When Bree walked out of the hall, her face was bright red, like it always was during the lecture. What was that all about?

"Woah, woah," Minah's voice came out of nowhere, her arm wringing around Bree's waist. "Why are you speed walking? Where are you off to?"

"I'm more speed walking away from somewhere," Bree corrected her, Minah raising an eyebrow and looking behind the two, trying to guess where Bree must have come from, gave an understanding nod when she saw the chemistry lecture theatre there.

"Oh, right," she laughed, "Here I was thinking you'd love your chem lectures by now."

"You know, I don't even know how I feel, one minute I'm comfortable and smiling and then I'm downright embarrassed and leaving that place is the only thing I'm thinking about."

"Hmm," she grinned, "Bree do you like him? Do you like your chem professor?"

"Minah," Bree deadpanned, "Don't be ridiculous, why would I like that nosy, rude, witty, funny, good looking, smart, charming- I'm rambling aren't I?"

Minah nodded, "Yeah and you just admitted you liked him."

"I didn't. I don't."

"Okay, you admitted you found him good looking."

"Yeah, but doesn't everyone? I mean, he's got every girl on campus drooling over him, even th-"

"I'm talking about you, Bree."

She shook her head, she was not falling for her chemistry professor, definitely not.

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She started to love her chemistry lectures – although she would never admit it. Just watching Taehyung walk around the lecture theatre, hands in pockets as he looked at his students through his round glasses, or as he explained something with his hands moving around animatedly or as he wrote equations on the whiteboard, which his back turned to the class. But it wasn't like she was alone. She was on the same side as every other girl in her class.

"Okay today I will be introducing a new programme, it's a way of getting extra credits or points toward scholarships that you might like to apply for," Taehyung once said, sitting on top of his desk. "It's just another Chemistry topic which you will have an exam for at the end of the semester along with your other papers. I'll be teaching and helping you guys through it out of class time, probably on Tuesday mornings. Come see me after I dismiss you if you'd like to join."

Bree thought about it. She did need to boost her credits to get that scholarship she had been working towards, volunteer work and tutoring alone wasn't going to suffice. So she made up her mind to join, and just hoped it wasn't only her.

When class was over, she made her way down the steps, and behind her was Sanghyuk, following to join as well. Taehyung was going through some papers and glanced up, catching Bree's gaze over his glasses and gave a knowing smile.

"I'm guessing you four would like to do the extra credit paper?" he asked just as they reached him.

"Yes, prof," Sanghyuk replied, Bree turning and looking at the students who he was referring to. She tried to stop the instinctive roll of her eyes when she saw Nakyung, the girl notorious for hitting on their chemistry professor during lectures.

"Mhm," he nodded, skimming through the students, "yeah, you all have grades which prove you're capable of doing this assignment."

Bree saw Sanghyuk beam and she shook her head.

"We'll start classes tomorrow, here at 9 am," he grabbed a clipboard and looked up at the students again, "So it's just Sanghyuk," he scanned at the others, "Nakyung, Chaejin, and Bree."

They all nodded and headed to the door, however, something stopped Bree. Behind her, she heard the bothering voice of Nakyung as she spoke to the professor.

Bree couldn't help but turn around, to look at them as they spoke, observing the way Nakyung laughed at everything Taehyung said, and how she tried to stand as close to him as possible without it getting awkward.

"Thank you so much for letting me do this extra course," she grinned, flicking her hair so hard her neck must have clicked. "I can't believe you think I'm good enough."

Taehyung was flipping through a book, his eyes never lifting from the page.

"Mhm, your grades are good."

"Well it's the teaching, you're such a great teacher. I love this class so much, I look forward to it all the time," she gushed, but he remained expressionless.

"That's good."

"It's the highlight of my week, getting to come to this class."

"Great."

"Because I get to see you."

"Mhm," he hummed, turning the page.

Bree didn't know what was more shocking; the extent Nakyung was going to in order to get his attention, or how he didn't react to anything she was saying.

