The story begins

I stood in line, as one of the first people to be questioned. When I entered the room, I saw only a single officer sitting there. He was a young man, in his late twenties. He had a notepad. He motioned for me to sit and asked a few questions.

"Thank you, son, you can leave now." He said after all the questions were over. Not a single question was regarding the teacher, but it still made me nervous to answer them.

Now one thing was clear, this case was not normal. {Why would the police get involved?} I entered my class, which was empty. {They all are skipping huh?} I got to my seat and put my head down. My thoughts were a mess, and I was trying to find some kind of answers to what might have happened.

The door opened and a girl entered. She sat down beside me, in her own thoughts, and sometimes took a peek at me. Before silence became awkward, I started to make small talk.

"So… how was the questioning?" I asked, going for the easy route.

"I think it was just a formality." She answered and suddenly got eager, "Do you also think it was murder?" So she has the same thing on her mind as me.

"Probably, he was comparatively young. It didn't look like he had any kind of illness either. His attitude was not bad either, at least not towards us. So, it's hard to think of him as a perpetrator. I think it was something like robbery-murder." I gave my opinion.

"That is also what I thought. Depending on the situation, they will have to run lab tests here and there." she stopped talking as the door opened.

Zyan entered the room, and he was focused on our conversation. To be frank, the sudden end of the talk at his entrance might have seemed weird to him.

"Gotta go for now. Talk to you later." The girl hurried out of the class.

Both I and Zyan watched her exit, and then he ran to me. "HEY, what the hell was that? Why did she run away?'' His reaction was, although exaggerated, quite expected. Anyone can misinterpret this situation. To him it probably looked like she ran away because he came in, and that doesn't feel good.

"Were you making moves on her?" He asked, clearly jealous. "You lucky dog."

"Oh, so you think I am good enough to flirt with anyone?" I got a sudden comeback in my head, "What would you do if she liked you? What if she was asking for my advice?"

"Really?" Zen had genuine surprise on his face. {You took that seriously?}

"Everybody take your seats, you in the back, quiet down." A teacher was already in the class, telling us to settle down. The rest of the class took place as usual, and then the last bell rang. I took off right away, eager to go home and finish the novel.

On the way home, I knew I was being followed, it was that girl again. I decided to point her out, "What do you want to talk about Rei?"

She held up her hands in front of her, "I want to discuss something with you, but not here. Are you free sometime this week?" she asked.

"Well, I have some work at the library today, does that work for you?" I tried to finish this quickly.

"Okay, I will meet you outside the library at 6 in the evening. Bye." She ran off as soon as she said that.

***

In the evening, as usual, I borrowed another book. I saw Rei when I got out of the building. She was in her casual dress, waving at me. "You are late; it is already six-five."

"What did you want to talk about?" I continued.

"Let's walk." She started with some small talk, "First off, do you get books from the library regularly?"

"Yeah. I like reading these, and I don't have space at home."

"They let you borrow same day as your return?"

"My record is clean there. The old lady says that I have enough trust, so yeah."

"You don't have many friends do you?" she said bluntly.

"What if I don't have as much as you?" I had enough of her attitude. "Does it involve today's topic somehow?"

"Actually, it does," she said softly. "I need you to come to my house. I don't want anyone to hear us" {Come again?}