A different view

Chapter 1

#ForthBeam. The power couple. The epitome of love. It was irrefutable. It was the university's best-told secret. Even the freshmen were made aware of the distance to be maintained from them before they knew the distance to their classes. So it was no surprise that when Beam arrived at the SOTUS gathering, the head hazer handed over the reins to his trusted friends Park and Lam to go greet his boyfriend. 30 mins later, a happier Forth sprinted back to the stage but the eyes of the freshmen were on the slightly disheveled Beam until their head hazer commanded their attention again. Well, almost everyone's eyes.

Lin's POV

SOTUS was killing us. It's good that I've made friends with Preeth. She knows her way around and is helping me get those 100 signatures a day. With all the things the seniors make us do, even if it was harmless, I would have surely lost my temper by now.

"Preeth, what's the plan for today's set of signatures?"

She looked at her notes. "Second years have a quiz this afternoon. Let's try them during lunch."

Sure enough, the second years were all huddled around books in the lunch break. We approached their leader Ming's table.

"Excuse me P's. Could we have your signature please?" I asked in the most sincere tone I could muster.

Only Ming looked up to answer "Nong, we are busy right now. Could you come back later?"

"But P. It'll only take a minute na..."

"All right hand it over," he said, and once Ming signed everybody else did, too lost in the discussions for the quiz and not really paying any attention to us. Our luck lasted for a few more tables and we had almost got what we needed for the day. I say luck but I knew it was Preeth's planning that was getting us through this unscathed. Her research was always on point. She knew the seniors inside out, their schedules, their passions, and their backgrounds, and her strategy was unmatched. She always did keep us a few signatures short every day to do a little punishment.

"Arrgh. We could have got the 100 today Preeth. Why did we not keep going?" I whined

"Come on lazy bones. A little exercise will do us both good. Let's keep the fat off" she said as we ran the 3 laps in the field.

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"I wish I had a boyfriend," I said looking at all the couples roaming around the stalls in the freshmen's fair that the seniors threw for us.

"Why?" Preeth asked focused on her plate of noodles.

"You know, someone who can protect me. Some days I feel like I'm being stalked walking back to the dorm in the dark. Even if it is just a few meters away."

Preeth was suddenly grabbing me by the wrist and pulling me across the stadium. "Come, I'll show you something," she said. We went behind one of the lonelier stalls. "You don't need a man to protect you." She said as she faced me. Her normally calm eyes were a little serious behind those thick-rimmed glasses. "I'll teach you a few tricks. Come on grab my shoulder from behind" she said. When I did, she took hold of my hand and twisted my wrist just to prove her point.

"I'm impressed Preeth. I would never have guessed! Can I try it?"

"Of course, go ahead"

She showed me what to do if someone grabbed my wrist or my waist as well. When she tripped me, we fell down and she smiled while I was laughing so hard.

"You are amazing. Who would have known that under that nerd-like exterior, you are a tiger!"

"I am an engineer after all. We're bred to be tigers right?" she said dusting herself. Behind her, someone was looking at us from inside the stall's flaps.