Work Text:
"I don't get it."
No one paid attention to Winwin as he stared at the open classroom door, an elbow on the table propping his chin up. No one except for Yuta, that is, who was leaned back against his chair beside him with his head tilted back snoring loudly. At Winwin's voice, he sat up bleary-eyed. "Huh?"
"I said I don't get it. I mean, just look at him."
Yuta followed Winwin's gaze to their homeroom teacher, Mr. Donghae, talking to coach Hyukjae by the open doorway of the classroom. He had a dopey smile on his face as the coach said something to him, shoulder leaning against the wall. Coach Hyukjae must’ve said something funny when Mr. Donghae suddenly burst into loud laughter, hands coming up to slap the other’s chest and shoulders playfully. It wasn't any different from watching a schoolgirl flirting with her crush. Winwin winced at the cringiness.
“He’s like, disgustingly in love with coach Hyukjae.”
Yuta sank back into his chair and crossed his arms, the hood of his oversized hoodie covering half of his face. “When is he not?”
It was an open secret to the students of class 3-1 that Mr. Donghae had a crush on their physical education teacher, coach Hyukjae. It really wasn't hard to miss, every time the friendly coach dropped by their class to say hi or when they passed each other in the hallways, Mr. Donghae would be blushing madly. It started when they were all first years when Mr. Donghae had transferred from the countryside to their school in Seoul. Coach Hyukjae had welcomed him with a gift of a coffee mug, a cartoon of a smiling banana farting printed on it along with the words "tooty fruity" above it. Mr. Donghae thought it was adorable, Lucas had offered money for Johnny to 'accidentally' throw the offending thing out the window.
("Lucas, no, I'm not doing it--,"
"20 bucks."
Johnny squinted at the money, then sighed as he got off his chair. "Well, 20 bucks a 20 bucks."
Doyoung ran after him as he made a break for the mug on Mr. Donghae's unoccupied desk. "Johnny, NO!"
Thanks to Doyoung's fast reaction, the mug lived and stayed on the teacher's desk, much to Lucas' dismay.)
All the girls thought it was cute to see, most of the boys in class just wished they would stop with the flirting and get together already. The man was so lovestruck it was painful to see. So one day, Jaemin got an idea. "What if we get them together?"
Jeno continued filling up the exercise sheet as he replied, "get who together?"
"Mr. Donghae and the coach."
Taeyong, who sat in front of them, turned around in his seat and glared at Jaemin. "Please don't meddle with their relationship."
"But look at him, it's so frustrating to see. We gotta do something,” Jaemin whined. The trio looked over at the front of the class, where Mr. Donghae was busy admiring the stupid coffee mug for the umpteenth time after handing the students exercise sheets to keep them busy.
Jeno sighed, laid his pen down and turned to his seatmate. “And how do you think we should do that?”
Ten, who was eavesdropping from the table besides Taeyong, also whipped around excitedly. “I know!”
“This isn’t gonna work, guys."
Ten shushed Taeyong as he continued writing the love letter. Jaemin and Yuta sat on his left and right relaying the cheesiest romantic pick up lines and puns they could think of while Jeno, Winwin and Taeyong stood behind the trio.
"Aside from being sexy, what else do you do for a living?" Yuta suggested.
Jeno looked at him confused. "A gym teacher, duh?"
Jaemin grabbed the pen and letter away from Ten. "Is your mother a beaver? Because dammmm," he recited while writing.
Winwin winced. "Now that's just offensive."
The bell rang, signalling the end of free period and the start of lunch break. Ten quickly took back the letter, signed it with Mr. Donghae's name in a rush at the bottom and folded it up into the bright pink envelope they had bought from the school's stationery shop earlier that morning. The three boys hurriedly got off their seats and exited the classroom, pulling Taeyong, Winwin and Jeno along. The six of them raced down the school hallways towards the teacher's office. They planned to place the love letter on coach Hyukjae's desk while he was away and make it look like it was from teacher Donghae. Ten had been so sure of the plan, and at Yuta and Jaemin's insistence the other boys could only go along with it.
They only realized a kink in Ten's plan when they arrived at the teacher's office and saw the sign on the wooden double doors.
ONLY STAFF AND PREFECTS INSIDE
NO STUDENTS ALLOWED
"Well shit," Taeyong said as the other boys groaned.
