plan j and all the plans leading up to it

by everly_2

Summary:

lee gon has a plan. no, scratch that, he has about nine plans, with probably twenty more in the making, and all of them are headed to one goal: getting to know jo yeong, the new literature teacher who wears suits to school every day and doesn't know how to take care of himself.

aka they're high school teachers and lee gon has to juggle strange feelings for his friend's younger brother while setting up his friends with their long-time crushes.

(warning: lee gon might seem ooc cuz of the universe settings, he didn't grow up burdened with the crown or anything, and he's also a lot more eager to get to know jo yeong, since they don't know each other here. jo yeong might also seem ooc because he grew up with eun-seop as his older brother, so he's a lot softer ig)

Chapter 1: plan a

       it’s monday of all days, and lee gon heaves a sigh as he sits down at the table, his tray of food clanking onto the cheap plastic surface.
       across from him, jeong tae-eul raises an eyebrow, “stayed up late looking at maths problems again?”
       called out, lee gon can only focus his gaze on his sad bowl of jajangmyeon as jo eun-seop, sitting beside the female pe teacher, tuts, “yah, you really spend too much time obsessing over those. you’ll get wrinkles before you know it!”
       rolling his eyes (let's be real, gon was never going to get wrinkles with his immaculate skincare routine), gon changed the topic. “where’s shin-jae?” it was rare that the chemistry teacher wasn’t hanging around tae-eul.

       tae-eul, eun-seop and shin-jae had grown up together, with gon joining their little trio when they’d been the only four born-and-raised korean students in the teaching stream of their university in the united states, and banded together as a result.

       while eun-seop and gon had both spent their fair share of time on their own due to the age gaps, tae-eul and shin-jae had pretty much spent every waking moment glued at the hip, and gon knew both of them had feelings for each other.
       it was just that they had been dancing around each other for about ten years, according to eun-seop, who’d had to deal with being their third-wheel before gon had entered the picture.
       so gon, being the wonderful friend he is, decided he was going to start trying to get them together, which hadn’t been very successful at the start since shin-jae had actually thought gon was interested in tae-eul, which he very much was not. that girl was scary.
       anyways, it hadn’t worked so far, and gon was contemplating just locking them in a supply closet or something for a few hours to see if they would talk it out.

       for some reason, tae-eul glares, and gon’s eyes immediately go to the hairband on her wrist, praying she wouldn’t start tying her hair.
       “shin-jae’s helping a first year figure out how to not burn her skin off.” the way it’s bitten out leads to gon speaking before thinking, “wait, tae-eul, are you jealous of a first year?”
       in the split second he takes to realise what he’s done, tae-eul has started pulling her hair into a ponytail, and gon scrambles out of his seat to try and make a break for it.

       before tae-eul can get to beating gon’s ass, though, shin-jae appears, still in his white lab coat but with an ice-cream in his hand. “what did gon do to make you angry again, tae-eul?”
       tae-eul freezes and glares at gon, who raises his hands in surrender, “nothing! i did nothing!” eun-seop snickers, still sitting at the table and shovelling cheap cafeteria japchae (honestly, it just tasted like rubber) into his mouth.
       shin-jae sighs and herds the duo back to the table, sitting down beside gon.

       “so, tae-eul told me you were helping out a first year? did that go well?” gon knows tae-eul won’t do anything with shin-jae around to judge her, and decides to continue playing matchmaker for the oblivious duo.
       “huh? oh, yeah, she’s actually doing great for everything except practicals, hopefully it doesn’t bring down her overall grade too much, she wants to take triple sciences in upper sec,” shin-jae mumbles absent-mindedly as tae-eul determinedly stabs her kimbap multiple times with her fork.
       gon looks up from picking through his jajangmyeon to make eye contact with eun-seop, who just wiggles his eyebrows in response.

       tae-eul seems to catch their interactions, because she abandons her now ruined kimbap and asks, “eun-seop, isn’t today yeong’s first day? he’s coming in for introduction during the afternoon assembly, right?”
       gon is successfully distracted, he’s only ever heard about eun-seop’s elusive younger brother, having never gotten the chance to meet him since he was always off doing other things when he visited eun-seop’s house during holidays.

       “eun-seop’s younger brother is going to teach here? didn’t you say he was in the navy or something?” eun-seop grimaces, setting down his chopsticks.
       “well, you know, he did study literature and he actually got a teaching license but joined the navy anyways, but he got injured last month so he’s just settling for being a teacher now.”
       gon wonders about the injury, but eun-seop is continuing, “he’s going to be a teacher-in-charge for the martial arts club with tae-eul and shin-jae though! my baby bro can really beat up people if he wants, god knows he’s tested it out on me enough times.”
       eun-seop winces as if remembering times he’d gotten beaten up by his younger brother, and gon chuckles, he’s heard about yeong’s fighting prowess from all three of them, and all of it had been praise too.

       before gon can ask more questions, though, a squeal bordering on a scream rises from the doors of the cafeteria, and suddenly a horde of high school girls are rushing there, brandishing cell phones and chattering loudly about ‘a hot guy spotted at the school gates’.
       tae-eul raises an eyebrow (gon wonders how many times she does that in one day, should he count and see if he could get an average–) and says, “don’t you think that might be yeong?”

       almost immediately, the three of them are standing, and gon scrambles to follow. they push through the crowd (most of them part before tae-eul with her hair up as well as the chemistry teacher and maths teacher, so all eun-seop has to do is scurry behind them) and gon asks why they’re rushing there.
       “yeong really hates public attention, he’s not used to it at all. besides, he really got all the good genes from my parents, goddangit. you’ll know when you see him, tae-eul calls both of you pretty boys for a reason.”
       eun-seop manages to speak up over the crowd of squealing girls, and gon nods to himself, wondering just how handsome yeong is.

       they make it to the field before a good portion of the girls from the cafeteria, but there’s already a crowd forming at the gates, with a little ring of space around a lone figure.
       tae-eul draws in a breath, and eun-seop starts running at the crowd as she yells, “MOVE ASIDE!” in the voice of a pe teacher who will not hesitate to make you run twenty laps around the field.
       as expected, the crowd parts before eun-seop, and he launches himself at the man in the middle of them, slamming into him and clinging on like a koala. gon winces as the man takes a few steps back, patting his brother on the back and supporting his weight.

       the three of them approach the brothers, and even from a distance gon can hear eun-seop wailing, “yeong-ah~ it’s okay now, hyung is hereeeeee~! were you scared? this is why i told you to message me before you came!”
       having apparently satisfied his worried older brother instincts, he continues on a tirade as he clambers down from his younger brother’s hold. “other than that, you little rascal, you really don’t think to call or visit us huh? watch out, next time you come home eun-bi’s going to think you’re a stranger!”

