Teacher's Pet | MarkHyuck

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"There's just no way."

Haechan sighed for the nth time that day. "I'm telling you guys the truth." Renjun bit his lower lip, thinking. "For real?" The latter asked. "For real." Haechan noded his head and Jaemin almost choked, which caused Jeno to hand him a glass of water and to start patting his back. "There, there," he muttered.

Once the younger regained his breath, he did not spare one second. "That psycho is your neighbour???" "Sadly, yeah," Haechan offered his friends an awkward smile. "Turns out he moved in the first day of class." The boy then silently pondered for a few seconds before crying out loud, "I'm the most unlucky person in the world!"

"Wait a minute," everyone's attention now shifted to the youngests sitting in the same table. "Who are we talking about?" Asked Chenle, an equally confused Jisung sitting besides him.

"Our new English teacher," Renjun answered. Jeno then took it in his own hands to say what everyone was thinking, "you two are lucky you don't have him." Jisung's eyes widened, his mouth forming an O. "So your teacher is your neighbour? Wow, that's..." The youngest started, hesitating as he tried to find at least a nice way to say it. "Horrible," finished Chenle. 

"I know, I know." Haechan ran a hand through his hair, breathing in and out deeply. "Ugh, it's so embarrassing, I won't even be able to look at him in the face from now on."

"But... how did you find out?" Renjun asked, not wanting to dig into the topic but curiosity getting the best of him. Everyone on the table stared at Haechan, wanting to know how the whole thing went down. He puffed, now pretty aware that there was no way they'll let him go without telling it, in more detail than he would have liked.

And so he recalled how the meeting went, trying to describe it to his friends.

...

"Hold on, you two know each other?"

Haechan's dad looked between his son and the stranger, wondering how they could possibly know each other's names, and why did his son address him so formally, his wife wondering the exact same things.

Haechan's eyes found Mark's, and he swore, for just a millisecond, that Mark smiled. But it was not a friendly or pleasant smile, it was strange, like a triumphal smirk. The boy blinked and it was gone, so he found himself wondering if his parents had seen it too, or even if he himself had just imagined it.

The boy quickly avoided Mr. Lee's eyes again. Haechan knew that by now everyone was staring at him, but he felt incapable of uttering a single word, so Mark spoke instead. "Mr. and Mrs. Lee, I am Haechan's new English teacher, Mark Lee."

Haechan cringed, whishing nothing else but to disappear from there. And his teacher, much to the younger's dismay, shook his hand with his mom and dad, offering them his very best charming smile. Mark believed first impressions to be important. 

...If he could not gain the boy's trust for now, he would first win his parents over.

Haechan was aware that there was something off in this whole situation, but he was not even capable of imagining the machinations going around in his teacher's head. Wary, with his gaze down, he peeked at the interlocked hands of his dad and Mr. Lee as they shook hands. That couldn't mean anything good, not at all.

And Mark was euphoric, or even that was an understatement.

The object of his thoughts and emotions was now his neighbour, so his mind flooded with the array of opportunities that this meant for the two of them. He had to bite the inside of his cheek to prevent the wide smile that threatened to form on his lips. Mark had never been as close to Haechan as he was now, so yeah, he was more than glad. 

Determined to use this whole situation to his advantage, Mr. Lee was going to behave as the best and most dedicated, passionate and caring teacher whenever Haechan's parents were around. 

With them as witnesses, he crouched down right in front of his favourite student so that they were in perfect eye-level, Haechan almost jumping in surprise. He reciprocated eye contact even though he wanted to look anywhere else, but Mark's presence was simply too overwhelming.

Haechan was so caught up that he didn't notice that his teacher had started to bring up his hand towards him until he felt it on his hair. "Well, well... if this isn't one of my most opinionated students," he joked, patting Haechan's head almost too affectionately, which failed to be noticed by his parents.

"That's just great!" Haechan's mom expressed when Mr. Lee was getting back up. "I'm so thankful that our son has such an attentive teacher," she paused, "and neighbour." She finally added, chuckling. Mark also laughed slightly, after all, mimicking someone's gestures is a good way to make them feel comfortable around you.

"Tell us, Mr. Lee, how is our son doing in class? Is he giving you a lot of trouble?" Haechan's dad mentioned casually, which made his son freeze. He looked at Mark desperately, silently begging him to not mention anything about having had to stay after class. Mr. Lee pretended not to notice, but of course he did.

"Not really," he answered. "He's a very sharp boy, I don't think we'll have any problem." Having heard that, his mom jumped into the conversation, "good to hear!" She spoke, squeezing her son's shoulder, and Mark had to physically restrain himself; he did not like it one bit when Haechan was touched by someone that was not him, no matter who it was. 

Remembering how Renjun is also touchy with him sometimes, Mark felt himself enraged. He gritted his teeth, his fists clenching painfully. But he was not going to act on those emotions, not right now with Haechan's parents present. Instead, Mark nodded his head and played his next move. 

"Would you like to come over one day and have dinner?"

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A/N:

1000 words... longest chapter yet, I think I'll just keep them between 500 and 1000 words in total

Anyways, vote and comment if you enjoyed!!!

Felices fiestas <3