Winwin glared at Ten. "What do we do now? This was your plan."
At that moment, the double doors opened. Kun jumped slightly at suddenly coming face to face with the six boys right in front of him. "Jesus Christ, you guys scared me."
Ten looked down from his shocked expression at the prefect uniform he was wearing. A lightbulb turned on in his head. "Hey, Kun, could you help us out?"
The prefect squinted at them in suspicion. His classmates smiled innocently. After a few long seconds, he sighed. "Whatever you guys are up to, I don't want any part of it." He slipped past them and was close to escaping their grasp when Ten grabbed his wrist.
"Kun, pleaseee," Ten begged while staring at the prefect with big, puppy eyes. He pouted desperately. "It's really important. Can you help me just this once, pleaseee?"
The other five boys pretended they didn't notice the red blush creeping up the prefect's face as he stared at Ten in surprise. He cleared his throat and pulled his arm away from the other's grip. "F-fine. What do you need?"
Ten smiled brightly and frantically took out the envelope from his pocket. "Can you put this on coach Hyukjae's desk?"
Kun took the envelope cautiously and regarded it like it was a live bomb. "What is it?"
"Don't worry about it!" Yuta said as he opened the teacher's office door for him. "Just a little, uh, appreciation letter for the coach."
The prefect knew his classmates well enough to know that they were acting more suspicious than normal. He didn't bother wasting his time prodding them and walked into the room. The other boys stuck themselves on the door and watched through the glass window pane as Kun made his way to the coach's table next to Mr. Kyuhyun's desk. The Maths teacher looked up from the papers he was grading at the prefect. Kun bowed politely. "Just dropping something off," he explained, then placed the envelope on the table gingerly. Mr. Kyuhyun nodded silently and the boy walked back out the room unscathed. Right as the door closed behind him, Ten wrapped his arms around the boy excitedly.
"Thank you thank you thank you!" He said as he jumped up and down, dragging the boy along with him. Kun struggled to escape his hug while loudly protesting, though a part of him was secretly savouring his embrace, as shown from the prominent blush on his face.
The next day, the boys were in the locker room changing into their gym clothes for P.E. class when the door swung open and coach Hyukjae walked in.
"Kun, can you follow me please?" Their coach said, his face blank.
Ten, Taeyong, Winwin, Jaemin, Yuta and Jeno stared at the prefect with wide eyes. Kun gulped and left his locker, trailing after their coach like a lost duckling. He looked behind him at the six boys, his terrified eyes begging them to help him. But there was nothing they could do but watch as Kun and coach Hyukjae exited the locker room, the door slamming close behind them.
They looked at each other worriedly then hurriedly packed their bags into their respective lockers and ran out of the changing room one after another. They notice Kun talking to the coach at the other end of the gym by the bleachers as they walk in. The boys awkwardly hung around for their conversation to end. Jaemin picked up a ball and started a 1v1 basketball match with Jeno while the others stood by the sidelines sneaking glances at the prefect.
A minute goes by before coach Hyukjae smiled and patted his head in a brotherly manner. The coach walked away to round up the class. Yuta, Taeyong, Winwin and Ten quickly jogged over to the dejected-looking boy.
"What happened?" Taeyong said as he laid a comforting hand on Kun's shoulder.
The boy looked up and shoved something into Ten's chest. The latter looked down and grabbed the piece of paper from Kun's hand. They noticed the pink envelope and collectively realized what it was.
"Did he--"
"Appreciation letter my ass!" Kun huffed angrily. "You signed this stupid love letter with 'Mr. Donghae' and the coach knew immediately it was forged. Then Mr. Kyuhyun told him he saw me place the letter on his desk and he thought I did it!"
Taeyong grabbed the crumpled envelope away from Ten and unfolded the letter. Right there, beneath all the terrible pickup lines they wrote, in Ten's obvious chicken scratch was a fake signature followed by a glaringly obvious 'Mr. Donghae'. Winwin cuffed the back of Ten's head.
"Ow!"
"Why the hell would Mr. Donghae write 'Mr.' in front of his own name in a love letter?"
Ten rubbed his head while pouting. 'I was in a rush…"
Jeno and Jaemin approached the group, dragging Chenle in between them. "So?" Jaemin asked with an oblivious smile. "Did it work?"
