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It all started with a very innocent question. Something Seungmin would have thought he could have dismissed quickly, except, he did not. He just stared at the student with round eyes, stumbling over his words, breathe short. It did not help his case at all. And the twenty five students in his class had their eyes fixated on him while he could feel his cheeks turning red and the room temperature suddenly becoming unbearable. He was in the middle of reading out loud a scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream, his favourite Shakespeare play - not important for the anecdote but important for him because they interrupted one of his favourite scene, ever - when the student raised her hand. Studying old plays is not something easy, the ancient english makes it hard to understand and students often have a hard time connecting with plays when they read them, so he thought it was related to his class. Naively. It was not. And he stood there, almost dropping the book, unable to form any intelligent thought. Him who was so proud of all the intelligent thoughts he often has, was made speechless.
"Mr Kim, are you dating Mr Hwang?"
Rumors travel quickly in a high school, and this one is not different. Usually the rumors are about and between the students. Gathering hundreds of teenagers between the age of fourteen and eighteen in one same location often leads to this. The rumors can be innocent, and easily forgotten, some can be more vile, leading to bullying and other mean behaviours. The rumors are rarely about the teachers. Some might have started a rumor that Mr Son, one of the chemistry teachers, secretely grows weed in his apartment, and it explains why his eyes are always red. Others are saying that Ms Choi, P.E teacher, was a former olympic athlete who got injured seriously leading her to become a teacher. The teachers do not bother answering the rumors, they know that most of their students are doing this simply to get on their nerves and that it would be childish to react.
The teachers' wherabouts are often very intriguing for their students, it is hard to imagine them having a life outside the school. They are more perceived as machine rather than human beings. Some teachers are comfortable with talking about their private life with their students, some are not. Seungmin is definetely not. There is a line, and this line is exactly situated right at the school's entrance's gates, between his private life and his professionnal life. His fear is to see his students outside of school. Even worse, parents. He makes sure to have nothing personnal on his school stuff, his computer lockscreen is a generic picture, there are no stickers on his stuff, his phone is always put away in his bag, he even has clothes made for school, and clothes made for outside of school. The line is perfectly clear, in his mind, in his life, in his behaviour. And he likes it very much like that.
Seungmin is not mysterious, he is just a private person. He has always functionned that way, when he was a student himself and after, and it had protected him from basically anything. No rumours could start about someone that nobody really knows, right?
Except they did.
"Mr Kim, your cheeks are red," Yeri comments.
She is a sweet kid, really, good student, always sitting in the front row without Seungmin having to argue for it to happen. She still has some work to do to make sure her essays are the image of the things she is able to talk about in class, but she is on the good way. Today, Seungmin really wishes she was not sitting so close to him. He clears his throat.
"Uh," he says, "this has nothing to do with our current lesson, and as you know, I don't answer to question that are unrelated."
There is a small groan in the room, but Seungmin ignores it. He ignores the urge to ask why would they even think that, and goes back to his lesson plan.
Surely they will forget about it in a few days. Why would they care anyway?
By the end of the week, no other student have asked anything. Seungmin's classes go back to their usual motion and his students seem like they have forgotten about it, which he is thankful for. He keeps an ear out for corridors chatters and also in the teachers' room, but he is relieved to realize that it all seems like a fever dream. On Friday, he teaches two hours of English to the same class he had on Monday morning, he has not seen them ever since. This time he has rehearsed, just in case, a perfectly, normal, composed answer. The question never comes and he spends the two hours studying about Shakespeare in perfect contentment - at least for him.
When the bell rings and all the students leave the room in a noisy hubbub of chairs scraping the tiles, laughter, and things being put in bags without a care in the world, Seungmin stays back, to put back everything before he goes to his break. There he sees it. A piece of paper, on the floor. He frowns, mentally checks which student has been sitting near it, to make sure to tell them to be more careful about this and to throw things in the trash, not on the floor, and grabs the paper. He should not read it but his eyes are immediately drown to the text.
ARE MR KIM AND MR HWANG DATING???? add anything you might believe is proof
Evidence number one: on Thursday morning, Mr Kim (Mr.K) has class in room 301B for the entire morning. The B building is usually reserved for art classes, and all the classrooms are filled with art supplies, leading to most teachers hating being assigned there because the students keep on being distracted, Mr.K often stated his displeasure over this, years after years. However, since a few weeks, Mr.K seems to be in a very good mood on Thursday morning, and "coincidentially", Mr Hwang (Mr.H) gives class at the same time in room 303B (RIGHT IN FRONT). When the bell rings and they wait for their next students to come, most of us noticed how they keep on glancing at each other, leading to evidence number two.
