Chapter 3 Mesmerized

Her reaction was strong enough to make the whole class, including the man, notice them. "What's wrong?" he asked as Lynne looked down and hid herself.

He thought something had happened for Lynne to act like that, so the man looked around. Checked the surroundings, but it wasn't what he thought. There was nothing strange, and nothing happened that could make them act like Lynne.

Then he thought for a moment, and with a hesitant movement, he approached Lynne. Peeking under the table where Lynne buried her face in her hands folded on the table. "Did I say something wrong?" he said, hoping he hadn't done anything wrong to Lynne.

Lynne got up, lifting her head back in an upright position. She smoothed her hair behind her ears. Slowly she caught her breath and looked at the man with the calmness she had worked so hard for. She closed her eyes while scrunching up her face, and then, after she had composed herself, she turned to him. With a forced smile, she replied, "There's nothing wrong with what you said." but I'm the one who made a mistake. Lynne continued in her mind, voiceless.

She couldn't say such an embarrassing thing openly. Even more so to her, whom Lynne had only spoken to this time, despite being there for so long. Unfortunately, Lynne didn't even know his name, so how could she shamelessly admit what she had just done to that man?

Oh, yes, his name. The man had yet to say his name!

"You haven't said your name."

The man was silent for a moment. He stared at Lynne for a long time before finally speaking. "You can call me Luke."

"Luke," Lynne repeated his words with a small nod.

The corner of Luke's lips drew a faint smile watching Lynne intently. "Yes. Then is there something strange about my face?" asked Luke as Lynne was immediately startled and buried her face after Lynne looked at it for a while.

Lynne gasped. Even so, she didn't take her eyes off Luke. She didn't let Luke read her attitude further after her previous faux pas. But still, she couldn't tell him I was observing your beautiful face just now. Fascinated by the colour of your irises and then envious of your eyebrows and the hair on your eyelids. More than that, I even imagined how your lips would taste. If she said all that honestly, Lynne was sure that the man would immediately look at her with a strange look. Then think that Lynne might have lost her mind, or even worse, it might be possible for him to think Lynne was a woman with a wild and scary dirty mind.

Just imagining herself being labelled like that was enough to make her shudder and cringe. Disgusted and reluctant, Lynne wanted to throw that thought away from her. Even to the end, Lynne refused to be considered like that by anyone.

"There's nothing strange about your face! You look perfect" Lynne softly realised what she had just said.

Because she spoke so quickly, she didn't realise her mouth was speaking so shamelessly, honestly.

So what happened then? The man blushed. He pulled both ends of his lips gently and was embarrassed. Lynne thought she would never meet such a person in her life.

Lynne imagined her childhood. When she was five years old, Lynne was accompanied by stories of fairy tale princesses until she entered adolescence. Even as a teenager, Lynne faithfully watched the fairy tale princess series until she got carried away and imagined herself like them.

Her dreams, after watching them and digesting them, made Lynne wish to have a love story similar to those princesses. She wanted to meet the prince as they did. Falling in love with the prince at first sight, the love drama flowing beautifully without complicated conflicts, then getting married wearing a beautiful wedding dress, Lynne walked over to him to say the wedding vows and then live happily.

But where does reality take her in real life, Prince? Never dream of finding him in a world where people wake up. Seventeen years old, she never met a beautiful fairy tale prince, making Lynne give up on the dreams and hopes of her childhood love. Not a prince, maybe it was the snow princess dwarves that she met, then Gaston in the story of Belle's story that was busy around her. Her dreams were too high to expect to meet the perfect prince and have the opportunity to live the love story that almost all women hope for.

Until... As Lynne stared at the man, the fairy tale returned to her. She, who had previously tried to forget it, was now reliving the memories in her mind. The man's face brought her to her dreams that were long buried due to disappointment in Reality that did not support her dreams to come true.

"I see..." she softly smiled, looking down to hide the blush on her cheeks and reddened ears. "It's good that you like it." This time she lifted her face to look at Lynne with a smile as sweet as a crisp and fresh red apple, clearly different from the one the snow princess had eaten to make her fall asleep. Lynne felt like something was fluttering inside her, dancing around so lightly that it felt tingly and pleasant. It was hard for Lynne to explain more than that what the smile of the man beside her looked like.

Didn't she hear it wrong? Luke had said, 'It's good that you like it' Why did it sound like Luke had just implied his feelings? Lynne shook her head, dismissing the ridiculous thought immediately and returned her attention to Luke again.

"Ah-" Lynne exclaimed softly as her gaze caught the look on Luke's face.

Lynne realised that her face was blushing right now. She could feel the heat on her face as she tried to control herself and her feelings. Her mouth was uncontrollable, like her whole body was being too honest with the man. Lynne tried to control it by covering her eyes with the palms of her hands. She made it seem natural to rub her eyes, even though she was trying to keep her gaze.

Lynne controlled herself by imagining other things, but the man pulled Lynne's hand with a light touch that was so gentle. Her pulling away prevented him from seeing her face. They stared at each other, their eyes locked together. They were immersed in each other, with two eyes the same colour as hers, but Lynne didn't realise that her eyes were as beautiful as the man's. The class situation around them seemed meaningless. Life only became the background of the two of them.

While both were busy with each other, the whole class seemed to be going on without them. Lynne and Luke were like invisible figures among the others. Silence-Lynne did not listen to the teacher's voice, who reviewed the lessons in her class. Neither did the voices of questions from her friends.

Only the roar of her and Luk's breathing entered Lynne's ears. Only the pounding of Lynne's and the man's hearts could be heard. Lynne thought the clinking of needles that might have fallen in their midst could be heard clearly. Strangely, in that silence, the whole class sounded like an empty classroom with no one there but them.