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Blinking his bleary eyes open, Joonghyuk felt sluggish like a rag doll. His body screamed at him despite the fact that he made no effort to move.
His head pounded with a pulse, the sensation strong enough to make him half believe his skull was a giant vein. There was slight relief to his beaten body from the soft sheets, comforting in a way he’d imagine a cloud.
Snuggling further into the plush pillow, he suppressed a groan leaving his lips. A spark of pain tinged through his lower half, mostly in his hips. He moved one his hands under the blanket, rubbing randomly at one of his hips.
It didn’t do much, but it was the thought that counted. The more he tried to push his head further into the heavenly pillows, the more it became obvious he wasn’t falling asleep again. Unfortunately.
Unwilling to wake up and start his morning, he laid in the bed lazily. The sun peeked through the curtains, baking his shoulder blades that were no longer under the blanket.
It was surprisingly warm, considering it was still winter.
The longer he sunk into the mattress, the more frequently restlessness started nudging him in the sides. That proceeded to bring forth squirming. Rearranging his limbs around a couple times, he found it hard to relax.
With a frustrated huff, he turned over to his side. Perhaps lying on his stomach was hindering him. That decision turned out to be a mistake as he winced out in pain, feeling sore around his tailbone.
Did he fall down the stairs?
It was possible. Knowing him, it was very possible. He did drink like a sailor yesterday, something he’s bound to regret once he checks his credit card.
Hopefully it’s no more than 30. It could be 50, but he wanted to be hopeful to some extent, knowing h—
Joonghyuk froze up like a baby goat, body locking up. His shifting around—something he hadn’t managed to stop even after turning onto his side—had him discovering something.
An arm.
Around his waist, one that was not his to be very clearly precise. What? Was someone in his bed? Did his drunk-ass invite someone into his house?
The string of thoughts were like the beginning light bulbs to the whole city lighting up, because now he was very aware he wasn’t in his bed. This wasn’t his house.
It should’ve been obvious as his own bed was a measly twin-size bed. And currently he was lounging away in a king size bed. Between sheets that did not belong to him.
If that wasn’t enough to have his heart racing, the hand twitching around his stomach certainly did. A hookup. He absolutely had a hookup, there was no way he didn’t.
After all, he was stark naked, not even having his socks on him.
Shifting around to ease the pressure on his hips, all he managed was to make the body behind him shift. Holy shit, there was actually someone behind him.
The person behind him grunted, tightening their hold on his waist before slackening it back to its sleeping state.
The action did nothing to Joonghyuk, but it did everything for the other person, as he could now feel their breath on his nape.
Holding his own, it took less than a minute for the breath to stutter before the person behind him started shifting. They gave his waist a comforting squeeze and pulled away, moving the blanket with the action.
Like any normal college boy, Joonghyuk squeezed eyes shut and pretended to sleep as the person shuffled around the room. After doing god knows what, they left the room with a quiet click.
Carefully pushing himself up into a sitting position, he let loose a groan at the pain coming from the movement. Rubbing at his lower back, he took a look around the room at the same time.
It looked…like a normal room. He wouldn’t say it was a college kid’s room, but it obviously wasn’t a hotel either.
Just who exactly did he hit off with for him to be in a room that looked too much like a person’s who had a full time job.
Wide and spacious, full of furniture along side with pictures frames he couldn’t see from afar. There was another picture frame above the bed, but it was only a painting.
Chewing on his brain to come to any leads, his heart skipped a beat when the door clicked open again. Quick thinking. …First impressions? Perhaps that was a good place to start.
“Good morning,” he forced out, his throat drier and scratchier than a desert.
He should act nice even if he doesn’t remember who he slept with. As the door opened up fully, he felt a whole tub of ice cold water be dumped on him.
“Morning,” came a lively reply back.
Professor Kim!?
Joonghyuk felt dread seeping into his bones as he watched the older man push the door open. Unlike him, the man was dressed in sweatpants and a shirt.
Holding two mugs, he walked up to the younger to hand him one of them.
At this point he might as well not have a brain with how not a single thought managed to form in his head.
“Some coffee, hopefully it’s not too hot,” the professor said, taking seat beside him on the bed.
“…It’s not,” Joonghyuk timidly answered, taking a small sip of it.
From the corner of his eye he tracked as Kim grabbed a stack of papers clipped to a clipboard and a pen. A red pen, before he started correcting and marking the papers. The tests. Because he was a god damn teacher.
Joonghyuk’s teacher.
Mindlessly he sipped on his coffee as he internally beat himself to a pulp. Out of everything—out of everyone—he went ahead and slept with his professor.
His math professor!
Much to his distress, Kim was oblivious to his internal turmoil as he scrunched his eyebrows at one of the answers. Taking a sip of his own coffee, the man silently graded the papers.
A small part of Joonghyuk wanted to convince himself they didn’t sleep together, because the mere thought was crazy. Him, a random college student, sleeping with his professor.
