Page 42 of A Lab Rat’s Guide to Fated Love

Twenty Six

The Hot Kitten-Eyed Professor

Nori

N ori dragged her feet through the corridor, craving a strong cup of masala chai and bored out of her mind. She slowed as she neared a trio of chattering students. They’d know where the cafeteria was.

“Did you hear?” A dark-haired girl in a cropped top and ripped jeans nudged the lanky guy beside her. “He was a medical doctor before he got into this.”

“You sure about that?” another girl with curly bangs quipped. “I bet he was a Valentino model. Have you seen him walk? And that jawline?”

“Yeah, swoon.” The lanky guy rolled his eyes. “Stop ogling at the teacher, Ri. You have a handsome AF boyfriend right here beside you.”

“I don’t ogle.” Curly-bangs girl shrugged. “Though there’s nothing wrong with admiring fine art. I heard that girl Simi from first year asked him out last week. ”

“No way! She’s not even in his class!” cropped-top girl exclaimed. “And? What did he say?”

“He turned her down, of course,” lanky guy replied. “Real curt, too, I’m assuming. You know how he is. I haven’t ever seen him hang out with the other teachers on campus. His lectures are cool, but I bet he’s super boring in person.”

“Whatever. Did you find the books he’d recommended last week? I checked the first two out from the library. Can’t find the third.” Cropped-top girl pulled her hair up in a bun. “We’re not late, are we?”

They headed into a classroom near the end of the corridor, and mildly intrigued, Nori followed them inside.

Judging by the collective enthusiasm of the rest of the students filing in, and the way they spoke of the teacher and his extraordinary ideas, she assumed the subject would be something wildly exciting.

Or at the very least, an actual subject.

But then she overheard it was a parapsychology lecture, and they were expecting to discuss the topic of past lives and their connection to the human psyche.

Regret instantly replaced her curiosity.

What a massive waste of resources and time. Nori sprung from her seat at the back of the class, eager to escape before the professor appeared. She didn’t want to have to sit through the entire lecture out of polite courtesy, since she was going to be colleagues with him soon. Unfortunately.

But before she could take a single step away from her bench, the man walked in carrying a fat stack of books with a tablet balanced on top.

With a quiet groan, she lowered herself back into her seat.

The professor proceeded to pass an attendance register to the nearest kid, before turning to connect his tablet to the projector while the students took turns signing their attendance.

He looked about Nori’s age, give or take a few years. With his tall athletic frame and the pair of round gold-rimmed glasses that sat delicately over his sharp nose, he seemed to exude a strange sense of magnetism that was hard to ignore.

Observing him objectively alone, the man had plain, forgettable features.

And yet, as Nori continued to stare, she realized—knew—that nothing was forgettable about him.

Nothing really stood out. Yet everything stood out—from his words and his voice, to the grace with which he moved.

How he nodded in approval with a subtle tilt of his head, when a student asked a question that he called, “Interesting.” And the way he lightly nudged his glasses back up when they slid down the bridge of his nose as he peered into the book lying open at his desk.

Everything was plain ordinary about this man. She knew that in her logical mind. But she also knew that not a single thing was.

Nori simply couldn’t take her eyes off the professor; not that she was trying to. But she sat surveying him with a mixture of wonder and mild annoyance throughout the class, unable to pinpoint just what it was about him that made it so hard for her to look away.

Was it because he was starting to seem… familiar somehow as the lecture progressed? Or maybe it was his voice. She wanted to keep listening to him talk. It didn’t matter if the concepts he was describing were from a pseudo branch of science.

They were interesting. Everything he was saying was interesting.

Or maybe Nori was experiencing the worst jet-lag of her life. Because what was wrong with her?

She tore her gaze away from him to look around the class. The students seemed to be as enraptured by his words as she was. But then they’d chosen to be there. They’d voluntarily signed up for his class while she was there in some sort of self-inflicted hostage situation.

Alright, the professor was good at his job. She had to give him that.

The class ended, and Nori remained seated, watching him gather his things from a distance while the students shuffled out of the hall.

With the stack of books held securely in his arms, the professor stepped away from his desk. He glanced in her direction, and as his gaze met hers, it immediately turned from pensive to horror-struck, his eyes going cartoonishly round.

What struck Nori was how dark they were. So dark, they looked jet black from afar. But there were no such things as black eyes in human genetics. She bet they were a very dark shade of brown, the actual hue only noticeable up-close.

