seungmin had just unwrapped his chopsticks when hyeongjun scurried over, eyes filled with curiosity. "what's your lunch, teacher?" he asked, peering at the neatly packed bento. before seungmin could answer, gunil leaned in too. "teacher, who made your lunchbox?" his pause was brief, but jungsu caught it immediately. his eyes widened as he gasped, "your girlfriend??"

silence hung for a second before the entire class erupted. jooyeon nearly fell off his chair, hyeongjun gasped like he had discovered a hidden treasure, and jiseok—oh, jiseok—looked completely betrayed. "teacher has a girlfriend?!" he blurted out, looking at the others in disbelief. gunil and jungsu exchanged knowing grins, while jooyeon muttered about trust being broken. even kids from the other tables turned to listen, sensing something huge had been revealed.

normally, you were here to help wrangle their attention elsewhere, but today, you were too busy to visit, leaving seungmin to handle them alone. he sighed before finally admitting, "yeah, i do have a girlfriend." the class went dead silent for a second before the chaos exploded again. jiseok huffed dramatically, "how come you never told us?!" jooyeon covered his mouth in exaggerated shock, and hyeongjun excitedly whispered, "he said yes, he said yes!"

seungmin groaned, rubbing his temples as they continued their over-the-top reactions. still, despite their dramatics, he couldn’t help but smile. even if they were absolute menaces, they made every day unpredictable—and he already knew that later, he’d be telling you all about the kindergarten-level investigation he had just survived.