How? What in gods name could he have possibly done or said that managed to convince Kim do sleep with him. His job was on the line for this!
You mean to tell him that he went to a bar, met his math teacher and seduced him into taking him home and sleeping with him? Not a chance. Not a single fucking chance.
Besides the obvious fact that it would have meant he slept with his teacher, it was more bizarre that it would be his math teacher.
He dislikes math with a passion, coming from the fact he’s utterly bad at it.
But any of his hopes were crushed by the obvious faint hickey peeking out from beneath the man’s collar. He was done for. Joonghyuk was as good as dead.
He almost flinched when the professor shuffled closer to him before leaning his entire torso towards him. Moving the clipboard in front of him, Kim tapped a question on it.
“Look, it’s what we talked about last night,” he said, as if Joonghyuk remembered anything about last night.
“It’s easiest to use cross multiplication for percentage searching problems. If you don’t, you start going down this rabbit hole like this student has, where they start trying multiple different calculations.”
Furrowing his eyebrows, the younger man stared at the equations. They spoke about…math yesterday. Huh? Don’t tell him he slept with his professor to get better grades—
“It’s the easiest to put percentages on one side and numbers on the other. It’s the same way I thought in class,” the man leisurely explained, reaching for his coffee again.
Taking a sip, he continued.
“While yes, the way you showed me last night is also correct and faster, this is more simpler, leaving no room to make mistakes.”
The professor pointed the head of his pen at one of the equations, right at the comma.
“You can see that while they did multiply, they put the comma in the wrong place, making it incorrect,” he said, correcting the paper.
“That’s mainly why I prefer cross multiplications for doing most calculations.”
…Should he add to the conversation? He’s not stupid enough to not hear what Kim is saying, but he’s also smart enough to know in no way would he have discussed his math homework with the man at the bar.
“The…In high school you’re taught not to use cross multiplication,” he ended up saying after a beat, not wanting to leave the guy—his damn teacher—hanging.
“It’s total bull. They’re old practices. Why do it harder when you can do it easier? I mean, I get why they teach the old way as well, but eh…” the older man shrugged, taking the clipboard back in front of him.
“I find it stupid. It’s like saying you should remember a circle is 90 degrees times 4, instead of 360 degrees,” the man continued, grabbing his coffee again.
“Overcomplicated and useless,” he spit out with slight annoyance before drinking.
“Cross multiplication isn’t a valid equation on the state exam,” Joonghyuk said without thinking about it.
He wasn’t even sure why he said anything, but it came out of him before his mind could register the thought.
“Well… It depends. I think if you take the slim exam it won’t matter how you do it, but the wide exam?..”
The teacher pondered, tapping his pen against the paper.
“I’ll have to see about that. I’ll tell you once I know.”
Humming out an agreement, Joonghyuk had practically finished with his coffee already, having nervously sipped it the entire time. Should he…
Should he pop the question?
Clenching and clenching his jaw, he tried picking apart the positives and negatives of the both options. Maybe it was a misunderstanding.
There’s no way they had sex. He would’ve remembered fucking Kim if that did happen. But to not remember anything?.. Did he just drink that much?
“…Professor Kim,” he started, cringing at the grainy voice that left his lungs.
The coffee did nothing to make it better.
He watched the man pick his head up in surprise, looking him in the eye and chuckle.
“I told you, Dokja is fine.”
Shit. Did he? Joonghyuk feels like he remembers something hazy like that, but he thought maybe it was a dream he had. Clearing his throat, he tries again.
“Dokja.”
“Yes?” Dokja replies this time with an arch of his brow.
“I…”
What would he even say? That he doesn’t remember shit? That they possibly boned and he doesn’t know if he was supposed to get an A+ for it?
Lips parting and closing like he was a gold fish, Joonghyuk was stuck.
“…Thank you for the coffee.”
“You’re welcome. I can make more if you’d like,” the older man offered.
“I’m good for now.”
Nodding understandingly, the professor changed the paper, having finished grading that one.
Unsure what he should really do, the younger looked over, quietly watching as the other marked the tests.
“I didn’t know you enjoyed math that much, Joonghyuk,” Dokja says after a handful of papers get done, the saying offhanded.
“It was a surprise to hear it. But I enjoyed it. You have an interesting view of it, I’m positive you’d do good if you were taught,” he added, a soft smile on his face as he spoke.
Huh? Him and enjoying math? Where did that come from, he has always expressed a clear distaste against math for how he always failed at it.
“You should’ve told me you didn’t understand sooner, I offer consultations between classes. Though now you don’t need that, you can just call me up if anything confuses you.”
Finishing another page, Dokja temporarily stopped, turning to look at Joonghyuk.
“I did give you my number, right?”
Staring back at him, it was like a light bulb lit up in the latter’s head as the memory resurfaced. The memory of the former holding his phone and typing his number into it. It’s one of the only memories he remembers, one that didn’t include drinking.
