MY PROFESSOR AND I

The First day

Episode 5

The morning was peaceful.

Sunlight slipped through the thin curtains of Room 402 and painted golden lines across the floor.

Outside, birds were singing. Bangkok was awake, and for a few quiet minutes, everything felt perfect.

Then the peace broke.

*Beep. Beep. Beep.*

Katie’s alarm screamed first. Then Gloria’s phone. Then Linda’s.

“Five more minutes!” Linda groaned from the top bunk, pulling her pillow over her head.

Katie was already out of bed, sprinting to the bathroom with her toothbrush. “We have Law at 8am! No five minutes!”

Gloria was on the floor, half-asleep, digging through her bag. “Has anyone seen my charger? I need it for coding lab.”

Tia sat up on her bed and smiled to herself.

This was it. Her first day.

She rushed into the bathroom the second Katie came out. She washed her face twice, braided her hair neatly, and put on her TIU uniform with care. She wanted to look put-together. Confident. Like she belonged here.

She dabbed on a little lip gloss and checked herself in the small mirror. _You got this, Tia._

As she was slipping on her shoes, a thought hit her.

_JJ._

She wondered if he was on campus today. If they’d run into each other. Her heart did a weird little flip at the idea.

“Tia! We’re getting late!” Katie’s voice cut through her thoughts.

“Coming!” Tia grabbed her bag, her notebooks, and her student ID.

The four of them hurried down the stairs and out of Block C.

The campus was already busy. Students everywhere, bikes zooming past, food stalls opening.

Tia boarded the shuttle bus with her roommates, pressed to the window. She couldn’t stop smiling.

“Stop grinning like that,” Gloria teased. “People will think you’re a freshman.”

“I _am_ a freshman,” Tia laughed.

When they got to the Faculty of Law building, it was massive. Glass doors, tall columns, and hundreds of students flowing in and out.

Tia and Katie checked the notice board, then checked it again.

“Room 101. First lecture. Contract Law,” Katie read.

“Okay, we can find that,” Tia said, though her stomach was flipping.

They followed the crowd, climbed two flights of stairs, and pushed into the lecture hall.

It was already full.

Every seat taken. People sitting on the stairs. People standing at the back.

“Quick, over there!” Katie whispered, pointing to two empty seats near the middle.

They slid in just as the door closed.

Tia took a deep breath and looked around. So many different faces. So many languages.

Her pen was shaking a little in her hand.

Then the door at the front opened.

A man in a black suit walked in. Tall. Serious. He didn’t smile.

The whole room went quiet.

“Good morning,” he said, voice deep. “I am Dean Somchai. I am not your lecturer. I am here to welcome you to the Faculty of Law, Thailand International University.”

He spoke for about ten minutes. About discipline. About excellence. About how Law at TIU was not easy.

“Some of you will not finish,” he said plainly. “But those who do will be the best.”

Tia sat up straighter. She wasn’t going to be one of the ones who quit.

The Dean left, and there was a buzz in the room.

“That was intense,” Katie whispered.

Tia nodded. Her heart was pounding — not from fear, but from excitement.

The professor for Contract Law came in next. The lecture started.

Tia wrote everything down. She raised her hand once to answer a question and her voice came out steady.

For the first time in a long time, she felt like she was exactly where she was supposed to be.

When the class ended, students poured out into the hallway.

Katie grabbed Tia’s arm. “Next class is in Building D. Come on!”

They were walking fast, checking the map on Katie’s phone, when Tia stopped.

Down the hall, standing by the notice board, was a professor.

He had his back to her. Black suit. Broad shoulders. He was talking to another lecturer, and his voice was low and firm.

Something about him made Tia’s stomach drop.

Katie didn’t notice. “Tia, let’s go —”

But Tia couldn’t move.

The professor turned slightly.

She didn’t see his face yet.

But she had a feeling.

A big feeling.

Her first day was going well.

She didn’t know that her next class was about to change everything.