Chapter Text
Chapter 1 – My Professor’s Secret
I couldn’t seem to focus now that I got the sudden message from the work group chat. Trevor was supposed to cover this night’s shift but his girlfriend was having a sudden emergency, so everyone (not me included) decided to point me as his sub for the night. I did my best to avoid that basically saying I had a late class until evening, which was true. But M herself said she will hold the bar until I get there and I couldn’t say no to the owner which has been really sweet to me all this time.
So here I am, looking at the digital clock on the corner of my laptop waiting for it to reach 4.30 PM, the end of this lecture. The bar open at 5PM and if I uber right away, I might have missed 5-10 minutes. Seems simple enough, I just need to sit this class for another 15 minutes.
Machine Learning class. It sounded awesome but really it was just coding, writing and a bunch of group project assignment. I used to really be obsessed to this nerd shit but I think I grew bored along the way. Ever since I got paid to serve people drink, my goal shifted slightly from ‘having a degree and apply to a big company’ to ‘save enough money to buy my own car’.
I know it was shallow but money beat education all the time. Though I couldn’t say that to Ethan and my dad. They’ll kill me for wasting the tuition money for this Computer Science course.
My leg was getting restless so I stretched it forward. It was one of those involuntary reactions where I also let a small groan out of my closed mouth. Everyone else was also sitting comfortably with their notebook or laptop on, so I wasn’t really stood out yet still… ‘he’ noticed me.
“Feeling comfortable?” The professor suddenly said that with a very flat tone. I wasn’t sure he meant that to me at first but when several students turned their head nervously at my direction, I just knew it meant trouble. When I raised my head, pair of emerald eyes were looking straight at me with a sharp dark brown frown above them.
“S-sorry sir.” I said meekly while trying my best to straighten my whole body back. Prof Kenneth, with a very obvious displeased scowl, let out a sigh and continued his lecture. While still occasionally glaring at me and the entire class, he kept talking about coding and stuff.
Prof Kenneth was the quintessential strict teacher from uptight town. Buttoned up shirt, thick glasses, belt and trousers, and even dad suedes. He dressed exactly like what you expect a professor would, proper and a bit intellectual. Yet at the same time he could be really intimidating. I think his tall and broad shoulders did wonders for the intimidation factor despite him being so dad-coded.
Which was truly a shame… Prof Kenneth was actually quite a looker himself. I think he was in his late 30s but he looked youthful. Short brown hair with no balding sign whatsoever, lush thick beard which he kept really neat and a very well-defined jaw. He had emerald eyes that could be very peaceful to look at. If only he wasn’t that uptight of a man.
He was built like a lumberjack who accidental got a tenure on a comp sci school. Thick neck, thick pecs, and even thicker arms. Even though he obviously tried to hide his physique with literal grandpa clothes. Everyone obviously noticed how restrained his shirt was clinging to his huge biceps every time he lifted his arms up. Oh, he also got a very deep and gravelly voice. It matched perfectly with his smarty but rugged kind of appearance. I bet if he decided to voice an audio book, it would sell very well. Heck… I would buy it.
I mean scary hot was a thing, right? I bet people with daddy issues would find Prof Kenneth hot or something… N-not me, though…
Anyway, Prof Kenneth did another glance at the class while explaining about some stuff. His tone was always serious but I could feel that he was being extra… grumpy this day. I wonder what happened…? It wasn’t just because I was stretching loudly, right?
Damn, what did I do?? Oh well, I know what I did last semester…
I did one help from ChatGPT for a line-fix for my last semester’s finals and he basically lost his mind over it. It was a last-minute thing and I couldn’t decipher what wrong on my program block, so I asked the actual robot to help. Somehow, Kenneth could sniff that and he called me to his office to give me a strict warning about AI help. Which I admit… kinda my fault to begin with that’s why I basically groveled at him.
But, come on… he was basically being too hard on me ever since then.
After 15 minutes which felt like an eternity, the class ended. Kenneth closed his lecture for the day and promptly tidy up his belongings. Looked like I wasn’t the only one rushing to go somewhere, since he also quickly took his bag and fly out of the room. It was Friday night, maybe he got something to do too.
I rushed to the parking lot outside to immediately ordered an uber right beside the road. Sending a message to M while waiting for a driver to pick me up. Efficiency!
The bar was kinda far from my campus, so I need to do that If I want to make it. Luckily, the traffic wasn’t that bad and it was a smooth drive all the way through.
The bar was located on a shopping street on downtown. During holiday and weekend, the street would be packed with people. I arrived right past 5PM where the dusk sky was just about to set off. The building was a semi open watering hole with tiki bar, outdoor seating arrangement and indoor building. Personally, I think the theme was a bit out of place but M was a well-known eccentric and people seems to enjoy it here. So, no problem.
