Chapter 23

"Yes sir." both said with grit teeth, as they stared at Airic, who was lost in his head.

'You will pay Airic, you will pay'

******

Hwej, a music student at LM university, was sat in a lecture room as he discreetly listened to new music tracks. He had also angled his star pad to make it seem like he took notes, as he watched the accompanying music video, looking bored as he saw almost the exact same video format.

Then he noticed a new video on the hot search, titled Sea dreams by an unknown artist called Aiden (Airic's stage name), and opened it to play. He was spellbound, the beats, the rhythm, the lyrics struck a chord and made him long to go to the nearest beach to play in the sea. Then, he watched the video, and he could not stop watching and re-watching. He was so mesmerised that he missed a call from the lecturer and was startled when someone snatched this pad away.

"Hey! What's wron...." he started, standing up forcefully, before he stopped seeing the lecturer standing in front of him radiating disapproval with a star pad in hand.

"Care to finish that sentence?" he said with a raised eyebrow, the disappointment and anger that hung around his frame like a shroud was almost tangible, to the amusement of the rest of the students.

"No sir." he said faintly as his chin was tucked towards his chest.

"Would you care to share what has you so enamored that you ignored me?" he said as he turned the screen towards himself, and saw a flash of a beautiful mermaid dancing in a festival. He paused it and shared it onto the large screen.

The class held its breath as one as the lecturer shared the video at that moment with the mermaid. Most of the males in the class looked appreciative along with some of the females, while the majority of the females looked somewhat disgruntled to be shown a young mermaid beauty dressed to impress as she danced in the water. Hwej looked at around, avoiding eye contact as the class stared at the screen, before the video was paused as the lecturer's face turned purple.

"How dare you watch something so indecent during class time! I have half a mind to suspend you for this.."

"Wait! It's a music video, sir! It's a new song shooting up the hot search. The audio is still connected to my earphones and this is almost over, please start from the beginning before you say anything else..." he interjected before the man could completely lose his calm.

The older male took a fortifying breath and disconnected Hwej from the device before he replayed it from the start.

****

DONG DONG DONG DONG, DONG DONG DONG DONG!!!!!!!!

The alarm from the lecturer's large screen sounded, breaking everyone from the fugue state they were in from first staring at the music video for Sea Dreams, as they listened to the song itself. Then listening to the song alone and dancing as much as was allowed in the room space, resembling a club than a classroom.

The spell was broken at the stroke of the clock. Reason slowly returned to the inhabitants and faces turned red as the realisation settled in their minds as to what had happened.

The students cleaned up the upturned items and tidied up their appearances as they avoided looking at each other, faces still flushed as they shuffled out of the room. Even the lecturer had turned lobster red, almost glowing as he avoided his students' eyes and packed up his lecture materials avoiding Hwej who had started the incident, as he darted out the door.

The only student left was Hwej, who immediately went on social media. He posted:

[Sea Dreams. The only song guaranteed to get you out of trouble if played in class. Link of Sea Dreams. A scene from the classroom. #SeaDreams #GetoutofJailfreecard #StillDreaming]

This was not very noticeable at first, as he did not have very many followers. Then someone from the IT faculty saw his post and decided to prank his class and lecturer by playing the video on the lecture screen and live streaming the prank. He and the audience were astonished when the scene devolved into a similar scene to Hwej's classroom. At first, they stared at the video, watching it over five times then as they listened to the music they began to dance, some following the movements of the merfolk as best they could. Until slowly, the very serious class on Geometric Modeling and Analysis turned into the scene from a nightclub. In this case, a day club as the sun was still high in the sky.

[WTF?!?! Did that acc happen? OP this was stagged ryt?????] +8393434388982380

[Holy SH*T!!! I'm so gonna try this.] +239924747473 likes

[What song was this?!?!?] +235635848847 likes

[Song]+ 2356357

[It's Sea Dream by Aiden. It was released this morning with two different videos.] +93293702039 likes

[Love it! I'm gonna watch this every day, 3 times a day (ง •̀ω•́)ง✧）]+378389201 likes

[Psh, amateur. I have watched it over twenty times today and will still watch it tomorrow. Don't try to brag, a true fan is here (+･｀⊇･)b]+242928282 likes

The comments went wild as everyone wanted to know the song that started an impromptu dance club and even more wanted to listen to the song. It also provoked a media frenzy as various news outlets went to the company's office for a statement on the latest success. Other outlets tried to investigate Airics' background but hit a dead-end when they realised that 'Aiden' was a stage name.

The Public Relations team was in a mess as they fielded different media outlets and created statements, they all knew that they would have to work overtime for this. Lunario on the other hand stayed in his office with a smug smile as he video called Airic, who had already gone home, about the songs' success.