3

Min couldn't stop tapping her foot, including the pencil that her seatmate gave out of pity. How is she suddenly back on her seat by the window? She did not just give in like that. ("Just get back to your seat and start graphing, then I let you out." He said it so calmly. Min thought he would actually snap at her. Maybe that's why she went back. Mostly because everyone was staring at her, practically begging for her to come back to her seat and get it over with.)

Min had the fake fainting spell in mind. But that would mean she'd be recorded in the clinic's office, then they'd be suspicious as to why they couldn't find her in their system. Many ways of the sure-fire escape already crossed her mind, but that would mean she had to leave traces.

She stared down on her flat table which was also sliding away from her. It must have been the extra slippery rollers. Something that you get when you want to sit in the corner of the room.

Min had no idea what to draw. The X-axis and Y-axis were already jumbled up in her brain. This was a revisit of her PTSD in any sort of geometry and mathematics, mushed up in one blank graphic paper. She couldn't believe that she wished she had been in his class the day before, so she'd known what everyone was solving. She was that desperate to get out.

"Are you feeling ok?" Another person beside her spoke. It was a boy with aviator glasses who leaned away from his table to be able to whisper quietly enough to Min. "He's just like that. He did deal with a lot of women here having that kind of excuse. Well, not like it's an excuse— like when you're being excused, is what I mean."

She smiled in defeat. "I get it."

The boy looked down to Min's stomach. "How much does it really... you know?"

Min mentally perked up. She had to lie. Despite the slightly strange question, there was a chance he could help her.

"A-alot. I at least need to get a pain reliever. Which is in the clinic."

"He's right. The clinic's too far away, you might faint all the way there."

"I really think I could manage though." Was it that ridiculously far? They were clearly underestimating her — and the girls that sat in class before her.

"There were previous problems about traveling to that one clinic whenever people felt sick, you'd think there'd be clinics in each building." The boy ranted. Min scoffed as a reply.

"Then why didn't he design it that way?" Min pointed with her head in Mr. Weiss' direction, assuming he was still across the room.

"In what way?"

Min slowly eyed her way up to the professor who was looming over the two. She had a brief lightbulb moment. He didn't even sound offended. Since the elevator, he only ever sounded curious. Could be the accent.

"The clinics," Min wanted to sound so insufferable, he'd want her to leave class. She was already talking during classwork, so that was a plus. Her plan was to be disrespectful enough for her to be kicked out of the room. It could work to tap into the ego of a teacher. "You could have designed it to have at least one on each. Then maybe I'd actually be in one right now."

Mr. Weiss gave a long, silent sigh. He stared down at Min. Min had a feeling in her stomach. But she had to focus for it to work this time. He needed another push from her.

"It's not a friendly campus at all!" Min continued, becoming informally comfortable in her seat. Soon enough, she might put her leg up in front of him. But that would be the last, last resort to make him crack. "I mean I didn't get a tour on the first day."

The professor leaned down at Min; his eyes never looked away from her. It was for a moment that the two both locked eyes with one another. Those eyes would shut her up for life.

Silence in the entire room. They were definitely looking at them. The only slight noise she could hear was the boy beside her, slowly leaning back in his seat with a creak of the chair.

"Finish the graph," His soft-spoken voice sent tingles to Min's shoulders, up to her neck. That's all he had to say. Min should be furious. She should be insanely upset that she wouldn't be leaving for another hour. But she wasn't as mad as she thought. More like paralyzed. It was just his infuriating reaction that almost seemed impossible for her to get out of here.

Maybe he knew that she wasn't a student at all. He was a snake just playing her around like food. If she came clean, maybe she'd easily get out. They said that the truth would set you free. In this case, literally. But, no she definitely will not. To think, it was all so easy in her head.

It was all falling short. It'd be another hour before she could leave. Min could never wait that long, but she had to. She officially lost.

"Fine." She mouthed, leaving the professor satisfied enough to go back to his desk. Min observed him in case she came back glancing at her. Once Mr. Weiss was deep into his desk work; she tapped the four-eyed boy's shoulder. Her mind was thinking so fast.

"This is a freshman class, right?" Might as well know everything about this class before she left. She needed excuses to leave the premises, legit enough to be believable in case she bumped into a person like Mrs. Sunna again.

"Nope. Sophomore." He replied. "I mean, we're all mixed here. Some are irregular students."

"Right, of course." But she already knew that. "And the subject is Trigonometry." She repeated.

"Two," The boy added.

"So, what's the classwork again? I missed yesterday's class."

"Uh, he personally assigned work for us through the learning management app."

This should be great. That would mean that she had to talk to him again. The option automatically crossed out. Min would have to think of something else.

Min had an idea. "Oh, yeah!" She pulled out her phone and pretended to have found it. "I forgot I had a notification."

After the awkward silence, the boy shifted back to his seat and continued his work. Min just had to draw some random graph that she could easily search up on her phone. Passing the paper would mean from the back to the front then shuffling in the middle. Her paper would have to be mixed up with twenty more, and he would have to take time to find it. By then, she would be gone. Finishing the graph would be a good idea. Mr. Weiss was pretty much helping her escape.

To think of it, Min could draw anything. It didn't need to be a graph at all. She could sketch something inappropriate or draw the professor himself just to mock him about what he did to her. She could only draw stick figures though. If she had crayons, she would draw a pool of blood with a marching army of girls. It would totally look like those gruesome stick-figure Y8 games you would play as a kid.

She grabbed her pencil and started sketching. A smirk spread across her face without a single thought that the professor might have already been observing her throughout the duration of the class.

*

A chime was heard in the intercom. Of course, it wasn't one of those usual dismissal bells. This university was too classy for that. Though it did almost sound like an instrumental for a nursery rhyme. Min laughed at the thought.

"Pass your papers starting from the back." Just as she thought. Her paper would be at the very bottom of the stack. Students started to shift out of their seats, and soon enough, the sifting of papers was heard at the very edge of the classroom. Mr. Weiss was about to receive those papers to his desk.

Auf wierdesehen, mister. Min smirked. A part of her wished he'd check those papers and see the fake name she wrote: Sarah Miller. Yep, the annoying blonde girl from that Thanksgiving play in that Addams movie. She wished he would see everything she did on the graphic paper at the lowest point of his day. If he ever possibly had one. A shame that she wouldn't be able to see his reaction either way.

She was so close to the glass door that was already opened, students spilling out like bees. There was traffic in the hallways as it was a general dismissal period for a lunch break. Min had finally won. Patience was the virtue that Min started to hold close.

"Sarah?" The voice pierced inside Min's ears. Oh, she had better go out fast. She pretended not to hear him, deliberately hiding herself from the exiting crowd, only to be nudged by one of his students to point to Mr. Weiss' desk. Min didn't want to give up and weaved in between people. Multiple bodies also walked through the sea of students, some started to unknowingly push Min away from going forward until she ended up in the far back. She was inside the classroom again.

She let out a defeated sigh and reluctantly turned to the classroom's desk. Mr. Weiss had been drumming his fingertips on his desk, on his other hand was a single graphic paper.

"Sir, I really should go—"

"One more thing." He held the paper in front of her, making sure she saw it clearly: It was a drawing of a starting graph, but instead of numbers going down vertically, it was letters in clumsy penmanship that spelled BITE ME.

It all started to click to Min once again. He had truly been observing her since the start of the class. She wasn't exactly so quiet about it with her aviator seatmate either. Min should have expected this. Just when she thought she'd finally escape without a trace.

"Creative," He glanced back at the paper.

What was the last, last resort again? Run.

And she ran fast.