"All of a sudden?" Her mum asked.

"Well, she's got a sudden breakup and I need to hear her out." Mayleen explained.

"Alright then, but you still think Denson is…"

"Mum, stop. We don't see eye-to-eye for real. What you're doing is futile." Mayleen concluded as she gestured a 'stop'.

"Well, both of you should get to know each other better before he leaves." Vienna stated.

"Thank god he's leaving! When?" Mayleen asked scornfully.

"Maybe you can ask him yourself." Vienna replied as she could hear the dislike in her daughter's voice.

He's leaving, huh… Mayleen thought in her heart. Did he really drug her with the aphrodisiac last night?

Seeing that Mayleen wasn't saying anything in return, Vienna added, "I can schedule another meeting for both of you if you want."

"It's okay, mum." Mayleen just quickly finished her breakfast before she told her mum that she would go to Ziyaa's place.

—--------

At Ziyaa's house.

Mayleen and Ziyaa sat comfortably in the living room while having some deep talk.

"I still remember that guy. Denson Cole, the Cole's family son, right? You fight with him all the time." Ziyaa said.

"Yes. I met him last night." Mayleen said, then cautiously fixated her gaze on Ziyaa. "I'm sorry I bailed on you."

Ziyaa just looked at her. She knew what her best friend was like and today she looked more dejected than usual. "Do you wanna talk about it?" Ziyaa asked softly.

Mayleen knew that it was hard to hide things from Ziyaa. She was very sensitive about people's feelings and she knew her own limits about what she should or shouldn't ask.

"Perhaps next time." Mayleen just smiled gently. She was really glad that Ziyaa was someone she could have a heart-to-heart talk with.

After Mayleen left, Ziyaa dialed a number on her phone. After a few beeps, the other person answered the call.

“Gerald speaking.” Said a deep male voice.

“Hey, it’s Ziyaa. Can you help me with something?”

—-------

One week later.

There seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary as everyone continued with their own routines. Mayleen had not seen Denson after that and soon she found out from her mother that he had gone back to the other city to study. Mayleen sure hoped she’d never see him again, forever.

But something did change inside her though. In class, Mayleen would find it hard to focus when Mr. Dylan was teaching them in front of the class. It wasn’t like she did it intentionally, but how could she focus when such an attractive man was just in front? She gradually realized that her crush seemed to become something more - she was falling for him. One-night stands were not that uncommon in the society she was living in, but she found herself hoping that she could become more intimate with Mr. Dylan.

A hand waved in front of her eyes and Mayleen only jolted out of her daydreams when Ziyaa snapped her fingers.

“Daydreaming?” Ziyaa whispered to Mayleen as Penny just watched from her left side.

Mayleen cleared her throat and looked down at her notes. “I’m listening to the class with full focus.” She retorted.

“Mr. Dylan is teaching page 50 now.” Penny reminded her and pointed at her book. It was still on page 49.

Feeling embarrassed, Mayleen quickly flipped to page 50 amidst the light giggles of her two best friends.

It was then that Mr. Dylan saw the antics of the three girls and frowned. “Mayleen, what is the answer to question 1?”

Mayleen was shocked that Mr. Dylan suddenly called her and immediately straightened her body. Ziyaa and Penny also stopped laughing and looked down at the book.

Question 1… Question 1…

Mayleen read through it for a while and gulped. It shouldn’t be hard since it was a multiple choice question. “Is it… A?”

“Wrong answer.” Mr. Dylan said in a strict tone and he sounded kind of angry. “Penny, what's the answer?”

“It’s C, Mr. Dylan.” Penny replied quickly.

Mr. Dylan nodded and looked towards Mayleen. “Please focus on the class, Mayleen.” He said before turning back to the whiteboard.

It was like a direct hit on her heart as she looked down at her book feeling dejected.

Ziyaa nudged Penny lightly. “Is it just me or does it seem like Mr. Dylan keeps targeting Mayleen these days?”

Penny pondered for a while. “It did seem more frequent.” There were around twenty-five students in the class and some students didn’t even get called that frequently.

“She must be in Mr. Dylan’s bad books.” Ziyaa reckoned. Her bad grades from last term must have irked Mr. Dylan.

Penny nodded. “That’s scary.” She wouldn’t want to be in the teacher’s bad books.

After the class ended, Ziyaa and Penny voiced their suspicions to Mayleen.

“Did you realize that Mr. Dylan is calling you frequently to answer questions? I reckoned that your grades must be bad and he wanted to give you the push.” Ziyaa told Mayleen honestly.

“But it might be a good thing. You should stop daydreaming in class.” Penny added.

Mayleen didn’t know what to say. Was he unhappy that they slept together on that night? Well, she did hear rumors of how much he loved his current fiancee. She felt even more depressed.

“There’s nothing wrong with my grades. I’ve always done my best in exams.” Mayleen replied.

“College entrance exams are coming so we have to step up.” Ziyaa said. “We can always ask for extra tutoring lessons if we need it. It’s free.”

“Huh? What about this extra tutoring lesson?” Mayleen asked curiously.

“Didn’t you check the school emails? You can apply for tutoring lessons and you are allowed to pick the teacher you want. It’ll be a one-on-one session and both the teacher and student will get credit points for participating. It’s voluntary, you can choose whether to join or not.”

Penny nodded. “Yes, I don’t think many students will join unless they need those credit points. I’d feel stressed to have one-on-one tutoring with a teacher.”

“You’ll never know. I heard the brainiac in our class has applied for this and requested our popular chemistry teacher.”

“That is understandable. You get a good tutor for free, it’s a chance that’s hard to come by. I would have considered it too if not because I already have the babysitter job.” Penny said.

“You work everyday when you’re not at school?” Mayleen asked.

“Only on weekends for now. I’ll work everyday when it’s school break.”

“Our college entrance exams start after the school break, right? Do you have time for it?” Ziyaa asked.

“I just need to organize my time properly.” Penny said. She had the better grades among the three of them so her friends knew she would do well.

—------

After the conversation with her friends, Mayleen decided on her own that she should apply for the extra tutoring lesson. From what she read in the email, both the student and teacher will decide on their own the suitable time for them to have the tutoring session. They also required that the session was video recorded to ensure that the whole session was done according to the scheduled time.

After skimming through the terms and conditions, Mayleen went to the office the next day to take the application form, then went to Mr. Dylan’s office.

It was an extracurricular day so most students were either outside doing sports or self-studying. Taking a deep breath, she knocked on Mr. Dylan’s office.

“Come in.” She heard his voice from inside.

Cautiously, she put her hand on the doorknob and turned it open. “Good morning, Mr. Dylan. Can I ask for some advice?”

Mr. Dylan was evidently shocked when he saw Mayleen at the door. He froze for a moment too long before he said, “Sure. How can I help?”