My Ex - Crush

Episode 6

Arjun's POV:

I hadn’t seen her laugh like that before. When she caught my glance, I turned away slowly to make it seem natural.

Despite the chaos caused by Sanjay, Shrini sir managed to collect all our answer sheets on time. After the exam, classes resumed as usual.

Anusha walked up to my desk and sat down in front of me.

“You could have told me directly, you know,” she said.

“Tell you what?” I asked, puzzled.

“Stop acting clueless,” she said with a shy smile, lightly tapping my hand.

“No, seriously, what are you talking about?” I asked, irritation creeping into my voice.

“I know you like me,” she said plainly.

“What?” I nearly shouted in disbelief.

“Don’t play dumb. I heard from my roommate that you mentioned to your friends that you like me. It’s not like I’m upset about it. I just want to know why you didn’t tell me yourself,” she said.

“Hold on a minute,” I said, looking around and noticing Arul and Vinoth laughing.

How in the world did this rumor get to Anusha? I had thought it was a joke, but now she believes it’s true. I shuddered to think how many others might know about this.

The very thing I wanted to avoid was happening again. What the hell! I should have kept my mouth shut. I thought being linked with Anusha would steer my friends away from questioning me, but it’s only made things worse.

I wanted to avoid any gossip, and now it's all anyone's talking about. This is turning into a nightmare, and I need to nip it in the bud before it spirals even further.

“I think you misunderstood,” I said firmly.

“Yeah, sure,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“No, seriously. I didn’t say anything like that,” I insisted.

“Okay, shy guy,” she said, getting up and returning to her seat.

I turned to Vinoth and Arul. “Who told her that joke?”

“We didn’t,” they both said in unison.

I shook my head. Either it was them or maybe Shalini. Regardless, I needed to keep a low profile.

“Arjun!” Ashok called from outside the classroom. He was from our immediate senior batch and a former school senior of mine.

“Yes, Sir,” I replied. We had to address our seniors as Sir or Ma'am, according to an unwritten rule in our department.

“Ask all the day scholars to come to Studio 11 after 4 pm,” he instructed.

I nodded, and he left.

“What’s up?” Vinoth asked.

“Seniors want to meet with our class,” I said.

“Great,” Vinoth said with concern.

“I heard from the hostel boys that they’ve started ragging them. Now they’ll probably do the same to us,” Arul added.

“But it might also help us get closer to them. Initially, they might make us do their work, but they’ll teach us software, shortcuts, and even help us with internships,” I said. That’s what my cousin had told me—building good relationships with seniors could be beneficial in the long run.

“I don’t know if this batch of seniors will be like that. The third years seem friendlier,” Vinoth said. It was true; our immediate seniors did seem a bit arrogant.