The Red of the Rose | Taeyong

08 | Moon Magic

There are always some classes in a college, or rather always some professors in a college, whose classes everyone wants to attend irrespective of their majors. Professor Moon's classes were such and this particular course that he taught the third years was the class that was well talked about across departments.

Surely enough, this particular class almost always had full attendance. It was tough, yes, but interesting nonetheless because of not only the curriculum set personally by him but also because of the way he taught it.

It was their second class of the day and after overcoming the early morning sleepiness combined with the anticipation of the lecture, the class was bustling with energy.

Taeyong stood at the topmost step of the lecture hall. In the middle column of the hall, he saw Johnny, Yuta and Jaehyun sitting beside Serin, chatting away and two rows above them, maintaining a little distance, sat Doyoung. On the right, sitting in the corner of the front row was Miah. Alone, she was alternating between looking ahead at the podium to the notes in front of her. Her long hair was tied in a loose ponytail today, with a few strands falling on her face which she tucked behind her ear.

'If you flirt with another girl in front of the girl you are trying to win, I don't think you can win the bet.' Serin's words from yesterday passed through his mind and also what she said and did next. If he had to win this bet, all his attention had to be solely focused on Miah from now on.

Without a word to anyone else, and another thought in his head, he walked right past everyone in the lecture hall over to the front row, stopping finally in front of Miah's seat. And, sat beside her as though there was no place other than next to Miah where he was supposed to be.

It took a few seconds for Miah to notice that the person who had just seated himself next to her was Taeyong. When she did, she couldn't hide her gasp given how unexpected this was.

Taeyong smiled to himself seeing Miah's reaction and turned to face her.

'Missed me?' Taeyong had his signature smirk on his face.

Miah made an expression somewhere between confusion and an obvious, 'No, I didn't?' She turned her head to look forward again.

Not getting the desired reaction from Miah, threw Taeyong off, but only for a moment. Patiently, he saw her open her notebook and write something in it. In a bid to gain her attention, he grabbed the pen from her hand.

'Taeyong!' Miah almost yelled.

'Miah?' Taeyong replied back in a teasing tone.

Miah tried to reach for the pen but Taeyong extended his arm all the way to the back. Not realizing the position that she was already in, she practically climbed on top of Taeyong to grab her pen back. Taeyong remained calm, enjoying this closeness to Miah. There was only a moment when Miah's hair brushed softly on his face and he could smell her shampoo. His eyes twinkled with realisation. It was Jasmine. Her hair smelled of Jasmines on a rainy morning. But he quickly shook away the feeling and regained control. And, when her struggles to snatch her pen got too much, Taeyong firmly gripped Miah's waist and sat her back down on her seat. Miah's eyes which were determined a second ago, now held a slight panic in them which Taeyong noticed with only a single glance.

'Am I making you nervous?' Taeyong whispered close to her face.

This cocky remark was enough for Miah to shake off this rising emotion in her, which was now replaced with irritation seeing how arrogant Taeyong was.

She firmly pushed his shoulder back to transfer him back to his own seat. 'Don't you have to go sit with your friends?'

Taeyong raised an eyebrow, amused. 'Aren't we friends too?'

It was becoming extremely difficult for Miah to resist his flirtations. Fortunately, she was saved when Professor Moon entered the class and Taeyong backed off but the smile on his face remained intact knowing full well his charm had worked.

Doyoung, having witnessed this whole scene couldn't feel anything but disgusted seeing his friend stoop so low just to sleep with some girl. He shook his head in disdain.

As Professor Moon descended the steps of the lecture hall, he greeted almost everyone asking them about their weekend plans, whether or not they were doing well in other courses, and he was also stopped by a guy who wanted to talk about his recent break-up, but politely told the boy to meet him after class instead.

Scanning the lecture hall once, he began his class. Miah quickly took out another notebook from her bag and started taking notes. Taeyong leaned back on the seat and just listened.

Today's lecture was on a single excerpt from a novel. Not seeming much at first, the students had only glazed over that part. However, Professor Moon felt a certain kind of magic hidden within the words of that excerpt and was definitely not going to keep it to himself.

It was easy to get lost into Professor Moon's voice. It had a captivating pull almost feeling like being transported into a singular world in which there only exists him and this lecture hall. And, as Taeyong and Miah sat on that front seat side by side, with Professor's voice being the only sound in the room, they felt each other's presence grow lighter beside them feeling both weird and comfortable at the same time. Perhaps it was the magic of Professor Moon's voice.

The class ended, the notes written, the point taken and the assignment given. But before leaving, Professor Moon made an announcement. 'After giving it some thought, I think it's best that the class starts with their term end group project.'

'I know it's a little early,' he added after hearing some groans from the students. 'But you guys will be under a lot of pressure later with exams and projects from other courses hence it's best if you start early. I have divided the class into groups of four. You will find the list attached to the board outside the hall. I'll email this list to you as well along with other instructions and submission deadlines.'

With this, Professor Moon briskly walked out of the class, waving a hand to the guy from earlier who wanted to talk about his break-up, asking him to follow.

Slowly, the students were filing out of the lecture hall through the two lean exits. Climbing the steps of the classroom in front of Miah, Taeyong was calculating whether or not he should give Miah more attention for now. While he needed to make Miah feel special, he also needed to keep enough distance to not come off as annoying and be able to still maintain his reputation.

Whatever decision he made was useless, since ultimately, he didn't speak a word to her after the lecture ended given that his head was occupied with this.

Outside the classroom, the students clustered around the notice board. Pushing a guy aside, Taeyong simply walked away, not wanting to be anywhere near that crowd. But when he heard Miah's voice saying, 'I am so happy we are in the same group,' he had to turn around to see who she was talking to. In front of Miah, stood Doyoung with a smile on his face.

He doesn't know what came over him, but all of a sudden Taeyong wanted to know the groups. He walked back towards the notice board. Pushing and shoving through the crowd, not that he had to do a lot of it since people moved aside on their own when they saw who was behind them, he made his way to the front.

'Miah, Miah, Miah' His mind was chanting while his finger was gliding over the notice.

'Jang Miah!' He found her name but not his in the same group as hers.