Chapter 9

The lecture room was already packed with students. As soon as the three entered the room, they immediately sat on the vacant seats on the third row from the front. The indistinct chattering of students filled the hall but halted when Professor Im entered.

"Good afternoon, class," greeted the professor. The students greeted him back and he started the roll call for the attendance.

"Present, sir," said Lorelei when the professor called her name. Amari's name and a couple more of the students were called, then followed by Jace's name.

"Lee, Jace," called Professor Im. Lorelei scanned the room, expecting someone to say 'present' but no one replied.

'Thank god he's not here,' thought Lorelei. She let out a sigh of relief (was it really?).

After finishing the roll call, the professor started to discuss the first topic. There was an awkward, deafening silence in his class. No one even dared to breathe loudly, afraid of their terror professor. While professor Im was discussing, the door suddenly creaked. Everyone turned to it, even the professor paused for a moment and waited for it to open. Jace opened the door and entered the room.

"And you are mister?" asked Professor Im, waiting for the late student to say his name.

"Jace Lee, sir. I apologize for being late," he replied.

The professor just looked at him blankly, "Go take your seat, Mr. Lee." He then continued his discussion.

Jace surveyed the room, looking for a vacant seat to sit on. He spotted one on the fourth row and decided to sit there. He noticed a familiar silhouette sitting on the front and realize it was that annoying girl. Clearly, he had no choice but to stay seated even if he doesn't want to see her face.

Lorelei turned to him, "Didn't expect you're the tardy type, Jacey." She raised a brow and shrugged her shoulders at him but turned back to listen again to the discussion.

Jace frowned at her statement. 'What the fuck. Jacey?!' he thought, 'Really, now huh. She's seriously giving me a nickname?!' Jace shook his head and just opened his notebook to take notes while listening to the professor.

"Do you have any questions?" asked Professor Im, finally done with his lecture. Lorelei was quite impressed by him though. She expected him to be the usual boring History professor but he's actually a great speaker.

"None so far, sir," the class said simultaneously.

"Very, well. Now, as I have mentioned in our first meeting, you will have a presentation of the topic assigned to you," Professor Im walked away from the podium. "You will cover the topics that we are to learn for the first half of this semester and I'll just give you supplementary activities to aid your learning."

The professor clicked his presentation remote. "I have divided you into groups of four and assigned you to your topics. Please refer to the list presented right here," he motioned his hands to the board.

Lorelei was going through the list, looking for her name. 'Jung, Lorelei, Jung, Lorelei, Jung, Lorelei," she murmured to herself. At last, she found it!

"Jung, Lorelei, Kim, Amari," she paused and turned to Amari "OMG! We're in the same group!"

"Yes! Aaah!" Amari cheered with her and clasped their hands together in excitement. Lorelei continued scanning the list while beaming, "Hwang, Sam," she paused for a moment, her smile now gone, "Lee, Jace?"

Lorelei turned to Jace again, "Hey, Jacey. We're groupmates," she smiled at him.

Jace looked at her, "Ah." He just nodded

Lorelei rolled her eyes at him, "Seriously, that's just it?"

"What do you want me to say then?" Jace shot back.

Lorelei was about to reply but the professor suddenly talked, "Alright, now go to your groups and discuss."

It was quite a chaotic sight. Some students were still not familiar with their groupmates and they had to call their names aloud to know which group they belong to. The students grouped themselves accordingly and started to plan out their presentations. Lorelei, Amari, Sam, and Jace did the same too.

"So, what's the plan?" Sam tried starting the conversation between them.

"Why don't we introduce ourselves first? I'm pretty sure he doesn't know your names yet," Lorelei suggested and pointed at Jace.

"Hi! I'm Amari Kim," said Amari enthusiastically. She offered her hand to Jace but Sam swatted it away.

"What the heck is your problem?!" Amari turned to Sam, annoyed by his action.

Sam just ignored Amari's complaint and turned to Jace, "I'm Sam, dude." He offered his hand and surprisingly, Jace shook it.

Lorelei was checking her nails, "Well, I'm sure you know me already."

Jace just looked at her, "No, I don't."

Lorelei stopped looking at her nails, "What?! And yet you treat me like that?!" Jace just shrugged.

Lorelei cleared her throat and flipped her hair slightly, "I'm Lorelei Jung. My friends, Sam and Amari, call me Lei. Feel free to do the same," she gave him a quick sarcastic smile.

"I'm Jace Lee. Glad to make your acquaintance," he smiled at them.

Amari was now grinning from ear to ear, "You know what, we've heard SO MUCH about you."

Lorelei turned to her with eyes wide from shock, "Amy, shut up! He might get the wrong idea!"

"What? I never said it was from you though," replied Amari. Lorelei's face was now flushed because of embarrassment.

Sam chuckled at the two while Jace just looked at them emptily.

"Anyways!" Lorelei tried to divert the topic, "What's the plan now?"

The four discussed and threw in their ideas about the presentation. It took them quite a long time to decide how they should present because of Sam and Amari's bickering and the clashing of Lorelei and Jace's ideas. As soon as they have come to a decision, they assigned the roles.

"Okay soooo," Amari started, "I'm fine with making the PowerPoint presentation."

"Hey, you should help with researching!" complained Sam.

"Whatever, I already volunteered. Plus I WILL still help with the researching, you dummy!" replied Amari.

"Sam will be in charge of the resource materials, and you two," Amari pointed at Lorelei and Jace, "you guys will present, m'kay?" Amari smiled at the two.

"What?! I don't want to do it with him!" whined Lorelei.

"C'mon Lei, you know you're a good presenter. And I think Jace is great too so you guys should do it," Amari crossed her arms. "You good with it, Jace?" she turned to Jace, waiting for his response.

Jace shrugged, "Fine by me."

"See! He's okay presenting it with you," Amari turned back to Lorelei.

Lorelei had no choice but to agree with Amari or else she'll get an earful after this, "Okay, fine! I'll do it," she said and pouted.

"I believe we're going overtime now," Professor Im interrupted the class from their planning, "you can continue planning with your groupmates after my class. You are now dismissed." The students grabbed their things one by one and left the lecture room.

As Lorelei and her friends got out of the lecture hall, she searched for Jace.

"Hey, Sammy. Have you seen Jacey?" asked Lorelei as she turned to Sam.

Sam grimaced, "The heck, you're calling him 'Jacey' now?"

"Just answer my question," Lorelei retorted flatly.

Sam shook his head, "Nope, haven't. Why though?"

Lorelei nodded, "Nothing, we should've asked for his number or at least his social media accounts so that we can contact him."

"Oh shit, right. We completely forgot to ask him before leaving," Amari facepalmed. "Lei, why don't you get his number?"