I continued, "For some context, when I transferred in grade 6, there were just three sections: A, B, and C. But that year, due to a large number of students being admitted, they created section D, and I was placed there. Classes 6 and 7 were not very pleasant for me. In grade 6, there was this math teacher who gave me an assignment—just to me, due to my bad handwriting—to write 70 pages of a line he wrote. The next day, I went to school with the notebook, not even a single page completed. The teacher asked for the homework.

'“Sir, I forgot to bring the copy. I'll show it to you tomorrow,” I said. Of course, I wasn't planning to complete 70 pages in a day. Everything was going fine; he believed my excuse and was about to send me to my seat when a guy came up to him, showed him my notebook, and the blank pages I had to fill. That day, I tasted betrayal for the first time and was severely punished. But that wasn't all. The second time was when I accidentally brought a smartwatch to school. I went to the toilet for a while, and when I came back to class and sat down, the teacher approached me, holding my watch. The same teacher who, later in grade 8, mixed the seats between boys and girls. He asked, “Why did you bring this to school?” I was shocked to see my watch in his hand, and the guy beside me chuckled. That was the second time I was betrayed by the same guy."

Chris interrupted, "Continue with the previous story. So what happened after your seat was changed?"

"Oh yeah," I said, collecting my thoughts. "As I mentioned, I was seated next to a girl. Rose was talkative and charming and always had a smile on her face. Still, I wasn't comfortable being with her. In front of me, in the first bench, was the girl I liked. We had never spoken, and I couldn't strike up a conversation with her. There were three girls in the first bench: Tulip and two others. Though I had never talked with Tulip before, Rose was talkative enough to share things like where they both lived and about their boyfriends. They both lived about 5 to 6 km away from my house, and unexpectedly, both of them had boyfriends, which discouraged me so much I couldn't even imagine us ever being together."

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"So did you two never talk?" Ben asked, leaning in.

"Of course we did. Well, it was she who started the conversation. We used to have monthly tests, and as the tests approached, the teachers would give us some time in class to study. One day, she turned around and asked me to listen to her recite the answers. I just said yes and listened. She was a bit weak in pronunciation, so I helped her with it. That's how the conversation between us started. Slowly, we started having small conversations about studying. When I was in grade 8, I used to attend the coaching classes provided by the school from 5 am to 5 pm. The coaching sections were divided into A, B, and C. Not all students took it; only a few did. Rash and I were in the same section, along with Tulip and Rose. Four subjects were taught in the coaching classes: science, commercial math, optional math, and grammar. The same teacher who had given me that 70-page homework was teaching commercial math, but the optional math teacher was the best. He was cool and used to teach so nicely, and would even sing songs sometimes. It was in coaching where Tulip would come to me and sit by my side to tease me. During coaching, she would ask me if I had some money, and I would give her whatever I had. How could I ever say no to her?"

I paused, taking another sip of water, feeling the warmth of the campfire. "It wasn't always like that. It all started after she began teasing me, and people thought I liked her. No one really knew for sure, so my classmates teased me with her name. She started joking around with me as well, sitting next to me, teasing me, and I loved it. It used to be a means of communication, but I didn't let myself get too close to her as I knew I would never get her. The only person who knew I liked her then was Dan."