daggers

daggers #5

stell carefully strides along the hallway as justin follows his lead. the hallways were quiet and only faint sounds from classrooms can be heard as they pass by them. finally, they reached the faculty of the College of Fine Arts and Design. stell stopped in his tracks and so did justin. he took a quick glance at the younger, who immediately looked away as soon as their eyes met. stell opened the door and the fully-airconditioned room filled their senses. 11 professors resides in this room and each of them has their own cubicle but at that moment, only 2 other professors were in. stell's cubicle is the one at the end of the room. the professors greeted each other before stell entered his work cubicle.

justin quietly entered and stood by its entrance while stell comfortable settled on his swivel chair. "sit here." he said and gestured on one of the two chairs infront of his table. justin quietly obliged and tried to get comfortable on that seat but his professor's gaze was almost burning his skin by the way that he looks at him.

i don't think he does it intentionally, though. justin thought. feeling ko he's just simply not aware of how intimidating he looks like.

"so..." stell started, crossing his hands on top of the table. suddenly, words were lost in his mouth and he couldn't seem to say anything. why did i bring him here again? he thought.

"oh, right!" he softly exclaimed and justin almost giggled, finding that action kind of adorable.

"here. you dropped this earlier."

justin was shocked to see his I.D on top of stell's desk. how did this even get here? at bakit hindi ko napansin?

"i said you dropped that earlier.." stell said, seemingly answering the question inside Justin's head.

"when you bumped me."

oh shit. justin thought. siya pala yung nabunggo ko??? what the heck !!

"hala, sir! sorry po talaga. hindi ko po talaga sinasadyang mabunggo kayo kanina. nagmamadali lang po talaga ako para hindi ma-late tapos 'di ko napansin na yung prof ko na pala mismo yung nabunggo ko. sorry po, sir, please po 'wag niyo po akong ibabagsak sa subject niyo. kung gusto niyo po pwede ko po labhan yung polo mo basta sir-"

justin's voice almost sounded as if he was about to cry but he stopped scrambling when he heard a stifled laugh from stell.

"calm down, I didn't even say anything." stell said and justin finally heaved a breath of relief.

"damn, did i scare you that much?"

"m-medyo lang po."

for the first time that day, justin saw stell's face soften.

"ahh, i apologize for that. marami ngang nagsasabi na ang scary daw ng dating ko kaya mukha akong terror prof. i thought it was normal to be strict to students kaso iba na pala yung aura ko pagdating sa inyo." stell chuckled and justin mentally celebrated because he was right. being "intimidating" was not stell's intention. it just comes out of him naturally and people just interpreted it in different ways.

"hindi naman po kayo nakakatakot, sir. you just have an intimidating aura. maybe you should try smiling more po. it looks good on you." justin almost facepalmed himself for saying that but when he saw stell's smile, he congratulated himself instead.

"you think so?"

"y-yes po."

gago bakit ang bilis ng tibok ng puso ko? may nagmamarathon ba dito? justin thought.

"i-i have to go na po pala, sir. may class na po ako e." justin excused himself. he actually has an hour left before his next class but he knew he had to leave.

"thank you po pala for giving me back my I.D., and sorry po ulit for what happened. ako po pala yung naka-stain nung polo mo"

"don't worry about it, hindi naman big deal."

justin nodded and smiled a bit.

"you should go. do well on your next class. see you around, justin." stell said and smiled once again, making Justin's stomach flutter.

"see you po, sir stell."

adorable... stell thought.