"You seem... strangely happy today, Matt."
That was what Eve had said out of the blue in the middle of breakfast. It really startled Matt, making him look up from his stack of pancakes.
"Oh, uh, what do you mean?"
He chuckled nervously, which wasn't helping the situation at all. Eve paused and took a sip of coffee, though she still managed to throw him a doubtful look as she did so.
"You've been grinning from ear to ear ever since we started eating, Matt," she continued as she put her mug down. "And this has happened constantly for more than a month, not just today. I only have a chance to bring this up now because the others aren't here yet."
Crap, am I that obvious? he thought and panicked on the inside while putting up a smile. "Ah, well, it's just, uh, there's been something good lately so-"
"And that is?"
She asked without even waiting for him to finish his sentence, which was very unlike her. He sweated, realizing that he had accidentally dug a bigger grave for himself. He glanced back and forth as he tried to buy some more time to think.
She did nothing but stared at him with expecting eyes, wordlessly pressuring him into spilling the tea. Her calm posture wasn't helping either. She was patiently waiting without saying a single word, yet he somehow got the mental image that she was aggressively urging him to just give in and tell her the truth already. Chills went down his spine as his vivid imagination continued to consume his very soul, making it quite a challenge to think properly. Was this some kind of girls' secret weapon? Because it was surely working.
"I, uh, I'm just happy that my grades for this semester are pretty good!"
That seemed like a strange thing to be overly happy about for more than a month, but as long as he could bluff his way out of this situation, he was fine with whatever excuse he could come up with.
Skepticism was written all over her face. She looked like she was about to press him further when they suddenly heard Chloe walking out from her bedroom. Eve quickly dropped the subject and nonchalantly greeted the red-headed girl as if she didn't just turn breakfast into an interrogation a few seconds ago. Matt secretly let out a sigh of relief, silently expressing his most sincere gratitude to Chloe.
There's no way she knew already, he thought as he anxiously used his fork to slightly poke his pancake, carefully observing Eve's behaviors without making her notice it.
It had been more than three months since Matt and Ray started dating and things had been going very well. No word could describe how delighted they both felt. Every time when Ray's class was up next, Matt would be unable to hold back a grin. During the lecture, Ray would occasionally pass him a sneaky yet charming smile that was meant for him only. Even if it was just for a brief moment, it made butterflies flutter in his stomach as his heartbeat increased, his face reddening to the point that he had to use his hand to cover his face. When they suddenly saw each other outside the classroom, there would be a strange but sweet and tingling air around them as they talked. And if they couldn't see each other for a while, then text messages would become where they exchange all their words of love and endearment with one another.
Every day felt like heaven itself, but showing affection to each other was not an easy thing to do. They still had to keep in mind that Matt hadn't graduated yet, that there was still something called professionalism between them. College was always a place full of people, so they had to try their very best to keep themselves together and not do anything that would cross the line between a professor and a student. Not to mention that Matt's friends were with him almost all the time, so every time they were with him, he always had to force himself to see his boyfriend as his professor so that he wouldn't accidentally go overboard. He knew that Ray had been doing the same thing as well, trying to look at his partner the way he looked at any of his students.
Even at the coffee shop where Matt worked, they still couldn't be intimate with each other. Even though it wasn't the university, it was still near it, so students and professors from their college went there quite often. They couldn't risk being caught by someone who worked or studied at their university. Therefore, if they wanted to spend some time together, they both found it way more comfortable to meet up somewhere far away from campus. Sometimes, Ray would ask his TA to come to his house to help him, and after that, they would either work or cuddle in each other's arms, or both. Keeping their relationship a secret was, without doubt, a very difficult task. But hand in hand, they made sure that everything worked out.
No, maybe Eve's just suspicious because I was acting weird, not because she knows I'm dating our professor, Matt tried to reassure himself. I just need to watch what I do and I'll be good.
"Hey, don't we have O-Chem this morning?" asked Chloe.
"Yeah," Ethan answered before yawning.
A wide smile threatened to make its way up to Matt's face because he knew it was Ray's class. Luckily, he had seen it coming and managed to suppress it in time.
She's not suspicious about me and Ray, she's just weirded out by my behaviors. Yeah, that's surely the case.
Matt was still trying to convince himself to believe that conclusion the moment Eve snuck a quick glance at him.
__________
Their organic chemistry lecture soon ended. Ray didn't call Matt to come talk to him at the podium, so Matt just managed to secretly give him a smile before walking out with his friends. However, they did run into each other outside the classroom a few hours later, and this encounter wasn't a good one.
Matt had just finished his Biology class with Eve, which was also his last one in the morning, so now they were on their way back to the dorm. Seemingly still terrified by the event that had happened during breakfast, he was having a very hard time talking normally to her. She looked and acted just like her typical self, but he strangely felt uneasy.
