SINFULLY YOURS

Chapter 7: Chapter 7. New Dean

Chapter 7. New Dean

Rosa Lin’s POV

I stood frozen. Mia tried to move, but when I didn’t, she turned back to look at me with a frown. She breathed out and stepped closer towards me, taking both of my hands. They were trembling in hers. She looked back at me.

”As much as I admire your shyness and your timidity and your reason to always be calm sometimes, which I find cute, at this point it will really piss me off if you don’t get it over with and just face this head-on, baby girl,” she said.

I had to divert my face to look up at her. She was a little bit slightly taller than me due to the fact that she is putting on Louboutin heels.

”Breathe, okay?” she said. ”Calm down, nobody is touching you.”

I swallowed, nodded my head quickly, and then forced a smile to my face. ”Yeah, you’re right! They can’t touch me!” I said, a nervous chuckle escaping me. ”It’s not like I stole the lottery from them or something,” I said.

She grinned at me. ”Exactly, you owe them nothing, okay? So come on, let’s go,” she said and began to drag me.

Many people didn’t move, but I could hear the whispers surrounding me.

I heard someone say, ”I can’t believe she had the guts to still show herself up here at school. I thought she would have probably dropped out or something.”

”Yeah, she really has a lot of guts! What was she thinking, that we’re going to welcome her with open arms?”

I heard the sneers, the jeers, the mockery.

”So filthy and disgusting!”

Mia turned to me. ”I think it would be nice if you could put on some earbuds to block your ears from it all,” she said.

I turned my head to look at her. She smiled at me. ”Trust me, it sounds like a good idea!” she added.

I blinked for a while and dipped my hand into the side pocket of my backpack. I took out my earbuds, blocked my ears, and instantly began to play a tune.

She smiled. ”Don’t worry, you’re going to be fine,” she continued.

She looped her arm around mine, and we walked side by side until we got to the entrance of the building to my department. We stopped. She exhaled and finally turned around to look at me.

My heart raced. She looked at me and chuckled.

She shook her head. ”Girl, you need a lecture on behavioral development. I can feel your pulse racing.” she said calmly.

I folded my lips in resignment.

”Yeah, I’m thinking I have a lot of work to do, and I understand why you are so scared, but please just don’t let anything get to you, okay? I wish I could follow you from here, but I have other things I need to do at this point, so promise me you’re going to handle yourself and you’re not going to break down in front of anyone,” she said.

I nodded my head rapidly. Oh, you are so lying, Rosa, I told myself. You are definitely going to break down. I grinned and chuckled nervously, nodding my head. ”Yeah, sure.”

She smiled. She adjusted a strand of my bangs and then pinched my cheeks. ”Be a good girl, okay?” she said.

”Look at her acting like a child,” I heard someone whisper to the side and ground my teeth.

Mia tilted her head to the person who spoke with a sharp glare. The girl instantly turned away and pretended like she hadn’t been watching us.

Mia turned back to me and exhaled. ”Ignore them,” she said. ”Pretend like you’re the only one in this world. Block your ears and focus on yourself. Do you get me?”

I nodded my head. She smiled and then left, going in the opposite direction.

As soon as she left, I pressed play on the music on my phone, dipped my phone into my pocket, and clutched tightly against my backpack. I saw the stares surrounding me, everyone glaring at me like I was a wasted puddle of mess and shit.

Ignore them, Rosa, I told myself.

I turned around and briskly walked as fast as I could through the long hallway, glancing at the brochure in my hand that gave me the directions towards my new lecture hall for the new semester.

I tried ducking my head low, using strands of my hair on each side of my face to hide myself as I weaved through the crowd in the hallway. I could still feel it: countless pinpricks of heavy hatred piercing every section of my body.

I didn’t notice the gathering of figures in front of me until I bumped into one of them and stumbled backwards, gasping and looking up with shock. That was when I saw her.

Oh shit. Lina Xien.

Of course, why wouldn’t it be her? She is the lead cheerleader for Mac’s club, always had her eye on him, and was among the top girls who carried the spot for a potential relationship with Mac in gossips about popular students in school. I am not surprised I’m her number one target this morning.

I clenched my fists tightly against my backpack.

”Where are you going, slut?” she asked, stepping closer towards me.

I stepped backward. I expected that she was going to come after me. When I felt the criticism around me, I definitely knew she would be my number one attacker. I just never expected it way too early. I just got here. How did the rumor spread to her so fast that I have arrived?

I breathed and tried to side step her.

She walked around and blocked me, ”Oh my God, still have some nerve to walk out on me, huh?” she said, then she pressed her hand against my shoulder and shoved me backwards.

I stumbled but managed to regain my stance, grinding my teeth together.

