My Professor's Secret Obsession

Stalking the Great Zaijian Hewson

ACIR HILLS

“Alright, let me get this straight. Your ex-boyfriend is now your professor, and he knows that you’re currently dating Wesley?” Onda clarified, finding a new topic.

Fully knowing that the Wesley subject is infuriating, she switched to another—even though it also makes me uncomfortable in a sense that it feels weird to be talking about him after years of not being brought up on any topic.

“Seems like it,” I stood up, then cleaned the table by the kitchen area. We still had some left of the cake that we didn’t get to finish, so I put it back in the container, then placed it in the fridge.

It’s funny how we first ate dessert before we could even eat dinner. Planning on making just some easy ones, I opted for a spaghetti aglio e olio.

Ever since Onda almost burnt the apartment when she tried cooking something, she had never cooked again. Well, at least not on my watch. I had always loved cooking, even when I was in high school, so it was an easy task for me. There are times wherein she would insist on helping with preparing even when I told her she should just sit back and do something else. Still, she would sneak some help and I’d just let her. Since I was always the one who cooks, she’s in charge of preparing the table and washing the dishes afterwards. We actually keep a system that we follow despite the fact that it’s just the two of us in the apartment.

To be honest, it never crossed my mind that I would be able to share a home with someone I didn’t grow up with. At first, I was really shy about socializing with Onda because she exudes an intimidating persona. But this woman is an embodiment of the golden retriever vibes. She’s an extrovert, and would be the one to initiate conversation. There’s really no silence when it comes to her. She talks non-stop. Sometimes my introverted self can’t handle her and she’s aware of that.

“Okay, I may have overreacted earlier when I saw your ex-boyfriend’s name on the screen. I was just taken aback. You know…” she trailed, thinking if she should continue. “I’m aware it’s ‘September, NoFunber'.’”

I choked on my own saliva, still amused by the way she calls my seasonal relapse every September of the year. This was all her idea, and whenever we talk about this point of my life, she refers to it that way. It’s really funny for me because it was so witty.

“And I thought you had it so rough to the point that you resorted to searching for his name on Face.book. Don’t tell me you also searched for him on other social media?”

My silence was enough to answer her question. She rolled her eyes, and I continued chopping some garlic.

“Which gives me the question, why were you looking for his social media?”

I put some olive oil in the pan and let it sit while the pasta was still boiling. “Remember when we tried searching for him on social media three years ago?”

Onda nodded, her whole attention fixated on me. “Yeah, and we couldn’t find him anywhere.”

I snapped my fingers. “Exactly! I never really searched for any of his accounts after. I only did it just now because I still couldn’t believe that he’s back, and guess what?”

“He still doesn’t have one,” she said in a matter of factly tone, already aware since she saw the screen earlier that there were no results found.

“Bingo!” I popped the ‘b’.

She trotted closer, arms resting on the kitchen counter, and eyes glued to me. “Gosh, I really thought that guy was dead.”

I turned to her, startled. “Just because he didn’t have any social media?”

“Like who the hell doesn’t use social media these days? I think everybody has one. Some even use it for work, so it doesn’t really make sense that he doesn’t have any.”

I do agree and it does make sense. People’s lives revolve around social media in this lifetime. Almost all people share every detail in their life on social media, and some even earn money off of it.

“I just wanted to take a peak at what he’s up to these days. I was entirely dumbfounded when I saw him. He’s way too different from the guy I used to know. He became a man—a successful one at that. I’m just, you know… a little curious.”

She clicked her tongue. “Aci, that’s where it starts!” She threw her arms forward, stumbling on herself.

I laughed a little, but she glared at me for her clumsiness. “Start of what?”

“Of getting curious! Of wanting to know more. One day you’re interested in him, the next day, you’re eager to know more. It’s been three years, a lot of things have happened, and for sure you want to know every bit of thing that occurred in his life.”

“Not entirely everything,” I defended.

Her eyes flashed with realization. “Aha! You want to know if he has a girlfriend, or if he’s married!” She exclaimed, even raising her fist into the air as if she had a eureka moment.

“Hey! That did cross my mind earlier, but he wasn’t wearing a ring,” she was grinning crazily at me as I continued. “I just, I don’t know… felt somewhat proud that he was able to achieve his dreams in life.”

Onda frowned. “You’re regretting it, aren’t you?”

“Regretting what?” I asked as I continued cooking. Not wanting to overcook the pasta so it wouldn’t get soggy, I turned off the stove.

She huffed out a loud, exasperated breath. “That you broke up with him just because you two were in a long-distance relationship.”

“Well, he didn’t say no when I told him that.”

She rolled her eyes while draining the pasta and helping me cook. “You are so fu.cking dumb, Aci! Of course, you made your decision already and you didn’t even ask his side. You just told him that you guys should break up.”

Thinking about it now, I know how immature I was back then—I do believe that I still am now. We have already talked about this a lot of times, and I know how Onda hates it whenever I keep saying that Zaijian didn’t refuse when I told him to break up. She never gets tired of giving me another perspective, which makes me realize a lot of things.

