Secret Stars and Summer Wishes, for latinaeinstein [1/5]
Title: Secret Stars and Summer Wishes
Pairings: Sehun/Suho
Rating: PG-13
Length: 36,655
Summary: Sehun has been looking forward to spending time with his nephew Tao, but his summer break plans did not include volunteering alongside the (cute) kindergarten teacher, Joonmyun.
Warning: language, [Spoiler (click to open)]side Chanyeol/Kyungsoo, side Lu Han/Sunyoung, kid!Tao, kid!Kris, kid!Infinite, +a few other Kpop singers and SM Town people sprinkled on for good measure
Author's note: I haven’t taught preschool for ages so please forgive my inaccuracies. I had fun writing this for you, I hope you enjoy :) Have a song, have a gif, have some love <3 (and thank you to H for the beta!)
“Taozi! Are you awake yet, dude! We have to leave, in like--” Sehun fights with his T-shirt, struggling to force his head through the neck hole. The collar gets caught on his ear and thoroughly ruffles his hair. Annoying. Precisely the reason he prefers v-necks, but since he’s going to meet his nephew’s teacher today he figured he should go with something more conservative than a spandex scoop top. ‘Conservative’ meaning a faded band Tee that Sehun stole from Yixing somewhere along the way, possibly on their choir tour.
“Hyung?” a thin voice calls from the kitchen, and Sehun stumbles out of his bedroom to find Tao kneeling at the kitchen table on one of the two mismatched folding chairs Sehun owns. His hair is brushed and clumsily parted with a comb but his face is a mess, all dribbled with milk.
“When did you wake up?” Sehun rubs his eyes, blindly feeling across the counter for the cap to the milk bottle.
“When the sun comes up, it’s morning,” Tao says. He drains the last bits of frosted flakes from his bowl and offers Sehun a milky smile.
“I hate mornings,” Sehun mumbles back, and hands him a paper towel. The napkin dispenser is empty again and the pile of rags in Sehun’s sink smell a little mildewy. And not that Sehun actually knows anything about children, but he’s guessing he shouldn’t use a lysol wipe on Tao’s face. Probably not a good idea.
Tao scrubs the towel over his face in wide circles, probably smearing the milk more than anything, but Sehun throws the used paper into his overflowing trash and scoops his nephew up from the chair.
“Come on, kiddo. Let’s go get you dressed. I don’t want to be late on the first day.”
Tao settles on his hip, hanging on with his knees. His skinny arms wrap around Sehun’s neck and don’t let go til they make it to the guest bedroom. He kneels to pull socks and shorts out of his Ponyo by the Sea rolling suitcase, which lies unzipped and spread open under the window. Tao’s parents dropped him off last night on their way to the airport and they haven’t had time to unpack everything yet.
Sehun pulls on jeans and brushes his teeth while Tao gets dressed. They both slip into sandals before the short walk to the metro station. The neighborhood streets aren’t crowded at this hour, just after the first rush, but a neighbor lady watering her windowboxes smiles as they pass.
Sehun has to stoop a bit to let Tao’s fingers curl into his, but he doesn’t mind the feeling of the soft palm cushioned against his. Tao is humming softly to himself, a tune that’s not familiar to Sehun. Maybe from some kiddie TV show, or maybe he’s just making it up.
“Hyung.” The fingers in Sehun’s grasp tighten as they approach the shadow of the subway entrance.
“What’s wrong?” Sehun gives his hand a gentle tug.
“Dark,” Tao whines. “It looks dark down there, hyung.”
“We have to take the metro,” Sehun insists, “the bus doesn’t go by your school.”
“Hyung,” Tao whimpers again, hiding his face in Sehun’s pant leg, “I don’t wanna.”
Sehun eyes the entrance, the way the dirty tile stairs spill down into the darkness where one of the overhead lights has burned out. It does look a bit creepy, on second thought, and Tao is used to his mom driving him everywhere after all.
“Hey, shh,” Sehun whispers, stooping to catch Tao up in his arms. “Is this your first time to ride the subway?”
Tao nods, ruffling his eyelashes as he rubs his eyes with the side of his fist.
“Wow, then you get to try something special today!” Sehun pats his back, already moving towards the stairs but making sure that Tao is facing the open air at the top. “The subway is just like a normal train, but it’s inside a special cave.”
“Cave? Like...for dragons?” Tao’s lashes flutter as he blinks, the corners of his mouth jerking with a tense hiccup, and Sehun realizes how close to tears he is.
“For princesses!” Sehun says, the first thing he can think of. “There’s a princess dragon who lives in this cave. But she’s very shy, she never comes out if there are people around.”
Tao leans away, narrowing his eyelids as Sehun strides up to the gate. “How do you know, if she never comes out.”
“Um, well, because,” Sehun huffs, stepping aside to dig through his wallet because he forgot to pull out his extra metro pass. He leans against the cool tile wall as he fights through the wads of receipts and cafe punch cards cluttering his wallet. Ahah, T-money card. Success. “Because you can hear her, sometimes, if you listen carefully.”
“Really?” Tao’s eyes widen, and Sehun smiles because he can almost see the gears turning in his mind as he considers the explanation. “Do you think...hyung, can I hear, too?”
“I think so, if we’re very quiet.” Sehun gently loosens Tao’s hold on him and lowers him to the ground. “Here, this is our secret entrance pass, so don’t lose it, ok?”
“Ok,” Tao nods til his dark hair shakes into his eyes. “Ok, hyung!”
Sehun lets him go through the stile first, swiping his card and waiting til they hear the “magic beep” before walking through. Tao walks down the stairs to the platform by himself, hand still tight in Sehun’s, but he’s no longer tense with fear.
“Can I hear it now, hyung? When?” Tao tugs at the tangle of hemp bracelets on Sehun’s wrist, another part of his wardrobe adopted under Yixing’s influence. “When?”
“Soon,” Sehun says, stroking his hair. “Just be patient.” According to his phone app, they only have to wait three minutes. They should still make it on time. Tao’s kindergarten is on the same line as Sehun’s station, so no transfers.
Sehun has a bunch of unread messages on kkt, probably Youtube links from Yixing, but those can wait. He pockets his phone and yawns, stretching out the kinks in his back. The concrete beneath their sandals begins to buzz and before long the tunnel extending from both ends of the platform begins to rumble with the sound of the incoming train.
"Can you hear it?" Sehun bends to whisper. Tao nods, his fist tightening in the hem of Sehun's shirt. The rumble heightens into a roar, the brakes grating on the steel tracks as the train eases to a stop.
Tao looks up at Sehun, his eyes wide, when the noise suddenly ceases and the doors to the train cars in front of them hiss open, the pressure gauges releasing. "Why?"
Sehun tugs Tao into the train and settles him on the end seat of the nearest bench. He stands beside him just to the side of the door so he can keep hold of Tao's hand. There aren't many other passengers this far out on line 1, just some housewives with rolling shopping bags parked in front of them, and a cluster of teenage girls buttoned into wrinkled summer uniforms who are falling asleep on each other at the end of the carriage.
"Hyung, why?" Tao whispers a bit louder, ducking his head in embarrassment when an elderly man in a fishing vest turns to stare at him.
"Why what?" Sehun grabs onto the metal bar on the wall for balance as the train jerks into motion.
"The dragon noise...stopped. Why did she stop?" Tao is frowning, but he looks more contemplative than frightened or upset. Sehun lets go of the bar to sift his fingers into Tao's soft hair for reassurance, anyway.
"I told you, silly. The princess doesn't like people. So when the passengers got off the train she crawled away to hide."
"Oh." Tao nods, pressing his lips together, and is silent for the rest of the trip. Not that he's noisy in general (unless a gnat happens to land on his sandal, in which case the whole neighborhood bears witness to his ear splitting screams of vocalized terror). But even when he entertains himself with legos or his barbies, crosslegged on the floor at their feet while Sehun watches the soccer game sprawled on the sofa beside Lu Han, Tao is usually humming to himself and narrating his playtime in an adorable mishmash of Mandarin and Korean.
Sehun's never seen him this quiet, but then again he hasn't seen much of Tao out in public. Only at restaurants, when his mouth is understandably busy with food. It's interesting to see him in another environment, the way Tao curls his chin into his left shoulder when the lady across from them waves hello, and then a beat later straightens up to offer a shy smile in return.
"Ah, your baby is so cute!" the lady murmurs to Sehun when they exit the train. She winks at Tao and leans forward in her seat to pat Sehun’s hip with her bony hand.
Sehun is so flustered he nearly walks into a vending machine, but Tao yanks him out of the way just in time, instinctively pulling Sehun towards the escalator along with the flow of traffic.
The sun is brighter than when they entered the station, enough to make Sehun squint when they step off the escalator and climb the stairs to the sidewalk. The temperature has risen along with the sun and the heat makes Sehun's shirt stick to his back between his shoulders by the time they walk the short distance to Tao's kindergarten.
The school is set back from the road, surrounded by a tall picket fence and shaded by several trees scattered across the front lawn. The building itself is weathered brick, much the same as the others along the street, but the colorful playground equipment out front assures Sehun that he must have found the right place.
Tao confirms this by picking up his pace as they approach the gate, dragging Sehun along by the hand when he doesn't walk fast enough. "Come on!" he pants, his sandals kicking up loose gravel from the pavement. "Almost there, hyung!" He pulls Sehun right up the steps and in the front door.
Sehun dodges around a cluster of women on their way out. They all look to be around thirty and stare at Sehun as he ducks around a potted plant and a styrofoam model of the solar system that's suspended from the ceiling on a tangled length of fishing line. Sehun bows his head in greeting as he trips past them around the corner, more on instinct than out of a premeditated attempt at courtesy.
He knows they're almost late, with about forty seconds left to locate Tao's classroom before classes start, but Sehun wishes Tao would slow down. He's still trying to remember which classroom his sister said to drop Tao off at, was it 302, or 203, or--?
