Today, the hours were flying extremely fast. Within a blink of an eye, it was already the time for the lunch break. But we stepped out from our class a little late than usual as we had some notes to complete, and the Azaan(call for prayer) was calling. Issa and Shifa had completed their work early, so we told them to eat without waiting for us as it would be a waste of time. We hurriedly scribbled down the notes and strolled outside the classroom as our lunch break was almost getting over.

The rest of us, Jina, Anna and I, thought to pray first and then grab something to eat without delaying any more minutes. But we were sure that there won't be any time left for us to have lunch and recklessly strolled to pray.

The Masjid was crowded as usual as everyone was gathered after hearing the Azaan and having their lunch. The three of us finished our Zuhr prayer in less than seven minutes. Abruptly grabbing our bags and wearing shoes, we rushed out from there without wasting a second as there were only a few minutes left before our next class started.

The Masjid was situated on the left side of the road, where the main building was on the middle and had a small narrow path on the left side of the Masjid, which was the girl's side for prayer. The main gate is the same where the boy's and girl's enters and exits.

We were all running down the narrow path when suddenly, Mr Cute came out from the Masjid with one of his friends. He walked in front of us, unaware of our presence. We had no other way but to follow behind him as the walking path was like that.

Jina and Anna slightly started teasing me because all of a sudden, I was acting strangely out of the fear that I would do densely stupid things. I walked moderately at a slow pace so that I was not right behind him and kept a little distance. But my friends being on their best behaviours, they were teasing me and telling me to bump into him and to create some dramatic scenes.

I have some overdramatic, cloak-and-dagger type friends.

Glaring at them for their excessive cinematic suggestion, I said nothing as replying to them at that time was not at all a good option and for some reason, I felt numb like always, maybe because of his presence in front of me. I was even frightened to utter a word brooding that my voice would be too loud when I speak something, which would make him turn back to look at us and me.

Without a warning, he halted his step. At that moment, I panicked thinking, 'Did he hear us talking about the drama plans?'

I lifted my gaze from my friends and glanced at his posture to know why he stopped walking. Thankfully, to my surprise, the reason he stopped walking was not because of our voice.

One of his friends came from the opposite direction and was now talking to Mr Cute and his other friend. He and his friends' backs were facing us and blocking our way to college. We stood there behind them on the footpath as in the right side was the main road where buses and other vehicles pass, and we were on the sidewalk heading to college, which was the only path leading towards our college.

Me, being the most outrageous, dumbest girl, nonchalantly decided to overtake them from the right side. I was right behind Shaym, who was standing, blocking our way. So, I scrupulously walked ahead of him in a swift, tilting my body a little without touching him. There was a slight chance of brushing each other's shoulders as the footpath was very narrow. Thankfully, I was able to walk ahead of him, without touching and I turned back to look whether my dramatic friends were following behind me.

However, to my surprise, those two idiots did not follow behind me, and instead I was astonished to witness that Shaym was looking at me.

Oh, shit! He is looking at me!

Obviously, he would be looking at the fool who deliberately walked ahead of him on that narrow path.

Well, he was not directly gazing into my eyes but still, he was glancing me with a perplexed expression. I promptly lowered my gaze, feeling awkward and peered at my friends who were still standing behind Shaym and his friends.

Why didn't they follow me, I frowned.

I thought that I should act normal, instead of creating more awkward scenes. Or else, he would think that I have something towards him. So, like the sap I am, opened my pretty loud mouth and called out my friends.

"Jinaa and Annaa, come fast!! We only have five minutes left. If we are late, we won't get our attendance, and I'm leaving!" I said a little ostentatiously. Which was like literally screaming, and I saw from the corner of my eyes, Shaym and his friends were trying hard to control their laughter. Their facial eloquence was too hard for me to understand.

What now? I did not say anything funny. I guess they chuckled because of my tone or way of speaking as I had different slang from others. It's a little loud and childish tone and voice. I glimpsed at their face for smirking at me, and even my friends. Snubbing them, I turned and marched away from them without even waiting to hear their reply.