Taeyong passed the letter to Jeno. The three boys who just arrived at the scene read it and Chenle laughed out loud when he saw the mistake. "Idiot."
"So what do we do now?" Yuta asked.
Chenle looked at them in confusion. "What's going on?"
The other boys explained their plan to get Mr. Donghae and coach Hyukjae together. Kun regarded all of them with an unimpressed look while Chenle listened intently. Their conversation got cut off by the loud shrill of a whistle and the coach's command to gather around in the centre of the basketball court.
As they were doing dribbling practise, an idea formed in Chenle's mind. He dribbled the ball closer to Kun.
"Pst."
"Dude I'm 10 dribbles away from my high score you better not--"
At that moment, Chenle lost control of his basketball and it crashed into Kun's, breaking his streak. Kun stared at his ball rolling away in disappointment as Chenle gathered the other boys together to explain his plan.
"Tomorrow's parent-teacher conference right?" Taeyong nodded. "And they use the gym to host all the parents together, right?"
Winwin groaned. "Just get to it already!"
"That means after-school today coach Hyukjae is gonna be in the gym setting up chairs by himself. We'll just lie and tell Mr. Donghae the coach needs some help. They'll spend some time together and maybe even work out their feelings for each other!" Chenle explained.
Jeno furrowed his eyebrows. "I don't think--"
"It's not the worst idea you've had," Yuta said as he thought the plan over. Ten and Jaemin jumped up and down in excitement as they discussed the plan in further detail with Yuta and Ten. Kun and Taeyong shared a concerned look. Chenle noticed the dread in their eyes and smacked Kun's back reassuringly.
"Hey, trust me! It'll turn out fine."
It did not turn out fine.
Jeno watched Winwin and Yuta struggle with the locked gymnasium door as Taeyong stood farther away from the group, his phone glued to his ears. He was talking to their principal and from the look on his face, Jeno didn't need to hear them to know the principal wasn't happy with how things turned out.
Half of the boys had run straight to their homeroom to look for Mr. Donghae while the others stayed outside the gym to make sure the coach wouldn't leave early. Chenle, with Jaemin's help, had forced Jeno to be the one to lie to Mr. Donghae, citing his teacher's favourite status as the reason.
("Hey sir! Coach Hyukjae asked us to get you," Jeno said as he walked into the empty class. Chenle and Jaemin stood outside the classroom and waved at their teacher innocently when he noticed them.
Mr. Donghae looked back at Jeno questioningly. "For what?"
"He needs help setting up the gym for tomorrow. He asked for you specifically."
"M-me?" The man's attempt to hide his excited smile did not work in the slightest. "Oh, then, sure. Let me pack my stuff."
Fortunately the man believed Jeno's lies and after packing his sling bag, he led the way to the gym cluelessly. The other half of the gang who were loitering in front of the gym tried acting less suspicious as Mr. Donghae entered the gym; Jeno, Chenle and Jaemin close behind. Coach Hyukjae was busy carrying a tall stack of chairs when the sound of the doors opening caught his attention. "Hi boys, are you guys-- Donghae?" He placed the chairs down and approached the man. "I thought you'd be gone by now."
Mr. Donghae rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "I was going to leave, but Jeno told me you needed help."
"I did?"
The slam of the gymnasium doors closing caused both high school teachers to turn around. Jeno, Chenle and Jaemin had scurried out of the gym while they were talking, leaving them alone. Donghae and Hyukjae ran to the doors and pulled on the handles. They didn't budge at all. The doors weren't merely locked; the teachers had gone through enough fire drills in their careers to recognize the unyielding firmness of the activated fireproof lock. They both arrived at the same conclusion.
"We're trapped," Donghae said.)
Jeno got pulled out of his thoughts by Taeyong stomping over to Chenle after hanging up the phone call. The latter yelped in pain at Taeyong's smack on his head.
"Ouch!"
"Thanks to your stupid plan, the principal's coming over to unlock the door," Taeyong glared at the younger before looking at the two boys still trying to break the door open. "Give it up guys. It's impossible without a key from the firefighters."
Yuta and Winwin dropped onto the floor in defeat. The rest of the boys joined them on the floor, leaving only Jeno to stand against the wall. They sat in silence until a commotion down the hallway caught their attention. At the sight of principal Jungsoo walking towards them flanked by a very tall, muscular man in a black t-shirt and firefighter pants, they scrambled to stand up.
