When Kaija arrived at the dance studio in the Performance Building the next morning, Antony was already inside.
He sat cross-legged on the floor, eyelids sagging halfway shut like he hadn't had a good night's sleep.
Those sleepy eyes were already narrowing with pure displeasure when he saw the door creak open, but the moment his gaze landed on the large cup filled with boba tea in the hand of the girl walking in, the gold in those eyes sharpened with utter contempt.
"Stop right there," he ordered coldly. "Get out. Now. No drinks allowed inside."
The face of the girl walking in wasn't any better than his. Her sleepy eyes blinked down at him a few times, the straw still in her mouth, before she spun around and went straight through the door.
"Wait!" he called after her, his voice rising sharply. "Come back here right after you finish that drink! Don't you dare just leave like yesterday!"
She raised a brow at him over her shoulder. "Oh, you're not kicking me out anymore?" she mumbled, not a single hint of joy in her voice. "Hm, kay. I'd rather you kick me out like yesterday, honestly."
Then she disappeared behind the door.
Fifteen long minutes later, seeing the girl hadn't returned yet, Antony's patience ran out.
He stormed toward the door, sticking his head out to check, only to find the girl still sipping her tea slowly, her back leaning casually against the wall. The cup was now half full.
"What on earth is taking you so long?" Antony grumbled with a deep frown.
"My tea," she replied curtly, lifting the cup for him to see. "Full topping, full sugar, full ice. Want a sip?"
"No, thank you," Antony muttered back. "Cold drinks at this hour? Are you even in your right mind? Don't tell me that's your breakfast."
"It is," she said with a shrug. "It helps me stay perfectly sane in this mad place, which is obviously filled with weird, overly chatty, cocky, rude, touchy, or just straight-up grumpy people like you."
"Is that how you speak to your instructor?" Antony's frown deepened along with his voice. "Finish that within five minutes, or I'm marking you failed for Beginner Dancing and saying goodbye to whatever career you ever dreamed of in this mad place." He slammed the door shut and retreated inside before she could shoot back any retort.
"Tch," she muttered, taking another slow, deliberate sip. "As if I ever dreamed of being here in the first place."
Her face then drooped as certain memories of the unexpected kiss from the day before flashed through her mind.
"Stupid Juho," she mumbled, cheeks already burning. "Get out of my head. Fucking get out."
He had already troubled her in her sleep enough last night. Why couldn't he just leave her alone?
The tea was tossed into the trash can before she even finished it.
"So, mister… Antony?" she said, stepping back into the studio. "What made you change your mind about this class? I thought you said you didn't want to teach a one-person class, and definitely not with me in it."
"I did say that," he muttered back, his face flat with annoyance. "But apparently, you've got yourself quite an efficient manager, that green-haired guy.
"That guy reported the case to the Performance Department, and I, the Lead Instructor of this place, now have to take responsibility for checking in the class hours, yet letting a trainee sneak away to enjoy tea in a café somewhere near this building."
"Huh, so that's your problem, huh?" she mumbled, visibly displeased. "So what am I supposed to do now, then?"
"That part is simple," Antony replied flatly. "You come here on time, tap your card, sit properly inside this room for the whole time slot, until I manage to pass you off to some other instructor."
"So you're basically telling me to come here and… do absolutely nothing at all?" she concluded plainly.
"Exactly," Antony confirmed, jabbing a finger squarely at the other corner of the room. "Go over there, sit your ass down, do whatever you like.
"Play games, chat with your friends, read some books, nap, whatever. I don't care.
"Just sit over there, don't come anywhere within a two-meter radius of me, and keep your mouth shut to your talkative manager."
Without hesitation, Kaija turned straight toward where Antony's finger was pointing, sat her ass down on the floor, and pulled out her phone.
Faced with her utter obedience, Antony couldn't help but once again find himself just as speechless as he had been the last time.
"Are you also this obedient to your parents at home?" Antony muttered, settling himself into the corner opposite hers.
"Just one parent," she replied dispassionately, already logging into her favorite racing game. "Me and dancing don't get along well, so as long as you're not going to make me dance, I'll listen to whatever you say, mister."
"Instructor," Antony corrected dryly. "Call me Instructor, not Mister. It sounds weird."
"Tsk," she fought back a yawn, too sleepy to argue. "Cool, cool. Instructor, then. As if you're going to instruct anything to me at all yourself, Instructor."
Two hours of Beginner Dancing class passed in a painfully awkward silence, or at least, for Antony.
Despite his own sleepiness, his golden eyes remained keenly fixed on the girl at the other end of the room, watching her every movement.
She was now lying flat on her back on the floor, both arms stretched upward as she held her phone between her hands, her focus entirely fixed on the same game.
Ever since the first day he entered the Performance Department as a dance instructor, the female trainees had gone out of their way, coming up with all sorts of ploys to lay their hands on him, tricking him into physical contact, especially the newbies.
This handsome face, which was the result of sharing the same good genes as his cursed half-brother, who was probably sitting somewhere inside the Management Building right now, was perhaps to blame.
But given how the girl had barely spared him a glance, aside from when he first stepped into the studio yesterday, he was certain that something was very wrong with her.
Wasn't she supposed to have her eyes fixed on him, her mouth falling wide open like all the female trainees and artists alike on this campus?
The thought only made him more suspicious that she was up to some even more vicious plan to somehow make him let his guard down and touch him when he wasn't paying full attention.
The moment the clock on the wall hit ten, Kaija suddenly pushed herself fully up off the floor.
She headed toward the door, muttering without sparing him a glance on the way, "Bye, Instructor."
"Wait!" Antony called, though he had no clear idea why he'd called out.
"Yeah?" her head snapped in his direction.
"You said you're bad at dancing?" he asked steadily, his face straight, not a single slip showing. "Just how bad is it, so I can properly consider which instructor I should pass you to."
What he had just said was utterly useless, since the entire Beginner Dancing program followed the same routine, regardless of who led it.
"Let's say totally helpless," she replied without hesitation, her voice firm with conviction.
Antony's brow twitched faintly. "Okay, noted," he said flatly, relieved she didn't push the conversation further. "You can go now."
"You've got something on your face," she muttered.
Before Antony could even process what she'd said, Kaija had already stepped closer to where he was with unthinkably quick strides.
"There, gone," she said, flicking the small black speck away.
Antony sat completely frozen, golden eyes blown wide open at the fingers brushing lightly against his skin.
"Bye, now," she said curtly, turning away at once and slipping out the door.
One full minute of absolute stillness later, Antony's lips twitched faintly.
"Ha, fuck, I knew it," he muttered to himself, his face still blank with shock. "I knew she was up to something…"
But perhaps the disbelief written all over his face wasn't about whether the girl had been scheming toward him this whole time, but about how he himself had reacted to it.
He should have felt angry, or shouted, like he usually did. Yet facing those calm, strangely empty blue eyes, all the rage and irritation that always seized him when a woman touched him simply drained away.
His mouth curved upward unbidden.
The emptiness in those eyes mirrored the golden eyes he had known his entire life perfectly.