Work Text:
Seungcheol sat himself down at the back table in his classroom to collect the phonics lesson plans for after recess. Lately, he had been pulling to work with small groups while the rest of the class worked on a packet, which had never bothered him before except today he had the watchful eyes of Lee Jihoon during the lesson. Being observed always put him slightly on edge, regardless of the fact that he and Jihoon had a solid friendship outside of work. The guy had a sharp stare and really it was a wonder how he was able to garner enough patience to do learning assessments at all if Seungcheol was being honest.
“I just want to check in to see what level Hansol’s reading at, mainly,” Jihoon said through the last mouthful of his snack. Were those teddy bear graham crackers?
“You know, you almost look like the kids when you eat those,” noted Seungcheol. “If I didn’t know any better I’d say you literally stole them from one of their backpacks.”
Jihoon narrowed his eyes, “and just the other day I heard you lecturing about schoolyard bullying but I guess we can’t all practice what we preach.” He dusted the crumbs off his hands over Seungcheol’s papers for emphasis, making Seungcheol chuckle and groan within the same breath. “And joke’s on you because I stole them from the emergency snack bin in the front office.”
The bell rang and Seungcheol got up from his desk to open the classroom door. “That’s not better, man.”
The students filed in from recess and got started on their packets as Seungcheol beckoned today’s group over to the table where he and Jihoon sat.
“Hi Mister Choi,” said Chan, who waddled over carefully, almost barreled over by Seungkwan and Hansol racing to the table behind him.
“First one!” Seungkwan puffed, turning to Hansol who wore a polite but bewildered look on his face at all times.
“Nuh-uh,” Hansol replied through a grin missing it’s two front teeth. “Hey Mister Choi, Hi Mister Lee.” The afterthought was as gracious as either of them could’ve hoped for, really. He started the lesson.
Gathered around the table, the kids grabbed a book from Seungcheol’s hands in which a horse collects participants for a talent show at the farm. It was a simple book in theory, but when it came to the word “horse,” all three boys had trouble with pronunciation.
“Let’s break it down sound by sound,” Seungcheol suggested to the indifferent looks of the seven year olds. He wrote the letter H the small white board behind him. “What sound does this make?”
The breathy sigh let out in unison, meant to be an H, matched how they were feeling on the inside, he was sure.
He wrote an O next to the H, then faced the children with “HO” blaring ominously out of the corner of his eye. A glance from his writing to the group left him with a seed of dread at the next question.
“What does this say?”
The word was deafening in their tiny baby voices: “Ho!”
He looked painfully over to Jihoon who was looking down at his phone and politely not calling attention to the death of innocence he so clearly bore witness to.
Swiveling back to the board with a feigned “good job” and a grimace, Seungcheol hesitated before writing an R. There was no turning back at this point- if he didn’t commit to writing “HOR” in bright red ink like a damn cartoon nightmare then the kids would know something was wrong. You fucking clod of a teacher, he thought to himself, smiling and turning back around to face Seungkwan, Hansol, and Chan. Ashamed, but not at all able to retreat from the scene, he asked them to recite what they saw.
Working with young children had taught Seungcheol a number of things, amongst which was what to do during the discovery periods of curse words and private parts. The response he was to give when they came up were calculated and rehearsed- a simple “that’s not appropriate for school” or the even simpler Let’s Ignore What I Just Heard Altogether™, a personal favorite. Needless to say, he knew what to do when the kids brought this knowledge to the table.
He had also accumulated a number of non-expletive curse words in his years leading up to this job, including but not limited to using “fart” as a substitution for “fuck,” and “booger” in lieu of “total fucking asshole.” His ability to dodge any administration of unsavory topics to the kids was something he was proud of, so hearing a chorus of wobbly “whores!” from a group of young kids- and whores that he himself inflicted upon them- was a surreal exercise in remaining calm during crisis.
Seungcheol rolled his lips tightly together, wishing for the much preferable release of death over the absolute shit-eating smirk Jihoon was now sending him.