Gymnophoria - The sensation that someone is mentally undressing you
"Christine? Did you listen?"
Christine blinked.
"Sorry, what?"
Erik looked at her for a few seconds, before repeating that part of the lesson. He asked her to sing the line again.
It was like this since the start of the lesson. It seemed Christine was more distracted than usual this afternoon. Not only this, but Erik also felt she was staring at him the whole day, and it made him very uncomfortable.
Erik started giving his review to her singing, and he felt her stare once again. His hands went to his mask, to make sure it was still in place. It was, like always. Still, under Christine's intense stare, he felt bare, and the only thing that proved him that she could not see right through the mask to what he hid under it was the fact she was not screaming.
He mixed his words, something that never happened, and Christine giggled. He felt his face warming.
"Focus, Christine, please."
"I'm sorry. May I ask you a question?"
"Of course.", Erik nodded.
"Will I ever see you?", she asked. Erik looked away. "I mean, what you really are like.", she explained. "Under the-"
"Who knows?", Erik shrugged, still not looking at her.
But Christine looked at him, that intense stare, as if she stared enough she could see what she wanted to.
"Could we go back to our lesson?", Erik asked, trying to change the subject.
He could not tell her that he hoped she would never see what he really was like, and he could never explain why. He could only hope Christine would forget about this in time, but he knew she wouldn't. But he didn't want to think of how this would all end, instead he wanted to focus on the beautiful voice that at least for now sang only for him.