“Of course, it’d be better if it were someone who could actually pose a threat to me. Someone who’d make you feel like you might get stolen away.”
Ah, I see. Ryun was nodding along, genuinely absorbing the helpful advice — and then Yeonho looked at him and smiled in that dangerously loaded way before asking,
“So, what kind of per— …son is it? Hm?”
Per-son? Did he almost say something else? Yeonho kept poking at Ryun, pressing him to tell, but Ryun didn’t answer — he only smiled.
* * *
Yeonho had been dragging on his e-cigarette, puff after puff, right up until Ryun fell asleep. The moment Ryun’s breathing evened out into a steady rhythm, Yeonho came closer.
He dragged over a backless rolling stool, settled onto it, and stared down at Ryun sleeping peacefully — then let his fingers drift through Ryun’s dark, glossy, soft hair, stroking it slowly.
“I thought he was talking about me.”
He’d said it was someone who was interested but wouldn’t come closer — and for a split second, Yeonho had felt a pang of guilt, only to realize, when Ryun looked at him with that startled expression asking why he was reacting that way, that he’d been wrong.
He’d barely managed to smooth over the look of defeat on his face, and he had given Ryun the kind of answer Ryun probably wanted to hear, but…
“It’s working. The jealousy strategy.”
Yeonho clicked his tongue with a sharp tsk — that didn’t sit right with him at all.
Who the hell is it? The people around Ryun are… there’s only Ki Hwahyeon. Or maybe it’s his Homeroom Teacher, Yang Woomin?
On the occasions he’d stood by the School Nurse’s office window watching Ryun out on the field during PE, or the times he’d spotted them together somewhere in school — the obsession in that person’s eyes and actions, directed at Ryun, was no joke.
But even if Ryun did have feelings for him, those feelings seemed lighter and less sticky than romantic ones, so maybe it wasn’t him after all.
He was dying of curiosity about what kind of per— …son it was, but Ryun just kept smiling and wouldn’t say a word. Our pretty one really knows how to be heartless.
He was so strikingly beautiful that Yeonho’s eyes had naturally been drawn to him — but that was all it had been. At first.
No matter how pretty he was, there was a 9-year age gap between them. Would someone like that even see him? He was just grateful not to be called an old man.
And yet, nestled quietly in one corner of his heart, refusing to be pulled out — the feeling of hope. That stubborn, pathetic little confidence whispering: maybe Ryun has feelings for him too.
“Jin Ryun. Is there someone you want to seduce?”
Yeonho’s face drew closer to Ryun’s.
Close enough that their breath collided and scattered between them. Close enough that their lips might graze.
“Who is it, exactly.”
Jealousy was burning him black from the inside.
He’d thought Ryun was always too busy running around with that goofy grin to care about being with anyone — and now here he was, getting blindsided like this.
“I was trying to hold out until graduation….”
Legally, they were both adults, so the relationship itself wouldn’t be condemned — but a teacher-and-student dynamic was, socially speaking, a problematic thing to turn into something private.
Once Ryun graduated, they wouldn’t be considered taboo anymore. He’d thought that whatever happened would resolve itself one way or another — either they’d meet freely once that was done, or the feeling would fizzle out before it ever began. But something Ryun said to him had set his heart on fire.
Following his own advice, the thought that someone might actually steal Ryun away made him all the more desperate.
“It’s your fault. Jin Ryun.”
Yeonho’s lips pressed down onto Ryun’s — firmly, without hesitation.
While Yeonho was here alone with a sleeping Ryun, sinking deeper into the swamp of his own obsession, our Jin Ryun was:
This is insane!
Moved to tears on the inside, overcome with joy at yet another delightful detour from everyday life.
A tongue parted his lips and slipped inside.
The School Nurse’s bed creaked and shifted — and then Yeonho was climbing on top of him.
Yeonho lazily tasted the inside of Ryun’s mouth with his tongue while both hands roamed over Ryun’s chest, kneading slowly, and sleeping Ryun let out a small nasal sound and squirmed.
