Work Text:
ONE
Ricky knew, the moment professor Choi Yeonjun walked into the room, that the course for the day will be absolutely awful.
It would’ve been better, if the course being absolutely awful stemmed from anger or from straightforward disappointment coming from the professor, though the only feeling that exhuded from the man always was, time and time again, a deep, theatrical dejection.
“Just the four of us again?” the professor asked, a slight pout in his tone, as his eyes scanned the large room. He always did, every Friday afternoon, as if more students would materialize from thin air if he manifested it hard enough.
Ricky grimaced before nodding. It was usually just the four of them, as both Minji and Hanni joined him in class 5C every Friday, feeling just as bad for the English professor as he did. Sometimes, Ricky would manage to convince Gyuvin to stick along, but the latter loved starting his weekend as early as he could (the Engish class being the very last class of the week certainly didn’t help with anyone’s attendance).
“Very well.” Professor Choi sighed before walking around his large desk, leaning his long body against it. “We will continue on with the lesson from last week. You can open the book to page 241-”
Ricky couldn’t hear the man anymore. Professor Choi Yeonjun crossed his arms at his chest, and on his left hand, a shining silver band wrapped proudly around his ring finger.
“Oh my God.” Ricky heard himself gasp, completely interrupting the man talking in front of him.
“Yes, Quan Rui-ssi?” the professor asked politely, though one of his eyebrows arched with slight annoyance.
“I just… Nothing. It's nothing.” Ricky sputtered, unable to contain himself. Choi Yeonjun nodded at him, his large doe eyes glistening in the room, as he urged him to continue. “I just noticed- I'm very sorry, I do not wish to be disrespectful- but you have a ring on your ring finger!” the student exclaimed, his voice embarrassingly high.
“Ah.” Professor Choi laughed in return, sour mood instantly erased. “That I do. I got married last week. It's why I couldn't attend class.”
“Married?!”
Minji and Hanni seemed just as shocked as him at least. Ricky could see Hanni type something on her phone under her desk at light speed, not even trying to be subtle. Professor Choi kept laughing. The whole University would probably know about it before this class would be over, if Hanni had her hand in it.
“Is it that big of a shock that I married? Should I be offended by this reaction?”
“Not at all, professor,” Minji answered before Ricky got the chance to repent. “We just had no idea you were even seeing anyone, and you’ve been teaching us for three years now already.”
“Oh, I see. Well, that is surprising to hear, since the one I married is my high school sweetheart, and we have been together for about half of our lives.”
Ricky gasped dramatically. Hanni started typing even faster, her long acrylic nails clacking against her phone screen. Minji blushed a deep red into her cheeks.
Professor Choi Yeonjun just kept on laughing.
TWO
It took less than a week for the news to reach every eye and ear of the University student and teacher body.
It was the talk of the day: their charming English professor Choi Yeonjun, an absolute joy of a man, model face and legs, designer-clothes-wearing, soft-spoken and soft-hearted professor, married over the week.
Some of the girls and boys in the University mourned the news dramatically; some talked about how it made perfect sense, since he was, a perfect man. More importantly, everyone joined forces to attempt to learn more about the person Choi Yeonjun married.
“She must be a model. I heard he used to model as well, back when he was in Uni himself”
“I found an Insta page that looks to be his, but he has no posts related to any significant other. He just posts pictures of food and stray cats”
“I saw his desk screen when he was connecting his laptop to the projector, and it looked like a wedding photo of himself and four other men in suits, taken from behind. It's so sweet that he had so many groomsmen! No picture of the bride, though. I guess all men are the same when it comes to their friends”
But the most important thing that followed after the news of his marriage, was that class 5C was now bustling with students at the end of the week, even if it was a Friday afternoon.
“We have such a big attendance today!” professor Choi exclaimed on the first week following the outing of the marriange news. “I am so happy to see all of you!” the man followed the students with his eyes, taking in all their tired, yet smiling faces. Even Choi Sumin was sat in the back of the class. The professor had never seen him before.
“What does everyone want to do today? Instead of our usual class following the textbooks, we can watch a movie! It will have no subtitles, though, and I will quiz you at the end of the movie to see if you paid attention. Does that sound good with everyone?” Choi Yeonjun asked, his smile never leaving his face.