After that interrogation this early morning, he had been nervous the whole day. Whenever he wanted to start a conversation with her, he always had to mentally prepare himself in case she just abruptly brought it up again. He knew that she wouldn't speak of it with Chloe and Ethan around, but those two weren't here at the moment, which meant there was absolutely no guarantee that she wouldn't talk about it. For that reason, that internal fear kept getting bigger as second went by, slowly but agonizingly killing him on the inside. If she decided to strike now, there would be nowhere for him to hide.
Just when he started to feel like she was going to attack, someone spoke up from afar.
"Matt! Matt! Is that you?"
Matt looked ahead to see a very familiar person running up to him. Looking more closely, he smiled widely upon recognizing that man.
"Leo, it's really you!" Matt exclaimed happily. "What a surprise seeing you here!"
"Same here!" Leo chuckled. "Man, look at you, it's like you never changed. You're still shorter than me!"
Matt was frozen on the spot, his self-esteem shattering at those words. He tried to quickly heal his aching heart as Leo mockingly used his hand to compare their drastic difference in height. "It's our first time seeing each other again and you chose to say that of all the amazing things you could've told me. Really now."
Eve giggled. "You must be really good friends."
"Yeah, he's my friend from high school." Matt turned to her, all the while still trying to recover from the painful fact stated by his old friend. "We sat next to each other in Chem. He studies Forensic Chem, so we haven't seen each other much ever since we entered college."
"Hello, I'm Leo, nice to meet you." Leo introduced himself to Eve.
"Nice to meet you too, Leo." She returned his friendly smile. "I'm Eve, Matt's suitemate."
"Matt's suitemate?" Leo suddenly had a smirk on his face. "Then... after we graduate, can you check and see if he ever grows an inch higher?"
Both of them burst out laughing while Matt just stood there, silently sulking. To comfort himself, he tried to find a positive thing here. The teasing was indeed not pleasant at all, but at least the tension between him and Eve would go away for a while.
Well, the tension was gone until a few minutes later, and it wasn't coming from Eve this time.
Matt was chatting with Leo about their old high school days when a chill suddenly ran down his spine. For some reason, he chose to turn his head to his left and his body immediately jolted. Standing not so far away was his beloved, but he didn't look happy at all. His blue eyes were dark, narrowed and staring straight at Matt. His eyebrows were slightly knitted and there wasn't a gentle smile on his lips. His hand was gripping the folder quite forcefully as a scary aura emitted from him, continuing to make Matt shiver.
"H-Hello, p-professor!" Matt stuttered, almost slipping up and calling him by his first name. "We, uh, meet again!"
The other two also greeted him, but Ray just nodded his head, which terrified Matt even more. Ray always returned his students' greetings properly, so it was very unusual of him to stay silent.
"I've been looking for you, Matthew." The way Ray emphasized his name was barely noticeable, but it was enough to startle him. His low tone wasn't helping, either. "May I ask for your assistance this afternoon?"
Normally, Matt would have literally jumped in joy whenever he got a chance to be with his boyfriend. But right now, he wasn't really sure if he was happy to hear that request, not when his professor was staring into his eyes with that unsettling gaze. He gulped as he tried to remain as calm as possible.
"Y-Yes, of course, professor," he replied with a rather wavering voice. "What time can I come?"
"Three o'clock." Ray gave him an answer immediately, but Matt could see that he actually meant something else. When he said the time, he brought up his watch and touched its surface. To some people, it was probably just a habit, but Matt was certain that it wasn't. The moment Ray touched his watch, he deliberately pointed his finger at the number six, signaling Matt that the actual meeting time was six o'clock.
What made Matt confused was not the fact that Ray lied about the time. Since they needed to hide their romantic relationship, they had to make it seem like they were just meeting up as professor and student. A professor telling a student to see him alone late at night, at six in the evening, was undeniably suspicious, so Ray was cautious about it. Whenever he wanted to take Matt on a night date, he would always text him about it instead of telling him in person, no matter how eager he was. Therefore, it was very odd of him to secretly use gestures like that.
"I'll see you then, Matthew."
Ray said as he turned away to leave, not forgetting to briefly glance at Leo in the process. Matt just stood there in silence, his puzzled eyes following his professor's steps.
"Are you his favorite student or something?" Leo asked once Ray was out of sight. While Ray was talking to Matt, he was sweating bullets as well, probably because he could also sense the aura around the professor.
"He's more than his favorite student." Eve let out a small chuckle. "He's his TA."
"Woah, really?" Leo gasped with wide eyes. "That's awesome!"
Matt didn't know if this situation was awesome at all. Ray just asked him to have a date at his place, which would have been great if it hadn't bern for Ray's strange behaviors. Now he had got another problem to worry about besides Eve's probing questions.