Zero Sum

Aadhan's a lazy fighting genius

"You can't text her that bro, girls don't like it when you call the out like that."

"But all I did was show her where she was wrong," Aadhan replied to his fellow cadet.

"That's even worse," his friend almost shouted, "you can't tell her she made a mistake!"

"Look, here she said I had no pictures of her on my page, but look, here clearly we are together,"

"It doesn't matter!" His friend was now almost laughing out of fright. "You don't tell girls when they are wrong. You know they are wrong, they know it too, probably, but you do NOT call them out on it."

"And look here," Aadhan continued undeterred, "she had texted me 'stop making excuses' but literally right before I had said 'I am going to do better!'" He waved his phone in front of him, as if to ward off an unseen malignant adversary.

His friend listens trying to contain his frustration, "I know how it sounds but its not about right or wrong for them," he had closed his eyes and placed his forehead on his palm.

They were both sitting in the lounge of the military academy Aadhan was enrolled into. It was supposed to be one of the best in the land. More coerced than by choice for Aadhan. As a child prodigy, his talents were wasted on the ruined battlefields of NuAsia. When one of the soldiers posted there caught a young Aadhan stealing from him, he was almost sent to a work camp. But when the soldier realized he was stealing to build a homemade radio, things changed.

Barely primary school aged, and this young kid was fixing pieces of hardware he could not possibly comprehend. With such ease he repaired damaged vehicles and equipment. He was practically working for the military before he was even an adolescent.

Things would have continued that way. A nearly retired general had other ideas for him. The general and his wife adopted the young Aadhan. There he lived a comfortable life with the Generals very influential family. 

Although not blood relative, he was still treated as an equal ever since he began living with them. When the General seemed convinced that Aadhan could act civilized on his own, he sent him away to the academy at the age of 15.

Aadhan sometimes wondered why his family decided that a military academy was best for him. Never one to start a fight or even engage in conflict in the slightest. Military service seemed to be a far cry from what he was destined for. So, he sits and daydreams the days away. When he is not trying to talk to girls that is. Having already earned a spot in the top percentile of his class, he does not seem too concerned with studying. Academics seem so effortless to him.

"Oh shit heads up!" The cadet was warning Aadhan that their commandant was approaching.

"Attention!" The commandant shouted as he entered the lounge. All the students of the academy stood up and saluted their chief instructor. All except Aadhan. He sat forward slightly in his seat but failed to get up and only offered a less than enthusiastic nod of his head at the commandant. Then slowly made his way to his feet. 

The instructor walked through the crowd of cadets in training. Noticing how his most gifted but most rebellious pupil failed to behave. But ignoring him for now, he acted out as if conducting his usual inspection of the class.

"Lazy. Undisciplined. Not motivated. Punishment. Severity."  As he was giving a speech on discipline, the commandant slowly made his way over to Aadhan. Casually and in no rush, the words were mostly directed at this student anyways.

But Aadhan seemed to pay them no notice as he avoided eye contact. Always thinking himself of superior intelligence to everyone around him. He felt that this spiel was beneath him. It took a lot of willpower for him not to just get up and walk out of the room, or even better, to say something to counter all the ways he believed the commandant to be wrong.