”Tell me,” she said, stepping closer towards me. ”I want to ask you a question. When you went around flaunting that shitless, sick fuck of a body around my man, what was going through your mind? What were you thinking? Were you thinking you were compatible? Did you feel like you were some sort of diva queen who could hook herself up with the—”

”I’m not really in the mood right now, Lina,” I said quickly, and she flinched.

As soon as I interrupted her, she blinked, looking at me with wide eyes. Then she turned around to the group of girls behind her. ”Isn’t this interesting? The tiny little slut talks back,” she said sarcastically.

The older girls scoffed and shook their heads. ”She has guts.”

”Can you please just let me go?” I said as calmly as I could.

She raised both of her eyebrows. ”Let you go? Oh, okay, sure, I will. I will definitely let you go,” she said, and then stepped aside. She gestured towards her friends behind her: ”Clear the road, girls. Let her go on. She’s free to go. I mean, it’s not like I don’t have time on my hands. She can’t run away forever, can she? There are literally a thousand places I can think of on this campus to show her the torture of a lifetime,” she said.

A crowd had already gathered around in a circle. I felt really trapped, the only victim surrounded by thousands of wolves. I tilted my head to look at her, feeling a little bit suspicious about the way she let me go.

She gestured ahead: ”Come on, go on,” she said. ”You wanted to leave? Go.” she added.

I swallowed hard and gripped my backpack tight, willing to just escape this scrutiny. Then I made a move.

I didn’t see the moment she stuck her leg out. My leg tripped against hers, and I found myself falling face flat to the ground. I saw the cold tiles rushed so fast to my face but I managed to use my hands to support myself, landing clean on it and feeling the sharp pain that shot up my arm at the impact. I groaned and fell completely to the ground as I gripped my arm.

My hair wiped all over my face.

All of them burst out laughing. ”Oh, well, isn’t that so sweet? The cute diva queen face-planted to the ground. Really wish it was that stupid face of yours that crushed the ground.” Lina sneered. ”All I want is to spoil that stupid face if yours.”

She bent down and grabbed my hair. I groaned and held her hand feeling the pain of my hair being pulled as she tilted my head to face her.

She opened her mouth to speak but...

”Enough!” a sharp voice instantly called through the crowd, forcing all of them to freeze, including Lina. She let go of my hair and stood upright.

”Oh my God, bloody hell, who the hell is he?”

” Shit. He is so fucking handsome.”

” So good-looking,”

” So cute.”

I heard the murmurs and whispers all around me.

Picking up my earbuds that were already falling to the ground due to the impact of me falling, I began to dust myself. Lina herself had already stumbled away from me. Just like that, all the attention had diverted from me. Nobody was looking at me.

I breathed out, feeling a little bit relieved for the moment of reprieve. I looked at my earbuds to see that they had cracked a little bit after falling to the ground. I ground my teeth together in despair. I shoved them into the side pocket of my backpack, then turned around to catch the figure of the person who had caught their attention.

I brushed strands of hair away from my face and adjusted my hair.

He pushed through the crowd and slowly came over towards me. I froze immediately, my eyes raking over his face—his sturdy nose, his perfectly chiseled jawline, and those sharp brown eyes gazing intensely at me. My heart began to pound. Something punched straight deep into my gut.

Why the hell does that face look so familiar? I thought to myself with a frown, squinting my eyelids.

He pushed through the last of the crowd and finally came to a stop before me, observing me. ”Are you okay?” he asked calmly, his soft, deep, masculine voice rumbling through my chest.

I blinked and then tilted my head to the side. Is he talking to me? I thought to myself, looking back up at him.

He examined me as if wondering if I didn’t hear him.

I chuckled nervously and scratched my neck. ”Yeah, yeah, I’m okay,” I replied.

He nodded his head, then he turned around to face Lina. ”What the hell was that?” he asked casually.

”You don’t know what she did, sir—”

”Does it matter?” he asked, his voice sharp. ”This is an educational environment. Stop acting like you are still in highschool. Just because someone has wronged you doesn’t give you the right to lay grievances against them and stalk them around like they’re some measly thing without a life. If you have a grudge against someone, you should settle it like adults,” he said. His voice was filled with displeasure.

Lina blinked rapidly with embarrassment and tilted her head to the side.

”I do not want to experience anything like this again,” he said.

”Who the hell is he?” I heard someone whisper to the side.

”That’s really arrogant. He can’t just come here and dish out orders like he is some official or we’re in high school,” another person whispered.

His movement revealed that he heard it. He tilted his head to the person who said that.

”In case you’re wondering who I am, I am the newest lecturer here, and not just a lecturer, but the new dean as well,” he said.

Several students gasped and planted their gazes to the ground. Other began to walk away slowly.

He squinted his eyelids. ”So you all should be careful about whatever actions you take in this university, because one wrong move contaminates your enrollment here.”