After classes ended, Seungwan insisted on staying with Taehyung and Haneul until the driver arrived to pick them up. Taehyung did not want it, though, but Seungwan is a really persistent person aside from her feisty personality. She may be very sweet towards her students and parents but if it came to proving her point or keeping her stand, she makes sure to come out triumphant.

“I told you that you don’t have to be here with us today,” The man repeats for the nth time this afternoon, holding onto Haneul’s small hand as they stand by the school gates. 

Seungwan shakes her head vehemently and declares, “I am making sure that I stay with you until you enter that car. I’m not leaving the two of you alone.” Then she bends forward, placing her hands on her knees to be at the same eye-level as Haneul. “Haneul-ah, you wouldn’t mind if I’m here, right?”

“Wan, don’t lead him on.”

Haneul though shakes his head softly, his wide eyes looking straight at the female teacher. Seungwan stands straight and smirks knowingly at the man in front of her. “See? The kid knows better. Give me a high-five, Haneul.” She presents her hand at Haneul and he high-fives it with his free hand. 

Taehyung breathes out a defeated sigh and chuckles lightly as he watches his co-teacher interact with his student. Bae Joohyun was very straightforward when it came to explaining the conditions she set in order for Taehyung to truly do what he promised. 

“You go home with him when Yoongi arrives to fetch him. If ever he has homework, help him with it. And for your free time, you do whatever you planned to do to quote unquote ‘help him and bring him out of his shell’ because apparently, you claim that I don’t do that.”

After that humiliating phone call, Taehyung did not say anything further. He has caused enough damage by questioning the integrity of a mother. He does not want to rub salt in the wound. So he agreed to the arrangement and is now ready to take care of Haneul just as he promised. 

Haneul, though, was excited when his mother told him and Taehyung found out about it when he couldn’t stop whispering into his ear about how his teacher will finally play with him in his room.

“I finally have someone I can show my dinosaurs to aside from Umma!” The young boy added in a whisper which led to Taehyung’s heart starting to clench in pain. It also gave him the strength he needed to know that he is doing this for Haneul. He is not doing it for Bae Joohyun, but solely for Bae Haneul. 

A familiar car suddenly pulls up right by the school gates and the driver gets out before closing the door behind him.

“Mister Min!” Haneul greets the man in a soft exclaim. 

Yoongi smiles at him, walking toward them. “Hey, kiddo," he greets the young boy back. He clears his throat and makes his stance straight again when he faces Taehyung. "Good afternoon, Mister Kim." 

"T-Taehyung's just fine. Good afternoon to you, too." 

Yoongi nods his head in assent. "I see. Miss Bae instructed me with what to do, so I guess we should head back home now-" 

"Son Seungwan," the female teacher suddenly speaks, reaching over to grab the hand of the driver and shakes it. 

"Oh," Yoongi gasps in shock. "Well, uh, a pleasure to meet you-"

"I'm Taehyung's co-teacher," Seungwan cuts him off again. 

Taehyung mutters strictly, "Wan." 

Haneul just quietly watches the three grown-ups, making sure that he's still holding onto his teacher's hand.

"I see that as well," Yoongi utters, clearly unsure of the situation and why this weird woman is acting in such a manner. He pulls his hand away from her grasp and wipes it down his coat. "Pleasure to meet you," he says, though his voice dripped with uncertainty. 

"You better take care of them, okay?" Seungwan continues, throwing Yoongi a stern look. “Teacher Kim and Haneul must arrive at the house safe and sound.” She points a finger at him which causes Yoongi to raise an eyebrow at her as he stifles a laugh threatening to come out of his mouth. 

“Trust me, Miss Son. You have my word. Now, I think that it’s about time we must get going or else,” Yoongi pauses to bend down a bit to meet the gaze of the young boy, “your Umma, Haneul, might get mad at your teacher.”

------------

Haneul instantly pulled Taehyung with him the minute they got out of the very quiet and awkward car ride. Yoongi could not even stop the two of them. The young boy ran as fast as his little legs could take him, so it wasn’t a problem for the older man when it came to keeping up his pace. 

