The Silent Treatment

“The moon had been observing the earth close-up longer than anyone. It must have witnessed all of the phenomena occurring–and all of the acts carried out–on this earth. But the moon remained silent; it told no stories. All it did was embrace the heavy past with a cool, measured detachment.”

–Haruki Murakami

. . .

(September 5th)

The next day, when Professor Hiro walked into his first class while scrolling through his cell phone for any emails or messages he may or may have not noticed since this is one of the weird days he woke up late only to find his alarm clock dead, his toast burned so he didn’t get to grab a bite to eat.

He didn’t even have the time to get his morning coffee on the cozy café he often passed by on the way here and what’s worse, nearly got stuck in a traffic jam that nearly lasted for an hour…

Yes, a horrible way to start the day.

Then again, he also recalled reading somewhere from social media that the daily horoscope claimed that Scorpios are going to be on the downside of luck today.

And Hiro immediately reminded himself to never believe in that kind of junk, he refused–never mind the fact that one of the professors he considered as his friend (he had no idea why he was still even friends with) Steven, insisted that Hiro should buy himself a kid-sized teddy bear as a ‘lucky item’ to ward off any accident or whatever crap that superstitious garbage is about.

But excuse him, how the hell is his students supposed to even take him seriously if he’s going to bring a giant teddy bear in class because some weirdo claims his horoscope is going to be on the short end of the lucky stick?

He had a reputation to uphold at school so… nope, no thank you. Besides, Hiro didn’t even believe in superstition or that kind of nonsense in the first place.

He is an adult for Pete’s sake!

As Hiro was about to turn his cell phone off, satisfied that he hadn’t missed any messages or emails while he slept through his alarm, there was suddenly a faint warning bells ringing in the back of his mind.

It a fuzzy sort of feeling, like a spider-sense tingling … or maybe it was a voice that was hissing something along the lines of: hey buddy, you’re in big trouble.

Ever heard of a fight or flight response?

Yes, that was probably it.

Hiro immediately felt a cold stare drilling into the side of his face intensifying just a second before he finally realized that yes something was incredibly off about his surroundings today, but he couldn’t tell what exactly though it was on the tip of his tongue.

He paused and slowly moved his eyes away from his cell phone’s screen for the first time since he step foot in the classroom not even five minutes ago

And as Hiro scanned the faces of his students… hm, most were already seated while there were some who were walking quickly to the nearest available seat they could reach since their professor was already here. It only took him a moment to note that Lunamor was also sitting in the front row, dead center instead of sitting in the back–

Wait.

What the fuck?

They have no official seating arrangements.

Anyone can sit wherever they want but as far as everyone was concerned... Lunamor had wordlessly claimed the entire spot in the back of the class as her's, so that no one really takes a seat next or close to her–that’s how much the rich kid valued her space.

If Lunamor noticed the apprehension written all over in his face (Hiro was so sure she noticed considering how well she can read micro-expressions) she did an excellent job hiding it as usual.

Lunamor made no comment or any reaction whatsoever to acknowledge the very clear what-the-fuck-are-you-doing expression Hiro was literally giving her right now. If anything, it actually looked like she was even daring him to say something about her new spot.

His eyebrow twitched.

What the hell, Lunamor.

...and she still wasn’t looking away.

Look away first damn it!

Her eyes narrowed, as if in challenge.

Make me, her eyes seemed to say.

Still.

Not.

Looking.

Away.

Suddenly, his face felt oddly warm.

Hiro quickly looked away from her sharp gaze, focusing instead on placing his stuff on his desk, still feeling the intensity of her stare drilling into the back of his head as he deliberately busied himself arranging and organizing them more than what was necessary to give himself time to cool off his overheating cheeks.

It’s warm. It’s too warm.

The AC must be acting up again...

Hiro didn’t really know if he should be grateful that Lunamor was still taking her role as a mute seriously or be annoyed by the lack of response and what the hell is she doing, why was she even sitting in the front anyways?

That was just plain weird and maybe even a little creepy because she’s always sitting at the back, next to a window and deliberately as physically far away as she can be from the rest of her classmates like they had some sort of contagious virus or something.

Also, her usual spot in the back was where she can take a short nap in peace whenever she thought her professor wasn’t paying attention (or maybe she knows that he noticed from the get-go and just doesn’t care that he sees her sleeping… really, Hiro wasn’t surprised if that had been the case all along) because Lunamor was obviously sleep-deprived.

Usually, Hiro ignored his students when they fell asleep on him even though it really ticks him off sometimes that he told them to leave, ask them to head to the nurse’s office or something.

