Her Innocence, His Obsession

Chapter 3

On her way to college, Diya met up with her best friend since childhood, Aadhya, who was also studying the same subject as her Medicine, except it was her actual first year at the university. She was so relieved to get out of the house as it felt extremely suffocating to have to stay there. She made her way to her first class - advanced molecular biology, where she took a seat at the very back so that she could remain undisturbed while observing the class. Soon, the professor walked in and started his lecture. Molecular Biology is a subject that she truly loved and didn't need to put much of an effort into understanding it - it just made sense to her. As she gave her undivided attention to the lecture, she didn't notice the group of seniors sitting behind her, who were watching her with awe, as they had never seen her in the college before. 

Soon after, the class ended and she was packing up her things to leave, still not acknowledging their presence. One of the guys in the group soon started approaching her and she became startled as she turned back to see that he was in her personal space - she didn't like it. "Sorry, do you need something?" she asked him, to which the curly-haired handsome student replied "No, just that I've never seen you around before, are you a transfer?" he asked. 

Diya replied "No, this is my first-year." "What! he asked, how old are you?". "I'm 18" she replied bluntly. "Then how are you in a senior-level class?" he asked her. "I completed the prereqs and was interested in taking it, so here I am." she answered. Trying to end the conversation and leave as she was getting uncomfortable at the attention this guy and his group of friends were giving her, she added, "Sorry, I've gotta head to my next class, see you around," and left the place as politely as she could. 

The playboy, Aarav, soon went back to his group of friends and shared the information with them, as they became even more interested and surprised at how an 18-year-old girl managed to make it to a 5th year advanced medical class. One person from their group in particular, Ayaan, was a bit disappointed, as he considered himself as top of class. Without even so much as a glance towards him, this girl managed to crush his ego and leave the place as if nothing happened. He didn't even get the chance to properly see her face, he thought. However, he vowed to himself that he will get in a word with her next class, when he was sure she would come back like the good student she was.

Blissfully ignorant of the turmoil she had just created among another group of students, Diya headed to her next class Information Systems. She didn't particularly have an interest or liking towards Engineering but just to satisfy her family, she was majoring in Computer Engineering as well. The rest of her classes throughout the day were uninterrupted, just the way she liked them without gaining any attention towards herself other than the brief glances that were thrown her way when she walked in a class or sat down, she felt relieved. 

"A good ending to a first day" she thought as she finally headed to the bus stop to get back home. She was anxious about going back home as she knew that something is always waiting for her there - either her father getting mad about something or her mother just frustrated at someone for no reason. Usually, other people looked forward to the end of the day but for her, the end of the day felt exhausting and dreadful. She enjoyed going to her college and attending classes, as she was left alone for the most part and didn't have to be on the receiving end of screaming or insults. 

As she prepared for what felt like an endless evening ahead of her, she sent to silent prayer to Lord Hanuman to give her strength and endurance and made her way towards her home.