Chapter 6

Marwan sat at the bench on the front door wearing his shoes. He wore a simple grey t-shirt with black jeans. On his back was a backpack.

“Wan, here is your lunch,” Zainab came to the front door and handed him a lunch box.

“Thanks, ibu,” Marwan replied. He did not want to bring one because he did not want to increase his mother’s workload since the two boys were there but his mother insisted. So, he just took it without making much fuss.

“Take care on the road. Don’t ride your bike too fast. Look left and right at the traffic light,” Zainab continued, reminding him to be careful on the road.

Marwan was used to this, so he just smiled and nodded his head. If he tried to say that he knew about it, his mother would shower him with more words.

Marwan shook and kissed her mom’s hand and got on his bike. The two boys were at the door too, staring at Marwan.

When Marwan turned on his bike, “VROOM VROOM,” the sound of the bike made the two boys fascinated.

“Ibu, I am going,” Marwan spoke and he waved his hand.

“Be careful,” Zainab nodded.

“Bye, bye, Pak Su,” the two boys shouted and waved their hands excitedly.

Marwan left the house on his bike. Zainab and the two boys stood at the gate watching him disappear in the distance.

“Nenek, Pak Su looks soooo cool!!!” Danial the older boy spoke with sparkling eyes. Danish the younger boy did not care much as he started running inside to continue watching the cartoon.

“When Danial grows up, you can ride the bike too,” Zainab spoke sweetly as she patted his head. “Let’s go in,” she led Danial in and closed the gate. Now, she and the boys were the only ones left at home.

***

Marwan arrived at his University Faculty 30 minutes later. He was lucky that he was admitted to a branch that was closer to his home. So, he did not need to stay in a dorm or rent a room for his study.

Since his first class of the day started at 10 AM, the faculty was now filled with students moving around to change classes or hanging at the side of the road, benches, fields having their breakfast, or finishing their assignment.

Marwan walked for a bit and got into the laboratory building since this morning class would be at one of the laboratories.

Marwan took the Pure Science course. As the course implied, he had a lot of science-related classes and had many of them done in a laboratory.

Since he was in his last year of University, there were a lot more practical assignments assigned to the students. In this semester, he needed to finish three theses for three different subjects.

Moreover, since it was almost the end of the semester, the theory classes were all finished and the students were given free time to finish their theses. Most lecturers also made their classes in the lab to give the students a chance to use the laboratory to conduct their experiments for their thesis.

Still, most of the students had finished the experiments. While some of them were still collecting the results, most of them were done with it.

Thus, they used this time to consult their lecturer about their thesis.

Marwan took the lift to the fifth floor and headed to a biology lab. When he arrived there, he saw many of his classmates waiting outside the lab. There was a class inside so they could only wait outside until it was their time.

Marwan looked around and found his best friends. When he passed his classmates, he only gave them a light smile.

Marwan acted normally at home but when he was outside, he was a shy and quiet boy. He only talked a lot around his close friends and would usually be quiet around others.

His classmates knew of this too and they did not mind much as no matter whether Marwan was quiet or shy, he did his job perfectly during group work.

Be that as it may, although he was not close to all of his classmates, he had two best friends there. They were Zalina and Haikal. Marwan was headed towards them.

“Have you guys had your breakfast yet?” Marwan asked.

“I did,” Zalina replied but she was focusing on her laptop. Marwan could see that she was editing her thesis.

“Did you bring anything? I just woke up…” Haikal spoke with a pitiful face. Zalina was lucky to get a dorm room but Haikal was staying outside.

As a young male student living in a rented home, it was typical for him to sleep late, wake up late, and not have breakfast.

“I have my lunch. Do you want it?” Marwan offered his lunch.

“...How about your breakfast?” Haikal asked.

“I only have my lunch.”

“Forget it. We will just have our lunch after this class,” Haikal decided to not take Marwan’s lunch. He was not that shameless to take Marwan’s lunch.

“Can you hang on? The class ends at 1,” Marwan asked as he sat on the floor beside his friends.

“1? Isn’t this class until 12?” Haikal was surprised.

“Madam said before that she moved this Friday’s class forward. You forgot about it?”

“...” Haikal was silent.

“You should go downstairs and buy something. Just buy some kuihs,” Marwan suggested.

*Growl~* Zalina looked up at Haikal as she heard the sound. Marwan stared at Haikal too. The duo knew that their friend was hungry.

“You should go now. What if you get sick?” Zalina looked at Haikal worriedly.

“Yeah. Go, go,” Marwan agreed.

“Okay. Bring my bag inside if I am late,” Haikal got up and rushed downstairs.

“Walk carefully,” Zalina shouted.

Marwan looked at Zalina, “Finishing your thesis?”

“Yeah…” Zalina looked tired.

“Is something wrong?” he asked.

“One of my experiment results is a bit suspicious. I am not sure if I should do the experiment one more time,” Zalina was worried.

“Huh? You didn’t check it before?” Marwan.

“I did but I think I missed this one,” she sighed.

“There is no need to do it again. Just explain it in your thesis. Or just omit this result. I don’t think you will have time for another experiment,” Marwan advised.

“...Should I do that?” Zalina was a bit uncertain. She needed a bit of time to think. She looked at Marwan and asked, “Have you finished yours?”

“I only need to finish my references and touch up a bit on my PowerPoint slide,” Marwan replied.

“So, you are done?” Zalina was surprised.

“Sort of. If you need some help, tell me,” Marwan smiled.

“As expected of the smartest student in our class,” Zalina nodded and gave Marwan a thumbs up.

“You are exaggerating. I am not that smart at all,” Marwan blushed and he felt a bit embarrassed by the compliment.

“Then, Master, can I ask you to check on my thesis after this?” Zalina asked teasingly.

“Sure,” Marwan agreed and he added, “Still, it is better to ask Madam to check it.”

“Okay,” Zalina replied and she continued with her work. Marwan stared at her a bit before he took out his laptop to check on his thesis too.