Yeah, he was that kind of professor…

But his students are all basically adults anyways, they can handle themselves and their time-management issues are none of his concern. Besides, it won’t be him suffering the consequences when they fall asleep on his class and miss the discussions!

…but knowing that Lunamor’s reasons (that she was also technically considered to be a working student) for being so obviously dead-tired in the morning, made him more inclined to let her get some sleep and it wasn’t even because of the Dean’s orders or the money she can wave at his face for him to look the other way, if necessary. Not because he was afraid to call her behavior out in class too but… he just felt like she needed a break.

She looked like she really needed it.

The other professors often joked about how ‘the rich kid’ seemed so fond of him during lunch breaks since she attended his class most of the time and on time too (usually five minutes early) compared to how rarely she shows up in their classes, almost on the verge of being an hour late too but Hiro wasn’t blind:

He knew how much the other professors found it odd that she even made a conscious effort to actually attend his class even though she promptly falls asleep halfway (…really, she should have just stayed home if she was that tired) although Hiro had been initially under the impression that Lunamor was one of those extremely endangered breed of students who hates to miss class unless there was an emergency that was considered life or death or… or something.

For real though, having her glaring into his back while he’s right in front of her, that was just plain terrifying, maybe even weird, something in him was telling he should know something was up.

But for the life of him, he didn’t even know why.

He almost wanted to ask her what she’s looking at, if there was something on his face and why she’s glaring at him like he ran over her cat or something, but he didn’t want to show her that he’s getting uncomfortable at being the receiving end of her glare.

Hiro was just currently praying that Lunamor’s sudden idea of changing her seating arrangement wasn’t permanent. He also prayed that this didn’t mean that she was planning to call out any of her classmates for any perceived stupidity or worse, start a debate with him again (happened on the first week, it was a long story) because unfortunately, Hiro was eighty percent sure that Lunamor is unstoppable when that happens.

It’s not like anything he could say would stop her because compared to what the other professors thought, Lunamor wasn’t fond of him; they are not even close enough to be considered as friends to begin with. They just happened to have conversations because he was her teacher.

Neutrally responsive would be his best bet when it comes to describing their familiarity but… but after what happened last night–

Hiro bit the inside of his cheek.

…Idiot, nothing happened.

Even if it felt like something did.

As Hiro carried on with his lecture for the day, he couldn't stop himself from occasionally glancing over at the rich girl’s direction in an attempt to figure out as of why exactly she'd decided to sit in front of the room today, knowing how much she detested her classmates’ chattering, more so she’s now smacked right in the middle of it. She wouldn’t be able to catch some much-needed sleep too…

On her part, Lunamor didn't seem to be paying any more attention in class than the usual (though she seemed less sleep deprived. Hiro was beginning to wonder if a perfectly lucid Lunamor in class was a good or a bad thing…), but she did seem to instinctively know whenever he was looking at her because his eyes kept meeting her own.

As usual, she didn't even bother to participate in any of the class discussion and Hiro was thankful for that.

At the same time, Hiro can’t stop himself from wondering what she would have said had she spoken up and what he would have said to her: they hadn’t spoken with each other since last night, after all.

Once the class was over, Hiro did his best to answer any questions or concerns that his students had about the lesson before he dismissed them.

But by the time all of the students that had been lingering about had cleared out of the lecture hall–true to her role of being silent as a ghost–Lunamor was gone as well.

He didn’t even notice her leave.

Hiro pushed away his disappointment.

He shouldn’t have expected Lunamor to stick around–and why would she, anyways? It’s not like they had anything else to talk about… other than her missed lesson last Tuesday.

And to be fair, she wasn’t the chatty type of a person.

Sighing a bit dejectedly, Hiro began packing up his things as quickly as he can before turning to the door, his mind replaying distractedly back to the way she seemed to glare at him, displeased, almost offended, like she was… no way… she couldn’t be seriously expecting him to say something to her, right?

Besides, as far as anyone is concerned, she was the one who should take the initiative to speak up since she essentially stood him up last night. Scratch that, she was the one who literally walked out on him without a word.

Or perhaps he was overreacting?

Maybe he was just reading too much into her actions? For all he knew, Lunamor just happened to decide to sit in front… to just glare at him for the heck of it.

Yeah, that seemed less believable.

Anyway, it was over now.

Moving on aside, Hiro hoped that her idea of changing seats wasn't permanent because having her sitting in front of him close like that was actually nerve-wracking, not to mention, distracting.