"This has turned out to be an incredibly successful project," the professor said as he pulled the paper forward. He continued, "A serious amount of effort has been put into this, and I see impressive names in the bibliography."
He was scanning the paragraph written in small black font. Skipping the chair that was hit by sunlight in the president's office, he pointed to the other one. "Please sit down."
The handsome young man sat down in the chair with a smile on his face and crossed his knees.
"What kind of process did you go through?" the professor asked, pretending to close the cover of the folder.
The young man clasped his hands and smiled politely again. "This project wasn't mine; someone asked me to take it on," he said with a confident tone.
The professor, looking surprised, said, "How?"
"It belonged to a close friend of mine. He committed suicide. Before he did it, he told me to complete this project no matter what, without my knowing. He made me promise."
A weight from the past appeared on the professor's face. "Was your friend that kid, Taylor Wicken?"
"Yeah, the one who committed suicide last year," Tim mumbled in a hoarse voice.
"I see," the professor replied.
Taylor Wicken was a young college student found dead in his dorm room.
He had no bad habits, no tendencies toward harmful behavior or violent actions.
He was always polite and introverted.
The university had not allowed the incident to become public, closing the matter discreetly.
"I'm sorry about that," he added. A sense of responsibility took over his features, then was replaced by a deep feeling of guilt.
"Hey Tim, what are you doing over there?"
Wawe spoke as his short, jelly-styled hair swung in a ponytail. He had anchored himself to the spot with his shiny yellow sneakers.
After completely closing the door, Tim smiled. "What's up?" They shared a very ordinary moment as they shook hands.
"I've been looking for you for a long time," Wawe said.
"Really?" Tim seemed to not care that much. "I actually had something to do."
"What kind of something?"
"Just an ordinary job. Project file."
"Oh," Wawe said, raising his hand to his forehead as he showed he remembered. "I see, what did he say?"
Tim smiled and said, "He liked it; he said it was a well-done, innovative piece of work." He pulled out a bottle from his bag and took a drink.
"What else did he say?" Wawe was overly curious. Tim ignored him and, while adjusting his hoodie, asked, "Shall we head to the cafeteria?"
The cafeteria, reminiscent of a dull room, looked like a bizarre house with a sloping ceiling. The smells of toast and pastries filled the air, along with the sounds of a working microwave and the scorching heat from the toaster. The trash cans lined up next to the door were overflowing.
Tim pressed his bottle into the trash. "Press it," Wawe yelled, pulling out his own bottle from his bag and crushing it in his hand. "Just like that." His ponytail swung.
"Did you hear?" he suddenly said, "President's daughter Marie Carlton is missing."
"Really?" Tim replied in his usual indifferent manner. He added immediately, "There have been a lot of kidnappings lately."
"Doesn't this one seem interesting to you?" Wawe asked curiously, as if he needed his own thoughts to be validated. "The daughter of a guy sitting in such a high position, kidnapped by a rogue?"
Tim listened calmly and murmured, "I guess it's not that hard, at least not as hard as it seems." Then, turning to Wawe with interest, he said, "But I wonder, has the rogue killed her?"
Wawe replied, "But no body has been found." While pulling out a chair from the table, he added, "And one more thing, it must definitely be someone from the inside. How would you do this from outside?"
"So, you're saying an attack on the daughter of someone in a position cannot be done from afar," Tim assessed this in a very ordinary way in his head. Wawe shifted his position in the chair. "Do you have questions in your mind?"
"Not many," Tim said, hooking his finger through a metal hoop. He played with it for a while. "Maybe this guy isn't a rogue but rather a very smart person. Plus, don't forget that someone from outside has more advantages than someone inside who is confused."
Wawe looked uncertain. "Still, it doesn't sound logical," he mumbled.
Tim began to speak at a medium volume. "What is logic?" The metal ring slipped from his fingertip. "One truth can obliterate it."
"Did you hear? Mrs. Carlton has been kidnapped."
"How so? The one named Marie?"
"Marie Carlton," replied the kid who had been telling everyone what he had heard since the morning. He was emphasizing the same point for the hundred and first time.
"In broad daylight, and no one…" He paused here for effect. "Never! We've never been able to hear from her again." Wawe and Tim entered the classroom side by side.
Among the crowd inside, Jenny leaned against the radiator; she was scanning the surroundings with her bright green eyes.
She wore a white sweater with pink sleeves. One of the curves of her skirt had fallen to her calf. When she saw Tim, she separated her hip from the radiator and approached her seat in a few steps.
Her short Mary Jane heels were tapping on the floor. As Tim sat down in the chair right next to him, he said, "Hi." Wawe, after watching them closely, returned to his phone screen.
Jenny smiled with her pink lips. "You look unhappy today."
As Tim's eyes narrowed in surprise, he replied, "Not at all." "But if we set that aside, maybe you'll allow me to ask you a question." Jenny became curious, and a blush spread across her cheeks. "Ask." Her voice was hushed.
"Why are you always so beautiful?"
Jenny completely blushed and hid her face. "A compliment?" she asked, pleased.
"That's just you. You were telling me the truth about being good," she said, resting her hands on Tim's left knee.
Wawe said, "The professor is here," and Jenny pulled her hands away and leaned back. The clock showed exactly nine o'clock.
The professor entered with his black fedora and drew a few compounds on the board. "Chemistry is simple for fourth-year students," he added, smacking his lips.
The marks left by the pen he quickly slid across the board created a focus in the classroom.