The owner of the bar was a woman named ‘M’. I heard her name was Madison or… Mary Jane? Or Miranda? I didn’t remember anymore. We just called her M. She was a tattoo artist on her youth so her appearance was exactly tough like one. Short shaved hair, neck tattoos, sleeves and she got a pretty slick snake one on her right feet. Though she usually wore longer wigs, she still looked fierce and no-nonsense type of gal. Even though she was actually really really sweet.
As I entered the bar, M was there like she said, preparing the counter. She wore bright blonde wigs now. There’s something off about her since she was in this pretty summer dress which was far from her usual getup. So, I made a comment.
“Hey, there M.” I greeted the hospitable owner as I walked behind the counter. “Wow, you look so pretty. Special occasion, today?” I joked around playfully though I really noticed she did put on some effort on her makeup game.
“This? Oh, I just put on whatever I had on my closet.” She answered with her signature chain-smoker voice. “Meeting and old friend tonight so I did whatever.” She said the word ‘whatever’ twice so I knew it was more than that. Obviously, it was gonna be more than a friend.
“Your old tattoo artist pal?”
“Surprisingly, yeah. My buddy back from Bay Town. His name is Seth.” M sipped her glass of whisky which she kept hidden behind the beer keg. “You’re into men, right? What’s your thought about older men? He’s mid thirty-ish, so it’s not too old for you, right?” She said so non-chalantly like it was a very normal thing to ask your employee.
“Hold on… you asked me to bartend not to be your blind date plus one.” While giving her a judging stare, I slowly put on my apron and rolled my sleeves.
“Haha blind date? Hilarious. No time for that.” She sipped her drink while forcing an amused chuckle. “Seth was kinda too much for me, so I figured I need to distract him for the night.”
“Why? He was difficult or something?”
“Not really. He was just a bit of a flirt.” Wordlessly, she let me take over in cleaning the counter and took a step back. Beside hiding her drink, apparently she also hid her cigar. “He’s the type who knows he was cute and weaponize it very well. I like him as a friend but he could be a dog sometimes even for me. Maybe having someone to flirt would made him less unbearable.” She said while puffing her smoke.
“Trevor was supposed to be my honey trap. He played basketball and pretty good-looking with that charming himbo density and all. But I guess you would do for tonight.” She said it with an obvious joking and teasing smile.
Geez… sorry for not being attractive enough to be your sexpionage underlings.
“You do realize you tried to pimp your employee to your friend, right? If I got this in camera, you could be in trouble.”
“Tch, what are you? A cop?”
Both of us chuckled for a while. M then took both of her drink and cigar to inspect the newly put together mic stage. Last month, she prepared a trivia night and the month before that, it was a stand-up. It was a pretty solid performance and it got us busy with customer too. But like I said, M had no sense of theme regarding her bar but somehow people loved it.
“Help with the stage later too, Okay? Seth’s gonna sing for the night.” M said that while eyeing me who was about to cut some limes.
Oh, he’s a tattoo artist and a singer? And cute too? Now I’m intrigued.
M finally left the bar and went to her office on the back. And soon after, the customer begun to enter.
The bar was buzzing as the small crowd of the patron were chilling. Well into the night, the place started to smell like spilled beer, citrus peels and smoke. After preparing for the stage like M told me to, I went back to my station. Behind bar doing my autopilot tasks of wiping down the counter, smiling and pouring drinks.
M was sitting on one of the booths, nursing her drinks while occasionally watching something from her phone when the door was pushed open. She took a look at the guy who just walked in carrying a big guitar case and smiled.
“Seth, it’s been a long time.” M basically jumped from her seat and hugged the man.
I glanced up just in time to notice his arms around M’s back. He got a pretty intricate full sleeve tattoo on both arms. Very cool geometric patterns with something metal like chain pattern. Those were some well-developed muscly arms too, perfect for those tough-looking tattoos. He wore black casual shirt with rolled up sleeve and a pretty practical jeans and boots.
“Mia… You look younger and younger every day. Unbelievable.” The man answered and proceed to embrace M into his arms.
Hm…? Where did I hear that voice again?
My brain went blue screen when I saw the face of the man M called ‘Seth’.
Thick beard and striking brows. His hair was messier, pushed back as if he ran his hand through it carelessly. Very dangerous player vibes. He didn’t wear those thick glasses and checkered shirt anymore but… but he was most definitely Prof. Kenneth!
W-what is he doing here?! And how in the world he could pull this absolutely wild look after he just lectured some nerd shit about Machine Learning this evening?
I was just standing like some idiot trying to process everything. M invited ‘Seth’ to sit at her booth. It was obvious that I was not planning to eavesdrop or something, but I had to know about this. My ears were so laser focus to their conversation and I could clearly what they are talking about. Somehow, they are chatting like some legit old friends who worked on a same tattoo parlor.