“Yeah, you did,” he confirmed, nodding his head hesitantly.
“Good. Then you can easily contact me,” the other man satisfiedly murmured.
Finishing up the last of his test papers, Dokja placed the clipboard off to the nightstand with a sigh, stretching his arms.
“How old are you?” Joonghyuk asked suddenly, the question catching himself by surprise.
He meant that to be an inside thought.
The professor crinkled his nose at that, thinking. Leaning back into the headrest of the bed, he turned to face the latter once again.
“Still not giving up on that? Fine, if it makes you happy,” he replied, smacking his hands against his thighs.
“I’m twenty six. You’d still have to call me hyung if not professor.”
Joonghyuk felt himself sour at that, vaguely guessing where that could’ve happened.
“Don’t get so upset, I’m not asking you to call me hyung anyways,” the other man laughed at his reaction, moving to stand up from the bed.
“I was simply telling you I was older than you last night,” he softly explained, patting down his shirt.
The younger watched as the older scooted around the room, putting away the papers into a bag and taking some notebook out instead.
The action was followed by him grabbing a pile of folded clothes, bringing them to the other.
“Here, you can dress up. I checked them, don’t worry, they’re clean.”
Taking his clothes, Joonghyuk warily eyed them before sliding his shirt on first.
“How far ahead do you see your classes schedule?” Dokja asked as he watched him struggle to put on boxers under the blanket.
“One week,” came a curt response.
“A shame. Makes setting meet ups harder. I guess we can talk about them over text.”
“Meet ups?”
“Yeah. Well, dates, like you like to call them.”
…Huh?
The words bounced around in his head like ling pong balls.
“…We’re dating,” he asked, but with his confusion so strong it sounded like a statement instead of a question.
He could see Dokja grin, holding back a laugh.
“Do you want me to ask you out again? Don’t be so mean, I thought I treated you nice last night,” the man sighed with faux sadness.
“N-no need. We’ll—… We’ll discuss our dates over phone,” Joonghyuk solidified, standing up now that his boxers were finally on.
“Sounds good to me,” the professor nodded, grabbing onto his arm when he stood up.
“Careful now.”
Nodding solemnly, the younger of the two struggled putting on his pants as his mind raced.
So—he’s dating his professor. What the fuck. Isn’t that completely against guidelines? Won’t he get fired for that?
Just what exactly did he bullshit together when he was drunk for him to manage to bag Dokja like this. He stopped in the middle of putting on his belt, turning to stare daggers into the other man.
“You’re dating your student, isn’t that against the law?”
“Hm?” the older echoed at first, before making a bizarre face at him.
“Weren’t you the one convincing me the whole night to date you because you’re graduating in a few months?”
… He did that?
Swallowing down his shame, Joonghyuk just nodded his head and buckled up his belt. Sure, he always thought Dokja was handsome, but did he really fall that low last night?
He—he wouldn’t swear against it. Considering he was drinking because he knew he was going to be graduating soon, it lines up.
“…My memory is a bit fuzzy from last night,” he admitted quietly, a bit afraid to see what the other would say.
“Not surprised, you downed over ten sojus before I got into the bar. You should be happy I’m not a biology professor, I would’ve scolded you,” Dokja said with an amused chuckle.
“And you let me keep drinking,” Joonghyuk pointed out, though he did not remember if that happened.
All he got was a shrug of shoulders.
“I wasn’t much better, I can just hold my alcohol.”
Well… He could only blame himself after all. He did head to the bar to get shitfaced and then head home to sleep it off. The fact that Dokja managed to slither his way in his plans didn’t change much.
Kind of.
You know, besides getting together with his god damn professor and convincing him he loved math. The minor chances.
A hand clasped his hips on either side, smoothing them tenderly.
“Does it hurt too much?” Dokja asked, face slightly worried.
Does he know what happened to him? Ears perking up, Joonghyuk nodded with a small grumble.
“My tailbone stings. Hurts to sit.”
“Mh, it shouldn’t stay around for long. I did go a little rough yesterday, but it was hard not to when you were so eager,” the former calmly said.
“Hopefully it’ll ease up soon. For now, I’ll let sit on the couch.”
The professor tugged on his arm, pulling him towards the door.
“How much do you know about calculating gross and net pay? I’ll know from where I should start explaining from. I didn’t forget that you wanted me to teach it to you.”
Letting himself be walked into the living room, Joonghyuk’s brain felt a mess. Every single thought that formed died quicker than a balloon being popped. T
hey fucked. So they did sleep together after all—and he was the bottom during it. Plus he was eager to have Dokja inside him?..
He wasn’t sure if he was more embarrassed about knowing it happened, or the fact his body heated up with arousal at the thought of it.
He’s pitiful.
“…I don’t know anything about net or gross pay,” he mumbled out quietly, answering the other man’s question.
Math wasn’t his strong suit, by far. At least he’ll start doing better in math? Right?