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17

jisung was prepared for his presentation when the time came, at least as much as he could be since he was usually awkward whenever he had to do some public speaking, and he put on his best outfit to try and boost his confidence.

it was simple: a turtleneck with a tshirt on top, all tucked into a pair of black jeans, and paired with combat boots and jewellery. he brushed his hair and looked at it in the mirror, thinking he looked terrible, but ended up not changing anything. at least he was comfy.

by the time he reached the classroom, desperation was already paralysing him and all he could hope for was that minho would have magically forgotten he had to go first and asked someone else instead.

needless to say, he didn't.

"alright. so, first off we have.. han jisung," minho introduced in his soft voice and he smiled as he looked up to the boy in question, "are you ready?"

jisung nodded barely visibly and took a flash drive and a cheat sheet before heading towards the teacher's desk.

he walked up to the intern fearfully, then stopped when they were facing each other.

"um, can i have the screen?," he awkwardly asked, to which minho's big eyes landed on his lips, as if he was trying to get the sense of his words by lip reading.

"screen?," minho demanded, tilting his head cutely to the side a little. his voice was small, as if they were having a private conversation.

"for a power point. i have some slides..," jisung explained and looked up at the white thing that was hanging off the ceiling way too high.

"ah, right," the teacher exclaimed and raised his eyes too, "um.. i'm a bit short but we can manage..," he laughed and licked his lips, then reached for jisung's waist to make him move away since he was blocking the way.

the student was flustered by the hands that gently tapped his hips and he was sure that his face was bright red but he stepped aside. minho passed him by and took a chair from one of the closest tables, then put it in front of the table and stepped on it, reaching for the white pull-down screen.

"done," minho exclaimed and dismounted the chair.

"thank you," jisung quietly hummed and went behind the teacher's desk to put his flash drive into the computer.

"you're welcome," the older replied with a big smile and waited for instructions, as if jisung was the one who needed to direct the class.

"um, can i also have the pointer?," the shorter boy finally asked, once his flash drive was in.

"the pointer?," minho repeated again, pensively, but his eyes didn't quit jisung's face.

"uh, yes.. like, the one you use to show things on the board..?"

"ah, yes," the teacher nodded and stepped closer to jisung, going behind him in the already small space between the desk and the wall, "here," he pointed to one of the drawers that jisung opened. his hands were on the student's hips again but the others couldn't see that because the computer was in the way.

"is that all?," minho asked softly, a smile dancing on his lips.

"i think so," the younger smiled back and they both exited the tiny space and stood on the podium, "thank you, mr lee."

"you're welcome. our attention is all yours."

the sweet smile he flashed him in the end encouraged jisung a little, but once he turned to look at his audience and saw the lazy and unimpressed, highly-judgemental pairs of eyes staring at him in annoyance, all of his initial confidence disappeared.

"um, hello. my name is han jisung and today i will be talking to you about a topic i chose.. um.. that's connected to psyche.. psycho.. psychology," he uttered first thing, searching for his words although he had rehearsed this countless times at home.

"ah, sorry," minho's soft voice interrupted, and his eyes landed back on his teacher who was raising one hand up like a first grader, while the other one was scratching his head awkwardly, "sorry to cut you off, but i forgot my notepad," he pointed to the desk and jisung realised he meant that he should search for it.

so he turned to look around the large desk that was filled with all sorts of papers, from the class printouts, to the homework assignments, to the 5-minute tests they had done last time, to some of minho's personal papers but the notepad was nowhere to be found.

suddenly, he felt a hand on his waist again, and minho's pretty head peeked from behind his shoulder. he was reaching towards something and smiled when he got it, "here. thanks and sorry," he said as he was quitting the podium, "you can go ahead now."

jisung nodded and restarted the presentation, though it was hardly any better. he tried hard to concentrate and also don't take this so seriously but in the 10 minutes that followed he felt like he did nothing but stammer and correct himself again and again.

minho didn't even notice this though. he was looking at the small slim body that was frozen in front of the board, trying to look at the audience to read their interest inside their eyes.

what jisung said during his 10 minutes, minho didn't know. he only watched the lips move and make sounds, beautiful sounds, like a song, and the big eyes attentively scan the board, then the class. it was entertaining to watch jisung present something, no matter what it was.

when he was finished, minho took a while to assess that.

"oh, are you finished?," he asked when he realised jisung hadn't moved in a couple of seconds.

"yes. thank you," the student repeated the ending line of his presentation, "if you have any questions.. feel free," he suggested slowly, but it was all etiquette. he sincerely hoped that the listeners would just let him be.

minho glanced down at his notepad, only to realise that it was completely empty. he hadn't even scribbled one word in during the talk, "no, no questions," he shook his head and flipped the page closed, "thank you for your work. it was great."

jisung nodded appreciatively and took his stuff, then left the podium with a sense of relief.

when the lecture was over, minho decided to give back the students' homework and thus ended the session. jisung looked down at the paper and was surprised when he saw an a. it wasn't really that strange but he wasn't used to receiving two of those in a row.

"is it nice to be the teacher's little pet, huh? little hannie getting a's here and there," a mocking comment came from the upper row behind him. changkyun was looking down into his sheet and smirked nastily.

"fuck off, dude," jisung dismissed him and rolled his eyes.

"ha, might have to call you lee jisung very soon," the boy teased again and left the room.