"Teacher!" Tao yells, dropping Sehun's hand to launch himself at the figure leaning in the nearest doorway. "Joon-noon Teacher!"
"Whoa there!" The person in the doorway, a dude who doesn't look much older than Sehun, sways under Tao's weight latched onto his legs before he catches his balance with a hand on the door knob. "Hey, Zitao! Good morning."
His voice is warm, almost fond in tone, Sehun thinks, as the dude bends to ruffle Tao's hair. But he pronounced Tao's name all wrong, tongue clumsy on the vowels and his tone lilting in the wrong directions. Sehun narrows his gaze in disapproval as he steps forward.
"Oh, hello, I'm Zitao's teacher." He straightens, patting Tao's shoulder before giving Sehun a polite bow.
"I'm Park Sehun," Sehun says, rocking back on his heels. "Sunyoung's my sister."
"Sunyoung?" The teacher blinks in confusion, his lips sliding apart as Sehun studies him in appraisal. "Oh! You mean Park-ssi!" His face wrinkles up into a large smile. "Sorry, I've only met her briefly at a parent-teacher conference once. Lu usually drops Zitao off to school."
Sehun lifts an eyebrow at the casual referral to his brother-in-law, but gives a slow nod as the teacher backs into the classroom.
"I'm Joonmyun, by the way. It's nice to meet Zitao's uncle!"
"Oh, uh, likewise." Sehun shoves his hands deeper into his pockets to keep himself from shuffling his feet on the slick tile of the hallway. His nervous habit is to fidget, one that Yixing is always getting on him about. He says it messes up their aesthetic on stage.
"Would you like a tour of the classroom? We still have a few minutes of free play before story time." Joonmyun is still smiling at Sehun, wide enough to show off the slightest hint of pink gums around the edges of his straight teeth.
Too wide to be just polite, Sehun thinks as he darts his tongue between his lips again to moisten them. They're unusually dry today, maybe from the stress of social anxiety, his brain rationalizes dumbly as he tries to comes up with a grown-up and confident sounding response. Something an adult capable of caring for a kindergartner would say.
"Uh," Sehun says as he watches Tao put away his sandals. Tao slides them into the shoe cubby just inside the door and slips into a pair of purple canvas indoor shoes he pulls from his backpack. "Thanks, but uh, I have to get going. I have a meeting later. But maybe next time a tour would be nice, thank you. Sir," he adds, his face heating in an uncontrollable blush when Tao's teacher tips back his head with a sharp laugh.
His laughter is almost as loud as Yixing's is in his most annoying and self satisfied state, which bewilders Sehun and also kind of gets under his skin. He’s not even sure why he tacked on the 'sir' at the end, it just sort of slipped out, probably because the teacher is so suave and polite with his effortless manners. He’s like a magazine shoot of a young professional in his tweed slacks and silk tie. His starched shirt is buttoned up all the way even though it's summer.
"You can just call me Joonmyun," he says, holding up a hand when Sehun opens his mouth to stammer out a reply or some kind of explanation. "It's fine, all the parents do."
Sehun nods, lips pressed together, because he honestly doesn't know what he could say that wouldn't be further incriminating. Joonmyun's cheeks are tinged with a bright pink that doesn't look professional at all, and his shirt is hitched up and bunching at the waist from bending backwards in laughter, but he holds his posture with a very mature, very self-assured square to his shoulders. Sehun's choir director would approve.
"And of course, It would be my pleasure to offer you a tour another time. Will you be responsible for Zitao's pick up today, too?"
"Oh, yeah," Sehun nods, finally finding his voice back from the depths of his throat. "For the next two weeks, actually. Noon--I mean, um, Tao's parents are on a trip so he's staying with me." Sehun frowns, sliding his thumbs along the seams inside his pockets. "I thought my sister had notified the school, or like, something."
"Oh, well, likely she did but, I've just returned from a leave of absence myself, sorry." Joonmyun's smile tightens into an expression that's more apologetic, but no less friendly. "I haven't quite finished checking the backlog of notices on the school messenger."
"Ah, it's no big," Sehun says, his tongue tripping over his teeth in his hurry to get to the reassurance out of his mouth. It's not like he even knows this guy, but Joonmyun seems like a nice enough teacher and he didn't mean to make the dude feel bad.
"Thank you," Joonmyun says as he tucks the short end of his tie back under the wider tail. The tie has tiny yellow ducks all over the gold striped silk, Sehun notices. It's a weird pattern, but somehow it complements the browns and goldenrod highlights in the weave of his slacks.
"Um, sorry, but I better go. Now." Sehun gives Joonmyun a tight smile before craning his head around the doorpost to locate Tao in the classroom. "Bye bye, Taozi! See you in the afternoon, ok?" He waves to Tao, who is kneeling with another small boy next to a Noah’s ark assortment of stuffed animals.
"'Kay, hyung!" Tao hardly looks up from dressing his barbie as he bids Sehun goodbye. Joonmyun waves to him though, still smiling over his shoulder as he eases the door closed.
Sehun jogs to the end of the hallway before he slows to a respectable pace, still feeling off kilter. He shakes his head to clear the feeling as he walks down the front steps into the sun. It's probably just because he's not used to this new routine yet, but he'll get the hang of it soon. By tomorrow hopefully. Because it’s not that he cares what his nephew's kindergarten teacher thinks of him, but Park Sehun is cooler than a mumbling, flustered teenager. Usually.
+++ +++ +++
By the time Sehun makes it back on the subway, across campus, and up three flights of stairs to the band room, his shirt is sticking to a wide section of his back under the the weight of his backpack. He's out of breath and more than a little resentful he hadn't had time for some of Tao's frosted flakes before they left the house.
He missed his first transfer by thirty seconds, which ended up tacking an extra half an hour onto his commute time. Yixing will give him a hard time for showing up late, but it's not like their composition and performance club does anything exciting during summer break. About the most useful thing they've done since the spring term ended was clean out their choir director's sheet music archive and refile the folders after dusting them all. Such a thrill, that project was.
Sehun waits in the hall a moment to catch his breath and gives a lazy knock before pushing open the sound proofed door.
Yixing swivels on his rolling chair to greet him with a smile. "You're later than usual." He removes one of the pencils he has tucked behind his ears and circles something on the score, the papers propped on the backrest of the chair he's straddling.
"Sorry." Sehun kicks the door shut with his shoe. "I had an errand to run." He drops his backpack under a trolley of folded music stands as he collapses into the nearest chair. "Where is everybody?"
Yixing blinks at him, tipping his head to the right as he plucks at the wavy lock of hair curling at his temple. "It's Special Events week, Sehunnie. Community service edition. Did you forget?"
"Special--? Oh shit! Seriously?" Sehun grinds his knuckles into the cramp forming in his thigh, gritting his teeth in annoyance. The soccer team is on summer break right now, and it's been a few weeks since he had to exert himself as much as he did carrying Tao up and down all those stairs in the metro station.
"Yup. Seriously." Yixing slides around on the seat of his chair and tips back against the rest, hands folded behind his head. "And since you're late, you get last choice of volunteer projects."
Sehun mouths something rude in reply to the smug look on Yixing's face, but the club president's smirk just widens.
"Ah ah ah, Sehunnie. I'm afraid you'll have to watch your language where you're headed this week." Yixing hefts himself from his chair with a lazy groan, stretching as he crosses the room. He stops in front of the concert grand backed against the far wall. "Let's see...your assignment is..."
Sehun grabs the handles of his backpack and follows, craning over Yixing's shoulder as he shuffles through a pile of papers strewn across the closed lid of the piano.
"Ahah!" Yixing hands him a stack of papers with a crooked staple poking out in the corner. "Here, you have to sign the consent form."
"Is it anything...risky?" Sehun accepts the pencil Yixing flips him but hesitates to sign his name on anything before he knows exactly where he'll be volunteering.
"Nope. It's some daycare or something, I think. Jinki-hyung went there last summer and they had him sterilize baby toys or something. Doesn't sound difficult at all."
It sounds boring, Sehun wants to retort, but he scribbles his name on the last page anyway. Even cleaning up a nursery can't be worse than the service project he got stuck with last year: scrubbing graffiti off the inside of bathroom stalls in the local parks. Talk about miserable. When Sehun was a little shit in middle school, he and his friends used crayons and gel pens to leave their rebellious mark on public property, but Sehun broke multiple fingernails trying to remove sharpie doodles with nothing but window cleaner and a magic eraser.
"What's your volunteer project?" Sehun tosses the consent form onto the piano and shoves it at Yixing.
"I'm just supervising things. I'm the sub if someone gets sick, or something." Yixing stacks the papers together, though it doesn't result in straightening them much. "I can give you a ride today if you want, since you'll be arriving late. I'm headed that direction anyway."
"Fine, yeah, sure." Sehun shoulders his backpack again with a sigh. He's grateful he doesn't have to walk all the way there in this heat, wherever they're headed, but he's secretly hoping all of the club members come down with a summer cold before the week's out. It's only fair that Yixing should have to suffer from volunteer week like the rest of them. At least just a little.
The drive isn't long. Sehun texts Kyungsoo the whole way, bombarding him with pouty emojis until Kyungsoo is annoyed to text back.
<---srsly, not my fault I was late. and Im an upperclassmin now so xing hyung shouldve reserved a better project for me >.>
--->did you tell him you'd be running late?
<---no but thats not the point.
--->maybe he did save you one of the better ones. why don't you just see how it goes today before flipping out.
<---fine, Sehun responds, hitting send with an angry grunt that has Yixing flashing him an amused look in the rearview mirror. He's annoyed with Kyungsoo's levelheaded logic when he just wanted to complain, though that's more or less the reason Sehun wanted to vent to him. Kyungsoo usually gives sound advice, and if that fails at least he gives Sehun free food.
<---fine, Ill see how it geos n u can hear the whole sad sorry report when I get home >P
--->have fun at the daycare, Sehunnie~ is all Kyungsoo replies, and Sehun slips his phone back into his pocket with a huff. He should've changed his scholarship job this summer when he had the chance instead of letting Yixing talk him into volunteering with their club again this year.
