The light shone into Hanbin's room as the sound of his alarm drilled into his ear. With a groan, he slapped his hand over the device with so much force, it was bound to break.
"Ah, shit..." He grumbled before sitting up, his head spinning as he sat down and contemplated life for a while. He was only in his 20s and was just a few more bad moments before going completely white haired.
He'd gone drinking last night and was hungover. His head pounded and he felt like there were a hundred nails under his feet as he walked.
"Maybe I should've listened to Hikaru when he told me not to go partying." Hanbin mumbled as he stood up and went to the kitchen, grabbing a painkiller from the cupboard and swallowing it dry.
"Ew, I still wonder how you do that." A voice came from behind him. Fortunately, it didn't irritate his headache any further. Seunghyun came from another room, jacketl in one hand and an iron in the other.
The two had been friends since highschool and have been close ever since. After college, they decided to buy an apartment together— mostly for budget reasons, but also because they would probably die if they lived alone.
"When you're a party freak like me, you can do anything." Hanbin raised a knowing brow to the other's head shake. "Shouldn't you be getting ready? It's Monday, you have classes today."
Hanbin's eyes widened at Seunghyun's words, immediately fishing his phone out of the pockets of his sweatpants to see the calendar.
Indeed, it was Monday.
A loud cry came from his mouth as he held his head in his hands. "I totally forgot… why did I agree to go to the club with Jinho last night?!"
Seunghyun chuckled as he went over to the ironing board. "Maybe if you listened to me yesterday…"
Hanbin was already darting to the bathroom, trying desperately to get rid of the alcohol smell on him. The last thing he needed was his students to find out about his late night activities.
After rinsing himself off, he was bolting to his room with a towel around his waist, grabbing anything that looked good and throwing it on haphazardly.
He sprayed himself with half a bottle of perfume before trying to put on his shoes, landing in the living room in the process.
"Uh, need any help?" Seunghyun offered, finding the other in a dilemma as he tried to squeeze into his sneakers. "Nope! You get going to work!"
"If you insist..?" With a lighthearted shake of the head, Seunghyun grabbed his bag from the coat rack and straightened his jacket. It was still relatively early, so the office should've been fairly empty.
He worked for a fashion company owned by his family, being responsible for accounting and occasionally making designs of his own. While Hanbin was a teacher at a highschool, becoming a student teacher when he was just in university.
Hanbin had finally finished getting ready by the time Seunghyun was gone. He jumped up to his feet and grabbed the keys to his car, glancing at the clock. 7:02 am, it said. His class usually started at 8, but he needed to be at school by 7 to clock in and grade papers.
"Minseo's gonna kill me." He muttered under his breath as he sprinted out of the apartment.
As he ran to the parking lot and entered his car, there was a ring on his phone. He brought it up to his ear and trapped it between his shoulder as he put on his seatbelt.
"Hello? Who's this? Sorry, I didn't get to check the caller ID."
"It's Minseo. Where are you? I brought you your coffee and it's getting cold! I might give it to Daehyeon if you don't hurry up."
"Sorry, Minseo-yah, I woke up a little late today. I'm already in my car, okay? I'll be there in fifteen, tops."
"You better or I'm marking you late again."
"Watch that tone, buddy. Your teacher side is coming out."
"Just hurry up!"
Hanbin could practically hear Minseo's eye roll through the phone as he hung up. His head shook endearingly as he started the vehicle's engine.
Upon arriving at the school, he parked his car in the faculty parking lot and practically dashed as fast as he could. He had only a few minutes left before he was marked late.
The school Hanbin worked at was pretty big and had many branches around South Korea, but the particular one he was in was a satellite campus in Seoul, so it was relatively small in comparison. Minseo was the head teacher of their building, so he kept everyone in line. Meanwhile, Junwon was the acting principal.
He tried his best not to bump into of the lockers, almost losing his balance in the process. Finally, he arrived at the teacher's lounge, out of breath and panting.
Only to find out that it was empty?
Not entirely. Minseo and Junwon were there, but no sign of the others.
"What? Where is everyone?" Hanbin asked, entering with heavy breaths as Minseo handed him his coffee from Starbucks.
"Oh, classes started like, 17 minutes ago." Junwon said matter-of-facrly, the blonde practically spitting out his coffee. Before anyone could even get a word in, he was already running out of the lounge to the classrooms.
