Jongwoon was having a terrible day at work. He woke up with a horrible migraine, so he was almost late for class. His students were just particularly rowdy that day too and there was even a fight that he had to break up between two of his favourite students while they were waiting for their mother to pick them up. He was so disappointed! And the worst part was that they were actually fighting over him! Would you believe that?! One moment he was having a peaceful heart-to-heart talk with Hajun, and the next moment he was witnessing a full-on cat fight between Hajun and his twin brother, Yejun. 

“Stop talking to Jongwoon hyung!”

“Stupid Yejun! Wait for your turn!” 

“You are stupid! You were taking too long with hyung!”

“Hyung is mine!”

“Noooooooo! Hyung is going to marry me!”

“He’s marrying me!”

Seriously, what? 

Marriage?!?! But by the time Jongwoon understood what was going on, he didn’t even have time to be bewildered! He quickly between the two brothers and pulled them apart, amidst all the small flying fists and clumsy kicks. 

“Yejun ah! Hajun ah! Stop, stop, stop!” 

“Hyung~! He started it first!” Both boys pointed accusingly at each other as they hugged each one of Jongwoon’s legs and pouted while looking up at him with wide, innocent eyes. On a normal day, Jongwoon would have melted and started cooing at the cute, chubby faces, but not today!

“Hyung is very disappointed with the two of you, boys. Did hyung ever teach you guys to use violence when you’re unhappy?” 

Hajun complained indignantly, “But hyung, Yejun was jealous of me! He started it first!”

The other boy bristled, “Yah! You were being selfish! We said that we would share—”

Sensing that this was going nowhere, Jongwoon realised that he had to change his tactic: playing the damsel in distress in the face of jealous, stubborn boys. The brunette faked a loud sob and crouched down, burying his face in his hands. Immediately, the twins quietened down and watched in alarm as their precious, beloved teacher ‘cried’. 

“Yejun ah… Hajun ah… Am I a bad teacher? Jongwoon hyung must be a lousy teacher, that’s why Yejun and Hajun didn’t listen to teacher, right?”

“Nooooooooooo!!!”

“Hyung is the best teacher!” 

“Yes! We love Teacher Jongwoon soooo much~!”

“We listen to Jongwoon hyung all the time! We will be the best boys!”

This is too easy, Jongwoon thought and tried to hide his laughter behind his palms. Why was he so good at teacher-ing?

Slowly, Jongwoon looked up from his hands while he tried his best to make his eyes as teary as possible. He even managed to fake a hiccup. Best teacher ever. “Really? Then why won’t Yejun and Hajun listen to me when I said to stop fighting?”

As expected, the twins started shaking their heads furiously and threw themselves at Jongwoon, latching onto each of his shoulders. 

“Sorry, hyung! We will listen to you! Please don’t cry anymore!”

“Yes, hyung! We will stop fighting! Hyung is the best teacher!” 

TOO EASY. Jongwoon cheered in his mind happily. “Then, can the two of you pinky promise me that you will not fight again?” 

“Pinky promise!” The boys exclaimed in unison and stuck out their pinkies to seal the agreement. Another day, another slay for Teacher Jongwoon, as usual. Jongwoon shooed the twins away to play themselves and made his way to his phone. Hajun and Yejun were the only ones left in school, which was usually not the case as their mother would always be one of the first few parent to arrive at the centre to pick the twins up. Worried that something had happened at home for the family, he decided to give the twins’ mother a call. 

However, before he could click on the phone number in his contact list, there was loud screaming coming from the twins. 

“Uncle!!!” 

“Uncle Kyu!!!”

It was as if everything happened in slow motion. Jongwoon looked up from his phone in disbelief and shock as a tall, familiar figure entered the classroom and bent down to pick up Hajun and Yejun who sprinted into his arms. 

No ing way… Jongwoon could feel his mind kicking into overdrive as he contemplated all possible options to run away. Maybe if he jumped out of the window from the third level, he would only get a broken leg, which he definitely didn’t mind, compared to meeting— 

“Sorry, teacher! I was caught in traffic so— oh?” 

Jongwoon cursed his legs for not working fast enough to run to the windows before Cho ing Kyuhyun managed to recognise him. And why did Kyuhyun have to look so good in that black three-piece suit?! His hair was slicked up so his blemishless forehead was showing too?! Why did the pants wrap around his thick thighs so tightly? Were those eyes twinkling? Was that a silver ring on Kyuhyun’s index finger?!  Jongwoon wears rings himself all the time but he doesn’t remember them making him look as hot as they did on Kyuhyun… And that luring smirk on his stupid face!! Was it just him or did Cho Kyuhyun get more handsome since their first and last meeting?!? 

