"Miss Mashal Abbasi to the Principal's office. I repeat—" The sound on speaker rang through the School Premises and Mashal looked away from the board to hear her classmates snicker.

"Ohh—Looks like GEEK here has been upto no good—" A guy sitting on seat next to hers, mocked loudly and others around him joined in excitedly. Very well knowing what it could be about; she stood up, adjusting her spectacles.

Some half an hour later, she'd walked out of the Principal's office with a headache and dampened spirits.

"I am sure you might've a clue as to what this is going to be about—" The Principal went on in a strict and matter of fact tone; while Mashal kept her head down with eyes fixated to scraping the skin around her fingernail.

"It's not my place to comment on any parents way of upbringing their child—however, I can't help but see signs of serious neglect with Mateen." Mashal continued to inflict assault on herself, now switching to biting on the inside of her cheek.

"Yesterday, Shaheer; Mateen's classmate, accidentally spilled water on his notebook and even apologised profusely for his mistake. Next thing we know, Shaheer's notebook is all torn up and thrown away in dustbin—" Exhaling a soft tired breath; 14 year old Mashal silently listened to complaints about her 7 year old baby brother.

"—When the teacher asked Mateen about it, he blatantly admitted to the crime without any signs of remorse, whatsoever. Instead asked us, shouldn't his sorry be enough to make up for the mistake, too—?" Madam Safeena cried out exasperated. She appeared to be at her wits end, from constant complaints coming from different parents about one thing or another Mateen did to their child.

"According to your genius brother, Miss Mashal, he simply wished to show everyone how pointless the concept of apology was. Does this make any sense? Is this what he is being taught at home? A child of mere 7 years age, can't fathom the concept of forgiveness? Shaheer's parents are furious and are demanding an explanation from me for this inconceivable behaviour! And whenever we try to get in touch with your parents they are too busy to take any notice. I don't understand what exactly are they doing or why—"

The Principal's words kept ringing in her head as she made way to her brother's class. Heaving a big breath and plastering a smile on her face, she pushed open the door to his class; and easily spotted Mateen playing in the back with Ammar and other kids.

"Mateen! Your sister is here—" Some kid called out to him and immediately a smile erupted on his face as he snapped his head to meet her gaze.

"Mushy!" He called out exhilarated, before running up to her, who had already squatted down to his level to let Mateen jump into her outstretched arms.

"What's my Big Man upto?" She teased, while finger combing the hair falling on his forehead.

"Why are you here? It's not your break time, yet." He questioned suspiciously and she stood up with a smile.

"I had some errands to run in your building—" She gave an excuse, which he didn't buy at all.

"Let's stop by the Arcade on way back home, today. Okay?" Mateen's eyes widened in surprise, before he jumped up in joy. Mashal softly chuckled at the sight of his baby brother and tried to not let her worries weigh her down. But unfortunately, things were only destined to get worse.

———————————

Mateen walked into the classroom and immediately spotted Hajra sitting in the front row; laughing at something her friend was telling her. He watched her with a growing smirk, momentarily; before crossing over the room to reach her.

"Hello." He greeted and without waiting for her to notice him, sat down on the bench beside her. Hajra turned to gape at him astonished.

"You don't mind if I sit here, do you?" His inquiry wasn't at all an inquisition. The self assured grin on his face was telling them that whatever they chose as their answer, it wouldn't have much of an effect on his decision to stay or leave. Hajra stared at him with eyes seeking bloodshed. She'd had enough of his bullying and sooner or later she was going to explode in the worst possible way.

"Come on, Bug. Where's your sportsmanship? We are at the end of year now. Shouldn't you let go of old grudges now? We can be good friends." His lips were smiling and his words were light and friendly. Yet, Hajra couldn't see past the piercing cold look in his gaze, since the first time she had caught sight of those eyes. With a blank look and hardened face, she continued to regard this person with disdain, who was comfortably sitting a few feet from her and cordially offering his friendship.

Without saying another word, she looked away through knitted brows and clenched teeth.

"There's a story...I heard in my childhood. You must be aware of it too. Little Red Riding Hood." She spoke in a steady and calm voice, without meeting his gaze. Mateen watched her sitting up straight with hands knotted on the table in front of her. A slow smirk formed across his face, as he impatiently awaited her next words.

"—but at that little age, I couldn't fathom how stupid and blind a person had to be, to not be able to distinguish between a human and a monster, despite having perfectly good eyesight—" She seemingly appeared perplexed, as she looked at anything but him with a frown. Mateen's smile grew wider. He was ecstatic to have been right! Just as he'd suspected, Hajra didn't disappoint him. Until he met her, Mateen had never come across someone who could compete with him or match his level of crazy. But on every turn, Hajra would meet his challenge head on; so powerfully, that by the end, Mateen would find himself throughly entertained and craving for more.

"I never quite understood the point of first tale, you see. But after hearing about another tale of, Wolf in Sheep's Clothing and his tragic demise; I thought, Ah—! Now, I get it!" She turned in her seat to catch a look of utter exhilaration on Mateen's face; who appeared to be hanging onto every single word coming out of her mouth.

"—For all of the wolf's cleverness and cunningness in both stories, he might've been able to fool those naive and foolish people; who failed to see past his facade and monstrosity—Yet, fortunately in the end, the wolf had still met his rightful tragic demise." She paused at this point, to gulp down the bile rising in the back of her throat; from watching the look of gleam and raw pleasure floating in Mateen's eyes. Like always, he was watching her with that unshamed and unapologetic coldblooded gaze. She didn't know how to explain it, but she'd always found something lacking in his gaze—something very important; almost humanly.