Wait, Tattoo artist? THAT Prof. Kenneth was a tattoo artist while giving a lecture on computer science? The uptight and ‘no fun allowed’ guy?
None of this made sense yet that face! The build, the broad shoulder, the voice, all of them was Prof. Kenneth’s!
I honestly thought I was in a fugue state for the next twenty minutes because the next thing I noticed was Prof. Kenneth on the stage holding his guitar. He checked the mic for echo like some pro while wearing this… cheeky confident smile all the time.
“Evening all. Let’s see if this can make you forget your shitty day for a second.” He said before strumming his guitar once. That smooth and velvety voice.
Then he started to sing. I… didn’t recognize this song but it hypnotized me nonetheless. I knew he got great voice but this one… this one was sexy. It was some kind of slow ballad and everyone stopped talking like the whole bar was frozen still. I was just petrified as I watched his forearm sway around as he played his guitar.
Just for that moment, I believed that this was not the same Prof. Kenneth I knew.
After his set ended with a solid applause, he went back to M’s booth and set his guitar back to its cases. He looked so… free and casual that I couldn’t help but to stare at him. Dammit, he looked super good in relaxed setting like this. I mean, the sex appeal of a mature older man who knows how to fool around was so intense! This is fucking wild, my grumpy algorithm teacher was this hot?
Russel, are you really thirsting over your computer science professor who basically threaten my GPA the last semester? Now I understand why moth flied toward open flames…
Just as I was about to catch a breath, I saw him slowly stood up and walked right towards me. Tall, sturdy and authoritative. S-shit, be cool!
“Hey, so Mia said that you could fix me a whiskey neat.” Seth stared at me directly while he said it so casually. Lips curved into a playful smile “Can I have a glass? When you’re done staring of course.” Out of the blue, he said that with a very different tone. Forward, playful and almost seductively.
“S-sorry?” I stuttered as I realized I have been staring at his tattooed arm all this time
“You’ve been looking at me ever since I walked in. Should I be worried? Or flattered?”
“My bad. It’s… umm you looked like someone I knew.”
“Really? That was the most unoriginal pickup lines I ever heard.” This time he pulled his smile on its side, making him even more cheeky and playful.
B-but I didn’t lie though! He did look like someone I know!
Either way, I shook my head to regain my composure. I forced a dry chuckle and begin to fix him his drink. Be cool Russel, he’s not your professor tonight. He’s just a customer.
“Here you go.” I said before sliding him his glass. I shouldn’t be too nervous in front of this man. “You have a great voice, Seth. It blew me away.”
“I like this pickup line better. Thanks.” Seth took a brief look at me before smiling so sweetly. “Having a cute bartender like you paying me attention worth all the hassle of coming here.”
Okay… I wasn’t really trying to flirt at my literal Professor but God damn that felt good.
“What’s your name?” He asked me while resting both arm on the counter now. The cool slick ink pattern around his arms were really detailed and professional. His head tilted so slightly while he kept his eye contact to me. His eyes flicker, passionate and attentive.
Oh, he didn’t recognize me? Well, not surprising since I was just a student amongst so many classes he lectured. I’m not sure why he decided to adopt this ‘Seth’ persona but for a strict academy background, perhaps him being a tattoo artists and bar singer might complicate things. He clearly wanted all of this side of his life a secret.
So, I just… play along?
“Russel as in ‘Jack Russel’” I answered.
“Like the cute dog?”
“Exactly like the dog. Russel is my middle name…. and Jack was my first.”
“No fucking way. Hahaha” Seth grinned so amusedly like he heard the funniest joke. “You gotta sue your parents or something for that.”
“Trust me, I did try. But they said I should just legally change my name and stop being petty.”
“Haha what would you change it to if you could?”
“I don’t know man… but most definitely not ‘Terrier’.” I answered so deadpan flat. But Seth just cheerfully chuckled while his shoulder trembled. He slapped his thigh weakly before returning to his cheeky confident smile.
“You’re funny, Jack Russel. I like you.” It’s almost like his voice dropped a tone lower when he said that. My face went hot just for a second thanks to that.
We kept talking in between my work. This man was quick-witted, a little dirty and most importantly way to forward with his game.
“Do you have tattoos?” Seth asked me that when I finished serving a couple who just came at the counter.
“I don’t. I heard getting one was painful. Is it true?”
“Yep. It hurts like a bitch.” He surprisingly answered it honestly. However, I saw his eyes flicker with the dangerous mischief that I felt from his vibe from earlier again. “But pain is great. I like it when it hurts every now and then.”
He paused and I see his half-smirk grew even wider.
“What do you say? Wanna try getting your first tattoo? I could fix you up.” He raised his glass and gulp down his entire whiskey for the night in one swift motion. “Don’t worry, I will be gentle. Especially for first timer like you.”
