Dean's suitor.

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Merliah's Point of View.

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That damn dean! He dared ridicule me. Let’s see how upright you are Dean. I will flirt with you and let’s see how much self-control you have. He is the first person who lectured me without even knowing my intention for breaking that jerk’s heart. He is also the first to humiliate me!

'You keep on asking for my attention, huh?'

I shall give him a good show. Now that he saw how toxic I am, he will probably distance himself from me, it means chasing him is much challenging. It is much rewarding if his hate and disgust would turn into love and admiration. A love chasing game is much more desirable if it's challenging, right?

I should have read Greene’s book of art in seduction, there are lots of seductive styles to learn from that book. Who knows, one or two of those tips would come in handy. Who knows it would be effective for my operation in making the dean head over heels for me.

Since I failed to win on our bet in a month, we decided to bet a larger amount, this time the prize soar to 100k. I could use that money for a lavish shopping spree. Since my parents monitored my expenses, I couldn't swipe my cards for non-essential costs.

Anyway, I need to attend my class today, guess who's the professor today? Yeah, it is my target. 

I can finally meet him, it has been five days since I last pissed him off.

I can go to his office to piss him off but I don't like going there nowadays. I am still thinking of things and planning on how to make him look at me with soft eyes, not boring eyes.

“I will call 10 presenters to recite the preamble,” says Dean. 

We can hear his steps as he enters the room. He avoided my gaze, tsk! after scolding me and treating me as if I am the bad guy last time, he is now ignoring me huh?

He went to the teacher's table and started shuffling the index cards. That piece of paper holds our life, being called using that also means you are summoned by the death god. I have this feeling that my name will be mentioned for recitation. I know because my aura attracts dangerous school situations like this.

He started calling names, out of the eight students, two of them received the lowest grade of 5 for today's recitation since they did not recite well. Then, second to the last is Lore, well, my friend is not stupid. She stood up and recited the preamble as if she owned the stage. She keeps on glancing at Dean with her shining and shimmering eyes. 

"Pfft.." I was about to laugh when Dean rolled his eyes. Poor Lore, I told her that one is hard as steel.

"Stop laughing. Ms, Faunteen, recite the preamble." He stood up and leaned on the board, he crossed his arms while waiting for me.

'Why am I always summoned for recitation? I prefer it if I won a lottery or raffle.'

He is picking on me, he should have told me if he wants me to stand beside him.

“We the sovereign Filipino people, imploring the aid of Almighty God, in order to build a just and humane society and establish a government that shall embody our ideals and aspirations, promote the common good, conserve and develop our patrimony, and secure to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of independence and democracy under the rule of law and a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace, do ordain and promulgate this constitution.” Tsk, basic, you think I didn't study, huh? I am not just a girl with a pretty face.

“Very good. I hope you learned your lesson. Do advance study because I will surprise you with things like this. Going back to our lecture, why do you think the Preamble is included in the 1987 constitution?”

“Ms. Faunteen, what is the essence of Preamble?”  

He is calling me again. I knew it, he missed me. Look who is craving for my attention?

“Preamble is mere ‘prayer’ in the constitution. The Filipinos are God-driven thus, they included the preamble as a source of light that would aid in ascertaining the meaning of ambiguous provisions in the constitution," says I.

'What else? Do you think you can humiliate me? Excuse me, I am no fool.' 

I sit comfortably with a smudge on my face after that recitation. My eyes landed on his forest-like eyes. He swallowed his saliva when I bit my upper lip while staring at him. His face is priceless, it’s entertaining.

He cleared his throat and wrote the word 'Constitution' on the whiteboard. His eyes roamed around, but he avoided my direction.  “The constitution is the highest law or the mother of all laws. It is a direct action of the people by which fundamental powers of the government are established, limited, and defined. The Constitution has two classifications, it may be a written or codified constitution, one example is the 1987 constitution. The other one is uncodified like the UK constitution which evolved customs and traditions.”

Yep, I have read that on the learning material he asked us to read in advance. 

He stopped discussing the types of constitution, then suddenly asked Lore. “Ms. Buencamino, tell me the order of law from highest to lowest.”

“I'm not quite sure, sir. Ah… hihihi… hmmm the highest form is the Constitution, next is the statutes…”  Lore suddenly stopped, probably she does not know the next answer. Duh, why would he ask that random question, it was not included in the learning material.

“Sit down.” He placed his arm on his waist, then his eyes met mine.

He wouldn't call for another recitation, right? I don't know the answer either. I ain't all-knowing genius, this will put me in a bad light. I don't like it when I can't answer the question that my professor would ask. I am maintaining a domineering brilliant student, thus everyone had high expectations of me, this will be the first time that I might sound like a stupid student.

