It was the first day of the new semester. Mark woke up so excited and eager. It had been so long since he had been in any lecture hall. For the first time in a long time, he woke up by 6 am. Before that, the earliest he woke up was 10 am. He quickly brushed his teeth, had his bathe, and slipped into the already-ironed clothes he hung neatly In his wardrobe the night before. He was too anxious to eat so he abandoned breakfast and left his apartment. Then he boarded a taxi to school.






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<center><sub>*[Photo by Porter Raab from unsplash](https://unsplash.com/photos/Ucr4Yp-t364)*</sub></center>

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He got to the faculty just in time for his first lecture. Lucky for him he could navigate and get a seat next to Dan, a friend he made last semester. For whatever reason, they didn't speak or reach out to each other during the break, but now that they were back it seemed like they had been together all through. 



Sitting In class and watching the lecturer teach made Mark remember why he didn't like attending lectures. The lecturer was pretty boring, and if not that he knew what he was talking about, he probably wouldn't understand a single word he was saying. As a matter of fact, Mark only attended lectures to sign the attendance.


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After class, Mark felt famished all of a sudden and was starting to regret not eating at home. Dan suggested they go eat at the restaurant he usually bought his food from. According to him, it is the only place on campus that is pocket friendly and still offers a decent meal.


Sure enough, the price was cheap, but after tasting that food it was clear that Dan and Mark had different definitions of what quality food tasted like. Mark had to forcefully shove it down because he was hungry and he didn't want the money he'd spent on it to go to waste. 


Mark was washing out the taste of the food from his mouth with coca-cola when his gaze met with a familiar face he never expected to see, It was Ned. Ned was his roommate back in high school, he was a junior to him. Mark wasn't particularly nice to him then, so he did his best to avoid eye contact but failed. He was getting closer and at that moment Mark felt like looking for an excuse to stand up and leave the restaurant, but it was too late to do that without looking awkward. He just had to play it cool, he was the senior after all.
 
"Hello Mark," Ned said

"At least he didn't call me Senior, that would have been cringe," Mark thought.

He looked up and scanned his face, pretending as though he was struggling to remember the face In front of him.

"Oh wow, Ned. How are you? You're a student here?" He faked an excited smile.

"Yes, I just got admission here," Ned replied, the excitement visible on his face.

"That's awesome, what course?" He needed to ask

"Computer Engineering"

Mark nearly screamed

"That's great. Means I'll be bumping into you from time to time." He said with an exaggerated smile.



The conversation dragged out a bit. Ned was really Interested In getting some tips from Mark as he knew Mark to be an Intelligent person, while Mark was trying to end the conversations, but he couldn't. Eventually, Ned and Mark swapped numbers and went their separate ways.


"He genuinely seemed Interested In me, one would have thought he'd resent me for all the things I did to him. I guess he understood that I wasn't very mature at that stage and was only acting out because of all the things I was going through." 

All through the rest of the day, Mark's mind wasn't at ease. He didn't know why his mind kept going back to an encounter that didn't seem so relevant.


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Ned kept in touch with Mark, he was always asking questions and Mark was always happy to help. At first, It was simply academic but after a while, they became good friends. On this particular day, Mark told Ned he wanted to see him privately, so they met at one of the chill spots In the faculty.

"I'm sorry," Mark said

"for what?" 

"for picking on you when we were in high school."
 

"Oh, that." Ned paused for a while before taking a breathe and continuing  
"You know, I hated you because of this but your niceness to me these last few days made me realize you're not a horrible person. It took me a while, but I forgive you." Ned's eyes were getting teary.

"Thank you so much," Mark said as he gave Ned a warm hug.

### <center>**~THANKS FOR READING~**</center>


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