"Whenever we look for something it doesn't show up."
-Serised
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Ken peacefully drinks the last sip of his black coffee when he hears a knock on his door. He puts his red mug down on the sink and went to welcome his 'guest'.
"Ooh...you're on your casual, are you perhaps going outside?" the 'guest' reacts after seeing Ken.
"Dia," Ken replies back, ignoring his friend's question.
"Why do you always react that way even if I come here almost everyday?" Dia retorts with a sour look.
"What did you come here for?" Ken asks even if he knows the reason why, not minding Dia's mood swing.
Dia's eyes glinted hearing him ask her intentions, she's excited ever since she heard something different yesterday from him. She even had trouble stopping herself to go yesterday night.
Now, it's eight in the morning and Ken wears something he doesn't on a usual day, he's out of his pajamas. He may not be showing any sign of excitement outwardly, but the very fact that he plans to go outside again without Dia's nagging shows improvement in itself.
"Nothing, just checking if I left my keys hihi, bye! Enjoy on your second day," Dia giggles, acting comical.
She can't keep herself smiling from ear to ear because all the time she spent just to remind Ken were not in vain. She left humming a happy song, while Ken follows her with his eyes. She waves goodbye for the last time and drive away from Ken's house.
"She looks elated," Ken smiles on the thought.
He looks up at the skies and saw the sun shining between the clouds.
"Looks like they're too, it makes me want to join them," Ken says, hiding his snicker with his hand.
He went back inside and took the things he needs: his phone, wallet, and the flyer.
He arrives at the university for over forty minutes, welcomed by a line of people from the guard post that reaches up to outside the school; he's the fifteenth person approximately.
People that are newcomers starts lining up behind him. He searches for a familiar face from the line on his back but to no avail. He, then, turns his head up front.
There, he saw her checking her name on the list. Wearing a yellow floral off-shoulders paired with pants and an ID hanging on her neck. He follows her movement with his glances until he can't see her anymore.
After some time his turn to check his name on the list comes, he tries to mark it as fast as he can.
He takes long steps towards the event's location and reached the auditorium in no time. But, what he saw was enough to stop in a trance.
"So her attendance was not the real problem, it's if I could spot her here," Ken mumbles his realization.
People wearing yellow with IDs surrounds every corner of the room; laughing, talking and taking pictures together.
Ken finds a seat where he could easily see the whole auditorium, at the top center. The auditorium's design is one with a theater-like appearance, so the seats from the back stand elevated.
As the time to start the event is nearby, the students in yellow take seats in front row on the right side of the auditorium.
"They might be students here, should I go closer? She might be one of them," Ken talks to himself and moves forward not so close so he could still see other parts of the auditorium.
He tries to examine the group of students, but she's out of sight.
"Where is she, really?" Ken says, sounding disappointed.
Ken failed to spot the girl, and the event starts.
"Good day everyone! I am your host, Hans. We're glad that you made it today. Let's start the day with learning, and positivity as we clap for ourselves for getting here on time. Come on, let's all clap our hands!" the host welcomes everyone with a big smile.
Laughter and applause fill the room, Ken joins everyone, feeling glad that the event won't be boring as he thought so.
Ken looks at the poster the "amber eyes" girl owns, and read the event's title enough only for him to hear,
"The World of the Blind".
Aside from looking for the 'amber eyes girl', the event's topic caught the interest of Ken, because he might be able to get some idea on it for his webcomic. He logically tries to hit two birds in one stone.
"Again we are pleased to see you all here, most especially, scholars and educators from the academe who had blessed us with their presence today," the host politely points to the professionals in the attendees, that in turn made the crowd applause in respect to them.
"Now, let's get straight off the bat and meet our first speaker. He's a renown lecturer, researcher, and author that published around thirty books and counting. He's currently doing a lecture series and travels in different town to inform a lot of people regarding blindness and inclusion. Let's all welcome, Dr. Stephen Jean!" the host paves way to the speaker. As he goes down the stage, he greets Mr. Jean off the mic.
Everyone gave the speaker a warm welcome as he approaches the center stage.
"Good Morning all, the hype is real here haha. Thank you, thank you," the speaker gladly greets everyone.
