CHAPTER 16 - Other People
753 Words
“Your formatting is inconsistent.”
Hana looked up slowly from her laptop.
“What is it now?”
“The spacing.”
“It’s normal spacing.”
“It still looks ugly.”
She stared at Danish for a long moment.
Then shut her laptop with exaggerated calm.
“You know what?”
“What?”
“I finally understand why engineering students avoid you.”
Mira snorted into her hand.
Danish only frowned.
“That feels excessive.”
“No, you’re just exhausting.”
Hana stood and gathered her files.
“I’m going to the cafeteria.”
“We’re not done yet.”
“We’ve been here four hours.”
“That’s normal.”
“The fact that you think that is deeply concerning.”
Before Danish could continue dissecting PowerPoint aesthetics like a national crisis, a voice called from outside the room.
“Hana!”
She turned toward the doorway.
Faiz stood there with a few engineering students behind him.
“We’re heading to the mamak outside campus. You in?”
Hana blinked.
“Mamak?”
“Yeah. Everybody’s dying already.”
Honestly?
That sounded infinitely better than another hour of Danish criticizing slide spacing.
“Give me a minute.”
Danish looked up again.
“We still have work.”
“We can continue tomorrow.”
“The submission is in two days.”
“And my mental stability is hanging by a thread.”
Mira immediately stood.
“I support her decision wholeheartedly.”
Traitor.
A few minutes later, after stuffing their things into bags and escaping the suffocating discussion room, Hana found herself squeezed into a car heading toward the mamak stall outside campus.
By the time they arrived, the night already felt lighter.
Not long after, Hana was sitting at a noisy table surrounded by engineering students complaining about assignments, lecturers, and sleep deprivation.
For the first time in weeks—
she felt relaxed.
No pressure.
No calculations.
No Danish academically evaluating her breathing patterns.
Faiz laughed as he pushed a plate of fries toward her.
“You engineering people look like zombies lately.”
“We are zombies,” Hana replied seriously.
The table burst into laughter.
After that, conversation came easily.
Mostly jokes.
Campus gossip.
Complaints about lecturers.
Normal university chaos.
And strangely—
Hana realized she missed this.
Just being a student without constantly worrying about deadlines, survival, and Danish.
Much later, after everyone slowly dispersed back to campus and their dorms, the laughter faded into the usual late-night quiet.
Meanwhile, back on campus—
Danish sat alone in the discussion room staring at the unfinished slides.
Annoying.
He tried focusing again.
Unfortunately—
the room felt strangely empty now.
No dramatic complaints.
No random commentary.
No Hana loudly criticizing engineering every five minutes.
Peaceful.
Which somehow made it worse.
Suspicious.
The next morning, campus returned to its usual chaos of crowded hallways and exhausted students rushing between classes.
Hana entered the lecture hall laughing with Faiz and a few others from the engineering club.
Then paused.
Danish was already there.
Of course he was.
His eyes lifted briefly toward her before returning to his notes.
Cold.
Flat.
Normal.
Good.
Exactly how things should be.
After only a second of hesitation, Hana walked past his usual row and sat beside Mira instead.
A tiny decision.
Nothing important.
Unfortunately—
Danish noticed.
His pen paused for half a second before moving again.
During the lecture, he corrected the lecturer twice without even looking up from his notes.
By the second interruption, Mira was openly staring at him.
Interesting.
When class finally ended and students started packing their bags, the atmosphere loosened into casual chatter again.
Near the faculty entrance, Sara appeared.
“Danish.”
She smiled softly, adjusting her bag strap.
“You free tonight?”
Danish nodded once.
“Why?”
“There’s an architecture exhibition after Maghrib. My friends cancelled on me.”
A brief pause.
Then—
“Okay.”
Simple.
Nothing dramatic.
But somehow—
Hana overheard while packing her files.
And strangely…
she felt absolutely nothing.
Good.
That was good.
Exactly how things should be.
As students slowly filtered out of the hall, Faiz appeared beside her again with his usual easy grin.
“Hana. Cafeteria?”
“Immediately.”
They walked off together, still laughing about something from earlier.
Behind them—
Danish watched for a moment before capping his pen a little too hard and looking back down at his notes.
Ya Allah.
This was getting irritating.
- Writer
