Chapter Three Noah
Chapter Three
Noah
“I need you to be on my show.”
There was no hi or how are you doing? No, Mia went straight for his throat, as usual, with her razor-sharp tone.
Was this a dream? Noah actually wasn’t sure. For some reason, Mia hadn’t said a single word during today’s lecture. And like magic, Noah had
dozed off. He’d tried his best to pay attention, but Dr. Thompson had been going over framing, something he’d taught himself
years ago. And Noah was still exhausted from staying up all night editing a project for a different class.
He rubbed the sleepiness from his eyes. When he reopened them, Mia was still there, looking as resolute as ever. Around them,
the other students started filing out of the lecture hall.
So this was real then.
It was bizarre to see Mia standing right in front of him, on his side of the room, no more than a couple inches away from where he was sitting in his seat.
Noah resisted the urge to extend his leg and tap one of her pink tennis shoes. A childish impulse. But she was just so serious.
“Campus Crush?” he finally asked.
Mia nodded. “Yup. Someone nominated you to be on it.”
Noah raised his eyebrows. “But I don’t have a crush on anyone.”
“The show follows four people and their crushes. You’re someone’s crush, and she nominated you to be on the show with her. And no, I can’t tell you who it is
yet.”
Noah was already far too busy to add something else to his plate this semester. And even if he weren’t, he wasn’t sure if
he’d ever want to be on a “cross between reality TV and a documentary” show like Mia’s, where he’d likely be scrutinized for
everything he said.
The best part about his short-form content was its high editability. Before he uploaded anything, he could watch it repeatedly
and fine-tune everything he said and did to the nearest second. Sometimes, even more precisely than that. He presented himself
to the world exactly how he wanted to appear.
That would be impossible with longer media, especially when he wasn’t the one shooting or editing. His palms grew sweaty just
thinking about it.
But since he didn’t want Mia to know how nervous he felt, he said, “I’m too busy this semester. Plus, what if the person who
nominated me is a sasaeng fan?”
It was only after he said it that he realized Mia might not know what that term means. From her last name, he knew she was ethnically Korean, like him, but during first-week-of-school icebreakers, she’d said she was born in Texas, out of all places.
He had no idea if Mia could even speak Korean, so he added, “Sasaengs are obsessive fans who stalk K-pop stars and other celebrities
and terrorize their lives in South Korea.”
Mia’s brows drew together into a flat line. “I know what they are. And you are not famous enough to have sasaeng fans.”
Noah hadn’t meant to offend Mia, but clearly, he’d struck a nerve. He looked away apologetically and shrugged. “You don’t
know that. We have gotten creepy mail to the fraternity house before, so the possibility is always there.”
“Okay, fine. The person who nominated you isn’t a sasaeng fan. She’s perfectly normal.”
“So you know who it is.”
“I never said I didn’t.”
Noah started packing up his things. “You know, Mia, you have a funny way of asking people for a favor.”
Mia gritted her teeth for a second before opening her mouth. Noah half expected her to yell at him when, in a strangled voice,
she said, “Sorry. I’m just so used to arguing with you.”
A wheezing sound came from Mia’s mouth, causing Noah’s eyebrows to shoot up with concern. A few seconds later, he realized that this was her attempt to relax. Some kind of meditative breathing technique, maybe?
Noah thought about telling her that whatever she was doing, she was doing it wrong. But he held his tongue. She’d just apologized to him for the first time. He could be civil. For now.
The breaths seemed to have worked, because Mia spoke much more slowly and calmly as she said, “Listen. This could be good
for both of us. Are you happy being single?”
Noah flinched. Nice or not, she’d somehow gotten even more direct. He was usually good at talking to people, but Mia’s frankness made him stumble on his words.
“W-what? How do you know I’m not dating anyone?”
She shrugged. “Just a lucky guess. I figured you’d be the type to be super public about your relationship if you were.”
Noah frowned at Mia’s assumption. But in truth, he had no idea how he’d act in a relationship. Before college, he’d been too
busy studying English and doing everything else he could to get into Marlon. Then, over the last three years, he’d bounced
like a ball between classes, the fraternity, and work. A part of him had always assumed he’d eventually meet someone. And
yet, here he was now. A fourth year who had never really dated anyone.