Kyungsoo is in a quiet, peaceful, climate controlled building right now, and Sehun is envious. He doesn't dare whine about that to Kyungsoo, since he clearly expressed his feelings at the beginning of summer that the library would be a boring place to work. But at least Kyungsoo gets to read comics when he finishes his organizational tasks. Sehun will probably spend his downtime listening to babies cry, if he even gets a break.
"Hey, we're here!" Yixing brakes to a sharp stop at the end of a quiet, tree lined street. Sehun's elbow bangs against the window as he jerks forward against his seat belt.
"Ow! Already?" He peers through the windshield at an abandoned looking warehouse. The letters on the front of the awning spell Kim Family Imports & Furnishings, ltd., but the typography has been rolled over with a patchy coat of dark green paint. "Are you sure...?"
"Well, we’re nearly there. It's just a few blocks that way." Yixing points out his window vaguely to the east of them. "Sorry, but this is the easiest place to drop you. I'll text you the address and a pic of the building in case you get lost."
"Fine, ok." Sehun's hand is already releasing his seat belt, so he sits up to grab his backpack and crawl out the passenger door.
"Have fun!" Yixing wiggles his fingers at Sehun before slipping his sunglasses back on. "Call me if you need backup or a kid bites you, or something!"
Sehun snorts, his skin already prickling under the sun’s withering glare as Yixing rolls up the window. As if. Yixing never answers his phone. The more dire the situation, the longer it will take to get ahold of him. No, if something unfortunate happens today Sehun would rather call Kyungsoo, who would probably delegate the rescue mission to his boyfriend Chanyeol, who would be kind enough to come pick Sehun up but not before documenting his distressing circumstances across multiple social media platforms from an amused lens.
Sehun squares his shoulders, facing down the shaded avenue in the direction Yixing had pointed. If something happens today, he'll just have to deal with it himself. Sehun is tough. Sehun can handle it. And even if he can't, he'll always have Tao to listen to him and cuddle with him on the sofa tonight. One week of volunteering can't be that bad.
Sehun's phone gives a soft ping from his pocket before he's walked to the end of the block. It's a text from Yixing containing the promised address. The next message is a blurry pic of the daycare center that could potentially represent any of the brick structures in this neighborhood that has a few trees surrounding it, but as long as Sehun can crosscheck the address with the one on his phone it doesn't really matter.
Sehun locates the street easily enough, counting back the house numbers on either side of the road as he draws closer. It's not a neighborhood he's familiar with, and he has no idea what part of town he’s in since he wasn't paying attention to Yixing’s turns in the car, but Sehun feels an odd sort of deja vu prickling at the back of his neck as he plods across the street. One more block, and he should be able to see the daycare on the left. He swallows down the strange, uncanny feeling and chalks it up to the heat. He always feels weird when he's over hungry and miserable from the sun.
Sehun recognizes the fence enclosing the courtyard before he sees the building itself, but as he approaches the front he realizes with a surprised laugh that no, it wasn't deja vu at all--he's definitely been here before. He double checks the address in his chat with Yixing against the numbers painted on the eaves above the double doors with a quick glance. Yup. This is the right place. Kyungsoo will definitely laugh at him and probably forward their whole textversation to Chanyeol when Sehun explains later over kkt.
The front gate to the school is open, but when Sehun steps inside he finds a barrier blocking the hall to the classrooms. It’s just a child-proof gate that barely comes up to his knees, but he doubts it’s okay to just climb over the top and waltz his way down the hall.
Sehun looks around the lobby for an uncomfortable minute, sandals rooted to the stiff welcome mat right in front of the doors. He's not sure if he should wait for someone to find him here, or if there's a receptionist, or--
"Hello?" A woman in a dusty pink sundress with a loose linen jacket in a clashing shade of magenta thrown over it peeks out of a doorway to Sehun's left.
Sehun doesn't say anything, his throat catching in surprise. He's even not sure if she's talking to him, but since there's no one else in the front of the building he steps forward when she waves, bangles jingling at her wrist.
"Are you supposed to be the volunteer kid from the university?" The woman steps back, opening the door just enough to let Sehun slip into the office, but doesn't move from the threshold.
"Uh, yeah. I--just a sec." Sehun slings his bag around to his front and pulls out the liability and consent forms he got from Yixing. "Here."
The lady takes them with a sigh, smoothing the rumpled edges of the copies with a long nail lacquered in flamingo pink. She flips through them before looking up with a frown. "You signed these in pencil."
"I--I'm sorry? I'll sign them again," Sehun stammers, his hand already dipping into the side pocket of his bag for a writing utensil. He bites down on his tongue to stifle a curse when his fingers close around a broken granola bar and a bent paperclip, but no pen. "Actually, could I maybe borrow--"
"Here." The woman directs him to wait in front of the counter with a flash of her neon nails. "I'll just make you a fresh copy. If you could wait for a moment..."
Sehun sneaks over to the counter, making sure his sandals don't squeak on the tile. He looks around the office while he waits for the copy machine to spit out the papers. There are two swivel chairs behind the desk, but only one of the computers screens is switched on and humming.
The perimeter of the room is covered with wall to wall bulletin boards, each marked with a class number in the upper corner and covered with a collage of colorful artwork, obviously the creative projects of young children. Sehun turns his head, trying to see if he can spot some of Tao's work, but the woman slaps down another stack of stapled papers on the counter before he can remember what Tao's class number was again.
"Here," she says. "Sign these two and then you can go on back. Joonmyun's been waiting for you."
"Joo--Joonmyun?"
The smooth expanse of the woman's heavily powdered forehead creases with a frown. “Are you previously acquainted with our faculty members? Will working with Joonmyun-ssi be problem for you?"
"Um, no," Sehun says, keeping his eyes focused on the box where he's supposed to sign. He hopes she doesn't ask him to stamp the forms, because he doesn't carry his name seal around on a daily basis unless he has to go to the bank.
"Good." Her voice sounds tired, the tones of it softened through the filter of a heavy sigh. "Usually we have inexperienced volunteers help out in the kitchen or with inventory, but the assistant teacher for one of our classes resigned recently and they're still trying to hire the replacement. The homeroom teacher, I mean Joonmyun, will be glad of your help."
The smile quirking at the corners of her red mouth isn't wide but seems sincere. Sehun returns it with a tentative smile of his own when he slides the paperwork across the counter to her.
"It's classroom 213, you think you can find it on your own?" She tucks a strand of her platinum bob back into place behind her ear, watching Sehun with a calculating gaze.
"Oh, uh, probably." Sehun rubs at the back of his neck. His sweat is finally starting to cool in the air conditioning and it’s making him itch. "Yeah." He nods. He can count the room numbers to find it as long as they go in numerical order, and besides, he's already visited Joonmyun's classroom once before.
"Oh, just a minute," the lady calls after him as Sehun heads for the door. "You need to wear this." She dangles an ID badge on a red lanyard over the side of the counter.
"Oh, thanks." Sehun slips it over his head and the cord settles around the back of his neck, the laminated card clipped to the end bouncing against his stomach. Volunteer it says, the fat purple letters printed in an unfortunate font reminiscent of Lucida Sans. Whoever made it probably thought it made the tag look more cute and kid-friendly, but it just makes Sehun think of graffiti done by someone still clumsy with a spray paint bottle.
"Return it when you're done today, and I'll see if we can get you a more permanent badge for tomorrow."
"Oh, sure." Sehun smiles again, the edges of his mouth lifting in an uneven curve around his teeth. The door handle slips in his sweaty grasp and bangs shut behind him. He cringes forward at the noise but there's no one around to glare at him for it, so he just slinks off down the hallway.
213, 213, where is…? Right. Just across the hall from the stairs, at the end of the corridor. Not hard to locate at all. The door is closed and Sehun can't make out much through the narrow pane of frosted glass set into the wood, just smears of color moving against the light. He can hear quite a bit however, a cheery tune echoing into the hall and an enthusiastic chorus of young voices singing along at various and halting tempos.
Another voice a few octaves deeper stands out against the high pitched strains. Not because it's particularly loud in comparison, but it is smooth in tone and progresses evenly with the flow of the melody line, acting like an anchor for the rest of the choir to hang on to. Sehun is a little curious as to what the voice would sound like acapella, echoing against the walls of the choir room without a pre-recorded accompaniment blared from cheap speakers to cloud the sound.
The track comes to an end while Sehun is still hesitating in the hallway. The pause in the music doesn't mean there's a break in the noise, however. The occupants of the classroom continue their clamor in a boisterous wave of clapping and cheering, but Sehun seizes the opportunity to knock on the door anyway. After waiting this long alone in the hall, he realizes the teacher isn't going to pop his head out in the corridor to look for him, and it'll be easier for Joonmyun to hear his knock without the speakers going.
His hand is shaking a little as he raises a fist to the wood just left of the window, but Sehun bites his lip in resolve when his mouth heats with a flare of annoyance. There is no reason for him to feel nervous. He is Park Sehun, the skinny freshman who marched into the band room and surprised his sunbaes by displaying enough talent at his audition to land him a spot in both the honors choral group mostly populated by seniors, as well as an offer to join Yixing's band as back up vocalist and bass player.
And now that he's practically a senior himself, Sehun has dozens of performance experiences under his choir robe, both in Korea and abroad, and there is no reason for him to feel weak-kneed about meeting a few kids. Tao's not scary. Tao is adorable.
And so is Joonmyun, Sehun's not-so-helpful brain fills in at the end of his impromptu self-confidence boosting pep talk. Sehun grits his teeth, squashing down the urge to run his mind all over that consternating thought. No, now is not the time to be thinking about things like dark eyes and thick, wavy hair, Sehun berates himself.
He knocks, his knuckles connecting with the hardwood painfully. He gives a decisive rap so as to be heard above the cacophony of voices clamoring for another song. Sehun's gut almost drops out of his abdominal cavity and into some other dimension when the door wrenches open, revealing Joonmyun's face pressed up to the opening.
