A small transparent box in which T7 was trapped in remained submerged inside the double tank. The fish could swim a little inside it, but there was hardly any room.

The good news was, the acclimating box he had been imprisoned in since the last 15 minutes has had a visit from T6! The female had encircled the box with obvious interest.

All of Mrs Jogh's 16 young volunteers began to crowd the lab that Friday afternoon, along with several unfamiliar faces, to mark the start of the new phase.

Mrs Jogh had put on the sounds from the Beatles for their entertainment and mingled.

By the time the track All You Need Is Love was playing, Mrs Jogh ran towards the double tank. From the familiar row of Tank 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10; Ballqis, Iqball and Aga could simply stare at the eccentric professor's antics.

"This is it! This should be their wedding song!" she cried as she approached the double tank.

Not waiting for anyone else to arrive, Mrs Jogh lifted up the the acclimating box about 6 inches above the water level and dunked its content, namely T7 and a bit of water, into the double tank.

"I now pronounce you husband and wife!" her voice thundered happily as T7 dived into its new family home.

The two animals did not smooch as they had hoped. Instead, both remained at a different the corner, swimming cautiously.

Some of the volunteers sigh.

"You may kiss the bride?" Mrs Jogh nudged the duo.

She even drew hearts on the tank's surface with her green marker pen.

Greet her, Ballqis pushed.

Make a move, Iqball encouraged.

Yet T7 remained shy at the bottom right corner of the double tank.

After five minutes, most of the volunteers have stopped their observation. Even Aga was already checking messages on his phone.

Mrs Jogh eked out I Wanna Hold Your Hand softly as the track replaced the 'wedding song'. She even danced a little in front of the tank with her eyes closed.

The song was nearing its end when suddenly, T6 began to move. It swam gingerly towards the male that had just entered her home, and did a little twirl in front of the shy fish.

It's your turn! Iqball cheered.

Go! Ballqis shouted inside her head.

Are you sure? T7's nervously asked.

"Yes!" His two friends shouted, making everyone in the lab jumped.

With her hands still in the air Mrs Jogh opened her eyes and saw T7 began his slow approach towards the female. He then paused, with a few inches between them, and started to move again only after T6 closed the distance.

The two specimen began to swim together.

"Yes!" Mrs Jogh repeated Ballqis and Iqball's line.

"Wow Balls, you two were really persistent observers," Micah said clapping his hands.

"At least I know all the reports recorded on Tuesdays are super duper accurate. You two didn't even blink the whole time, did you," Mrs Jogh acknowledged.

The 'Balls' smiled at the professor.

"Remember, you all still need to record the feeding and behavioural pattern of Fish Number 6 and Fish Number 7 individually. Alright. Time for food!" Mrs Jogh announced with one hand in the air.

Holding the door, Micah beckoned everyone to make a move towards the pantry at the other side of the lab, the one where only the researchers work in.

They walked past the security door as well as Tank A and B and entered the sophisticated work area. The volunteer students stepped into the nerdy part of the lab for the first time and gawked at some of the apparatus. But what made most of them stopped in their tracks was the row of glass chambers containing specimen submerged in formaldehyde. They all looked like fish, but they were not all tilapias.

In fact, Iqball believed none of them were an actual tilapia.

"This is the shark that almost killed my late husband, decades ago," Mrs Jogh said, the wander in her students' eyes propelled her to give them a tour.

Even the researchers on duty perked with interest. They eyed the lead researcher as she sauntered towards the specimen in the middle.

"We only wanted to observe sharks that morning but we found this poor fellow struggling.
Its fin had been severed. It seemed dead when we brought it aboard our vessel. When my husband tried to aid it, it bit his arm. He didn't lose his limb but we had to turn back as he lost a lot of blood. But my Jimmy was a fighter and he survived the attack! He went around for over two decades telling people this story," she chortled with pride and waved her left arm as if she was Prof Jogh, telling them his tall tale.

