3rd Point of View

Part 15

Niki walked out from the lecture room followed closely by Minnie and Sorn. This is the only time they had class together and they decided to head to the library on their break while waiting for their next class. The two were busy talking about our upcoming test while her mind kept wandering back to what happened at the restaurant two weeks ago. Has it really been two weeks since she last saw Lisa and Irene at the restaurant? 

She still remembered that day clearly.

After Lisa greeted her, she then turned towards Irene. “Fancy seeing you both here. But I never thought that you two knew each other?”

“Oh? I thought I did tell you before? She’s one of the recipients of Bae’s scholarship.” Irene replied, forcing a smile on her face.

Niki stiffened when Lisa looked back at her with one raised eyebrow. “Oh? I guess we never talked about it before.”

“Erm..yeah sorry about that. I never thought that it would be something interesting for us to talk about.”

Lisa shrugged her shoulders. “True. But why are you two here?”

Irene spoke up before Niki could. “We just need to sort out some admin matters on her scholarship. And we just finished. She’s going already.”

Niki knowing that’s her cue to leave nodded her head. “Yeah..erm sorry to cut our meeting short, Lisa. But I really need to get back to the campus. I have a quiz today.”

“Oh? That’s fine. You should go ahead, then. Don’t want you to be late.”

Niki, wanting to be as far away as possible, quickly bid them goodbye and left. As soon as she reached her dorm, she packed her belongings, cleaned up her room and just cried onto her mattress for the rest of the night. By Monday, she knew she’ll eventually get called into the Dean office, they will suddenly find that her fees were not paid since her scholarship was suspended and she will be asked to leave YG University immediately.

But that was two weeks ago and until now nobody has called her up to talk about it and the waiting made her really anxious. She was waiting for the other axe to fall. She couldn't wait anymore. She should just go to the admin office and get it done herself. At least she didn't need to keep wondering why she's still here. Her mind made up. She turned towards her roommates. 

"Guys, I going to the admin office."

"Do you want us to go with you?" Minnie offered. She already told them about her predicament. But she only told them the reason was due to her sponsors stopping the programme to minimise their cost. Since she has no other means to support her education here, she may need to leave the Uni. They did offer to help her financially though she knows their own families didn't have much to begin with. So instead she declined their offer.

"Hey..maybe I can vouch for you. You did get good results and you were a good student. Or maybe we could talk to Lisa? She's your friend, right? Maybe she could help?" Sorn added. 

Niki shook her head. "No. I don't want her to think that I’m taking advantage of our friendship. I don't think we could even call each other friends. We are merely acquaintances." 

"You could just try."

"No, Minnie. I need to go home so that I can find a job and help my parents pay their debt. That’s more important than my studies here. I need to go. I'll see you guys back at the dorm later."

As she walked towards the admin office on the 4th floor, she tried to imprint whatever she saw into her memories. Although she just passed an empty corridor and an empty classroom, this will be the last time she'll be here and she wants to remember it for the rest of her life. She walked into the reception desk.