The Professor's Son

Whiplash - Part 5

The cafeteria was relatively quiet at this time of day. Students and teachers on their break gathered by the coffee bar ordering espressos and cappuccinos to their heart's content. It seemed everyone needed a coffee fix at this hour, including yourself. You could feel your head grow heavy as you waited for your tutor to show up.

Casually looking around you scanned the area, trying to look for a tall man wearing a white pullover sweater. Well, that's what your Professor told you he'd be wearing. It was hard to distinguish the students from one another, they all seemed to be wearing the same uniform, just in different colours.

Bland white sneakers, scuffed and dirty from use, baggy sweatshirts or jumpers and bleached blue jeans to finish off the signature university student look.

You lay your head down on the table and plugged in one earphone, trying to drown out the din and chatter of the dining hall. The sound of trays, people laughing and the buzz of the overhead fans filled your ears, giving you the feeling of an oncoming headache.

"Excuse me, are you Y/N?" A familiar gruff voice called from beside you.

You shot up in your seat. Turning your head to the right you saw him. He looked like the boy you had run into the other day!

His eyebrows narrowed at you in question as your eyes locked. What on Earth was happening? Your mouth hung open, "Hey..." you managed to mumble.

"I feel like I've seen you before." The boy said as he took a seat next to you. He lay his black Jansport backpack and stationery down on the table. A MacBook Pro followed, and a pair of tortoise shell coloured Ray Ban glasses that were more fitting of a sophisticated high street shopper than a university student. He wore corduroy pants, and like the Professor said a white pullover befitting his effortlessly cool boy-next-door appearance.

The boy pointed to his head, "How's this?" he asked jokingly with a grin.

Unconsciously, you touched the spot where the dark purple bruise had been, just on your hairline, like a bushfire edging on a forest. How does he know that? You thought to yourself.

"So it is you!" He replied, this time noticeably excited, but trying to hide it by keeping a stern face.

That's when it clicked, he was the boy you crashed into at the library.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't recognise you at first." You stood to your feet and held out your hand, "Nice to meet you, I'm Y/N."

He looked you in the eyes as he grasped your hand, giving it a firm pump up and down. You were quite impressed by his handshake, you couldn't stand half-hearted and floppy shakes. A strong handshake could tell you a lot about a person's character.

"Same here, my name's Jeong Jaehyun." He said with a dimpled smile that made his nose crinkle at the corners.

"That name sounds familiar," you remarked, unable to ignore the boys cute grin, "You've got the same last name as my Philosophy Professor."

At the same time you took your seats across from each other at the table.

"Yeah, I'm actually his son."

Your jaw fell to the floor and you had to quickly pick it up again, "No way, that's why you look so familiar!"

Jaehyun chuckled lightly at your bemusement. His voice was silky, deep and a little bit melodic. You could imagine him singing you to sleep with a beautiful lullaby.

"Woah, I'm surprised you caught on so fast. Most people don't realise I'm the Professor's son until I tell them myself."

"Do a lot of people know?" it seemed obvious that more people would know since he was a senior.

"No, not a lot do, and I'm glad for it. Otherwise they might think my dad and the rest of the staff at this college are biased towards me. So, keep this secret between you and I okay?" Jaehyun added with a cheeky wink.

You couldn't help but blush at the attention he was giving you, "Don't worry my lips are sealed."

The conversation came to a mutual end leaving a period of silence. You didn't know where to look. Was it rude to look away? Was it too creepy to stare at him? Did he know how handsome he was?

Jaehyun was unlike anyone you had ever seen. He looked like he had appeared out of thin air from a sports magazine shoot. As he leaned over and pulled a textbook out from his bag you noticed the way his muscles shifted underneath the cotton fabric.

Jaehyun laid out a thick textbook on the table, you eyed it and gulped. Oh great, here comes more reading.

"This right here is a really useful resource. I'll lend it to you and we can work through it together."

"Sure, that sounds good." His voice snapped you out of the trance you had been in.

As your vision came back into focus, you felt the smoothness of the vinyl seat underneath you, the light breeze from the fans circling above, and most noticeably your chapped lips.

You took the back of your hand and brushed your knuckles over your bottom lip, feeling the usually soft surface now scratchy and dry. Gosh, you really needed a drink right now.

Barely acknowledging Jaehyun's curious glance, you searched for your trusty lip balm.

"Before we start," Jaehyun said breaking the silence, "Shall I get us some coffee?"

"It's like you read my mind,"

"What do you drink?"

"Long black with a little bit of milk please."

"Sounds perfect, anything else?"

"That's it thanks. Oh and Jaehyun," you held out to your visa card, "Here, you can use my card to pay for the drink."

Jaehyun snickered at your gesture, he bent down across the table meeting your gaze, "Don't be silly, a senior has to pay for drinks. That's called common courtesy." With that Jaehyun whipped out his black credit card, "Drinks are on me."

You watched as Jaehyun swaggered across the hall to the coffee stand, utterly captivated by his suave gesture. A few minutes later he came back with two drinks in his hand, placing the long black in front of you.

"Alright let's get to work. I heard my dad say your assignment is handed out next week so we really don't have any time to waste."

You were a bit taken aback with how assertive he was. You were half-expecting him to be like other guys around this age, laid back, easy going and noticeably carefree when it came to university studies. Maybe, Jaehyun was a bit of a bookworm like yourself.

Taking a sip of your coffee felt like heaven, even more so now that Jaehyun was sitting in front of you.

He balanced a pen between his slender fingers, using it to read lines from the textbook, and occasionally underlining key terms or chapters he wanted you to focus on. You admired him and how at ease he looked, eyes glued to the page and pursed lips mouthing phrases. You didn't know why, but deep down in your gut you had the feeling the Professor had made the right decision, asking him to be your tutor. But this was only the start, surely a lot of hard work was about to come your way.