing, and you're not giving me your attention when I'm speaking — be it in a group or just one-to-one." You don't reply. "Seriously. Tell me if I did anything wrong," Mr. Byun is almost pleading. He drops his voice, "Did I do something I don't know I did last night?"

"N-no," you shake your head firmly. "Never."

"Then what is it?" He sounds desperate. As if remembering something, he asks, "Did you... hear something...? In the morning...?" You blush again and there he knows he's got his answer. "Yah, problem child, don't you know it's wrong to eavesdrop?"

"I... Y-you guys were s-speaking so loudly..." You murmur in embarrassment, your cheeks aflame.

"Stop blushing, people will think I'm bullying you," Mr. Byun sighs, nudging you. You cup your face with your hands. "What did you hear?"

"I— I forgot."

"You're a bad liar."

"Shut up," you huff. You know you're a bad liar because it's something Sehun teases you often about.

"So tell me. What was the first thing you heard?" You reenact what Mr. Kim had said about Mr. Byun doing something wrong. Your teacher looks surprised. "That's almost everything..."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."

"Not your fault," he sighs. "Or at least, I won't blame you." Then his eyebrows draw together. "So why are you always blushing?"

"Because... I don't know..."

"Because Junmyeon hyung— Mr. Kim called you beautiful?" Your cheeks feel singed with heat. You wonder how red you are right now. Your teacher chuckles, patting your thigh gently. He doesn't say anything else.

"What does that mean?" you mutter in annoyance.

"It means you're ignorant."

"What—"

"Beautiful girls don't normally blush when they're complimented." Mr. Byun shrugs as he explains. "You're ignorant because you don't know you're beautiful." He sees you flush again and his lips quirk in amusement. "Red must be a nice colour on you."

"Stop it," you nudge him a little harder than needed. "I'm never talking to you again."

"Aw, don't," he laughs. You know he's trying to tease you. "I love talking to pretty girls."

"Mr. Byun!" You whine, shoving him. Your teacher sniggers at your embarrassment. 

Author's note:

Because it's Friday!!!!!!!!!!

Till next time
xoxoxo