Chapter Text
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.
Jake could still remember the day when he had his interview.
His sweaty, calloused hands trembling the more he got closer to the door that he dreaded knocking on. It was the interview that settled his future aspirations of being a role model for pups who had dreams of being doctors or famous artists; he could remember Jungwon telling him the day before that 'he's got the job in the bag'. He really doesn't, not when he's stuck behind a door where his interview would begin in five minutes.
Glancing beside him, he could see the receptionist who smiles at him kindly, as if to say, 'You've got this!'.
Jake mutters to himself warily; he doesn't got this, especially when he's scared of knocking onto a simple, basic door!
No, he thinks to himself, why should he let a door frighten him?
He's standing in front of what could be his future and if he doesn't get a move on, he could potentially lose this.
Exhaling a deep breath or two, Jake had finally decided to knock onto the door, he then waited for a few seconds until he heard a voice telling him to come in.
The scent of an excited beta immediately makes his shoulders gradually untense.
"Please, sit down!" she adversely beams as he heads to the chair she had gestured for him to sit down on.
"Wanna get this started?" She smiled. "Right, yes, sorry." Jake conceded awkwardly.
She laughed quietly. "It's alright to feel nervous, but don't worry! From what I see looking at your reports from the course you've just finished, you'll do great." The beta woman encouraged him, her scent of vanilla also comforting him.
"Firstly, I really want to make sure you're comfortable enough with dropping honorifics before we start."
Jake reassured her that he was comfortable with it, the delighted woman grinned at the boy. "Right then, you can refer to me as Iseul from now on. Are you ready?" Jake replied with a nod, he was ready for whatever question Iseul could throw at him.
Okay, maybe not every question...
The interview however went as fast as he could even blink, it ended with Iseul radiantly smiling at him whilst saying, "The pups will love you, Jake!" so he's counting that as a success.
Maybe he should listen to Jungwon's advice more often, for Jake had immediately fallen in love with his job.
At the near end of the first few months, he knew almost every pup's name, for example, Wooyoung and Yeosang alongside Yeonjun and Beomgyu were the most chaotic in the entire nursery.
The times when the classroom was filled with their high-pitched screams and giggles, (which was nearly most of the time) were the times where Jake had to drink a bit more coffee than his usual intake.
And then there was Yoongi, who was the most relaxed pup in the nursery by far.
Jake swore on his life that if the world was undergoing a natural disaster, the pup could sleep through it, and that's no joke.
But there was also Jimin and Taehyung, who were a mix of the pups combined; some days when the two were calm, they were often seen cuddling adorably with one another under the pillow fort during lunch when the pups couldn't go out because of the harsh downpours of rain. However, when they were to reach their maximum level of chaoticness, it meant Jake would have the most tiresome five hours of his life.
The two would especially act like a pair of wild, unhinged hyenas which took a significant amount of his stamina to be used in the early morning.
Even with the numerous pups in the nursery, Jake, in fact, does not have a favourite.
Okay.. he does!
But can you blame him when sweet, introverted but actually extroverted, adorable Riki is one of the pups he teaches?
For instance, the end of a random painting lesson had a flustered Riki, giving him a drawing of himself and Jake holding hands under a blossom tree with large smiles on their faces.
Jake awed in delight at the sight, he even gave the flustered pup a gigantic hug that had probably crushed the boy's lungs... oops?
Though when the boy departed hesitantly away from the classroom, Jake had only just noticed the boy's neat handwriting cramped into the corner of the paper.
Looking closely, he could see that it read: 'by Riki♡'.
The precious drawing that Riki had made proudly took its place in the comfort of Jake's classroom, where the rest of the boy's precious drawings were.
Local family businesses were flourishing quickly, they were made in order to create more spaces for work; however, with the increasing families, the nursery where Jake worked had a lack of teachers since more pups filled the overpacked classrooms, and that's exactly how Woong Park came about. Who was also now, the new proclaimed nursery teacher.
Oh, and Satan herself, which Jake grunted one Saturday night whilst being wine-drunk with both Jungwon and Sunoo.
And boy was he not wrong...
In her first week, Woong was really kind.
She'd be able to strike up a conversation with just about anyone and would often get compliments for her commitment when she'd work with the pups, and Jake would be a liar to say that she didn't do a good job with them. But it was just her sudden change of demeanour between the two of them that had put him off.
Don't get him wrong; they acknowledged each other and sometimes had an awkward chat in the staff room during break, but it had all changed over a small coffee incident that Jake didn't even see as a big deal.
It all happened when he walked towards the staff room to go and see Iseul, for she had asked him to come and see her to talk about the lessons that he had to plan for his classes, he also just had to have coffee in his hands, which he still doesn't know why he hadn't left in the safety of his classroom.
Long story short, Jake was busy scrolling through his phone which had caused him to not pay attention to where he was going.
