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Chapter 1: Speaking Eyes – September 2, 2019

Jimin stepped into his music theory class and sat down in the front row.  His first day of college.  Senior year.  But he was now being required to take this freshman level course because of a change in his major.

Not that he minded.  It should be an easy course to ace.  The bell rang, but the teacher was nowhere to be seen.  Suddenly, a tornado came whirling through the back door of the auditorium.  For some reason, it landed right next to him.  He glanced to his right as the tornado stopped moving momentarily to hunt through her purse for a pen.

Jimin’s eyes traced her pristine profile.  It was, in fact, perfect.  Her brow was high and noble.  So was her cheekbone.  She’d painted a little color along it too.  He smiled.  He liked a girl with a little color.  Then his eyes slid down the curve of her nose.  Before traversing her lips.  They weren’t like his.  Hers were a perfectly thin bow.  

Suddenly, they twisted in frustration.  Her dark eyes instantly turned his way.  As they collided with his, he felt an odd piercing of his awareness.  Like a shaft of light had suddenly broken through the darkness of his soul.

What darkness?

There was no darkness in his soul.  

So why had he experienced such a fanciful thought?

“Excuse me,” she whispered, “but do you have a pen I can borrow? Or a pencil?”

He nodded dumbly.  She was beautiful.  Though, her face wasn’t as perfect as he had, at first, thought.  Her nose was a little off-kilter.  Like someone had broken it at some point.  Still, her face was absolutely fascinating to him.  He didn’t want to look away.

Suddenly, an annoyed look crossed her face.  “Just one pencil?  I’ll give it back to you at the end of class.  I promise!”

Pinky promise?

He smiled.  He thought about murmuring the words, but she seemed distressed.  So his short, little fingers reached for the only pencil on his desk.  He accidentally knocked it off.  He bent to retrieve it from the floor.  He glanced up at her.

She looked down at him and suddenly huffed.  The next thing Jimin knew, a book was descending upon his head.  It thwacked him on the forehead.

“Ow!” he exclaimed as he reached up to rub his head.

“Pervert!”

“What’d you do that for?”

Their words tangled with each other.  Much like their glances.

“You were trying to look up my skirt!” she accused him loudly.

Embarrassed, Jimin turned bright red as his eyes slid this way and that to ascertain who had heard her.

“I was not!  I dropped my pencil on the floor.  I was picking it up,” he retorted in an irritated tone.

She eyed him suspiciously before tugging her short skirt closer to her knees.  She didn’t make much progress. 

Jimin grabbed his pencil off the floor.  He refused to look at her.  He sat up and kept his eyes trained on the empty stage.

“Well?”

“Well what?” he murmured to his side without looking at her.

“Are you going to loan me your pencil?”

“I doubt you want to touch a pencil a pervert is holding.  You might get cooties.  I wouldn’t want to be accused of assault for trying to hand you a small stick.”

She sniffed.  “Whatever.”

Just then, as she was standing up to move elsewhere, a tall, thin lady walked across the stage.

“Young lady, please sit down!” came a commanding voice from above Jimin.  

The piercing, black eyes that accompanied that voice – and matched it quite well – invaded the rude girl’s space.  The teacher on the stage was glaring down at her.   Reluctantly, the suspicious freshman sat back down in her seat next to Jimin.

The sharp voice continued to speak, this time addressing the entire class.  “This semester you will all be writing a song to perform the last week of school.  Say hello to the person sitting next to you.  You’re looking at your partner.”

Jimin and the girl eyed each other with horror.  Would the teacher really know if they changed partners?

“I’m going to give you all a few minutes to get to know your partner.  I want you to ask them a few questions.  I need a couple to demonstrate.”  Her beady eyes flew to the front row.  “You two,” she pointed at Jimin and his partner, “yes, you two!  Come up here!”

Jimin sighed.  But not as loudly as the girl seated next to him.  Simultaneously, they stood up and headed for the stage.  In opposite directions.  They bumped smack into each other.  Dazed, Jimin backed up.

“Why can’t you watch where you’re going?” The disgruntled girl fumed.

“The stairs are right there,” Jimin pointed out.  “Of course, I’m going this way.  You should be too,” he hissed.

“There are stairs right there!” She stabbed the air in front of his nose.  “Let’s just take them.”

“Students, we don’t have all day,” their teacher’s voice interrupted their fencing eyes.

“Whatever!” Jimin responded.  

He turned towards the stairs the rude girl had indicated and ascended them ahead of her.

“Boys these days!  They have no manners!  No sense of chivalry!” she mumbled under her breath.  

But Jimin had heard every word.  His sensitive heart was deeply offended by her words.  He had always been very respectful of girls.  At least, until he’d met this one.  She seemed to need a lesson.

He stepped up near the teacher and gazed at her expectantly.  The girl reluctantly came to stand next to him.  She glanced at the teacher too.

“Now.  Find out each other’s names.”

“Jimin.”

“Jumi.”

Their voices dueled with each other, and several people in the audience laughed.  Jimin blushed.  The color along her cheekbones increased too.

“Good.  So, our first couple is Jimin and Jumi.  Now find out what year of study your partner is in.”

Jumi turned towards the teacher.  “But this is a freshman level course.  Surely, everyone is a freshman.”

“I’m not,” Jimin’s voice rang out.  “I’m a senior.”

Her eyes widened.  “How many times have you failed this course?”

Irritated, he drew his eyebrows down over his nose.  “Never!” he snapped at her.  “It was just added to my major this year.”  His eyes raked her.  “But I take it you’re a freshman.”

“What gave me away?” she hissed under her breath.

“Your rudeness,” he mouthed back to her.

The teacher was speaking over them.  “Now find out what genre of music is their favorite.”

“K-pop,” Jimin responded.

“Ha!” laughed Jumi.  “Of course!  I should have known.”  She’d elongated her last syllable.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Jimin demanded forcefully. 

Her eyes swept fiercely over him, but before she could answer him, the teacher pierced Jimin with her disconcerting gaze.  “Find out what she likes.”

Jimin glanced pointedly at the girl.

“Classical.”

“Of course,” Jimin hissed as they descended the stage a moment later.

She swung around on the steps and looked up at him, fire leaping in her eyes.  “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Just that it fits a snob like you.”

“Oh?  I’m a snob, am I?”  

She huffed again and headed for her seat.  She had to endure another forty-one minutes with this guy today.  And several more weeks this semester.  She put her face in her palm.  God, rescue her!

—

Her first impression of him had been that he was stunningly beautiful.  He had a lovely, straight nose and plump, pink lips.  Several locks of raven hair kissed his forehead.  But it was the eyes that had grabbed her the first time she glanced at him.

Jimin had speaking eyes.  Elongated, narrow.  But their chocolate brown depths called to her for some reason.

Until a few moments later when he looked up her skirt.  She should have known such a gorgeous guy would be a player.  With no respect for girls.  And it was just her luck to get stuck with him as her partner this semester!