CHAPTER 5 - Engineering Students Never Sleep
650 Words
By the third week of semester, Hana became fully convinced that engineering students were not normal human beings.
Nobody slept properly.
Nobody ate on time.
And somehow everyone casually accepted emotional suffering as part of academic culture.
“Why is everyone still awake?”
Hana stared around the faculty lobby in disbelief.
It was already 1:17AM.
Yet engineering students still occupied almost every table with laptops, wires, calculators, and unfinished assignments.
Mira looked up from her notes tiredly.
“Submission week.”
“This feels illegal.”
“You’ll get used to it.”
“I don’t want to.”
Across from them, Danish continued typing on his laptop peacefully like a man completely immune to exhaustion.
Suspicious behavior.
Hana narrowed her eyes.
“You haven’t blinked for ten minutes.”
“I blinked.”
“No. Your eyes are becoming artificial intelligence.”
Mira burst into laughter while Danish calmly continued his work.
“You complain a lot for someone who still hasn’t finished the circuit report.”
Hana immediately sat upright.
“Don’t attack me personally.”
“You’re still on page three.”
“Engineering reports are emotionally exhausting.”
“That’s not a real thing.”
“It is to me.”
Danish finally glanced toward her.
And annoyingly—
he looked amused again.
Lately, he had been doing that more often.
Very dangerous development.
Around 2AM, Mira finally gave up and left with the others.
“Come back before Subuh,” she warned dramatically.
“No promises,” Hana replied weakly.
Soon the faculty lobby became much quieter.
Only a few students remained scattered around the room.
Rain tapped softly against the windows while fluorescent lights flickered slightly overhead.
Hana stared blankly at her laptop.
Nothing was entering her brain anymore.
Her eyes burned from exhaustion.
Without realizing it, she slowly rested her head against folded arms for “just five minutes.”
Unfortunately—
she actually fell asleep.
The next thing Hana felt was something warm touching her shoulder gently.
“Hana.”
A familiar voice.
“Hm…”
“You should go back to the hostel.”
She blinked slowly before lifting her head.
Danish sat across from her, laptop already closed beside him.
The lobby looked almost empty now.
“What time is it?”
“3:42AM.”
“Ya Allah.”
Panic instantly entered her soul.
“I accidentally slept.”
“I noticed.”
Hana quickly fixed her tudung properly in embarrassment.
“You could’ve just left.”
“You still had your laptop open.”
“Oh.”
Silence settled briefly.
Then Hana noticed something strange.
Her untouched coffee from earlier was gone.
Instead—
a warm cup of tea sat beside her notebook.
She frowned slightly.
“Did you buy this?”
“You looked like you were about to collapse.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Danish looked away calmly.
“It was noisy when you were sleeping.”
“That also wasn’t my question.”
A tiny smile almost appeared on his face.
Almost.
Hana stared at the tea quietly afterward.
Warm.
Still freshly made.
For some reason, something inside her chest softened slightly.
Dangerous.
Very dangerous.
“You should sleep too,” she muttered.
“I will.”
“You’ve been here since after Maghrib.”
“So have you.”
“That’s different.”
“How?”
“I’m struggling.”
For the first time that night, Danish became quiet.
Then softly—
“So am I.”
Hana looked up immediately.
The words surprised her.
Because until now, Danish always seemed untouchable.
Perfect.
Like someone who naturally excelled at everything without effort.
But at that moment—
under the harsh faculty lights with tired eyes and rolled-up sleeves—
he suddenly looked human too.
Just another exhausted university student trying to survive.
And somehow…
that made Hana feel strangely comfortable around him.
- Writer
