Dean spoke with the kind of voice that commanded attention without needing to raise it.
He walked along the front of the room as he explained the basics of the course ,timelines, expectations, how attendance mattered even in a class full of adults who should already know better.
Rae did everything she could to focus on her notes. She typed steadily, pretending she was just another face in a sea of students. No big deal. Just the hot, grumpy landlord from this morning suddenly turned into her professor.
She kept her eyes low, but she felt it , that moment when his attention shifted.
Dean's footsteps slowed.
He was mid-sentence, saying something about the syllabus being uploaded online, when he glanced across the middle row.
His eyes landed on her.
And he stopped.
Not dramatically, just a small pause, almost too quick to catch. But Rae caught it.
She looked up at the exact moment he did.
Their eyes met.
Brief. Sharp. Jarring.
She could see it in his face ,the recognition. The click of memory. Oh. It's her. The girl from the apartment. The girl who gave him lip. The one with the sharp green eyes.
His expression didn't change much ,Dean didn't seem like the kind of man who allowed expression , but something flickered behind his eyes.
A blink too long.
A breath just slightly uneven.
And then he snapped his attention away, clearing his throat.
A couple students looked up, distracted by the sudden silence.
Someone near the back whispered, "What happened?"
Dean returned to the board, adjusting his glasses with one hand like nothing had happened at all.
But Rae sat very, very still.
Her chest felt tight, her face slightly warm. Not from embarrassment ,not exactly. It was the way he'd looked at her. Not surprised. Not annoyed. Just… different.
Like he wasn't sure what to do with her being there.
And Rae wasn't sure either.
She turned back to her notes, pretending nothing had happened.
But her fingers were no longer typing.
...
Dean kept talking. Moving through slides, scribbling on the board, asking open-ended questions only a few brave students dared to answer. But every so often, his eyes drifted , always to the same place.
To her.
To Rae.
He glanced quickly the first time. A flick of his gaze as he moved past her row. Then again, when he leaned against the desk and scanned the class. And again, when she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, exposing the curve of her jaw and the silver glint of her septum ring.
Rae noticed.
Every. Single. Time.
What is his problem?
She didn't look back at him anymore. Not directly. But her peripheral vision was working overtime, and she could feel it , the weight of his glances. Subtle, maybe. But present.
She pulled her phone from the side pocket of her bag, screen lighting up in her palm. Fingers tapped quickly.
[Text to: Madi <3]
Girl. You will NOT believe who my lecturer is.
But before she could finish typing the rest, his voice cut through the room , sharp and direct.
"You. Miss with the red hair."
Her head snapped up.
Dean stood near the whiteboard, arms crossed, eyes locked on her with zero emotion in his face. His tone wasn't angry , but it was cool, measured, like a warning bell just before the fire.
"Looks like you're not paying attention," he said. "Want to repeat the last thing I just said?"
The room stilled. Heads turned. A few students looked at each other, and someone near the back let out a quiet "ooooh."
Rae held his gaze.
Every part of her wanted to fire back. She could've said exactly what he'd just said ,something about case study requirements and analysis format. She had it word-for-word.
But instead, she smiled, tight and sarcastic.
"Nope," she said. "Didn't catch it."
Dean's jaw flexed. Just a twitch ,but it was there. Like he was trying not to react.
He blinked slowly, almost like he was counting to ten in his head.
"Mm," he said simply. "Then maybe keep your phone in your bag next time."
Rae didn't respond.
She didn't have to.
She held his gaze for a beat longer than necessary, just enough to make it uncomfortable, then dropped her eyes back to her desk.
He went back to teaching, saying nothing more about it.
But Rae could tell , it got under his skin.
And weirdly… that made her feel better.
Rae barely made it to the front of campus before pulling her phone out and hitting Madi's contact.
The second her best friend picked up, Rae didn't even say hello.
"You're not gonna believe the shitshow that just happened."
Madi didn't skip a beat. "Oh god, what? Did someone already hit on you or did you punch a professor?"
"Worse." Rae crossed the sidewalk, heading for the small patch of trees near the parking lot. "You remember that annoying-ass landlord I told you about? The one I caught snooping around the place this morning?"
"The rude one with the hot voice?"
"Yeah, him." Rae rubbed her forehead. "Guess who just walked into my first lecture like he owns the world and starts teaching like some kind of brooding, tight-shirt-wearing intellectual?"
There was a pause.
"…No."
"Yes."
"NO."
"I said YES, bitch!" Rae whispered loudly, pacing now. "He's my lecturer. My actual professor."
Madi burst into laughter through the phone. "Oh my god,please tell me it's like... literature or philosophy. Something dramatic."
"It's media theory," Rae muttered. "He was talking about interpretation and independent analysis, but all I could think was why the hell is the landlord who nearly gave me a migraine now grading my essays?"
"Okay, wait. Wait." Madi was giggling now. "Is he ugly-hot or hot-hot?"
Rae groaned, stopping under a tree and lowering her voice. "…Hot-hot."
"Ooooh."
"Like…" Rae hesitated, then exhaled sharply. "He's older. Definitely in his forties. Maybe exactly forty. But he's… tall. Sharp jaw. That stubbly, worn-hands, pressed-shirt thing going on. Hair's thick but has little gray streaks. Glasses. Not the dorky ones , the cool wide ones."
"You're describing Henry Cavill's depressed older brother."
"Well, it's accurate," Rae grumbled. "But it doesn't matter. He's so annoying. Like the king of smug. Called me out in front of the class 'cause I had my phone out for a second. Like,ugh, I hate him."
"So you hate him."
"Yes."
"But he's hot."
Rae closed her eyes. "Shut up, Madi."
Madi snorted. "Nope. Not letting this go. You've been there one day, and you're already beefing with a hot grumpy professor-landlord. This is better than TV."
"It's not funny. He glared at me like I was a personal inconvenience to his whole day."
"And how did you look back at him?"
Rae was quiet for a second. "Like I wanted to throw his clipboard in the trash."
"Or climb him like a tree."
"BYE." Rae hung up, face warm and annoyed, her heart beating faster than she wanted to admit.
She hated him.
Definitely.