Ballqis could see how much in love still Mrs Jogh was.

"The shark remained alive for only a few more minutes after we've wrestled my husband's arm off its bite. Most of the DNA we collected from this animal was post-mortem. I supposed that's why it's traits did not really propagate throughout the generations of tilapia we've produced," she mused.

She went to another massive tank and declared, "This is the first tilapia fry that came out of the batch of eggs injected with the bigger animals' DNA. It grew up into this beauty. It died two just years afterwards, but look at its magnificent size!"

Iqball was convinced Mirna had never been into this part of the lab or seen the giant tilapia, otherwise she would not be so gung-ho trying to kidnap T7. The specimen in the chamber, likely T7's great-great grandfather, was almost 4 feet in length!

"So far none of its offsprings ever reached this size upon reaching the same age, thus we believe direct injection is the only way to increase body mass when it comes to this kind of DNA mix," she said wistfully.

The volunteers were still enthralled by her words.

"You know what else is best mixed?" she suddenly turned to her crowd.

"Pellets?" Aga tried.

"Good suggestion Agamemnon dear! But let's have pizza first. I bought mixed dips for the celery salad!" Mrs Jogh announced.

The pantry had boxes of pizza, salad, chicken wings and beef balls from Shah Pizzaria as well as orange cakes from the campus bakery. The pizza outlet was located at the west entrance of the campus but it always had a long line of waiting customers. So Ballqis had never gotten the chance to sample it.

Aga handed her a couple of plates. She handed one to Iqball. They picked a couple of slices and found a corner to berth.

"This is good!" Iqball said, almost surprised.

"Is this your first time sampling Shah's?" Ballqis asked him.

He nodded with his mouth full.

"Me too," she said.

"We should try it next," they both said at the same time.

Aga gave them a look.

"Ooh what is this one called? It's... Pineapple Mushroom Boom." Iqball answered his own question as he peered at the box where he had gotten the slice he was eating.

"Is it that good?" Ballqis asked eyeing the slice.

"Here," Iqball offered her a bite.

Ballqis blushed, but her curiosity made her quickly bite.

Aga opened his mouth too. Iqball laughed and fed him a bite as well.

"Ooh, this is good!" Ballqis agreed between munches.

Even Aga was nodding furiously.

"We should order this," Ballqis and Iqball said, again, in unison.

Aga choked a little. Ballqis quickly handed him a bottle of water while Iqball took his plate.

"Molly must have mentioned your name. She always knew if you're having too much fun and not studying Calculus," Ballqis said and Iqball laughed.

Aga gave them a look of confusion.

"If you suddenly choke while you were eating, that means someone had just mentioned your name," Ballqis explained.

"Really?" Aga said in disbelieve.

"Good ol' Malaysian old wives' tale," Iqball clarified as he finished the slice of pineapple and mushroom laden pizza. Ballqis laughed.

"Oh..." Aga said, sounding a tad disappointed.

"Why mate, were you really, really hoping Molly actually would mention your name?" Micah who came out of nowhere jested.

Aga choked yet again.

"Whoa, sorry man..." Micah apologised. He clapped Aga's back a few times then made his escape with a slice of Pepperoni Bell Pepper pizza.

"Micah can be such a..." Ballqis and Iqball began their comment at the same time, but they could not finish the sentence as they found it hilarious that they both wanted to diss the senior at the same time.

Even their snigger had the same tone! Aga cleared his throat.

"May Molly and I join the queue to the pizzaria or do you two need some time alone..." he slowly investigate.

The pair chuckled knowingly.

"Of course you can join us. Molly too," Ballqis promised.

"Yeah, since we do enjoy your company, you too can have some Balls," Iqball threw a pun and widen his arms.

Aga could not wait to talk to Molly about this new strangeness that the Balls exuded. But thinking of Micah's little question just now, all of sudden, he felt super duper shy.