the valley.

The excursion out of town would be good for everyone, so you said. There wasn't anything to do in the short break, and we relished the idea of seeing everybody out of their university uniforms and more so the fun in the countryside and the promise of wilderness adventure. We should be going down the steep valley in pairs, you announced. You easily picked me for a partner, either out of familiarity of the choice or it was me you just saw first. I panicked for a second not by our mutual friends' reaction, but by my own flushed face. By now it wasn't new for everybody to see us together this way, closer than a professor and his student should be. You grabbed my awkward hand playfully and led me down, down the steepness. It might as well had been my feelings that we were walking on. I remembered how you kept me real close, as if almost afraid to lose me in the unfamiliar trek. When I saw that secret smile on your face again, I was so sure you were out to tease me for the umpteenth time today. My face must had resembled a tomato.