       gon hangs back a bit as tae-eul and shin-jae approach the duo, he still hasn’t gotten a proper glimpse of yeong and he didn’t know him as well as the others so he decides to stay back first.
       tae-eul pats the brothers’ heads, laughing as yeong ‘hmph’s, and shin-jae jokes, “eun-seop, watch out, people are gonna think yeong’s the older one with how you cling to him like a baby.”
       as they speak, they move a bit further apart, and gon finally gets a clear look at the youngest’s face.

       his eyes widen, he did look really similar to eun-seop, but there were a few differences that added up to a big difference, yeong’s eyes were sharper and he had three moles on his nose, his hair was military short, gelled up and not dyed like eun-seop’s.
       and yeah, the first thing gon thought upon looking at him was ‘damn, i guess tae-eul really wasn’t wrong in calling him a pretty boy’ because for some reason, yeong made his heart go–dare he say– dugun dugun.

       especially when he smiles at something tae-eul says, his eyes crinkling and his teeth flashing in an eye smile he’s seen many times on eun-seop, but it hits so much differently on yeong, this man five years younger than gon who knows nine martial arts and is wearing a full blown suit, albeit missing the tie.
       one of them must say something about gon, because suddenly yeong is looking up, right into gon’s eyes, and oh, that’s another difference between the brothers. yeong’s eyes are darker than eun-seop’s, bordering on black as opposed to eun-seop’s dark brown.
       gon awkwardly waves when he realises that maybe the staring has gone on for too long, and yeong smiles lightly and waves back.

       tae-eul starts herding them towards the school building, and shin-jae immediately takes up the task of telling the students to go back to class and that the ‘handsome man’ is a new teacher who would be introduced later during afternoon assembly.
       eun-seop is still clinging to yeong, holding the sleeve of his suit jacket like the big baby he is, and yeong seems slightly flustered by it, as if he hadn’t thought that his older brother would act this way in front of his students.
       eyes lingering on yeong’s red ears, gon smiles to himself unconsciously, following behind them and devising plans on how to get closer to yeong.

       of course, the first plan is getting eun-seop to introduce them formally. although he’s heard quite a few stories about yeong and he’s sure yeong has heard about him, he doesn’t know some things about him.
       like, his favourite food, favourite colour, favourite type of weather, and he’s sure he’s heard of yeong’s birthday before, but it had never occurred to him to remember it until he realised just how cute and hot yeong was. gon truly regretted his idiocy.
       anyways, the plan. when they made it back to the cafeteria, gon casually sat further down the bench than he was originally, bringing him face-to-face with yeong, who had gotten just a sandwich. gon would offer some of his food but, honestly, the jajangmyeon wasn’t looking very up for it.
       as the others settled back into eating, gon stared at eun-seop, trying to convey his thoughts to the younger boy. unfortunately, the korean teacher seemed oblivious to gon’s attempts to bore holes in his skull, continuing to munch happily at his japchae.

       not five minutes after they had sat down, gon was still staring at eun-seop, and startled when the cafeteria doors slammed open and myeong seung-ah screeched from the doorway in a stunning display of her apparent banshee traits.
       “YAH! JO YEONG, WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME YOU WERE GOING TO BE TEACHING HERE?!” the english teacher stomped her way over to the table as myeong na-ri appeared behind her, rolling her eyes as her younger sister’s antics.
       processing the fact that seung-ah, who'd wormed her way into their friend group by means of her older sister, na-ri, who was eun-seop's crush of 3 years, apparently knew yeong, gon turned back to said man only to discover yeong grimacing and–oh my god he was so precious–pouting slightly like a scolded child.

       seung-ah slammed her lunchbox down on the table and plopped herself down at the end of the table, muttering curses under her breath as she unpacked it and shoved a still steaming tupperware of kimchi fried rice in yeong’s direction.
       “tsk, even when you’re a teacher you still don’t know to eat properly! hmph, just because you had to practically starve in the navy doesn’t mean you have to now!” seung-ah turned back to her own food, shaking her head at the literature teacher.
       yeong winces at the berating, but abandons the sandwich in favour of digging in to the rice, a cute sparkle in his eyes. gon would have to ask seung-ah how to cook kimchi fried rice.

       na-ri makes it to the table with her own lunchbox, squishing in beside seung-ah, and in much the same manner, unpacking her lunchbox and shoving a tupperware of japchae at eun-seop.
       as the korean teacher stared at her with stars in his eyes, na-ri scoffed, “the japchae the cafeteria serves isn’t even nice. what are you doing eating it, huh?”
       of course, eun-seop scrambles to shove the plate aside and accept the tupperware like it was brimming with 100000₩ notes.
       gon is reminded of the need to get all his friends together with their crushes, but he sets that aside to continue trying to get closer to yeong. it was a very important task, okay?

       anyways, gon turned to observing the younger man, watching as he packed kimchi fried rice into his mouth, stuffing his cheeks like an adorable chipmunk on a mission.
       as yeong chewed hurriedly, eyes wide, gon noticed a few more differences between him and eun-seop. they had really looked incredibly similar at first sight, but if you looked closer you could tell that yeong's face was more angular compared to eun-seop's, with high cheekbones and a sharp jawline.
       internally, gon thought, is it really that he's that much more attractive than eun-seop, or is it just because it's him that i think he's incredibly hot and cute in a way i never thought of eun-seop?
       because really, gon has never ever in his life felt like this towards eun-seop, all fluffy and on cloud nine, already fantasising waking up to that small bashful smile and running his hands through yeong's hair when it wasn't gelled up.

       okay so maybe he shouldn't be thinking about all this soft domestic stuff when he's just barely met yeong, but he can't help it. for some reason, yeong reminds him of something, and gon wants to know what that is, wants to get to know this man more.
       he wonders why they didn't really meet before today, as if separated deliberately from each other, it was weird since gon had been friends with eun-seop for well over 6 years, and yet he'd never met yeong face to face before today.

       but that wasn't the important thing now, the important thing now was getting to know yeong now that he had actually met him! tuning back into the conversation, gon realised that they were talking about the faculty members, probably to get yeong better assimilated to the school.
       tae-eul was talking animatedly about jangmi, the new pe teaching assistant who was apparently sucking her soul out of her body. "he wore leopard print leggings to class yesterday! what teacher or teaching assistant wears leopard print?! and they weren't even proper sports leggings!"
       shin-jae is watching her like she's the only woman in the world, and yeah gon might really need to lock them in a supply closet sometime.