“Oni, I thought you’re on my side and not his?” I pressed, mixing the pasta with the sauce.

“Just doesn’t make sense, Aci. You sound really dumb right now,” she said as we finished setting up the food.

“Anyway, like I said, he just looks far different from what I remember.”

Onda took a picture of her food before eating. “You keep saying that. Just say that he became a better-looking man, Aci. You can’t fool anyone here,” she laughed at her own remark. "Do you have any picture of him now? Let me see.”

I scoffed. “I’m not like the other girls in the class who were sneakily taking pictures of him during class. Besides, I left my phone since it was dead.”

“What a shame! You should’ve taken advantage of the situation. Up until now, I didn’t know what this Zaijian Hewson looked like—wow, saying his name feels so weird, since we always refer to him as your ex-boyfriend.”

A thought flashed through my mind. I stood up to get my laptop, and logged into the university’s website. “I remember Cherry saying that his picture was posted in the forum earlier. Maybe I can show you that.”

There was anticipation contorted in her face and she was almost jumping in her seat because she was too excited to see.

As soon as I found the forum post, I was even shocked by the picture.

Onda screamed at me and lightly kicked my shin under the table as she sat across from me. “You’re causing too much suspense, it's making my expectations really high right now, Aci.”

Not having enough patience, she grabbed my laptop from my hold, and took a good look at herself. Her jaw dropped, eyes darted to mine, then shifted back to the screen. She did this about three times.

I nodded my head slowly. “Yeah,” I took a sip of water, my throat drying just from seeing Zaijian’s picture. “…that’s him.”

He was wearing a three-piece set suit, his arms crossed on his chest, the blazer hanging on his arm. Due to the action, the muscles on his biceps were pronounced, adding a very sexy look to him. His jet black hair was slicked in a 2-8 part, and his blue eyes were notable under his graded glasses.

“So this is the great Zaijian Hewson that ruined my best friend,” Onda noted. “You didn’t tell me that he’s quite… dashing!”

“If I remember correctly, I told you that he was really popular on our campus and in our hometown. Everyone was really fond of him since he also has a great personality.”

“That explains why you can’t move on from him.”

I almost choked on the spaghetti, then hurriedly reached for the water. Onda was laughing as I rolled my eyes.

“Yeah?” she teased. “Keep telling yourself that until that comes true.”

Despite being aware that she was just only making fun of me, I can’t help but get a little bit annoyed at what she was saying. I know deep inside me that I have already moved on from Zaijian. Not just because it has been three years, but because I never thought of getting back with him ever again.

Living our lives separately has a huge impact on how I move on. While I do admit that it took some time to fully get over our break up, I still know that I have moved on already.

Grabbing the laptop back, I closed it, and set it aside as I tried to finish my food. “You know what? Enough about me! You still haven’t told me anything about your trip! So what happened at the wedding? Are your cousins still teasing you…” I stopped short, remembering that it might be a sensitive topic for her.

“For being unemployed?” She finished for me. “Yeah they still were. Not that I mind though. I’m still enjoying my free time. I worked my ass off during college, and spent sleepless nights just to get a high GPA. I think I deserve to at least wind down a bit before I jump into the competitive world of being a corporate slave.”

We talked about this a lot after she graduated. Onda’s family are affluent. She can even spend the rest of her life being unemployed and she wouldn’t suffer financially because she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. But she told me that she just wanted to rest for a year, then she’ll apply for work afterwards. It’s her life, so I don’t really dictate her on anything. She can figure out life on her own, and I’ll be here for her whenever.

“What happened after?”

“My parents cut all off my credit cards.”

Flabbergasted was an understatement. I was beyond bewildered by this information. “And you still bought me three strawberry shortcakes? You are such a spender!” She giggled. “But why did they do that?” Surely, this is a crucial topic.

Her parents had always been supportive of her and her brothers. I met them when I spent New Year’s Eve with her family last year. They were very kind and welcoming when Onda invited me over.

My family isn’t as rich as hers, but they always gave me an allowance to survive for college. In return, I have to have high grades—which isn’t going exactly as it should.

“They want me to work as soon as possible. No more downtimes. Worst? They want me to find a successful and rich man to marry, so they’ll set me up for blind dates with some people and connections they know.”

Oh gosh. Wealthy people are really on another level. “What did you tell them?”

“That I don’t care if they cut all of my cards… and that I had a one-night stand with a stranger,” she buried her face in her palms, embarrassed.

My jaw dropped to the floor.

Onda had always been very spontaneous, but this isn’t something I expected.

“Holy fu.cking hell! Now you have to tell me everything!” I beamed, grabbing her shoulders across the table.

She chortled. “I’ll grab some beer from the fridge cause I can’t tell you this sober.”

“Okay, but you’re the only one who’s going to drink. I have an early class tomorrow.” Glancing at the wall clock, it was only eight in the evening, so we still had a lot of time to talk about how her four-day trip went.