She made her way through the corridors of the Faculty Center in long, rushed, brash strides, the rest of the world seemingly unimportant as she hastened to get to the last room down the Political Science Department. She was tired and breathing heavily by the time she got there, but that was exactly the point – she had to look like she hurried, or at least she had to look flushed.

She didn’t even have to look for him. He just got out of the room when she saw him.

“Hi,” she said faintly as she caught up with him, pausing to catch her breath before offering an apologetic smile. “I’m from Naval’s 177…”

“Yeah, I remember you.” He replies, politely returning the smile. “What’s the matter?”

She bit her lower lip briefly before she went red in the face and told him what she was there for.

But he didn’t react the way she expected him to. Instead, he merely adjusted his glasses, owning all the indifference in the world.

“So… what do you want to do?”

She was slightly stunned by his answer. It was the fourth time she dared to do something like that, but it was the first time that someone asked her that, or any other question for that matter. The first two times she did it was at Math 17, and everything went on smoothly with her instructor. The third time was at Econ 106, and even that nosy proctor was not the least bit reluctant.

She certainly did not expect that this proctor from Polsci would drag it out. 

“So what do you want to do?” he repeated, but there was a swagger in his voice that told her it wasn’t a question.

You have very expressive eyes, and they’re very convincing, Jaime Naval had told her once. She cleared her throat as she decided that if Naval was telling the truth, she might as well use them in Naval’s own subject, right?

She gave him a telltale glance, her smile turning from apologetic to challenging. Your call.

He looked at her for a full second before he gave it up.

“Follow me,” he said, smirking as he took out a bunch of keys from his pocket and began rambling something about how she should be thankful that she got to him before he left the building.

He opened the door to let her into Jaime Naval’s room, closing the door as quickly as he opened it. He stood by the table for a few moments before he said “Okay” and mumbled a permission.

She didn’t need to be told twice.

By the time she was done, his phone was ringing. She could not help the amused smile on her face as she watched him fumble around the piece of technology that was tethered to the lanyard around his neck anyway. It took him a good ten seconds to answer the call, and she was all the more amused when she heard him speak. She wondered why the spontaneous Polsci geek was suddenly stuttering.

She waved her hand to catch his attention, and when their eyes met she briefly mouthed the word “Thanks” before turning around to leave. But she heard him call her out just as she was about to turn the door knob.

“Wait!”

She turned to look back at him. He had one hand covering the phone’s receiver, and idly she wondered how much trouble he would be in if the caller had turned out to be Professor Jaime Naval himself.

“Just… don’t tell your classmates about it, okay?”

She had to look away to stifle her laughter.