Teacher's Pet | MarkHyuck

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"Junnie, I don't understand what you're talking abou--"

"Yes! Yes, you do!" Renjun brusquely interrupted Haechan before he could continue with his obvious lie. Such an aggressive tone surprised the both of them, and Renjun already regretted using it with his best friend. "So please," he cleared his throat, "don't lie to me. Not like this," Renjun finished, almost whispering by now. 

Haechan felt a lump forming on his throat. He took a brief moment to take in his savior's appearance, something he hadn't had the chance to do before. Underneath the upset expression Renjun wore on his face, Haechan noticed how tired he looked and how messy his hair was, which signalled he had probably been sleeping. Plus, Renjun's disheveled clothes gave the impression that, after receiving his best friend's texts, he had put them on in a rush and ran to him.

This only made Haechan feel worse about himself.

He stopped walking, Renjun also stopping just a step later upon realizing that Haechan was no longer by his side. "I'm so sorry," the latter began as Renjun listened carefully, "I should have told you from the beginning." Haechan glanced at the older, who shook his head right before placing his hands on his best friend's shoulders, hesitantly.

"No, no. You're the one who deserves an apology, I shouldn't have yelled at you, sorry about that." Haechan accepted the apology without a doubt, "it's fine," but continued to avoid looking at Renjun's eyes, too ashamed of the situation they were in. The older immediately retracted his hands and finally placed them in his pockets, not knowing what else to do.

After what felt like an entire awkward and flustered minute due to none of them saying anything, Renjun broke the silence. "You know, I got really anxious when I read your messages, and then when I arrive, I see Mr. Lee doing... whatever that was! Just tell me, tell me what's happening, I need to know you're okay." He pleaded Haechan, who would never be able to resist him even if he tried.

The boy sighed and started to think about every single interaction he ever shared with Mr. Lee, not sure were to start. "Uh, well, I think the first time I noted something weird was when he made me stay after class." Renjun nodded his head in a silent agreement; he remembered exactly how unsettled Mr. Lee made them feel on that occasion, and he couldn't begin to imagine how their teacher had acted when he had his best friend all alone.

"And what was he doing here?" Renjun did not like where this was going, not one bit, but he had to know. "He arrived in the middle of my shift and waited outside after we had closed," Haechan explained, which caused the older to frown in confusion. "That's so strange, how did he even know you worked here?" The younger bit his lower lip, "I've got no idea, but now he knows both where I live and where I go to work."

Haechan continued to describe everything he remembered about Mr. Lee and him. He explained as detailedly as he could how their teacher had acted around him, and it made Renjun's skin crawl in disgust. It was then when, as if reviving all of those moments, Haechan could feel every emotion that he'd tried so hard to conceive during the past month start to catch up on him, all at once, breaking him down. 

"I just can't," he breathed out shakily, trying not to sob. "I can't understand why this is happening, what does he want from me?" Haechan was scared, he didn't know why, but he felt that he had to be, that in the near future, this issue was going to escalate, and not for the better.

Before he realized, Renjun had wrapped his arms around him. "It's alright, everything will be alright." He hugged him tightly until the younger had stopped whimpering, and only a couple of minutes later, when Haechan could breathe normally again that Renjun let go. He then used the sleeves of his own hoodie to dry his best friend's tears. Haechan, ashamed, looked at the ground until he heard the older's voice.

"You've gone through this alone, but now I'm here for you, never forget it, yeah? I promise that I won't let anything bad happen to you." He proudly announced after their eyes finally met, so full of confidence that Haechan was just so tempted to believe him. Of course he trusted Renjun completely, but deep down the two knew it was impossible to constantly keep an adult away from someone else. Regardless, Haechan foolishly decided that they'd be alright.

"Let's go home before we end up catching a cold," Renjun suggested softly. "Will you s-stay the night? I don't want to be alone." The older smiled at Haechan's request, "of course." And they finally made their way towards Haechan's house.

"But please, promise me something," the younger spoke halfway to his house, after a now comfortable silence, "that you won't tell the others." Renjun frowned in confusion, "what do you mean?" "About what happened today and what I told you, don't mention anything to Jeno, Jaemin, Chenle nor Jisung."

Renjun opened his mouth as if to say something, but nothing came out, and Haechan continued. "I wouldn't want to make them worry." Renjun was skeptical, but nonetheless he agreed with his best friend's request, though a bit ambiguously. "If this is what you want..." The younger nodded, "great, thank you."

They did not need to exchange any more phrases afterwards. Haechan was drained after the day's events, and Renjun felt overwhelmed processing all the new information. Both hated themselves in that moment, the younger for not being able to put a stop to the situation, whereas the older for not having known about it earlier. And ten minutes later, the pair were already in front of Haechan's house.

They had been so deep in thought that none of them noticed they were being observed.

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A/N:

I wonder who would that be, such a mysterious mystery...

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