Collateral Love | Tao

Chapter 2

"But maybe I'm not," He held up my phone, a message from Sehun lit up the screen.

Sehun: busy with what? Hanging out with your boyfriend, Mr. Huang? Jk lol

"He said he was just kidding," My face flushed again, "You shouldn't be reading my messages anyways."

"It popped up. I couldn't help it," He laughed, "Why are you so embarrassed if it's just a joke?"

"I'm not embarrassed. Can we just get back to what we were doing?" I tried hard
to hide my obvious embarrassment. Seven o'clock couldn't come fast enough. I was so going to punch Sehun tomorrow, "It's seven, it's time for me to go now."

"See you tomorrow morning. No goofing off in my class."

"No promises. Eat shit, Mr. Huang," I waved goodbye

"No more saying that to me either."

"I'll say whatever I want," I remembered he still had my phone, "Good night, Mr. Huang, have a lovely evening."

"You too," He smiled and put my phone in my hand.

Me: Sehun, you dumbass, he took my phone from me and he saw that message!

Sehun: well now he knows you're in love with him I guess.

Me: I'm not in love with him! He's my teacher, it's just wrong.

Sehun: Are you sure you're not trying to flirt your way into passing?

Me: Okay, now you're starting to piss me off, Sehun. Knock it off.

Texting while walking was one of my many bad habits. An arm grabbed me around the waist, "You almost ran into that open locker. Watch where you are walking," He let go of me.

"What? Are you following me, Mr. Huang?"

"No, I'm just going the same direction."

I didn't even notice, he could've been looking at my text messages over my shoulder the whole time. I quickly shut off my phone and put it in my bag. Only to have my mom call it soon after, "Hello?"

"Are you done? I'm out in the parking lot waiting for you."

"Yeah, I'll be out in a minute."

Mr. Huang held the door open for me, luckily it was dark outside so he couldn't see my blushing face.

"Is he a student?" My mom asked.

"No, he's my new Chinese teacher."

"He's super good looking."

"I think so too, we must have similar tastes."

"Is this why you're suddenly interested in staying after school?"

"No, my Chinese seriously isn't good, but his good looks make it easier."

When I got home I tried to find Mr. Huang on every social media I had. You wouldn't believe how many people are out there with the last name Huang, but I did find him on Instagram. Huang Zitao was his full name, I was surprised he even kept his account public. His biography told me pretty much everything I needed to know, that he's 22, single, and also that he had a super cute dog. I looked at a picture of him in the pool. Man, he was so hot. I accidentally clicked the like button, "No, shit, go back," I tried to unlike it but my phone screen was frozen, "Why aren't you working?!" It died, my phone freaking died after I liked my teacher's shirtless pool picture. I plugged it in and called Sehun on the house phone.

"Hello? Why are you calling me on your house phone?"

"I have an emergency. Code red! Double code red! This is bad!"

"Double code red? Who's old Instagram post did you accidentally like?"

"Mr. Huang's shirtless pool picture! And before I could unlike it, my phone died!"

"Crap, maybe he won't know it's you."

"Who else would CJlovespandas be? I made it very clear to him that my name is CJ too! Also, he can look at my account and see my selfies and know it's me!"

"Maybe he'll take it as a sign and you two will get a little steamy after school tomorrow. Man, I wouldn't mind getting a little steamy with him myself," Sehun laughed, "Not really, I'm not weird like you."

"Oh, my gosh, Sehun," I rolled my eyes, "Wait, my phone turned back on, I'm just going to unlike it."

"He probably already saw it."

I went back to his account but nothing showed up, "He blocked me! That asshole!"

Sehun burst out laughing, "Well if I was a teacher and my student liked my shirtless picture I'd probably block them."

"Nobody wants to see you shirtless!" I hung up and groaned. This was so humiliating.