Jongwoon was just so sure that all deities above had a personal vendetta against him. He was so going to blush and stutter nervously as if he was a shy school girl around her crush (as if?), and he had a reputation of a cool teacher to maintain around school!

Before he knew it, Jongwoon suddenly had Kyuhyun standing right in front of him with a cheeky smile so wide that it looked like Kyuhyun’s cheeks would hurt from it. The teacher jumped and came to his senses.

“H-hi, sir! A-are you here to p-pick up Hajun and Yejun?” 

“Oh y-yes. Hi t-teacher, I’m here to p-pick up Hajun and Yejun.” Kyuhyun smiled gleefully, his eyes lit up with mirth at the sight of a blushing Jongwoon as he anticipated the reaction from the older man at his teasing. 

Kyuhyun certainly did not expect to meet Jongwoon again so soon after their last meeting. For the past week, the younger had tried to reach out to Jongwoon via different means — through text, through calls, through the website, and even through emails (email?!) — but to no avail. Kyuhyun had been moping around so much for the past few days that he even overheard some of his subordinates playing rock-paper-scissors to decide who would be the one to pass him the documents he needed for the meeting. But could you blame him?! He genuinely thought Jongwoon had an equally good time with him that night (think about the kiss!), that when Jongwoon became uncontactable, Kyuhyun was completely blindsided. In fact, the reason why he was late to pick up his nephews was because he was so busy trying to find Jongwoon’s details online that he missed the message from his sister to pick the twins up from school on behalf of her. 

So imagine his joy when he arrived at the classroom in a frenzy, only to be greeted by the subject of his fixation and lust for the past week. Yeah, Kyuhyun mentally apologised to Jongwoon for the downright insufferable person that he was about to be in the presence of the other man. It was as if his prayers had been answered… Kyuhyun believed in destiny and destiny believed in Kyuhyun indeed. 

“S-shut up! So y-you’re Hajun and Yejun’s uncle?”

“Yes, and I assume you’re their teacher? Hmm? Teacher Jongwoon hyung?” 

Jongwoon choked on the air at the low, silky voice saying his name. Ahhh, how do you act around the person that you’ve been trying so hard to ignore and forget about for the past week!?!

“Y-yes! I’m their teacher… Hajun and Yejun are lovely students… Haaa…...” Jongwoon began to slowly back away from Kyuhyun and inched towards his desk. He packed up his belongings one by one, almost as if Kyuhyun wouldn’t notice him doing that if he did it quietly enough. 

Kyuhyun could only watch in amusement as the other man cleared the table like a little jumpy kitten that was trying to hide from its predator. “Are you going to run away from me again, Kim Jongwoon?” 

At that, Jongwoon immediately froze. Damn it! He was so close to escaping (was he really?). “What? No. What do you mean? Escape from who? I don’t ever escape.” 

“Teacher Jongwoon has been running away from Uncle Kyu?” A small voice chimed in and Jongwoon realised that it was coming from Yejun. Oh god, he totally forgot about the boys who were standing beside Kyuhyun holding each of his hands.

“Jongwoon hyung, have you been playing ‘catch’ with Uncle Kyu?” Hajun added curiously. Why did the twins look mildly upset…? 

Jongwoon scrambled to get down on his knees so that he was eye-levelled with the boys and urgently tried to explain himself. “No, no, no, no. I absolutely have not been playing with your Uncle Kyu, Hajun-ah, Yejun-ah. Your uncle is talking nonsense. Don't listen to him, okay?"

“Your teacher is lying, my babies. Teacher Jongwoon had been playing with Uncle Kyu since last week actually! But Teacher Jongwoon is really good at running away, you see. I have been trying to catch him for a week! Isn’t he a big meanie for trying to run away from your beloved uncle?” Kyuhyun wished he was able to put on his meanest glare at Jongwoon to show that he was actually upset about Jongwoon’s avoidance, but he just couldn’t seem to bring himself to it. Oh right, he forgot he was a simp. 

Jongwoon could hear the hurt from the younger’s voice and he found his heart clenching tightly. You can't blame him from getting cold feet at the idea of having something going on between him and someone as attractive and out-of-his-league as Kyuhyun! He swallowed down his guilt and was ready to make up some lame excuse when he made the mistake of looking up at Kyuhyun, when he was still on his knees, his face right in front of Kyuhyun’s crotch, his eyes wide and his lips unconsciously pushed out into a slight pout. 

