Meanwhile, in the Professors’ Quarters, two people picked up small letters with lots of quirky drawings and writings. The two people were Akki and the English professor, Johnny. Another older gentleman who’d been teaching for around ten years, and he was the only one who gave him meaningful advice, helping Akki most of the time. At the moment they piled up the letters into small bundles, each bundle holding around fifty pieces, and tied them up before putting them inside Akki’s bag.

While they were neatly packing up the letters, a few other professors arrived for the night classes and began whispering between themselves.

“Tsk, tsk. There’s no day when this boy doesn’t make any trouble for Johnathan, but its youth they should enjoy it while it’s still within their grasp” said an older professor while unpacking documents from his bag.

“Yeah, but there’s a lot to wonder why the boy is so popular with the students,” added another middle-aged Professor, leaning next to the door of the room. “Maybe it’s the way he teaches that makes him their favorite.”

“And he doesn’t want to promote either—it would mean leaving behind all the students. It doesn’t make any sense since most of the students will graduate and forget about him—why even put in an effort to be great when the kids are all just ungrateful?” said another one, much less optimistic, a grumpy-looking professor. He frowned at Johnny and Akki.

“When will he go and ask for the promotion? Even the old Math professor is asking him daily at this point, and it’s like he’s looking down on him.”

“This boy is just ruining his life by staying here. It makes no sense as to why he’s here,” denounced the last voice.

Akki didn’t bother to argue with them; he simply shrugged it off and continued piling the letters.

The reason was simple: these voices were their thoughts.

For him, these were just a daily thing he would hear. Since they didn’t affect him any longer, he had no reason to talk and argue with any of the teachers, and it also didn’t help that if he were to argue with them, he’d risk giving away the fact that he could read minds, and it’d lead to many more problems down the line.

Stolen novel; please report.

Yet he never cared or showed any interest in the thoughts of others. It was pretty useful that he could activate or deactivate his ability, and most of the things he heard were things he’d already heard a hundred times already.

Everyone’s thoughts are different. It always showed different emotions: happiness, anger, worry, distress, sadness, hatred, and many other feelings that humans could feel in different situations and occasions. Some revealed it while others concealed it.

Akki thanked Johnny who helped him in packing up all the letters and bundling them into his bag. He was already finished with today’s work, so he sat down to begin and read a few notebooks and tests from his students.

“You can take it home, Akki,” suggested a teacher.

“Thank you so much, sir. I’ll do as much as I can here before taking the rest home.” Akki smiled and nodded.

'In a short time,' a teacher remarked in mind.

Another teacher looked at Akki. 'The kid got spirit—that’s for sure. His actions and decisions reflect his confidence which is what I want to see in the new professors.'

Akki heard their thoughts and smiled.

Half an hour later, the bell for the start of the night classes rang, which meant it was time for Akki to go home. He greeted all the other professors who replied or nodded back, still concentrating on their documents or preparing for their classes. He left the Professors’ Quarters and slowly climbed up to the rooftop of the school. This was the perfect moment since, as he reached the top and opened the door, he could see the sunset pouring a blazing light across the clouds. He stood there in a trance, gazing at the orange horizon.

A few minutes passed, and Akki was still in a daze so he couldn’t hear the slow and rhythmic footsteps as they were approaching the top.

“I knew I’d find you here, Akki,” called a familiar voice that brought him out of his trance. Akki looked back, his eyes wide. The person he was looking at had red spikey hair which was slowly drifting along with the wind, his eyes reflecting the sunset.

“Ramic?” Akki said surprised “What are you doing here?”

“I’m here like usual—to take you home, you big dork.” Ramic grabbed his bag before standing next to him and gazing at the sunset.

He had no choice but to comply. Both of them enjoyed the view silently for a short while. Then Ramic ran downstairs as he held Akki’s bag, Akki ran after him as he chuckled.