And that's how the first conversation started....

The Worst Exam Ever Created

I hate General Knowledge.

I don't mean I struggle with it.

I mean I genuinely hate it.

Business? Fine

Accounting? Ehh.

General Knowledge?

A personal attack.

The entire ride to college, I was mentally preparing for failure.

Not dramatic failure.

Just normal failure.

The kind where you stare at a question and wonder if you've somehow forgotten how to read.

Maybe the exam would get cancelled.

Maybe the university would suddenly realize that forcing students to answer one hundred random questions was cruel and unusual punishment.

Maybe I'd become a billionaire before reaching campus.

Unfortunately, none of those things happened.

By the time I reached the college, the summer heat had already ruined my mood.

The campus was crowded.

Students stood in groups revising notes.

Some looked confident.

Some looked terrified.

Some were pretending not to be terrified.

I walked straight toward the examination hall.

No last-minute revision.

No discussion.

No motivation.

Whatever happened was between me and God now.

By the time I reached the examination hall, I was already annoyed.

The kind of annoyed where people breathing too loudly could start a fight.

I checked my roll number.

94. 

Same hall.

Same seat.

Same suffering.

Inside, the seating arrangement was somehow worse than usual.

Three students on one bench.

Because apparently comfort was not included in the examination budget.

A random boy was already sitting on my left.

I sat in the middle.

The seat on my right was empty.

Good.

Perfect.

One less person to deal with.

The bell rang.

Question papers were distributed.

And the moment I opened mine, I knew I was finished.

One hundred questions.

One hundred.

Who needs one hundred questions?

Was the university conducting an exam or an interrogation?

I stared at Question 1.

Question 1 stared back.

Neither of us knew what was happening.

Ten minutes passed.

Then twenty.

Then thirty.

The empty seat beside me remained empty.

Not surprising.

I already knew who it belonged to.

The boy who was always late.

Last semester I'd seen him with a different seat partner.

This semester, apparently, I was the lucky winner.

The classroom door opened.

I looked up automatically.

There he was.

Late.

Again.

At this point I would've been more shocked if he had arrived on time.

The invigilator checked his details and pointed toward the empty seat beside me.

He walked over carrying absolutely none of the panic a late student should have.

If I arrived this late, I'd simply disappear and start a new life somewhere else.

He sat down.

Pulled out a pen.

Looked at the question paper.

"Do we have to solve all 100 questions?"

I blinked.

That was his first sentence.

Not hello.

Not good morning.

Not excuse me.

"Do we have to do all 100?"

"Hmm."

"All of them?"

"Hmm."

He looked horrified but not much.

For the first time that day, I almost smiled.

Almost.

Then he started writing.

For about five minutes.

After that, he apparently decided the exam was less interesting than talking.

"What do you think about the paper?"

"It's fine."

A complete lie.

The paper was a crime against humanity.

"It's fine?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"My exam is going terribly."

"Okay."

He laughed.

Why?

Nothing funny had happened.

The exam was a tragedy.

"Do you not talk to boys?"

I looked up from my paper.

"What?"

"You seem really quiet."

I shrugged.

"I don't talk much to anyone."

He just nodded

A few minutes later he pointed at a question.

"Can you tell me this one?"

I looked.

"No idea."

Another question.

"No idea."

He asked me a question again.

I looked up, frustrated.

"You are asking me this like I know everything about this exam."

He just laughed.

What the?

Eventually he reached a question about a badminton player.

"Tell me this one."

I barely glanced at it.

"Hockey, maybe?"

He looked at me.

Then at the paper.

Then back at me.

The boy literally folded his hands.

"It already says badminton player."

I looked again.

It did.

Unfortunately.

"Please use some common sense."

I wanted to throw my pen at him.

Instead, I continued pretending I knew what I was doing.

Then came more questions.

Not exam questions.

Personal questions.

"What's your name?"

I told him.

For a second he just stared.

Then he laughed.

Actually laughed.

"What?"

"Our names sound almost the same."

I looked at him blankly.

"We only know each other's names because of the roll number list."

"Oh."

He nodded.

Then laughed again anyway.

For reasons that remained completely unknown to me.

"Where are you from?"

I told him.

He immediately narrowed his eyes.

"You're lying."

"I'm not."

"No way."

"I literally am."

He looked genuinely offended.

"I'm from there too."

That somehow unlocked an entirely new conversation.

"What area?"

I told him.

"Do you know this place?"

"Yeah."

"What about this one?"

"Yes."

"This market?"

"Yes."

"This road?"

"Yes."

For the next few minutes he continued asking increasingly specific questions as if he was conducting a residency verification process.

Apparently my hometown had become the most interesting topic in the examination hall.

At some point, the exam stopped feeling like an exam.

Not because the questions got easier.

Because the boy beside me had apparently decided this was the perfect time to conduct an interview.

It was honestly impressive.

A special talent.

A dangerous talent.

The ability to never run out of things to say.

Meanwhile I was running out of patience.

And answers.

And reasons to stay awake.

A few minutes later he suddenly sat up straighter.

"You can ask me anything."

"Why would I do that?"

"I'm from science but I have full knowledge about these things."

".ohhh"

The confidence with which he said it suggested he personally wrote the General Knowledge syllabus.

Unfortunately, judging by his earlier panic over the hundred questions, I wasn't completely convinced.

Still, he looked very proud of himself and he was actually answering every question.

So I let him have the moment.

Then came another question.

And another.

And another.

I don't remember the exact order.

I only remember the feeling.

