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diorkyeom · 1 year

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‘✷’ : CHAPTER FOUR “in the eye of every beholder”

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chapter word count: 3.6k+

chapter warnings: none (other than seokmin wanting to murder ksy)(with good intentions)

summary: "lately, seokmin had come to a realisation. joshua hong, seokmin thought, was a little bit of an enigma." - in which seokmin has known joshua for years, but he's always been a bit of a mystery to him. and as the days go by, he finds himself falling further and further for the enigmatic man, wanting to find out who the real Joshua Hong is behind his polite smiles and warm eyes and sweet words.

notes: introducing my oc teacher characters!!! i kinda wrote myself into a corner by having no one else in svt being teachers lmao so i had to make up new friends for seokmin when he’s at school haha ^^

“Good morning, Seokmin. Why do you look like you managed to get zero sleep last night?”

Seokmin laughed into his coffee as he set his bag down at his desk in their department office. “Uh, that might be because I didn’t.”

“You didn’t?” Yuna, one of the other teachers in the department, looked at him concernedly as she turned on her own computer. “Why? Don’t tell me you left your marking to the last minute again.”

Seokmin sipped his drink, contemplating for a moment, before just smiling. “You caught me there."

Telling the truth and saying that he'd been staying awake to talk with one of his not-quite-friends by the river until sunrise about anything and everything would have been weird, anyway.

Before the woman had the chance to tell him off, however, the door to the department office swung open, and one of the other literature teachers swept in amongst a whirl of papers.

“Good morning, you two,” Hayoung chirped, dumping her papers down at her desk before grinning at them, pushing her glasses up as she bent down to pick up the papers that had been dropped. “Hey, why does Seokmin look like he’s half dead?”

Seokmin rolled his eyes at the two women, turning to his own computer and attempting to turn the monitor on. “You’re both so mean.”

Hayoung just laughed, shuffling her papers together and pulling out her own chair to sit down. “We care about you, brat. That’s all. Did something happen?”

“No,” Seokmin said, typing in his user and password. “I’m fine, I promise. Just procrastinated marking my children’s homework, that’s all.”

“Ah,” Hayoung said wisely. “Totally understandable. I do that all the time.”

Yuna sighed, shaking her head. “You two are utterly insane. I could never leave my marking that late.”

“Good morning!” another voice trilled, and all three literature teachers looked up to see another one of their colleagues hop into the room, looking buzzed up on far too much caffeine. “Did you hear that they’re already interviewing people to replace the teachers that left?”

“Minjun,” Yuna remarked dryly as the man accidentally bumped into Hayoung’s table and knocked over her pile of papers. “Why are you so hyper so early in the morning?”

“They’re already interviewing potential new teachers?” Seokmin asked interestedly. At the desk next to him, Hayoung wailed over the fallen papers that she’d just picked up. “That was fast.”

“I know right?” Minjun said, setting down his bag and his coat at his desk. “Apparently they’ve already found the new teachers they wanna hire for the music department. One of them is starting in a couple of weeks, actually.”

Seokmin shook his head. “That’s insane. I hope they’re prepared to deal with being thrown into the curriculum halfway through the year.”

Minjun laughed. “Yeah." He jabbed his finger in the direction of the door. "Also, the first class of the day started three minutes ago.”

All three literature teachers jumped at his words, looking over at the clock before collectively scrambling to gather their things and get to their students.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Seokmin said despairingly, accidentally stepping on some of Hayoung’s papers as he left the room. “Sorry, Hayoung!”

Minjun just continued laughing as he waved them out of the office. “I don’t have any classes until the afternoon. Have a nice day, you guys!”

Yuna yelled back something intelligible as both she and Seokmin hurried down the corridor, Hayoung still picking up her papers in the office.

"I'll see you at break," Yuna said quickly before pushing open the door to her classroom, instantly calling out for her children to settle down.