The principal shot them a stern look. "May I ask what's going on here?"
Jeno let his classmates explain the situation to principal Jungsoo and stood silently in the back. He turned his head to look inside the gym through the glass windows glass window panes on the locked doors. He saw the two teachers sitting beside each other on plastic chairs they had placed for tomorrow's parent-teacher conference. They were engaged in an animated conversation, Mr. Donghae once again slapping the coach's arm and shoulders as he laughed at something the other said. A small smile tugged on Jeno's lips as he saw how happy coach Hyukjae looked to have made their homeroom teacher laugh like that. It was so obvious to everyone they liked each other, and yet only the two of them were oblivious.
The muscled man who accompanied their principal moved towards the door and fiddled with a panel on the bottom corner. He produced a key from a small fanny pack on his hips and unlocked the panel, then pressed a button to disable the fireproof lock.
"Try opening the door, kid," the firefighter said while looking at Taeyong. He pushed the door and it swung open easily. "Awesome. I think we're done here."
"Thank you so much for coming, Siwon. I know you're very busy," principal Jungsoo said as the firefighter locked the panel. They continued their conversation as Mr. Donghae walked out of the gym and looked at the pair in surprise, coach Hyukjae in tow.
"Thanks Jungsoo-- Siwon?" Coach Hyukjae's eyes widened when he saw the tall man beside the principal.
"Anchovy!"
The boys weren't expecting the pearly whites model smile to brighten up the firefighter's already handsome face. Siwon dragged coach Hyukjae into a brotherly hug. "It's been so long! Last time I saw you was at the fire academy graduation, right?"
Mr. Donghae blinked in surprise. "Hyukjae was a firefighter?"
"He dropped out after a month," Siwon patted coach Hyukjae's back. "He said he'd rather teach instead. It's a damn shame. You were top of the class, Anchovy. I bet you've lost that six-pack."
The coach yelped as his former classmate pulled his shirt up, exposing his pale but well-defined torso for a second. Coach Hyukjae pulled Siwon down into a headlock, and the pair stumbled away from the group as they wrestled childishly . Jeno glanced at Mr. Donghae's face which was as red as the firefighter's uniform slacks.
"Anyways, I'm going to escort Siwon back to his truck. Can you deal with your students, Donghae?"
Mr. Donghae bowed respectfully to the principal as he walked away to Siwon and coach Hyukjae. He then turned around to address the eight students, who hung their heads down in guilt. The teacher heaved a big sigh and placed his hands on his waist.
"Mind explaining what this is all about? The coach told me about the love letter yesterday, too."
The group collectively shoved Jaemin forward.
"Uh… well," Jaemin twiddled his thumbs nervously. "We thought because you have a crush on the coach, we wanted to help get you two together."
Mr. Donghae widened his eyes. "A crush? I don't have a crush on Hyukjae--" his protests got shot down by the unimpressed look on his students' faces. He clenched his teeth and shook his head. "Coach Hyukjae doesn't have those… feelings for me. I appreciate the help guys, but let's stop it here before anyone gets hurt, alright?"
All eight boys nodded in agreement. Mr. Donghae laid a hand on Jaemin's head and ruffled his hair.
"I won't tell your parents tomorrow about what happened today. Now get your things and go home, it's late."
He waited for everyone to reply with a "yes" before following the other adults making their way down the hallway to the exit. Jaemin turned around to look at his classmates.
"Well, that could've been worse."
"This sucks, man," Ten sighed as he laid his head down on the table in defeat. Jaemin sat straddling his chair as he fiddled on his phone. Chenle leaned his butt on the side of Ten's table, looking out at the parents flooding through the school gates outside the classroom window. "I can't believe none of our ideas worked."
The rest of the gang had left earlier with their parents once their consultations ended. With only an hour remaining, the three boys waited for their parents to arrive in their classroom solemnly. Mr. Donghae was busy tending to another parent at his desk in front of the class. Ten doesn't remember whose parent it was, but whatever conversation they were having seemed to make Mr. Donghae become increasingly annoyed by the look on his face.
"What do you mean my son has been failing?" The woman's shrill voice pulled Jaemin and Chenle's attention towards the front. "I'll have you know, my precious boy is very smart. I don't pay for all those after-school tuition classes for nothing!"