Evidence number two: in the four years all of us have known Mr.K, he NEVER waits outside his class to welcome students. Unless it's a Thursday morning in room 301B.
Evidence number three: Mr.H has been put in charge of the theater group this year, somehow the play that they have chosen to do for the year-end festival is A Midsummer Night's Dream, Mr.K's favourite.
Evidence number three (bis): assigned to the case J from the theater troupe has managed to sneak a look in Mr.H's play, there are a lot of things written inside and it is not Mr.H's hand writing.
Side note: we compared the hand writing on papers from Mr.K's lesson and it is VERY SIMILAR, but you can see for yourself just ask Y it's on her phone
Evidence number four: Mr.K has been correcting tests with a sparkling pen instead of a plain red one.
Side note : not necesseraly an evidence as much as just a very weird thing
Evidence number five: Mr.K did not deny dating Mr.H when Y asked this Monday.
Evidence number six (thanks B): Mr.H used to come to school with his car, but lately his parking spot has been empty!!!! How does he get there??
Side note : B's is Ms.S son (lame) (shut up!! that's not the point!!)
Go see Y if you want to bet!!! NO BETS OUTSIDE THE GROUPCHAT WILL BE ACCEPTED!!!!!!
Seungmin reads again and again the text, but he still can not believe it. His mouth is dry, his entire face is burning. The worst thing about it is, how come his students have suddenly a perfect grammar and analytic deduction for this and not for the things they are supposed to learn in class?! And there is a bet? People are beting over this?
"Oh, damn, I mean, fuck, no…"
He finally looks up from the piece of paper to see Yeri and her friends at the door, a hand over her mouth. She is obviously about to flee so Seungmin speaks out, "what is this?"
"Uh, nothing? I mean I don't know what you're talking about Mr Kim."
She is lying, it is painfully obvious. Seungmin has not been a teacher for that long but with his few years of experience he can tell when students are trying to pull his leg.
"If you did not come back to get this, why are you here and not on break?" He asks, with his most severe voice. Like what is written on the paper does not bother him at all. It does. It terribly does.
Yeri clears her throat, "I came back because…." she looks around but her friends are silent, "because I had a question about Shakespeare's frequent use of plays inside a play."
Seungmin rolls his eyes. She's good.
On Friday, Seungmin ends work early in the afternoon. Usually, he stays in the teachers' room for a bit after his class so he can start doing his work and not spend all his weekend grade papers. Today, he immediately leaves the school. He feels like his entire face has been red and hot since he found the note and he could not stop thinking about it all morning. His only petty and small revenge is that Yeri spend her break having to listen to him dissect Shakespeare's plays and she seemed pretty annoyed at it. He tried to act nonchalant, throwing the paper in the trash in front of her but as soon as she left he grabbed it back, and carefully put it in his pants' pocket. For the rest of his class, it is like the paper is burning his jeans, but he tries to act like nothing is happening.
He does not live far away from the school so he walks back to his apartment, it is a quick stroll, today it seems like it is never ending. His thoughts are running in his mind, at this point he has memorized every six points from the list and he tries to understand exactly how they noticed things like that, he swears his students are barely interested in what he is saying, and most of the time it is kinda upsetting, how come they came up with all these "evidence"?
His apartment's door is unlocked when Seungmin gets there. There is a nice smell of something baking in the oven, and he finally feels like a bit of tension is leaving his shoulders. He sighs.
"Minnie! How was school today?" A voice says from the kitchen.
He hums, unable to hold back the smile on his lips when he takes off his shoes and hearing footsteps coming to him. Someone grabs his bag and coat and put it away, exactly where Seungmin likes to put them when he is done with work. When he finally took off his shoes, he gets pulled into a hug. He inhales the scent of his own shampoo, long hair brushing his face as he nuzzles his head in the crook of their neck. He closes his eyes for a moment, comfortable.
"You're tired?"
"There is a bet going on in school," Seungmin mutters, ignoring the question.
He is no longer embarrassed or tensed, not when Hyunjin holds him like that, it is like all his worries evaporates into thin air.
"A bet?"
"Yeah."
Against his will he pulls away from the hug, and takes out of his pocket the paper.
"Are Mr Kim and Mr Hwang Dating?" Hyunjin reads out loud and Seungmin cringes, "add anything you might believe is proof… Oh wow. And there's a groupchat too?!"
Seungmin sighs, he does not even want to think about a groupchat where all his students are gossiping about him. It is terrible.
"Their reasoning is not too bad."
"I know."
"You didn't deny?"