Seokmin shook his head, smiling, before walking into his own class too, pushing the door open with his foot and carrying his lesson materials in his arms.

"Yes, yes, I'm here now," he said, and the delighted cries of "Mr. Lee!" made him smile even wider. "Good morning, has everyone's morning been good?"

He walked to the front of the classroom, humming interestedly and laughing as some of the children told him very seriously that they wouldn't mind at all if his lesson killed them so early on in the day just so they wouldn't have to proceed with their other classes.

This particular grade class was, in fact, his favourite, and teaching these students always managed to bring a smile to his face purely because he could tell that so many of these bright children would go on to become adults that he could proudly tell others he had the privilege of teaching in their youth.

“Today, we’ll be starting a new unit,” Seokmin announced as he set his things down in the classroom, “and it’ll be on poems.”

There were a mixture of groans and cheers in response to his announcement, and Seokmin grinned, clasping his hands together and walking across the front of the class.

“I know, I know, but poetry is fun, I promise! Besides, I managed to convince them to look at a more interesting poem, which I'm sure you'll enjoy.”

His statement was met with unimpressed stares, but Seokmin just grinned wider, moving back to the desk to pick up a marker and then walking over to the whiteboard.

He uncapped the dry marker and wrote the word ‘Homer’ on the board, drawing a circle around it. “Now, what do you think of when you see this name? Yes, Hyeongjung?”

“Homer Simpson!”

Seokmin paused, narrowing his eyes playfully at the boy. “Okay, other than the Simpsons. How is the name Homer significant in literature? Jiyeon, what do you think?”

“Didn’t he write the Iliad?”

Seokmin smiled, writing ‘Iliad’ beside the name. “Well done. We don’t actually know if he did write the Iliad, but that epic poem, along with the Odyssey, are often attributed to Homer, so we call him the author anyway. The ‘Odyssey’ is what we’ll be focusing most on,” he said, writing down both the poems on the board, “but first, we’ll be taking a brief look at Greek mythology.”

There were gasps of excitement amongst the children, and Seokmin grinned again.

“Now, can anyone name some of the Ancient Greek gods to me?”

───────────── ‘✷,

“See you tomorrow, you guys,” Seokmin said to the last few teachers still in the office as he shouldered his bag, getting ready to leave work for the day. “How long are you all planning to stay here?”

Yuna just hummed, clacking away at her keyboard. “I haven’t finished making quotation flashcards for my children yet. And I need to print and laminate them, too.”

Seokmin winced in sympathy. “Good luck. I tried making quotation flashcards for some of my classes last year, and it’s a lot of work.”

“Yeah, I know,” Yuna laughed. She waved a hand in Seokmin’s direction, not even looking at him. “I’ll be fine. You, however, need to get some sleep, Mr. Lee. You still look dead on your feet. See you tomorrow.”

“See you,” Seokmin said, taking the statement for the dismissal that it was, smiling. “Don’t work yourself too hard, okay?”

And with that, he stepped out of the office, fishing out his phone and texting him a quick "on my way!". The elder had messaged him, around an hour ago, asking if Seokmin wanted to meet up in one of the cafes near Seokmin’s school, and of course he’d said yes. Having coffee with Jeonghan was always fun, because it was never really about the coffee and more about the talking.

It had been a while since he’d met up with Jeonghan one-on-one, anyways, so it would be fun.

“Jeonghan hyung!”

The moment Seokmin stepped into the cafe, the door’s wind chimes tinkling in his wake, he called out to Jeonghan and grinned as the elder looked up with a wave.

“Seokmin-ah,” Jeonghan said, smiling as he gestured to the chair opposite him for Seokmin to sit down. “How are you doing? How was work?”

"It was okay," Seokmin shrugged, before beaming as Jeonghan slid over a croissant. "Aw, hyung, did you buy this for me?"

"You have to pay me back," Jeonghan said, but he was smiling fondly. In all the years that Seokmin had known Jeonghan, he'd never really had to pay him back for anything he bought him. "This place is crazy expensive."

