Her Friends Aren't Cool Enough Any Longer

The man gulped and sank into his chair. He did as he was asked. At the very end, he spoke in the softest voice he could muster. "Miss… your security deposit… you won't receive it because of the time you have been in the university. You must know, right?"

Anna smiled. "I don't care about it. Thank you."

Within half an hour, all the processes were done.

But as she walked out of the administration office, her phone started to ring continuously. She looked at the screen and saw the head of the department's number flashing. The news must have reached him already. Anna silenced her phone and walked slowly.

To her surprise, her feet led her in the direction of Ladislas' office, where she knew he would be. The other professors didn't have any classes that day, but Ladislas had taken up some substitute courses and needed to finish the syllabus urgently.

So, she knew he would be there.

She knocked on his door and waited until she heard his voice respond. "Come in," he said.

She was slower than usual as she opened the door. He looked at her with a bright smile on his face.

"What brings you to the university on your day off?" he asked.

She looked around the room one last time as she entered. "I had an errand in the administrative department and thought I should drop by," she said casually with a shrug.

"You're treating my office as a hang-out spot now? Why? Your friends aren't cool enough anymore?" he smirked.

Anna chuckled. "Right. Who would have thought that an old man like you would be so much cooler to hang out with." She rolled her eyes.

"Being ancient is the very reason I am so much fun to have around. I don't have contemporary morals and have seen too much to believe in one thing over the other. Am I not the best person to have around you when you need a word spar?" he asked.

She couldn't disagree with that. "Mind if I sit down for a few minutes? I'll leave before your next class starts." She looked at the class and saw that his next lecture was in fifteen minutes.

His eyes followed her gaze. His eyes glittered with delight when he understood what she meant. "You took a keen interest in my schedule, I see. You know it by heart."

Anna placed her elbows on his desk and propped her face on her palms as she drank in the sight of him sitting so carefree in his seat, ready to tease her.

"Isn't that obvious? I was being mentored by you for a time."

His eyes squinted, not satisfied by the response.

"I think you are interested in more than just your thesis," he countered slyly. When Anna remained silent, Ladislas continued. "You've been caught, Anna."

She snorted. "You had a few months to catch me. Sorry, you got it all wrong," she said honestly.

He raised his brow and nodded. "It takes centuries to understand another person completely. Then too, it's not possible. A mere couple of months is not enough to reveal everything about you. But what do you think about coffee as we get to know each other a little more?" he questioned.

Anna bit her lip. "Sure," she said quickly.

Ladislas got up from his seat and as usual, prepared both of them a cup of coffee each. He promptly set one mug down in front of her and took a seat across from her.

"Shouldn't you finish quickly and get to your lecture?" she asked calmly. She had just wanted to see him once before leaving, but he had even made her coffee. She couldn't say no, so she only let him do as he pleased.

He sipped at the boiling coffee and seemed to feel nothing as it went down his esophagus. He let out a loud huff before responding to her question. "The class is an utter bore. I don't know why I took up all of his classes," he groaned.

He had meant to only take up the class which Anna was taking but ended up with more work. Now he was regretting it a little bit.

"You can't predict how sick the human body will get," Anna commented, enjoying his misery.

He scoffed at her. "Don't compare me to yourself. It's actually easy to predict sickness and death," he said in a conspiratorial voice.

"What is that supposed to mean?" she asked, intrigued.

"The body really doesn't lie. It smells, looks, and feels different when you are about to get sick. The sicker the person is, the more pungent their scent becomes."

The intrigue she felt flew out of the window with that comment. He was back to speaking nonsense. When he got passionate, he often mixed reality with nonsense. It was something she had noticed him doing. And it was not just her, he seemed to say these words intentionally to get a reaction out of people. Like he didn't care how he was scaring people by his words.

But she still listened as he explained how exactly it looks. Sometimes, when she was not in a rush, she would ask him weird questions. It was one of those times.

"I understand the sickness bit, but what about accidents and murders?" she asked.

Ladislas paused. "Excellent question. Because they are out of the blue, you can only sense it when the intention sets in. As in… if it is an accident, the moment it happens, their fate is decided. If it is murder, death becomes apparent when the intention of the murderer becomes solid."

"Exciting stuff," she said blandly. "Do you sense death on me? Can you predict that stuff?" she asked. She meant to show him how absurd what he was saying truly was, but he looked at her strangely.

"I can see that you are mocking me. But I won't give in to it. Instead, I will assure you that you will live an inexplicably long life."

She burst out into laughter.

"You got caught," she told him. "You really can't tell much about the future."