The hall was packed with students and staff for the Orientation Ceremony; that were seated before the stage in multiple rows, listening to the Dean address his audience regarding University Protocols in a monologue, since the past 15 minutes.

In the third row, Mateen sat alongside Ammar, who was busy typing away on his phone furiously; in continuation of a lover's spat he had started with his girlfriend Farah, last night; who still wasn't ready to let go of the fact that he'd ditched her at the party to leave with his friends.

Swearing under his breath, he shoved his phone back in his jackets' pocket.

"I swear—I am getting sick and tired of her shit, now!" He muttered through clenched teeth, ending in a long exasperated sigh.

Mateen barely acknowledged his statement with a mere glance, before returning his attention towards the row in front. Ammar was quick to catch up on the subject of his friends' attention and followed his gaze to find it fixated on the back of a girl, whose hair was covered in a white Dupatta.

"Oh. Isn't that her—?" Ammar added in a bored tone while eyeing towards the seat, two rows ahead of them. Mateen sat with his long legs sprawled in front of him, while lazily eyeing her. He didn't take his eyes off of her, even as Ammar continued beside him.

"—Heard she was the Board topper for the last 4 years and came in first in entrance exam, too. She's here on full financial aid—" Mateen kept his gaze fixated on her the whole while, listening to Ammar go on beside him.

"One of those typical Middle class family situation—Death of father in early childhood with single Mom raising children. The same old, usual, tragic story—But, still can't believe this beat you." Before Ammar could finish, she had turned her head towards the girl sitting beside her and they caught a glimpse of her side profile.

"Hate to admit it—but pretty cute for a destitute—" Mateen didn't tear his gaze away from her until he heard Ammar say the last bit. Already, this girl had managed to catch his attention for more than one reason and the last bit had made his interest peak up even more.

"Yeah—Doesn't it make you want to mess her up, so bad—" Mateen added slowly, with a glint in his eyes and finally looked away from her to meet Ammar's gaze, who was watching the Dean with disinterest and boredom. His hands stuffed in the pockets of his jacket grumpily, until, hearing Mateen's words made a chill of excitement run down his spine. He'd finally turned in Mateen's direction to find his gaze fixated on her once again; a sardonic smile playing across his lips. For a moment Ammar didn't say anything, as if gathering his thoughts and then without looking in his friends' direction, he carelessly shrugged his shoulders.

"Whatever you're thinking, I am in—" Ammar added without a second thought and didn't miss the small huff escaping Mateen's lips as he pushed back in his seat; crossing his arms over his chest.

"—Only, if you wager your Porsche 911." Ammar finished, without the slightest hint of glee.

"Fine. Then you can put your Lamborghini Aventador SVJ, at stake; which your old man gifted you." Mateen added lazily, without missing a beat.

"You dirty bastard." Ammar turned to him with a lazy grin and caught Mateen shrugging his shoulders in self-appraisal.

"Can't help it, if you're born that way—" He ended carelessly.

——————————————

They were making way towards their respective vehicles, following the end of ceremony, when a familiar face caught Mateen's attention from a short distance and he immediately stopped in his tracks. He swore under his breath and had just begun to turn away, when that person's voice prevented him from taking even one step further.

"Mr. Abbasi—I am here for you, on your father's order." The man appearing to be in his early 40s, cladded in a formal black 3-piece attire, called out loudly; without moving an inch from his place. There was surety in his manner and he seemed pretty relaxed about carrying out the duty he was entrusted with.

"Busted." Ammar remarked casually, without looking at Mateen and began making way towards the steely man.

"Good afternoon, Noman. Working hard today too, I see." Ammar continued animatedly, while shaking hands with the familiar man. With a curt nod, the man called, Noman; stiffly took Ammar's hand and returned his greeting in a clipped tone.

"Good day to you too, Mr. Effandi. Belated Felicitations on starting a new journey." Ammar acknowledged his remarks with a scoff.

"Yeah—Thankyou, very much." Ammar returned without any hint of gratitude and turned to leave, when he saw Mateen coming to stand beside him.

"I drove my bike here—I'll come myself. You can go ahead—" Mateen remarked blankly , when Noman interrupted him by holding out his hand in front of him.

"I'll take care of it for you, Sir. If you please—" He returned without missing a beat. Mateen heard Ammar snickering beside him before he began to pat his back.

"See you later tonight, dude. Have fun—" with your wife. Ammar added just for Mateen's ears; in reference to Noman, who was one of Mateens' Dad's personal assistant; reserved specifically for carrying out tasks linked with Mateen.

Rolling his eyes at the retreating back of his childhood friend, Mateen begrudgingly eyed Noman before shoving his bike keys in the hand outstretched towards him.

"—The party starts at sharp 6:30pm and you'll enter by 7pm—" Mateen heard him go on broodingly, while getting comfortable in the backseat of the car. That's when his gaze fell on her, who was walking along the footpath towards the gate. Her labcoat carefully draped over her one arm, while she shielded her face from the scorching sun with the other; seemingly oblivious of her surroundings. Mateen watched her for as long as she was in his view. A foul and malicious thought already birthed in the pits of his soul.

'Let's see how unbreakable you really are, Miss Hajra—'

The ominous thought flashed across the screens of his mind, before he averted his gaze and closed his eyes; lying back on the seat, in pretence of sleeping. Hoping this would finally make Noman shut-up.

