CHAPTER 6 - Presentation Week
692 Words
“Presentation contributes thirty percent of your final mark.”
The entire class collectively looked like they had just received bad news from the government.
Hana slowly lowered her pen.
Thirty percent?
Ya Allah.
Their lecturer continued speaking calmly at the front.
“Same partners. Prepare technical analysis and presentation slides by next week.”
Immediately, chaos erupted across the lecture hall.
Some students complained dramatically.
Others already started discussing strategies.
Meanwhile Hana turned slowly toward Danish.
“No.”
Danish looked up from his notes.
“No what?”
“I reject this emotionally.”
“You don’t have a choice.”
“That sounds threatening.”
“It’s reality.”
Hana sighed deeply before dropping her forehead onto the table.
Engineering was genuinely ruining her quality of life.
Later that evening, both of them sat at a table inside the faculty discussion room surrounded by notes, laptops, and half-finished calculations.
Danish looked painfully focused.
Hana looked one inconvenience away from dropping out.
“The slide design is ugly,” Danish said suddenly.
Hana looked up immediately.
“Excuse me?”
“The font.”
“What’s wrong with the font?”
“It looks unserious.”
“It’s literally Arial.”
“You used orange.”
“Orange is a cheerful color.”
“This is engineering presentation. Not kindergarten.”
Hana stared at him in disbelief.
“You criticize PowerPoint like it personally betrayed your family.”
Danish ignored her dramatically and adjusted the slide himself.
Annoying.
Very annoying.
An hour later, Hana finally stretched tiredly against her chair.
“My brain has stopped functioning.”
“You said that thirty minutes ago.”
“And I meant it sincerely.”
Across the room, several engineering students practiced presentations loudly while others argued over assignments.
Presentation week had officially destroyed campus peace.
Hana suddenly looked toward Danish suspiciously.
“You actually enjoy this, don’t you?”
“Enjoy what?”
“Suffering.”
Danish finally leaned back slightly.
“You complain too much.”
“And you act like human emotions are optional.”
“That’s because panic doesn’t help solve problems.”
“Easy for you to say. You were probably born holding a calculator.”
To her surprise, Danish actually laughed softly.
A real one.
Hana paused briefly.
Dangerous.
Very dangerous.
At nearly 11PM, they finally started practicing their presentation.
“You explain the second part,” Danish said.
Hana frowned immediately.
“Why me?”
“Because you understand it better.”
That caught her off guard slightly.
“Oh.”
“Start.”
Hana stood slowly in front of the discussion room screen while holding her printed notes.
At first her voice sounded uncertain.
But once she started explaining the technical process—
everything changed.
Her explanation became smooth.
Natural.
Easy to understand.
Even Danish stopped typing.
Hana pointed toward the diagram confidently.
“If the voltage distribution becomes unstable here, the entire output efficiency drops.”
Danish stared quietly at her from across the table.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
Because somehow—
the girl who looked constantly confused during lectures suddenly became completely different when explaining concepts aloud.
Comfortable.
Sharp.
Unexpectedly intelligent.
When Hana finally finished, she looked toward him awkwardly.
“…Why are you staring at me like that?”
“You’re actually good at explaining.”
She blinked.
“That sounded painful for you to admit.”
“It was.”
Hana grinned proudly before sitting down again.
At that exact moment, another engineering student suddenly entered the room.
“Eh Hana.”
She looked up.
It was Faiz, one of the seniors from another lab group.
“You still here? I bought extra coffee downstairs. Want one?”
“Oh, thank you.”
Before Hana could stand—
a cup suddenly appeared beside her first.
Danish had silently pushed his untouched coffee toward her.
The room became awkwardly quiet for one second.
Faiz looked between both of them slowly.
“…Oh.”
Danish calmly returned to his laptop.
“You can take his instead.”
Hana stared at the coffee.
Then at Danish.
Then back at the coffee again.
What… was that?
- Writer