       "ah, yeah, clubs! yeong-ah, you're definitely gonna be put in the martial arts club with shin-jae hyung and tae-eul noona!" eun-seop seems so proud of his younger brother, and gon perks up at the mention of martial arts, seeing a chance for him to ask questions.
       "oh, yeong, eun-seop and the others told me you know nine martial arts?" gon is completely unprepared for the way yeong looks at him, slightly wide-eyed and so completely innocent gon wants to bundle him up in a fluffy blanket and stow him somewhere he'll have an unending supply of hot chocolate and marshmallows.
       then he smiles again and ugh gon's heart really needs to stop doing that weird squeeze thingy. "yup! i learned taekwondo from tae-eul noona's dad with shin-jae, hapkido from my dad and judo and sumo as after-school activities. we did karate, boxing and wrestling in the navy for fun, and after that i picked up wing chun and muay thai by myself!"

       gon didn't know what he expected honestly, he knew tae-eul's dad ran a dojo and that tae-eul had been learning taekwondo since she was in daipers, with shin-jae joining classes when they met, but they hadn't mentioned yeong learning with them.
       he had heard eun-seop complaining about how his father wanted him to learn hapkido too, so he guessed it was just something in the jo family, like how eun-seop had also been encouraged to join the navy as his father did.

       the conversation deviates again after that, and gon is left to bask in the new information about yeong, feeling strangely accomplished despite only learning one new thing about the younger man.
       gon wonders when else he can talk to yeong, hoping the seating during the afternoon assembly placed him right next to yeong, even though he knew that was relatively impossible since they were in different departments and the maths and literature department heads hated each other's guts.

       soon, too soon, the gon's alarm for the next class he has to teach rings, and he has to excuse himself from the table to get his things from the staffroom and head off to wrangle the rascals in class 2-c, bemoaning the loss of time spent being with yeong.
       but every cloud has a silver lining, and when gon enters the faculty staffroom he remembers that the desk next to him is the only empty one in the staffroom, which means yeong will definitely be next to him.
       koo seryeong, a history teacher who fit impeccably into her role as teacher-in-charge of the publications club, eyes him as he does a little victory dance at his table, but gon could honestly care less. he was going to sit next to yeong!

       reality hits him fast though, and he has to hurry to collect his materials and stave off his strange high-school-crush-esque feelings to rush to class 2-c mere seconds before the last bell.

       after class, he has to manoeuvre his way out of the small crowd of girls that were asking him either about 'the hot guy at the gates' or for his phone number. internally proud that yeong was garnering so much attention but also worried because eun-seop had said he didn't like attention, gon takes a minute to address the whole class.
       "okay, kids," he lays stress on the kids because they really are kids and shouldn't be thinking about their teachers like this, "that 'hot guy' you saw at the gate is a new teacher in the literature department who'll be introduced later at the assembly. don't overcrowd him or be disrespectful."
       the students' clamouring died down to an acceptable volume, and gon hurried out before they could accost him again with more ridiculous questions like 'what's his waist measurement?' i mean, how would gon know?! he also wanted to know, because yeong's waist looked absolutely tiny, but he wasn't about to ask!

       anyways, the reason he had rushed out of class was! yeong was sitting next to him, and he had no classes since it was his first day, so he would probably be there! and gon would be able to talk to him! get to know him!
       yes, gon was fully aware he was acting like a 6th grader with his crush and living up to his nickname of 'giant baby', courtesy of tae-eul.
       as he thought about that, gon came to a sudden realisation. so maybe they'd never met before, but eun-seop had probably talked about him, right?
       and eun-seop... had literally no brain-to-mouth filter, which meant... YEONG MIGHT KNOW ABOUT ALL OF HIS BAD PASTS LIKE THAT TIME HE ACTUALLY DATED KOO SERYEONG OR THAT TIME HE ACCIDENTALLY CAME INTO SCHOOL WITH A HANGER STILL IN HIS SUIT JACKET BECAUSE HE WOKE UP LATE AND WAS IN A RUSH AND–

       that's it, gon thought. i'm never going to be able to face yeong again.

       but of course, life has to mock gon one last time, and yeong turns the corner to see gon frozen in front of the door to the staffroom, with his papers slipping out of his arms and staring blankly into the distance, remembering every single time he did something stupid and eun-seop knew.
       "um, gon hyung? are you ok?" the younger man approaches hesitantly, wondering why the maths teacher was standing like a statue in front of the doors.

       gon, hearing the soft, smooth voice, half-startles out of his daze and spins around, nearly smacking yeong in the face with his pile of papers.
       "oh– shit– are you okay? did i hit you? oh my god eun-seop will kill me–" as the older man flails about as much as he can while still keeping a grip (though a shaky one) on his paper, yeong, laughs lightly and shakes his head.
       "no, no, it's fine, you didn't hit me." then he smiles up at gon and– gon– gon can only stop and stare, mindless of his papers now sliding out of his grip to flutter to the floor.
       yeong's laughter and yeong's smile– they feel so much like a sudden glimpse of the sun through clouds, like a flower growing on a concrete road, just something so wholly rare and precious– and oh damn gon needs to get a grip or go see a cardiologist because his heart has a problem.

       as gon has the revelation that he is so so gay, for one jo yeong, yeong scrambles to pick up his dropped papers, stuttering, "uh– um– gon hyung, your papers–"
       realising that yeong, sweet handsome cute yeong, is picking up his papers for him, gon immediately drops into a crouch to help him, "ah– no, it's fine, thank you, yeong-ah–" the nickname slips out, and gon hurries to amend– "oh, um, sorry, i hope you don't mind me calling you that–"
       but yeong is still smiling his small smile, and reassures him, "it's fine, i know tae-eul noona and shin-jae hyung have also been influenced by hyung into calling me casually! i hope you don't mind me calling you hyung either..."

       it's only then that gon realises that this whole time, yeong has been calling him hyung. he doesn't know why, but it just seems right, like he's been calling him that the whole time and gon has been calling yeong yeong-ah the whole time too.
       of course, gon has absolutely no objections. he wants yeong to call him hyung forever, actually.
       "yes! it's fine! great even! uh, are you going in?" reminded that he was still in front of the staffroom and yeong had probably been about to enter when he saw him, gon gestures to the door, papers now haphazardly stacked in his arms. some kids would just have to deal with wrinkled papers.