"You know what would be great, if I could see you more often-"

"Hi Bree," he must have noticed she had been standing there and he looked up to face her, "You must be here about your last paper, I did need to talk to you about that."

"Huh?" confusion painted over her features, she squinted her eyes at Taehyung's which were blinking back at her calmly, as if to say just go with it.

"Right, yeah, did you say there was something wrong with it?"

"Well, thank you Miss Lee, I'll see you tomorrow at our lesson."

"Bye, Professor."

Once she has strutted out of the hall, Bree turned to Taehyung, an eyebrow raised.

"Did you really just use me to get out of a conversation with Nakyung? Wow, you really are something."

"That girl does love to talk."

"To you." Bree muttered under her breath, and when she realised she had said it a little too loudly, it was too late to take it back.

"I m-"

"Don't blame her, I'm great," he joked, crossing his arms over his chest.

Yeah, you are.

"Well, I'll-" when she turned to face him, the expression on his face made her realise that she has just said that out loud.

He chuckled, "You see, it's different when I hear that from you."

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

Bree found herself regretting one thing or another every single time she walked away from that lecture theatre.

Sometimes it was the little things like making eye contact with him during lectures or when he caught her staring but then it was also the other dreadful things like letting him tease her like he did.

"Oh my gosh your professor's flirting with you?" Minah asked, her eyes bulging out of her skull.

"What? No, I never said that."

"But that's exactly what he's doing, according to what you've just told me."

"No."

"Yes, Bree," Minah leaned in to her, "'You know you're funny. Not just a pretty face', how is that not flirting?" her voice, incredulous.

Bree shrugged, "I don't know, but, why would he even try to flirt with me? Minah, think about these things before jumping to conclusions."

"He might like you!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air, "Why are you not thinking about that possibility?"

"Because he's doesn't, that's why."

"Seriously," Minah deadpanned, "You're not even going to consider it true?"

"Yeah, I'm not going to consider it true."

But she did. Bree thought about the possibility of him actually liking her. What surprised her, though, was how badly she wanted it to be true.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

"Okay so the topic will be a bit more Bio-Chemistry as opposed to Chemistry on its own," Taehyung had asked the four students to all sit throughout the first two rows, and so Bree and Sanghyuk were spread out on the second row while Nakyung and Chaejin were sitting in the first row (Nakyung insisted she needed to sit as close to 'the view' as she could).

The topic was more or less self-study, it was just what they had previously learnt but more advanced and so Taehyung would start the sessions off with quick talks in which he would introduce a couple new formulas and a few principles and then hand them out a few pages of worksheets as they would fill them out, asking him for help if they needed.

Nakyung was the first to have her hand up.

What a surprise.

"I don't understand what this means," she asked, Bree heard the mock sincerity in her tone, to which she rolled her eyes.

"Do you mean the H-e, Miss Lee?" Taehyung asked and she nodded.

"Yeah, the H-e."

"That means Helium," he said quickly and Nakyung turned to look down at her work, horrified.

"Oh, yeah, that's Helium..."

Bree snorted, causing Taehyung to look up at her, already knowing she was laughing at her classmate's question.

"Did you need some help too, Miss Anderson?" he asked and her eyes widened.

"Huh? Uh, no," he walked towards her, sitting in the seat next to her, "I don-"

"Have you read over your answer to question three?" his eyes were trained on her work.

"Uhm," she followed his gaze, "Yeah, that's the answer I came up with."

"Okay," he leaned over and pressed his index finger on the paper, pointing at the question description.

But she was too busy holding her breath.

"You know that cells have a constant turnover of proteins that recycle most amino acids over time, right?"

"Yeah," Bree nodded, turning her head to face him, trying not to get lost in his eyes as he spoke with so much passion about Biochemistry.