Joonmyun’s mouth is open and his eyes flicker wider in surprise before his features draw back into a careful smile. "Oh, Zitao's uncle, welcome back. We weren't expecting you so soon, is everything--" he pauses, glancing over his shoulder before slipping out into the hall.
Sehun backs up a step to make room for him in front of the door. Joonmyun leans back, his shoulders resettling under the seams of his shirt as he takes a deep breath, but he keeps one hand on the handle of the cracked-open door. "Is everything alright? Or did you change your mind about the tour?"
"Oh, um, kind of," Sehun says, the words slipping out in a breathy laugh. He can feel himself relaxing under the focus of Joonmyun's comfortable smile, his muscles releasing the nervous energy pent up in their fiber through his nervous laugh. Sehun holds up the tag on the lanyard looped over his neck and Joonmyun's eyes dart down to examine the badge.
"Oh, well, this is a surprise," he says, letting go of the door knob to push his hair off his forehead with careful fingers. "Are you my volunteer?"
"Yup," Sehun nods, "and it's sort of a surprise for me too. Well, that’s a long story, but..." He waves the badge still his hand before dropping it to swing on the nylon cord. "Here I am, your volunteer, reporting for duty, sir." This time Sehun adds the 'sir' on purpose, snapping his heels together and winking in hopes it comes across as a joke.
It must work, because Joonmyun tips his head back in another laugh, and Sehun finds himself resisting the urge to lean forward for a better view of the fascinating muscle spasms contorting the teacher's face in an explosion of amusement.
"I thought I told you to call me Joonmyun," he says, returning Sehun's wink as he straightens.
Sehun just nods, his gaze flitting down in distraction when Joonmyun's fingers slide along the length of his tie to make sure it's straight and in place. It must be his habit, Sehun thinks, and files that observation away for later.
Joonmyun throws open the door and ushers him into the classroom with a light hand on Sehun’s arm. "Hey guys! We have a friend joining us today!"
"Hi." Sehun forces his lips into what he hopes is a friendly smile, and waves to the cluster of children kneeling and standing in a messy circle at the center of the room. There are carpet squares laid out instead of chairs, but only a few of the kids are actually sitting on them. Some of them are sprawled on their bellies and kicking their heels in the middle of the circle, or wrestling in a puppy heap off to the side.
"Hi!" a girl yells, and waves back with her whole arm. Some of the students smile at Sehun, but most just stare for a moment before returning to their conversations and wrestling matches.
"Hyung?" Tao starts to get up from his seat beside a little girl in a yellow denim jumper, but Sehun winks and mouths a reassurance to him and Tao settles back on his heels.
"Uh, what do you want them to call you?" Joonmyun leans in to ask. “Teacher? Just Sehun?”
"I don't know. Sure?" Sehun says, shrugging his agreement. No one's ever called him teacher before. He's not sure if he'll like it though, and it might be confusing for Tao.
"Hey, that's my hyung," Tao pipes up before Joonmyun can finish his announcement. His words aren’t loud, but they’re decisive enough to be heard over the other voices in the room. "He's my hyung, so be nice." Tao nods once, smoothing back the blonde hair of his new favorite barbie.
A few of the students nod dutifully, as if in response to a parent's warning to play nice with the other kids on the playground.
"Well, I guess that settles that then!" Joonmyun's chuckle sounds like a soft purr in his throat, and Sehun feels a blush creeping up his neck even though he doesn't feel laughed at at all.
"Ok, guys!" Joonmyun calls. His voice is louder, more confident, when it’s projected to the whole room. "Let's clean up in here so we can head outside for a bit!"
"But Teacher!" The girl in the yellow jumper marches forward with her arms folded across her chest. Her slip on sandals flap against the heels of her red socks, and Sehun resists his instinct to slowly back away. He’s slightly alarmed by how a person so tiny can glare with such alarming intensity, unless maybe she's related to Kyungsoo. He'll have to ask Tao later if any of his classmates have the surname Do.
"What is it, Sunmi?" Joonmyun glances over his shoulder at her. He's kneeling on the floor to help his students collect the carpet squares into a neat stack under the window, and crouched on on his knees he’s almost at eye level with Sunmi.
"I don't wanna outside!" Sunmi's jaw juts at a menacing angle as she twists her torso, rocking in side to side in displeasure. "Hot!"
"Well, if you really don't want to go outside, you can stay in here with Sehun--teacher," Joonmyun says, flipping his hair out of his eyes with a twist of his neck. "But is that ok with you, Sehun?"
"Huh?" Sehun blinks back at both pair of eyes facing him. Sunmi's expression looks careful, a tiny wrinkle of uncertainty creasing her forehead, but it relaxes when Sehun crouches down to kneel beside Joonmyun. "Yeah, sure, ok."
"You can play in here if it's too hot, sweetie," Joonmyun says, "but are you sure you don't want to come outside? Just for a bit? You can pay with the bubbles in the shade."
"Hmm..." Sunmi considers for a long moment, twisting the loose curl on the end of her ponytail around her pinky finger. "I guess outside. For first."
"Ok," Joonmyun smiles as he gets to his feet. "You can always come in when you get too tired."
She nods and scampers off as Joonmyun wipes a bit of lint from the front of his slacks.
"Was that a test?" Sehun asks. "Did I fail?" He wobbles a bit when he stretches his legs to stand again.
Joonmyun's laugh is soft but it shakes his shoulders until his tie falls out of order again, the end catching on one of his shirt buttons. "Don't take it like a personal rejection, Sunmi just really likes the soap bubbles."
"Ok." Sehun leans against the table at the front of the room. He wants to help clean up but he’s not sure what to do without getting in the way. Joonmyun is already skirting towards the back of the room to supervise the pick up, and everyone but Sehun seems to have a job. Tao is helping stack blocks into a tub while his classmates line toys and picture books up on the shelves, or drag their desks back into formation at the center of the room.
Once they've finished their assigned tasks the kids head to the shoe lockers. They change out of their slippers and put on street shoes before lining up single file. Even Joonmyun changes his shoes, slipping on a pair of blue nikes he pulls from under the table at the front.
Sehun looks down at his dusty sandals as Joonmyun reties one of his laces, realizing with a jolt of guilt that he probably shouldn't have worn his street shoes into the classroom.
"Ok, ladies and gentlemen! Who is our line leader today?” Joonmyun shifts his weight onto one sneaker, leaning into an awkward arabesque to check the blackboard. Sehun follows his gaze to where a chart of tasks and privileges is taped to the dusty slate. Paper butterflies with the students’ names printed on the wings in large hangul syllables are held in place across the chart with clothespins. “It was Sungyeol, right?"
"Affirmative!" someone squeaks. Sehun twists around to see one of the tallest boys in the class waving his arm.
"Well then come on up here, buddy!" Joonmyun laughs. Sunmi backs up a few inches, just enough to let Sungyeol in front of her at the head of the line, and Joonmyun pushes the door open. "Remember guys, walk! No running in the halls!"
The kids file out of the room with minimal pushing, though Sehun can tell they are looking forward to playtime outside, already chattering to each other about the games they want to play and organizing who gets to use the jump ropes and bubble wands first.
"It's such a relief to have someone helping out again." Joonmyun turns to Sehun with a grateful smile as they follow the kids out the door. "If you weren't here we'd still be doubling up on the playground with one of the other classes."
"Oh," Sehun says, realizing how little he knows about how a kindergarten is run. "How long were you shorthanded for?"
"Two weeks?" Joonmyun tilts his head to the side in thought and his shoulder brushes against Sehun's arm. "A week and a half, I guess. It wasn't terrible, just inconvenient. And it's nice if the students have more space to spread out during playtime."
"Yeah. Oh, and--" Sehun starts, not sure how to phrase his question. But Joonmyun turns to face him, his eyes open and inviting, and Sehun's nerves flutter back down his throat to settle quietly in his gut again. "Uh, my shoes? I mean, should I bring other shoes to change into for the classroom? I'm sorry, I totally didn't think of that for today! Until, like. Now."
"Oh that's ok!" Joonmyun's hand skims Sehun's arm in a vague sort of pat. "When parents come to visit on observation day they don't wear slippers either so it’s not a big deal. But if you're going to be volunteering here for awhile, it wouldn't hurt to bring some slippers. If that's not an inconvenience."
"Oh yeah, for sure," Sehun nods as they head down the steps into the grass. He's not actually sure if he has the appropriate footwear to bring, but he doesn't want to be responsible for making Joonmyun's comfortable smile slip from his features. He has a pretty nice smile, come to think of it, at least when it's gentle like this and not screwing up his features when he laughs.
"How long are you here for, anyway?" Joonmyun is watching the yard from the shade of the awning, observing his charges under a careful gaze as they scatter to sidewalk with a box of chalk, or to hang from the jungle gym that's suspended over a section of cushy rubber matting.
"Just for a week."
The sun is almost overhead now, and their narrow strip of shade at the side of the building will disappear if they stay out here for a full hour.
"Oh really?" Joonmyun's face clouds with a hint of a frown when he turns to face Sehun. "I thought we got to keep you for two. You're the volunteer from the music department at the university, right?"
"Uh, yeah." Sehun tugs at the hem of his shirt, trying to remember. He's pretty sure Yixing said it was only for a week. He only had to volunteer for one last summer, anyway. "I think so? I dunno for sure, but I'll ask."
"Ok." Joonmyun is facing away again, his back flattened against the porch railing. "Either way, we're happy to have you for as long as you can stay!"
"Thanks." Sehun ducks his head in something between a nod and a shallow bow, because the smile Joonmyun beams at him is a little intense. "I'm...happy to be here too," Sehun says, and when Joonmyun pats his arm again before pushing off the rail to help Sunmi with her bubble wand, Sehun feels the sincerity of his words take root, replacing the uncertainty that’s been trapped in his stomach all morning.