       "ah, yeah, you first," yeong smiles again, subdued as always, and lets gon go first, which he does hurriedly, holding the door open for yeong.
       gon strides over to his desk to set down the papers, shoving other random bits of clutter around to make space (he was terrible at organising things sometimes). turning back, he saw yeong hovering uncertainly at the door.
       "has no one showed you your desk yet?" yeong shifts awkwardly, now clutching his bag to his chest (gon has to hold back from cooing at the adorable sight, he was so shy!!).
       "yeah... seung-ah just finished showing me around the school, and then she had to go for a class." he scratches the back of his neck with his free hand, peering around the spacious room at the multiple cubicles and desks.

       the few people in the staffroom at the moment all look busy, so gon gleefully takes the chance to help yeong. "your desk should be this one, next to mine. there aren't any other free desks as far as i know."
       yeong brightens up visibly, walking over to put his bag down.

       "i noticed you and seung-ah seem to know each other well?" gon still hasn't forgotten his plan of getting to know yeong, and the first thing to do was to find out how the korean literature teacher knew the english teacher.
       "ah, seung-ah and i have been friends since high school. hyung, shin-jae hyung, tae-eul noona and na-ri noona were really close back then so when they went out and my parents made me tag along i would just play with seung-ah."
       gon nods slowly, he knew na-ri had known the other three since high school but had split off when they went to different universities, which is why gon had only met na-ri when they had all started teaching at this high school, but he hadn't thought about the significance of it, that seung-ah and yeong were probably close too since their older siblings were.

       "well, if you have any questions or anything, feel free to ask me!" gon flashes his best smile, the one that had gotten him the nickname of 'visual king' among the staff members and the students.
       yeong smiles back and nods, then gon is sitting down and trying to clear the mess on his table so that yeong didn't think he was a slob (yeong seemed like the kind of person who would have everything perfectly in order and gon wanted to make a good impression okay).

       once most of the random clutter is thrown away or stuffed into the drawers, gon sets about marking the kids' homework, taking advantage of the free period he has before afternoon assembly. he tries not to be overly aware of yeong beside him, but he at least knows that the younger man has his laptop out, the keys clacking softly in the near silence of the room.
       gon gets through four pieces of work before he hits the first troublemaker, song mingi. mingi often slept in class, passing out with his head on the table as soon as he started teaching.
       his friend, jeong yunho, who sat behind him, would attempt to wake him up by kicking his chair when gon approached, on the warpath with a detention slip in hand, but usually mingi was only raising his head by the time gon slapped the paper onto his table.

       mingi was in the martial arts club, one of their outstanding members, even, and gon had tried talking to shin-jae and tae-eul about it to see if he would listen to them, but apparently he saw no use in listening in any class, or doing much of the homework.
       he was a smart boy, really, and he was passing all his classes, but his involvement and detentions were piling up on him and as his class teacher, gon was worried.

       yunho himself was also a bit behind on his lessons, and gon frowned as he crossed out yet another wrong answer. he knew yunho wanted to get better, but he had told him himself that he hated reading books, and relied completely on classes, which wasn’t bad but also wouldn’t be able to help him in his own revision.
       if he recalled correctly, yunho was also in the martial arts club, so if yunho could mostly keep awake in class then it had nothing to do with their club activities, and mingi had no reason to be sleeping in class.
       mind wandering, gon wondered if mingi would listen to yeong, hoping that he would and the boy would feel more motivated to do well in his studies and get into a good university. well, gon also wanted more opportunities to talk to yeong, but that was another matter.
       after that, it's mindless marking and tutting under his breath when he discovers quite a few students who had obviously not paid attention in class when he explained how to solve one of the questions.

       twenty minutes before afternoon assembly starts, gon sighs as he scrawls another note on the margins of kim hongjoong’s work, adding a few exclamation marks for emphasis. hongjoong wasn’t a bad student per se, he'd been doing great in class before this, it was just that recently he seemed to be a bit... distracted. namely, lovestruck.

       park seonghwa was a transfer student, having had to change schools when his parents moved from the city out to the countryside for work, and hongjoong seemed to be more interested in the drama club member than gon’s classes.
       seonghwa himself was a great student, he was doing well in all his classes and everyone seemed to like him. gon wondered if he would be up to help tutor his classmates, he didn't really seem to have anyone he was close to yet, despite it being nearly halfway through the year already.
       setting that thought aside for consideration, gon returns to marking, determined to finish at least that class before afternoon assembly.

       he finishes off a smiley face on jeong wooyoung's work, and then gathers them all together to give to kang yeosang, the class president, to hand out to the class. breathing a sigh of relief, he stretches, grimacing as a bone somewhere in his back pops.
       it's four minutes to 4pm, which means he has four minutes to make himself look relatively presentable and then sprint up six flights of stairs to the hall for afternoon assembly.

       yeong is already gone, as expected since he probably had to go check in with the head teacher for literature, and gon is smoothing back his hair and straightening his tie as he grabs his phone and ID card to hurtle out of the empty staffroom and dash up the stairs.
       for the probably 20th time, gon curses the school under his breath for not having enough money to put at least one lift in the school building, with one minute left on the clock and the side door to the hall coming into view.
       knowing full well that they rarely start the opening address on time (it was always hard to wrangle things under control and have everyone seated properly), gon takes an extra minute to fold his cuffs neatly and pull his shirt down to make sure it isn't creased.
       when his chest has stopped heaving and he's suitably groomed for an appearance in front of yeong, gon pulls open the door and strides in, weaving his way through a few stragglers to take his seat in the mathematics department next to kim jonghyun, the amicable man who taught the first years and half of the third years.

       just as he nods to jonghyun and min yoongi, the other male teacher in the mathematics department, the emcees start the opening address, and gon settles in for the normal formalities.

Chapter 2: plan b, sub-clauses 1 and 2

Summary:

eun-seop: +82XXXXXXXXX
eun-seop: yeongies number ^^

           soon enough, the opening address ends, and the first order of business, the new teachers, is brought up. the three new teachers are brought up on stage beside the principal, kwon jiyoung, who starts reading off their names and positions.
          the first one is surprisingly tall, taller than yeong by a few centimeters (which was saying quite a lot since he was incredibly baby-faced and yeong was taller than the average adult male). jiyoung introduces him as yoon sanha, a music teacher and also a teacher-in-charge of the music club, and he smiles and waves.
           beside him is a stocky, muscular man who seems quite a bit shorter than sanha, and he bows lightly when jiyoung says, "kang dongho, biology teacher, teacher-in-charge of the sports club."
           last but definitely not least (gon was not leaning forward in his seat no matter what anyone said), jo yeong smiles softly and nods when introduced as "jo yeong, literature teacher, teacher-in-charge of the martial arts club."

           basking in the glow of yeong's smile (it didn't matter that he was pretty much 20 meters away and there was no literal or figurative warmth to be felt since yeong wasn't smiling at gon anyways), gon relaxed, contented, into his seat.
           the new teachers walked down the stage after that, heading to their separate departments to take their seats. gon couldn't help wistfully eyeing yeong as he sat down next to kim namjoon and smiled at him.