Due to my luck, I reached at the class on time when Sir just started taking attendance. I rushed to sit in between Issa and Shifa cause I always prefered sitting in the middle and not on the side seats.

"Naizaa, where are the other two chatterboxes?" Shifa asked, and I bestowed her with my most immeasurable crooked smile.

"What happened? Is it related to Shaym?" Issa inquired this time. Just by my one small smile, they surmised it was something related to Shaym.

Do they know me too well now or was it too obvious on my face?

I nodded my head awkwardly then, explained everything which happened and what I did in front of him. Issa gently scolded me for screaming out loud, calling Jina and Anna in front of Shaym. She lectures not only me but the three of us impartially because we, the trio, were the loudspeakers of our class. Perhaps even our entire department. We three are quite famous in our department in front of seniors because of our raucous voice, non-stop, loud chattering to almost everyone in a friendly manner. Everyone pities all the students and especially friends in our class by questioning, "How do you guys manage these three rare species?"

I assured Issa this time that I would not utter anything or scream next time in front of him, and then we started hearkening to the lectures. Well, Jina and Anna did not attend this hour's class.

I wonder why? Did Shaym and his friends rag them again without me? Shortly, the bell rang, and I straight off called Anna to ask where they were, why didn't they attend the class to which she replied they were on the way.

"So, where were you two?" Shifa demanded, faking a strict tone. She was like a big sister figure to us, innocent and caring. Sometimes, we fear saying certain things to her because of her scoldings, and we all love her for that because they should be at least one person among us who is matured and responsible. Also, someone serious and intellectual to deal with all the college chores and Shifa was the one for us. Our life saviour during most of the time.

"We went to the cafeteria to eat our lunch as we got late today, and Naiza must have already told you about her brave act," Jina said with a huge smirk on her face. I reckon she admired what I did considering that was what she had always desired, for me to have an encounter and to have some progress with Mr Cute.

Eventually, it was 3 pm. Classes were over, and we were happy to go home and have a good sleep as the tiresome lectures made us all so drowsy. We were wandering towards the main entrance gate whilst discussing the upcoming awareness campaign conducted by the Palliative group.

On spur of the moment, a voice beckoned us. "You girls, come here," declared one of the boys from the gang whose face I clearly remember as he was the guy who came near Shaym today from the opposite direction on the footpath.

He was a medium height guy, which was similar to the height of Shaym, and had a slight beard. Today was the first time I saw him and seeing him again for the second time. Near him was the guy who was with Shaym from the Masjid who walked along with him and one new boy who I don't know. He was tall and looked masculine with a beard giving a complete senior vibe. Now, what do they want?

Being the generous, obedient juniors, we went towards them little nervously as soon as we heard them call us. We marched towards where they were standing, stood in front of them whilst staring down, and felt like the ground was the most beautiful thing to watch at that time.

"You two stay here. The others can go," the medium height senior stated motioning me and Jina to stay.

Why in the world did he say that? Is it something related to Shaym? I started getting agitated and kept gazing at the ground without glancing at the two figures standing in front of me.

"Come, let's go to Cafe House. I want some ice cream," said the guy with medium height who kept on talking to his tall friend until we reached Cafe House. Shaym and his other friend stayed behind and didn't join us in the cafe along with his other friends, who were particularly dragging us there for an ice cream. It was a small cafe where students usually go for lunch, which was near our college, but we never went to that place because we preferred to eat food from the cafeteria.

We all took a four-seat table, and they asked us whether we had money or not. This was the first time where seniors took us to a place to buy them food. As this custom was nothing new in our college and was normalised. They called it getting to know each other and stated it was not ragging. We were terrified to answer them, so we both just nodded our head indicating that we had money.

"So, what are your names?" asked the tall guy with no eloquence on his face.

"I'm Jina, and she is Naiza," Jina said to him.

"Do you guys know our names?" the other one asked, and we both shook our head.

