CALLIE'S POV

It's been a week since Norton has not come home with us. My parents do not look bothered. Their conciliation was, Norton is someone doing other business plus he's a guy. They didn't know about him as my co-faculty alongside Sir Mikhail. I'm getting worried. I see him in our building, he's teaching. But the interaction between us? It's completely abolished.

I was so mad. Since college, he was there for me. He's always by my side trying to put me inside his box. In every day that God made, he was always with me, starting in the morning, even at home. Was asking for a little freedom too much? It seems to me that he doesn't want me to have a boyfriend.

It's not that I don't want to see him anymore, I just desire to move without any restrictions. I admit I was so happy the first time he was by my side. But.. he already crossed the line.

"You don't look okay, Callie," Sir Mik commented while slightly squeezing my shoulder. We are now alone in the faculty room since my class will begin an hour later.

"You want to grab something to eat before you go to your class?"

"Nah, I'm good. Thank you, Sir."

"You want to speak with him?"

My mouth starts to pout. I should be the one giving him a silent treatment but Norton's reversing it. Basically, that time when he's pursuing his apology on me and I turned him down, that booger just gave an immediate action. He already gave up apologizing.

"Let's just go to your class then we will talk about it over lunch. Is that okay with you, sweetie?" he pinches my cheeks, removing the tears from my eyes. I'm tearing just from overthinking. My goddamn cousin.. he's making me worried sick.

Arriving at my designated laboratory, my students are as usual given a heavy atmosphere with their personal protective equipment on. Oh, okay. It's a Phlebotomy class, I can see their utility boxes. Ugh, it's because of that booger that I can't concentrate.

"Please compress here on my table so that you can see every detail of the procedure we're going to do today."

And something popped on my mind. I was also teaching students before. This is not just a deja vu, I'm actually reminiscing into it. Wow, I really did have a background of teaching before even when I was a student too, back then.

"I need a volunteer for me to further visualize every step of your Evacuated tube system."

They are all looking at each other, like establishing telepathy or what-- they just don't want their arms to get murdered by a professional. I really wanted to sacrifice my arm but then Norton came in from the other door to knock on the chemical storage room. Shit! I got nervous for a moment.

"Sir Norton? Can I have you as my patient in the evacuated tube system process?"

I bit my lip. He will turn it down and pretend not to hear a thing, I guess. But he walks toward us while smiling and taking off his lab coat. My mind suddenly panics because he nods his head, and agrees for the kids' sake. Whoo. I need to compose myself. Relax, he's just your cousin. You're already licensed for about half a decade. Collecting blood is your forte, right? Don't make your hands tremble just because he's your patient, Callie.

"Sure, sure! I'm not that in a hurry. Go ahead."

Same with the plan, I explained the procedure step by step for them to follow the instructions carefully. Had I have seen any doubt or he's hurt in my care, I'll probably gonna terminate the blood collection with him. But no, he is just looking at his arm while I'm drawing blood from him. Am I too assuming to say that the atmosphere between us is so uncomfortable?

"Thank you, Sir Norton."

"Welcome! Good luck on extracting blood, guys!"

He left us with a smile and directly went to the chemical storage room. Whispers are surfacing inside our lab, especially those girls noticing him. Yeah, right. He has the looks and all, but his attitude is the problem. My cousin is wearing a mask, to be honest.

After dismissing my class, Sir Mikhail invited me over for a lunch. However, I couldn't eat properly. Am I totally ignored by him? Am I at fault here? Did I humiliate him too much that time? Did we make a chaotic scene there at the fast-food chain branch? Those— those kinds of queries are lingering in my mind. I can't focus.

"Maybe he's contemplating what went wrong, Callie. Don't overthink things, okay? Look, you haven't touched your food yet."

"Sorry, I really am not that hungry. I don't have an appetite. Was I also like this when I was living in your house back then?"

"Remember when your mother said you need to stay with me for a week and you cried because I was not noticing you?"

I spurred a giggle on that. What the hell, he really remembers everything. So embarrassing, I cried to him because I'm whining about him not noticing me all throughout that day.

"You also cried to me before because I really don't like that meal you made with broccoli. I meant, your dish was awesome, of course.. but I'm not a fan of vegetables that's why I didn't eat what you've prepared for me. And I was exhausted from work at that time. Then.. the next day, you were knocking at my door crying. You told me the oppressive treatment was too much for you to bare."

My eyes could pop out of its socket! Really?! Did I really say that?! And he's laughing now?! Hahaha! We both laugh our asses out because of his story! Was I really like that before?!

"My point is, you keep your mind preoccupied then eventually hurting yourself. And confronting is your best way to let your rage out."

"You think it will work?"

"Let's just do it. Then we'll see," a wink from him made my heart flounce. Argh. Why is he making me romantically excited?!