Chapter 1

During the design lecture, I secretly texted my online boyfriend: [Honey, will you be on today? (Shy Smiley)]

The next second, the whole lecture hall fell silent.

My message had shown up on Professor Ildefonso Gould's projector screen, under the sender's name "My Muse."

The professor remained unfazed as he turned to face all his students and said without missing a beat, "It's just a personal matter. Let's continue."

I was petrified. Buzz! Just then, my phone vibrated silently under the lecture desk, and the screen lit up to show the chat thread between my online boyfriend, "Fonso," and me.

It was a message from my online boyfriend: [Come to my office after the lecture. I'll see you in person.]

My name was Stephanie Liskow. I was a third-year art student. My artistic abilities were passable, and I pretty much just went with the flow in life. My biggest hobby was holing up in my dorm room and playing online games.

"Fonso" was a teammate I met in the game. He had a magnetic voice, was incredibly skilled, and most importantly, he never looked down on me for being bad at the game. Before I knew it, as someone who had never dated, I got a taste of what it was like to be in a relationship online.

We had been dating for three months, but we had never video-called or met in person. All I knew was that he lived in the same city as me and was always busy with his work as a "design director."

At this moment, standing at the podium was our college's new adjunct professor, Professor Ildefonso Gould.

He was wearing a well-tailored gray suit, and behind his gold-rimmed glasses, his eyes were deep and aloof. He exuded an aura of elite sophistication that kept strangers at a distance. It was said that he was a top designer who had returned from abroad and won numerous industry awards. The college had to go to great lengths to persuade him to teach the seniors' graduation projects.

No one dared to slack off in his class. But I was the exception today.

Me: [Honey, will you be on today? (Shy Smiley)]

After typing out my message, I added a bashful smiley face and clicked "Send."

Almost instantly, a message popped up at the top of the design software interface that Professor Gould was demonstrating on the huge projection screen above the podium.

The sender's name was "My Muse."

And the message was: [Honey, will you be on today? (Shy Smiley).]

That message was identical to mine. Time seemed to stand still at that moment.

In the vast lecture hall, more than a hundred students were completely silent. All eyes were sweeping back and forth like searchlights above my hunkered-down head.

My mind went blank, blood rushed to my head, and I felt a buzzing sensation.

I could not believe it. What were the odds of something like this happening?

I raised my head discreetly and instantly met Professor Gould's eyes staring at me through his glasses. His gaze was unfazed, yet it sliced through all my pretenses with the precision of a scalpel.

So he was "Fonso," the guy I had been chatting with all this time. My online boyfriend was my new professor.

"Wow…" Someone gave a dramatic gasp, and instantly set the whole lecture hall abuzz.

“Oh my gosh, what am I seeing? Professor Gould's private message?” someone gushed.

"And that sender's name is 'My Muse'? That's so sweet!" another uttered with a giggle.

"Who is it? Who could possibly be so impressive as to win over Professor Gould?" asked a third.

The whispers and murmurs surged like a tidal wave, and I wished I could disappear into the ground right then and there.

The class belle and top student, Williana Quade, was sitting next to me. She nudged me lightly with her elbow with feigned surprise and a hint of barely concealed gloating.

"Steffi, this… this is so awkward. Who could be so careless?" she proclaimed.

Though her voice wasn't loud, the people around still heard her clearly.

I could feel several suspicious glances falling on me. After all, I was the only one in the hall who had been engrossed in playing with my phone.

I gripped my phone tightly with stiff fingers.

On the podium, Ildefonso was totally unfazed. He glanced at his phone and then swept his steely eyes across the hall before stopping on my face.

Barely a second later, his deep, clear voice boomed through the hall via the microphone. "It's just a personal matter. Let's continue."

Just a personal matter? With those words, he had instantly dismissed the incident as a private matter with a laid-back air of indulgence.

The hall erupted instantly with whoops and gasps.

I was downright embarrassed. This guy did it on purpose.

Just as I was totally petrified, my phone buzzed under the desk.

It was a message from "Fonso," or rather, Professor Ildefonso Gould.

It said simply: [Come to my office after the lecture. I'll see you in person.]

It was just a short, terse statement, almost like a command.

My heart sank. I couldn't concentrate for the rest of the lecture. That message kept repeating in my mind, along with Professor Gould's unflappable demeanor.

How could he say "just a personal matter" without batting an eye in front of over a hundred people?

And what about that sender's name, "My Muse"?