“Ms. Faunteen, you keep on staring at me. I believe you want to answer, right?”

Someone help me cool my mind, I might burn this witch alive. He is really getting on my nerves. In spite of the fact that my knowledge is lacking on this matter, I still stand firm. I cleared my throat and smiled at him, but deep inside I was about to stab this jerk.

“Constitution… Statutes ...” shit! What's next? I am calling all the holy spirits, the gods, and angels. My hoely spirit, please help me!.. “Statutes… Ordinances?” What the hell is wrong with my brain cells? What the hell is the other one?

“You may take your seat. I believe I told you to do an advanced reading. You are a polsci student and you should not settle for spoon-feed information. When I was studying back then, we had to go too far to find a library. Your generation is lucky. All data are easy to access because you have free sites to read p*f’s and such.”

Blahh... blahh... this old corn is imposing his values and shits again. Whatever! His generation is different from ours. So what if we have advantageous access to pieces of information, does he have the right to check on our privilege?

“Going back, we have the constitution as supreme law of the land, followed by statutes, administrative order, and lastly ordinances.”

Blah…blah… he resumed his lecture, only to stop again because the buzzer had called his attention.

“Excuse me for a while. Please get one whole shit of yellow pad, then answer the following on the whiteboard. President of the class, collect the papers and bring them to my office,” says the dean. He clicked the controller, then a 20 items assessment exam appeared on the board.

So, you want me to go to your office, huh? What a lucky day to flirt with our lovely dean. With all pleasure, I waited for these slow-poked people 

“Hey, beshyy! Don't make it obvious."

"Obvious, what?"

"I know you are excited to see the dean in his office. What's the tea? It looks like you haven't made any progress. Your charm is declining, just accept that the dean is not into your charm. Just pay me 100k, by the end of the month. Just accept your defeat," she whispered and it felt like a devil's joke.

"Will you shut up first? Hold your horse, girl. I assure you, it is not yet over. Watch me, I will get a secret date with him."

“You won't really give up. All right, good luck. I have a hunch that our dean is gay. Don't you sense it? He has been here for two months but we have not seen a woman with him. Also, he is too meticulous for a guy, you know my personal nanny knows Dean. I told him that our new Dean is handsome. Then she said that Dean was his former classmate when he was in high school. She told me that Dean was gay. Dean never seemed to be interested in that woman, instead, there was a scandal that he is using gay to support his study."

Wait. What?!

“You do realize the weight of that claim, you are slandering a person. Let's see the accuracy of that rumor,” I replied with my lips stretching from ear to ear.

 Hmm… interesting, maybe that rumor was not just a slander or attack on his character. The reason why he doesn't like it might be because he is insecure with my beauty?

“Anyway, I will take my leave. I want to see my darling Maurice," says lore.

“Tss, you are just going to distract your crush. Keep on pissing him off, he might throw you in another realm,” I replied jokingly.

I don't get her, what is so special about Maurice? She had a crush on that cold twin of mine since our childhood days.

Anyway, let’s go visit my dear Dean. It's time to bother him again… la~la~la~. I am whistling my way to his office, as usual, his office is not locked. He rolled the swivel chair backward, then my eyes caught him blocking his lips using both hands. 

Aww, he must have been traumatized by my actions.

'Baby, are you traumatized? Don’t worry, I am not here for a kiss.'

"If you have nothing to ask, you may leave now, Ms. Faunteen.”

'Too bad, you are asking me to leave right away.' 

“I have a question, Mr. Dereux.”

He glanced at me with his usual poker face, accompanied by the folding of his temple. “What is it?”

'Are you really gay?' I wanted to ask him about it but chose not to.

Come to think of it, I don’t know the real Maximillan Dereux. This is all Lore's fault, if she had not spilled that rumor on me, I wouldn't doubt this fella.

“Are you not interested in dating me?”

“I thought the evil spirit left your body in peace. Why do you keep on asking me that stupid question?”

“How many times do I have to tell you? I Like you.”

“I know you are young and want some extreme game of romance, I won’t fall for your game, Ms. Faunteen,” he replied without looking at me. He went back on browsing his book. 

He really drives me mad, it's been two months! He kept on rejecting me, never have I ever been rejected by the guys I want to seduce. I flipped his book, then I placed my hands on top of it. “Fine. I guess I’m a little bit rude for forcing you to date me. Then… I have no choice…” I grinned before resuming my statement “I will court you properly, Dean. Maximillan Dereux.”

I must have gone crazy, the mighty Merliah Faunteen will court a guy for the first time! He is not just a guy but a dean of our college.