Chapter 7

• Selene's POV
• The only thing I should have been worried about at that point was the assignment Professor Hart was going to give us. I mean, any reasonable student would have been thinking hard about what it could be.
• The workload, His assignments were able to make and mar one's future. If one had a bad submission under him, other Professors would label your academic comeback as good as dead.
• However, I couldn't stick that part of it in my head. Especially when he was standing up there looking tall, and cold. His devastating actions fed the objects around him as it looked like they were all afraid of him.
• While he taught, his voice commanded the entire lecture hall, yet I was struggling to focus. Everything was slowly becoming pathetic.
• I couldn't stop looking at him? I felt like something was going wrong.
• Why did it have to be him? Why him of all people?
• Professor Hart was my ex-boyfriends father and finally my professor. I was sick to even continue feeding everything to grow.
• How else could I explain the pull I felt every time Professor Julian Hart moved? Every time his eyes, even briefly, skimmed toward my direction, I forgot my own existence entirely.
• I had promised myself I would focus today. Focus on the lecture. Focus on the assignment he said he’d announce. Focus on anything other than the man who should’ve been the last person occupying space in my mind.
• Even after trying to focus, my thoughts were still drifting. I was imagining things I should have never imagined.
• While he spoke in the lecture hall, his voice would cut through my gaze of thoughts. It was low and sharp, reminding me of how dominant he was when we found ourselves together.
• The worst part of it was that I felt I had gotten obsessed with him. I was obsessed with a man whose life began years ago before I was born. I started wondering how he must have seen me.
• Was I just another college student he had to grade, but maybe in a different way?
• Oh, I had to cut everything off. I really had to get everything together. I dragged my attention back to the board.
• Suddenly, a voice leaned into my ear. It was a familiar one, and the type one would want to erase from their memory entirely.
• “Selene?" Raymond whispered as he leaned towards me. “If you want, I can help you steal the answers from my father."
• I turned and gave him a straight gaze. What was he getting himself up to?
• “You just have to agree to get back together with me,” he added and my blood froze.
• I furrowed my brows and moved away from him at that instant, " Are you insane? Are you crazy?” I hissed.
• Raymond smirked quickly and leaned back in his seat like what he just mentioned was not serious. "I never expected your reaction. I'm just trying to help you out of this because I know you are so scared of my father's assignments, “ he paused.
• "I mean, everyone is. I could secretly get you the answers and you wouldn't even have to work that hard because we'll be back together.” I nearly gagged at his little audition because that was what it seemed like.
• “Why are you so unbelievable? Why would you even think of such a thing?" I whispered sharply. "I can't risk my academic life and my future just because you have refused to move on.”
• His smile disappeared.
• "Selene, you used to love me," he muttered while giving me a dead stare.
• “Yes, right. Now, I’m two seconds away from telling your father that you're bothering me again," I leaned into my seat, letting my words settle in properly.
• “Remember what he told you the last time? That if you ever attempted or harassed me again, he might rusticate you from the college? Do you remember?"
• He readjusted himself to the seat, and I knew that it hit him exactly where I wanted.
• His face looked drained of vibe and color as he swallowed hard before looking at me again.
• I pulled a sharp smirk to let him know I was extremely serious.
• It was obvious he feared his father more than he desired me.
• By the time Professor Hart finished the lecture, the tension in the room grew like a happy fire. My coursemates fled through the exit door.
• My own legs trembled and it slid as I slid my notebook into my bag, I kept my head down as a header as I headed for the door until something blocked my path.
• It was a group of girls. I didn't expect it to be anyone, but then I forgot that it could have been Emily and her entourage
• Immediately, I stepped sideways, but Emily stepped into the way, blocking me deliberately. Her eyes glimmered with so much hate, and the other girls stared at me with so much hatred.
• “Is it Professor Hart you're sleeping with?” She asked loudly and the hallway suddenly went quiet.
