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Love Flavored Latte - Chapter 8
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Normally, in any other class, a second would feel like an eternity to Matt. But right now, it was quite the opposite.
After admitting his defeat and finally having the courage to ask for some help from his favorite professor, Matt was now sitting in the library across from Professor Angevine, who was explaining the lesson to him again. If Matt had to be completely honest, this was worth the nervousness that he had had just a while ago, because he got to be with the professor he felt deep affection for. Listening to his lecture was already great, and being with him alone was ten times better.
Students usually felt extremely anxious when they had a one-on-one talk with their professor without anyone they knew by their side, and while Matt couldn’t blame them, he also couldn’t say that it was the same for him right at this moment. Being close to the professor he loved, being able to freely talk to him about the lesson, listening attentively to what his professor said and also to his voice… It felt like a dream.
All of a sudden, the voice he had come to adore stopped abruptly, and he looked up from the book to see his professor looking intensely at him, which made him jump a little. But right after that, he realized that the said professor was actually looking at his… hand?
“Um… Professor?” Matt began as he was unable handle the unexpected silence. “What are you doing?”
His question seemed to pull Professor Angevine back into reality. “What- Oh, I’m, I’m terribly sorry for that, Matthew.”
“No, it’s okay, professor!” Matt tried to reassure him. “I’m just, uh, a little surprised.”
“I’m really sorry.” Professor Angevine chuckled. “I was just impressed by how you were spinning the pen between your fingers.”
“I… was?” Despite raising an eyebrow at that statement, Matt wasn’t actually that surprised. Twirling pens had become a habit of his, and he would sometimes do it unconsciously whenever he had a pen, or anything similar, in his hand.
“Yes, and I really like it!” His professor nodded.
“Thank you, professor.” Matt blushed, fiddling with the pen. “But it’s not really something to be proud of.”
“It is, Matthew! Please teach me how to do it!”
Matt was really caught off guard when his professor leaned forward with his eyes gleaming with excitement. He moved back a little, even though he didn’t really want to. “A-Are you sure, professor?”
“Of course! I’ve never been able to do it my whole life. All I can do is swaying it back and forth between two fingers-“
Professor Angevine seemed to have realized that the distance between them had shortened greatly and that Matt had a very startled look on his face, which made him quickly withdraw himself. “I, I apologize for my… unprofessional outburst.”
It made Matt’s heart race madly when he saw the sight of his professor tucking strands of his hair behind his ear, his face red as he averted his gaze in embarrassment, but Matt immediately reminded himself to get back to the situation at hand. “It’s really okay, professor.”
Seemingly too deep in shame, the professor in question didn’t answer, covering his face with his hand as he looked down, the ground having suddenly become an interesting thing for him to stare at. The sight was too unreal but too cute at the same time, but then again, Matt couldn’t let his professor be like this, because he knew what it was like to be embarrassed.
“I’ll show you how to do it, professor.”
Hearing his words, Professor Angevine immediately looked up again in hopefulness. “Y-You will?”
Matt chuckled. “Why would I lie to you about that?”
His professor, seemingly having forgotten all the shame he felt, beamed as his eyes lit up. “Thank you, Matthew!”
Matt had to calm himself down with every bit of strength in his body because if he hadn’t, he would have dropped the pen with how shaky his hand was. His professor focused his beautiful eyes on Matt, as well as his hand, as the latter demonstrated his technique. Professor Angevine’s eyes filled with excitement and curiosity like a child receiving his presents on Christmas Day, which made him look so adorable that it made Matt weak. Seriously weak. His heart skipped a beat when he spotted yet another charming smile from the other man, who was observing the movements carefully. Even a calm, collected and chilled-looking professor like him could get excited over this small simple thing.
When the meeting ended and Matt returned to his dorm, every one of his suitemates was questioning why his face was all red, and he had answered them with “I’m fine”.
Given the overwhelming happiness he felt, that statement definitely wasn’t true at that moment. Two weeks later, it still wasn’t true when he said it again.
It was a rather cold Thursday morning, and Matt would have loved it a lot if he hadn’t been sick and feeling like hell itself. When he woke up at eight a.m, he would have stayed in bed forever if he hadn’t tried his best to get up, because his head hurt and his mind was over the place. His friends had noticed it right away during breakfast and told him to rest. Eve even insisted on skipping class to take care of him. Matt didn’t take her offer because he’d feel terrible if Eve missed her lesson just for him. In the end, he assured everyone that he would be fine. So now, at nine in the morning, he was walking to his next class with Ethan without the girls, because Chloe was covering a shift for one of her colleagues and Eve was at their dorm, getting ready for her Physics class in half an hour.
Glancing over his olive-skinned friend, Matt could not understand why he could withstand this weather with just a T-shirt and a thin space blue jacket, because Matt’s whole body was literally wrapped in thick clothes yet he was still cold to the point that he could freeze at any second.
