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The hot summer day was not cutting it for the professor. It was 3 degrees higher than it was yesterday and he just can’t wait to go to a classroom in his dept and just dwell the cool air coming from one of the air conditioning installed.
Throughout the entire university, their department was the only one who has full air conditioning systems in each and every classroom; the other departments only having electric fan over their heads whirling their way to cool the entire room filled with college students. It is sufficient enough though when the weather is not blazing hot, however, when days like these exist? Seungcheol can only pray for the people who will use those classrooms
Many teachers had filed a request to make all the classrooms fully functional and not like a giant oven specially on summers, yet with the school’s low budget being payed by the taxpayers’ money, they can only do so much for their situation. In fact it was a shock too many that the Psychology department started installing a cooling system through the start of last year. There were rumored plans roaming around though that the campus would be continuing this installations but in terms of actual confirmation, they can only hope that is the case.
Seungcheol put the key on the lock of the door in one of the classrooms he will use for today and would just wait for the students to fill up the room because he badly needs cool air right now and if he could get a few minutes head start then he’ll take all the chance he can get. He can’t wait to have a good minute where the cooling device is just stilled on his direction and get all the cool air for himself (his job has come to a point where the greatest thing to happen in his day was to be in front of a stilled air con and another great thing but don’t ask why)
What greeted him however was no white, tall machine at the corner of the room.
The air con was missing.
HOW COULD HE MANAGE TO LOSE AN ENTIRE MASSIVE DEVICE?!
Panic dawned upon him, the classes are about to start any minute now and the classroom had no aircon, and even electric fans, since the school decided to reinstate the existing fans here before to other classrooms who doesn’t have it yet (yes the school used to have classrooms without fans, it was the dark times).
The worse news is that all classrooms in his department were already taken, meaning that he can’t even hold his class because he won’t surely use this one, because if classrooms with a fan feel like a scolding hot oven, imagine a room without one. Yeah, Seungcheol doesn’t want to be there either.
The even worst news is the fact that he was newly announced as the psychology department head and was hold liable for all the items in each classrooms, so investigating the ones who took it falls upon his hands also.
Once the students started entering the classrooms, not knowing that Seungcheol already decided to cancel classes in order to get to the bottom of the Air con thief, he used this opportunity to ask the ones in the room as to who could possibly be the suspects are.
Everyone was up for discussion, because that air con was the only thing that they loved about this school.
One of His students, Mingyu raised his hands “sir, maybe it’s the Econ dept, I heard that they’ve been eyeing the air con for quite a while now and decided to just strike before classes started”
“That’s bullshit, we all know it’s the Accounting dept, they’re the nearest to us and can easily get it” the other student suggested
“But why would they need that long to get it? I mean we’ve had the machine for an entire year now, so why would they do it now? I think its the bio dept, they’re farther and could easily keep it amongst themselves because they’re mostly hidden” rebutted Minghao
Soon it became the discussion of what department could have done it, and it got ugly fast. The discussion and the heat was giving Seungcheol a massive headache.
“Okay stop!” He shouted to be heard “ we cannot keep on blaming other department for the lost things in our vicinity.”
“But sir it makes the hunt for the object faster” responded Seungkwan
“What you’re doing right now is not making the search faster, but blaming others. Thank you for trying to help, but with how things are escalating, I think it would be better if I deal with this alone”
“Sir, we’re not trying to blame other department, but think about it really, if someone were to take the machine, it wouldn’t be any of us, because all of the classrooms in this department are fully air conditioned”
Seungcheol’s growing headache are just getting worse “Class dismissed” he said as he stepped out of the class, leaving no more room for discussion.
Seungcheol started his room to room search after, stating to the entire room that there are CCTV records of the entire dept and that he was going to get at the bottom of this. But mostly everyone knows that it’s just empty threats because those cameras hasn’t been working for a while now. Still, He will get at the bottom of this.
He continued his search till the day ended, and even with that span of time, he was only able to get the message through half of the school. Hoping that the word got around because he was exhausted from the search, he stopped and head home.
While waiting for his bus, he saw a familiar man approach the bus stop.He immediately smiled without noticing and straightened up his posture.
“Seungcheol-ssi” the other man sat beside him, smiling back with beautiful crescent eyes.
“Hello Jeonghan-ssi, why are you heading out so late?” He asked striking up a conversation.
“Another seminar was held by our head dept, and it lasted too long in my opinion” Seungcheol saw the other man pout and found it cute.
Though the school doesn’t have a wide range of budget, it sure does hold a lot of seminars, due to the fact that former alumni of the school volunteers to do so, having to live the school experience for their entire college years, they opted for great improvements in the school system through imparting their learned knowledge to the school’s personnel, mostly towards faculty, and these seminars are one of the reason why Seungcheol got acquainted with Jeonghan.
“How about you? Why are you out so late? Didn’t your classes ended a while back?” The other asked
The other reason why he got acquainted with the other is that Seungcheol met Jeonghan often in this bus stop, and both became familiar when the other would get off to work, so He knew that before all of this, Jeonghan wouldn’t be at their usual stop by the time he goes home because as Jeonghan stated a while ago, he was out so late, but here they are now. And he can’t lie to the fact that he did find this surprise enjoyable.
