like a volcano | minsung (and a hell lot of other ships) ✓

𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑦-𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑒𝑒.

"Good morning, class."

Jisung, who was about to nudge a sleeping Felix to wake him up, stopped right there. He looked at Seungmin, who was flabbergasted. He shared a look with Jisung, a look that screamed,

Did Mr. Kim just wish us a good morning?

The said teacher looked very tired with bags under his eyes. He picked his notes and stared at them briefly, as if contemplating something. Then he sighed and put his notes on the table. He dragged the chair closer to the class and sat down.

"Today we're not studying." He smiled.

If he had expected the class to cheer and burst into applause, he was disappointed. The students were dead silent, too shocked to even say something.

"I must have been too much of an asshole, then." He continued smiling. Next to Jisung, Seungmin seemed to be recovered and whispered, "About fucking time you realized." Jisung burst into silent laughter. Behind him, Yunho whispered, "What's with the sudden character development?"

"Your friend Lee Felix over there seems to be having quite a peaceful time sleeping." He smiled at Jisung, who jumped in fright and tried to wake Felix up desperately.
"No, it's okay, he must be tired. Don't wake him, Jisung." And Jisung stopped.

"Did he just call you by your first name, Jisung?" Mingi whispered.
"Shut up or he'll call you out next," Seungmin whispered back. He thought the sudden behaviour change was dangerously suspicious.

"I wanted to say a few things today." Mr. Kim began. "A little story time. I treated you like bullshit. And here's my pathetic excuse."

San looked alarmed. "Why is he swearing so much? Was he gen z all along?" He whispered to Minho. Seungmin gestured him to keep quiet, which he saw.

"What kind of plot twist are we about to hear-"
"Wooyoung shut up!" Seungmin whispered harshly.

"I know you're whispering among yourselves. It is about time I tell you about myself," He chuckled. Yet there was bitterness in his voice.

"There was once a boy. He was small. Fragile. And he was bright, very bright. So bright, in fact, that the whole family and the neighbourhood gave his examples to their children. At a young age, he had studied a lot. He always stood at first place at curricular and co-curricular activities. He was an ideal and a role model for all of his school." He paused there.

Yeonjun and Soobin turned around, maybe to express their shock, but Seungmin pressed his finger on his lips. "Don't speak!"

"When he graduated school," Mr. Kim continued, "He was carrying more medals than anyone else. Now it was time for college. And at college, he met the love of his life. They were sweethearts. The point is, the boy's parents had a lot of expectations. Too much. So the boy sacrificed his sleep and gave up teenage life for his goals. The only thing that gave him solace was his girlfriend. Once they had a date and the girl was waiting. She waited and waited, but the boy was held back because of his parents. Once they let him go, he ran towards the girl on the other side of the road. It was raining hard and they were drenched. The girl ran towards him, desperate to see him after so long.

But it was raining. A vehicle broke the signal and went ahead. Since the ground was slippery, the truck couldn't stop in time and the girl died on the spot." His voice got heavy. He paused for a bit.

"The driver ran away and the boy ran towards the nearby hospital with the girl in his arms. She couldn't survive and the boy was drowned in her blood. From the day on, he hated his parents. The boy fell in depression and other mental diseases. He couldn't study properly and couldn't accomplish his goals. So his parents were very disappointed. And they disowned him." His voice was bitter.

"What kind of parents would do that, right? But some parents are assholes, you know. Anyway, the boy had only enough to enroll in a cheap university to major in history. He had no money to eat, so he started a tuition. To teach kids so that he could pay his bills. The kids were assholes and he was soft with them, because they were only kids. But he couldn't afford his antidepressants, and one of the kids failed in his exam.

The parents were very angry and he couldn't take it. The mental boy began being strict and hard with them and they produced 100% results. From that day, he hated kids but had no other choice than to teach them. So he eventually majored and became a teacher." He smiled.

"I think you all know who this boy was."

They slowly nodded, processing all this new information. They had blamed him so much for being strict, they forgot to think why he was strict. To get 100% results. Wooyoung, most specifically, hated him and called him abusive and right now he had his head hung low.

"I hope you don't think that I don't know what you speak of me behind my back," Mr. Kim was smiling again. "It was for your own good, but because of my mental health and my trauma, you had to suffer intensely. I want to apologize for that. I'm sorry. I would like to hug you all."

Ryujin looked surprised at Lia, whose eyes were slightly teary. Mr. Kim stood up and hugged each and every student. Wooyoung stared at him with his mouth open. The bell rang, and he picked up his notes. He glanced one last time at them before smiling,
"See you."

"Okay, but what the hell was all that about?!" Minho exclaimed once they reached the cafeteria, out of Mr. Kim's earshot.
"No idea, why was he acting so strange?" Chan appeared by his side.

"He did it in your class too?" Seungmin asked.
"Yeah, told us his life story and hugged us all. Wonder why."

"What happened?" Jake and Jeongin, who were passing, asked them. "You guys seem stressed." Jeongin and Seungmin ignored each other.
"We aren't stressed, but something real strange happened today. Wanna hear?"
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"Jisung hurry up, we're late!" Felix half yelled at Jisung on his phone, standing outside his gate. They were going to school.
"I'm coming, oh my god!" Jisung yelled back on the phone. He had overslept and was frantically trying to get ready.

A while later he joined Felix at the gate and they both ran as fast as they could. Thankfully they were able to make it to school 2 minutes before classes started.

They ran up the stairs with Felix cursing the administration and by the time they reached their class, their legs felt like they'd fall off any minute.

"What took you so long?" Seungmin asked and he removed his stuff from their chairs. He was saving them seats.

They were panting so hard they couldn't say anything for a while. Then Felix explained and their Chemistry class began. For a while, things were okay.

"And that's how Van Der Waal corrected the ideal gas eq- excuse me," Ms. Kang said, as her phone rang. "Why is the principal calling- oh it's a message from the school, why would they disrupt the classes? Let me see."

She read the message and stared at the screen in shock. For a while, she didn't move. Felix seemed terrified.
"What if there's a fire? What if terrorists have broken in? I didn't get to say goodbye to my parents and sisters today, I was in a hurry, oh my god," he panicked. Jisung held his hand.

"Calm down, Lix, it's gonna be okay," Jisung said. Though he couldn't help but feel very uneasy.

Ms. Kang recovered from her shock and said. "The administration wants me to order you to form a line, and move outside in the grounds. There is an announcement. Be quick." And she swiftly walked outside.

"My legs haven't recovered!" Jisung groaned and Seungmin helped him get up. They did as Ms. Kang told them and walked outside.

Once they were in the line, the principal stepped in front of the dice and adjusted the mic. "You all might be wondering why you were summoned here. We have an announcement to make."

Hyunjin held Felix's hand in his own to calm Felix since he was worrying. Jisung looked around and made eye contact with Minho, who nodded reassuringly.

The principal, Sir Bang, sighed somberly.

"We are very sorry to announce that one of the staff of this school, Kim Hyojin, has passed away due to suicide."

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GUYS ENHYPEN DROPPED AOTY TRAILER AND ITS SO GORGEOUS WTF
ALSO MY BOY SUNOOOO 😭😭
IT REALLY IS A MIXTURE OF MANIFESTO AND DARK BLOOD AHH
CANT WAITTT