Great Teacher Lee Jinki [2/?] Confession
Student teaching, Jinki realized, was not going to be just a walk in the park. Though the program itself was packaged under the illusive disguise of a pass or fail course, there were still multiple requirements that it entailed, one of those being constant surveillance by his assigned teacher. Mrs. Yeom would fill out what was called a “Performance Evaluation” every day following his lesson, which would be sent back to his university. Though this normally wouldn’t be something to worry about, Jinki was currently facing certain barriers that kept him from performing at tip top shape.
Taemin reminded Jinki a lot of quicksand. The common knowledge about the harder the struggle, the harder the escape rang through his head as he failed to ward off the pretty boy’s quite successful attempts to fuck with his head (or rather the bottom half of his body).
For the rest of the week, Taemin continued to seduce him in subtle but obvious ways and Jinki continued to flail around awkwardly in only too obvious ways (the algebra teacher who sat in the corner only seemed to look up to catch the tail end of these events, i.e. when Jinki was making a fool of himself). He wasn’t usually this clumsy, he tried to reassure himself, if only it weren’t for a certain lips-licking, thigh squeezing, manipulative little minx. It was many a day that Jinki was faced with the awkwardness of trying to hide a massive bulge in the front of his pants for the rest of the class period, most often than not concealed by his desk but occasionally needing the aid of a strategically placed book.
It was after Taemin brushed the inside of his thigh slowly while leaning in close under the guise of asking a question and Jinki consequently knocked over a mug of stale coffee all over his desk, that the school bell rang and ended any more such activities for the day. Taemin waggled his fingers at Jinki gaily and flounced out the classroom door, his perfect hair swaying in the nonexistent breeze.
“Nice, butterfingers,” Jinki muttered to himself angrily as he threw away the last sopping wet worksheet (Taemin had effectively kept the whole class from having homework that day) from the mess on his desk.
He turned to leave, shooting the teacher what he hoped appeared as a charming and properly chagrined grin. All he got in return was a disapproving shake of the head. From the corner of his eye he thought he saw her write a big “X” on her clipboard.
The first thing Jonghyun did when Jinki opened the door to his apartment was take a glance at the interior and laugh. It wasn’t just any laugh that was over in a matter of seconds but rather a more offensive type of laughter that continued for just a moment too long and broke out again after a brief silence in the form of a series of low chuckles. Jinki sighed and waited until Jonghyun’s laughter died down. As he wiped the faint tears at the corners of his eyes, Jonghyun turned to him again with a clap of his back and asked, “Bro, do you need a loan?” Unlike himself, Jonghyun scored a pretty lucrative position as an accountant at a large company soon after he graduated. Nonetheless, Jinki declined the offer.
Jonghyun had come over to help him paint his new apartment and overall spruce up the place a little (or a lot). All it involved was a quick paint job, some general clean up, and maybe a call to the exterminator… Jinki would have asked the landlord to do his job and make the apartment a bit more habitable before he moved in but when he tried to broach the subject all he got was a raised eyebrow and a slam of the door in his face.
“Jesus,” Jonghyun ran a hand through his spiky locks and let out a low whistle upon closer inspection of the discolored and tattered walls of Jinki’s new home for the next how many so years. Jinki grinned a little sheepishly and shrugged. “I think some fresh paint will actually do a lot for the place.” Jonghyun rolled his eyes at the comment and helped Jinki tear open the newly bought cans of white paint.
Admittedly, his apartment wasn’t in the best part of town, if the paint peeling off the walls and the dubious looking neighbors were any indication (on his first night moving in, he had been offered a very inappropriate proposal from the broad-shouldered, scantily clad neighbor down the hallway). But it was the best he could afford, considering his meager income at the moment. Plus, he wanted to try living off campus for his last semester of college. He didn’t even bother showing his apartment to his parents just reassuring his worrying mother over the phone that the place was “quite nice really” and commenting on the short commute to school (ten minutes by bus).
Jinki appreciated the help from Jonghyun who might be an ass but wasn’t completely unreliable. He supposed in all actuality, he never gave the guy enough credit. He was his best friend after all, ever since their mothers had basically forced them onto each other back in kindergarten. And minus some dick moves every now and then, Jonghyun was an all around good guy.
Case in point Jinki stifled a laugh at the sight of Jonghyun splashing white paint from the bucket onto the walls from between his legs while moaning loudly, a pretty accurate portrayal of a guy having a massive orgasm. Laughing at his own joke and satisfied that Jinki had noticed too, Jonghyun got back to work spreading the paint around with the paint roller quickly if a little haphazardly.
