The Teacher's Pet

Filler Chapter: Persuasive

A/N: A small filler chapter for The Teacher's Pet, inspired by my moot Ate Mira's tweet on how they were talking about their professor behind his back without realizing one of their classmates is his wife. Thought it was pretty cute to put it in TTP universe, so here we are with a short little chapter!

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A thick stack of printed material was dropped heavily from across the table, causing Yejin to jump in surprise.

That was uncharacteristic of her classmate Jiwon, who was definitely one of the nicest people she knew.

"Jiwon? Are you okay?"

Pulling a chair out, Jiwon sank into her seat, shaking her head in disbelief as she gestured at the readings in front of her.

"Professor Hyun is assuming everyone has the time and energy to do all the readings. Who does? Regular folks like us need to work." Jiwon lamented, burying her head in her hands. "I wonder if he even reads half the tutorial readings himself before coming to class."

"He does. All of it."

"Huh? How do you know that?"

Oh shit.

Realizing she had said the wrong thing, Yejin coughed and spluttered, hurriedly placing her glass of iced tea down on the table.

"I mean...well, the professor seems to know everything. So I guess it makes sense to assume he has read the materials in detail." She hurriedly explained, raising a hand to her lips to conceal a series of light coughs.

Truth is, they had read the course materials together.

On the couch. Over hot coffee.

In fact, Hyun Bin was the one who had guilt-tripped/nagged her into going through all her readings.

Not exactly the greatest perk of dating your professor.

"I guess that makes sense. He's always well-prepared for class." Hae In interrupted, his eyes glued on the AirPod ear buds in his hands as he tried to figure out which side was which. "There's no denying that Professor Hyun is extremely knowledgeable, but..."

His sentence trailed, drawing the attention of the two girls.

"But?" Jiwon asked, as Yejin quietly listened, suddenly not too sure if she should be participating in this conversation.

"Okay, this stays here but...do you get a feeling that Professor Hyun hates me?"

Well, hate is too strong a word.

He doesn't exactly fancy you too much, but you don't have to know that, Yejin replied inwardly, taking a long sip on her tea to keep her mouth in check.

Instead, she replied with a small frown, "Why would he hate you?"

"Maybe because I talk too much in class." Hae In guessed, adding, "You know, he is always asking me these unreasonably long questions that my brain can't even begin to process. Jiwon talks in class too, yeah? But he never throws those crazy questions at her. If you just observe, you'll notice that it's always me..."

Nodding with what she hoped was a sympathetic smile, Yejin froze when Hae In's eyes suddenly widened.

"Oh! Wait a minute. I realized something." He mumbled, before looking up to point at her.

"What?"

"It always happens when I talk to you in class!"

Ahhh. Shit.

Bin should never have made it so obvious.

"...really?" Yejin feebly replied, until another feminine voice interrupted.

"Nah, that can't be. Professor Hyun is always so cold and stoic, there is no way he is interested in Yejin, or other women, if that is what you're insinuating."

Thank God for Jiwon.

"It's a shame, though. Can you even imagine dating this man? Or having sex with him? Well, he doesn't give me the gay vibes, but he probably is asexual. "

Yes, hell yes, and no, he is VERY sexual.

"Too bad he seems more interested in his books than anything else." The older girl shook her head in exasperation. "Speaking of which, the deadline is nearing for the public policy proposal write-up. Are you guys done with it?"

Both Yejin and Hae In shook their heads; it would most likely end up being a last minute mad rush to complete the assignment.

"I can't believe he gave us only five days to complete the sample proposal. What a slave driver. That's only two days away! We're not going to make it."

In Bin's defense, five days is a fair amount of time if one had started working on it immediately upon being assigned.

But who does that?

She might be living under one roof now with the professor, but nope, she hasn't even gotten started on writing. That was partly his fault; he wouldn't stop watching Vincenzo and of course, the TV proved to be too distracting.

"I'll get a deadline extension for all of us." Yejin spoke up, staring determinedly at her friends.

Hae In narrowed his eyes. "You sound too confident. What makes you think the professor will approve the extension?"

"Let's just say, I can be very, very persuasive."