The class cheered in return, with a chorus of approvals.
“Very well! The movies I have on hand today are Little Women, No Country for Old Men and-”
~Baby, negae banhae beorin naegae wae irae~
“Oh, I'm very sorry for that! I guess I forgot to mute my phone” The professor grabbed his bag and frantically searched through it, all while it rang at a deafening volume.
The class froze in place. Gyuvin was whispering the rest of the lyrics.
“Aha!” the professor exclaimed as he finally fished his phone out of his bag. He almost swiped to end the call, yet mumbled an apology about having to pick it up since it could be an emergency. “Yes, love? Is everything okay?”
Some of the students gasped. Others nudged their elbows into each other. No one made another sound, as they tried to soak in all the new gossip happening right in front of them.
“- ah, yes... I will get home a little later today. I have a full class today, so I’m watching a movie with the kids … Yeah, I’ll pick up dinner on my way home… No issue sweetheart. I love you too, bye”
Professor Choi Yeonjun ended the call and threw his phone back in his bag nonchalantly.
“Sorry about that! My spouse was feeling a bit under the weather today, so I thought something bad had happened. We can continue now! So, where were we… ah, yes, picking a movie. Like I said, it can be between Little Women , No Country for Old Men and You’ve Got Mail . So what’s it gonna be?”
The class kakao group chat was being updated at light speed before any of the movies even got to start.
THREE
It had been over a month since the news, and the pinned shared notes document in the students’ group chat looked like so:
- Professor Choi Yeonjun married in February, in the most romantic month of the year.
- Professor Choi Yeonjun missed another week of classes in the middle of March, likely because he was away for his honeymoon.
- Professor Choi Yeonjun married his high school sweetheart, and they have been dating for half of their lives (why did they get married so late then??)
- Professor Choi Yeonjun called his significant other cute pet names, like love and sweetheart.
- Professor Choi Yeonjun actively said the L word to his significant other (woke korean man??)
- Professor Choi Yeonjun refused to post anything about his wife, and had pictures of himself and other professors in the University on all social media instead (social media accounts found so far: Instagram, LinkedIn, Kakaotalk)
- One of the groomsmen for his wedding was professor Kang Taehyun (Kang mentioned this himself. Wouldn’t give any other details)
It wasn’t much, but the class did their best to update the list every time they found out anything slightly significant.
In the end, it was the Computer Science assistant professor that gave them one of the biggest clues in their list.
Compared to the usually weak attendance to Choi Yeonjun's English class, Choi Soobin’s Compsci was smackdown in the middle of the week, at a comfortable 10 in the morning, and since most of the students in the year came from similar undergrads, his class was bustling with students at all times.
Especially when his assistant Huening Kai was teaching instead of him.
Kai was fun and chill, and closer to their age than the age of the other professors in the school, so they all comfortably called him by his first name. He also let them be if they were late, and didn’t care if they were on their phone or doing something else in his course. It was really like a small mental break in the middle of the week that they all appreciated.
So when he also announced that the three hour course would be cut to two hours, the students started planning where to raise him a statue on campus.
“Sorry guys, I have to leave an hour earlier today. I promised your English professor that I'd help him with something important” Kai revealed nonchalantly, starting to put all his things away.
“Oh? Is the important thing related to his wife?” Ricky asked boldly, more as a joke than anything.
Kai started laughing so hard that he had to sit back down to calm down.
“Wife? Oh my God, they're gonna love hearing this” he continued cackling, despite the confused looks on all his students. “Guys, you're all very funny. Yeonjun has a husband, not a wife. He's never mentioned it?”
- PROFESSOR CHOI YEONJUN’S SPOUSE IS A MAN!!!!
FOUR
Jungwon always had his lunch at the cafeteria alongside his other colleagues in the same school year. The cafeteria was by no means a small space, as their University held around ten thousand postgraduate students, and too many to count into undergraduate.
The cafeteria was by no means a small space, and even so, the professors had a completely separate place for them to eat in a secluded corner of the large room. So why were a bunch of them hunched over some of the tables for the students, chattering away without a care in the world?
