fate, destiny, & love

52 | inquieto

52

inquieto [it.] — restless, unstable

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with the end of the academic year inching round the corner, the deadlines for assignments came rushing in. lecturers were reminding the students of the impending deadlines and advising them repeatedly to not push the assignments off to the very last minute to complete, and students were bemoaning to one another about the pile of submissions to complete.

"that's it for class," professor kimura beamed as students were scribbling and typing down the last of her slides on their notebooks and laptops, "remember to submit your essays online this friday!"

"yes," students muttered, sheer exhaustion laced in their voices.

quqi reached her arms up over her head and twisted her torso left and right to stretch. in the corner of her eye, she spotted someone walking towards her, with his hands clutching the straps of his bag nervously. it was endo hiro, an introverted violin major who did not seem to have any friends. quqi had seen him in faculty classes and had a few short interactions with him, but never paid much attention to him in general. however, one thing that bugged her was how he constantly seemed to be staring at her.

as she packed up, she watched from her peripheral vision as he approached her slowly. upon getting closer to her, he stood next to her and watched her pack up (which she found a little creepy, but she was too chicken to call him out on it). once all her items were in her bag, she finally lifted her head slowly and made eye contact with him, offering a small smile, "um, can i help you?"

"uh, yes, hi," he said awkwardly, smiling at her as he pushed his glasses up his nose, "i have a question to ask you regarding our upcoming submission."

"sure, what is it?" for some reason, an uneasy feeling was crawling up her skin, and she could not shake it off. her gut feeling was telling her that something was seriously wrong and she should keep the conversation short and brief and leave the room as quickly as possible.

"so, uh... i have no idea how to pick the pieces for the assignment and how to quote my sources," endo said, "could you tell me how to do it?"

good lord, does this guy not pay attention during class? and he hasn't even started on his assignment yet?! quqi sighed mentally as she resisted the urge to close her eyes and pinch the bridge of her nose. instead, she managed to keep her cool and said, "you have to pick a piece from the classical period and relate it back to your instrument. for example, how does the violinist of the classical period perform the said work? and as for quotations, you can just refer to kimura-sensei's slides. she has already uploaded them onto the online portal."

endo nodded slowly, "oh, i see."

there was a few more seconds of awkward silence, which was then broken by remi who walked up to the pair, with nakajima and minho in tow.

"thank you for your help, huan-san," endo said with a smile, "could i treat you to a meal sometime to repay you?"

"oh, there's no need!" quqi waved her hands in front of her quickly as she shook her head, "it's fine, you don't have to repay me."

"i insist," endo shook his head, a frown settling on his face, "i can't not repay your kindness!"

"it's really alright," she shook her head, "this much is nothing, really. just... do your assignment and submit it. this essay is worth fifty percent of your overall grade, so it's really important."