CHAPTER 18 - Confusing
818 Words
“She skipped lunch.”
The cafeteria table went still.
Hana stared at Danish.
Mira looked between them like someone receiving free entertainment.
“How,” Mira asked carefully, “do you know that?”
“She almost fainted during lab,” Danish said calmly.
“I did not almost faint.”
“You sat on the floor for ten minutes.”
“Because engineering is physically exhausting.”
“That’s not normal.”
Faiz laughed. “You sound like worried husband already.”
“Oh, NO!” Hana replied too quickly.
Too loudly.
Danish rubbed a hand over his face, but not before Hana caught the faint pull at the corner of his mouth.
“Can engineering students stop creating imaginary relationships for five minutes?”
“Then stop acting suspicious,” Mira shot back.
Sara hid her smile behind her drink.
The conversation shifted to upcoming faculty events, but Hana noticed something irritating afterward.
Every time she reached for fries, the plate quietly slid closer first.
Danish.
Every. Single. Time.
Like he was doing it unconsciously.
Or worse—like he noticed her more than he should.
Once, when she reached at the same moment he did, his fingers brushed the back of her hand briefly before pulling away.
Neither of them acknowledged it.
Hana suddenly found the faculty event discussion extremely difficult to follow.
That night, Hana headed back toward the female hostel alone, hugging several files against her chest.
The campus pathways had quieted after Isyak prayer.
Cool breeze. Dim lights. Distant voices drifting across campus.
Then—
“You walk too fast.”
Hana nearly jumped.
“Ya Allah.”
Danish appeared beside her, holding up her calculator.
“You left this.”
“Oh.”
He held it out a second too long before she took it, their fingers brushing briefly against the plastic edge.
Warm.
Annoyingly warm.
Hana adjusted the files against her chest.
“This calculator has survived more suffering than me.”
“That’s obvious.”
“Rude.”
They kept walking side by side, their footsteps falling into rhythm.
Close enough that Hana kept noticing him in fragments—the sleeve brushing near hers, the clean scent of soap, the quiet steadiness of his breathing.
Then—
“Why did you stop sitting beside me?”
Hana blinked.
“What kind of question is that?”
“You’ve been avoiding my row.”
“Why do you care?”
A pause.
Long enough this time.
“I don’t.”
“That answer came too fast.”
Danish looked ahead instead of at her.
“You focus less lately.”
Hana stopped walking for half a second.
“That sounds academically insulting.”
“You get distracted easily now.”
“Maybe because engineering is destroying my will to live.”
“That’s not my point.”
He opened his mouth like he meant to continue, then closed it again.
The silence between them stretched strangely tight.
“Your marks will drop if you keep playing around,” he said finally, quieter now.
Hana let out a short laugh through her nose.
“You know not everything revolves around grades, right?”
“No. But we’re in university for a reason.”
“That doesn’t mean I need to become emotionally constipated like you.”
Danish glanced at her then, properly this time.
“I’m not emotionally constipated.”
“You look angry during recreational activities.”
“That’s my face.”
“That’s concerning.”
The corner of his mouth twitched before he looked down again.
Hana hated that she noticed every small expression from him lately.
When they reached the female hostel building, Hana stopped near the entrance.
“Thanks for the calculator.”
“Hm.”
Another pause.
Neither of them moved.
Students passed behind them toward the lobby doors, but the space between Hana and Danish stayed oddly still.
Then Hana spoke before she could stop herself.
“You and Sara looked nice together earlier.”
Danish’s expression shifted almost immediately.
“We’re friends.”
“Oh.”
She nodded once, eyes dropping briefly to the calculator in her hands.
For some reason, relief arrived first.
The silence stretched.
“You should sleep earlier,” Danish said finally.
“There you go again.”
“What?”
“Acting like forty-year-old father.”
“That’s because you survive on coffee and poor decisions.”
“That sounds judgemental.”
“It’s factual.”
Hana rolled her eyes and walked backward toward the hostel entrance.
“Goodnight, engineering grandfather.”
Danish laughed then—quiet at first, then real enough that he had to look away.
The sound caught Hana off guard for a second.
Softened him completely.
Hana turned toward the hostel before he could see her smile lingering longer than it should have.
“That was disturbing,” she muttered, pushing open the door.
- Writer