           after that, the rest of the assembly passed in a relatively normal blur of pretending to pay attention and playing candy crush (gon just couldn't get past this one level okay, and they never really did much in afternoon assembly anyways), and when 5pm rolled around gon was incredibly ready to pack up and leave.
           of course, after this he still had to stay back to open up and lock the dance studio for the kids, but he isn't one of the actual dance instructors, so all he has to do is sit at the side, do his own work, and help any kids with their schedules.
           relishing the thought, gon followed the crowd out of the hall, unintentionally spotting yeong heading the same way (so maybe his eyes had been following yeong around unconsciously, he was just incredibly attractive okay, don't judge, gon's pan heart was feeling things).

           yeong was probably also going to get his things before following shin-jae and tae-eul (who were both already flanking him like bodyguards to shoo away any overenthusiastic students) to the rooms set aside for the martial arts club. that meant he would have the chance to talk to him again, even if it was just to exchange greetings and hopefully steal a small smile.
           the older man purposefully lengthened his strides, closing the distance between them until he could casually sling an arm around tae-eul (there was no reason to abandon his master plan of getting tae-eul and shin-jae together just because he was trying to get together with yeong).
           as if sensing his thoughts, tae-eul turns to flash him a glare, and gon pointedly looks elsewhere, namely at yeong. the literature teacher seemed to be paying close attention to shin-jae, who's apparently explaining his duties as the teacher-in-charge of the martial arts club (gon didn't miss the way his eyes linger a moment too long on the arm he'd rested on tae-eul's shoulder, though).
           smiling smugly to himself, gon turns back to face the front, and the four of them make their way to the staffroom. halfway there, tae-eul and shin-jae break off with some random excuse (setting stuff up for yeong? paperwork? gon hadn't really been paying attention).

           and so, gon and yeong were left to walk together to the staffroom, and gon initiates plan b, sub-clause 1. he'd thought of it during the assembly, when he'd been bored and had the time to eye tae-eul, who was not-so-subtly glaring at how the students seated behind shin-jae had no qualms talking to him and the other chemistry teacher, jeon jungkook.
           the plan went like this. tae-eul and shin-jae obviously both liked each other, and having practically grown up with them sending heart-eyes to each other, he was sure yeong was tired of them dancing around each other. so, gon was going to bring it up to yeong, and they would obviously work together to get the other two in a relationship!

           okay, maybe gon had been reading a few too many romance novels, because he already had a date planned out where they would force tae-eul and shin-jae to have lunch together and spy on them at the same restaurant! this meant there would be the same romantic atmosphere, a good reason to go with him, and a good reason to 'fake-date' except gon hoped it would eventually become real dates.
           and if yeong wasn't keen on the idea of getting tae-eul and shin-jae together, there was always plan b, sub-clause 2, the exact same thing but for eun-seop and na-ri. 
           gon had barely had to deal with eun-seop's sad mopey pining for a few years and he was already tired, but yeong had been put through it for pretty much his whole life, so gon was sure he would agree to trying to get eun-seop and na-ri together.

           discreetly drying his sweaty palms on his dress pants, gon cleared his throat awkwardly and started, "so, uh, tae-eul and shin-jae snuck off and left us here, huh? ahem, seems kinda... suspicious, don't you think?" internally wincing at how dry that conversation starter had been, gon waited with bated breath for yeong's reply.
           he didn't have to wait long, but he sure was confused by yeong's answer. "oh, uh, i'm sure it's nothing to be suspicious of. you don't have to worry, haha, there's definitely nothing going on." 
           sneaking a peek at the younger, gon frowned upon seeing the slightly panicked expression on yeong's face. that was the complete opposite of the answer he had been expecting. don't tell him yeong actually had no idea of their feelings for each other?

           but the show must go on, and now that plan b seemed to have failed, gon went to plan c. "huh, really? well then, uh, do you know anything about eun-seop's love life?" yeong chokes next to him, and now gon is the one panicking because shit, maybe yeong really didn't want to know about his brother's love life because he seemed very unhappy about the topic being brought up.
           hands hovering worriedly around yeong, unsure of what to do, gon blabbers on, "not that i expect you to know anything! it's fine if you don't know anything! you can just forget anything i said!"

           yeong shook his head, the hacking coughs finally subsiding, "no, no, it's fine... i can tell you if you want, i guess?" now that was a dilemma. risk maybe setting yeong off again, or proceed with the plan in hopes of a not-really-a-date date?
           taking a deep breath, gon opted for the latter. it would at least bring him a bit closer to yeong, and he would take it if he could. "so, uh, do you know who he likes? if he has someone he likes?" he starts off slow, of course, not wanting another coughing session so fast, but yeong freezes up again, and gon is really starting to wonder if he should drop the subject entirely.
           the literature teacher flaps his hands randomly, looking anywhere but at gon, and replies in practically a whisper, so soft gon has to lean in a bit into his personal space to hear.
           "uh, well, hyung has someone he's liked for a really long time, um, one of his friends." nodding in satisfaction at having finally gotten somewhere (so yeong did know that eun-seop had a crush on na-ri!), gon smiled.

           "well, how about playing matchmaker, then? i'm sure the person eun-seop likes likes him back!" he's nearly giddy with anticipation, waiting for yeong's answer. 
           the younger seems a bit overwhelmed, though, his cheeks flushed and with his eyes downcast, and it's only when gon stops himself from counting his eyelashes that he realises just how close they are, blushing himself and standing straight immediately, hoping that yeong didn't sense anything off about it.
           "uhm, well, yeah, but uh the person he likes might not be the person you're thinking of..." at this, gon freezes. what did that mean?? eun-seop didn't like na-ri??? was the world ending????

           as the older man starts doubting his entire life, he doesn't notice yeong looking increasingly panicked, because then eun-seop himself comes bounding up the hallway, whining about how they'd left him behind at the mercy of a horde of students asking him about yeong.
           "ah, hyung..." gon looks up and sees yeong's eyes going back and forth from him and eun-seop, like he's watching a particularly important table tennis match, minus the actual playing.
           "what? what's with this awkward mood? anyways, we better get going, there's only about thirty minutes until co-curriculars start!" with that, eun-seop herds the duo to the staffroom, and gon scrutinises him on the way, wondering if he had really read eun-seop wrong, and he liked someone else.
           but yeong had said that it was one of his friends, and he'd liked them for a very long time. now, he knew eun-seop wasn't gay (the product of one of their friend group's random 2am conversations about life and relationships), so that struck out him and shin-jae. other than that, there was tae-eul, na-ri and seung-ah. 