+++ +++ +++
part ii
Pairings: Sehun/Suho
Rating: PG-13
Length: 36,655
Summary: Sehun has been looking forward to spending time with his nephew Tao, but his summer break plans did not include volunteering alongside the (cute) kindergarten teacher, Joonmyun.
Warning: language, [Spoiler (click to open)]side Chanyeol/Kyungsoo, side Lu Han/Sunyoung, kid!Tao, kid!Kris, kid!Infinite, +a few other Kpop singers and SM Town people sprinkled on for good measure
Author's note: I haven’t taught preschool for ages so please forgive my inaccuracies. I had fun writing this for you, I hope you enjoy :) Have a song, have a gif, have some love <3 (and thank you to H for the beta!)
“Taozi! Are you awake yet, dude! We have to leave, in like--” Sehun fights with his T-shirt, struggling to force his head through the neck hole. The collar gets caught on his ear and thoroughly ruffles his hair. Annoying. Precisely the reason he prefers v-necks, but since he’s going to meet his nephew’s teacher today he figured he should go with something more conservative than a spandex scoop top. ‘Conservative’ meaning a faded band Tee that Sehun stole from Yixing somewhere along the way, possibly on their choir tour.
“Hyung?” a thin voice calls from the kitchen, and Sehun stumbles out of his bedroom to find Tao kneeling at the kitchen table on one of the two mismatched folding chairs Sehun owns. His hair is brushed and clumsily parted with a comb but his face is a mess, all dribbled with milk.
“When did you wake up?” Sehun rubs his eyes, blindly feeling across the counter for the cap to the milk bottle.
“When the sun comes up, it’s morning,” Tao says. He drains the last bits of frosted flakes from his bowl and offers Sehun a milky smile.
“I hate mornings,” Sehun mumbles back, and hands him a paper towel. The napkin dispenser is empty again and the pile of rags in Sehun’s sink smell a little mildewy. And not that Sehun actually knows anything about children, but he’s guessing he shouldn’t use a lysol wipe on Tao’s face. Probably not a good idea.
Tao scrubs the towel over his face in wide circles, probably smearing the milk more than anything, but Sehun throws the used paper into his overflowing trash and scoops his nephew up from the chair.
“Come on, kiddo. Let’s go get you dressed. I don’t want to be late on the first day.”
Tao settles on his hip, hanging on with his knees. His skinny arms wrap around Sehun’s neck and don’t let go til they make it to the guest bedroom. He kneels to pull socks and shorts out of his Ponyo by the Sea rolling suitcase, which lies unzipped and spread open under the window. Tao’s parents dropped him off last night on their way to the airport and they haven’t had time to unpack everything yet.
Sehun pulls on jeans and brushes his teeth while Tao gets dressed. They both slip into sandals before the short walk to the metro station. The neighborhood streets aren’t crowded at this hour, just after the first rush, but a neighbor lady watering her windowboxes smiles as they pass.
Sehun has to stoop a bit to let Tao’s fingers curl into his, but he doesn’t mind the feeling of the soft palm cushioned against his. Tao is humming softly to himself, a tune that’s not familiar to Sehun. Maybe from some kiddie TV show, or maybe he’s just making it up.
“Hyung.” The fingers in Sehun’s grasp tighten as they approach the shadow of the subway entrance.
“What’s wrong?” Sehun gives his hand a gentle tug.
“Dark,” Tao whines. “It looks dark down there, hyung.”
“We have to take the metro,” Sehun insists, “the bus doesn’t go by your school.”
“Hyung,” Tao whimpers again, hiding his face in Sehun’s pant leg, “I don’t wanna.”
Sehun eyes the entrance, the way the dirty tile stairs spill down into the darkness where one of the overhead lights has burned out. It does look a bit creepy, on second thought, and Tao is used to his mom driving him everywhere after all.
“Hey, shh,” Sehun whispers, stooping to catch Tao up in his arms. “Is this your first time to ride the subway?”
Tao nods, ruffling his eyelashes as he rubs his eyes with the side of his fist.
“Wow, then you get to try something special today!” Sehun pats his back, already moving towards the stairs but making sure that Tao is facing the open air at the top. “The subway is just like a normal train, but it’s inside a special cave.”
“Cave? Like...for dragons?” Tao’s lashes flutter as he blinks, the corners of his mouth jerking with a tense hiccup, and Sehun realizes how close to tears he is.
“For princesses!” Sehun says, the first thing he can think of. “There’s a princess dragon who lives in this cave. But she’s very shy, she never comes out if there are people around.”
Tao leans away, narrowing his eyelids as Sehun strides up to the gate. “How do you know, if she never comes out.”
“Um, well, because,” Sehun huffs, stepping aside to dig through his wallet because he forgot to pull out his extra metro pass. He leans against the cool tile wall as he fights through the wads of receipts and cafe punch cards cluttering his wallet. Ahah, T-money card. Success. “Because you can hear her, sometimes, if you listen carefully.”
“Really?” Tao’s eyes widen, and Sehun smiles because he can almost see the gears turning in his mind as he considers the explanation. “Do you think...hyung, can I hear, too?”
“I think so, if we’re very quiet.” Sehun gently loosens Tao’s hold on him and lowers him to the ground. “Here, this is our secret entrance pass, so don’t lose it, ok?”
“Ok,” Tao nods til his dark hair shakes into his eyes. “Ok, hyung!”
Sehun lets him go through the stile first, swiping his card and waiting til they hear the “magic beep” before walking through. Tao walks down the stairs to the platform by himself, hand still tight in Sehun’s, but he’s no longer tense with fear.
“Can I hear it now, hyung? When?” Tao tugs at the tangle of hemp bracelets on Sehun’s wrist, another part of his wardrobe adopted under Yixing’s influence. “When?”
“Soon,” Sehun says, stroking his hair. “Just be patient.” According to his phone app, they only have to wait three minutes. They should still make it on time. Tao’s kindergarten is on the same line as Sehun’s station, so no transfers.
Sehun has a bunch of unread messages on kkt, probably Youtube links from Yixing, but those can wait. He pockets his phone and yawns, stretching out the kinks in his back. The concrete beneath their sandals begins to buzz and before long the tunnel extending from both ends of the platform begins to rumble with the sound of the incoming train.
"Can you hear it?" Sehun bends to whisper. Tao nods, his fist tightening in the hem of Sehun's shirt. The rumble heightens into a roar, the brakes grating on the steel tracks as the train eases to a stop.
Tao looks up at Sehun, his eyes wide, when the noise suddenly ceases and the doors to the train cars in front of them hiss open, the pressure gauges releasing. "Why?"
Sehun tugs Tao into the train and settles him on the end seat of the nearest bench. He stands beside him just to the side of the door so he can keep hold of Tao's hand. There aren't many other passengers this far out on line 1, just some housewives with rolling shopping bags parked in front of them, and a cluster of teenage girls buttoned into wrinkled summer uniforms who are falling asleep on each other at the end of the carriage.
"Hyung, why?" Tao whispers a bit louder, ducking his head in embarrassment when an elderly man in a fishing vest turns to stare at him.
"Why what?" Sehun grabs onto the metal bar on the wall for balance as the train jerks into motion.
"The dragon noise...stopped. Why did she stop?" Tao is frowning, but he looks more contemplative than frightened or upset. Sehun lets go of the bar to sift his fingers into Tao's soft hair for reassurance, anyway.
"I told you, silly. The princess doesn't like people. So when the passengers got off the train she crawled away to hide."
"Oh." Tao nods, pressing his lips together, and is silent for the rest of the trip. Not that he's noisy in general (unless a gnat happens to land on his sandal, in which case the whole neighborhood bears witness to his ear splitting screams of vocalized terror). But even when he entertains himself with legos or his barbies, crosslegged on the floor at their feet while Sehun watches the soccer game sprawled on the sofa beside Lu Han, Tao is usually humming to himself and narrating his playtime in an adorable mishmash of Mandarin and Korean.
Sehun's never seen him this quiet, but then again he hasn't seen much of Tao out in public. Only at restaurants, when his mouth is understandably busy with food. It's interesting to see him in another environment, the way Tao curls his chin into his left shoulder when the lady across from them waves hello, and then a beat later straightens up to offer a shy smile in return.
"Ah, your baby is so cute!" the lady murmurs to Sehun when they exit the train. She winks at Tao and leans forward in her seat to pat Sehun’s hip with her bony hand.
Sehun is so flustered he nearly walks into a vending machine, but Tao yanks him out of the way just in time, instinctively pulling Sehun towards the escalator along with the flow of traffic.
The sun is brighter than when they entered the station, enough to make Sehun squint when they step off the escalator and climb the stairs to the sidewalk. The temperature has risen along with the sun and the heat makes Sehun's shirt stick to his back between his shoulders by the time they walk the short distance to Tao's kindergarten.
The school is set back from the road, surrounded by a tall picket fence and shaded by several trees scattered across the front lawn. The building itself is weathered brick, much the same as the others along the street, but the colorful playground equipment out front assures Sehun that he must have found the right place.
Tao confirms this by picking up his pace as they approach the gate, dragging Sehun along by the hand when he doesn't walk fast enough. "Come on!" he pants, his sandals kicking up loose gravel from the pavement. "Almost there, hyung!" He pulls Sehun right up the steps and in the front door.
Sehun dodges around a cluster of women on their way out. They all look to be around thirty and stare at Sehun as he ducks around a potted plant and a styrofoam model of the solar system that's suspended from the ceiling on a tangled length of fishing line. Sehun bows his head in greeting as he trips past them around the corner, more on instinct than out of a premeditated attempt at courtesy.
He knows they're almost late, with about forty seconds left to locate Tao's classroom before classes start, but Sehun wishes Tao would slow down. He's still trying to remember which classroom his sister said to drop Tao off at, was it 302, or 203, or--?
"Teacher!" Tao yells, dropping Sehun's hand to launch himself at the figure leaning in the nearest doorway. "Joon-noon Teacher!"
