Chapter 121: Abhirami is gloomy now

The very next morning. Taro woke up from the sleep that he forced himself into because of M'Baku's constant nagging. Ever since they got back after launching the SOS pod, M'Baku had been asking about when the pod will reach his planet.

However, Taro had no idea about it. There were a multitude of reasons for that. First of all, he didn't know where Earth was located. Even when he tried searching for their location in Womble Maps, they couldn't find it. A major reason for that would be the Glomerans. Being a crucial part of the intergalactic civilizations, they had a considerable hand in building Womble. Not just that, they had the right to interfere in some of Womble's works as well.

Since Earth was their recent betting planet, they intentionally hid the planet's details from Womble, so that no betting participants try to head there and ruin the fun for them. Since Glomera had the final say in everything, the participants gladly agreed to that, and thus Earth was a secretive planet to the rest of the universe. Although they routinely came to know what was going on the planet, the Glomerans never revealed the place.

Secondly, the fact that M'Baku came to Earth through a black hole made even an approximate assessment impossible. Earth could be way farther than the Canino planet or way closer than they expect. And finally, the unpredictability of the SOS pod.Even if they knew the actual path to the Canino planet, they could never predict that the pod would go on that path since it is programmed to go on the path in which their ride would be smoother, to protect the pod from danger. Which meant that instead of a rough ride that might take a month, the pod will always prefer the smooth ride no matter how long it takes.

Taro tried explaining these to M'Baku. The canino nodded as if he understood everything the first time around before promptly coming around asking the same question. Taro felt frustrated, but he explained it again.

The limit was around the fifth time. Taro just got up from where he was seated and headed to his long unused bed after giving out a sharp glare at M'Baku. He tried his best sleeping since he didn't want to hear anything from M'Baku. Little did he know that even if he stayed awake, M'Baku wouldn't have annoyed him after that stare of his.

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After following the same trope that he had been following for months at this point with Thankappan, Taro finally reached the school. The only notable thing that happened during the walk was knowing that Shivani missed him. Like, this schtick had been going on way too long. So once someone doesn't make an appearance for a day, you'll clearly feel the difference. Especially when the one who talks to Shivani during the walks was Taro.

Anyhow, unlike the previous time, the mood of the entire class was cheerful. Well, most of it, except for a particular corner where a girl sat silently looking all annoyed and stuff. Usually she was the one who's hyperactive even when everyone else was gloomy. That's why it was weird for Taro to see Abhirami like this.

After his class ended, just like the Ansar incident, he called upon Shivani to learn about this gloomy aura surrounding her best friend. However, it looked like Shivani didn't know about it since Abhirami stopped her from asking.

Taro wasn't ready to give up just yet. He still had the image of the annoying but good teacher on the students' mind, and he didn't want to wipe it off because the teachers had already alienated him for being a potential pedophile. He could've tried to rectify this nasty rumor, however didn't feel like doing it because he believed that the more one tries to refute a rumor, the more it solidifies. He knew that his belief was kinda stupid, however he still wanted to stick to it since being alienated felt kinda better.

So, Taro ended up calling Abhirami for the second time to the staff room, thus successfully gathering many hateful gazes from his colleagues. Taro didn't get why these people hated him when all he did was make the students like him. It was truly odd.

"Hey, Sadu!" Abhirami waved her hand and shouted his newly made nickname as obnoxious as she could to grab everyone's attention.

Taro sighed. "What's up with that? Just call me by my name." He ordered.

"Ha? Don't you remember me talking about it in that very steamy chat we had yesterday?" She asked, turning all the glaring eyes towards him.

Taro shook his head in dismay. The chat she was talking about was the one they had in that gacha game that they played, where Taro asked if she wanted to play a friendly match against him. The chat wasn't steamy and this new nickname wasn't mentioned as well. But seeing that Abhirami really enjoyed making him look bad, he decided to let it go; especially since she had a foul mood previously.

"I see. Now let me get to the point. How come someone always has to be in a foul mood these days?" Taro asked.

"What do you mean?" Abhirami acted as if she didn't know what he was talking about.

Taro sighed. "First it was Ansar and the problem with him, and now it's you. What happened today that you look so—not you?" He asked.

Abhirami silent for a while before finally giving out a reply. "I would like this conversation of ours to remain strictly between us. So, it would be better if we kept our voice down." She suggested as she took a glance at all the teachers staring at her, hoping to hear something like yesterday.

"Hmm, weren't you the one who shouted about Shivani's crush on Ansar yesterday? How come you're so secretive about your stuff now?" Taro asked.

"That's the difference, isn't it? This is my problem, and that was hers." She replied.

"You're such a terrible friend, you know that?" Taro scratched his head as he spoke.

"Maybe I am." She didn't deny. Instead, she gave out a smile. It wasn't like Shivani didn't know about that fact.

"So, what is it?" Taro asked.

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