"Brilliant tales with satisfactory morals, don't you think? A befitting message still relevant in today's time—" The eyes looking back at Mateen were simmering with abhorrence. He could practically see the wave of resentment crashing through her existence, as she looked down at him with disgust laced in every single word escaping her lips.

His lips twitched from suppressed mirth and now that she had finally finished, he could finally release the repressed laughter, with a roaring chortle. His head fell back from laughing so hard that even tears began to sting the corner of his eyes. Mateen clutched at his stomach in pain, while Hajra looked down at him with a sense of loath and indifference coursing through her veins. Unexpectedly, his reaction didn't surprise her at all. It definitely made her hate him even more than before; something she didn't think was conceivable by this point.

The whole class had stopped to witness this scene developing before them. There was pin-drop silence for a few seconds and the only sound echoing through the hall room was, Mateen's fits of hilarity.

"Good God, Bug! You're such a dose of entertainment!  You best watch it, or I might just decide to keep you for myself—!" He finally managed to say in between gasps for breath, while wiping  the corner of his eyes.

There was a lot Hajra could say, in response to his unhinged actions but she didn't. Instead, she collected her things and came to sit on the bench above hers. Shortly afterwards, Mateen had returned to his place too, right after the Professor's appearance.

————————————

"—I've heard so much about their Continental
Cuisine. They've got international chefs. Mateen, do you like Continental?" Seemab turned to look up at him with doe eyes and honey dripping voice. Her one hand had automatically come up to rest at Mateen's top arm. He immediately stopped in his tracks from the contact, causing Seemab to look at him with brimming hope. She was the Class's most popular girl—both among girls and guys and as course of things went by, she was obviously suited to be with the best guy in class.

Mateen eyed her hand with a look of revulsion and when she didn't pull away even after a few seconds; he slowly turned his eyes to look up at her through raised brows. His expressions cold and merciless, as he peered down at her face.

"Get. your. hand. off. of. me." His voice was laced with disgust, when he declared hotly through clenched teeth. Immediately she jerked her hand away, as if she had come into contact with a hot furnace. Mateen looked away from her, with visible contempt and began making way towards Ammar who had witnessed this event of routine, with boredom.

However, before he could reach him, Mateen's eyes had caught on to something that made his heart skip a beat, unexpectedly. He surprisingly felt an unknown sense of delight, on spotting her out of blue.

It had been a few weeks since end of their 1st Professional exams and they had returned from their vacations, only a few days ago. Right now, Mateen and Ammar were going out on bunk with the rest of their group. As per everyone's expectations, Hajra had managed to top her class, with Mateen coming up as second runner up. However, upon returning, he hadn't seen Hajra; who had taken ill and was on a few days leave. Even without that, their class had divided into different batches and it was hard to meet, unless they had a consecutive lecture together.

Hence, suddenly running into her by chance, had caused Mateen to feel a strange and puzzling feeling of delight. And before he knew it, he was walking away from his crowd with quick steps.

"Mateen! Dude we are leaving—!" Ammar called out, but Mateen's legs had broken into a sprint on their own, when he caught sight of Hajra leaving.

Ammar stood there perplexed, watching him leave. Since childhood, he could never completely see through Mateen. What he thought, what he did—why he did—He could never understand it, despite being his closest confidante. But for an odd reason, seeing this peculiar sight unfolding before him, Ammar had the most unexpected realisation.

'They were same. They both were the most odd human beings, he had ever come across. And the most extraordinary part was, how quickly they saw through each other's thoughts and actions. Like they knew—exactly, what the other person was thinking and why—Yet, despite it all; unfortunately, those two couldn't have been more different from each other and even more than that, their mutual hatred and individual reasons for it; would under no circumstances allow them to see each other as anything more than a nemesis—Their sole wish was either to crush—or get away from—the other. Maybe it would've been best, if they'd never met. But then again, maybe they were waiting their whole lives to collide with eachother—'

"And look who has finally decided to show up! Our very own, Topper Bug!" Mateen exclaimed cheekily, walking by her side; who had exhaled an exasperated huff at his very sight and immediately tried to change her path.

"What do you want?" Hajra returned annoyed, without the slightest hint of interest.

"You ought to be nicer to me, you know? If I didn't give you such a tough competition, you wouldn't have tried so hard and got in first. Anyways, the least you could do is pretend to show a little happiness on seeing your archenemy after so long—"

"It hasn't been that long, unfortunately. I'll be highly grateful, if I got lucky enough to never come across your face again—" She returned tired, without glimpsing in his direction.

"Careful what you wish for, Bug. Or you might realise a little too late, that you've gotten more than you bargained for—" He was going on in that same cheeky manner, when Hajra turned on her heel to reprimand him; but suddenly missed her footing and almost slipped down the stairs.

"Hajra!" Mateen cried out urgently and had reflexively caught onto top of her arm before pulling her back to safety.

"Watch—" He couldn't finish, because Hajra had coldly jerked off his grip on her.

"GOD! STOP following me! I am so sick and tired of your harassment! Just get away from me!" She screamed enraged, through gritted teeth. Her face was red with fury and before Mateen could get another word out, Hajra had turned away from him with disgust brimming in her eyes.

Mateen could do nothing, besides standing in his place and watching between the anger emanating from her figure descending the stairs and his outstretched hand that had caught onto her, for the merest of second, before she disappeared.

ASSALAMUALAIKUM! Hope you enjoyed the update! Don't forget to vote and share your thoughts😘❤️