Chapter 5: Free Therapy Session

The email was, to say the least, brilliant.

It contained a list of his proposed topics for their thesis—complete with the problem, its background, and his proposed ways to mend the problem. There were also some case studies with supporting materials. There were ten proposals. She read through all of them and was thoroughly impressed.

They were interesting, unique, and meticulous proposals. They could win as the best thesis for each one of these. They could land the top marks if the results were just as interesting as the study.

However, she couldn’t help but list down each proposal’s flaws. New and fresh, yes, but they had their own reasons as to why they weren’t studied enough, or why his proposed solutions won’t work. He was smart. But she was smarter.

She starts typing her reply, commenting on every proposal, and articulating her thoughts as best as she could. Now that she knows her partner is actually competent, perhaps just a little slow, she is relieved. His proposals were also impressive, and she just needs to enhance a few to narrow down their choices.

Thankfully, he replied fast after. They continued to talk through email for the rest of the night, just planning their thesis, until they agreed on one topic and distributed parts for it. They were pretty cordial and had coordinated thoughts.

He was not so bad**,** she thought, leaning back on her chair and stretching. Anna’s eyes gloss over the wall clock to her right, to which she takes a double take to look at again after seeing the time. Her eyes widened. It’s already 2am?!

She stood up in alarm.

She has class at 7! And she hasn’t slept a wink yet!

Anna, in a panic, slams her laptop down and ignores another reply from Max as she flies to her bed. She’s not a woman of many weaknesses, in fact, she only has a handful. Unfortunately, among those weaknesses is her inability to function with a lack of sleep.

Anna is physically weak. She herself knows that. If she doesn’t secure atleast five hours of sleep, she will be like an undead the next morning. Her health only declined as she got older. She’s forgetful, clumsy, and impulsive when faced with little to no sleep. Especially after night missions.

It’s as if she can’t handle too much fatigue.

Whenever she’s extremely tired, she feels as if her system is shutting down. She’d tried various methods to return to good health but to no avail. The people around her say she’s strong and special, the last of her kind, yet her body feels so weak. It collapses in the face of extreme fatigue, and can’t handle sleepless nights lest she wants to faint.

How ironic.

—

The next day, Anna found herself in front of the building of Law, looking up at the state’s top law school with a blank face.

She never imagined she’d find her way to this place, but here she is.

How will she even get close to him? They have exactly nothing in common. He’s into law, while she’s into psychology. Although psychology is a subject they study in law, she’s not at all interested in legal affairs. She doubts they have something to talk about. She stared at the building for a while, standing motionlessly in the middle of the gates, gripping her binder on her arm.

Getting close to your target is always the difficult part.

“Are you looking for someone?”

A voice shook her out of her reverie. Her eyes smoothly glide to her right, where she finds a chic blonde looking at her. Anna scans the woman—short, petite, youthful face—and finds the pile of books on her arms. Almost all are about laws. An obvious law student. Someone that belongs here.

Yet, her voice was cheerful and innocent, her stare pure and kind.

“Yes, actually. Do you know Yezekael Ferrer?” She straightforwardly asks, catching the woman off-guard. Anna doesn’t miss the tinge of pink creeping up the girl’s cheeks from her neck.

“Ah… him? Y-Yes, we’re block mates,” she replies, her tone almost an octave higher. Anna was no fool to recognize the shift in her demeanor. She likes him—that much was obvious. “I think I saw him in the cafeteria last. W-Why?”

Anna weighed her answer for a while. She wondered how to come up with a lie believable enough, but wouldn’t get her in danger.

“I’m from the psychology department. I came here to offer a free therapy session.”

That was nice. An answer she never would’ve suspected is a lie, but wouldn’t aggravate Yezekael too if he happens to hear about it. Not to mention it’ll be a funny little rumor going around, too.

This is why she chose Psychology—to be a menace to society.

“Huh?” The woman gaped at her, struck with shock, and stood still for a few seconds. She bit back the smirk with a subtle twitch of her mouth.

“Well, I’ll get going,” Anna informs her, “If you could just tell me which way is the cafeteria…”

She slowly points left, her mouth slightly agape.

“Great. A pleasure to meet you, miss.” And just like that, she dips. She heads to the cafeteria, her mind still not sure why she’s already striding straight into her target’s den. She hasn’t researched a single thing about him except for what was presented last night.

All she knew was that she wanted to finish this mission quickly, so she can end this uncomfortable feeling of getting undercover work done in her school. It’s so strange, acting like an agent in a place where she should be acting like a true 21-year-old—a college student.

Thus, she wants to end this early.

Heck, she doesn’t even have Rica on standby. She left her in-ears at the apartment, so she can’t really do anything else but to act casually. Thus her therapy alibi earlier. If that was considered casual. At the very least, it’s nowhere near what Agent Anna would say.

She walked for a few more minutes before finding the cafeteria, a small hall for dining. It’s obvious they don’t value eating here as much as they do studying, after passing by libraries much larger than this meager dining hall.

Though, it has its advantages, such as easily spotting the brooding man at the center of the biggest table in the room, filled with a large group of a rather bizarre mix of nerds and jocks. She belatedly realized he was a nerdy jock himself, being a law student and rugby athlete at the same time. Though the term is more famous in high school, college has its own cliques.

Their particular clique is strange. There were a bunch of muscular men around lanky guys with glasses, yet they were all conversing and mixing in naturally. And he was in the middle, a black-haired muscular guy in specs. His white long-sleeves were neatly folded up to his elbows as he quietly ate pasta, pushing the frame of his glasses up his nose every time they slide down when he leans into his plate. He had tattoos too. Long, swirly, and tribal ones from his neck and down to his forearms, undoubtedly covering the entirety of his right arm.

Anna was particularly enamored by the irony of his gentle actions which were a stark contrast to his rough appearance, and the mix of sadness and nonchalance on his face as he blatantly ignores the chatter of his friends around him.

How interesting…

He truly looked like he was in mourning.

Like he was breaking inside but wouldn’t let it show. But she can see it. She can see him**.**

Anna blinks, realizing she’d been staring for too long. She realizes she can’t possibly approach him with such a big crowd around him, so she takes a step back and turns on her heel, utterly squandering her first visit.

She ignores the irregular hammering of her heart.