The veil of hearts

•Unspoken longings•

A/N: Listen to the music above while reading this chapter.

"In the quiet of night, two hearts beat in unknowing sync."

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12

Aina sat by her apartment window, the city lights twinkling below like earthbound stars. Her microbiology textbook lay forgotten in her lap as she gazed out into the night, her mind wandering to a face she couldn't seem to shake.

"Professor Joshua," she whispered, the name sending a shiver down her spine. She closed her eyes, reliving the moment his strong arms had caught her, saving her from danger.

"Why can't I stop thinking about you?" she murmured to the empty room. "You're my professor, for goodness sake."

But even as she chided herself, memories flooded her mind - his kind eyes crinkling with a smile, his voice softening when he spoke to her, the way he always seemed to notice when she was struggling with a concept.

"The way he looks at me sometimes..." Aina shook her head, trying to dispel the thought. "No, I'm imagining things. He's just being a good teacher."

She turned back to her textbook, determined to focus, but the words blurred before her eyes. Instead of bacterial structures, all she could see was Joshua's face.

"What's happening to me?" she sighed, leaning back in her chair. "This is crazy, Aina. Get a grip."

Across the city, in his own apartment, Professor Joshua Bennet paced restlessly. He paused by the window, looking out at the skyline but seeing only Aina's face.

"This is madness," he muttered, running a hand through his hair. "She's your student, Joshua. Nothing can happen. Nothing should happen."

But even as he said the words, his heart rebelled. He remembered how fragile she had felt in his arms that night, how his heart had raced with fear for her safety.

"Aina," he breathed, the name like a caress on his lips. "If only..."

He moved to his desk, picking up a framed photo of his graduating class. "You're her professor," he reminded himself sternly. "You have a responsibility."

But the photo blurred before his eyes, replaced by the image of Aina in class - brilliant, passionate, her insights leaving him in awe.

"God, she's incredible," he murmured. "The way her eyes light up when she understands a concept, that little smile she gets..."

He set the photo down with a sigh, moving back to the window. "What am I doing?" he asked the night sky. "This can't happen. It shouldn't happen. But..."

In that moment, though neither knew it, Aina and Joshua stood at their respective windows, gazing out at the same starry sky, their thoughts filled with each other.

"Joshua," Aina whispered, pressing her hand to the cool glass.

"Aina," Joshua breathed, his forehead resting against the window pane.

The distance between them seemed at once vast and insignificant, the boundary of professor and student both a chasm and a thread.

"If only things were different," Aina sighed.

"If only we'd met another way," Joshua murmured.

As the night deepened, two hearts beat with the same rhythm of longing and confusion, hope and fear. Whatever the future held, whatever challenges lay ahead, in this quiet moment, their thoughts were perfectly, unknowingly aligned - each the center of the other's world, if only in the realm of unspoken dreams.