"I am so excited for this lecture since the day I heard about it. I am Professor Jean and if you're curious to what I'm standing here for, here's the catch, we'll be talking about the common questions people have about blind people. That's why I'll be needing your help, because the questions will be based on the majority's choice," the Professor briefly introduces himself and the topic, making the crowd murmur.
"It's thrilling, right?" the professor's energy contagiously gives life to the group of students on Ken's right side.
"But before that, as an introduction I'll be talking about how our eyes work first, so we could all have a common ground," the professor starts his lecture.
Ken takes out his phone out from his pocket with the stylus pen attached to it. He follows what the lecturer is teaching by drawing it.
"As you all know, the eyes work together with our brain so we could picture the world and the things around us," Professor Jean says before clicking his presentation slides.
"So, for everyone to get the process easily, let's put it in simple terms, this is how it happens; everytime light enters our cornea--or the dome-shape front layer of our eyes, that protects the eye. It bends the light so the eyes could focus," as he speaks, he uses a laser pointed at the screen so everyone could follow what he means.
"Then, the light would go through our pupil, lens, and then reach the retina. When the light enters retina, it is converted to electrical signals by special cells known as 'photoreceptor," the professor continues.
"Cornea, pupil, lens, retina..." Ken mumbles as he draw each part one by one.
"Sir, excuse me!" one student from the group on the right suddenly speaks with a raised hand, effortlessly taking everyone's attention.
"Oh, yes Ms.?" the professor acknowledges her.
"Uhmm...how about the Iris, sir? Is she useless?" the student asks, eyes speaking of her conviction.
"Hmm, she?" the question stuns the lecturer for some time.
Others from the crowd found the question funny, but her expressions says how she wants to hear the professor's opinion. So the lecturer collected himself, and tries to answer.
"Well, 'she' is useful. Iris makes up the colored part of the eyes that outwardly shows each person's uniqueness, right? Also when it comes to function, it controls the pupil's size, so that the amount of light is just right," the professor answers with a reassuring smile.
The girl smiles back in gratefulness.
"Iris," Ken then draws it and adds the color amber.
"A story about Iris who's blind and looking for her worth?" Ken writes down, but shakes his head on his own idea and erase them in one stroke.
"Now, going back, the converted light from the retina will travel through the optic nerve, the nerve that connects the retina to the brain," the professor adds.
"Optic nerve to the brain," Ken puts the next part.
"Finally, once the impulses reach the control center of our body, which is the brain, it turns the electric impulses into images," the professor wraps up, clasping his hands. Nods from the crowd visibly fill the room.
"The professor made it sound so easy, I'll enroll to his next class hahaha," one student from Ken's right side says to her seatmate, appreciating the Professor's introductory lesson.
"Okay, now that we're done on the first part, I'll be asking everyone to get your phones and search the website on the screen," the professor starts instructing.
Everyone took their phones out and search for the website, diligently following the professor's every demand.
"Now, please input the code from this slide and enter it on the page you're in, so we could start on answering the thing you're most curious about," the professor adds, smiling excitedly.
"a-j-s-d-1-4-3," Ken inputs the code one by one.
"Alright, let's start the question and answer," the professor remarks putting both hands on his waist.
"The questions listed on that page is the commonly asked questions that we found on the search engines, all you have to do is vote for the three questions we'll be answering," the professor explains, touching his gadget to look at the webpage.
"Hmm..." Ken carefully thinks of the three questions he wants to ask.
He chose the questions: 'Do blind people dream?'; 'What do blind people see?'; and 'Do they have good memory?'.
Everyone's excitement creates positive tension in the room. While waiting, they chatter around, laughing and wondering what would be the first question.
"Okay, the results are here. The first question would be, 'What do blind people see?'. Wow! this is a nice question hahaha. It would have been nice if we could hear it from someone based on experience," the professor utters while wearing his encouraging smile.
"Excuse me, Professor!" a girl speaks up waving her hand hesitantly to get the professor's attention.
"Hmm? Yes?" the professor attentively asks the girl.
Ken turns his head to the left where the sound came from.
There, he saw her. The amber-eyes girl he searches for.
"Can I, perhaps, try to answer the question?" she asks for permission to the Professor.