After taking off their shoes, Taehyung was led through the living room which looks bigger now with more lights illuminating the area. He got a glimpse of the wide and clean kitchen just as they entered this corridor lined with doors leading to different rooms, perhaps bedrooms or storage rooms. Haneul’s room is located at the farthest part of the corridor since Taehyung spots the handmade puppets they made for a class activity taped in front of the door. 

“Welcome to my room!” Haneul announces happily, turning the knob of his door and pushes it open. It’s dark inside so he tiptoes to reach the switch for the lights. He clicks on a button at the side and warm incandescent lights light up the room and the view before Taehyung makes him look around the kid’s room in awe. 

It is as if he is in front of his dream room when he was a young boy. 

Glow-in-the-dark stars and planets of the solar system are pasted on the ceiling with some dangling from thin nylon strings. There is a navy blue shelf filled with different toy models of dinosaurs and complete Lego sets of different cars and air vehicles from the Star Wars movies franchise. Haneul’s bed is in the shape of a racecar and there is a plushie of Winnie the Pooh sitting between two pillows covered in navy blue cases. There are some toys scattered on the ground and the teacher notices a clear plastic box filled with children’s storybooks placed beside the bed. 

“Wow,” Taehyung musters to say out loud. He enters the room just as Haneul energetically starts to jump on his bed. “H-Haneul, please be careful!”

“Don’t worry about me, Teacher Kim!” Haneul purposely lands on his butt and then climbs out of his bed to open the plastic container filled with books. “Umma told me that you’re here to read a lot of storybooks with me! There’s a lot to start with. I like the one about the monkey and the turtle and…”

As Haneul continued to ramble on about the different stories he likes while taking out some of the books from the pile to place them on his bed, Taehyung found it astonishing that his student is talking a lot. He did have a feeling that Haneul would feel more comfortable at home, but he did not expect that he would open up to his teacher immediately. 

The young boy has always had problems with the assessments given in school and his silence never led him to create friendships with his fellow classmates. Thankfully, his classmates do not bother him but they are too complacent to even try to talk to him. 

If only Taehyung could bring the young boy’s attitude at home to school, then he has to make sure who Bae Haneul really is.

“Haneul,” the man starts slowly, placing his bag on the ground as he takes a seat on the kid’s bed. “What is your favorite book?”

“Oh!” Haneul begins to rummage through the pile of books then pulls one out from the bottom. He grunts a bit under his breath, exerting effort to pull out the softbound book. “Here.” he presents the book, breathing heavily while smiling widely at his teacher. “T-Tubble Wa-Wu…” Haneul tries to pronounce the words but his mouth wouldn’t go that wide to make the correct sounds of the syllables. 

Taehyung finds it amusing to watch him try. He chuckles softly then reads the title out loud, “Tubble Wubble: The Clumsy Little Turtle. It sounds like a very good book.”

Haneul nods and jumps to sit beside his teacher just as Taehyung opens the book to its first page and then the next. The teacher skims through it, noting the watercolor artwork accompanied with bold letters making up words on every page for easy reading. “Why do you like this book, Haneul?”

“Tobble Wabble is so messy, he keeps on falling,” the young boy answers then burst into a fit of giggles. “It’s so funny. The pictures are so funny!”

Taehyung laughs softly along with him and follows up with another question, “Do you want to read it along with me?” To his surprise, the boy shakes his head. 

“I want to play with you, Teacher Kim!” 

“O-Oh, I mean, we can play later Haneul. First, I think we should read-”

“No, no.” The boy gets to his feet then runs to the doorway. “We’re going to play hide and seek! You’re it, start counting!” 

