Teacher's Pet | MarkHyuck

• 16 •

•

Haechan had to make an actual effort to not let his mouth hung open.

He felt physically unable to take his eyes off Mr. Lee, as if he was trying to figure out whether he was actually present there or only an object of his imagination. Sungchan, who had been cleaning a table near the door, welcomed the teacher into the café and walked him towards a table to take his order.

After the initial shock was over, Haechan immediately stopped what he had been doing. He dropped the knife he was using to cut a slice of a cake, forgetting about it completely to make a run for it. Hurrying inside their staff room, he closed the door as quickly as he could, leaning his back against it trying to hide.

Why here? Why here? Why here?

The boy was unable to put his thoughts in order, the previous words echoing inside his mind. He couldn't understand how out of all the cafeterias that are around, his teacher just had to come to the one he works at. Then, as if an imaginary lightbulb above his head had turned on, Haechan muttered the perfect and most reasonable solution to the situation, "I'm going to quit."

"Like right now? Twenty minutes before your break?" He almost jumped in surprise at the sound of his boss' voice. She was seated at the other side of the room while working on some paperwork, her curious eyes now lifted to Haechan, trying to find whether or not he was speaking seriously. The boy stood up properly and cleared his throat, "sorry Irene, I didn't mean to say that out loud."

Irene nodded her head, still unsure. "Is something bothering you?" "No, no," Haechan shook his head quickly, trying to avoid making her suspicious, "I just wanted to... sit down for a minute, yeah, I just wanted to sit down for a minute." He muttered in a rush, having looked around the room to try to come up with any valid excuse for his boss as to why he was there, his words stumbling on each other.

Nevertheless, Irene remained a bit worried by Haechan's behavior, but decided to let him be. "Alright then, let me know if you need anything." She finished, going back to the paperwork she was previously dealing with. Given that permission, the boy sat down, grateful for the sofa in the staff only room. 

Some moments passed by and Haechan did not want to move an inch. He looked at the side to see the door leading back to where he came from, unable to contain the sigh that escaped from his lips. As much as the boy wanted to wait until Mr. Lee was gone, he realized that he just couldn't stay there and hide forever.

Haechan took a few seconds to gather some much needed courage to leave the safety of his boss' company. After pretending to be on the phone for a while, the boy finally stood up. He forced himself to direct his body towards the door that would lead him to the same room as his teacher, that being the last place in the world he wanted to be in. "I'm going back," he let his boss know. "Okay, see you," Irene replied shortly, too focused on work to look away from what she was doing.

Haechan opened the door just enough to fit his body, walking outside and closing it behind him as silently as possible. He tried to make himself small, and when he finally reached behind the counter, he crouched down, only his head peeking just enough for him to be able to see where his teacher sat. The boy could see him from the side, seated at the furthest corner of the cafeteria, right next to the window. He noticed Sungchan scribbling Mr. Lee's orders on his notebook, the man barely acknowledging his waiter's presence.

But then Haechan had barely enough time to hide his head when he caught Mr. Lee about to look his way. This whole situation was a unpleasant déjà vu of the very first time he saw him through the window from inside his room, the last day before school started.

As the boy pondered over what to do next, he saw Shotaro just coming out of the storage room, stopping on his tracks when finding Haechan acting weird. "So... what's up with you?" He asked, eyeing his fidgety friend. "Well," the latter cleared his throat. "That man, the new client, he's my English teacher-- wait, don't look!" He whisper-yelled upon seeing Shotaro about to look for him in a very, very obvious way.

Afraid that Mr. Lee might catch the two of them staring, Haechan reached up to pull Shotaro down with him, making the boy almost yell in surprise. Now both were face-to-face, hiding by crouching down behind the counter. "Really?" Shotaro deadpanned, Haechan trying to look apologetic. "Why are we here?" Asked the former, "Not sure, it seemed comfortable." He tried to joke, effectively lighting up the mood.

Their temporary peace was disrupted by the sound of Sungchan clearing his throat to get the pair's attention. "I'm not going to ask what you're doing down there." "Great, cause I don't know either," a confused Shotaro replied. "Is he gone? That man, who you greeted before." Haechan asked, full of hope. "Not yet, I just wrote down his order," Sungchan sighed, trying to find the right words to continue. 

"But this is where it gets weird, uhm... He said he wanted you to bring him his food."

•

A/N:

Hello! Sorry again for making you wait. Everything that could have happened to take my time from writing, happened xD

I'm also in the middle of exams, so I can't really promise anything, but I'll try my best!

I know that this chapter was kind of a filler, but I just want to give their story a normal pace and to keep the chapters in between 500 and 1000 words, hope you understand :)

Also, thoughts on the book cover? I LOVE that photoshoot of curly-haired Haechan with the flowers, but I feel like this new cover fits better with the story

Last but not least, thank you for reading! Votes and comments are very much appreciated <3