“Jungwon-ah!” he heard a familiar voice, and turning towards the sound, he saw his fellow Mechatronic Engineering colleagues. He walked towards the and sat on the metal benches, between Chanyoung and Gyuvin.
“Why are the professors eating here?” Jungwon asked, already shoveling barley rice into both of his cheeks.
“Ah, who knows” Gyuvin mumbled, barely audible as he chewed with his mouth open disgustingly.
“And who cares. The universe allowed professor Kang and I to be in each others eye field. That’s all I care about” Hikaru swooned, her head rested in her hands. Jungwon rolled his eyes.
“You don’t even attend his classes. He’s actually super chill, you know? And he always gives us extra points for class participation, instead of class attendance” Jungwon appraised. Professor Kang Taehyung was definitely amongst his favourites, since it was obvious he cared about teaching them, not abusing power over them. His class attendance wasn’t the worst, but it certainly wasn’t the best, no matter how hard he tried to make Mathematics entertaining.
“Of course I don’t attend his classes. I don’t understand half the things he talks about. You know I’m here just for the Computer Science courses.”
“Which will get you nowhere without Mathematics. But anyway. At least he tries with his courses. If we had another professor like Choi Beomgyu in our year I think we would’ve all quit after the first semester” Jungwon shuddered at the thought, alonsgside everyone else sat at their table.
And there he was, at the table with all the other professors: Choi Beomgyu in all his black clothes, black hair, black aura glory. He sat between Computer Science Professor Choi Soobin and English Professor Choi Yeonjun, and while the two chattered animatedly above him, Choi Beomgyu remained silent, barely picking at the food in front of him. He always looked gloomy, and he definitely had a reputation that he always proved real to all students he taught: He was the strictest Professor in their curricula.
“Oh God.” Chanyoung whispered from his left side. “I hope he’s not giving those two any ideas about grading and exams.”
“He’s literally not even talking to them.” Jungwon rolled his eyes. Yeah, Choi Beomgyu was the strictest professor they had, but he also taught the hardest subject: their main Mechanical Engineering course. It shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone that he graded so viciously- if they had no proper base in mechanics, dynamics and kinematics, they’d have no understanding of physical systems and mechanical components.
“Not talking my ass! I can see the English professor eating off of his plate. How do those two even get along? Choi Yeonjun is such a ray of sunshine!” Gyuvin whispered from his other side.
“I heard Professor Kang is also friends with him” Hikaru mumbled, her eyes not having left the man for even a second.
“Choi Soobin too, clearly! And I saw him talking with the Compsci assistant professor too, but Huening Kai-ssi talks to everyone, so that doesn’t mean much” Minji added.
“Well, maybe he’s like one of those people that are completely different in their private life and their professional life? It is pretty good for the wholework-life balance!” Jungwon added inquisitively.
“Shh, guys, quieter! They're standing up” Chanyoung whisper-shouted.
All the professors at the table were indeed starting to gather their things and leave. Choi Soobin laughed as he dumped his empty cutlery and banchan dishes onto Choi Beomgyu's tray, who punched him in the shoulder in return, before picking up both trays and leaving towards the back of the cafeteria anyway, with Kai, Kang Taehyun and the other couple of professors in tow.
Choi Yeonjun walked in the opposite direction instead, right towards their table.
“Hi guys! Eat well!” he wished them, a cheerful smile on his face. The students mumbled their thank you’s, sporting matching smiles.
Jungwon’s eyes zeroed on his hands, holding what looked like a kids lunch box.
“Songsaengnim, is that a Doraemon Bento?” Jungwon found himself say aloud. Chanyoung nudged him under the table.
“Ah, yes it is! My spouse makes me a bento for lunch every day, and Doraemon is my favourite character, hence the theme of the box” the older man laughed awkwardly, scratching behind his ear. He showed off his box proudly. “He’s the best, honestly”
The students at the table swooned.
- Professor Choi Yeonjun's husband makes him a themed bento every day for lunch.
FIVE
The students have always known that they were some sort of acquaintance, at least, but they've never seen English professor Choi Yeonjun and Mechanical Engineering professor Choi Beomgyu actively interact with each other.
That was, until the exam session at the end of their third year.