           eun-seop definitely didn't like tae-eul either, since who the heck would be so excited and eager to set the person they liked up with someone else? so that left na-ri and seung-ah. 
           seung-ah didn't seem all that close with eun-seop, but he knew they were friends and had talked a lot... it still didn't really sit well with him though, was he really so ignorant that he'd misjudged eun-seop's feelings for na-ri?

           gon's so caught up in his thoughts, he doesn't realise they're at the staffroom already until yeong is patting his arm, asking him, "gon hyung, are you okay? you, uh, kinda spaced out back there... sorry if what i said was a bit insensitive..."
           blinking rapidly, gon replies, still dazed, "huh, what? oh, that?" the maths teacher looks around to check if eun-seop is still in the vicinity, and mumbles a "where did he go?" under his breath when the korean teacher is nowhere to be found.
           continuing to try and answer yeong's question without looking like he's been prying into eun-seop's love life for the past 6 years, he blathers, "i was just... a bit shocked is all. well, it doesn't change the fact that eun-seop deserves to be happy, and we should try to get them together!" 

           for some reason, yeong looks a bit queasy at that declaration, and yeah, shit, maybe he really isn't comfortable talking about eun-seop's love life.
           "but, uh, you don't have to if you don't want to! it's fine, haha..." the awkward chuckle trails off, and gon would very much like to dig a hole and die in it, thank you very much.

           "uh, well... i–" just as yeong seems about to reply, tae-eul comes storming in and muttering about "stupid high school girls stupid martial arts uniform stupid shin-jae" and grabs yeong with a barked, "come on, let's go! before those bitches try anything."
           yeong startles at that, brow furrowing, and gon bets he was going to scold tae-eul for cursing in school, but gon doesn't think antagonising tae-eul is a good option at this point because gon is extremely intimidated since her hair is tied up in what seems to be a painfully tight ponytail, so yeong is dragged away with barely a backward glance towards the older man.
           he's left standing there in the staffroom, blinking confusedly and still unsure about just what had transpired during the past twenty minutes, and only snaps out of his daze when the two geography teachers, jung hoseok and kim taehyung, come up to him and poke at him, whispering amongst themselves about whether he's in catatonic shock. 

           gon just barely manages to convince them not to bring him to the school nurse, and when they leave they're still murmuring amongst themselves, but at least it gave gon enough of a reason to stop standing in the middle of the room like an idiot.
           sighing, gon just decides to grab his things and head to the dance studio to open up for the kids. there were bound to be some early birds, anyways, so it wouldn't do any harm and might take his mind off of his new dilemma: just who did eun-seop like, then?

           it's half past six and gon is sighing at yoon jeonghan's cheeky answers to the homework when eun-seop pretty much bursts into the room halfway through choi san and wooyoung's practice cover of fake love. 
           gon doesn't even have to level him a glare, because park minhyuk, who absolutely hated anyone disturbing dance practice, is already staring eun-seop down despite actually being a few centimetres shorter than him.
           rolling his eyes, gon goes to save the stammering korean teacher from the physics teacher's wrath, pushing eun-seop into a bow and making him apologise before ushering him over to the little table in the corner where gon usually sat and marked papers and work.
           once they're both suitably seated (gon in the kid-sized chair and eun-seop on the floor because there was only one chair), gon raises an eyebrow at eun-seop and asks resignededly, "so what is it this time?" because it definitely wasn't the first time eun-seop had snuck out of drama club practices to bolt over to the dance studios a floor down and whine to gon about na-ri being incredibly cool and pretty.

           ugh, now gon had to rethink all of those conversations. they certainly hadn't seemed unromantic, though. life was full of confusion, it seemed.
           "why are you asking me that?! i just took a break to check my phone and found a message from yeongie saying you have a crush on me and to let you down easy!!" time stops, and gon is choking on air because what?! did yeong think he had a crush on eun-seop?! why?!? 
           "excuse me– i think maybe i heard that wrong? did you say yeong said i have a crush on you?" gon tries to maintain his image of a respectable maths teacher, because there are already some kids looking over at them after eun-seop's outburst, and he does not need any rumours now, thank you very much.

           instead of responding, eun-seop whips out his phone, types in his password (na-ri's birthday, of course), pulls up the chat, and shoves the screen in his face.
           grumbling, gon snatches the phone out of his hand and starts reading, praying that it's just a misunderstanding. as he reads, he internally coos over the amount of hearts they send each other (usually just eun-seop spamming hearts and yeong replying with one, but it was cute anyways).

           when he reaches the most recent convo (so maybe he'd scrolled up a bit to look at what they talked about usually), he feels incredibly confused. 
           it's literally just yeong sending eun-seop a message saying 'hyung i think gon hyung has a crush on you.' and not reading any of the messages eun-seop spams him with after that (most of which go along the lines of 'what?????' 'yeongie are you okay??????' 'im like 10000% positive he doesnt tho????').
           "so? what did you do?!" eun-seop looks like he's about to spring up and start shaking gon like a ragdoll, so gon hurriedly placates him, "i didn't do anything, i swear! i don't even know how he thought of this!"
           the korean teacher eyes him suspiciously, and gon throws up his hands, "ok so if you really want to know what i did, i just stupidly developed a crush on yeong for no reason and i was gonna see if i could get him to try and set you and na-ri up as an excuse to have time with him but it apparently backfired and he thought i liked you!"

           ok so maybe gon shouldn't have mentioned the part about having a crush on yeong to said man's overprotective older brother who tae-eul and shin-jae would fight for without him having to raise a pinky, but he'd panicked, okay, no one should be thinking that he liked eun-seop.
           as gon subtly shifted back and away from eun-seop in the tiny chair, eun-seop turned to him, eyes obscured by his bangs since he was looking down. "so you're saying you like my baby brother? but he thinks you like me?"
           eyes darting from the kids practicing their dance routines to minhyuk, moon bin and park jinwoo (the two other dance teachers-in-charge), gon squeezed his eyes shut and nodded, praying that shin-jae at least would have some sense of mercy on him.

           surprisingly, instead of erupting in anger (gon had seen first hand what eun-seop was willing to do to anyone who got close to yeong with... impure intentions, let's say), eun-seop just dropped his head into his hands, chuckled lowly (and that scared gon more than anything else) and let out a deep breath.
           "well then, you better clear this up with him. can't have my baby bro thinking you like me, after all." eun-seop stands up, dusts himself off, and then is out the doors like a bullet (probably to get back to the drama club as soon as possible before na-ri noticed he was gone).
           gon is left stunned and gaping like a fish (you should know that it was only because this truly shocked him that he would ever make an ugly expression like that), fumbling for a reason to avoid facing his crush head-on (he knew he would mess up, yeong somehow stripped away all his shining glamour and reduced him to a heart-eyed high school boy looking at the most perfect man in existence).