He entered his homeroom, careful not to slide on the newly cleaned floors. Immediately, the students turned their attention to him and ran to their seats.
"Good morning, class!" Hanbin greeted, out of breath. His students greeted back before the classroom went silent once again.
"Sorry I'm late, I… uh… had a problem with my car." He lied with a reassuring smile on his face. Surely, the kids in front of him probably didn't care what the reason was. "So, let's start today's lesson, shall we?"
—
The bell rang, signalling that it was lunchtime. Hanbin begrudgingly entered the school building, wanting nothing more than a cup of coffee for his two hours of sleep.
He entered the teacher's lounge, stopping in his tracks when he saw an unfamiliar redhead at his usual seat, chatting with the other teachers rather happily.
"Hanbin-ah! Come over, Myungjae made cookies." Hyunbin gestured, pointing over to the seat in front of him. Hesitantly, Hanbin did, sitting right next to Daehyeon.
His eyes made its way to the new teacher, eyes locking into his sparkling ones.
"Hi, you must be Hanbin! I'm Myungjae, the new kindergarten teacher from the other building." He held out a hand out for the other to shake.
"Hello, Myungjae-ssi. Welcome to the school." Hanbin greeted politely, shaking his hand before letting go. "What made you choose this school?"
It wasn't everyday they had new teachers. With such a small student population, they didn't need more than six teachers for the highschool, middle school, and kindergarten branches. There were only about two sections per grade for middle and high school, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. As for the kindergarten, they were only in the morning.
"Well, I used to work at a daycare, but I moved here because I wanted to start teaching kids. And my niece is actually going to school here as a high schooler, it's easier to keep in touch."
"Oh, really? Who's your niece?" Hyunbin asked this time.
"Moon Hana, she's my sister's kid." Hanbin lit up at that, pointing a finger at the newcomer. "Section B-2, right? She's my advisory!"
"Really? She talks about how handsome her advisor is, I guess she wasn't exaggerating." Myungjae blurted out, Hanbin turning red in the face as he realized who he was talking about.
To the left of the table, Hyeonggeun spit out a laugh. "I like him already! He's gonna fit in just well."
Hanbin gritted his teeth with a fond shake of his head. "You work in the kindergarten, right? When you see Jaemin, say hi to him for Hyeonggeun."
"Shut up, at least I have a love life."
Hanbin gasped, the two beginning to bicker. Junwon sighed, when he hired them and told them to get comfortable, he didn't expect them to get this comfortable.
"Wait, you guys are allowed to have employee relationships?" Myungjae whispered into Hyunbin's ear. The older nodded, tuning out the bickering. "Yeah, a lot of us do, actually. Daehyeon and Wooseok from the middle school branch are dating, Hikaru and Sungmin are married, and Hikari and Lingqi are dating, too."
"And Hyunbin hyung and Taeseon hyung." Minseo interrupted, Myungjae's eyes widening. He worked with Taeseon, and the older seemed very open to the mothers' flirting. "Taeseon hyung? The moms of the kids hang around him a lot, though?"
"I-It's complicated. Not really dating, but not really just friends, either." Hyunbin blushed, face almost turning as red as the other's hair. Myungjae chuckled and opened his mouth to speak, only to be interrupted by the sound of the bell ringing.
"Shit, that's our cue." Hyunbin said, all of them standing up to get to their classrooms. He turned to Myungjae. "Are you going home? Your classes are done for the day, right?"
"They are, but I still have to go to the kindergarten to fix up some things. Thanks a lot for welcoming me, guys." Myungjae stood up with a bow.
"No problem, Myungjae hyung. Welcome to the family, you'll fit in just fine." Junwon said enthusiastically, patting the older's back.
"Get there safe, alright?" Hanbin said, Myungjae nodding. "Thanks, Hanbinnie. And take care of my niece for me!"
He grabbed his jacket and left the lounge, leaving the other teachers who were packing up their things to get to their afternoon classes.
As Hanbin was fixing up his bag, Hyeonggeun came up for him, nudging him suggestively. "Myungjae hyung, huh? Good choice, I was worried you'd be single your whole life.
"Shut up, virgin." Hanbin flicked the younger's forehead who cried out in shock. He sighed as he watched Hyeonggeun rub the inflicted spot, though his mind was elsewhere.
Maybe Hyeonggeun was right. Myungjae seemed like a nice person, but Hanbin would like to get to know him better.