Kento is taken aback by this change in plans and asks Saif, "What?! Wasn't this... (He stops himself and then slightly whispers), wasn't this a kind of scam?" Saif tells him that it is still, but as the guy and him are from the East district, he was able to talk some sense into him and get the ride for just 15 Nuro. Kento is suprised that you could even negotiate prices with taxi drivers, and to that, Saif laughs and Kento doesn't understand why. Saif and Kento then sit inside the taxi and the guy start drive off. Saif quickly pulls out his phone and tries to look busy so he doesn't engage in conversation with Kento. He thought it was a good plan, as no sane person will talk to someone who is busy on their phone, plus, if he does and actually talks, Saif can easily end the conversation in a small reply and it won't be awkward. It was working for a while and a sense of relief went over Saif as now he can just relax for a minute and not need to socialise. Then suddenly, the taxi driver starts talking to Saif. A sense of dread falls upon Saif as he realises his one of his worse social fears is upon him. Talkative taxi drivers.
He isn't a stranger to talking to taxi drivers while being a ride every now and then, but he likes when most of the ride is silent, but from the tone of the guy, he sounds extremely talkative. The reason Saif wasn't so found of these talks is because of how awkward they can become sometimes with how forced the conversations can be, but from the sound of things, he felt that this guy might not be as stale as the other drivers he has faced in the past. The guy then asks Saif in Arabic what class he is aiming for when getting into Grandviville. Saif, without any hesitation says that he obviously was aiming for the A class. The guy is suprised but proud to see such determined youth. (The guy looks like he is a middle aged man with white hair starting to form on his head and slight facial hair. Sorry for not describing how he looked last chapter. My bad.). The guy then asked about Saif's power and what he wanted to learn in Grandviville. Saif replies back with how his power is to vibrate, but for what he wanted to improve, he said that its Grandviville's job to figure out that. They both then laugh. Kento is sitting there a bit awkwardly, again they talk in Arabic and he has no idea what they are saying.
Saif then remembered he needed to call his mum before getting to Grandviville as the signal there would be bad due to the sheer amount of people, so he needs to call her now before getting any closer. As Saif is calling and talking to his mother about how he is okay and is able to head into Grandviville and how excited he is. Kento noticed that the taxi driver was giving him some side eyes from the rearview. This gets Kento a little uncomfortable and he gets to be a little tense because of it. After Saif is done talking to his mum and says his goodbyes, he tells asks her to call his dad for him as he can't as the line is about to cut. After that, Saif says goodbye once more and hangs up the phone. Kento then tired using this opportunity to start a conversation with Saif, and using every ounce of curge he had, he was about to say something, but before he let out the first word, he gets talked over by the driver. He asked Saif about if he heard how so many 11 family members are going to take the test too. Kento looks down as he feels disappointed that his opportunity is gone after he built up so much curge. Saif replies back in Arabic with, "Yeah, I heard. I still don't get why they take their exam with everyone else on the same day. It just doesn't make sense at all why they don't just take it another day, or just spare all the formalities and just enter Grandviville, like they can't just do that, you know." The guy laughed at his reply and exclaimed how true that was, but how they are the 11 families and are probably trying to show their superiority one way or another.
Kento felt disappointed that he couldn't be part of the conversation at all and how he tried so hard to be heard, but was just not cared about. He looks outside on the window next to him as he was sitting on the right side of the taxi, but then hears Saif ask, "So, what were you saying man?" Kento's head spins back and he let's out a quizzical 'Hmm?', back to Saif. Saif asks him again about what he wanted to say to him, and Kento realised that Saif actually heard him when he tired to speak, and that shocked Kento, but relived him at the same time that he was actually heard. When Kento composes himself again, he finally said how he is also excited to finally take the test. It took what all Kento had to think of this conversation starter, as he was hopping after he enters Grandviville he would be able to get many friends this time and he wanted to be able to talk to them and be more social and less awkward, so in his room, he would practice conversation starters by himself, and it finally paid off, but he was still stuttering on his words and being a little awkward while says his conversation starter, but mostly because he didn't expect to have actually be heard by Saif, so it completely took him by suprise.
