Suspicious [Completed]

Are they a thing?

I grabbed one of the slides from the prep station and placed it on the stage of the microscope, adjusting the scopes for a moment before the image seen became clear. I was occasionally looking into the ocular lens and my manual, trying to identify the structures of the cell and my friends sitting near me were talking in soft voices. The class carried on very calmly but I found something to be a little strange, like someone wasn't there per usual.

That was when the door to the lab suddenly burst open and I saw the lab assistant rushing in, panting as he wore his lab coat on. His hair was disheveled, beads of sweat were forming on his forehead and he looked so worn out. The other students were as surprised as I am to see the lab assistant in such a state and Mr. Kongpob was quick to rush to the lab assistant's side.

"What's wrong, Arthit? Did something happen?" Mr. Kongpob asked as he worriedly spin the lab assistant around, checking his limbs for injuries or bruises. He might have mistaken that the lab assistant had just met with an accident.

"I'm not hurt, Kongpob. I'm sorry I'm late and need you to help me prepare for the lab classes." The lab assistant apologize and took a sip of water from the bottle Mr. Kongpob handed him after leading him to the lecturer's desk.

"Then why are you late? You're never late and even if something came up, you would've informed me." Mr. Kongpob stopped for a moment to look around, just to realize that all of the students were looking at both of them and he cleared his throat before saying, "Proceed with your task, don't look around and focus."

Of course, his words wouldn't scare us off, a bunch of gossipmongers. All of the students, including me, turned back to our microscopes and pretended to look into the lens with wide ears, trying to eavesdrop.

"The cells that we cultured died and I'd have to rush back to campus to deal with it."

"Huh? What happened? Why did it suddenly die? Didn't you say that it was going fine a few days ago?"

"Apparently one of my groupmates forgot to shut the door of the fridge and the cells we're culturing died." The lab assistant sighed as he rubbed his face harshly in annoyance.

"It's alright, I can help you with that later on, okay?"

"No, Kongpob, you've helped me enough and I don't want to bother you even more. I'll repay you later for helping me today." I lifted my gaze from the lens and found the students starting to chat among themselves and nobody seem to be interested in the conversations between the lecturer and the lab assistant as they talk about their project. So I decided to pay no mind to it as well and concentrate on my task until I heard Mr. Kongpob's words.

"Fine, but if anything happens, feel free to ask for help from me. I'm always here." Mr. Kongpob said in a serious tone before it turns into a sly one, "How about repaying me with a dinner date?"

And I almost choked on my saliva as I whipped my head up to look at both of them. The lab assistant had pink hues adorning his cheeks and Mr. Kongpob was looking at him with a cheeky smile.

What did I just hear?

Are... are they a thing?

I looked around and saw that the other students were continuing with their tasks. Nobody seemed to have heard their conversations.

"Tao." I called, trying to grab my friend's attention and he looked up from the lens.

"What?"

"Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" He looked around for a while and his body froze all of the sudden, "D-did you mean t-the ghost?"

"Tao!" Way to spoil my mood, scaredy-cat.

"T-then what was it?" He asked and I looked at the lecturer's desk and found both Mr. Kongpob and the lab assistant were gone and are most likely in the prep room.

"Didn't you hear what Mr. Kongpob said?" I whispered, a little afraid that I would be caught eavesdropping.

"What did he say? He's going to have a pop quiz now? But I haven't studied yet."

Seriously, what's wrong with him?

"No, we don't have a pop quiz. I'm talking about the conversation between him and the lab assistant, didn't you hear them?" I was quite sure that the other students might have heard him, but no one seems to be as surprised as I am, and were busy with their stuff.

Am I too gossipy for my own good?

"Nope, I didn't hear anything." He shook his head and turned back to his microscope, "I need to get this done first, man. We'll talk after class, okay? We still have a report to finish after this."

"Mmkay." I nodded and could only continue observing the cell, and the suspicious relationship between Mr. Kongpob and the lab assistant and their rather flirty conversations had been left behind in my mind since then.