Seokmin just laughed, instantly pulling apart the croissant before his eyes lit up as Jeonghan also slid over a teacup, seemingly procuring it out of nowhere. "Why are we here then?"

"You like their mochas, don't you?" Jeonghan said, tapping the mug. "See, Seokmin, I know these things."

"I'm so honoured you pay so much attention to me, hyung," Seokmin said, half teasing, and happily sipped his coffee. "Mmm. Delicious."

Jeonghan grinned.

It was earlier than Seokmin normally left work, and there were still people milling around in the cafe. The sun was lingering in the sky, not quite setting yet but also not quite high enough to look like it was doing anything other than drowsily going to bed, casting golden-orange light through the windows and across the tables. The buzz of chatter created a lively ambience, but it was a gentle liveliness that allowed Seokmin's shoulders to relax and smile over at Jeonghan as the elder leaned his elbows on the table, eyes glittering.

"Speaking of knowing things, though," Jeonghan said, and Seokmin's shoulders reluctantly tensed once again. "I think you know what other thing I know about you, right?"

Seokmin groaned, about to faceplant into the table before he realised that a) they were in public and b) he had a hot coffee right where his head would have landed. So he settled with kicking Jeonghan under the table again.

"Hey!" Jeonghan swiftly kicked him back and then carried on talking, grinning deviously. "Joshua talked about it with you, didn't he? During the last Game Night."

"Don't kick me back! I—wait, what?" Seokmin paused, frowning. "He… didn't talk about it at all."

Now that Seokmin thought about it, Joshua never brought up their encounters in conversations. Not the flower incident, or the gym incident, or the awkward "I've been asking all our friends about you" incident. It was as if he wasn't making a big deal out of it, waiting for Seokmin to talk about it first, making sure that Seokmin was comfortable with broaching the subject and if he wasn't, then Joshua wouldn't say anything.

Wow. Seokmin blinked. He found himself really… touched.

Jeonghan, however, frowned, looking put-out by Joshua's thoughtfulness. "Aw. I thought he'd try to talk to you about it. That’s a shame.”

Seokmin looked over warily, slowly taking a bite out of his croissant, flakes of pastry getting all around his mouth. “Why is that a shame? What did you want him to say?”

“I wanted him to ask you about it, of course!” Jeonghan said. “I wanted him to ask you why you were doing that, because he kept asking me about it instead. And I said to him, “You gotta just ask Seokmin himself, Joshuji. I don’t know anything about it.”, but it appears that he didn’t follow my advice.”

“You just want to know yourself, don’t you?” Seokmin said. He wiped at the crumbs on his cheeks, failing in his attempts to clean his face since his fingers were all flake-covered too. “Don’t lie. Joshua hyung’s really sweet and chill. You’re the nosy one.”

Jeonghan laughed, not looking the least bit offended. “Well, you’re kind of right. But I’m still trying to get him to talk to you.”

“Huh?” Seokmin frowned. “Why?”

Jeonghan just hummed, giving Seokmin a tight-lipped smile and shook his head, drumming his fingers against the table. “Did anything interesting happen at work today? I do wanna know how your day went, Seokmin.”

It was a clear sign to change the topic, and Seokmin decided to take it. With enough wheedling, he would probably have been able to push Jeonghan for the answers he wanted on the Joshua thing, but he didn’t really have the energy. Jeonghan was weak for him, but not that weak. And after a long day at work, Seokmin was kinda tired.

“Um, apparently they’re already interviewing for the potential new teachers,” Seokmin said. “And they’ve found replacement music teachers that are gonna start in a few weeks.”

“New music teachers?” Jeonghan asked, tilting his head interestedly. “I see.”

Seokmin nodded, sipping his coffee. “It’s all just rumours for now. Minjun’s really good at getting accurate pieces of information, though, so there’s a pretty good chance that it’s the truth.”