Seungmin feels his cheeks turn red again, "I was flustered…"
His eyes meet Hyunjin's and he sees the glimmer of amusement in his pupils.
"You're messing with me."
The other laughs loudly and Seungmin gently punches him on the shoulder. He rolls his eyes and walks inside the apartment to get to the couch. He feels exhausted now, all he wants is to sit down, take a nap and forget about all this but he can not. Hyunjin follows him and they both fall down on the couch, Seungmin puts himself into the other's arms.
"So, what will you do about this?"
"Maybe we should bet," Seungmin answers half seriously.
"What?!"
"We could make a lot of money!"
"You want to rob a bunch of teens? Kim Seungmin, you are a menace."
"When you say it like that…" He shrugs before laughing.
He feels the hold on himself being a bit more strong, a hunch tells him that something is bothering Hyunjin. He moves as to face him, letting go once again of his arms.
"I was just joking," he says quietly.
"I know," the other one looks away, "it's just… the more I think about it the more I feel bad about it, I know you hate that your private life and your professionnal life get mixed."
"It's not your fault."
"Should we stop?"
Seungmin gasps, confused, his heart starts racing in his chest. He did not see that coming, he thought everything was going well, all this because of his students?
"Why…" he stutters, "is that what you want?"
He can not hide the sadness in his voice, he does not want to guilt trip Hyunjin or anything, if he does not want to go further then it is his choice and he is allowed to do so, they have only been seeing each other for a few months but…
"No!" Hyunjin almost screams, startling Seungmin.
"Then why are you asking this?"
"Because I thought, you would want to stop…"
Hyunjin's face is now red and suddenly Seungmin understands, "oh," he mutters, "you thought I would not want to see you anymore if the school knew?"
Hyunjin bites his lower lip and nods. Seungmin puts a hand on his cheek, gently stroking his soft skin. Hyunjin is just so beautiful and nice and something Seungmin can not believe he would let him witness how vulnerable and emotional he can be. He never realized how much he needed Hyunjin in his life.
"I could feel that something was wrong this week," Hyunjin whispers, "so I thought that it was very serious and when I read this…"
He shrugs.
"Hyunjin," Seungmin says, this time making Hyunjin look at him directly and not avoiding eye contact, "the only reason why it is bothering is because I can not believe they realized before I did. We have been seeing each other for what four months now? And technically, you're still not my boyfriend. That's why I have been weird all week, I was just wondering how to bring it up."
Hyunjin's eyes light up. Seungmin takes a deep breath in, his heart is still beating fast in his chest but this time for a very different reason.
"Will you be my boyfriend?" He asks.
He does not know why he suddenly feels so shy about it. Hyunjin has already his toothbrush in Seungmin's bathroom. His parking spot is empty because he sleeps over so often that he goes to work on foot. Seungmin lingers around when he is in room 301B just because he does not get enough of Hyunjin and Wednesday night is the night they can not see each other because Hyunjin has a dance class. He talked so much about Shakespeare to Hyunjin, while preparing his theater class that it made Hyunjin curious, Seungmin lets him take his copy, because Hyunjin likes to see the little notes Seungmin writes inside his books. He is grading his paper with a sparkling pen because he was at Hyunjin's place one weekend and forgot his pencil case at that is basically all the pens in Hyunjin's apartment.
They are basically dating. It just happened without them even realizing, or at least without Seungmin realizing. And he knows that Hyunjin is a romantic so he is afraid that Hyunjin will blame him for forgetting. But Hyunjin beams, the kind of smile that is only for Seungmin to see, and definetely the most beautiful masterpiece Seungmin has ever seen.
"Gosh, of course, yeah, yes!" Hyunjin lets out.
His smile is addictive and when they kiss it is messy because neither of them can stop giggling and smiling. Hyunjin's arms immediately find their place right around Seungmin's waist when the latter puts his hands in his boyfriend's hair.
"I don't care if everyone knows," Seungmin whispers in his ear between kisses, "I think I want everyone to know that you're mine."
He thought Hyunjin could not smile more but somehow he does. He uses his strenght - and gosh he has it, Seungmin might start paying for Hyunjin's gym membership - to switch their place. Seungmin yelps when Hyunjin easily lays him on the couch and cages him between his arm, hovering over him.
"I'd like that too. Because I'm yours and you're mine."
Seungmin hums happily when Hyunjin starts kissing him on his jaw and then his neck. Maybe it is a good thing that all the school started a bet, he thinks. Still, he thinks he is going to make them work a bit more before confessing, just because it is fun and he kinda wants to know what other evidence they might find. Yeah, maybe he will do just that.