"Whoa there!" The person in the doorway, a dude who doesn't look much older than Sehun, sways under Tao's weight latched onto his legs before he catches his balance with a hand on the door knob. "Hey, Zitao! Good morning."
His voice is warm, almost fond in tone, Sehun thinks, as the dude bends to ruffle Tao's hair. But he pronounced Tao's name all wrong, tongue clumsy on the vowels and his tone lilting in the wrong directions. Sehun narrows his gaze in disapproval as he steps forward.
"Oh, hello, I'm Zitao's teacher." He straightens, patting Tao's shoulder before giving Sehun a polite bow.
"I'm Park Sehun," Sehun says, rocking back on his heels. "Sunyoung's my sister."
"Sunyoung?" The teacher blinks in confusion, his lips sliding apart as Sehun studies him in appraisal. "Oh! You mean Park-ssi!" His face wrinkles up into a large smile. "Sorry, I've only met her briefly at a parent-teacher conference once. Lu usually drops Zitao off to school."
Sehun lifts an eyebrow at the casual referral to his brother-in-law, but gives a slow nod as the teacher backs into the classroom.
"I'm Joonmyun, by the way. It's nice to meet Zitao's uncle!"
"Oh, uh, likewise." Sehun shoves his hands deeper into his pockets to keep himself from shuffling his feet on the slick tile of the hallway. His nervous habit is to fidget, one that Yixing is always getting on him about. He says it messes up their aesthetic on stage.
"Would you like a tour of the classroom? We still have a few minutes of free play before story time." Joonmyun is still smiling at Sehun, wide enough to show off the slightest hint of pink gums around the edges of his straight teeth.
Too wide to be just polite, Sehun thinks as he darts his tongue between his lips again to moisten them. They're unusually dry today, maybe from the stress of social anxiety, his brain rationalizes dumbly as he tries to comes up with a grown-up and confident sounding response. Something an adult capable of caring for a kindergartner would say.
"Uh," Sehun says as he watches Tao put away his sandals. Tao slides them into the shoe cubby just inside the door and slips into a pair of purple canvas indoor shoes he pulls from his backpack. "Thanks, but uh, I have to get going. I have a meeting later. But maybe next time a tour would be nice, thank you. Sir," he adds, his face heating in an uncontrollable blush when Tao's teacher tips back his head with a sharp laugh.
His laughter is almost as loud as Yixing's is in his most annoying and self satisfied state, which bewilders Sehun and also kind of gets under his skin. He’s not even sure why he tacked on the 'sir' at the end, it just sort of slipped out, probably because the teacher is so suave and polite with his effortless manners. He’s like a magazine shoot of a young professional in his tweed slacks and silk tie. His starched shirt is buttoned up all the way even though it's summer.
"You can just call me Joonmyun," he says, holding up a hand when Sehun opens his mouth to stammer out a reply or some kind of explanation. "It's fine, all the parents do."
Sehun nods, lips pressed together, because he honestly doesn't know what he could say that wouldn't be further incriminating. Joonmyun's cheeks are tinged with a bright pink that doesn't look professional at all, and his shirt is hitched up and bunching at the waist from bending backwards in laughter, but he holds his posture with a very mature, very self-assured square to his shoulders. Sehun's choir director would approve.
"And of course, It would be my pleasure to offer you a tour another time. Will you be responsible for Zitao's pick up today, too?"
"Oh, yeah," Sehun nods, finally finding his voice back from the depths of his throat. "For the next two weeks, actually. Noon--I mean, um, Tao's parents are on a trip so he's staying with me." Sehun frowns, sliding his thumbs along the seams inside his pockets. "I thought my sister had notified the school, or like, something."
"Oh, well, likely she did but, I've just returned from a leave of absence myself, sorry." Joonmyun's smile tightens into an expression that's more apologetic, but no less friendly. "I haven't quite finished checking the backlog of notices on the school messenger."
"Ah, it's no big," Sehun says, his tongue tripping over his teeth in his hurry to get to the reassurance out of his mouth. It's not like he even knows this guy, but Joonmyun seems like a nice enough teacher and he didn't mean to make the dude feel bad.
"Thank you," Joonmyun says as he tucks the short end of his tie back under the wider tail. The tie has tiny yellow ducks all over the gold striped silk, Sehun notices. It's a weird pattern, but somehow it complements the browns and goldenrod highlights in the weave of his slacks.
"Um, sorry, but I better go. Now." Sehun gives Joonmyun a tight smile before craning his head around the doorpost to locate Tao in the classroom. "Bye bye, Taozi! See you in the afternoon, ok?" He waves to Tao, who is kneeling with another small boy next to a Noah’s ark assortment of stuffed animals.
"'Kay, hyung!" Tao hardly looks up from dressing his barbie as he bids Sehun goodbye. Joonmyun waves to him though, still smiling over his shoulder as he eases the door closed.
Sehun jogs to the end of the hallway before he slows to a respectable pace, still feeling off kilter. He shakes his head to clear the feeling as he walks down the front steps into the sun. It's probably just because he's not used to this new routine yet, but he'll get the hang of it soon. By tomorrow hopefully. Because it’s not that he cares what his nephew's kindergarten teacher thinks of him, but Park Sehun is cooler than a mumbling, flustered teenager. Usually.
+++ +++ +++
By the time Sehun makes it back on the subway, across campus, and up three flights of stairs to the band room, his shirt is sticking to a wide section of his back under the the weight of his backpack. He's out of breath and more than a little resentful he hadn't had time for some of Tao's frosted flakes before they left the house.
He missed his first transfer by thirty seconds, which ended up tacking an extra half an hour onto his commute time. Yixing will give him a hard time for showing up late, but it's not like their composition and performance club does anything exciting during summer break. About the most useful thing they've done since the spring term ended was clean out their choir director's sheet music archive and refile the folders after dusting them all. Such a thrill, that project was.
Sehun waits in the hall a moment to catch his breath and gives a lazy knock before pushing open the sound proofed door.
Yixing swivels on his rolling chair to greet him with a smile. "You're later than usual." He removes one of the pencils he has tucked behind his ears and circles something on the score, the papers propped on the backrest of the chair he's straddling.
"Sorry." Sehun kicks the door shut with his shoe. "I had an errand to run." He drops his backpack under a trolley of folded music stands as he collapses into the nearest chair. "Where is everybody?"
Yixing blinks at him, tipping his head to the right as he plucks at the wavy lock of hair curling at his temple. "It's Special Events week, Sehunnie. Community service edition. Did you forget?"
"Special--? Oh shit! Seriously?" Sehun grinds his knuckles into the cramp forming in his thigh, gritting his teeth in annoyance. The soccer team is on summer break right now, and it's been a few weeks since he had to exert himself as much as he did carrying Tao up and down all those stairs in the metro station.
"Yup. Seriously." Yixing slides around on the seat of his chair and tips back against the rest, hands folded behind his head. "And since you're late, you get last choice of volunteer projects."
Sehun mouths something rude in reply to the smug look on Yixing's face, but the club president's smirk just widens.
"Ah ah ah, Sehunnie. I'm afraid you'll have to watch your language where you're headed this week." Yixing hefts himself from his chair with a lazy groan, stretching as he crosses the room. He stops in front of the concert grand backed against the far wall. "Let's see...your assignment is..."
Sehun grabs the handles of his backpack and follows, craning over Yixing's shoulder as he shuffles through a pile of papers strewn across the closed lid of the piano.
"Ahah!" Yixing hands him a stack of papers with a crooked staple poking out in the corner. "Here, you have to sign the consent form."
"Is it anything...risky?" Sehun accepts the pencil Yixing flips him but hesitates to sign his name on anything before he knows exactly where he'll be volunteering.
"Nope. It's some daycare or something, I think. Jinki-hyung went there last summer and they had him sterilize baby toys or something. Doesn't sound difficult at all."
It sounds boring, Sehun wants to retort, but he scribbles his name on the last page anyway. Even cleaning up a nursery can't be worse than the service project he got stuck with last year: scrubbing graffiti off the inside of bathroom stalls in the local parks. Talk about miserable. When Sehun was a little shit in middle school, he and his friends used crayons and gel pens to leave their rebellious mark on public property, but Sehun broke multiple fingernails trying to remove sharpie doodles with nothing but window cleaner and a magic eraser.
"What's your volunteer project?" Sehun tosses the consent form onto the piano and shoves it at Yixing.
"I'm just supervising things. I'm the sub if someone gets sick, or something." Yixing stacks the papers together, though it doesn't result in straightening them much. "I can give you a ride today if you want, since you'll be arriving late. I'm headed that direction anyway."
"Fine, yeah, sure." Sehun shoulders his backpack again with a sigh. He's grateful he doesn't have to walk all the way there in this heat, wherever they're headed, but he's secretly hoping all of the club members come down with a summer cold before the week's out. It's only fair that Yixing should have to suffer from volunteer week like the rest of them. At least just a little.
The drive isn't long. Sehun texts Kyungsoo the whole way, bombarding him with pouty emojis until Kyungsoo is annoyed to text back.
<---srsly, not my fault I was late. and Im an upperclassmin now so xing hyung shouldve reserved a better project for me >.>
--->did you tell him you'd be running late?
<---no but thats not the point.
--->maybe he did save you one of the better ones. why don't you just see how it goes today before flipping out.
<---fine, Sehun responds, hitting send with an angry grunt that has Yixing flashing him an amused look in the rearview mirror. He's annoyed with Kyungsoo's levelheaded logic when he just wanted to complain, though that's more or less the reason Sehun wanted to vent to him. Kyungsoo usually gives sound advice, and if that fails at least he gives Sehun free food.
<---fine, Ill see how it geos n u can hear the whole sad sorry report when I get home >P
--->have fun at the daycare, Sehunnie~ is all Kyungsoo replies, and Sehun slips his phone back into his pocket with a huff. He should've changed his scholarship job this summer when he had the chance instead of letting Yixing talk him into volunteering with their club again this year.
