Sitting Face to Face

"Hello," a cold reply came out of Jasmine's mouth. Her gaze was directed towards Andrey for a few seconds before she reverted them back.

'This brat…even after I told her to stand while greeting someone,' Alice thought to herself as she apologized to Andrey, "I'm sorry about that, she's just not used to interacting with people,"

"Ah…I see," Andrey replied with an awkward expression on his face.

"Oh, by the way, why don't you sit here with her and try to get to know her better? It would be good for both her and you since you two will be meeting each other a lot in the future. I'm going to the next table with Zack because we wanted to discuss some issues regarding our research," Alice let out her thoughts.

"Alright," Andrey said with a hesitant expression on his face. 'It's not like I can refuse now, can I?' He lampooned in his mind.

"Perfect," Alice said cheerfully and went along with Zack to the table behind the table behind Andrey.

"Umm…Nice to meet you Jasmine," Andrey said in an awkward manner as he took his seat. In response to his words, Jasmine only nodded her head towards him thus inviting Andrey's lips to twitch in embarrassment.

Speaking of appearance, Jasmine had a typical round face, her pale skin matched her hair colour. She had violet eyes which made her stand out a bit. Her body looked quite frail even through the baggy clothes she was wearing.

"So…Let's order some food," Andrey said as he took hold of the menu that was kept on the table.

Jasmine too took her menu and started going over the dishes in an uninterested manner before closing the menu.

"You done?" Andrey asked in surprise. It had not even been a minute since she had opened the menu and she closed it soon after.

"I always order the same," Jasmine replied in her monotonous voice.

"I see…" Andrey was getting used to her disinterested self and instead focused his attention back on the menu.

"Alright," Andrey said after making up his mind and calling the server to take in his order.

"Yes, what would you like to eat sir?" The server asked in a well-practised manner.

"A plate of Honey Chillie Potato for starters…and for the main dish…how's the Paneer butter masala? Is it any good?" Andrey asked.

"It's a pretty good dish I must say, Sir. Paneer is a soft cheese made from curding milk. You eat it with flatbreads like rotis, naans or Kulchas though some people also prefer to eat it with rice," The waiter explained.

"Is that so? What do you suggest? What should I eat it with?" Andrey asked after thinking over a bit.

"I'll recommend Garlic Naan, its distinct flavour will make your meal more enjoyable," The server suggested.

"Alright, 2 Garlic Naan for me then," Andrey said with an expectant smile.

"Anything for dessert Sir?" The server asked.

"I'll decide upon that after finishing the main dish," Andrey said.

"No problem, Sir, What about you ma'am?" The server turned towards Jasmine and asked.

"A plate of white sauce pasta, that's all," Jasmine replied.

"Noted ma'am," The server said and left the two of them to get their orders placed.

"Are you also going to the dormitory starting tomorrow?" Andrey asked.

"Yes, that's what she said," Jasmine said as her gaze went behind Andrey towards Alice who was sitting with Zack.

"I see, do you like pasta a lot?" Andrey asked remembering that she had said that she always orders the same stuff.

"It's easy to eat," Jasmine replied.

"Oh…" Andrey realized that she wasn't interested in talking even a bit so he decided to pull out his phone to pass his time instead.

'Oh, a message from Jacob,' Andrey thought to himself and opened up the chat.

Jacob: You didn't even message me after reaching their you rascal.

Andrey: Oops, I forgot…

Jacob: I hope you don't forget about me the same way…

Andrey: Ah…who were you again?

Jacob: Hey you rascal, it's too quick for that…

…

Jasmine who was looking sideways towards the painting brought her head towards Andrey who was beaming with a smile while typing on his phone and then focused her gaze behind him towards her instructor, Alice, who held a serious expression on her face.

…

"So how many subjects do we have?" Zack asked Alice.

"Four…" Alice replied. It was clear that she was not satisfied with the results.

"Four?! We had more than 500 consents from parents how come only 4 succeeded?" Zack asked. Alice was a year senior to him so it was natural for her to be in touch with more information compared to him.

"Things were going alright…almost 1 in every 30 students were agreeing to take the test until someone died," Alice said with a grim expression.

"Died?" Zack raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Indeed…" Alice confirmed it to him.

"How did the parents react?" Zack asked after a pause.

"Needless to say, they went ballistic since we had already told them the chances of death were almost zero…as a result of this other parents took back their consents and, in the end, we're left with only 4 candidates to observe," Alice explained.

Zack took a deep sigh and muttered, "The higher-ups are definitely facing a storm at the moment because of the death,"

"Indeed, that's even more reason for us to do our task to the best of our ability," Alice added.

"How's your subject? She seemed a bit odd to me," Zack changed the topic of discussion.

"Her? She's a problematic case. Her father, who was a warrior is no longer alive. Whereas her mother, just loiters around nightclubs getting drunk all night. It wasn't surprising to us that she agreed to her daughter's test even after knowing about the death incident. She just doesn't care about the girl at all…"

"The girl is also a victim of abuse as several neighbours have reported that sounds of beatings regularly come from their house but the girl always saves her mother by giving the police false testaments…I have no clue what's on her mind…" Alice took the glass of water and emptied it all in a shot.

"You've got your hands full it seems," Zack could only sympathize with her.

*Sigh*

"It's good that at least your candidate looks normal…" Alice commented.

"I won't bet on it," Zack chuckled.

"What do you mean?" Alice enquired with her eyebrows furrowed.

"I just randomly set a target for him to complete his core in two weeks…. guess what… he just completed it yesterday…" Zack was having a bittersweet moment with Andrey's results. While Andrey was his subject, it was also true that he had to struggle for almost one and a half years to form a proper core when he was in the Academy.

"…That's a monstrous rate of absorption," Alice's eyes widened when she heard about it.