RING!

"...We now know that Rome's empire spread farther than the reaches..."

As undergraduate students sprang out of their seats, they fought each other as they proceeded to line up in the aisles of the lecture hall. It would take them several minutes to get out anyways, but somehow the crowd always seemed to amaze him with their lack of insight.

Defeated, Jon sighed, adding, "Don't forget the assignment due next lecture on Ancient Rome's relations with the African kingdoms of..."

"Excuse me," squeaked an over-eager female student, biting her bottom lip as she approached him at the podium.

"Yes?"

"Never mind," she said, walking off as she giggled at the mere proximity of her attractive instructor, Professor Perez.

He grunted. For once-could not someone be as interested in history as he was?

All professors must teach Gen-Eds, he reminded himself. Too bad most of these students would rather shred their dense history textbooks than read them.

Gathering his things, he lugged his heavy leather briefcase filled to the brim with loose papers to the congested passageway and spotted a familiar exhausted writing consultant attempting to save her pens from falling to the floor.

"Let me help with that," he murmured, grabbing her ballpoint pen in hand, and hastily giving it back to her.

"Thanks," she said, glancing up to notice it was Jon who had helped her. She explained, "Oh my, I didn't know you taught here. I have class a few doors down."

Jon chuckled. "And here I thought you were a graduate student."

"I am! Master's, that is. In Journalism," she declared, proudly hugging her lined notebook to her chest.

"Really?", he asked. Eyeing a lecturer who had asked him out for 'dinner' the other day, he took Kasey in hand and pulled them into a currently empty classroom in the building.

"Hello?" Furrowing her eyebrows, she warily looked for emergency exits.

"Sorry, I'm avoiding a certain assistant lecturer right now."

"What? Let me guess, she asked you to join her cult? Or even worse, for dinner?", she teased.

Pale as a ghost, he stared back at her in shock. Recovering, he responded, "She thinks I'm the Osiris to her Isis."

"That wouldn't do! He gets sealed in a coffin by his brother and ends up in the underworld! Tragic fate for lovers indeed! Even Cleopatra and Mark Anthony can't beat that!", she retorted back.

"You know your history?", he queried, surprised that anyone knew about Egyptian myths nowadays.

"Oh, that's common knowledge, as my father was an archaeologist, so I grew up wandering around old ruins as a child back in Africa."

Daydreaming about his recent trip to Tunisia, he commented, "That sounds wonderful."

"Of course, to you-who's a history nerd-it probably sounds like paradise," she chided.

"By the way, I never got to thank you for the amazing job you did with my students."

"It was nothing. My old job was editing at a newspaper, and when you've seen rough drafts of articles, student's research papers are nothing in comparison," she joked.

"I bet. Still I am grateful. For some of them, I think you may have been the difference between a passing grade or not."

"Hmm...if you're truly grateful, want to grab a bite to eat and chat more about Ancient African kingdoms? Carthage? Egypt? The Kushites? The frontiers of Rome? Zimbabwe? My personal favorite, partly due to the fact that I'm Nigerian, the Benin Empire?"

Frowning, he retrieved a coupon from a sandwich shop and handed it to her. "There, that should cover it."

Storming off, Kasey looked on in confusion. "Was it something I said?"

In another corner of campus, a classical pianist stood up from a park bench and set off towards the campus gardens.

On her way, she bumped into a Korean doctoral student clearly in a hurry.

"죄송합니다," he muttered, now gazing into familiar spearmint eyes.

"That's alright," she stated as she brushed herself off quickly.

Stopping himself, he inquired, "Are you a student here on campus?"

"Oh no. I studied at Oberlin."

"Perchance, did you study at The Oberlin Conservatory?"

"Yes, that's the one."

"Impressive. I went to Case Western for undergrad, and sometimes visited the quaint little town. From what I have seen, it's quite beautiful."

"Then what are you doing here? So far from Cleveland?"

"My doctorate. Statistics."

Olivia's eyes bulged. "Math? Stats? I can't imagine..."

"It's more fun than what people would think," he said with a sparkle illuminating his deep onyx slightly obscured by his round frames.

Snorting, she said, "If you say so." Smiling widely to hide the fact that his eyes had reminded her of strolls at the beach examining minerals and rocks with her geologist father back in Texas.

After all, memories of what once had been were best left in the past.

Not that she would remember this conversation anyways.

"Speaking of which, are you headed back to Oberlin soon then?", he queried as he tipped his head to the side.

"No, I already graduated, and I'm not from there. I'm Texan."

"Texan?"

"Yes. Let's just say-I have Texan in me from both sides and am also a born & raised Texan. You see, my mom's a traditional Texan with her family spanning from before the United States claimed the territory, and my father's a Texan because his family plopped down there and refused to budge."

They both started cackling at her description, only pausing to catch their breath.

"And you? Cleveland-born, I'm guessing?"

"Where am I from? Korea."

"No way, a fellow bilingual? Your English makes you sound like a native."

"You speak Spanish, I assume?" At this point, he was starting over as she did not seem to recognize him from all the other times. Who knows? Maybe she really was not good with faces.

"Yep."

"All I know how to say is Mi nombre es Dan y yo soy de Korea," he confessed, at his poor pronunciation.

"That was surprisingly good."

"Really? You're not saying that like Koreans say to foreigners who even speak a bit of Korean?"

"No, of course not! I don't give out compliments easily," she chided. "How about you teach me what you said in Korean?"

"Um...well..."

"Let me guess, Spanish is much easier with that, and you'll have to sit me down for a lesson. How about this?" She signaled to herself, and said, "Teach me how to say hello."

"Ugh... there's many ways to say it..."

"Come on! Stop looking to the side and tell me at least one way."

"안녕하세요," he relayed.

"안녕하세요," she repeated.

"Wow...that was really good." Bringing his hand up to his face, he almost genuinely smiled, but covered it when he realized he would be late to his next lecture if he did not leave soon.

"I must be on my way..."

Pointing to Dan, Olivia asserted, "Next time we meet, if we meet, ask me how to say hello in Korean."

"Pardon?"

"And if I don't recall...", she pressed closer to the doctoral student, finishing, "pretend you don't know me, okay?"

"OK," he echoed.

Sprinting away from the gardens, he looked over his shoulder and wondered what a strange girl that was.

Even stranger the fool that chased after her.

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Author's notes: I appreciate any and all feedback on grammar, sentence structure, and how to edit this story.

Vocab notes:

죄송합니다 (joisonghapnida)-an informal way of saying sorry

안녕하세요 (Annyeonghaseyo)-the most common way of greeting, safe and formal way of saying Hello, means Be Well or Please be well