"Oh, we shouldn't have listened to the angst and the fear." —Mountains Of The Moon.

••

Kelly skids in her tracks in the hallway, her legs unable to take her further. She presses her palm against the wall to hold herself upright as she comes to terms with what just happened.

She touched it.

She touched his...thing.

Though it was covered by the cotton towel securing his loins, she could easily feel everything through the furry material. And the scariest part is, it felt unnaturally monstrous.

When it comes to the male reproductive system, Kelly is as ignorant as she is in many of her other subjects. Most of her biology classes are spent spacing out or stealthily watching videos from the large compartment of her bag; therefore, she cannot decipher if what she felt was even remotely normal. It was too...big.

Flashing her head, she tries to erase the memory, but her frantic heart is there to remind her. Rapidly pumping in her chest at a hundred miles per second. Gnawing at her flushed lip, she pops her blouse to create some breeze. Although the house is humid from Nikolai's air conditions, she cannot stop the heatwave sweeping over her body.

She touched it. She can't believe she just touched it! How on earth will she look the man in the eye now?!

Embarrassed, she puts her face in her hands, whining under her breath as she presses her side against the wall.

She touched it. She can't believe she touched it.

"You alright?" An amused voice comes from behind, and she swings around to see Mia standing by the bathroom door she earlier instructed her to.

Her feet are covered with her white knee-length socks, and she is still wearing her uniform, the grey blouse and burgundy skirt now wrinkled from her lying in them. She fiddles with the end of her tie as she looks at her expectantly.

"Y-yeah." Kelly finally chokes out, and the younger girl chuckles, revealing white rows of teeth secured with braces. Kelly hadn't noticed them in the car, but then Mia hadn't spoken much, giving the impression of being an introvert.

"Alright." Her laughter settles into a smirk as she turns away, but then she immediately pivots on her heels and faces her again.

"Would you like to watch some movies with me?"

Kelly shifts her weight, contemplating the offer. "Um, that sounds good, although I have my tutoring..." There is no way she is saying no to watching movies. "But sure."

Mia grins and turns away to her room, and Kelly follows her as she widens the door to allow her easy access.

The room is painted dark grey with no hint of feminine presence. But this is due to the fact that Mia doesn't live here. Nikolai hates others roaming around his house, so assigning quarters to 'visitors' helps him to keep his place under supervision.

Kelly realizes that the only sign of delicacy is the flower-patterned pouch sitting on the nightstand and Mia's dark red knapsack lazily thrown down on the bed. Everything else screams 'masculine.'

"So..." The bed bounces as Mia sits on it, tucking her legs beneath her and bundling the hem of her skirt between her thighs. "You have a crush on my uncle?"

Kelly chokes on air, and the girl's lips twitch as she watches her with mischievous eyes.

Where on earth did she get that?

"No-no. He's my teacher."

"Mm, so?" She reaches for an unopened candy from the bedside table, tilting her head to the side. "Age is just a number."

Kelly gawks at her in awe. "How old are you?"

"Twelve. Thirteen next month." She unwraps the sweet and slips it into her mouth, holding the stick between her small fingers. "I am not really social, but I felt like you and I have something in common." She pats the spot next to her, and Kelly sits down, complying.

"I like my teacher too. But it's forbidden. Even more forbidden than your liking for my uncle."

"I don't like your—"

"The man I like is Twenty-six, and he's married. With two kids. And I am twelve. It will never ever happen. But I learn to live with it." She leaves the lollipop in her mouth as she reaches for her black laptop with white glitters covering it. "Do you like Korean dramas?"

"Love, actually." She beams as she scoots closer, and the younger girl chuckles.

"I knew we'd be good friends."

Kelly tucks a leg underneath her as she watches her type on her laptop, engrossed by the black nail polish covering her fingernails. "If you want to seduce Nikolai, you just have to make your uniform skirt a bit shorter."

Her jaws drop. This girl is too young for this.

"You have a nice lady-shape; put it to use. It comes in handy."

"I don't have a crush on him. Honestly." Kelly chuckles nervously, using a finger to sweep hair from her eyes.

"I saw you two on the floor. Staring dreamily into each other's eyes."

She gasps. "Th-that was an accident!"

"If I am not marrying Mr. Jacobs; that's the name of my teacher-crush by the way, I will be marrying Lee Min-ho." She turns the screen of her computer as a Tv-series with the said Korean actor begins to play.

"Ooh, I like him too."

"Yeah, he's hot." Mia fixes herself so she can lay onto her stomach, then look over at Kelly. "Lay like this; it's cooler this way."

She smiles and follows the position, fixing her skirt over the back of her thighs so that Mr. Todd won't pass by and witness her entire butt on display. She has embarrassed herself enough for one day.

As the movie goes on, Kelly's inability to focus on one task at a time kicks in, and she begins to think about the argument she witnessed in the car earlier. She doesn't know Mia on a personal level, and neither is she aware of what really happened at the school, but something tells her that she wasn't the one who had been smoking. She just needs to confirm her thoughts.

"Um, it's not my business, but...you weren't the one smoking, huh?"