• I blinked slowly in shock, “I beg your pardon?”
• “Oh, please! Don't act like you do not know what I am talking about.” One of our friends laughed.
• “Drop the innocent act Selene. Everybody saw how you were staring at Professor Hart while he was teaching, and how you jumped into conversations concerning him last week. And because of you, he did something no one thought he could have done. So you could be spreading your legs for him!”
• I stood quietly as my entire bloodstream felt extremely cold.
• Emily folded her arms and smiled, chiefly, “So, tell us. How did you let a man like him notice an ugly pig like you?”
• The words she uttered sliced into my skin, making my heart fall into my stomach. It wasn't something that I wanted to hear, but there had to be a full composure. So I did not flinch. I couldn't flinch in front of them.
• Another girl jumped in seriously, “If you're sleeping with him, at least make sure he doesn't give you biased grades, it's going to be a waste. Because if all your answers end up being magically perfect, I will find every evidence to nail the both of you down.”
• Emily leaned forward, “...and trust me, we will drag you down.”
• For a moment. I considered walking away, but something inside of me snapped, and I stopped.
• “Maybe,” I said my voice was smooth and sharp. “Instead of threatening me, you should use your dill brains, to find ways to beat me.” The corridor went dead silent.
• Emily's brow furrowed and as friends threatened me like they wanted to jump on me, but Emily suddenly raised her hand
• “Let her go,” she said. Her eyes narrowed, staring at me from my toes to my head. “She will regret this.”
• "No," I replied, calmly. “If anyone regrets this or anything they have done, Emily, it's going to be you.” I walked away before she could even respond as my legs shook the way down.
• By the time I reached my house, my shared campus accommodation, I was exhausted as hell from holding myself together the entire day.
• The door clicked shut before my roommate, Katepoked her head out of the kitchen.
• “Why is your face looking like that?” She asked.
• Immediately, I dropped my bag aside and looked away. “Some students in my class have decided to become serious bullies.”
• Hannah's eyes widened, “Bullies at our age during a PhD program? You got to be joking.”
• I rolled my eyes, collapsing onto the couch. “I didn't expect any of this either. I would have expected it maybe if I was in high school, but not during my degree, not even doing my Masters, but now, when I'm doing a whole PhD, someone wants to be a bully.”
• "No way." Katesaid, hands on her hips. “Oh no. We are not going to let that happen. We will show them who we are. They picked the wrong people, definitely.”
• I let out a tired laugh. “I don't even have the energy for all of that. I just need to pass this assignment the professor has given us. Only students with good grades remain in the program.”
• Kateblinked, “That's hard.”
• "I haven't seen it yet." I muttered, pulling out my phone. "It should have been sent in my mail."
• I immediately opened my inbox within a couple of minutes, and my heart dropped into my stomach, “Damn!” I gasped.
• “Do I even stand the chance of remaining a student?” She came over picking at my screen, and my jaw fell. Her jaw fell open. “This man is EXACTLY who they say he is. He wants to make sure you all drop out this year.”
• I stared at the questions again. They were so technical and extremely specific. It was so complicated that my mind felt numb. I felt like I have never actually studied all along.
• Katecontinued. “He is targeting people, especially you, Selene.”
• My throat tightened, but I decided to figure things out. Slowly, a dark thought came in as I tried to avoid it. The thought was unwanted, but it was undeniable.
• Could it be true? Was Professor Hart planning to eliminate me from the program? Was this his way of erasing our little secret, erasing me before anything forbidden could happen. It made sense at some point, and at some point it didn't actually make sense.
• A professor who was known to be strict by others, wouldn't want to be shamed in a stage of having a student-professor dynamic like what we had in secret.
• It was extremely forbidden. Aside from it being dangerous, I realized that maybe pushing me out was the only way to protect himself. It was the only way to erase the temptation he was
• getting every single time. But the worst part was that a small part of me didn't want it to be erased.