"My name is Farhaan, and he is Shabeeb." So that was the medium height chatter box's name. Well, yes, he was a non-stop chatterbox, and Jina got along with him easily.

Farhan just ordered an ice cream cone, and Shabeeb ordered a cup of tea. Jina and I stated we didn't want anything, but Farhan insisted that we should order something but we kept on declining until he decided to order two juices for us.

"I never saw you guys from college," Farhan spoke. It was mostly because we always left college immediately without spending time inside the college. But I chose not to open my mouth and tarried silent.

"That is because we are scared of getting ragged from seniors," Jina answered the facts which were true. Well, she and Farhan were the only one who was talking while the other guy, Shabeeb was busy playing on his phone and I was mostly silent like a dumb.

Jina and Farhaan commenced cracking lame jokes like long lost best friends and I enjoyed listening to them. Abruptly, Farhaan stood up from his seat and said Salam (greetings) to someone. The one who replied to Farhaan's Salam was a familiar, thick and sharp, masculine voice. The sound made me turn my head automatically, beyond my control. It was Mr Cute!

"Shaym come, join us. They are our scared, little juniors. Do you know them?" Farhan asked him and dragged a chair towards our table so that Shaym could sit with us. The chair was placed on the table's side which was middle of me and Farhaan. He was now sitting on my left side, near me. In a swift, all my uneasiness, jitters, some unfamiliar butterflies came back.

I was relaxed and comfortable around Farhaan as he was talking like a friend among us and was not as Senior ragging us. But when Shaym sat near me, I embellished uncomfortable and startled.

"Yeah! I've seen them here and there," Shaym replied casually with his hard, masculine voice.

"Wow, that's new! The great Mr Shaym knows his juniors," Farhaan stated whilst clapping his hands. With my side-eye, I glanced at him and saw that he had an annoyed expression due to Farhan's comment. He ordered mint lime and got up to pick it up from the juice counter. I thought he would join us and drink the juice but to my surprise, he stood there, resting one of his elbows on the counter, talking casually with the person who made the juice, feeling content. He finished drinking his juice in less than three minutes and was coming near us.

This boy is so different.

Thankfully, after coming near us he did not ask me or Jina any questions as Farhan did. He was enjoying looking at his phone busily. I guess Shabeeb and Shaym are big phone addicts. From Farhan, I came to know that Shaym and Shabeeb have been best friends since childhood, and their homes are three hours from our town. That was the reason why he was staying in a hostel. Farhan's home was near to my home; only ten minutes of travel distance from my home, which was a surprise to me as I never knew this before and never saw him around the area.

Farhan talked about anything and everything. Jina and I admired his character very much, and he was more like a male version of Jina! The same chatterbox who mingles with everyone easily. Shaym being Shaym did not even try to talk to us and kept busy on his phone. Why such an attitude, man?

We were done with eating and drinking, so we all got up and walked towards the exit after paying the bill. Shaym was walking to my right side and out of nowhere, he asked, "So, how is college?" I tried so hard to hide my smile.

YAY! He finally asked me something.

I felt so felicitous that he initiated a conversation after sitting together for more than half an hour. "Yeah! Not bad." I tried to sound as calm and unexcited as possible, hiding away all my baffling sound.

"Mmm," he said and then nodded.

Like seriously? Just 'Mmm'?

Should I just initiate a question now? No, no, it will look like I'm trying to hit on him.

"Naizaa, ask him something," Jina whispered into my ears, and I shook my head to indicate no!

"So, it was really nice meeting you girls. Hope to catch up like this again," Farhaan stated. We just smiled at him and nodded. Then, bidding goodbye, we all parted our ways. Today was a long day but filled with contentment. We hurriedly went towards the bus stop as we were late than the usual time, and my other friends were waiting for us. But most dominantly they were impatiently waiting for us to know what happened at the cafe.

Assalamu Alaikum

How was the Chapter? (unedited)
I wrote a little long chapter than usual ones.

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Thatabayagirl.