Chapter 3 - The moment it all began

4 years ago...

Trrr trrr trrr... the alarm rings persistently for the third time, while our main hero is already trying to turn off the alarm again, but of course he extends it again for another 15 minutes.

Trr trr trr... an hour has passed; it's already 8 in the morning, and our main character has to go to college. Of course, it's the first day of college; he just started his studies in his first year.

A woman's voice can be heard somewhere in the distance: "Cahusiii!!! You're late for the first lecture, you don't want the professors to get a bad first impression.''

Do you know what the speed of light is and that exact moment when we're late somewhere and we're in bed?

"I'm up!" Cahusi shouted. He got up very quickly and started to get ready, but something was missing. "Mommm!

"Did you take my socks? I left them on the floor last night "he said, to which his mother replied, "You mean the ones with the picture of Spiderman?"

"Yes, where are they, i can't find them anywhere?", his mother asked him anxiously.

"I threw them in the wash."

"But they weren't...",

"You weren't thinking of wearing them on the first day of college, were you?"

"Oh, no, of course", he definitely wanted to.

"Come on, honey, come downstairs, the coffee is ready."

After ten minutes, Cahusi went down to the living room, quickly drank his coffee, said goodbye to his family, and left for college.

"Son, good luck at college!" She wished him luck and kissed him on the forehead.

"Hello, I'll arrive in 20 minutes; here I am at the traffic lights, there's a huge crowd, that's why i'm a little late", said Cahusi on the phone as he got into the car.

''Harry up! I'm waiting for you at the station, pick me up there and we'll go together." Cahusi hung up the phone and headed toward his friend.

Trr trr... The cell phone rings. "I know I'm late, I see you" he says. At that moment, he stopped at the station and picked up his friend.

"You're late, Caha."

"Just get used to it, it will be easier for you to wait, believe me," he replied with a hidden sneer.

They finally arrived at college. They were nervous about the first day, but luckily they had each other for support. Cahusi's best friend, Kent, by the way, has been with him since elementary school, and if anyone knows him best, it's him.

As they entered the college building, Kent spoke softly to him.

"Bro, don't be afraid."

"No...", Cahusi started to answer, but Kent interrupted him.

"I didn't think about the first day, look how many girls are here, in these 4 years, at least one has to be yours", Kent told him mockingly, knowing that he didn't have a girlfriend through high school.

At that, Cahusi just looked at him, did not comment on his joke, but laughed, and then they entered the amphitheater and the first lecture began.

"Good afternoon, dear students", the professor of psychology politely greeted the students, continuing with the elaboration of the subject.

"First of all, I would like to congratulate you all on passing the entrance exam and on your new chapter in life. Don't worry, I won't bite or ask too much.

I just expect from you to take this subject seriously and work hard."

After a long time explaining the subject, what students will encounter during the current year during the lecture, one topic came up that intrigued our protagonist.

"I will not go on any longer, I believe you are tired. The last thing i will mention is empathy. My dear students, empathy is defined as the ability to understand other people's emotions and respond appropriately to those emotions. Empathy for someone means that we can feel other people's feelings, that is, feel as if we are in the same situation. What fewer people know is that there are several types of empathy: the first is the so-called shallow empathy," which is the most common type of empathy and is seen through putting ourselves in other people's shoes; the second is "deep empathy," which is rarer than the others; this type of empathy allows us to enter someone's mind and feel all their feelings and emotions; unlike the first type of empathy, this type does not allow physical or psychological torture of another person; and the third is "religious empathy," which comes directly from deep empathy. Most of the moral teachings in all world religions can be briefly summarized as follows: "Treat other people the way we want them to treat us.''

Kent turned to Cahusi and made a joke about what the professor had just said.

"Caha, the professor seems to be describing you",

"What do you think?" Cahusi answered him. ,

"Well, you remember when we were sitting with Jonathan, when we were sitting at his house and he was telling us about his mother, who died of cancer when he was still little?"