Mia looks away from the movie and to her. After a while of presumably weighing her options, she shakes her head slowly. "No...it wasn't me. I have a history of doing bad things so...no one will believe me." She shrugs.

Kelly knew it. This girl is much too assertive and straightforward to lie about smoking a cigarette. With the short amount of time she has spent with her, she can easily sense the confidence emanating from her. Just like Mr. Todd. This must be another speck in their gene.

"What happened?"

Mia sighs and tucks the grey pillow against her chest. "Well, I was sitting in the restroom, re-reading my copy of The Fault In Our Stars. And some girls came in. They are the school's sluts. They were smoking, and I was in one of the cells. The sprinkles detected smoke and it went off. They all chased out, and they must have told the principal that it was me. A little water doesn't scare me, so I didn't rush to get out. The principal came in, and it appeared to have been me because the cigarette was right next to my feet."

Kelly listens to it all, for once not spacing out, then she frowns. "But that's not fair. It could have been anyone else. It was on the floor; it's not like it was in your hands."

"Well, when you have a reputation of fighting and cussing out your teachers, this is what happens to you." She purses her lips.

"It's not fair, though..." Kelly chews on her lip, her need to help setting in.

"This is her." Mia now has her phone in hand, showing Kelly a photo of the girl who had been smoking. "She's always smoking at the back of the fields at lunchtime."

"Ooh. Send me that photo." Kelly fetches her phone from her skirt, and Mia's brows scrunch together.

"What are you going to do?"

She waggles her brows. "We'll see."

••

Mr. Todd exits his room, now dressed in a pair of grey joggers and a white V-neck T-shirt. He's frustrated, mostly because he can't seem to forget what just happened between him and Kelly. It's on his mind like an imprint, and he has no idea why.

He shoves back damp hair from his forehead as he passes by Mia's room, and the soft voices of the two girls cause him to stop in his tracks. He takes one step backward and peers in.

The door to the room is open, and the first thing that catches his eyes—unintentionally—is Kelly's rear. It's properly covered but looks quite...larger from his angle. Her thick thighs don't make the situation any better either, and Mr. Todd shifts in discomfort.

She needs to get the hell up now.

He tears his eyes away and grounds his jaw, knocking lightly at the door to gain their attention.

Kelly's body grows rigid as she steers her head around, her stomach lurching as soon as they make eye-contact.

"I am ready for you." He says blankly, and she nods.

Mia throws her a small naughty smile, perhaps still thinking that she has a crush on him. Kelly sees the crude gesture and flushes a bright red as she gets up off the bed, fixing her skirt down.

Before she can join him by the door, he turns away and walks several steps ahead, probably not wanting to be too close to her after that ordeal earlier.

Kelly stares at her socks as she moves toward the staircase, and Nikolai side-eyes her while descending the stairs.

"Did I not tell you to wait downstairs? But you're watching a movie when you should be putting your mind in the frame of learning."

She presses her lips together, failing to offer an answer, and he comes off the last step and turns to her.

"Am I not talking to you?"

She stops in her strides. He is being excessively crabby, so she utters the only thing she can think of.

"I am sorry."

"I don't like apologies; I told you that a million times. Don't put yourself in the position to make them. Let's use the center table."

"God, what's up with you?" She grumbles. It wasn't supposed to leave her mouth, but it somehow came out, and it surely didn't miss her teacher's ears. He swings to her.

"What was that Ms. Young?"

"Nothing."

He glowers at her, ragingly. "Do you have something you would like to say?"

"No." She avoids his eyes and sits on the couch, scratching her arm quietly. She senses his gaze on her for a little while before he finally walks away to a room at the far corner.

She stares at the bandaid on her knee to avoid crying at his sudden harsh behavior. She is now reminded of why she hated this man in the first place. His words have the ability to cut through her entire essence.

Soon, he returns with two floor-cushions. He puts one on each side of the small center table and points to the one on the left. "Sit there."

Perhaps his trip to the room pacified his anger because his voice is now an octave lower, and his features are softer. Kelly gets up promptly so as to not upset him further.

She coils her legs underneath her and looks up, finding him already watching her.

"I-is this okay?"

Mr. Todd doesn't answer the question as he looks away from her and walks toward the staircase. After a while, he returns downstairs with some files and books and sits at his side of the table.

She knows it isn't the best time to throw in her thoughts about Mia, but she's not sure when she will be able to get the chance, if not now.

"Um, Mr. Todd."

"Yes?" He doesn't look up from the book he's skimming through.

"About Mia...I don't think she was the one who smoked that cigarette. I think she got framed. She's much too confident and straightforward to lie about something like that. And I have been watching her body language since she came into the car today; she didn't give off a guilty vibe at all. She seemed assertive and sure of herself, and—"

"Is any of that your business?" He finally lifts his head, and Kelly sinks into her shoulders, timidly.

He raises his brows, and she shakes her head, dropping her gaze.

"Then why are you paying attention to everyone's business except yours? You have a whole ton of work and catching up to do, don't you?"

She chews on her lip.

"Answer me."

"Yes."

"Then focus on your studies and stop getting distracted by every little thing around you. Do you understand?"