If my face was hot earlier, this time my whole chest went nuclear. The fuck was that? It was the perfect amount of dirty and funny, I couldn’t stop my nervous chuckle.
I tried my best to calm my expression and decided… that I need to be honest with him.
“Look, Seth… I’m just gonna say it.” Lowering my voice, I leaned into him. “I was actually a student in your class. I… I knew it was you, Prof. Kenneth.”
As soon as I whispered that, I witnessed his confident mask cracked for the first time. Seth blinked and then his eyes widened. He let his mouth opened for a second too long. Faint blush appeared on his cheeks before he gritted his teeth while wearing this adorable annoyed expression.
“F-fuck…” He cursed under his breath while his eyes are stammered to his empty glass. “You’re a student?”
I immediately nodded and then a dry chuckle escaped my mouth. “It’s fine, Prof. You have your reason and all. I won’t tell anyone. It’s just… a bit awkward.” I tried my best to appear casual but I think my nervous laugh gave it away too.
This was… no matter how you see it, a literal awkward situation. Seeing your professor out of class… wearing a very questionable getup.
But then, ‘Seth’ said something more awkward.
“N-no, Listen-“ He groaned and touched his chin nervously as he spoke. His lush beard looked so smooth brushing on his fingers.
“I’m not Kenneth. I am really ‘Seth’. Kenneth’s identical twin brother.” He said that so weirdly almost like he confessing something sinful.
“We may look the same but no way in hell, Kenneth would go out in a friday night, flirting with a bartender on the bar.” He now folded his tattooed arms on his chest, as if putting the most defensive stance he could. “Trust me, I’m not Kenneth.”
No…. fucking way…. right? I didn’t buy it for a millisecond!
The voice, the build, the eyes… everything was too perfect. Admittedly, I never saw Prof. Kenneth without long-sleeved shirt but come on! Even identical twin could not be this identical, right??
What a funny situation haha.
I saw the once smooth-talking confident tough guy looking so flustered with pink cheeks tapping his finger nervously on his whiskey glass.
So, again… I decided to play along.
“Haha. Is that so? My bad. I thought you were my professor.” I smiled at him, feeling so confident all of the sudden. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Seth.”
‘Seth’ grumbled and now I saw a very refreshing cute embarrassed/annoyed expression on his rugged face. “Don’t… make fun of me. That was honest-to-God true.” His voice was getting even more submissive now.
Seth, still in damage control mode, now unlocked his phone and hastily searched for something. It was the first time I saw Professor’s phone and might I say his phone case was the blandest type ever; a black silicone type. The simplicity made you unintentionally noticed his fingers instead. Thick, rough and hard.
“Look, here’s a photo of him and me together.” With a bit annoyed frown, he flipped his screen to me and I immediately set my eyes on it.
It was a picture of two young boy, probably middle schooler. They were clearly identical twin, wearing casual clothes with a cool-looking waterfall on the background. Freckles and short brown hair, very similar to how I imagine Seth when he was a kid. But…
“Do you… have more recent pictures?” I asked the most obvious question.
“Tch, what are you? A cop?” He turned even more flustered and set down his phone annoyedly on the counter. “I didn’t. Who took selfies photos with your siblings nowadays?”
“Literally everyone.” I answered so fast only because I found his grumpy stare even more adorable now.
“Fuck it. Believe me, don’t believe, I don’t care.” He tried another approach to hide his embarrassment now. He tapped his finger furiously, asking me for another whiskey to drown his shame. I chuckled and obliged since I was still working.
“Hey, If you’re not my professor, then it was all good.” I gave him his refill and he immediately sip it like he was a thirsty dog.
“Yeah right… Tell that to Kenneth. He would flip out if he heard I was hitting on his students.”
“Were you flirting just now? Heh… I have no idea.” Against my better judgement, I teased him more. The same blush appeared again even though he hid half of his face with his whiskey bottle. Oh how the turn have tabled, now I was giggling while he was having trouble maintaining eye contact.
What the hell?! This is so addicting now.
“So… about my first tattoo…” I dragged my word purposefully to see how he would react and as expected, it was too adorable to see his nervous glare. “Will the offer still stand? Or should you ask ‘Kenneth’ for permission first?”
I legit felt so joyful now, like I just received some top-secret information about something. Let me be clear, I didn’t intend to blackmail this guy despite him giving me a hard time last semester. I just enjoy the tease and ‘power’ I got now.
But surprisingly… It seems like Seth also liked this awkward situation. Because he smiled so cheekily again. This time with a faint crimson on his cheek.
“You’re a little shit, aren’t you? Heh… You’re lucky I wasn’t your actual professor.” He said with the same flirty tone he did earlier. “Forget about the tattoo, what you need is a ‘lecture’." The same heat now spread through my chest again.