The silence after Marie’s question was killing. It took a little while for Jean to come back to the reality from what was going on in her mind. She was thinking about how she would cope with Marie being gone, and how they would keep in touch with each other. Primarily, the thing that was disturbing her was the fact that she would be left without friends again as other batchmates did not fondly accept her different likings.

But because Marie had put forward a serious question, Jean answered, “Because you are going away tomorrow.”

“I am here with you now,” Marie mentioned and asked, “Why don’t we make full...