"Y-yes." Her voice cracks, and she presses her lips together, staring at his reflection through the glass table, making out his glare of utter annoyance.

This man hates her. No one can tell her otherwise. Not even him.

"Good. Then let's begin. We will be doing I.T as we said earlier."

Kelly sits up straighter as he rests the book on the table and commences his session.

••

"... and then in 1997 Six Degrees was created by Andrew Weinreich and was known as the first social media website to ever be created, it developed from there until LiveJournal came into the picture. Do you get that?"

Kelly nods absentmindedly as she scribbles irrelevant lines in her notebook.

Mr. Todd drops his gaze to the doodling on her page. It's a combination of stickmen and badly-drawn hearts, having nothing to do with the lesson whatsoever. He clenches his jaw tightly, fighting the urge to yell at her for the complete fuckery she's doing in the middle of his teaching.

Why is she so easily distracted? And when she does that, she's distracting him too.

He intakes a deep breath and continues to speak. "So in 2002, Peter Chin launched the site Friendster, and from then and there—Jesus Christ, stop doing that, child!" He snaps, and she freezes, the pencil in her hand.

"What did I just say? Repeat the last two words, Kelly." He throws his pen down and leans back against the ridge of the sofa.

She straightens up, a guilty look on her face as she fiddles with the pencil.

"Start talking."

"I-I didn't hear." She mutters, and her throat burns because she knows he's going to be mad.

"Are you serious? Are you damn serious? I am here sitting and teaching you for hours now, and I doubt you've heard a word I have been saying. Tell me at least one thing you learned today. One thing!"

She shakes her legs, sifting her mind for at least one piece of information. But she can't find anything. How is this possible? She had been listening...for at least half of it.

Nikolai gawks at her in utter disbelief, then mutters something under his breath. It misses her ears, but she can tell that it wasn't anything good.

"I can't understand you. You claim you want to do better this year and I don't see where you are making an effort to do better. You keep doing irrelevant things and annoying the hell out of me. Tell me, why on earth are you wasting my time?"

Her eyes prick, and she swallows down the lump in her throat.

"What must I do for you to stop spacing out and annoying the living hell out of me? How old are you, Kelly?"

She writhes in her spot, not sure if he's looking for an answer, but when he doesn't say anything else for a while, she realizes that he's waiting for her response.

"Eighteen."

"You don't convince me. You know why? Because you act like you're twelve. You need to grow up."

Her hands are now shaking, and the tears are frothing within her eyes. Getting a bit too painful to restrain.

"I feel like I am teaching an elementary kid. And even elementary kids are more attentive. If you want me to continue being your tutor then you need to stop irritating me."

And that's it for her. The tears slip from their sources and slide along her cheek, but that doesn't stop him.

"You're worrying about everyone else but yourself. Worry about yourself. Help yourself. And stop acting like you have everything covered because you don't. Stop wasting my time, your parents' time, and your own time!"

Her shoulders tremble as she rubs the excretions away with the back of her hand. She's accustomed to his harsh words, but today...today she wasn't ready for this.

"I-I think I wanna go home now..." She whispers, then quickly get up and grab her backpack from the sofa, hardly getting her shoes on before chasing out of his house.

Nikolai waits for his door to shut behind her before he blows out a sigh, staring at her notebook that she left behind on the table.

He hears a noise from the staircase and turns his face in the direction to see Mia standing there, glowering at him.

"What?" He breathes.

"That was mean, Nikolai."

He looks away and eases up off his rear, sliding his phone from his pocket.

"Plus it's raining. I don't think she has an umbrella." Mia frowns. "She's a nice girl."

He scrolls down his Instagram, trying to ignore the probe of guilt stabbing his subconscious. Deep down he knows that he went too hard on her.

••

Asshole.

Just when Kelly thought he was finally warming up to her, he has proved her wrong.

This man will never grow to like her. Ever.

His house was cozy and the walls were thick; hence, she didn't know that it was raining on the outside. But even if she had known, she would still have left. She didn't want to be around him any longer; she wants to be alone now so she can cry freely without being scrutinized.

Night has fallen, the yellow streetlights surrounded by the cold clear mist. She stands by his gate and digs into her bag for her sweater. It won't be enough to shelter her from the rain, but at least she's making an effort. She's still sobbing quietly as she tugs it on, fixing the hood over her head as she begins her journey down the gloomy street.

This was a bad idea. Asking him to be her tutor was the worst thing she has ever done. He did try to warn her, if only she had listened. She wonders if it's too late to switch to another teacher. She thought she could handle him, but apparently, she's not as strong as she thought she was. Perhaps this was what he meant when he said he'd be too rough for her.

As she wipes at her eyes with the tip of her fingers, she realizes something. She's unaccustomed to Scheme Four. She has only moved to Sunrise Close two years ago; therefore, she's not sure of how to arrive at Scheme One. Most of the houses in the area look alike, and she feels as if she's in a maze, going around in circles. Her older brother and parents transport her to school daily, and for that reason, she hasn't gotten the chance to explore the neighborhood thoroughly. The fact that she isn't an outgoing person makes it immensely worse.

And now, she's lost.