And she wanted to look up-close. For science.

She sprung to her feet and hopped down the amphitheater steps to join him at the front of the hall .

“Hello professor.” She stretched a hand towards him. “I’m Dr. Nori Arya. Have we met before?”

His eyes widened even further, turning into giant, dark orbs. That, combined with his intense, unblinking stare, reminded her of her cat, Goober, and made her forget her next words entirely. The man had unbelievable kitten-like eyes—all shiny black pupils.

And he just wouldn’t stop staring—no, glaring at her. He looked like he was on the verge of tears.

Oh!

He knew her, didn’t he?

Ugh.

Maybe she’d been very vocal about his choice of non-science science in the past, and he hadn’t handled that well. He did seem to have a bit of a sensitive air about him.

Still… she couldn’t have been that mean to him… Not enough to make a grown man cry… years later. Just from a single look.

Oh, wow. Please don’t cry. Please don’t cry.

The moisture in the professor’s eyes brimmed and spilled over. And a split second later, he turned on his heels and stormed out, leaving Nori alone in the empty lecture hall with her hand still awkwardly outstretched in front of her.

Vir

V ir stood alone in the men’s room, staring at his reflection in the horizontal strip of mirror, while he forced himself to draw deep, calming breaths through his nose.

Two breaths in. One breath out. Two breaths in…

He’d spent a good part of the past twenty minutes trying to keep himself from choking on his own tears. It was as if four years’ worth of pent-up waterworks were fighting to be let out all at once. At least no one had walked in to watch him be a blubbering mess in broad daylight yet .

Composed and cleaned up, Vir finally stepped out of the bathroom, then immediately regretted doing so. Professor Khurana was passing through the corridor right at that moment—likely headed towards the staff room nearby. And accompanying the pot-bellied old man was Nori.

“There you are! I thought you’d gone home already,” the dean exclaimed as he reached Vir. “This is Dr. Nori Arya. And Nori, this is Dr. Vir Varma. But I’m sure you two don’t need an introduction. Vir told me earlier he was your first successful human subject.”

Nori’s eyes widened into a pair of large chocolate circles. “That’s where I know you from!” She beamed, extending a hand towards him. “No wonder you looked familiar.”

Vir stared at it, unmoving, while he focused on breathing through his nose again.

“Nori is here as a guest-lecturer for the semester,” Prof. Khurana explained. “Her classes are set to begin on Monday, so I asked her to look around the campus today.”

Nori glanced from her hand hovering mid-air to Vir’s face and back, before she slowly lowered it to her side, her friendly smile faltering and transforming into the subtlest of scowls.

Vir’s lips quivered when he sensed a familiar spike of irritation from her. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Biting the inside of his cheek, he settled for neither.

“You look tired,” Prof. Khurana observed. “Are you unwell, Vir? I thought I’d ask you to show Nori around, help her settle in, since you already know her. But if you’re not feeling—”

“Yes.”

“Yes, what?”

“Yes, I’d be happy to show her around.” Vir offered the man a smile, hoping it didn’t look as deranged as he felt it did.

He had no idea if he was even holding his facial expressions right, with the two extremes of absolute elation and unfiltered grief warring inside him for the driver’s seat—after years of feeling utterly nothing .

He turned to Nori and added, “My classes are done for the day. I was just headed to the library.”

“Great. I’ll leave you two to it, then.” Prof. Khurana walked away.

Nori frowned at Vir, her emotions a curious jumble of annoyance and amusement.

“I’ve already seen the library.” She shrugged after a moment. “How about the cafeteria? Do they have good chai here?”

“The best,” he said. “This way.”

Vir took her to his favorite café, out of the three that the campus had. In addition to having a limited but the best selection of refreshments, its location near the campus gate also made it convenient for him to grab a quick coffee before heading home every evening.

He asked Nori to take a seat while he walked away to get their beverages. When he returned, she was scrolling through pictures of Goober on her phone.

“How is he?” Vir asked, placing her tea on the table before taking his seat across from her.

“He’s good. It’s only been a couple of days, and I already miss him so much,” Nori answered, before looking up at him in surprise. “You know my cat, too?”

Vir nodded without offering an explanation.

“Did I show you pictures when I worked with you earlier?” Nori guessed.