CHAPTER 9 - Annoying
696 Words
Danish became strangely annoying after that night.
Not normal annoying.
Different annoying.
The silent type.
Which somehow felt worse.
The next morning during lecture, he barely spoke except for necessary academic suffering.
No sarcastic comments.
No arguing.
No judging her slide designs spiritually.
Nothing.
Hana frowned slightly while pretending to focus on the lecturer.
Weird.
Very weird.
Beside her, Danish continued writing notes calmly without even glancing in her direction once.
Suspicious behavior.
During tutorial session, Hana finally kicked the leg of his chair lightly.
No reaction.
She frowned harder.
“Are you sulking?”
“I don’t sulk.”
“You’re acting emotionally unavailable again.”
“That doesn’t even make sense.”
“There you are.”
Finally.
A tiny bit of normal irritation returned to his face.
Much better.
Unfortunately—
before Hana could continue bothering him, someone suddenly appeared beside their table.
“Danish.”
Both of them looked up.
Sara.
Again.
The architecture girl smiled softly while holding several design files against her chest.
“I sent you the wrong drawing yesterday. Can I borrow your laptop charger for awhile?”
“Take it,” Danish replied calmly.
He immediately handed the charger over without hesitation.
Traitor.
Hana narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
Sara smiled gratefully.
“Thank you. I’ll return it later.”
Then she left.
The moment she disappeared—
Hana leaned back dramatically.
“Wah.”
Danish continued writing.
“What?”
“You’re so nice suddenly.”
“I lent a charger. Not a kidney.”
“That’s still more kindness than you usually show humanity.”
“You exaggerate everything.”
Hana grinned.
“But seriously, Sara seems nice.”
No response.
“And pretty.”
Still nothing.
“She looks like she belongs in perfume advertisements.”
Danish finally stopped writing slowly.
“Hana.”
“Yes?”
“Can you spend one full day without discussing my non-existent love life?”
Hana almost laughed.
“Why are you reacting like I proposed marriage for you both?”
“Because you keep bringing it up.”
“That means I’m invested emotionally now.”
“That’s exactly the problem.”
Hana blinked slightly.
Problem?
Before she could ask further, their lecturer suddenly entered class.
The conversation ended there.
But strangely—
the word stayed in her mind afterward.
Problem.
Later that evening, the engineering faculty became chaotic again with students rushing for project submissions.
Hana sat cross-legged on the discussion room chair while staring blankly at calculations.
“I’m dropping out,” she announced dramatically.
“You say that every week.”
“This time I mean it sincerely.”
Danish pushed one of the papers toward her.
“You calculated this part wrongly.”
Hana stared at the paper for several seconds.
Then dramatically leaned back against the chair.
“Why are numbers attacking me personally?”
“Because you don’t focus.”
“That sounds judgemental.”
“It’s factual.”
Hana grabbed her pen aggressively.
“Fine. Explain.”
For the next fifteen minutes, Danish explained the calculation with the patience of someone trying very hard not to lose faith in humanity.
Hana listened quietly while occasionally writing notes.
Outside, rain started pouring heavily against the windows.
The discussion room slowly became quieter as students left one by one.
Then suddenly—
“Hana!”
A familiar voice appeared outside the room.
Faiz.
The senior from before leaned against the doorway casually.
“We’re going cafeteria. Want to join?”
“Oh, maybe later—”
“She’s busy,” Danish interrupted without looking up.
The room became silent immediately.
Faiz blinked.
Hana blinked harder.
Excuse me?
Faiz looked between both of them slowly.
“…Right.”
Then he walked away suspiciously calmly.
Several seconds passed.
Hana slowly turned toward Danish.
“What was that?”
“You still haven’t finished your calculations.”
“That’s not the point.”
“You get distracted easily.”
Hana stared at him in disbelief.
Then suddenly laughed.
“Ya Allah.”
“What?”
“You’re actually controlling.”
Danish looked mildly offended.
“I’m efficient.”
“That sounds worse.”
- Writer