"Ma'am, he hasn't been attending those classes for the past week."
The woman gaped. "Are you implying my son has been lying to me?!" She suddenly stood up, but her rash action jostled the teacher's desk and before anyone could react, the tooty fruit mug careened off the table and broke into a million pieces on the floor in a loud crash.
Jaemin and Chenle were halfway to crossing the room to help their startled teacher when the classroom door swung open. Coach Hyukjae stood in the doorway, a clipboard in one hand and a frown on his face.
"What's going on here?"
The woman gestured at Mr. Donghae, who remained in his chair in shock. "This coworker of yours is insulting my boy, insinuating that he's a liar! I send my son to this school to study, not to be ridiculed by his unqualified teachers--"
"Ma'am, I'm going to need you to stop right there," coach Hyukjae walked into the classroom. "I don't think there's a need to resort to petty insults. I'm sure Mr. Donghae here has every reason to give feedback on your son's schooling progress as his homeroom teacher. If you have any complaints, I can guide you to our principal's office for you to report to."
The woman huffed, grabbed her bag and stormed out of the classroom, shoving the coach's shoulder on the way. Coach Hyukjae poked his head out of the doorway and hollered down the hallway, "his office is on the 4th floor, second door to the left! Can't miss it!"
Ten muffled his giggles by biting the sleeve of his sweater. The three boys watched as coach Hyukjae turned around and laughed at his own joke. Mr. Donghae got off his chair and squatted down on the floor to pick up the broken pieces of glass.
"Hae-yah, be careful," coach Hyukjae said softly, just loud enough for the three boys at the back of the class to hear. "You might cut yourself."
He joined the other man on the floor and took the glass pieces out of Mr. Donghae's hands, fingers brushing. Like clockwork, their homeroom teacher's face flushed bright red as the coach helped him clean up the broken mug. They talked quietly to each other, sharing smiles as they tidied the glass pieces close together on the floor, and Ten suddenly felt like he was intruding.
The same couldn't be said to Jaemin, who whipped out his phone and snapped a photo sneakily of the teachers. He sat back down in his chair and Ten felt his phone vibrate in his sweater pocket. He took it out and swiped on the notification bubble.
class 3-1? more like 3 brain cells per 1
27 members, 10 online
jaemin: guess what just happened
*jaemin uploaded 1 photo*
karina: alsjdlajsldksh
yuta: YO,,,,,,, WHAT
giselle: oh mymg gdo
johnny: oh so they're fuckin?
winter: my fanfics!!!! they're real!!!! (≧▽≦)
winwin: wtf your plan worked?
giselle: is that the tooty fruity mug broken on the floor?
lucas: HALLE FUCKIN LUJAH!!!!!
"Kun."
Said boy whipped his head up at Mr. Kyuhyun's voice. He was in the midst of erasing the mathematical equations on the chalkboard when he stopped and looked at the eraser. "Could you go to the storeroom and grab me a new eraser?"
The prefect nodded and got off his seat. As he made his way to the door, he noticed Ten in the corner of his eye. The boy threw finger guns at him followed by a cheeky wink, and Kun frowned at the way his heart skipped a beat in response. He replied with a middle finger which caused the other to smile goofily.
He grumbled over his stupid crush over the other boy as he walked down the hallway towards the storeroom. Stupid Ten with his stupid jokes, and his stupid big eyes, and his stupid chiselled jawline, and his stupid--
Kun arrived at the storeroom and had his hand on the doorknob when a soft noise broke his train of thoughts. He looked around to find the source before a louder similar noise followed the first, and Kun furrowed his eyebrows in concern he realised what it was. Someone was moaning. He then heard a third moan followed by a breathy sigh. Kun peered at the girls' toilet situated right beside the storeroom and wondered if someone was in pain as he pulled the storeroom door open.
The sight of his homeroom teacher leaned against the wall, clearly pantless with his P.E. coach's face buried in his crotch threw his theory right out the window. Kun also wished he could throw himself out the window. He bit his cheek to stop himself from screaming in shock and slammed the door close not a second later.
"Where's the eraser?" Mr. Kyuhyun asked as the prefect walked back into class 10 minutes later, his face wet from splashing it with water at the sink to get the image of his teachers engaging in fellatio out of his mind. He beelined to his seat and sat down with a blank expression on his face.
"They ran out."