“God bless you,” Ethan said when he heard a sneeze from Matt.
“Thanks.” Matt sniffed.
“Are you okay, Matt?” Ethan looked at his friend with a worried expression on his face. “You’re not looking so good.”
“I, I am, Ethan,” Matt replied with a rather weak voice, hugging himself and snuggling deeper into his coat in an attempt to seek warmth. “I can go for another class.”
“Are you really sure you can survive for three more hours?” Ethan knitted his eyebrows. “I can take notes for you, you know.”
“No need, Ethan.”
Sighing, Ethan didn’t ask any more questions and continued walking, reminding himself to glance over Matt once in a while. During their Geometry class earlier, Matt seemed like he could pass out at any given moment. Even if he hadn’t done so yet, he did look tired and could barely focus. Ethan wondered if Matt could even write anything down, judging by his weak grip on his pen.
But the problem wasn’t whether Matt could take any notes because Ethan could always let him borrow his notebook. The problem was that Matt’s health wasn’t looking any better in the past few minutes, and in fact, it seemed to have gotten worse like Ethan had said. But Matt surely wouldn’t let Ethan take him home, so the latter just had to wait and see.
“Oh, is that…?” Ethan said to himself before talking loudly in another direction. “Good morning, Professor…”
It seemed to Matt that it was a professor Ethan was speaking to. But before he could hear their name or even look up to see who it was, his head throbbed. It hurt so much that it felt like someone was mercilessly using a hammer on it. With his face hot and his vision blurry, he soon found himself unable to stand anymore. He gripped onto Ethan’s sleeve for dear support as he held his head, wincing in pain and trying to stay upright, though his effort was in vain. And before he could do anything about it, he fell into unconsciousness as he heard his friend calling his name, as well as a very familiar voice that he wasn’t able to recognize in that state.
…__________…
Groaning quietly, Matt fluttered his eyes open before giving them a light rub. He asked himself where he was, and after looking around, he found the answer to his own question. He recognized the familiar bed sheet and the pillow he was laying on, as well as the desk next to his bed and the decorations on the walls.
It was clear that he was at his dorm lying in his bedroom, but how he ended up here was a mystery. He could still remember that he was walking around the campus to get to his next class with Ethan when a huge headache hit him. What happened next was out of his knowledge, so he greatly wondered how he was here right now.
Suddenly, the door opened and came in his red-headed friend.
“Matt, you’re awake!” Chloe exclaimed happily, which made the other two rush in as well.
“You really are!” said Ethan. “How are you feeling now?”
“Um…” Matt sat up, not knowing what to say until a while later, when he remembered about the headache which seemed to have gotten a lot better. “I… feel okay now.”
“That’s good to hear then.” Ethan sighed in relief. “You had us worried there.”
“Yeah! You have no idea how worried I was, Matt!” Eve said. “You should’ve listened to me and stayed in bed this morning.”
“Sorry about that, guys,” Matt apologized as Ethan came to sit on the edge of his bed while Eve and Chloe sat on Ethan’s. “I didn’t think it’d be this serious.”
“It’s okay, Matt.” Chloe reassured him. “What’s important is that you’re better now.”
“Say…” Matt looked over Ethan, “how did I get here?”
“Oh, I figured you’d be confused.” Ethan chuckled. “Well, we were on our way to our next class when we ran into one of our professors. Then you suddenly fainted.”
“I really did?”
“Yeah, and I freaked out along with that professor,” Ethan said as the other three listened to his story attentively. “I decided to skip class to take care of you.”
“So… I didn’t let Eve skip her class, but then you had to anyway…” Matt looked down at his hands, eyes filled with guilt. “I’m sorry.”
“Nah, it’s alright, dude. Don’t look so down.” Ethan laughed light-heartedly as he gently patted Matt’s shoulder. “I asked a friend of mine to take notes for us. And Calculus isn’t really my thing, so… skipping one class won’t hurt.”
“But still…” Matt trailed off for a few seconds, “was it necessary for you to stay here just to look after me?”
“Of course it was!” Ethan said with a firm voice. “You literally passed out, Matt! There was no way I could leave you here alone.”
“Thanks a lot, Ethan. “
Matt chuckled before something from the corner of his eyes caught his attention. Looking over, he saw a red piece of fabric that had been folded neatly and placed beside his pillow. He picked it up and found out that it was a scarf, but it didn’t feel like a typical scarf. It was soft and had a pleasant scent to it, making him feel cozy inside. However, something about it did strike him as odd.
“Whose scarf is this?”
“What are you talking about?” Eve asked. “Isn’t it yours?”
“No, it’s not.” Matt raised an eyebrow at the scarf as he examined it more closely.
“Oh, that?”
Ethan suddenly had on a very mischievous and evil look on his face, which startled Matt a little.
“It’s from Professor Angevine.”