"And, you've got the basic idea about homeostasis," he trailed his finger across your answer, "You should probably say something like, this increases the breakdown of cellular proteins through autophagy and reduces protein biosynthesis, in this part, just in case the examiner marking thinks you've forgotten that."

"Okay," was all she could manage, he was so close she realised that the sudden aroma of the ocean mixed with black coffee was in fact coming from him.

"But, here you've said that short-term fasting does result in depletion of plasma amino acids, however, it's actually the opposite," he looked up from the paper and to her, "Short-term fasting does not result in depletion of plasma amino acids due to reduced protein synthesis and the onset of autophagy."

She refrained from staring at him with her mouth hanging open, as she started writing what he had just said onto her worksheet.

"Got it?" he asked, and she nodded.

"Thank you."

"It's fine," he sent her a warm smile, before getting up and walking down to the front of the hall.

"Okay, so that'll be all for today, if you'd like me to mark your work just hand them to me and I will, but other than that, who will be coming to the next session?"

Everyone put their hands up.

"Perfect," he clapped his hands together, "I'll see you all at tomorrow's chem lecture."

As Bree hopped down the steps, she reached out to give Taehyung her answered work but he shook his head, "I already read through it, apart from the question we discussed, you got everything else correct."

"Oh," she closed her mouth. "T-Thank you."

His smile grew when he noticed how shy she became when he had basically implied he was paying more attention to her than he should.

"See you tomorrow, Bree."

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

The next couple of weeks went the same way. Bree would pull through her lectures, including the special classes Taehyung had on Tuesdays.

On Tuesdays, Taehyung found himself strolling up to Bree's desk more than any of the other students – even when she hadn't asked for help – but she was, of course, oblivious to it all.

He found her intriguing, endearing, charming. Everything right down to her shy smile made him want to continue seeing her, reminding him of his school boy days where his friends would be going through the exact same thing with their crushes, however no one had ever made him feel that way before.

The only thing that excited him before was Chemistry, Biology, Physics and, of course, the stars.

He sat in his desk chair, fiddling with a Rubik's cube when Jimin walked in.

"What's got you so quiet, Tae?" he asked, sitting on his desk, "I've been home an hour and I didn't even know you were here too."

Taehyung raised an eyebrow, "You were here for an hour?"

"Yeah, watching TV, didn't you hear it?"

"No," he shook his head.

"What are you thinking about?" Jimin ruffled the younger's hair. "What has silenced my science genius?"

"Nothing," Taehyung shrugged, putting the cube on the table. This surprised Jimin.

"Okay, something's up," he picked up the Rubik, "you never leave these unfinished."

"I said it was nothing," he stood up, "Do we have anything to eat?"

Jimin looked over his shoulder at the front of Taehyung's desk, scanning to see if there was anything unusual, and that's when he saw the pile of papers.

"Tae, is this lecturing job overworking you? I told you, you shouldn't have agreed to do it."

"I'm the only qualified student of Mr Kim, I couldn't say no," Taehyung started for the kitchen.

"Yeah but you're also a person who needs rest and free time, Tae, when was the last time you went Killer's with me?"

"You know I don't have-"

"You don't have time because you spend it all studying or working at your cousin's school, and now," Jimin walked in front of Taehyung as he was about to grab a muesli bar, "you're spending the last bit of your time lecturing second year Chemistry students, Taehyung," he grabbed his shoulders, "amidst all that you are forgetting to tend to one more person."

He raised an eyebrow, "Who?"

"You, Tae, you are forgetting yourself."

"I'm alright-"

"Fine then, you're forgetting about me, your best friend, Jimin. You're forgetting me and my want to hang out with you, man."

"Jimin-"

"Okay, I'll stop nagging if you tell me what's bothering you."

"It's not a big deal, Jimin."

"If it's bothering you, there's no matter of size, it's all equally important," he dragged his friend to the couch and sat across from him, cross legged. "So what is it?"

He almost told him he was just stressed out from all the things he was doing. He almost lied and told him that it was because of all the papers he had to grade and the lessons he had to prepare for.