“Minjun?” Jeonghan watched as Seokmin set down his coffee mug, before promptly swiping it and taking a sip thoughtfully, ignoring Seokmin’s indignant cry. “Why does that name sound familiar?”

Seokmin swiftly snatched back his coffee, taking another sip while pouting at Jeonghan. "He's been the head of my department for years, hyung. Maybe you heard it from me?"

"No, I think Joshua had a friend called Minjun," Jeonghan said, watching blankly as Seokmin finished the rest of his croissant. "They went to uni together. They were pretty decent friends, I think, promising to help each other with job offers and stuff."

"Well." Seokmin shrugged. "I dunno. Minjun's never mentioned a friend named Joshua. Maybe it's another Minjun?"

Jeonghan's gaze focused back on Seokmin again, and he grinned. "Maybe. Anyway, what about lessons? What were you teaching your kids this time?”

Seokmin beamed, visibly lighting up at the chance to talk about his students. “Oh! You know that one class which is my utter favourite? I’m going over the ‘Odyssey’ with them now, and we were studying Ancient Greek mythology today. Everyone has a weird fixation on Poseidon, though, and I gotta find a way to break it to them that he’s kinda as much of an asshole as Zeus is.”

Jeonghan snorted. “Tell them that story of how he kidnapped a woman, maybe?”

Seokmin blinked innocently. “Which one?”

That made the elder laugh, eyes twinkling. “Did you tell them the story of the golden apple, too? That one’s always fun. It’s like an introduction to the Trojan War, too.”

“I did! You know, the first thing I did was ask them, ‘Who is the prettiest god’ and the amount of people who said Aphrodite… like, oh boy. You’d think that people have learned their lesson by now,” Seokmin said. “But, did you hear about how Aphrodite isn’t just one type of beauty? She is beauty, embodying everything that it means to be beautiful. So she’s mysterious and kind and liked by everyone, and she’s beautiful in everyone’s eyes.”

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, huh?” Jeonghan said, leaning forward. His laughter had died down, and he looked curiously invested in what Seokmin was saying. “So… you could say she’s beautiful and… elusive at the same time?”

“Exactly!” Seokmin chirped. “She's an enigma. She changes to fit everyone else. Her beauty fits the eye of every beholder. In a really mysterious, it-kinda-makes-sense but also it-doesn’t-make-sense kind of way.”

Jeonghan quirked a grin. “Really? Tell me more, I wanna know.”

If it were anyone else saying that, with that decidedly devious grin on their face, Seokmin would have been more suspicious. But Jeonghan always either looked like he was plotting something or was about to fall asleep, and so Seokmin didn't think anything of it.

Besides, if Jeonghan was plotting something, then the results would normally reveal themselves eventually. Most of the time, it was for a good cause, anyway.

Hopefully.

───────────── ‘✷,

"Kwon Soonyoung," Seokmin muttered through gritted teeth as he plodded down the street,"I am going to murder you."

Seokmin was late to school.

Well, he was late to work, but his work essentially was a school, so it was the same thing. And, like most misfortunes in Seokmin’s life, it was kind of all Soonyoung’s fault.

Soonyoung had fallen ill, having caught some sort of cold that rendered him unable to even move his head. Seokmin said it was from that time he’d worked overtime and had to come home in the rain with no umbrella. Soonyoung strongly disagreed. With pillows thrown at Seokmin's head.

Nevertheless, Seokmin had had to take care of him that morning, running around while trying to get ready for work and dig out their tissue boxes from somewhere and give Soonyoung some painkillers with a glass of water and quickly make some canned soup because if Soonyoung didn’t have at least a bowl of soup on the first morning of a sickness, then he’d be ill for an entire month and complain to Seokmin the entire time.

By the end of it, the soup was only half eaten and most of the glass of water had made its way onto the floor and Seokmin hadn’t had time to have breakfast or brush his hair. And he was late.