He turned a corner, and Woong had to also inconveniently turn the exact corner. It had caused both to collide into one another and crash onto the floor.
Jake hurriedly opened his eyes and gazed onto an coffee-covered Woong who looked furious; her eyes were venomously scrunched up just like a snake's who kept its gaze on its prey; her agitated, irritated scent of cardamom was dispersed throughout the hallway.
"Are you alright Woong-ssi? Gosh.. I'm so sorry!" His hands shook while his voice cracked.
Woong ignored him and stood up by herself, leaving a gaping Jaeyun alone on the floor. His favourite '#No.1 Teacher!' mug that was gifted by one of the pups was shattered beside him.
Hesitantly getting up, he cleaned the mess and hurriedly went off to Iseul.
After the incident, Woong's personality towards him had changed.
What started with small conversations turned into ignoring the boy completely, Jake himself thought it was a bit childish of her to do so since she's acting as if he hadn't apologised at all when the first thing he did was ask if she was alright, however after ignoring Jake, it had turned 360 degrees south.
He was told by his colleagues that she had been spreading lies about him whilst also accusing him of trying to make the pups favour him over their own parents.
Jake, shocked by what she had been telling everyone, went to his employer to tell them to ask Woong about her change of heart.
The day after the request, she came into his classroom and apologised. Jake (the sweet boy he is), accepted her apology with a smile on his face. Not aware that Woong was actually just bluffing and she didn't care a pig's heart about him or their friendship.
But even with the 'apology' Jake couldn't believe she had turned against him because of a simple accident; however, moving on, he continued to see Woong as a work friend yet again.
Though it didn't stop there, for she had started again with the horrendous rumours.
Jake, not bothered anymore, had stopped giving the omega what she wanted. Though the rumours and the fakeness towards him didn't stop even with his new approach, Jake carried on with his life and his job which he cared more for than the narcissistic woman who wouldn't get a grip of herself.
"She's giving me a headache, and she keeps on blaming me for her mistakes in that stupid joint assignment that we had to do together!" Jake whined to his friends on call whilst sipping his regular glass of wine.
He heard Sunoo sigh on the other line: "Jake, you better not let that lunatic affect you!" Jungwon, who hummed in agreement, continued, "Sunoo is right, hyung! But wait, have you told anyone or like Iseul hyung about this?."
No.. Jake hasn't told Iseul about it; don't get him wrong! He knows he should, but his intuition is telling him that it would mean Woong could get fired and though he doesn't like her, he's purely doing this for the pups benefit.
It's the honest truth when there just isn't enough teachers in the department.
"No, and don't tell me that I have to." Jake nagged at the two, earning another sigh from both Jungwon and Sunoo, opting Jake to hang up due to his friends beginning to laugh at his light scolding.
Sighing frustratedly himself, he face-planted onto his sofa and continued to wallow in pity in question.
It has officially been a year since Jake became a nursery teacher.
The pups are now also a year older than they were when he joined, and they're still, fortunately, the same chaotic bunch that they were for Jake's much greater enjoyment.
Sadly, the Woong-incident still continues which ultimately crosses the limit for his best friends, they've come up with a plan one day in a coffee shop (whilst he was in the bathroom) to stop Woong from hurting their poor Jakey.
But all they had to do was wait for the perfect time which was, ironically, in two days.
"Are you sure this will work? Y'know how Jakey is about Saturdays." Jungwon grunted to Sunoo, who only nodded in reply, causing the cat-like boy to roll his eyes jokingly, "Right, okay."
A notification was heard which had made the two boys grin devilishly.
It was time! Their well-planned mission to convince Jake to go out on a Saturday night has now begun!
Right, look.
No one said it was an easy job to convince Jake, and realistically, his friends should've realised this before they actually came up with the plan.
"Come onn hyung! We haven't gone out in ages; the only time you actually go out with us is to a café for lunch!" Jungwon hollered towards Jake, who was sat on his sofa glancing between Jungwon and Sunoo cautiously.
His friends sat beside him suddenly, squishing him, but who were both encouraged to convince him of the idea of letting loose "just for one night only."
An amused Jake laughed at their antics and repeated a series of nopes, telling them that he's got a mountain's worth of work to do whilst also adding that he's got no time to get wasted.
The two omegas besides him frowned in reply to Jake's excuses.
A known fact with Jake however, is that he hates to see his two beloved friends frown; even with his maternal urge to comfort them and give in to their schemes he somehow gets through it.
Glancing between the two, he noticed their tearful eyes that they rarely ever use on him; normally they'd turn to this technique whenever Jake doesn't allow them to steal his clothes that they fortunately fight over. However it does cause the older to think of them as cute pups that would fight over who gets to get the small pouch full of chocolates, he giggled at the thought.
"It's still a nope!"
Either way, Jake still found himself in front of a club.
He was horribly wrong for actually thinking he got through the tough war of his best friends' persuadable expressions.