“Mmh… hng….”
“Ryun. If you don’t want this, wake up now.”
Yeonho had seen Ryun fall into a dead sleep in the School Nurse’s office plenty of times, so he knew full well that once Ryun was out, he was out — and yet he said it anyway.
Sure enough, Ryun didn’t wake up. He didn’t push Yeonho away either.
It was essentially nonsense spoken to someone completely unconscious — but Ryun’s lack of refusal put him in a good mood, and Yeonho pressed small kisses all over Ryun’s face.
“Who is it. What kind of bastard is he, hm?”
“Hng… mmh….”
“He hasn’t had you kissing him like this and letting him touch you too, has he?”
Even the thought of it seemed to sour Yeonho’s mood — his voice dropped to a roughness that you’d never normally hear from him.
Oh, but he has. Everything except penetration.
Sleeping Ryun laughed heartily on the inside.
He’d come to Yeonho asking for advice on how to finally get to that — and ended up hooking a completely unexpected catch in the wrong place entirely.
No matter how broadly Ryun laughed, it was all happening on the inside, so Yeonho had no idea. Yeonho, helplessly endeared by Ryun, touched him with careful reverence — like handling something delicate and finely crafted — and kissed him all over.
Then, as Yeonho slowly began undoing the buttons of Ryun’s shirt, about to taste the soft, sensitive skin underneath — the School Nurse’s office door suddenly swung open.
“Teacher.”
Yeonho jolted. He scrambled off the bed and swept aside the curtain drawn around it, stepping out — and the student who’d come in looking around for him went oh and stared at him.
Wrong room, maybe… The student thought, though as always — just more so today — Yeonho looked like he was in a spectacularly foul mood. Yeonho fixed the student with a sharp glare and asked,
“What.”
“I— I, um, my stomach is a little—”
The look on Yeonho’s face said if you don’t need anything, get out — so the student scrambled to say their stomach hurt. Yeonho shot back: antacid? The student nodded, and Yeonho quickly grabbed one off the shelf. The student took it and was about to draw some water from the water dispenser —
“Business done? Then get out!”
“Eeek.”
Before they could even fill the cup, the bark rang through the room and the student fled in a panic.
The second the door closed, Yeonho locked it. Just as he was about to turn back to Ryun —
— Ding, dong, dang, dong —
The class bell rang out today like it was trying to be heard from the afterlife. It was loud enough to rouse even Sleeping Beauty without a prince’s kiss.
Yeonho stood there, letting out a hollow laugh as the bell rang on — and Ryun stirred at the sound, sitting up with a groggy grumble.
“Mhh… slept well….”
“…Goddammit.”
Yeonho was the type to swear freely anytime, anywhere, without a care — so even when he suddenly dropped a curse, Ryun didn’t react much.
“You look like you’re in a bad mood, teacher.”
Ryun spoke to him with a bright, clear face. Yeonho looked at him and gave a grumpy nod.
Ryun knew perfectly well why he was in a bad mood, but played dumb with a cheeky innocence and asked anyway.
“Why are you in a bad mood?”
“Because I hate the class bell.”
His voice was so full of indignant grievance that Ryun laughed.
Ryun asked with a sunny grin — what do you mean, you don’t even have class — and sulky-faced Yeonho told him that if he was up, he should hurry up and get out, shoving him off.
After the harsh words, he snuck a glance at Ryun, half-worried he might have actually hurt his feelings — but Ryun was smiling away without a care, and the sight of it put Yeonho at ease enough to whip his head back around.
Ryun snickered and, acting as if he hadn’t noticed Yeonho pushing him away, leaned in close — and sniffed.
“You don’t smell anymore. E-cigarettes really don’t smell like regular cigarettes, huh.”
None of that acrid, stale tobacco smell — Ryun kept sniffing curiously, fascinated, and Yeonho replied with a grumble.
“You said you hated the smell.”
At that, Ryun smiled with his eyes crinkling. Yeonho had smoked regular cigarettes before — not e-cigarettes.