But it was Jimin. Jimin could always see through him.

So there was no point.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

Jimin had laughed. Telling his friend that he was happy he found something else to be curious about apart from the newest constellations and discoveries in science. Taehyung was confident; nothing ever could really bring him down, but when he saw Bree he found himself hesitating every time he spoke, not because he didn't know what to say but because he didn't want her to think of him as anything but a sweetheart.

He laughed to himself, as if she would think he was one to begin with.

"Open your textbooks to page 235," Taehyung ordered his class, standing with his feet together just in front of his wide desk, "You see that diagram over in the left corner?" he asked, the four students nodding, "Anyone recognise it?"

The class went well, and Taehyung was satisfied. He learnt his teaching style from Mr Kim and he knew it was successful in getting his students to learn. He saw it in their expressions; they were loving chemistry so much more.

"Okay let's test if you've actually absorbed what I've been teaching, answer the questions on the handout and hand them into me before leaving."

Just like that, the students put their heads down immediately, and Taehyung instinctively walked to a seat in the second row – a seat which was occupied by...

"How's it going?" he slipped into the chair next to her.

"Uh, good, just trying to figure out if the source of this is the nucleic DNA or mitochondrial DNA," Bree answered, reading over the text once again.

Taehyung nodded, and waited.

When she felt the eyes drilling into her, she slowly turned around.

"Where does the process happen?" he asked before she got the chance to ask him why he was still there.

"Mitochondria."

"So that's your answer."

"But-" she looked back at her paper, "Is it really that simple?"

He nodded and smiled, "It's really that simple."

The other students started to feel like something was happening, even though Bree didn't see it, they did. They noticed how he would pay more attention to her than anyone else. And how he would spend extra time helping her when compared to the others.

To say they shipped it would be an understatement.

"Okay, so who will be coming to the next lesson?" Taehyung asked, as he would routinely, clipboard in hand.

"Sorry, prof, my family is visiting from out of town, I won't be able to come," Sanghyuk said and shot Chaejin a weird look, weird in Bree's opinion.

"Oh, right, yes, and I'm... uh, I have a job interview."

"Oh, okay, so it'll just be me, Bree and Nakyung?"

Nakyung whipped her head around, somewhat narrowing her eyes at Bree. "Yeah, just the three of us."

"Great."

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

Bree walked into the lecture hall the next Tuesday, swiftly moving past Taehyung's desk and sitting in her designated seat.

"So, I got a call from Nakyung just a few minutes ago and she just informed me that she got caught in an accident and she won't be able to come," he walked up to Bree's desk and sat in the one next to it (although it should be his permanent seat now seeing as her sat there every lesson), "So I guess it's just you and me today."

Bree didn't know how to stop her heart from doing jumping jacks.

Was she excited? Or was she nervous?

Or was she both?

"I thought I'd just teach you from here seeing as it's just us. Is that alright?"

"U-Uh, yeah, sure."

"So today we'll be leaning about Buckminsterfullerene, have you heard of that before?"

Her voice was muffled, mesmerised by the way he spoke, it was as if a switch had been flipped and all of a sudden he was in the middle of a comprehensive explanation of the molecule, and Bree couldn't be more content than when she... just... stared.

"I mean, think about all the possibilities!" he gushed, Bree tried not to grin at his enthusiasm, "The world could do so much using that one molecule because of the things we know about it."

He took a deep breath.

"Like, 873 Kalvin? Imagine how hard it would be to su-" he stopped, realising he was rambling.

"I'm sorry, I get carried away with these things," he sighed, "I know I can be kind of annoying..."

"Yeah you kind of are," Bree nodded, "I mean, why would you go on about Buckminsterfullerene when there's graphene?"

He blinked.

"Alright, C-sixty is so much better."

"And how is it? At least with graphene every atom is available for chemical reaction from two sides, but yours is not even useful in that aspect."