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Jaebum had been teaching music at the Seoul International School for Language and Arts for three years. He had been dating the Korean Literature teacher for nearly 10. After so long together, he liked to think they had perfected the art of being subtle, keeping their friendly smiles and conversations casual enough to never raise suspicion. They didn’t even arrive to school at the same time despite living together. For 10 years, they had executed the routine flawlessly.
Their only mistake still haunted him: Jinyoung, half on top of him, where he laid in the small, twin-sized cot usually reserved for actual, sick patients. Mark, unlocking the door and letting out a string of curses before he slammed it shut and yelled at them from the hallway to find another goddamn room.
He hadn't been to the nurse’s office since. Even looking Mark in the eye without feeling the need to apologize was difficult. Jinyoung only made things worse by deciding Mark was entitled to details about their sex life, because "who else am I going to tell, no one here knows." Still, Mark was good at keeping secrets and they had never made another mistake since.
Until today.
"Did you shrink your jacket or is this some new Seoul fashion thing?” Jackson asked curiously, tilting his head as Jaebum entered the teachers’ room and dropped his bag on his desk, still half asleep.
After waking up late and rushing out of the apartment, he grabbed the first jacket on his side of the closet without paying much attention. Jinyoung had left without waking him, but he was too tired to even be angry about it.
“Huh?”
Jackson pointed to his sport jacket which, he suddenly realized, did feel a bit tight around the shoulders…
“Nice elbow patches Mr. Im,” Bambam greeted, grinning a bit as he slid past Jaebum with an excuse slip clutched in his hand (no doubt, for Jackson). “Park-teacher has the same jacket, I think.”
Jaebum looked down at the jacket. It was tan with dark green elbow patches and definitely not something he would usually wear.
“New jacket?”
Jaebum didn't need to turn around to know Jinyoung was smirking. He could hear it in his voice. He answered with a non-committal hum and busied himself with pulling out his lesson plan and graded music theory papers. The jacket tugged uncomfortably at his shoulders and the cuffs stopped well short of his wrists. It was amazing he hadn't noticed earlier...
It wasn't until Jinyoung moved to his own desk directly across from his, did he even look up. Jinyoung grinned as his eyes narrowed - he was wearing a black jacket a bit too big in the shoulders with sleeves just an inch too long.
You purposely switched our clothes, didn’t you? he glared at Jinyoung, whose grin widened. He looked back, unrepentant.
He grabbed his essays and snatched Bambam's excuse note from Jackson's desk.
“Go to class,” he said, ignoring the indignant shout as he crumpled the paper and stalked out of the teachers’ room.
He passed Mark, who raised an eyebrow at his appearance. “Do you know you're wearing Jinyoung’s—?”
“I know,” he practically shouted, startling a first year girl, who quickly scurried around them as if she had been the one Jaebum had yelled at.
“Nice jacket Mr. Im,” a second year, Kim Yugyeom, flashed him a way-too-bright smile and two thumbs up as he passed. “Totally my style.”
Jaebum could hear him cackling all the way down the hall. With an irritable sigh, he brushed past Mark and into the music room, where he peeled off the too-small jacket and draped it over his chair.
“Don't like it?” Jinyoung appeared in his doorway a few minutes later, still grinning.
Jaebum glared at him. He worked hard to keep their relationship out of the eyes of their students and fellow teachers because it wasn't any of their damn business and Jackson would never — never — let him live another peaceful day. He could already hear Jackson now when he inevitably found out...
“I can't believe you didn't tell me!” “I tell you everything!” “I thought we were friends!”
He sighed again and looked at Jinyoung, who stepped fully into the room.
“I can't believe you purposely switched our clothes,” he said.
“Just the jacket,” he replied.
“Why?” he asked through gritted teeth. “It doesn't even fit!”
Jinyoung picked up the jacket and draped it around Jaebum's shoulders.
“Because,” he said, tugging the collar straight and smoothing out the fabric. He smiled a bit as he looked at him. “I wanted you to wear something of mine for once.”
Jaebum’s shoulders relaxed as the annoyance slowly melted away. “You could have just given me a hoodie,” he said affectionately, a soft smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
“Then no one would see it,” he replied, running his hands along Jaebum’s arms.
Choi Youngjae chose that exact moment to enter the room.
Jaebum jumped away as if Jinyoung had shocked him. Clearing his throat, he greeted his student as casually as he could with Jinyoung snickering next to him.
“I...uh…” Youngjae glanced between them awkwardly. “Wanted to go over my composition assignment before class…” he glanced at Jinyoung again. “...but if you're busy—”
“It's fine,” Jaebum interrupted. “Mr. Park was just leaving,” he fixed Jinyoung with a stern look.
Still grinning, Jinyoung waved goodbye as he left.
“I didn't mean to...interrupt…” Youngjae said nervously as he pulled out his composition and handed it to Jaebum, who smiled reassuringly. Youngjae was one of his favorite students.
“You weren't.”
After a minute or so, Youngjae uncharacteristically broke the silence.
“...is that Mr. Park’s jacket?”