“I need this classroom for my exam” Choi Beomgyu barged into the room, as Choi Yeonjun almost finished giving out the exam subjects to all students.
“As you can see, I have an exam right here, right now” the English professor quirked an eyebrow in response.
All the students froze in their tracks, anticipating the fight between the two.
“I don't care. You have thirty-something students for your exam, I have over a hundred. You don't need this big of a classroom for this exam”
“This is literally my usual classroom in which I teach all courses. Your classroom is in a whole other building. And besides, why didn't you send in a request for a bigger classroom for your exam?”
“Yeonjun-ah, come on. It's just English. I need to start this exam as soon as possible. It's a three hours one and I'm already twelve minutes behind now”
“Are you saying that just because this is just English, your exam is more important?”
“That's exactly what I'm saying”
Taps of feet could be heard outside the classroom, as the Mechanical Engineering professor seemed to have already asked the students to come over to this classroom. Choi Yeonjun grew even angrier at the sound of them.
“Beomgyu. You're being very rude to my students right now. My students, which are also your students, might I add, since we teach the exact same ones. Those thirty-something just chose your other exam date” Choi Yeonjun glared, his arms crossed at his chest.
The tension between the two was so palpable it could be cut with a knife.
“Uhh, sorry to interrupt. If it's that important, we can just move to the seminar room down the hall. I think here's around fifty desks over there" Gyuvin raised a hand and spoke in a hush tone.
“ Absolutely not .”
“ Perfect !” the two men spoke at the same time.
“No! Beomgyu, I will not accept this. You can't mock my exam and the students taking it just because you think Mechanical is more important. Especially not with this attitude”
The two men were glaring at each other, eyes locked, as if they could speak words to one another through the action. In the end, Choi Beomgyu broke the eye contact first, before turning to look at all the other people in the room.
“I apologize for saying such a rude thing. Your English exam is just as important as mine, and I know you have my exam as well next Thursday. Would it be okay for you all if you moved to the other classroom, so I can accommodate all your colleagues that have my exam today?”
They didn't need any other words from either of the men: all of the students started gathering their things to leave.
“I’m sorry, Yeonjun-ah” the Mechanical Engineering professor addressed the English one as well, but the latter wouldn't have it.
“Leave it” Choi Yeonjun dismissed him, gathering his own stuff. “We'll talk about this at home” he mumbled the ending, yet enough of them heard it clear enough.
We'll talk about it at home
- Professor Choi Yeonjun lives with his husband and professor Choi Beomgyu (??????)
PLUS ONE
As they ended the exam session, and finally officially became fourth year students of Mechatronics, Choi Soobin, the Head of the Mechatronics Engineering Department, kindly invited all students for a couple rounds of drinks.
“You’re all of age already anyway, come join us for some drinks, yeah? You all deserve it and I’ll pay for everyone”
Apparently it was a tradition that they shared at the end of every academic year, in the middle of June: Professors Choi Soobin, Choi Yeonjun, Choi Beomgyu, Kang Taehyun and Huening Kai would go for drinks in celebration of another school year ending and summer holiday starting.
A lot of the students excitedly agreed to join, eager to catch a glimpse of their usually professional (minus Kai) teachers outside of classes. It proved to be even better than they all thought, seeing as Choi Yeonjun was, apparently, a very obvious lightweight.
“Ah, you're all such hardworking kids. I'm so happy everyone passed their exams” the English professor had tears in his eyes as he spoke, his hands clutching a glass tightly, as he was nursing his fourth somaek of the night.
He sat in between Choi Soobin and Kang Taehyun, and Kai was on the other side of Choi Soobin. Choi Beomgyu appeared to be late to their gathering, but none of the other professors mentioned it. The men ditched their usual semi-formal attire, wearing hoodies and dad shoes. Choi Yeonjun stilllooked impeccable, his clothes and accessories still branded miumiueven outside business hours.
In front of them, their usual class problem kids sat next to one another: Chanyoung, Ricky, Gyuvin and Jungwon, and even Sumin ended up joining them.
“You've all grown so much these couple of years” the man continued, whining dramatically. “Ricky, I remember when you had black hair. Now you're always bleached blonde. I hope you use some good dye, you need to take care of your hair, you know?”