           well, as usual, gon just avoids the problem, and puts all his combined worries and panic into marking the last of the third-years' homework. kwon soonyoung had drawn tigers in all the lines for the answers, but at least he did get the answers, just saw it fit to give tigers instead.
           he has to squint to see choi seungcheol's answers (gon wonders if he already needs glasses– maybe he should have listened to tae-eul when she nagged him about using proper lighting at night, but he couldn't help it okay, it was just so much more comfortable to work in the cozy darkness), but he does get them correct.

           before he realises it, shin ryujin and hwang yeji are grinning and bowing after their impromptu performance of i need u, and the clock is hitting seven thirty, so bin is already clapping his hands and smiling brightly at the kids, urging them to finish up their stretches and then pack up to leave.
           rubbing his eyes, gon sighs and packs away the rest of the papers, he only had 3-d left to mark anyways, and he could get them done in time to have a long bath (read: lie in the water and stare at the ceiling while wondering just how the heck he was supposed to tell yeong anything).
           the kids call out their greetings and then they're filing out, tired but happy chatter filling the air. gon smiled to himself, he honestly had no idea how to dance (shin-jae would testify vehemently), but he knew they all worked hard for it and he was proud of them.
           he waves to bin, minhyuk and jinwoo, who seem to be staying back to go over the performances one last time before locking up (they weren't the only ones, a few of the students, namely lee sungho and lee taeyeob, brothers whose parents picked them up late, and kim junhyung, who took the bus back and was still usually the first one home, were also staying back to practice more).

           theres's only one more flight of stairs to the basement carpark reserved for the teachers left when gon's phone pings, and he's fishing it out of his pocket absentmindedly, giving the notification a cursory check to see what it was about, only to find that it was just a phone number and nothing else, from eun-seop.
           now, if gon knew better, he would have ignored it and lived out the rest of his days in peaceful bliss (well as peaceful as it could get with his friend group), but of course he just had to see what it was about, so, frowning, gon opened the chat and typed out a quick question mark in response.
           then he misses the last step on the stairs and just barely catches himself from faceplanting onto the concrete when he sees the next message eun-seop sends (he takes a quick glance around to make sure no one saw him embarrassing himself, and meets the eye of aaron kwak, an english teacher like seung-ah, and currently top judger of gon).

           flushing, gon speedwalks over to his car so that at least if he embarrasses himself any further, it's out of the public sight. then, safely in the driver's seat and with his beloved tinted windows to protect him, gon started frantically biting at the pitiful remains of his nails (so he had a habit of biting his nails, sue him) as he stared at the message eun-seop had sent, eyes practically boring holes onto the screen of his phone.
           it was a simple message, just two words, and yet they were two words that made gon's stomach compress and give him nausea, because it said 'yeongies number ^^' and gon was not prepared at all.

           another message arrived, and gon felt like screaming because since when had eun-seop become so mean?! he was such a good kid in university, had tae-eul possessed him?! the sentence taunted him, and gon prayed they would somehow change and not be 'tell him about the misunderstanding yourself, and you can try to win him over'.
           win him over?! yeong?! no way! gon was not about to embarrass himself in front of yeong like that, never! but he felt his resolve wavering as he looked at that simple twelve digit number and thought about yeong's little giggle that he'd heard during lunch when tae-eul had complained about not being able to win at arm-wrestling with choi jongho, a first year with incredible arm strength (the reigning champion of the school, actually).
           shaking his head to snap himself out of the yeong-induced daze he was drifting into, gon tried to take his attention off the messages, instead looking out at the carpark only to find aaron still staring at him (or, well, his car). 

           now his mind was completely out of the yeong-induced daze, and he stuffed his phone back into his pocket, hurriedly starting the car to peel out of the carpark, avoiding the english teacher's soul-piercing gaze.
           gon managed to avoid thinking about the messages and the goddamn phone number until after he's had a mindless dinner of leftovers from yesterday night (kimbap and some bulgogi with instant rice) and made his way through half of 3-d's homework, when eun-seop sends him another message, this time a vaguely threatening 'have you done it? im waiting ^^'.
           gnawing on the skin of his fingertips now (he had no more nails left, goddamnit, give a man a break, would you), gon faced a dilemma. he knew eun-seop hated any kind of being left on read or delivered, but gon just wasn't ready for any form of confrontation at the moment, okay. stress wasn't good for the baby and gon was a baby, he admitted it, tae-eul could laugh all she wanted as long as he didn't have to send any form of message to yeong.

           taking a deep breath, gon set the phone down, deciding to ignore the message, and then promptly spent half an hour staring nervously alternatively at the clock as it ticked away slowly, and at the phone it where it lay innocuously on the table.
           he knew he should take advantage of the time he had now to finish marking the third years' papers, but he can't seem to tear his eyes away from his phone, waiting for the dreaded ping and the notification to pop up on his screen, signifying his imminent death.
           squeezing his eyes shut, gon reached out a hesitant hand, pushing the phone away to the very side of the table (he might regret that later if he accidentally knocked into it and sent it falling to the ground, but the important thing was refusing to be distracted) and then focusing his gaze directly on the small stack of work he had left to do.
           letting out a soft sigh, he pulled the papers over once more, picking up his red pen and scanning over kim youngjo's neat, precise answers.

           the last paper was lee gunmin's, but he'd decided to play around and write in his name as lee seoho instead (the boy loved the name for some reason, and the only reason gon had been able to recognise the paper as his was the index number, scrawled messily out of the brackets).
           once he's finished, pointing out a small calculation error in the last question, gon methodically keeps his things and puts the marked papers to one side, deciding to pack everything later, and then stares at his phone, still on the very edge of the table.

           it's already been about forty minutes since that last message, and gon wonders if eun-seop has either decided to spare him, or is already secretly plotting his demise.
           his hand inched out towards the phone, freezing halfway and retracting before stretching out once more. rinse and repeat, until it ten minutes had passed and his phone pinged by itself. gon closed his eyes and whispered a quick prayer, then darted his hand out to grab it and peek at the notification.
           'the longer it takes the more trouble youre in ^^' a shiver crept up gon's spine at how similar eun-seop sounds to tae-eul when she's angry (minus the normally cute emoticons), and he nearly lets out a squeak. eun-seop might not seem scary, but he'd been in tae-eul and shin-jae's presence for nearly his whole life, and he'd picked up quite a few things.

