The Art of Not-Being-Subtle

“She was like the moon, half here and half somewhere else.”

– Meeta Ahluwalia

. . .

(September 4th)

A single, heavy knock on the door caused Professor Akihiro Zen to look up sharply from the papers he had been working on for some time.

At this point, the young professor didn’t sigh in exasperation or didn’t bother voicing an invitation out loud for his student to just come in already since the handle on the door to his office was twisting, letting him know that the door was already in the process of being opened.

Hiro knew who it was anyways... and besides, she always let herself in without being told. Sometimes, he found himself wondering why the kid even bothered to knock in the first place if she's just going to come in like she owned the place.

Despite this, Hiro still found himself smiling warmly at Cassandra Lunamor as she entered his office, silent as a ghost. The semester had begun only three weeks ago, but he was already getting to know the young heiress quite well and despite their bad start and his initial dislike of her… she had easily wormed her way into becoming one of his favorite students in such a short span of time.

Not that he would ever admit to that–even under torture. Because as far as anyone was concerned, Professor Akihiro Zen does not play favorites.

He almost rolled his eyes at the thought.

“Good evening, Ms. Lunamor, how’s your day?”

It was essentially the same greeting that Hiro gave to all of his students. Well… almost the same greeting because he bid most of his students good morning (or even afternoon) instead of evening… his normal office hours were between three to five pm after all, but Lunamor had often requested meetings after six or seven.

To be fair, Hiro only agreed because he understood just how busy she was, more so since some of the other professors often commented how she often missed classes (or she was always on the verge of falling asleep) because of her work and he was willing to exert some effort to work around her hectic schedule. After all, even he sympathized with how chaotic her work and school schedule could be combined at times.

And he was a considered workaholic amongst his peers but Lunamor… forget about Akihiro Zen, this kid took the definition of workaholic to a brand, new level.

It was worrying.

But at the beginning of the semester, Hiro was honest, if only to himself, that he hadn’t really felt that way. He wasn’t concerned. He didn’t even care about Lunamor.

Because when the university’s Dean had sent him (and all of her other professors) a private email that was all but stating that should all make any compromises necessary for the foreign heiress, he’d been seriously annoyed about that… and justifiably so because the stupid message had literally implied and the Dean even had made it crystal-clear that they were supposed to bend over backward and do anything to ensure that rich-kid Lunamor passed with flying colors.

Not to mention, the Dean even had this bright idea to give them a not-so… veiled threat when he and some of his friends tried to talk him out of being bias.

‘Obey or consider yourselves fired.’

It had left a nasty taste in his mouth and caused him to initially assume that Cassandra Lunamor was just one of those spoiled rich brats who weren’t really in college to learn anything like the others–why, she even said his subject was for children on her first day in class, right at his face!

(Well, looking back now... Hiro admitted begrudgingly and if only to his own brain that yes, maybe in her point of view, she’d been right about that since it was actually the case for her because not only is Lunamor rich, but she is also a certified genius as well… which seriously felt like an understatement sometimes… but like hell is he going to admit that to her.

Knowing her, the kid would gloat.)

Having Lunamor at his class wiped the ‘spoiled brat’ assumption at his face like a sucker punch. Sure, she can still be rude and disrespectful at times but he quickly realized that she was just so used to speaking in such a blunt… sort of way and that she wasn’t being mean intentionally, that she wasn’t spoiled or anything like that just… had a ridiculously sheltered upbringing.

It was something that he learned the hard way when he had made it clear that he did not approve of her disrespectful speech pattern and tried to admonish her for it one time.

Correction: tried.

Sometimes, he often wondered to himself just what sort of family (or childhood) Lunamor had that she grew the way as she is right now.

Because thinking back on their earlier conversation from last week still made him feel sort of like a jackass for being so judging and harsh towards her (though she doesn’t seem to hold any grudge over it) and honestly… it was one of the rare times Hiro seriously felt sympathetic towards one of his students.

And that’s saying something.

*****

(“Good evening, Ms. Lunamor. How’s your day?”

“Get to the point. Is there something wrong with my assignment? Do I have to explain to you again that I calculated it mentally which is why the solution is shorter than the standard one?”

“No but…”

“Then why do I have to be here–?”

