Chapter 111: Ansar and the foul mood

The next morning; it seemed like a normal day. However, they had an open assembly that day since they were gonna announce the house with the most points on the Arts Day. Taro wasn't aware of such a thing, since the houses basically had no role to play in the Arts Day. It was the individual efforts of the kids that got them the prizes.

Surprisingly, he saw his house winning the championship for Arts. Taro felt guilty as the house leaders forced him into the stage because he didn't give even the tiniest bit of shit about the Arts Day and ended up playing pen fight with his students. So, for someone who played no role in it to grab the championship felt really awkward.

However, he was relieved seeing his alien and human friends grab a hold of the second and third prize. The guilt didn't hurt him anymore, knowing that his roommates had a similarly unproductive day as him yesterday.

After the ceremony ended, the students started dancing around the championships and this continued for five minutes or so before the teachers got involved and dispersed the crowd back into their classes. Therefore Taro went back to the twelfth grade as well.

However, something was wrong with his class. Throughout his duration of teaching in the first period, he noticed a drop in the atmosphere which made it difficult for him to take classes. He didn't know the reason behind it, but he could notice the foul faces of a few.

The bell took an eternity to ring. Once the class ended, Taro wasted no time to learn about the reason behind such a gloomy atmosphere. So, he headed straight to Shivani, his trusty student, and asked her about it. But the answer she gave was all so vague and made little to no sense. Taro felt like she was hiding something from him.

So, rather than disturbing her with questions, Taro took a back seat and ask the second most trustworthy student of his in the class—Juan. He called him out in break time and asked him about it. Although Juan could be considered trustworthy, he didn't know about anything that doesn't concern him. So, when asked about the situation in the class, he basically gave little to no information and hence turned out to be useless.

The third time was the charm, though. At lunch time, Taro called upon his third most trustworthy yet annoying to talk to student—Abhirami. In learning about class gossip, Abhirami was actually rated higher than both Shivani and Juan in Taro's mind, but he deliberately didn't call out for her because he knew how difficult it could be with her around.

But it seemed as if he had no choice at this point. He didn't engage in a heart-to-heart conversation with anyone in the class other than these three, so they were the only choice before him.

"You called for me?" Abhirami popped her head into the staffroom and asked.

"Ah, yes. Come in." Taro invited her in.

"Hmm, why me though? Why, alone? Be truthful. You had some other thoughts in your mind, didn't you?" Abhirami blushed as she spoke.

Taro knew something like this would happen. In his eyes, Abhirami was more annoying than Rita—not that he considered Rita annoying at this point. Anyway, Abhirami deliberately pulls off certain innuendos that he is displeased about. And the worst part is that she got no shame.

Consider the current situation. Taro wasn't the only teacher in the staff room. Yet Abhirami had the audacity to make such a weird joke before them, which made them turn their attention to him, turning it into an incredibly uncomfortable ordeal. If he was one who cared about an excellent reputation among his peers, he would've desperately tried to correct this obvious mistake. However, he didn't.

"Think what you wanna think. I don't really care. I called you here to ask a question." He replied.

"Hmm?"

"What's up with the class? The gloomy atmosphere and stuff." Taro asked.

"Oh, wait. Our class has always been gloomy, hasn't it? That's one of the positive points of our class—it's easy to fall asleep!" Abhirami giggled as she spoke out loud. She really didn't care what the others heard.

"I know about that. I'm talking about the eerie atmosphere. Like, did someone have a big fight or something? Coz, that's the feeling that I get when I walk inside that class." He explained his side.

"A fight, huh? I guess that did happen. But, it's more like a verbal one than a physical one." She replied.

"Was Shivani involved?" Taro asked.

"Wow, how did you know?" Abhirami asked back in astonishment.

"It's easy to get a whiff of that. She didn't want to talk about the class in the morning, so I thought she was involved in the mood's creation." Taro replied.

"You're right. She got involved." Abhirami nodded her head as she agreed.

"So, who's the other one? There should be an opponent too, right?" Taro asked.

"Well, you know Ansar, right?" She asked.

"Ansar…" Taro mumbled.

He knew the name. He was a student in his class as well. However, he seemed too meek to create such an atmosphere. That's when he was reminded of the rumor on how Ansar was an unhinged person when he wasn't around. Since he never got to see it, he thought little of it. But, now that he considered it from that rumor's point of view, it made total sense if he was the guy who picked the fight with her.

"So, what did he do?" Taro asked.

"You see, Taro recently got a girlfriend." She took a deep breath before describing the event. "However, the girl was someone with whom he hadn't had a conversation anywhere other than in social media. So, when Shivani learned about it, she warned him that the girl could actually be some guy trolling him. However, Ansar assured her that wasn't the case." She was about to continue, but seeing that Taro wanted to say something, she stopped for a moment.

"Well, how can he be so sure though? What Shivani told could be true. I mean, such guys who wanna act like girls to make fools of guys exist." Taro spoke.

"Mmm, that's true. However, in Ansar's case, she used to be his junior back in the tuition class." She replied.

"Was. I guess she has left the tuition by now, then." He replied.

"Yup. Anyway, when Shivani heard him, she yet again warned him saying that he shouldn't put his entire trust on this girl since this was an online relationship, which could crumble as soon as it's built up and end up hurting him. However, this statement was taken in poorly by Ansar, who then said that Shivani was jealous of him having a relationship, which led to the foul mood." She concluded her explanation.

"Wait. Why would she be jealous if he's in a relationship? That's kinda like a weird statement." Taro scratched his head upon that.

"Ah, that's because Shivani had a crush on him back in the day. She kinda asked him out on a date, but back then he was in a relationship with someone else. So, Ansar's thinking that she's jealous that someone else is taking his attention now." Abhirami explained.

"Shivani asked someone out? Damn, why does that sound so weird for some reason?" It surprised Taro.

Somehow, he had this idea that Shivani had never directly looked for a relationship—that was like one of the major reasons he felt comfortable talking to her. And now that he knew that wasn't the case, he felt as if something had changed and he wanted to talk about it with her.

"I know, right? I have no idea why she fell for that guy. It's totally a weird combination to begin with." Abhirami shrugged as she spoke.

"Hmm, thanks for the information. At least, I now know that I'm not the reason for the gloomy atmosphere." He sighed.

"Anytime! By the way, if you want, we could even have private sessions like the one we had before." She giggled as she walked back to the class. Even while leaving, she had to say something scandalous. Everyone was staring darts at Taro, intending to call the police at any given time, however Taro didn't care and went back to playing his gacha game.

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Evening came by and everyone was getting ready to return home and as was Shivani. However, before she could leave the premises, she was stopped by Taro and asked to wait for him. This was a situation she wanted to avoid at all costs. She didn't like that day and wanted some isolation and was hoping to exit the school premises as soon as possible. However, before she could do so, Taro came by and she couldn't reject him and leave him to dust since they were neighbors who "coincidentally" meet up every day.

"Sorry for making you wait. That wasn't part of the plan." He apologized.

"Ah, don't worry about that." She replied as they began walking.

Normally, they would have a hard time bringing up a topic to speak about. However, Taro was prepared that day.

"Hey, can we talk?" He asked, much to the dismay of Shivani.

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