Kyungsoo is in a quiet, peaceful, climate controlled building right now, and Sehun is envious. He doesn't dare whine about that to Kyungsoo, since he clearly expressed his feelings at the beginning of summer that the library would be a boring place to work. But at least Kyungsoo gets to read comics when he finishes his organizational tasks. Sehun will probably spend his downtime listening to babies cry, if he even gets a break.
"Hey, we're here!" Yixing brakes to a sharp stop at the end of a quiet, tree lined street. Sehun's elbow bangs against the window as he jerks forward against his seat belt.
"Ow! Already?" He peers through the windshield at an abandoned looking warehouse. The letters on the front of the awning spell Kim Family Imports & Furnishings, ltd., but the typography has been rolled over with a patchy coat of dark green paint. "Are you sure...?"
"Well, we’re nearly there. It's just a few blocks that way." Yixing points out his window vaguely to the east of them. "Sorry, but this is the easiest place to drop you. I'll text you the address and a pic of the building in case you get lost."
"Fine, ok." Sehun's hand is already releasing his seat belt, so he sits up to grab his backpack and crawl out the passenger door.
"Have fun!" Yixing wiggles his fingers at Sehun before slipping his sunglasses back on. "Call me if you need backup or a kid bites you, or something!"
Sehun snorts, his skin already prickling under the sun’s withering glare as Yixing rolls up the window. As if. Yixing never answers his phone. The more dire the situation, the longer it will take to get ahold of him. No, if something unfortunate happens today Sehun would rather call Kyungsoo, who would probably delegate the rescue mission to his boyfriend Chanyeol, who would be kind enough to come pick Sehun up but not before documenting his distressing circumstances across multiple social media platforms from an amused lens.
Sehun squares his shoulders, facing down the shaded avenue in the direction Yixing had pointed. If something happens today, he'll just have to deal with it himself. Sehun is tough. Sehun can handle it. And even if he can't, he'll always have Tao to listen to him and cuddle with him on the sofa tonight. One week of volunteering can't be that bad.
Sehun's phone gives a soft ping from his pocket before he's walked to the end of the block. It's a text from Yixing containing the promised address. The next message is a blurry pic of the daycare center that could potentially represent any of the brick structures in this neighborhood that has a few trees surrounding it, but as long as Sehun can crosscheck the address with the one on his phone it doesn't really matter.
Sehun locates the street easily enough, counting back the house numbers on either side of the road as he draws closer. It's not a neighborhood he's familiar with, and he has no idea what part of town he’s in since he wasn't paying attention to Yixing’s turns in the car, but Sehun feels an odd sort of deja vu prickling at the back of his neck as he plods across the street. One more block, and he should be able to see the daycare on the left. He swallows down the strange, uncanny feeling and chalks it up to the heat. He always feels weird when he's over hungry and miserable from the sun.
Sehun recognizes the fence enclosing the courtyard before he sees the building itself, but as he approaches the front he realizes with a surprised laugh that no, it wasn't deja vu at all--he's definitely been here before. He double checks the address in his chat with Yixing against the numbers painted on the eaves above the double doors with a quick glance. Yup. This is the right place. Kyungsoo will definitely laugh at him and probably forward their whole textversation to Chanyeol when Sehun explains later over kkt.
The front gate to the school is open, but when Sehun steps inside he finds a barrier blocking the hall to the classrooms. It’s just a child-proof gate that barely comes up to his knees, but he doubts it’s okay to just climb over the top and waltz his way down the hall.
Sehun looks around the lobby for an uncomfortable minute, sandals rooted to the stiff welcome mat right in front of the doors. He's not sure if he should wait for someone to find him here, or if there's a receptionist, or--
"Hello?" A woman in a dusty pink sundress with a loose linen jacket in a clashing shade of magenta thrown over it peeks out of a doorway to Sehun's left.
Sehun doesn't say anything, his throat catching in surprise. He's even not sure if she's talking to him, but since there's no one else in the front of the building he steps forward when she waves, bangles jingling at her wrist.
"Are you supposed to be the volunteer kid from the university?" The woman steps back, opening the door just enough to let Sehun slip into the office, but doesn't move from the threshold.
"Uh, yeah. I--just a sec." Sehun slings his bag around to his front and pulls out the liability and consent forms he got from Yixing. "Here."
The lady takes them with a sigh, smoothing the rumpled edges of the copies with a long nail lacquered in flamingo pink. She flips through them before looking up with a frown. "You signed these in pencil."
"I--I'm sorry? I'll sign them again," Sehun stammers, his hand already dipping into the side pocket of his bag for a writing utensil. He bites down on his tongue to stifle a curse when his fingers close around a broken granola bar and a bent paperclip, but no pen. "Actually, could I maybe borrow--"
"Here." The woman directs him to wait in front of the counter with a flash of her neon nails. "I'll just make you a fresh copy. If you could wait for a moment..."
Sehun sneaks over to the counter, making sure his sandals don't squeak on the tile. He looks around the office while he waits for the copy machine to spit out the papers. There are two swivel chairs behind the desk, but only one of the computers screens is switched on and humming.
The perimeter of the room is covered with wall to wall bulletin boards, each marked with a class number in the upper corner and covered with a collage of colorful artwork, obviously the creative projects of young children. Sehun turns his head, trying to see if he can spot some of Tao's work, but the woman slaps down another stack of stapled papers on the counter before he can remember what Tao's class number was again.
"Here," she says. "Sign these two and then you can go on back. Joonmyun's been waiting for you."
"Joo--Joonmyun?"
The smooth expanse of the woman's heavily powdered forehead creases with a frown. “Are you previously acquainted with our faculty members? Will working with Joonmyun-ssi be problem for you?"
"Um, no," Sehun says, keeping his eyes focused on the box where he's supposed to sign. He hopes she doesn't ask him to stamp the forms, because he doesn't carry his name seal around on a daily basis unless he has to go to the bank.
"Good." Her voice sounds tired, the tones of it softened through the filter of a heavy sigh. "Usually we have inexperienced volunteers help out in the kitchen or with inventory, but the assistant teacher for one of our classes resigned recently and they're still trying to hire the replacement. The homeroom teacher, I mean Joonmyun, will be glad of your help."
The smile quirking at the corners of her red mouth isn't wide but seems sincere. Sehun returns it with a tentative smile of his own when he slides the paperwork across the counter to her.
"It's classroom 213, you think you can find it on your own?" She tucks a strand of her platinum bob back into place behind her ear, watching Sehun with a calculating gaze.
"Oh, uh, probably." Sehun rubs at the back of his neck. His sweat is finally starting to cool in the air conditioning and it’s making him itch. "Yeah." He nods. He can count the room numbers to find it as long as they go in numerical order, and besides, he's already visited Joonmyun's classroom once before.
"Oh, just a minute," the lady calls after him as Sehun heads for the door. "You need to wear this." She dangles an ID badge on a red lanyard over the side of the counter.
"Oh, thanks." Sehun slips it over his head and the cord settles around the back of his neck, the laminated card clipped to the end bouncing against his stomach. Volunteer it says, the fat purple letters printed in an unfortunate font reminiscent of Lucida Sans. Whoever made it probably thought it made the tag look more cute and kid-friendly, but it just makes Sehun think of graffiti done by someone still clumsy with a spray paint bottle.
"Return it when you're done today, and I'll see if we can get you a more permanent badge for tomorrow."
"Oh, sure." Sehun smiles again, the edges of his mouth lifting in an uneven curve around his teeth. The door handle slips in his sweaty grasp and bangs shut behind him. He cringes forward at the noise but there's no one around to glare at him for it, so he just slinks off down the hallway.
213, 213, where is…? Right. Just across the hall from the stairs, at the end of the corridor. Not hard to locate at all. The door is closed and Sehun can't make out much through the narrow pane of frosted glass set into the wood, just smears of color moving against the light. He can hear quite a bit however, a cheery tune echoing into the hall and an enthusiastic chorus of young voices singing along at various and halting tempos.
Another voice a few octaves deeper stands out against the high pitched strains. Not because it's particularly loud in comparison, but it is smooth in tone and progresses evenly with the flow of the melody line, acting like an anchor for the rest of the choir to hang on to. Sehun is a little curious as to what the voice would sound like acapella, echoing against the walls of the choir room without a pre-recorded accompaniment blared from cheap speakers to cloud the sound.
The track comes to an end while Sehun is still hesitating in the hallway. The pause in the music doesn't mean there's a break in the noise, however. The occupants of the classroom continue their clamor in a boisterous wave of clapping and cheering, but Sehun seizes the opportunity to knock on the door anyway. After waiting this long alone in the hall, he realizes the teacher isn't going to pop his head out in the corridor to look for him, and it'll be easier for Joonmyun to hear his knock without the speakers going.
His hand is shaking a little as he raises a fist to the wood just left of the window, but Sehun bites his lip in resolve when his mouth heats with a flare of annoyance. There is no reason for him to feel nervous. He is Park Sehun, the skinny freshman who marched into the band room and surprised his sunbaes by displaying enough talent at his audition to land him a spot in both the honors choral group mostly populated by seniors, as well as an offer to join Yixing's band as back up vocalist and bass player.
And now that he's practically a senior himself, Sehun has dozens of performance experiences under his choir robe, both in Korea and abroad, and there is no reason for him to feel weak-kneed about meeting a few kids. Tao's not scary. Tao is adorable.
And so is Joonmyun, Sehun's not-so-helpful brain fills in at the end of his impromptu self-confidence boosting pep talk. Sehun grits his teeth, squashing down the urge to run his mind all over that consternating thought. No, now is not the time to be thinking about things like dark eyes and thick, wavy hair, Sehun berates himself.
He knocks, his knuckles connecting with the hardwood painfully. He gives a decisive rap so as to be heard above the cacophony of voices clamoring for another song. Sehun's gut almost drops out of his abdominal cavity and into some other dimension when the door wrenches open, revealing Joonmyun's face pressed up to the opening.