“Ah, Songsaengnim, I only dye my hair at the salon. I would think it's good dye” Ricky answered awkwardly.
“That's good, that's very good… And Gyuvin… I can't say you grew a lot since I met you because even then you were so tall. Jungwon, you used to have the cutest cheeks. You should eat more… Songsaengnim will start bringing snacks to his classes, so you can eat something at least there, I know all these other assholes work you to the bone”
“Yah, Yeonjun-ah, the other assholes are right next to you” Choi Soobin nudged him under the table, yet was smiling fondly at the other. They really seemed to be good friends outside of work.
“Ah, there he is! Beomgyu finally found the way towards the bar!” Kai shouted over everyone else, pointing at the man that was approaching them.
Professor Choi Beomgyu seemed to turn red in embarrassment at the comment. Choi Yeonjun and Kang Taehyun instantly made space between one another, and Beomgyu sat himself between them, bowing his head in apology.
“Sorry everyone. I was caught in traffic” he mumbled, and Taehyun laughed in response.
“Hyung, you live at a couple minutes walk from here. It's okay, the kids can know that in your day to day life you're not a robot and you're actually always late everywhere”
“That's very true” Professor Choi Soobin laughed, before turning towards the students. “Did you know he was even late at his own wedding? It was hilarious”
“Yah, don't poke fun at him” the English professor came to his defense, to every student's surprise.
They all assumed they weren't that good friends, especially since the fight they had two weeks ago in the exam session, and it was already strange to see them sit so close to one another.
“Anyway” Professor Choi Beomgyu broke the silence “What did I miss? Soobin-ah, did you order me a beer as well?”
They broke into multiple conversations from then on. The professors seemed much easier to talk to outside of classes, and every single one of them was actually funny, including Choi Beomgyu, that loosened a lot after having a couple of drinks, and was actively holding multiple conversations at the same time, throwing witty comebacks around like it was nothing.
Inevitably, they reached a point in which most of them were too drunk to hold proper conversations, and mostly just giggled at one another.
“We definitely should do this more. I'm having such a good time with everyone” Choi Yeonjun chuckled, leaning heavily on Choi Beomgyu, both suddenly very close to one another.
“Yeonjun-ah, we're still with the kids, yeah? It's outside Uni but it's still not very appropriate” Choi Beomgyu muttered to the other man, in what he probably hoped was a whisper, yet the words could be heard loud and clear by those around them, students included.
The nearby students stopped in their tracks and locked in on the view of the two men, almost sat on top of each other. Choi Beomgyu sighed and appeared to finally give in, as he threw an arm over the English professor and brought him even closer to himself. Choi Yeonjun was barely keeping his eyes closed, red face tucked info the other professors equally red neck.
“What are you both doing?” Chanyoung asked with wonder more than anything in his voice.
“Ah, he gets a bit clingy when he's this drunk. He really shouldn't have had these many” Beomgyu chuckled, pointing towards the multiple glasses the other man finished.
“But he's married! He has a husband!” Ricky found himself almost shout. He covered his mouth in shock, yet the words had been spoken already. The whole table was frozen.
Kai laughed first, and Choi Soobin followed soon after. Kang Taehyun grinned from ear to ear. The two men appeared to sober up all of a sudden, detangling from one another.
“I am married” Choi Yeonjun smiled. His hand grabbed Beomgyu's atop the table. “And I do have a husband. And I love him, and he's my sweetheart”
Beomgyu somehow turned a shade darker.
“Oh my God” Jungwon wheezed, and a lot others followed right after “You're married to one another”
“You're married to Choi Beomgyu?!” Ricky gasped. “Oh my God. The list. We can finally update the list” he pulled out his phone and typed away.
- PROFESSOR CHOI YEONJUN IS MARRIED TO PROFESSOR CHOI BEOMGYU
Multiple phones started buzzing with the notification, and everyone started spamming the group chat. To everyone's shock, English professor Choi Yeonjun's phone appeared to do the same.
The students looked mortified at the professor.
“I hope you know, that the whole time, your list was posted on the English class Kakao groupchat”
Beomgyu laughed knowingly, before grabbing his husband's face in between his warm hands, placing a chaste kiss to his lips.
Chaos ensured.