1 Way Better Than People Here

At K. V. Institute of Technology, time 3:45 pm, year 2158.

The time at which the classes end and the students are on their way to home. At this time, a skinny boy walks out holding his mobile phone, his black hair, his eyes attractive which can make anybody to stare at them, his thin lips forming a charming smile, everything seems to be perfect but his skin which is brownish makes it impossible to call him handsome with just one glance. Because of this, people who are around him and are able to regularly see him are the only ones who can tell that he is handsome. This kind of handsomeness cannot be seen in a single glance but rather the attractiveness of this features can only be determined with frequent visual.

Arjun believes that outward appearance is only a facade in this society and should never judge people on appearance. He has his own share of experiences and he is also the type who shouldn't be judged by his frail body.

Walking out of the university gate, Arjun approaches the store he frequently goes to have a smoke. As he approaches he hears someone calling him, even though he didn't turn his head around he knew who it was.

"Arjun wait! Why are you in such a hurry?" Preetham shouts from the University gate.

Arjun doesn't even look back completely ignores him and went straight into the shop. The shop keeper sees Arjun approaching and straight away gives him a cigarette and a cup of tea.

"Hahaha" "Arjun, your friend's calling you over and you're just ignoring him? What did he do?" Asked the shop keeper.

Arjun sneered "How dare he looks down on my collections of anime, novels and songs? Let him be. One day he'll realize that the characters in those novels and anime are way better than the people in real life."

At this time Arjun's friend Preetham comes in, seeing Arjun ignoring him for those cartoons and stuff, his contained anger finally blew off. He asked "Oh you say they are better than real people ah? Tell me how are they better? They don't even exist? They are just cartoon! Cartoon!"

Preetham has fair skin, he is shorter by a half to Arjun, but his physique looks better than average, he always admires Arjun for his contacts and his high intelligence. He has always been with Arjun since the start of university as they both are in the same class.

When Arjun heard Preetham calling anime as cartoons, he lifted his head and looked at Preetham. As a fan of anime and novels how can Arjun receive those words without saying anything back?

"Cartoon? Yes, they don't exist, so what? But they are way better than the people here, they have mortal valves, if I truly have to decide, I'll definitely say those characters that doesn't even exist are more humane than these people and….and they'll never hurt me" Arjun's voice started to choke at the end.

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Arjun was not used to watching anime and reading novels. Arjun didn't have any kind of habits, due to his mother extremely loving and doting on him, he became inseparable from his mother. Wherever she goes he would follow, whatever she does he would help. Arjun has high IQ, so he started helping his mother from his young age so as to reduce the burden on her. He loved his mother and he wanted no harm to come to his mother. He always had a dream of treating his mother like a queen, so he started studying hard.

Due to his high IQ and along with his efforts he was always first in his class. People who knew Arjun would always praise him in front of his parents. To his parents he was their pride, seeing how interested Arjun was in gaining knowledge they had high hopes on him. But when he was studying in high school, his mother died in an accident.

This incident made Arjun to fall into despair, the dream he wanted to achieve could never be achieved even if he worked harder because his mother was no longer here. Now what? What am I supposed to do? Arjun kept asking himself, but he didn't get an answer.

His father Ravi never interfered in Arjun's life, he wanted his son to make his own decisions and he wanted Arjun to see this world with his own eyes. But Arjun's mother Hema was always as protective as Arjun and would not let him decide alone, she never left Arjun alone except during school hours. It may be said that Arjun got his possessiveness from his mother, who always considered the best for her son.

Since his father never interfered in his decisions, Arjun started to take the wrong path in his life, he became addicted to cigarettes, alcohol, gambling, street fights, practically he did everything he shouldn't do for his age and literally neglected all his studies. But he never entertained prostitution, hence he never tried it. By the time his father came to know all these, it was during the preparation time for the Pre-University Exam.

His father convinced Arjun not to give up on his dream, even if his mother is not the one, he should still chase the dream so that he could treat the one he loves in future the same way. This however made Arjun feel a little hopeful, so he promised his father he'll take up his exam and he finally entered a Pre-University.

Pre-University courses are 2 year courses, in which Arjun elected for Computer Science as his major, even though he still neglected his studies, he didn't neglect them completely and always maintained a good results too. In these 2 years, Arjun also had lot of fights with other students and his influence and the circle of people he knew grew larger. He didn't gain any new habits, nut his old ones never left.

Then he joined K. V. Institute of Technology and elected Mechanical Engineering as his major. This was the period he and Harshitha meet each other and eventually fell in love, they were together for 2 and half years but ultimately they broke up because of Harshitha's betrayal. From then on Arjun wanted to have nothing to doing this world, so he kept himself away from people by entirely focused on anime and novels for the past 1 year.

In this year of time, Arjun started to realize that these anime and novels are more than what meets the eye. They have everything he wished for mother, brother, family, love, friendship, righteousness, fair, equality, etc. They have mortal values and that's why Arjun always defends anime and novels.

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Preetham realized Arjun's shaky voice and asked "Are you still thinking about her? I told you it's already been a year and half, why are you still hung up?"

Arjun just stared blankly at the cigarette in his hand and after a few seconds, he threw the bud into the ash tray and left the shop without even looking back or even paying the money.