When the yellowed and peeling walls were sufficiently covered, the two stood back to admire their steady work for the past hour. “I’m not gonna lie, we did a shitty job but it looks better than it was before.” Jonghyun cracked a grin and Jinki merely shrugged in return. It was enough for him. Unlike his thoughts about studies, Jinki had never been particularly anal about aesthetics.
Feeling unnecessarily proud of themselves, the two sat down on the dirty floor and cracked open Jonghyun’s housewarming present-a six pack of beer (the good stuff, we’re too old for that natty shit now, Jonghyun argued).
“So how’s the teaching job?”
Jinki thought back to all the events that had occurred the past week and shuddered just a little. “It’s not everything I imagined…and plus I’m not a real teacher yet.”
“It can’t be so bad if it provided you with this charming place,” Jonghyun joked, stretching his arm out towards the expanse of the one-room apartment.
“One of the perks, I guess,” Jinki played along good-naturedly. But once again he sighed as his mind naturally turned to the one thing, or rather person that had been bothering him ever since he had started his new job. “I do have some larger problems at work though.”
“Yeah?”
Jinki quickly filled Jonghyun in on the details of the student that was constantly coming on to him, Taemin. As his description got longer, Jinki was relieved to see that Jonghyun’s expression was crumpling in what appeared as disgust. Gaining more confidence, Jinki went on to tell Jonghyun about the inappropriate treatment he had suffered at the hands of his delinquent pupil.
“He wants me,” Jinki blurted out finally, in a hoarse voice that reflected his tortured state at the moment. Once he was done, Jonghyun just stared at him wordlessly.
“So what you’re saying is that you’re being molested by a young, incredibly hot, willing boy on a daily basis?”
Jinki nodded.
“And it’s making you uncomfortable and you don’t know what to do about it?”
Jinki nodded even more eagerly, his bangs flopping as his head bobbed up and down.
Jonghyun’s eyes narrowed at the sight of his best friend whom he had once respected and loved. “I want to punch you so hard.” What he settled for was reaching over and grabbing his dumbfounded friend’s shoulders in a strong grip and shaking him several times. “Are you out of your fucking mind??”
Jinki could only stare at him with wide eyes and blink rapidly.
“Dude, get some.”
“Get what?”
“Ass.” Jonghyun deadpanned, an incredulous look on his face. “You really don’t go out much, do you…” he added as an afterthought.
Jinki’s eyes widened in horror as Jonghyun’s meaning sunk in. But ignorant to Jinki’s growing discomfort, Jonghyun started ranting at him. “I have yet to fulfill my office sex fantasy after all these months and here you are with a fucking schoolgirl, or schoolboy I guess, basically dry humping your leg the first week into your job! Jinki, I am angry as fuck right now.” Jonghyun’s flaring nostrils demonstrated his point, as if his overuse of a four letter word didn’t.
Jinki opened his mouth to protest but was silenced again by the scowl on his best friend’s face. “And the only thing that’ll make me feel better is if you fuck the kid.”
Jinki couldn’t quite get his mind around the absurdity of what Jonghyun was saying but then again, when was his best friend ever the voice of reason? This was the boy that got him in the few scrapes in life that marred his otherwise very clean record. He could go on and on all he wanted about the fact that Taemin was underage and his student and most importantly how he could jeopardize all he had worked for up until this point but he knew Jonghyun wouldn’t listen.
Jonghyun crumpled up his empty can of beer and threw it on the floor. “I’m saying this for you, dude. It’s unhealthy to be a virgin at your age. You could lose the ability, y’know?”
Jonghyun, Jinki decided, was an idiot.
Working as a server at Hana Yori was a side job Jinki had kept up all throughout college as a means of earning his allowance and to lessen his college debts. Though he wasn’t the best employee-his years of experience didn’t keep him from breaking the occasional plate now and then-he made up for his clumsiness with his enthusiasm and the restaurant owner seemed to keep him out of built-up affection more than anything.
Though Hana Yori was officially known as a “Japanese restaurant”, it was really more of a bar that just happened to serve Japanese food. Most of the people that came to Hana Yori came for the decent-priced drinks, dim lighting, and the lively atmosphere (the owner had excellent taste in music), with maybe a roll of sushi on the side. That’s why it was many a day that Jinki found himself doing tasks that weren’t necessarily in the job description of “server” such as hailing taxis for severely drunken customers or trying to stop (most often failing than not) the fights that broke out from time to time. It was a tiring job but the owner always paid the servers a little extra taking everything into account.