           making a split second decision, gon unlocks his phone and opens the chatroom, typing out 'did you tell him though?' and sending it before he could start worrying and end up ignoring eun-seop for even longer. once the message is sent, gon drops the phone onto the table like it's red-hot and is dashing into the bedroom like the tae-eul's chasing him for eating the last piece of chicken.
           he can already feel the panic eating at him, and so he picks his most comfortable pyjamas (it didn't matter that they were starting to get a bit too tight or that they were totoro-patterned and a joke gift from se-jin, his cousin who was practically his younger sister at this point) before bolting into the bathroom to run himself a hot bath to scald away all his thoughts.

           it feels like he spends three hours just lying in the tub as the water turns from nearly boiling hot to cool, staring at the plain white ceiling and pondering his life, but when he gets out, fingers and toes slightly pruned, it's barely nine thirty.
           gon distracts himself once more by drying his hair with the hairdryer (he rarely did so, he was too lazy like that) and then, hair completely dry and feeling relatively relaxed and refreshed, wrapped nicely in the totoro pyjamas and the fluffiest blanket he had (it was an ugly nearly neon green but no one was watching him so he might as well), he stood in front of the table, eyeing the phone, which was still resting where he'd left it.
           it was nearly pitch black outside, and gon found himself watching the shadows in the room cautiously. call him a scaredy-cat but ghosts existed okay! tae-eul and shin-jae loved dragging him and eun-seop along to the theatres to watch horror movies just so that they could make fools out of themselves in public.
           shivering slightly, gon's hand hurriedly snatched up the phone before returning to the safe cocoon of the bblanket, turning and fleeing to the well-lit bedroom with the comforter (it was practically glowing in the dark) trailing behind him like a cape.

           safely on his bed (gon winced at the neon green now surrounding him, it was more glaring under the lights), gon retrieved his phone from the folds of the blanket, deciding that if he got everything over with, maybe he would at least be able to have a good night's sleep.
           opening up the chatroom, gon saw that eun-seop had read his message, and there were two new messages from him. the first one was 'me? tell him? who do you think i am, a traitor?' (gon breathed a sigh of relief, at least he hadn't managed to embarrass himself more in front of gon) but the second one struck fear in his heart, 'of course you have to tell him yourself ^^ face to face'.
           tell him?! face to face?!? gon had just met yeong a mere ten hours ago, if he was out here confessing he would never live it down. no, gon had to wait until he was at least considered as a friend by yeong, and had heard yeong call him handsome at least once (so far that count was one, and usually gon might have been offended but he was letting it slide because a man as ethereal as yeong had to have high standards).

           typing out a pleading 'pls dont make me confess ive barely known him ten hours n though i want to marry him already idt hell be excited abt it or even accepting' and then a determined (or as determined as he could attempt to be) 'ill message him abt the liking you mess now ok'.
           then he spends five minutes with his index finger hovering over the number eun-seop had sent, yeong's number, debating whether he should really go along with it and message yeong even though it was nearing ten at night. he's startled into pressing it, however, because his phone pings with a notification from eun-seop and he ends up staring at yeong's profile.

           it's adorably plain, and gon could bet that eun-seop had whined and nagged at yeong until he decided to just make an account. the username is a succinct joyeong0 and his bio just says 'korean literature teacher, former navy soldier'. the profile pic is of a sunset, and gon stifles a giggle because of course yeong was the type to take pictures like an old man and not set a picture of himself as his profile pic.
           gon spends a few moments just staring at the profile before he remembers the reason he even ended up there in the first place, and then he's swiping back to the chatroom between him and eun-seop, to see a new message saying 'you never know ^^ ill be waiting for confirmation that you sent that message'. 
           he takes a minute just pondering over just what eun-seop meant by 'you never know' because did that mean yeong would be accepting? did that mean yeong was okay with going out with gon? the maths teacher finds his head spinning with possibilities, but before he lets himself fall down that rabbit hole he sends eun-seop a thumbs up emoji and opens yeong's profile again, this time clicking on the 'send message' function.

           the new chatroom, blank and mocking, stares him down as he wonders just how he should start the conversation. 'i heard from eun-seop that you think i like him'? 'i think theres been a misunderstanding'? 'actually i dont like eun-seop, i like you'? cringing to himself, gon slumped further down onto his bed, the blinking cursor in the message bar taunting him.
           it takes all of gon's courage (if tae-eul were here you bet she'd be laughing her ass of and wheezing out "what courage?") to type out a simple 'hi yeong-ah, this is gon ^^ eun-seop told me something and i think we need to talk...' and then spend half an hour debating whether he should remove the emoji or the '...', whether it was a bit too straightforward, and pretty much everything along those lines.

           so when he peeks at the clock and sees ten thirty, he panics, wondering when yeong goes to sleep and if he would be disturbing his sleep, and sends the message. he doesn't really register it until he sees the message pop up in the previously empty chatroom, and then he realises just what he did.
           now fully panicking, gon exits the app as fast as possible and sets it on the bedside table like it's simultaneously radioactive and made of glass. then he lies in bed like a mummy, staring blankly at the ceiling with his hands crossed on his chest and his body ramrod straight, so that at least when he dies of embarrassment he won't need to bother people with rearranging his body.
           and just like that, gon falls asleep early for the first time in weeks, the panic and worry and confusion and stress just straight up knocking him out like a brick to the head.

Notes:

once again kudos and comments are appreciated! if there are any errors please let me know, i just wanted to post this as soon as possible so i didnt really proofread

and yes, eun-seop uses emoticons like the cute kid he is and gon uses emojis like the weird middle aged man he is, i dont make the rules. as for the 'yeong thought gon likes eun-seop' fiasco if you go back to chap 1 u will notice that gon does in fact stare at eun-seop for p much half the time they were having lunch so yes yeong thought that and also he thought gon was asking him abt eun-seops love life to see if he had a chance and boi was panicking

oh yeah, next chapter will be in yeong's pov, so look forward to it!!!

also if you recognised all the kpop kids so far u r my new best friend uwu

shamelessly plugs in my twt acc: yall can follow me on twt at @everly_2 uwu i post lots of random stuff but i also do updates on my ideas and wips!

Notes:

haha i did mention i would be inserting random kpop characters right... anyways i love ateez uwu

yes!! i made jo yeong eun-seop's younger brother and i detailed a few differences i always thought they would have in terms of appearance. endure lee gon's strange pining over this adorable baby ok i love jo yeong and this is how im gonna show it

so im not sure how im going to have the plot develop at this point, i have a vague idea of what i want in the end though, so hopefully i can write as fast as i did for this fic and have it up in,,, two/three weeks? sorry, i have exams soon...

well, kudos and comments always fuel my writing, so feel free to drop your thoughts down below, this is my first fic for tkem and i wanna know how yall thought about my interpretations of them!