Saif then replies back with the usual plain old 'Me too.', and then doesn't continue talking. Realising that he can't continue the conversation like this, Kento hurriedly tires to find another conversation starter to use. He then quickly tries to thinks of anything he could say and then stumbled upon a memory of a guy on WatchTube saying 'If you want to start a conversation from any situation, think of the context around you and try building ideas from there. Thanks for watching and don't forget to like and subscribe.' Kento quickly then thinks about there situation, but didn't give himself that much time to think and blurts out, "S-Say, that he did a good job at getting the fee to the taxi back at a fair price. (He said it while sweating and stuttering, imagine he said it like Kobeni from chainsaw man, but waaay less pathetic)" Kento is embarrassed that he blurted out his thoughts rather than making it a proper question. Saif is a little confused by this bit just ignores it thinking he miss heard him and just replies back with, "Yeah, it wasn't that hard with us both being from the East district. We from there have a type of bond, you know. When we find eachother in غربه, which means when we are outside the district or in an unknown place unfamiliar to us, if we find eachother, we usually always help one another" Kento is surprised by this fact, but is more happy and proud of himself for finally being able to start a conversation again. Kento then asks in a whisper why the man even scams people if he is so okay with changing the price. Saif replies back with, "Well, if I wasn't from the East district, he would have probably fought harder to keep the price the same, but either way, let me ask him why he even does it in the first place." Kento is taken aback by Saif's last statement and with a devious smile, he looks back at the driver as Kento is saying quickly in the background, 'No, no, no, don't!'
Saif then goes back to the driver, but this time talks to him in English and asks, "Why do you make the fee so high here man and scam people. That's not righteous at all, and remember, God is watching you know." Saif is taken aback by his own bluntness. In his head, he was going to just ask him slowly, but he just said it all at once, and he is now really embarrassed of himself. The driver seems to not take offence, which relieves Saif. He then replise in Arabic, "Well, son, here is the thing. A man like me has a lot of fees he needs to pay himself like rent for the car or it's maintenance, or rent for the house, or fees for school for my children or medication for my sickly mum. Kid, these days, nothing can really make you be able to pay off so much nowadays. Plus, these people here in district 1 don't really care if I charged them 60 or even 100 Nuro, because to them, it's like petty change, and as this is one of the busiest times of the year, is it so bad to capitalise on that fact just once a year." Saif understands his perspective, but this time in Arabic says, "I get that, but it's still sinful money if you get it in a sinful way." The guy replied, "Then what am I supposed to feed my children, huh? They need food on the table, and my mum needs her weekly medication that needs to be exported from district 4, so sbould I do? All of us drivers here need this money." Saif replies, "But at the end of the day, the food you serve them and the medication you give them will be a sinful one." The guy says back with a sigh, "Then may God forgive us all for what we needed to do out of desperation." Saif starts to feel sympathy for the guy. He knew better than anyone the bad economic state of the East district, and how worse it's becoming everyday. Flashes of past events flash into Saif's eyes, but he quickly dismisses due to how unpleasant they are. He then apologises if he will sound rude by saying this last part to the driver, "But can't you just work anything else or work something with this job?" The guy quickly replies while looking at him directly from the rearview mirror, "Kid. Do you think if I could have find another job, I wouldn't have taken it."
After feeling for the man, Saif says to him, "May God save us all and make the next days easy for us." The guy says Amen back to what Saif said. Kento is sitting there not understanding anything at all, but he can tell it has gotten a bit gloomy. He was able to tell for most of the conversation that it was just a slight bit forced from the beginning of the ride, but still it sounded more natural than forced, so the atmosphere was a bit lively than the shift it has currently taken. Saif then in Arabic apologised to the man if he was a bit rude by what he said and the man says, "No, no, no! Don't worry about it at all. I am glad that youth like you want to understand how the world works in other perspective, so I didn't take it personally." Saif replies back how he is glad, and right before they fall into awkward silence, he asks how long it will take them till Grandviville. The guy replies with, "Well, I won't be able to get you that close to it as the barrier squad will then probably catch on what we are doing. We try to lay low so that their focuse is on Grandviville and other parts of district 1 rather than us and giving us fines. So actually, I am about to drop you off as this is as far as I can take you. It won't be that far from the place and you will find crowds of people soon." Saif relies this piece of information to Kento in English and Kento nods in acknowledgement.