"Congratulations!" Krish offered.
"Yeah, no thanks to you..." Marie muttered in response.
"What was that?" Krish retorted with stern disbelief.
"No thanks to you!" Marie reiterated with an equally stern and accusatory gaze.
"Look, I offered to teach you," Krish confessed. "It's not my fault that you decided to look elsewhere."
"You don't even try," Marie responded with a dejected frown. "The least you could have done was entertaining a discussion and brainstorming with me. Are you so unwilling to compromise or bend by even a little?"
Krish pulled his lips into his cheeks and wore a conflicted expression. He was ashamed to admit that he agreed with Marie on that point. Although he'd let the girl off the leash to explore the subjects on her own, he hadn't completely stopped observing her. He was with her every step of the way, albeit only passively.