“Ah, there was a situation and I was tasked to handle it” He shifted his gaze from the man and put a hand behind his neck, seemingly embarrassed by the situation that unfolded earlier.
Jeonghan took notice of this little action “Ohh~~ something interesting happened. Care to share?”
Seungcheol sported an awkward smile remembering the fact that He lost and entire air con.
“Come on, I won’t tell” the other raised his right hand to prove his point.
“you know that I’m the department head of psychology right?” He started
“Yes, and continue” Jeonghan shortly interrupted
“Well, there was an issue in the classrooms earlier. One of the items in their got stolen”
“Oh no, did you find the culprit?”
“Nah, I haven’t. But I tried informing other dept about it a while ago, that’s why I was late when heading home”
“Oh that sucks” the other showed a slight pout
“Yeah, it does, but I do hope that the word got out there, and just waiting for it to return really” Seungcheol admitted “ I was so desperate a while ago that I tried threatening the students with the cctv card”
To that Jeonghan chuckled “ I’m new, but even I knew that those cameras does not work. They don’t even blink that red light thingy”
Seungcheol smiled as well “They’re just up there for display. I think it’s not even connected to a computer somewhere”
Both men laughed at the comment, believing that there was a possibility that those statements are actually true.
“I can’t believe I haven’t asked this yet, but what got stolen?” Jeonghan asked after his laugh dies down
“An air con” he blurted out mid laugh
Jeonghan eyes grew comically wide.
Seungcheol took notice “why? What’s wrong? Do you know who has it?”
“Not just know” the other slowly muttered looking down as if ashamed “I have it”
“What?” Seungcheol vocalized his confusion.
“I have it” Jeonghan said looking at Seungcheol with a guilty eyes and a very awkward smile
Welp mystery solved. The man who can lose an air con is Seungcheol, and the man who can steal an air con is Jeonghan. Okay, end of story.
Except it wasn’t that easy, was it?
“Let me explain” to which Seungcheol only nod at, wordless at the situation happening.
“Okay, So I had a class yesterday, and it was very hot.”
“Continue”
“And most of my students said that they can’t focus on my teachings so, trying to come up with a solution, I remembered that in the psychology dept there is a classroom with an air conditioning that wasn’t used by anyone so I got out of my way to get it. It was the last class anyways and I figured I can just return it after”
“...how, exactly?”
“The air con itself was movable, it was just a matter of carrying it to the stairs and unto my classroom”
Seungcheol observed Jeonghan’s built and find it hard to believe that he carried an almost 25 kilo device
“Hey! I might look scrawny but I’m pretty strong if I do say so myself” Jeonghan defended as if reading Seungcheol’s mind
“I don’t get it, I’ve searched the accounting department and did not see the Air con in there.”
“Did you checked the classrooms without electricity in it?”
Yeah, he forgot to mention that some of the classrooms has no electricity. It’s pretty messed up thinking about it really. But that was a discussion for another day.
“No, why would it be there?”
“Because I put it there. Thinking that the students may abuse the device I hide it in one of the rooms that are not used anymore, thinking that I can return it today, but then the seminar happened, and hadn’t had time to do so. I’m so sorry”
Seungcheol was once again lost for words.
“I’m really sorry, I promise to return it first thing tomorrow,
“I’m really sorry but I was just overwhelmed with your story, so if you don’t mind me asking, you got the air con yesterday, yes?”
“Yes”
“And you carried it to your classroom?”
“Yes”
“And you put it to a room where no one would look for?”
“Yes, but I’ll return it tomorrow I swear”
Seungcheol broke all of his resolve and started laughing his lungs out. Half relieved that he didn’t had the Air con actually stolen and that he won’t have to pay for it with his little salary, the other half laughing at the whole story.
“Are you mad?” Jeonghan asked when Seungcheol’s laugher died down
“Mad? Not at all. And i wouldn’t be laughing my ass out if I was”
“Well, I don’t know that, maybe you’re the type to laugh in uncomfortable situations?”
“I’m not” Seungcheol chuckled
“Will I get in trouble?” Jeonghan asked concerned about his future.
Seungcheol put his hand on his chin trying to look like he was in deep thought “Yes” he jokes
But the other didn’t picked it up quite quickly and panic when he heard his answer.
“Kidding” Seungcheol reassures “I’d look past this, Jeonghan-ssi, but next time, please if you would want to do something this heart shocking stunt, inform me beforehand”
Jeonghan relived, nod his head at the reply.
“I hope to see it in front of the classroom tomorrow morning” Seungcheol said sporting a smile, accompanied with his dimples while standing up. “Well then, See you around Jeonghan-Ssi”
He saw that his bus was already approaching the stop. And got on it as it stopped. He sat at a window seat, looking at the bench he formerly occupied, seeing the beautiful man there, unmoving, and if Seungcheol could guess, he was blushing by the redness hue of his cheeks, but then again it was a hot day so that could be the reason. Seungcheol hoped it was the former.
Sure enough the next day, the air conditioner returned, sticking to it was a note written by the man who returned it.
Sorry Seungcheol-ssi for giving you a heart attack :< Here is the Air con, fully functional (I checked it beforehand), also I really would want to make it up to you, so I decided to give you a heart palpitation instead: Want to grab coffee some time?
-Jeonghan 0XX-XXXX-XXX