主妇丈夫倡导的户外生活

Harker was not expecting this question at all.

"Huh? Why do you want to know?" He asked.

Professor Seward shrugged. "Nothing. I just see her around people all the time. How does she get along with all of them? How does she manage to remember all their names?"

Harker opened his mouth but didn't really know what to say, so all that came out was a high-pitched confused sound. But even if he did have something to say, Professor Seward was not done rambling about her sister being more sociable.

"I mean, I can't even remember the names of the people I hooked up with for the past years. I can't recall a single one of their faces. Probably because I'm too high on LSD most of the time."

Harker's eye twitched. Right, Professor Seward doesn't smoke weed, but she does like taking pills.

He even saw her down a whole cacophony of random party drugs. In school.

And yet he knew he couldn't report her because then she'd get replaced and they'd have a proper professor who actually gives fair grades instead of random guessing. And the laboratory's management would also not have the same amount of freedom as they have now.

So it is pretty valid for people to not find her likable just from that alone.

Harker sighed. "Maybe if you take less drugs and care about what other people are saying, you'd have more friends."

"You really think so? But then again, making friends is also very tiring." She said. "You'd have to hang out with them once in a while, talk to them, share personal stuff and all that… So exhausting."

'Then what's the point of asking me for advice?' Harker scoffed.

Honestly, he was also more introverted than people give him credit for, and he only liked spending time with specific people. Besides Roland, Mina, his family and sometimes Kian, he never really bothered to get to know more friends in his circle.

Quality over quantity and all that. It's better to have friends that were loyal to you until the end than to have a lot that would never attend your funeral.

So in a way, he could relate to what Professor Seward was saying.

"I get that. I also don't really like spending too much energy making friends. But then again, it was also part of human nature to seek companionship so that must be why you're worryin' over having friends." Harker said. "And honestly, just go look for a few. Take your chance, there's a lot of professors and staff here in Stoker University."

"They don't like me very much. Left a bad impression and all that." Professor Seward answered.

Harker grimaced. "Ooof… All of them?"

"All of them."

This woman was really impossible.

"Ok, then…. There might be new ones. And you can befriend your students too. If you actually teach them properly, they'd like you and maybe you'll find ones you can vibe with." Harker said.

He couldn't believe he's actually giving his own professor who was well over a decade older than advice on making friends. She's even worse than a kid on her first day of school.

"That's true, I guess." She said. "That reminds me. What happened to your research on chameleons? Graduation's coming soon."

Finally! Here's his chance to talk about Victoria's disappearance.

"The girls and I are finishing it up. I had to take care of some stuff for a while. I'll go check in on them later." Harker told her.

As expected, she asked. "What stuff? Like those regenerative cells you're taking to BITMAC?"

"Yeah….. I decided not to give it to BITMAC after all. I actually met Victoria when I got there, that's why I'm asking about her. We were supposed to work together on this research, but she suddenly disappeared and I don't know where she was."

"Did you hear anything from her?" Harker said, sounding hopeful.

Professor Seward raised her high-arched eyebrows. "You're working with Vicky now? Is it a purely professional type of relationship or is she going for my students now too?"

Harker made a face. "Please don't get it twisted, Prof. She's old enough to be my grandmother, and I don't go for those."

"How about someone old enough to be your mother then?" She placed a hand on her waist and posed to show off her large hips.

Harker only now noticed how small her waist actually was in comparison to her hips. Even when she's a lazy bum that only sleeps and sleeps and drinks coffee, she still manages to maintain an hourglass figure. Harker knew the only exercise she got was walking through the hallways and she eats like a glutton in the cafeteria. So it must be plain genetics.

Genetics can just be unfair sometimes. He doesn't really have the right to complain either, since his weight had always been stable all through his life.

With that aside, he'd never go for someone like Professor Seward now matter the age.

"No thank y—"

Professor Seward was already expecting that response, and cut him off. "I'm just kidding. Yeah, I know Vicky won't go for you either 'cause she never goes for anyone. She's married to the job. That's something we have in common, I just like to play around when I feel like it."

"I haven't heard anything from her. I mean we do occasionally meet up with our parents for Thanksgiving and birthdays and all, but Vicky and I aren't exactly the tightest."

Harker knew it wasn't his right to intrude, but his mouth already moved for him. "Was it like a sibling rivalry? Competitiveness from being in the same field?"

Professor Seward nodded. "Something like that, and also a little bit of disagreement in certain beliefs."

"Like what?"

"You'd have to buy me a drink before I gab about something personal, kid." She took a long sip of her coffee. Yes, she still drinks coffee during lectures and usually takes 3-4 trips to the coffee machine, leaving her students behind to do whatever.

Harker rubbed the bridge of his nose. Why did he even think this was a good idea to ask her?

"I see. Well, that's all I wanted to ask anyway. I'm not trying to get involved in your family matters or somethin'. Victoria just took something important when she left, and I need it." He said. "See ya, Prof."

But as he went, Professor Seward suddenly called out.

"Hey. I have no idea where Victoria went, but I think that your best bet would be in Jamestown, Virginia."

Harker turned back to her. "Virginia? Did you live there?"

"For a while, yeah. We never came back there for a long time though. I dunno, I just had a feeling that if she'd get missing, she'd be there." Professor Seward smiled sadly to herself. "We had pretty good and bad memories there, Virginia. Sure is one hell of a place."

Even though Harker never liked Professor Seward much, this was that one moment he actually sympathized with her. Those eyes, that distant stare….

It felt like they hid so much pain and loneliness that turned them into this empty, dark void.