The Life Of Normal-Taro

"Ah, are you talking about the former crush's best friend boyfriend?" Taro asked.

"Yup, he broke up with me yesterday." Abhirami replied.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." Lena swiftly came by her side and hugged her tightly.

"Nah, it's okay. I'm fine. I'm pretty fine." Abhirami replied.

"So, what was the reason?" Taro asked.

"Hey! It isn't nice to ask a question like that in such a hard time!" Lena sounded furious as she said that.

"Look. I'm a rational person. I got to get a hold of the entire story before consoling or cursing someone. Maybe you might think of it as insensitive, but I simply don't care." Taro shrugged.

Lena was about to go off on him before Abhirami broke into tears. "I never knew he'd find out." She cried, much to Lena's surprise.

"Find what out?" It wasn't Taro, but Lena who posed that question.

"Well, the fact that I was cheating on him with his best friend." Abhirami spoke.

"Wait, his best friend… Isn't that like your former crush?" Taro asked.

"Yea, he was so sincere about it when he asked me out that I couldn't actually reject him." Abhirami replied.

"Then why didn't you break up with your then boyfriend once this one was set in stone?" Lena, who slowly pulled herself away from Abhirami, asked.

"Well, I was planning to. But I heard that he was planning some big surprise for me and that he was really excited to show me the results. I simply didn't want to break his enthusiasm, so I thought of breaking up after that." Abhirami replied.

"Hmm, wouldn't that have an adverse effect?" Taro asked.

"How?"

"You see, if that surprise was something that your boy—ex-boyfriend poured his heart and soul into doing, then once you break up with him, he'll always see it as something associated with that bad memory." Taro replied.

"That would've been the case, if the surprise was something like that." Abhirami nodded her head.

"So, did you ever come to know what that surprise was?" Taro asked.

"Oh yea! The break-up! That was the surprise. He said that he came to know that I got into a relationship with his friend and that he no longer wanted to see me. He also cut all his connections with his friend. So, one thing's for sure. I have driven a wench in their relationship now." Abhirami replied.

"Well, you can't blame him for that. His best friend and girlfriend betrayed him like that. No one would like to be in contact with two people like that." Lena sounded disgusted as she said that.

"You never fail to make me dislike you more and more, huh?" Taro looked equally disgusted as well.

"Hey! I know I should've broken up when I got the chance—well, there wasn't any chance to begin with. That's what screwed me up. Blame the time period; not me." Abhirami argued.

"Aren't you the one who cheated on him? Is it the time period that made you do that?" Taro asked.

"…No." Abhirami mumbled.

"So, accept that it's your fault. Don't just put the blame on something like a time period!" Taro scolded.

"Yea, I'm on the wrong here." Abhirami agreed.

"Cool. So you and that other guy are still together?" Lena asked after a long period of silence.

"Ah, yes." Abhirami nodded her head in confirmation.

"Then why the hell did you even shed tears here? I mean, you're with your original crush now. So, you should be happy, right? Was that happy tears?" Taro asked.

"Nah, it was dramatic tears, if you ask me." Abhirami replied.

"My goodness. With each passing second, the respect and fondness I have for you is drastically decreasing." Taro looked spiteful towards Abhirami.

"Well, does it matter when that is already in the bottom of the barrel?" Abhirami shrugged.

"Oh, you're right about that." Taro replied.

"Anyhow, let's get to some of the important points in this scenario. So, you like your current boyfriend?" Lena asked.

"I'm in the process of finding out. We've planned quite a few dates, you see." Abhirami smiled as she thought about it.

"So, if someone even more attractive is to come by and ask you out, will you be leaving him as well?" Lena asked again.

"No. Okay, listen. It was an honest mistake. Everything was a mistake. I shouldn't have tried approaching my crush the way I did. Everything went downhill from there. Should've directly asked him out when I got the chance to do that. Had I did that, we wouldn't have ended up together in such a roundabout way." Abhirami sighed.

"Do you realize your faults now?" Lena asked.

"Yes. I understand them." Abhirami replied.

"Then it's probably fine. Don't go the same route as this one and it'll all work out." Lena assured her. "Oh, will you look at the time right now? Don't you have a class to attend to? I mean, they are teaching you a lot these days. So, it'd be better if you head over to your class." She suggested.

"Shoot. You're right. Bye, guys!" Abhirami waved her hand and ran away.

"At least use the proper honorifics when you're at school…" Taro shouted, but it fell on deaf ears.

"It's fine though. I guess she's treating us as our friends. It's kinda cool, isn't it?" Lena asked.

"I guess…" Taro shrugged. "By the way, can I ask you a question?" He spoke.

"Sure. What is it?" She asked back.

"Do you really think she'll change after hearing any of what you said?" Taro asked.

"You know what's the most important feature that a teacher must possess? It's trust. Trusting your students goes a long way. You can never term someone as a failure just because he failed once or twice or even multiple times. Instead, you should trust them to do good; trust in their abilities and capabilities; trust them that they'll do the right thing. That's what I did here. I trusted her. She might've done something stupid this one time, but she'll learn from it—at least we can hope that she will. It all depends on her and what she wants. We can just put our faith in her to do the right thing." Lena explained.

"Hmm, seems like I still have to go a long way to become a good teacher." Taro spoke.

"Well, you've come into a realization about that. That's the most important part. You can now be a good teacher if you want to. Just put in the right efforts." Lena replied with a smile.

"You are good at pep talks, aren't you?" Taro asked, with amazement clearly depicted on his face.

"Ah, that! I've seen my husband do them to my kids and myself all the time. He's pretty good at it, you see. So, after hearing them for all this time, I accidentally began doing good pep talks as well." Lena replied.

"Your husband sounds like a great guy!" Taro spoke.

"Yea, he is. He works in an office around Kunnamkulam area, you see. He said that he used to give pep talks there all the time as well. That's what made him well versed in it." Lena spoke with a smile brighter than any of them that she ever gave out during their conversation.

Taro noticed this phenomena pretty quickly as well. "Humm, you really enjoy talking about your husband, don't you? Your expression clearly says that." He replied.

"Am I that transparent? Ha, I really do like talking about him. He's a really sweet guy. I really love him." She blushed as she thought of her husband.

"Love marriage, I presume?" Taro asked.

"Nah, it was an all-out arranged marriage. Our love and stuff came after marriage. I wasn't planning to marry when my father came up with this proposal from his junior staff, but I would've really regretted it if I didn't back then. I mean, I wouldn't have been this happy. He's literally the perfect person in my eyes. No one can replace him. Well, dad's gonna be a lot pissed if he ever heard this though. He has this love-hate relationship with my hus. Maybe, it's because dad was my husband's superior back in the day." Lena explained, to which Taro intently listened.

The more he listened to Lena's story, the more it felt familiar to him for some reason. He couldn't quite pinpoint the reason why he felt so, but he felt as if he had heard this story somewhere else.

To clear his doubts he decided to throw out a few questions subtly. However, when the time came to ask those questions, the subtlety went outside the window.

"Hey, where do you live, by the way?" Taro bluntly asked.

"Oh, I'm literally this close to the school. I mean, my home's just a few meters away from here." Lena replied.

Once he heard that, Taro understood where he heard this story from and why it felt so familiar. Thus, to finally confirm his doubts, he asked the one question that's been revolving in his mind. "If you don't mind, can you please tell me your husband's name?"

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