Joonmyun’s mouth is open and his eyes flicker wider in surprise before his features draw back into a careful smile. "Oh, Zitao's uncle, welcome back. We weren't expecting you so soon, is everything--" he pauses, glancing over his shoulder before slipping out into the hall.
Sehun backs up a step to make room for him in front of the door. Joonmyun leans back, his shoulders resettling under the seams of his shirt as he takes a deep breath, but he keeps one hand on the handle of the cracked-open door. "Is everything alright? Or did you change your mind about the tour?"
"Oh, um, kind of," Sehun says, the words slipping out in a breathy laugh. He can feel himself relaxing under the focus of Joonmyun's comfortable smile, his muscles releasing the nervous energy pent up in their fiber through his nervous laugh. Sehun holds up the tag on the lanyard looped over his neck and Joonmyun's eyes dart down to examine the badge.
"Oh, well, this is a surprise," he says, letting go of the door knob to push his hair off his forehead with careful fingers. "Are you my volunteer?"
"Yup," Sehun nods, "and it's sort of a surprise for me too. Well, that’s a long story, but..." He waves the badge still his hand before dropping it to swing on the nylon cord. "Here I am, your volunteer, reporting for duty, sir." This time Sehun adds the 'sir' on purpose, snapping his heels together and winking in hopes it comes across as a joke.
It must work, because Joonmyun tips his head back in another laugh, and Sehun finds himself resisting the urge to lean forward for a better view of the fascinating muscle spasms contorting the teacher's face in an explosion of amusement.
"I thought I told you to call me Joonmyun," he says, returning Sehun's wink as he straightens.
Sehun just nods, his gaze flitting down in distraction when Joonmyun's fingers slide along the length of his tie to make sure it's straight and in place. It must be his habit, Sehun thinks, and files that observation away for later.
Joonmyun throws open the door and ushers him into the classroom with a light hand on Sehun’s arm. "Hey guys! We have a friend joining us today!"
"Hi." Sehun forces his lips into what he hopes is a friendly smile, and waves to the cluster of children kneeling and standing in a messy circle at the center of the room. There are carpet squares laid out instead of chairs, but only a few of the kids are actually sitting on them. Some of them are sprawled on their bellies and kicking their heels in the middle of the circle, or wrestling in a puppy heap off to the side.
"Hi!" a girl yells, and waves back with her whole arm. Some of the students smile at Sehun, but most just stare for a moment before returning to their conversations and wrestling matches.
"Hyung?" Tao starts to get up from his seat beside a little girl in a yellow denim jumper, but Sehun winks and mouths a reassurance to him and Tao settles back on his heels.
"Uh, what do you want them to call you?" Joonmyun leans in to ask. “Teacher? Just Sehun?”
"I don't know. Sure?" Sehun says, shrugging his agreement. No one's ever called him teacher before. He's not sure if he'll like it though, and it might be confusing for Tao.
"Hey, that's my hyung," Tao pipes up before Joonmyun can finish his announcement. His words aren’t loud, but they’re decisive enough to be heard over the other voices in the room. "He's my hyung, so be nice." Tao nods once, smoothing back the blonde hair of his new favorite barbie.
A few of the students nod dutifully, as if in response to a parent's warning to play nice with the other kids on the playground.
"Well, I guess that settles that then!" Joonmyun's chuckle sounds like a soft purr in his throat, and Sehun feels a blush creeping up his neck even though he doesn't feel laughed at at all.
"Ok, guys!" Joonmyun calls. His voice is louder, more confident, when it’s projected to the whole room. "Let's clean up in here so we can head outside for a bit!"
"But Teacher!" The girl in the yellow jumper marches forward with her arms folded across her chest. Her slip on sandals flap against the heels of her red socks, and Sehun resists his instinct to slowly back away. He’s slightly alarmed by how a person so tiny can glare with such alarming intensity, unless maybe she's related to Kyungsoo. He'll have to ask Tao later if any of his classmates have the surname Do.
"What is it, Sunmi?" Joonmyun glances over his shoulder at her. He's kneeling on the floor to help his students collect the carpet squares into a neat stack under the window, and crouched on on his knees he’s almost at eye level with Sunmi.
"I don't wanna outside!" Sunmi's jaw juts at a menacing angle as she twists her torso, rocking in side to side in displeasure. "Hot!"
"Well, if you really don't want to go outside, you can stay in here with Sehun--teacher," Joonmyun says, flipping his hair out of his eyes with a twist of his neck. "But is that ok with you, Sehun?"
"Huh?" Sehun blinks back at both pair of eyes facing him. Sunmi's expression looks careful, a tiny wrinkle of uncertainty creasing her forehead, but it relaxes when Sehun crouches down to kneel beside Joonmyun. "Yeah, sure, ok."
"You can play in here if it's too hot, sweetie," Joonmyun says, "but are you sure you don't want to come outside? Just for a bit? You can pay with the bubbles in the shade."
"Hmm..." Sunmi considers for a long moment, twisting the loose curl on the end of her ponytail around her pinky finger. "I guess outside. For first."
"Ok," Joonmyun smiles as he gets to his feet. "You can always come in when you get too tired."
She nods and scampers off as Joonmyun wipes a bit of lint from the front of his slacks.
"Was that a test?" Sehun asks. "Did I fail?" He wobbles a bit when he stretches his legs to stand again.
Joonmyun's laugh is soft but it shakes his shoulders until his tie falls out of order again, the end catching on one of his shirt buttons. "Don't take it like a personal rejection, Sunmi just really likes the soap bubbles."
"Ok." Sehun leans against the table at the front of the room. He wants to help clean up but he’s not sure what to do without getting in the way. Joonmyun is already skirting towards the back of the room to supervise the pick up, and everyone but Sehun seems to have a job. Tao is helping stack blocks into a tub while his classmates line toys and picture books up on the shelves, or drag their desks back into formation at the center of the room.
Once they've finished their assigned tasks the kids head to the shoe lockers. They change out of their slippers and put on street shoes before lining up single file. Even Joonmyun changes his shoes, slipping on a pair of blue nikes he pulls from under the table at the front.
Sehun looks down at his dusty sandals as Joonmyun reties one of his laces, realizing with a jolt of guilt that he probably shouldn't have worn his street shoes into the classroom.
"Ok, ladies and gentlemen! Who is our line leader today?” Joonmyun shifts his weight onto one sneaker, leaning into an awkward arabesque to check the blackboard. Sehun follows his gaze to where a chart of tasks and privileges is taped to the dusty slate. Paper butterflies with the students’ names printed on the wings in large hangul syllables are held in place across the chart with clothespins. “It was Sungyeol, right?"
"Affirmative!" someone squeaks. Sehun twists around to see one of the tallest boys in the class waving his arm.
"Well then come on up here, buddy!" Joonmyun laughs. Sunmi backs up a few inches, just enough to let Sungyeol in front of her at the head of the line, and Joonmyun pushes the door open. "Remember guys, walk! No running in the halls!"
The kids file out of the room with minimal pushing, though Sehun can tell they are looking forward to playtime outside, already chattering to each other about the games they want to play and organizing who gets to use the jump ropes and bubble wands first.
"It's such a relief to have someone helping out again." Joonmyun turns to Sehun with a grateful smile as they follow the kids out the door. "If you weren't here we'd still be doubling up on the playground with one of the other classes."
"Oh," Sehun says, realizing how little he knows about how a kindergarten is run. "How long were you shorthanded for?"
"Two weeks?" Joonmyun tilts his head to the side in thought and his shoulder brushes against Sehun's arm. "A week and a half, I guess. It wasn't terrible, just inconvenient. And it's nice if the students have more space to spread out during playtime."
"Yeah. Oh, and--" Sehun starts, not sure how to phrase his question. But Joonmyun turns to face him, his eyes open and inviting, and Sehun's nerves flutter back down his throat to settle quietly in his gut again. "Uh, my shoes? I mean, should I bring other shoes to change into for the classroom? I'm sorry, I totally didn't think of that for today! Until, like. Now."
"Oh that's ok!" Joonmyun's hand skims Sehun's arm in a vague sort of pat. "When parents come to visit on observation day they don't wear slippers either so it’s not a big deal. But if you're going to be volunteering here for awhile, it wouldn't hurt to bring some slippers. If that's not an inconvenience."
"Oh yeah, for sure," Sehun nods as they head down the steps into the grass. He's not actually sure if he has the appropriate footwear to bring, but he doesn't want to be responsible for making Joonmyun's comfortable smile slip from his features. He has a pretty nice smile, come to think of it, at least when it's gentle like this and not screwing up his features when he laughs.
"How long are you here for, anyway?" Joonmyun is watching the yard from the shade of the awning, observing his charges under a careful gaze as they scatter to sidewalk with a box of chalk, or to hang from the jungle gym that's suspended over a section of cushy rubber matting.
"Just for a week."
The sun is almost overhead now, and their narrow strip of shade at the side of the building will disappear if they stay out here for a full hour.
"Oh really?" Joonmyun's face clouds with a hint of a frown when he turns to face Sehun. "I thought we got to keep you for two. You're the volunteer from the music department at the university, right?"
"Uh, yeah." Sehun tugs at the hem of his shirt, trying to remember. He's pretty sure Yixing said it was only for a week. He only had to volunteer for one last summer, anyway. "I think so? I dunno for sure, but I'll ask."
"Ok." Joonmyun is facing away again, his back flattened against the porch railing. "Either way, we're happy to have you for as long as you can stay!"
"Thanks." Sehun ducks his head in something between a nod and a shallow bow, because the smile Joonmyun beams at him is a little intense. "I'm...happy to be here too," Sehun says, and when Joonmyun pats his arm again before pushing off the rail to help Sunmi with her bubble wand, Sehun feels the sincerity of his words take root, replacing the uncertainty that’s been trapped in his stomach all morning.
+++ +++ +++
part ii