Tim looked at the compounds on the board with just a blank expression. "I don't know," he whispered to Jenny.
The girl withdrew her hand from her chin and looked into Tim's blue eyes. Inside were circles extending to infinity.
"Then how were you so successful in the last exam?" Her voice was calm and curious. Tim replied happily, "I memorized everything on the last day."
While Jenny raised one eyebrow in interest, she whispered, "I've been studying since the beginning of the school year, but I got a twenty, Tim. Are you telling me the truth?"
Tim's blue eyes sparkled. "I have a method; if you want, I can share it with you." He had an excited demeanor.
"During the break," Jenny said with a smile.
"During the break," Tim repeated.
A group of students gathered in the corridor, discussing the news displayed on the screen. They completely filled the space, occupying all the tables in the cafeteria.
As Jenny scanned the crowd, Tim wore a similar expression. "It's always stuffy in here when it's this crowded."
"True," Jenny replied. "But will you wait for me to get a chocolate?"
"No, I'll go instead and get it for you," Tim said confidently.
Jenny blushed again, "Then make it milk hazelnut."
Tim then entered through the hot cafeteria door. As he observed the long line, Jenny was just a few steps away. "Are you really going to get a chocolate by enduring this line?" Tim asked.
She thought for a moment at his question. "The line goes quickly."
"But I still wonder if it's worth it," Tim said with a cheeky smile. "Wait here."
His voice was reassuring.
After glancing at the long queue, he walked straight through all the people and dropped the money on the table next to the boy at the front of the line. "Milk hazelnut chocolate."
As sounds emerged from the crowd, Tim turned his head with satisfaction. Just behind him, the boy he had passed glared at him angrily.
"I'm next in line."
"But I'm here too."
"Don't stretch it," the angry boy said. "I was here first."
"But you made up this line on your own. There's no sign saying 'wait in line' here." He seemed proud to demonstrate that there were no signs around. "So you invented a line in your heads."
The boy, seemingly out of patience, elbowed Tim's arm. "Move," he said through gritted teeth. The cafeteria attendant didn't want any trouble.
Therefore, he left the chocolate on the counter and took the money. Tim made positive eye contact with the boy and reached for the chocolate package.
Jenny was on her tiptoes, trying to see what was happening from a distance. Tim stepped forward and closed the distance between them in a few steps. "Here's your chocolate."
Jenny was thinking about the sounds that had just come out. "How did you come back so quickly?"
"I didn't wait in line." Tim spoke bluntly.
"But," Jenny said, "this..."
"Look. You know what? There are always people who step in to fix things, right?" Jenny was silent as she opened the chocolate package and took a bite. Chocolate crumbs smeared her lips. "The cafeteria attendant?" she said, voicing her observations.
"Yes, there are always people doing good deeds to cover up injustices. So those who commit injustice always win. But the woman, if she had wanted to disrupt her comfort, could have sent me to the back of the line. Still, her only concern was to end the argument."
Jenny held onto his deep, meaningful blue eyes. With the taste of chocolate in her mouth, her eyes closed, then slowly opened again with a weight.
"So what's your method? The one you use during exams."
"Ah, the study method." Jenny shook her head. "Are you doing injustice there too?" She said this partly as a joke.
Tim responded to her joke by saying, "People have invented something called studying," he said. "But there are easier ways to achieve it."
"Cheating?" Jenny suggested the word.
"No, that's a hard way. The easy thing is to develop a method." He leaned back against the window. "You determine a method and always use the same one."
Taking another bite of the chocolate, Jenny asked. "What's that method?" She crossed one leg over the other, her mesh skirt swaying.
The sounds coming from the corridor suddenly drew her attention to the door.
"Using the shorter route." A group entered the cafeteria and started talking about the exam. Jenny pulled her gaze away from each of them. Her head seemed confused, and she licked her lips.
"But how will I know this?"
"Smelling it. Just like how a rat finds cheese. It has no idea where it is. It just gets hungry and starts walking. Then it senses the smell and takes a bite of the cheese."
Jenny smiled in surprise and tucked her hair behind her ear. "Oh, yes." She crumpled the package in her hand and tossed it in the trash. "Interesting thought. But..."
Tim was focused on this word "but." "Ask whatever you want," he said, crossing his arms over his chest. The metal ring dangled down towards his chest.
"When a mouse finds cheese, it usually dies. Mouse trap!" Jenny said.
"So, if it eats every cheese it finds, there will be a problem." Tim was pleased to have dampened her curiosity.
After a moment of thought, he murmured, "You ask beautiful questions, Jenny."
His tone was provocative. Jenny felt her thighs tighten, taking a deep breath. "So you have an answer," she said quietly.
"The thing is, mice only smell and find the cheese. They probably can't understand that it's a trap because they can't think cleverly. So, they can't distinguish between hunger and danger. But if they were good at this, they wouldn't die when they eat the cheese."
"So you're saying they would know if it's a trap." She nodded slightly. "But how possible is that?"
Tim uncrossed his arms. "Very possible," he said.
"It eats a bit of the cheese, then runs away and dies somewhere else. The remaining cheese is eaten by others, and they die there. The main mouse escapes, while the other mice get caught. How?"
Jenny's smile faded.
"Jenny..." Tim whispered in a masculine tone. "I have an invitation for you."
Although Jenny tried to force a smile, she couldn't do it well. "We should go to class," she said and turned away.
She had her hands tucked into her arms. Tim continued as soon as he stopped. "There's a party tonight at Conrad's. Will you find me? We'll have a lot of fun."