-^* Are we clear? *^- | Haobin

*^- 3 -^*

I assisted Jiwoong with unloading the van of boxes and wheeled them into the storage room. We unpacked various mats and weights, along with other miscellaneous equipment. We left uniforms in their boxes until further notice and tidied away what we could. Eventually, as we began to finish up our sorting, Mrs Kim opened the storage room door to greet us.
"Morning boys, thanks Hanbin for coming in early on short notice. Is everything going okay?"
We bowed to greet her.
"Yeah we're nearly done, I'll be all sorted for my first class this morning." Jiwoong explained. I began to recall my own schedule today. Not much really, I was in charge of cleaning for the morning and then I had a class of elementary school kids at around 2pm and a class of middle schoolers at 3. Overall I wasn't too busy.
"That's great, I'll be up in my office if you need me."
Mrs Kim left swiftly, leaving me and Jiwoong again. The cool breeze wafted through the open windows and the rising sun shone in through the venetian blinds. Jiwoong chuckled under his breath and turned to me.
"I just remembered last night and it made me laugh."
I smiled back, brushing my messy half wet hair from my face.
"Does Hao dress like that often?" I asked.
"Mhm, he doesn't wear many dark colours at home. All his work clothes are black and white but he likes colour really, it just depends how he's feeling." Jiwoong brushed his own hair from his face and kept his eyes on me, "something about you feels familiar, Hanbin. I've only known you for a day but we're already so close."
I crooked my head to the side with intrigue.
"Anyway, I should be going to my class, see you at lunch!" Jiwoong smiled brightly, picking up his hoodie from on top of a box and walking out of the room and into the hall. I stood with confusion in the air around me.
What did he mean by that? Familiar? Me and Jiwoong have never met until yesterday...
I brushed it off and made my own way out of the storage room to go and begin cleaning.

Whilst the first classes were in progress, I mopped the floors thoroughly and dusted the lockers before wiping them down. Even down to the toilets I cleaned as best I could until it was all spotless.
I opened up the windows in my own studio, letting the curtains blow slightly and began mopping the floor in there, then moving onto wiping the mirrors and setting up my speakers so that they could connect to my phone.
Each teacher at the company had their own studio, mine was on the second floor. The windows were large and high and let in the sunlight well. The room itself was one of the smaller ones but it was still rather big.
I sat down on the floor with my back against the mirror and began to plan my lessons ready for the afternoon, taking into account everything Mrs Kim had told me about where the kids were at with their dancing.
Finally, 12 came around. I left my notebook on the floor, slipped my phone into my pocket and began to head upstairs. As I left my studio, I spotted a new face heading upstairs to my floor. He was shorter than me with bright eyes and a pretty face shape. He had prominent cheekbones and a wide mouth with cherry red lips and his dark brown hair sat fluffy on his head. He spotted me and bowed with a surprised look in his eye.
"Oh hello," I bowed back.
"Are you Sung Hanbin?" He asked, some sort of strange infliction in his brow as he stared at me.
I nodded as curiosity began to creep into my gaze.
"Ahh, I'm Kim Taerae, Mrs Kim is my mom." He explained. I let out a gentle ahh. I smiled and nodded.
"It's nice to meet you,"
"Nice to meet you too. You teach the kids don't you?"
"Yeah,"
"I used to teach them before you, you're doing me a favour," he laughed politely, his wide mouth stretching into a pretty smile.
We walked together up the stairs towards the staff room, he stood a fair bit shorter than me.
"I've got my first lesson at 2, I'm pretty nervous..." I confessed with embarrassment in my expression.
"You'll be okay, they're all nice kids." He comforted me. I nodded and opened the staff room door for him. He thanked me and walked in first before I followed in behind for my gaze to instantly meet the sour one of a brunette boy sat at the table with Jiwoong. He pouted his bottom lip slightly and his eyes stared at me with some sort of annoyance. It startled me.
What could I have possibly done to warrant that? I thought.
I slid through the door into the locker room to get my lunch and quickly returned.
Taerae and I sat down at the table, him beside Hao, me beside Jiwoong. Kyungsook followed in behind and sat a couple spaces away and pulled her lunch out of her bag.
"I see you've met Taerae," Jiwoong smiled as he looked at us both.
"Mm!" I responded, placing my lunch box on the table. Hao squished his fork into his cold pasta and stared down at it as if bored.
"Taeraesa~ you've almost escaped working here."
"Too right, I'm getting out of this job as soon as I can."
"Taerae's the one who accepted your application you know, Hanbin. He's been waiting for someone good to fill his place so he can finally stop working here..." Jiwoong laughed.
Taerae smiled, embarrassed.
"But anyway, how was everyone's mornings?" I asked, mostly keeping my gaze on the still protesting Zhang Hao who sat slumped in his chair in front of me.
"It was fine, teaching elderly ladies yoga is never too laborious..." Jiwoong sighed, taking a bite out of his sandwich. I began to eat my own as my eyes moved to Taerae.
"Yeah I was just catching up on paperwork in my studio." He answered, covering his mouth with his hand as he chewed. Taerae moved his eyes over to the boy who sat beside Jiwoong, keeping his gaze firm with something I couldn't quite pinpoint.
"What about you, Hanbin?" Jiwoong asked me.
"Just planning stuff. I'm in the process of learning how to appeal to the younger generation..." I chuckled.
As the room quieted, Hao moved, pushing his chair back with a screech against the floor as he stood up. He strode into the locker room, leaving his lunch sat at his place, looking rather sad in its mushed state.
No one else in the room seemed to be phased by the occurrence, swiftly moving on and eating their food. I on the other hand couldn't take my mind off it. I stared at the door to the locker room with curiosity and concern, waiting for him to emerge again.
He never did. We wrapped up lunch by putting our lunchboxes back into our bags in the locker room which lead me to glance around to any sign of Hao until I noticed the locked employee bathrooms and thought I should back off.
I walked back to my studio chatting with Jiwoong and Taerae. My mind still lingered on Hao. His expression and frustration and the fact that I couldn't understand made me so curious. Maybe I was just nosy, which is neither here nor there. Either way, I was enamoured by Zhang Hao...