It was only when the glint in Kyuhyun’s eyes change from being upset to hungry, did Jongwoon realised what he looked like to Kyuhyun in that moment. Um ?

The two men held each other’s gaze for what felt like eons, and the trance was only broken when two small bodies suddenly threw themselves at Jongwoon, which almost sent him tumbling backwards. 

“Uncle Kyu! You need to go away!”

“That’s right, Uncle Kyu! Teacher Jongwoon is ours!”

“Yeah! Jongwoon hyung is going to marry me!” 

“No, stupid Yejun! Teacher is marrying me!”

Kyuhyun looked bewildered. 

“Yah! Can’t you brats share him with me?!”

“No! You need to queue up!”

“Yeah! Queue up, Uncle Kyu! Booo!”

It was only then did Jongwoon realised, belatedly — Oh… so that’s why the twins were looking annoyed just now. He also had to fight back his laughter at how astonished and offended Kyuhyun looked as he argued with his nephews back and forth. Now, Jongwoon was sandwiched between not just two jealous and insufferable kids, but three of them! The brunette shook his head in defeat. If he could, he would like to jump out of the window right now, thank you very much. 

- 

After a lot of grumbling and punches from Jongwoon, Kyuhyun finally managed to convince and haul the older to his car together with his two nephews whom he discovered to be his love rivals. Did it run in their bloodline to have the same taste in people? Kyuhyun genuinely pondered as he tried hard to tune out the two brats trying to separate Kyuhyun’s hand from Jongwoon’s. 

The drive back to his noona’s house was equally torturous. The twins would interrupt him at every chance whenever he tried to talk to Jongwoon. 

“Jongwoon hyung, do you—”

“Teacher Jongwoon! Look at those puppies on the streets!” 

“Jongwoon-ah, why did—”

“Teacher Jongwoon! What are we doing for class tomorrow? I’m so excited to learn from you!”

“Hyung, shall we go for—”

“Teacher Jongwoon, your skin looks so soft! Can I poke your cheeks?”

By the time Kyuhyun had parked the car, his hair was already all messed up with the number of times he was pulling at it in annoyance. He couldn’t even curse in front of the little brats or his noona would pull his ears! Jongwoon watched in amusement as the other man took deep breaths to calm himself down. Who would have thought that the dominating and capable CEO Cho would be at the mercy of two four years old? 

Kyuhyun was the one to get out of the car first. But before he could turn to the car’s backdoors to retrieve the twins, Jongwoon had also scampered out of the vehicle and appeared in front of the younger in a split second. 

The older giggled at the visible frustration on Kyuhyun’s face and reached up to leave a quick and soft kiss on the younger’s cheek. When he pulled back, Kyuhyun could only stare in elated surprise, his previous exasperation evaporated. What's with Kim Jongwoon and his random, cute kisses?!!

Jongwoon chuckled at the other's awestruck look. “That was a consolation for you. Stop looking so grumpy over two little kids. You’re so childish!” 

“Excuse me? They were all over you just now and they—”

“Take me out for dinner later, will you?”

Kyuhyun’s mind came to a halt instantly. No way! Jongwoon? Proposing for a dinner? Instead of running away? Kyuhyun loved destiny! 

The younger wrapped an arm around the older's waist and pulled the slim body towards himself so that they were pressed comfortably against each other, with Kyuhyun's other hand resting on Jongwoon's nape warmly. Both of Jongwoon's hands were trapped between their bodies, resting on Kyuhyun's chest. “You said it, Kim Jongwoon. I’m going to take you out on the best dinner, okay? Just you wait. You’ll never run away from me after today’s date.” 

“I didn’t say it was a date!” 

“I don’t care. It wasn’t a question. I’m telling you that it’s a date. In fact, it’s our second date.” 

“Hmm, then shouldn’t I charge you for my time?” 

“The only thing you will charge is me with the crime of stealing your heart, baby.” 

Just as Jongwoon was about to land a punch on the younger, the two heard a banging noise. 

“Uncle Kyuhyun! You better not be stealing Teacher Jongwoon from us again!” Hajun shouted, his voice muffled through the car, but the words were still easily understood. 

Right, the nephews. His love rivals. Curse whoever that said to keep your friends close but your enemies closer.