—————————————

The steel gate creaked at its hinges, as she pushed it back and stepped into the house.

"Assalamualaikum!" She greeted to no one in particular but recieved a reply from Hassan sitting with his books sprawled in front of him, on one side of the courtyard.

"Walaikumusalam Aapa—How was your day?" The 14 year old Hassan inquired with a smile, while craning his neck to meet his sister's gaze. Hajra smiled in response, while pulling away the white chadar draped around her. Her hair sticking to her forehead from the sweat, caused by bustling from bus to bus in the past 1 hour to reach home from her university.

"Alhumdulillah. Where's Mamma? Is Hussain sleeping?" She came forward and called out from the kitchen, while putting down the vegetables on kitchen counter.

"Mamma had to stay back for some staff meeting and Hussain is almost awake—" Hassan returned in a flow, while giving information about his twin. His gaze fixated on the 9th grade Mathematics book infront of him, while he scribbled down his sums quickly in a notebook.

"You should've slept too, Hassan—" Hajra returned in a concern filled voice, while coming out of the kitchen and standing over her little brother. He only looked up to smile at her before responding with a shrug.

"I wanted to finish this before the kids came over for their tuition class—I'll sleep at night, Aapa." He suggested helpfully to ease his sisters' worry, but it was futile. Hajra knew it was pointless to stop either of her brothers from pushing themselves too hard. One time, she had tried telling them off, but they politely refused by saying they couldn't just sit idly and let their sister and Mother run around, killing themselves for their sakes.

Despite their hardships, they were living a fulfilling life. The money from their Mother's teaching career at a Govt University; which she had resumed right after their father's death, combined with the small amount of allowance coming from the Police department for their father was sufficient to make their ends meet. Yet, Hajra and her brothers had taken up tutoring to help lighten their Mother's burden. It was because of something that her father and later on her mother always told them.

"Their is 'Barakah' in honest earning. Money earned through honest work, no matter how small is better than holding out hands in front of other people. So what, if you have to work extra hard than others around you? One day you too will reach up to where you wish, if you remain committed to your purpose, without deviating from Allah's commandments—" She would say and they would drink up her words like a wanderer lost on desert.

With a pat on top of his head, she turned away; but not before calling out over her shoulder.

"I'll freshen up and start with lunch—" He only hummed in response as she disappeared behind her door.

———————————————

"Okay! Divide into batches and start your spotting—" The Demonstrator announced, while clapping his hand to gain everyone's attention; as they hurdled around the cadavers in dissection hall.

Hajra went over to one group with Aymen by her side and was soon after joined by Mateen and Ammar. While others had already begun to poke through the dead person's body in search of nerves and arteries—Mateen caught the sight of Hajra standing over to a side, with her eyes closed and hands clenched into fists on her either sides.

He sneaked a glance at Ammar who returned with a smirk, waiting for Hajra to pass out any moment from the stench and sight of dead bodies. Until, she finally opened her eyes and began putting on her gloves. In no time, she had come up to the centre of the circle and begun leading up the demonstration, while helping out her peers.

Mateen watched this sight play out in front of him with a hint of growing interest. This ordinary girl, kept turning down his every assumption about her. It was making him feel something akin to annoyance for the first time in his life—repeatedly, on that. More and more he kept getting this feeling of wanting to crush her beneath his feet and trample all over her. That, just might be able to give him a sense of more than plain and usual apathy.

Throughout the demonstration, he tried catching her eye but she wouldn't take the bait. But he didn't worry to much. For him, it wouldn't be all that hard to deal with a small fry of this sort. Plus, he had already made up his mind to take his sweet time to savour her torment.

"—which one was the axillary nerve, again?" He inquired randomly and expected her to answer but some other girl returned with a reply. However, when he looked up, their eyes met accidentally. Instantly, he felt his heart skip a beat, as he caught her looking back at him with surprise filled eyes. Involuntarily, his mouth opened but before he could exhale a breath, she had turned away abruptly.

For a moment, he stood in his place, dazed; until a nudge to his side by Ammar brought him out of his delirium. With a slight shake of head, he brushed away whatever unfamiliar thoughts, were trying to crawl up to his head and returned his attention back to the task on hand.

"Hi—" He greeted with a small smile while coming to stand beside her; who was standing alone to one side, busy scribbling in her notebook. At his voice, Hajra looked up and Mateen barely caught himself from getting pulled into those deep, piercing, eyes; which emanated innocence and honesty.

"Mateen—" He casually introduced himself, when she didn't say anything even as moments passed.

"Can I help you?" She returned blatantly, without any hint of emotion and Mateen felt his eyebrows raising slightly at this unexpected response or rather a lack of it.

"Quite the opposite, actually—I was wondering if I could help you in anyway; in case those seniors pestered you again—" He continued smoothly, gazing directly into her eyes. All the more so, because he could see the apparent discomfort on her face because of his close proximity and his unabashed eye contact. However, despite the expertise of his actions, he couldn't finish because she had turned away abruptly, after cutting him off.

"No. And thankyou for your concern, but I can take care of myself—" She returned coldly and didn't wait to hear his reply before gathering her things and walking away.

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