That day was a day like any other as Jinki rushed around to fill up drinks and take orders as the evening crowd was just starting to fill up the small restaurant. The place was a hotspot for the college crowd and Jinki weakly waved to a group of people who called out his name obnoxiously from the corner. Ignoring the shouts of “Jinkeyyyy”, he hustled over to where the manager crooked a finger at him from behind the bar counter. “Jinki, can you go help out our two customers that just arrived? They look rather young.” Jinki looked over to where the manager jerked his head and he could see the backs of two boys, a tall boy and a little blonde, take a seat in one of the darkened corners. “Right.” Jinki hurried over to the two boys, wishing he had time to switch out his apron that was covered with an ungainly brown splotch down the front from a thing of soy sauce he had spilled earlier.
As he got closer to the table, Jinki felt a sinking feeling in his stomach as the top of the blonde’s head kept getting more and more familiar. For a brief panicked second, Jinki thought about running away again but looked back to see his manager’s steady gaze on him. Taemin and his friend were leaning in close over the table their noses almost touching, the taller boy saying something to him in a deep voice that made Taemin giggle with a hand over his mouth. As Jinki approached the table, it was Taemin who recognized him first and greeted him with a little wave. For some reason, Jinki felt even more self conscious of his soy sauce stain now, his cheeks burning a little as he faced the two boys.
The tall boy, handsome with short brown locks, looked up at him uninterestedly, perhaps thinking he was there to take their order. Jinki had the faint feeling he had seen the boy around school somewhere but couldn’t be sure. Unlike Taemin, he looked like he would be the jock type, judging by his tan skin, built physique, and clean-cut baseball tee.
“Anyeonghaseyo! This is Minho. Minho say hi.” Minho did so obediently. Jinki frowned.
“Taemin, can I talk to you for a sec?” Before the boy could protest, Jinki grabbed his arm firmly, inwardly marveling at how thin it was, and dragged him off to the side. From the corner of his eye, he thought he could see Minho glaring at him.
Jink kept walking with Taemin, away from all the bustle of tables and customers until they reached the little nook located between the entrance to the bathrooms and the back storage room. He regretted his decision a little, becoming aware of the considerably darkened lighting and relative quiet (it was many a time that Jinki had come back here to break up couples who wanted to enjoy a “private moment”).
“Me and Minho are just friends,” Taemin whispered to him with a smile before Jinki could even say anything. It sure as hell doesn’t look like that, Jinki wanted to refute but then reminded himself it really wasn’t any of his business. “Taemin, you aren’t supposed to be here,” he blurted out instead.
Taemin looked up at him, all wide eyes and batting eyelashes, the perfect façade of an innocent student who did nothing wrong. Jinki found himself staring down at his face for just a second too long before he snapped out of it. Before he knew it, Taemin was fishing out a small card out of the pocket of his skintight jeans and holding it up to his face. “Lee Minkyu. 23 years old,” Jinki read off slowly. He looked down at Taemin’s face again, the likeness was uncanny. “Taemin, we both know that this is fake.”
Taemin shrugged, “Yeah, but you’re going to let me get away with it.” Jinki didn’t really know what to say to that. He settled for a compromise. “Okay fine, I’ll let it go this once. But could you please stop messing with me in class?” Jinki knew his tone was just bordering on desperate but he really needed to start bringing his A-game to teaching and that clearly wouldn’t happen with Taemin fondling him all the time.
“No.”
“Why??”
“Because it’s fun.” Cool fingers lightly wrapped around the edges of his apron, tugging at them to straighten out the wrinkles that had formed from several hours of work. Jinki once again cursed the large stain but Taemin didn’t seem to mind, only stopping to giggle a little. And those same fingers were then moving up, slipping around Jinki’s neck that was starting to sweat just a little at the touch. Hands clasped around Jinki’s neck, Taemin leaned in closer on tippy toes, his tone slipping down a notch, breath tickling Jinki’s ear from the proximity. “And…I like you.”
Jinki was left speechless and even if he wanted to say something he lost his chance as he watched the pretty boy turn around and walk away from him again. He felt a certain hollowness with the abrupt absence that he couldn’t explain. His eyes followed Taemin as he fluttered back to his table, sliding effortlessly back into conversation with that Minho kid as if nothing had happened. Though it was embarrassing to admit, this was the first time anyone had confessed to him (that one time in elementary school didn’t count). And Jinki wasn’t quite sure how to handle it, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides to get rid of the jarring, tingly feeling that felt a lot like anticipation. Anticipation for what? Jinki wondered to himself, heading back to where his manager was waiting.
“They’re clear,” Jinki said with a smile, ignoring the guilt that was tugging at the back of his head and despairing of the fact that Taemin always seemed to get his way.
A/N yayy for quick updates! enjoy and please do comment!