“Because I need to ask you personally to explain about your work schedule so that I know how frequent I have to stay past my office hours,” Hiro had interrupted, sharply, “Look, I know you’re busy and all but really... you have to learn how to be polite. I’m still your professor, Ms. Lunamor.”

There was a short, tense silence that followed.

Hiro was aware that Lunamor wasn’t probably used to being talked back to by… well, anyone. He almost felt proud of himself for it if only he wasn’t so annoyed with her, the ungrateful brat.

“…Did I say something wrong?”

“Well, no, not really… but at the very least, you should know how to greet, say thank you, please or excuse me. I don’t know. How about you try being polite or calling me Professor for once? Didn’t your parents ever teach you common courtesy or are you too smart for something simple as manners?” it was supposed to be a frank but sarcastic joke, he didn’t care.

He was seriously annoyed but–

Her eyes were such a piercing gray, and it was almost black by that point when they instantly hardened into a heavy glare and Hiro was instantly stunned at the cold anger on her face.

“No,” she abruptly turned around, pausing for a moment to hiss out a barely audible: “Have a good night, professor.”

The door slammed behind her.)

*****

It was obviously a sore topic, even for her.

Well, don’t he feel like a heartless jerk?

Looking back on it now, Hiro realized that Lunamor wasn’t that much different than her classmates, ignoring the rich part, of course…

Though unlike the others, she was usually always quiet in lectures (however, he’d sometimes caught her scoffing or rolling her eyes whenever her classmates ask questions or clarify some things that were… common sense. Being so smart seems to makes everyone look stupid but he was secretly glad that she never bothered to actively antagonize any of them. For all her faults, being a bully clearly wasn’t one of them) and was even open to discuss her thoughts about any material that happened to catch her interest with some of her other professors outside the class, a trait that most of the professors found endearing.

They were flattered with the attention too.

It was also admirable that she often made an effort to schedule meetings personally with all of her professors for every single class that she somehow missed, most often because of work; he learned quite quickly from the other professors that she’s the Vice President of her family’s multi-billion-dollar enterprise and she’s only in America as her older brother’s representative, after all.

Come to think of it… he also recalled that Lunamor had been absent for five days straight just recently because she had to return to Sicily, Italy because of some… ‘Family issues’–Lunamor had refused to speak more of it and Hiro respected her privacy too much to pry.

It's none of his business too.

But in all the years he’d been a professor, Hiro knew for a fact that most students didn't bother worry about missing classes and some students only showed up for the tests, especially when they’re this smart.

With her IQ and the millions her family business is making every single day, Lunamor probably didn’t really need to bother herself with college to get a nice, paying job (because she already has one) and Hiro thinks that there was nothing else that he could honestly teach her more about the subject but her willingness to discuss it with him whenever she missed or slept through some of his lectures (despite declaring so brashly on her first day in his class that the subject is for children) easily made her one of his favorites…

It also made him willing to take the time out of his personal life to speak with the girl he initially assumed to be an entitled spoiled brat... though it was kind of ironic that he was the one to take the initiative to do so, actually.

Maybe this was his karma for being too judgmental.

“Don’t you have someone waiting for you at home?” the supposedly entitled spoiled brat was still standing near the door and had yet to move toward either of the empty chairs like she would usually do.

Hiro raised an eyebrow at the question for a moment as he reconsidered how to answer to that. To be honest, had it been any other of his female students, Hiro would have immediately assumed that they were subtly asking if he was in a relationship or something.

“No, Ms. Lunamor.”

“So, you live alone.”

“Yup.”

“Not even pets?”

“Nah, too busy with work,” he huffed to rein in an amused laugh, “...now, moving on from my forever-alone status, I assume you are here to discuss about the topic that you missed last Tuesday?”

Hiro never understood why Lunamor felt the need to always ask such... invasive questions at the start of all their meetings since her other professors often remarked that she just seemed to pop out of the open doorway without a word. It confused and made him really nervous at first since he had seriously thought she was hitting on him.

Hiro even made a joke about it once, that Lunamor sounded like she had a crush on him or something (she had scoffed and staring at him dead in the eye, she said, in the most deadened voice: “As if. In your dreams, old man.”… Okay, you know what, that still hurt. And excuse him, HIRO WASN’T EVEN THAT OLD!) but at this point, he had gotten so used to her that he’d be worried if she didn’t asked things like that–

“We could talk about this over dinner.”

....

Wait.

...what?