HE IS CUTE, ISN'T HE?

At night, around 11 pm, inside the Vice Chancellor's office, a long table was placed in the middle of extravagant chairs and each of them was occupied by unknown faces. As the light soon appeared on each face, a few started getting known.

"I don't know, Lydia but I can feel a strange sensation from the forest. Don't you think we should do something about it?" Abas, the security guard at the main gate asked as his eyes darted across the room. Lydia tapped her fingers on the table and closed her eyes while waiting for the other members to contribute.

"I can't feel anything," Stella replied.

"I wasn't referring to people like you." Abas retorted.

"And when will you stop downgrading my abilities? You should remember that I have been assisting a lot in this."

"If you want to be proud about it then the door is opened for you to walk out," Abas answered.

"That's enough. I didn't call for a meeting here just to see you fight. It's unbearable." Lydia interrupted.

"About the strange feeling you had, I will work on it. The two guards at the end gate should be very careful so that our students wouldn't stray away into those places. I just thought that if they had started losing out of their chains, they would have probably killed a million by now. Yet, we still need to be careful."

"I saw Fred sucking the life out of a student a few days ago." A man commented and Lydia shook his head.

"Seriously, did you have to bring that up, Max?" She asked.

"I had to. Fred isn't a kid that needs your protection all the time. He is even wiser than you think. You don't need to cover up for him. He almost exposed our secret and I tell you, Lydia, this is very dangerous. This council won't accept it anymore if you can't find a solution." Max replied fiercely.

Lydia stared at him deeply before looking away. The whole place became deadly silent as they waited for what was next. She pressed a button beside her and Mack's picture showed up. He was smiling with his teeth wide open as usual.

Everyone's eyes darted toward the brightening picture.

"Can you take it down a bit? It affects my vision." Abas requested.

"You still walk and work perfectly during the bright day." Stella blurted out without giving a care in the world that Abas was glaring at her for responding.

"This is Mack Anderson. He is twenty-four years old and graduated from the college of education. He is pretty brilliant and very crafted at drawing too. His qualifications were good enough when I went through them and the school needs people like him to help sharpen the level of the students. So, I requested his transfer here instead of the high school he wanted in the first place. I actually thought he wasn't going to appear but he did. I need you to welcome him when you meet him." Lydia introduced Mack to them.

"I hope he won't cause any trouble." A woman, Rosa by name, spoke up after a while.

"I doubt if he will. I gave him the instructions he is to follow and he looks obedient." Stella replied affirmatively.

"But looks can be deceiving. Was your master so dumb that she didn't teach you that? I can see the effect of her intelligence on you." Abas said sarcastically and took a sip of his drink. Stella scoffed.

"Abas, your beef with Stella has been getting out of hand lately. Control yourself. We don't want any problems." Lydia warned him.

"I will keep an eye on him then." Abas offered.

"I would rather me do that. Your help isn't always helpful." Stella stepped in and their eyes locked, engaged in an internal self-battle.

"Okay, Stella. I have a whole lot of faith in you. You should take charge. I think that will be all, the meeting is dismissed."

After everyone had found their way out of the office, Lydia walked towards her window and opened it. The fresh breeze from the night blew against her face and she inhaled it with her eyes closed.

From where she was standing, she was able to see the Bandook Forest standing with the help of the firm and strong trees. What they had discussed in the group rang in her memory, it had better not be true because If it were to be, it would cause a lot of problems.

She was about to close the window and go to sleep when her ears picked up a foreign sound from afar and her eyes snapped open, turning red at the same time. Lydia needed no one to tell her what was about to happen.

Maybe the rest of the council could be ignorant but she was wiser and smarter than them, at least that's what she thought. She took off the coat she was wearing and with a mischievous smile on her face, jumped through the window and disappeared into darkness at a terrifying yet uncatchable speed towards the Bandook Forest but she did not take the route where the guards were.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_

In the boys' hostel, Fred was standing by the balcony with a stick of cigarettes in his hand. He was about to light it when another tall-looking handsome guy came from behind with his two hands inside his pockets. He licked his lips and then smacked them before looking at Fred who was wearing nothing but his shorts. His firm upper body with a few tattoos was exposed to the wind but he seemed not to care.

"Did Lydia talk back at yah?" The guy asked and collected a stick from Fred before lighting it.

"Why would you ask that?" Fred questioned.

"You only smoke after having a terrible encounter with the ladybug." The guy, who was Sam by name, responded. Fred smirked and exhaled the smoke from his cigarettes.

"That might not be the only reason though." He murmured and Sam smiled as he hit the tip of the burning cigarettes against the concrete wall.

"Don't you want to stop being the bad boy of the school? I mean that you are not getting younger anymore." San teased him with his last words, and Fred chuckled.

"Yeah, right." He replied.

"Anyway, Stella asked after you, and guess what? There is a new teacher for the mathematics students…I think in the first level or…I don't remember and he is kinda cute. I took a picture of him, do you wanna have a look?" Sam asked and brought out his phone without waiting for Fred's response. He moved closer to show him the picture.

Fred glanced at it reluctantly and he blinked once when Mack's confused face appeared on the screen. He wasn't looking in the direction of the camera, it seemed as if Mack was looking somewhere else.

"He is cute, isn't he?" Sam asked with a smile. Fred threw his stick of cigarette to the floor and stepped on it.

"I am gonna take a bath, goodnight." He shut Sam off and left him standing but the latter didn't get mad, he only smiled the more at the picture.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*

The piercing sound of a piano being played was melodious in the dark area covered with fog. A young boy riding on his bicycle had to pause when he heard this and came off the bicycle with his peak of curiosity higher than the amount of Kilimanjaro. His face was blurry

He looked around. It was just five in the morning and he wondered what was happening. He walked a bit to the window and wiped the laying fog off before trying to see who could be in there before heading to the door.

Surprisingly, the door wasn't shut and so he opened it. Another guy was sitting at the piano, playing it as fast as he could. His face was blurry and after a while, he stopped before locking eyes with the intruder.

He stood up and went to the door.

"You can use the room now." He said and left. The boy was shocked and confused. He turned around to stop the young man from leaving and to apologize for interrupting but…

"Hey…" He was totally gone. ]

Mack's eyes opened suddenly after having a calm dream. He blinked as he tried gathering his memories back again. What had happened? He sat up and tried thinking.

What type of dream was that? Why did the voice and tone sound familiar to him? He looked around subconsciously and after a few minutes of thinking, he shrugged it off. It was just a dream and nothing more.

He glanced at the time, it was already past seven in the morning. He stood up and went to the closet. He brought some of his unwashed clothes from home with the hope of washing them in the school.

Mack sorted out the clothes and carried them to the washing machine that was inside the bathroom. He stared at it before bending halfway to start it. He threw the clothes lazily in and prepared to take his bath.

After bathing, he then brought out a piece of paper and pen to write down how his day would go. Since Monday was the day he would start working as a teacher here, he could use the weekends in reading, trying to know more about the lecture notes alongside the syllabus, and even knowing the teachers with students that he would be taking.

Slowly, his mind drifted to the mysterious guy he met in the music room. His face and his voice presented themselves clearly in his imaginary vision. He shook his head when the washing machine gave a sound notification that it was done and he stood up to attend to it.