Cahusi got a little upset and interrupted Kent.

"Yes, yes, I remember, what do you want to say with that?"

"Well, it was strange to me then why you cried, but listening to this professor, I realized that you don't actually have female hormones",

"Ha ha ha!" he laughed quietly and slapped him on the shoulder.

The lecture will end soon, and the professor slowly started packing. "It's time to bring this to an end. I'll just tell you one more important thing related to this subject. You will listen to this subject for a month, and after that, you will have an exam divided into two parts, more precisely the first and second partial, but it is not the only way to collect points, namely, you also have a seminar paper, which carries 50% of the points. It is of great importance, and you cannot take the exam without it. If you have questions, ask them now because we still have 10 minutes before the end.''

Cahusi and Kent had a lot of questions, but what bothered them the most was what a partial and seminar paper was.

"Bro, what's a partial?" Kent asked,

"So raise your hand and ask him",

"I'm ashamed, you see that no one asks anything, probably everyone knows except us",

"Hahaha, relax; I'll ask him at the end of the lecture."

When the lecture ended, Cahusi approached the professor and asked him what it was, but something bothered him, he wanted to know more about empathy, as if it had some deeper connection with what he had just said.

"Dear professor, I have a few questions; I apologize for taking up your time."

"Fellow, it's okay, I'm here for you, tell me."

"I'm interested, and probably everyone knows, what is a partial and seminar paper?"

"The partials are a part of the colleagues' exam, and I will talk more about the seminar work in some future lectures. What exactly interests you about empathy?''

"Well, look, it's very difficult for me when someone talks to me about their problems, and sometimes I can't control it, it's a big problem for me",

"Well, look, it has its good sides, it is important that in those moments when you take on someone's emotion as your own, that you understand that it is actually due to, as I mentioned a moment ago, a deep type of empathy, and once you understand the source of your emotion, you will be able to control it."

"Thank you very much, professor. I hope we will talk more about this in future lectures, it seems interesting to me",

"Actually, if you want to do deeper research on empathy, I started researching empathy a few months ago, and I formed a team of students who are working on it together with me",

"Seriously, I would like to participate in this for real, when and where can I come?"

"Every Friday after lectures we meet in the reading room of our faculty, you can join us. There are a lot of students from higher years, you can meet them."

After the conversation with Professor Cahusi was over, he felt very happy. He was happy because he had finally found something that interested him. After finishing, he met up with his friend Kent, and they headed home together, but Kent felt strange where he had stayed for so long.

"Where did you stay so long, Cahusi?"

"Well, first I talked to the professor about what the two of us didn't know, and later he invited me to join his team that does deeper research on empathy."

"What is there deeper to explore? He told us enough during the lecture,'' Kent said mockingly.

"I think there's something there, I feel like it's pulling me towards it. There are still a lot of unanswered questions. Do you want to come with me? He said there are a lot of students who work with him."

"Oh no, I'm not interested in that, but I believe you'll like it."

When Cahusi got home, he couldn't get it out of his head. He took his laptop and researched on the internet about empathy and his professor. A lot of things coincided with his thoughts and what he felt.

Friday finally came, and it was time for Cahusi to visit the professor and the other students in the reading room at the college. He didn't know what was waiting for him, but he felt a great connection but also a fear of what he would discover through this research.

Cahusi normally liked to fantasize a lot, he was so amazed by superheroes and powers that he would sometimes think that he himself had a superpower.

On the other hand, the professor who recruited students for his research were not actually ordinary students, nor was it ordinary research. Namely, the professor had a slightly different view of the world and how it works, for him, empathy was a superpower, and he tried to find out where it comes from and how to control it, but he could not find the perfect person on whom he could conduct research.

Cahusi was a perfect example of one of the bearers of deep empathy, which is a rare species. That's why he invited him to join them so that he could get to know him better.