Every time I thought the conversation was over, it somehow continued.

Like a television show with too many seasons.

A few minutes later he asked,

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

"No."

"Oh."

He looked around the classroom.

"You're probably the only single person left."

"I highly doubt that."

"No, seriously."

Then he pointed toward a girl from his class.

"You know her? The famous topic of the college ofcourse ...girls of my class are gross"

I laughed because ofc i know

Before I could say anything, he mentioned a girl from my class.

And immediately started gossiping about her too.

With absolutely no concern that I might know her.

Or talk to her.

Or repeat any of this later.

The confidence was astonishing.

We were sitting in the middle of an examination hall.

Meanwhile, he was behaving like we were casually sitting in a park discussing campus news over snacks.

He nodded thoughtfully.

Then immediately asked something else.

As if he'd just added information to a database.

"What about situationship?"

I stared.

"No."

"Talking stage?"

"No."

"Nothing?"

"No."

He laughed.

Again.

I was beginning to suspect he laughed in his sleep too.

Every five minutes he would write three answers and then remember another question for me.

Meanwhile I was trying to remember the capital of something.

Or the inventor of something.

Or whatever random fact the university had decided was important.

Eventually, after what felt like several decades, the invigilator stood up.

"Anyone who has finished may leave."

The greatest sentence in human history.

Immediately students began standing.

I packed my things.

He packed his.

Then looked at me.

"Shall we go?"

Like we were leaving a meeting together.

Or escaping prison together.

"Yes."

We walked out of the hall.

For the first time all day there was actual silence.

No questions.

No conversation.

Just students moving through the corridor.

The moment we stepped outside, we naturally went in different directions.

Thank God.

I needed recovery time.

Social recovery.

Mental recovery.

General Knowledge recovery.

All three.

A little later I found my cousin near the gate.

We were talking when I suddenly noticed him.

The boy.

He walked past us.

Not far away.

Just across from where we were standing.

For a second I watched him disappear into the crowd.

Then immediately looked away.

Because I was normal.

Perfectly normal.

Definitely not paying attention.

A while later I found my friend.

The moment she asked how the exam went, I started complaining.

Not about General Knowledge.

About him.

"This boy would not stop talking."

"What boy?"

"The one sitting next to me."

"What happened?"

And then I told her everything.

The hundred questions.

The badminton question.

The random interview.

The nonstop talking.

The laughing.

The questions.

All of it.

By the time I finished, she was grinning.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Tell me."

She laughed.

"I think that's funny."

"There is nothing funny about this."

"There is."

"There isn't."

"There is."

I rolled my eyes.

"You know what" kumud said sudden mood shift.

"What?" I asked.

Kumud looked completely unimpressed.

"You know what your problem is?"

"What?"

"You're being too nice."

I stared at her.

"Too nice?"

"Yes."

"Have you met me?"

"I'm serious."

She pointed at me dramatically.

"If you had talked to him the way you actually talk, he would've stopped after five minutes."

"The way I actually talk?"

"Yeah. The rude version."

"I'm not rude."

"You are."

"I'm not."

"You absolutely are."

I ignored her.

Kumud continued anyway.

"You were sitting there giving polite answers."

"I said 'hmm' for half the exam."

"Exactly. That's polite for you."

I hated that she had a point.

She shook her head.

"If you'd used your normal attitude, one sarcastic comment would've been enough."

"Wow. Thanks."

"I'm helping."

"No, you're insulting me."

"I'm educating you."

According to Kumud, the solution was simple.

Stop answering nicely.

Start speaking like myself.

Apparently the nonstop conversation would've died a quick and painful death.

Personally, I wasn't convinced.

The boy seemed like the kind of person who could survive any amount of sarcasm.

Possibly feed on it.

Which was honestly a terrifying possibility.

After a while she immediately started talking about her own crush.

Which somehow led to a twenty-minute conversation that had absolutely nothing to do with exams.

Typical.

By the time I reached home that evening, I was exhausted.

The exam had been terrible.

The weather had been terrible.

And the boy beside me had spoken enough words for an entire classroom.

Surely I wouldn't have to deal with that again tomorrow.

Right?

Unfortunately for me, life thought that was hilarious.

P.S.-

Hello everyone this is your fav Narrator speaking.

Before anyone asks why I suddenly disappeared and allowed her to narrate this chapter herself—

No, I wasn't fired. No, I wasn't replaced. And no, I didn't lose control of the story. I simply stepped aside.

Some moments are far more entertaining when people expose themselves without realizing it.

Had I remained in charge, I would've spent half the chapter describing a girl pretending she wasn't annoyed and the other half describing a boy who treated an examination hall like a podcast studio.

Instead, I let her tell it.

A generous decision on my part, honestly. Also, let's acknowledge something important.

For someone who claims she hates conversations, she remembered an alarming amount of that conversation.

Every question. Every laugh. Every unnecessary comment. The entire residency verification process.

Interesting.

Very interesting.

Meanwhile, the boy deserves recognition for achieving something previously believed impossible:

He turned a General Knowledge exam into a social event. Scientists should study him. The university certainly won't.

As for Kumud, she remains the only person brave enough to tell the truth. G was absolutely being nicer than usual. Which says less about her kindness and more about how terrifying her normal personality apparently is.

Anyway.

The exam was terrible. The weather was terrible. The questions were terrible. And yet somehow none of those became the main story.

Life has a strange sense of humor.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, this chapter was not the end. Not even close.

And trust me—

Things only get worse from here.