The first lesson of the day was already in full swing by the time he managed to trudge into school, having given up on actually getting there on time, shooting a quick email to the office to get them to send a sub to his class. They’d better get used to subs just in case, anyway. Soonyoung managed to sneeze on him a total of fifteen times in an hour. There was a pretty good chance that Seokmin was sick too.

“Mr. Lee!” Dowoon, one of the history teachers, called out in surprise when Seokmin dragged himself into the staffroom, already exhausted. “You’re not normally here in the mornings.”

“Mr. Kang,” Seokmin greeted, immediately going over to the instant coffee machine. “Yeah, I had to take care of my sick friend this morning, so I ended up running late. I’ve given up on getting to my first two classes. It’s a double period,” he elaborated, “so it’s the same class of children. I’ll let them have two hours of free time to themselves.”

Dowoon chuckled, downing his own instant coffee. “You’re very generous,” he said. “Oh, did you hear that the new music teacher has started? Just began today, I believe.”

“Already?” Seokmin asked, surprised, taking out his coffee. “Wow, that was fast. Minjun was telling us that they’d start in two weeks, and I guess he was right.”

“That man and his crazy hunches,” Dowoon laughed, shaking his head. He put the empty paper cup into the bin, walking towards the door. “Well, enjoy your own free hour, Seokmin. I’ll be off now.”

“Have a nice day!” Seokmin called back.

And then the history teacher left, leaving a thoughtful silence in his wake.

It was calm in the staffroom, as it normally was on mornings. There were a few teachers sitting around, but most were in lessons, and the sun streamed into the largely empty room, casting light on the ornamental bookshelf and the weirdly shaped fake potted plant in the corner.

Seokmin’s lips twitched upwards. Joshua would have probably liked the strange decor in their staff room.

He leisurely finished his coffee, looking out through the windows at the green field by the side of the school, watching the children playing sports. Then, throwing the empty cup away, Seokmin shouldered his bag again and walked out of the room. There was still a decent amount of time before his next class, and he basically had the entirety of the school to himself to wander around in. He could snoop into wherever he wanted.

Well. He grinned, turning down one corridor. Maybe it was time to visit the music department. Perhaps he’d find something interesting to tell Seungkwan.

The sound of singing filled his ears as he entered the music hallway, and he instinctively chuckled, recognising the tune of the school anthem they were singing. It must be one of the younger years in class right now, he mused. They sounded like they were learning the song for the first time.

He carefully peered into the classroom through the window of the door, chuckling as he watched the teacher conduct the children as they dutifully sang along to the lyrics that were on the board. He drew away, however, when the sound of a door clicking open echoed from around the corner, and voices sounded.

"—lively community here, sir, and we think that you'd be a brilliant addition to the music department. We could use your knowledge here to help strengthen our students."

That was the voice of the head of the music department, which Seokmin recognised. Her voice was fluid, smooth and gentle and Minjun said that she'd been a world-famous opera singer before settling down at their school. Like most things Minjun said, it was probably true.

"Thank you very much, Miss," a new voice said, and Seokmin stilled. He blinked, not sure whether he really did recognise that voice or whether his brain was playing tricks on him.

"Of course," the woman said. "We hope you feel welcome here in our school."

There were more pleasantries exchanged, and then the sound of the office door swinging shut. Seokmin panicked as dress shoes clicked down the corridor, closer and closer to where he was, feeling oddly like a child having been caught eavesdropping as he straightened and stepped away from the wall, before accidentally ending up colliding right into the man who had been walking around the corner.

"Hello!" The man said in surprise. Steady hands reached out to firmly hold onto his shoulders, and Seokmin was quickly pulled away from a warm and solid chest and found himself staring into big, brown eyes instead. Big, brown eyes that widened in shock and then melted into a look that was so soft and so familiar that it made Seokmin's heart immediately begin to beat faster.

Seokmin sputtered, temporarily speechless. "Joshua?"

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