“Haneul!” The boy does not wait for his teacher to even continue as he dashes out of the room to find a hiding place. “Oh, shoot!” Taehyung grumbles and gets to his feet. He goes out of the room and looks around the corridor for any sign of where the boy went for this is not the time to play! Bae Joohyun is going to kill him once she finds out that they did not do what they agreed with. “Haneul?” he calls out loudly and rushes to the living room, craning his neck to look around the area. Bae Joohyun is not yet home and perhaps Yoongi might be around the house somewhere, and if he hears Taehyung’s voice he could help him find the boy. But the house is quiet, too quiet for the likes of anyone. 

Where the heck is the kid?! It’s nothing in between. It’s either he is this very shy student in school who wouldn’t talk to anyone near him or he is this very energetic boy at home who treats his house as his own playground. Taehyung hasn’t even spent an hour in this house and is now expected to find his way around on his own. Talk about a weird kind of an adventure. 

By the process of deduction, Taehyung tries to think like a child and see where he would hide. A child like Haneul is definitely competitive, perhaps a bit ego-centric if he were to look at it psychologically. Haneul would not be in an open area where he would be easy to find, so it’s wise to cross out the garage, living room, and kitchen. Also, it took the boy a very short time to find a spot to hide in so he must be nearby. Taehyung groans inwardly as the realization hits him. This means that the boy might be hiding in one of the rooms Taehyung has never entered. Yes, who wouldn’t love a house tour done on their own? He thought sarcastically. This is what he gets from choosing to do things on his own, and he can't blame the young child with the clear fact that Haneul is not the adult in this situation. 

Taehyung turns and heads back to the corridor where there are three other doors and he is hoping and praying hard that Haneul is in one of them. He approaches the nearest door to him and places his hand on the doorknob to twist it open. It stops midway, indicating that it’s locked. 

Hmm, would Haneul do something like that? It would be considered cheating if ever the boy resorted to locking the door to the room where he might be hiding. To be sure, Taehyung knocks on the door and calls out his name gently, “Haneul? Haneul, are you there?” He presses his right ear against the wood of the door, expecting to hear some shuffling of objects or light footsteps from the other side but he hears nothing. Sighing loudly, he moves his head away and goes to the other door, not wasting any more time because he can check that room again just in case. 

Fortunately, the other room is not locked and Taehyung breathes out a sigh of relief, feeling a bit less anxious. This doesn’t mean that his anxiety has gone down a lot. The feeling of an empty pit of a stomach could describe the uncertainty and dread the man is currently feeling. He carefully pushes the door open and it creaks as it moves. “H-Haneul?” It’s dark inside, so Taehyung runs his hand over the wall inside and finds the button he hopes acts as a switch for the lights. He presses it and the lights on the ceiling do turn on. 

“Haneul, are you…” his voice trails off when the room renders him speechless. 

The room is not that wide, but it’s the shelf lined with almost a hundred different vinyl records in their individual cardboard boxes that captures the attention of the man. Beside the shelf is a wooden table with a turntable on it. It was as if his pair of feet had a mind of its own as they led him straight to the shelf to look and be amazed at the collection of vinyl records. There is a label for each, it is taped on the shelf under each record. The music ranged from classical music composed by Tchaikovsky or Chopin to the different kinds of rock such as The Beatles, Bee Gees, and The Beach Boys. The temptation to grab one and bring the record out of the box almost killed Taehyung on the spot. The main thought of finding Haneul is immediately thrown out of the window as the sight of fading colors on the old vinyl records and their intoxicating smell fill his senses. 

He must be dead since he is in pure music heaven now. Maybe it won’t hurt to touch and inspect one of the vinyl records. He could just reach out for one and take it out of its container. He does not need to play it since seeing it alone is enough for him to satisfy this desire building up in him. Taehyung purses his lips and brings one arm up, aiming to take out one of the albums of The Beatles. He just needs to stretch some more until his hand lands on its container and he can take it out delicately-

He jumps in place when he’s suddenly caught red-handed by someone’s loud voice behind him. “What the hell are you doing in here?!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

I hope you liked this chapter!

I also won't be updating this book for some time :)

My impulsive ass bought Wendy's album and now im crying because im excited to receive it and that im broke 😭💖

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