Now that he thought about it, he was probably the only brother in his fraternity who hadn’t had at least one girlfriend. His
chest suddenly felt empty.
“Well? Are you happy?” Mia asked again. “Being single?”
In the now almost-empty lecture hall where time seemed to have stopped, Noah quietly said, “No, I guess not.”
“Okay.” Mia opened the Notes app on her phone. She took another deep breath and, as if reading off a teleprompter, continued,
“Then what reason do you have to not be on the show? You’ve literally been voted the most eligible student bachelor at our
school. If people hear that you’re on the show, they’ll flock to it to learn more about you. Campus Crush isn’t like your usual content. It’ll have quiet moments and heart-to-heart conversations that will give you space to be vulnerable
and open, something you can’t do with your normal ‘unattainable cool dude’ online persona. Everyone will eat it up, and you’ll
most likely end up with someone. Either because you meet them on the show or because a viewer will want to date you after
seeing you open up, on-screen. It’ll be a win-win, either way.”
“Wait, did you take notes on me? And my content?”
Although he had many fans, no one had analyzed either him or his work as thoroughly as Mia had just now. Or at least, they’d
never been brave enough to do it in front of his face. It was bold. Surprising, even. And it was the exact thing that made
Noah wonder if he should take Mia more seriously, after all.
She opened her mouth to reply when someone coughed.
They both jumped and looked up to see a very tired-looking Dr. Thompson.
“Can you two please take this somewhere else?” the professor asked. “It’s 10:15 p.m., and I’m not allowed to leave students alone in this building at night.”
Noah blinked. Fifteen minutes had gone by, just like that.
“Noah, please,” Mia said, surprising him even more. “My friends and I worked hard on this show. I don’t want all of that to
go to waste. At least give me a chance to continue this conversation somewhere else.”
Mia was begging him now? The world was going to end before the clock struck midnight. He was sure of it.
Even so, Noah found himself saying, “All right. Let’s meet up sometime else then. To keep talking.”
There was no harm in meeting with her once, was there?
After shooting Dr. Thompson an apologetic look, he pulled up the Calendar app on his phone. “Just one moment. Sorry, Professor.”
Noah’s schedule was already full of big, ugly blocks that made up different facets of his life, from the monstrous chunks
of time that film school classes required, late into the evening, to the hours he carved out for either the gym, his content,
or the catch-up calls with his mom and brother back in Seoul.
“My calendar’s a mess . . .” Noah trailed off as Mia opened up her calendar. It was somehow even more terrifying than his.
“How are you even alive?” he asked, in both horror and awe.
Mia shrugged. “My calendar.”
A grin threatened to make its way across his face. To any other person, the differently colored and sometimes even overlapping
boxes of his own calendar would also seem nightmarish, when in reality, they were the keys to his survival, too.
Noah had entered into an alternate universe. He never thought he’d be able to relate to Mia.
Dr. Thompson coughed again.
“I can do Friday night at eight,” he told Mia. “You live on campus, right? By Carlisle Library, since you’re a first year?
How about Ground Smoothie? I think it’s one of the few places on that side of campus that’s still open then.”
“Ground Smoothie? Where’s that?”
Noah smiled triumphantly. Finally, something Mia the Know It All didn’t know about. “Oh, you’ve never heard of it? I have
to say, I’m surprised.”
Mia scowled. “Just tell me where it is.”
“It’s by C Dorm. They have good milkshakes and smoothies, but they also grind and brew their own coffee, hence the cursed
name. If you don’t know where it is, I can send you a location pin—”
“I’m fine,” Mia cut in. “Thanks.”
Ground Smoothie was so infamously hard to find that Noah was ninety-nine percent certain that Mia would not be “fine.” “Are you sure?”
“Yup.”
Noah let it drop. He was fully grinning now. Her stubbornness to do everything herself reminded him of his Little, Thad, when he was a first year. The best he could do, he’d learned, was provide his contact information so they could reach out to him if
they needed help.
When he gave her his number, Mia made a face, like she found the very gesture highly offensive.
“Right,” she said. “See you.”