I'll Teach You, Marianne.

Anne woke up earlier today even though she slept at two o'clock last night. After pouring all her heart out to Mrs. Delilah and Mrs. Riley at the laundry shop yesterday afternoon, Anne felt much better. Her shoulders felt lighter, especially now that her hair had been cut very short. Anne, who had never had short hair before, felt a little strange at first when she saw herself in the mirror after she cut her hair into a neck-length bob with a touch of a little layer at the bottom.

Anne deliberately cut her hair as short as possible. She really wanted to be a new and bolder Anne, because all this time, she gave the impression to be a weak girl who needed protection with her long hair that she trimmed regularly. 

"Okay, you're ready, Anne. Remember, you have the right to be happy. Don't listen to other people's words! Keep up your spirit, Anne!" Anne talked to herself, staring at the mirror in her room after she finished dressing. Because today her class was pushed forward an hour earlier, Anne hurried off to campus. 

While eating a piece of bread, Anne spurred her car to campus. Because it was still very early in the morning, not many vehicles were passing by. So that Anne can easily get to campus, Anne, who usually took about forty to fifty minutes drive this time only took twenty-five minutes. Anne suspected that she was the first person to arrive on campus, but she was wrong, because it turned out that when she arrived at the campus, the front parking area was full of other students' cars. Apparently, it wasn't just Anne's class that added today's class hours. Classes from other majors apparently did the same thing as Professor Gilbert who adjusted an hour earlier in preparation for the final exam in the next one week. 

"Don't be surprised, Miss. Every time the final exams are nearing, the professors will increase the class hours for their students, so this kind of event is not new," said a security guard kindly.

"Is that true, sir? No wonder the parking lot is already full, so if you'll excuse me, sir. Thank you for the info," said Anne quietly. 

"You're welcome, Miss," the security guard responded kindly to Anne's words, and soon he continued his work on checking the cars of the students. 

Only cars that had special stickers could use the parking area, those without special stickers were not allowed to park and could only drop off passengers in front of the campus lobby, after which the car was required to leave the campus area, except for guests. Guests were welcome to enter and park in a special area. This was done by the campus in order to reduce the number of students who drove their own cars to campus so that there were not too many vehicles in the campus area.

Anne walked calmly because there were no students gathered like the usual, because if a lot of students were gathered, some of them would whistle and teasing her while she passed in front of them and it made Anne uncomfortable. Maybe other students liked to be praised like that, but for Anne, she felt uncomfortable to be teased like that by the students.

"Okay, no one has come yet. I'd better sit in the back of the class," said Anne quietly when she arrived at her class, which was clean and fragrant. Without waiting for a long time, Anne then walked and sat on the back seat. While eating the bread she brought, Anne read the book seriously and waited for her friends to come.

Not long after that, one by one, Anne's classmates arrived. They then sat in their chairs and began to prepare their laptops and books for the lesson. When it was almost seven o'clock in the morning, Anne was a little nervous because she had not seen Linda in class. She also failed to contact Linda. And this made her a little worried, because last night Linda said she wanted to go to campus alone and didn't want to be picked up by Anne. So because of that, this morning she immediately went to campus without stopping by at Linda's apartment.

But soon, Linda was seen standing at the door gasping for breath. She had just run from the front because she was almost late. Seeing Linda came made Anne relieved. She then waved her hand at Linda, notifying her where she was. Seeing Anne's waving hand made Linda smile. She slowly walked to the back of the table where Anne sat.

"Why are you sitting here?" Linda asked.

"Just to have a new atmosphere," said Anne quietly as she gave Linda drinking water. 

"I see, it's okay. It's okay here, the seats are comfortable," said Linda briefly as she opened the drink bottle from Anne. Soon after, she drank the water in the bottle quickly and finished it. 

"Are you that thirsty?" asked Anne, softly teasing Linda.

"I ran all the way from the lobby, Anne, what do you think?" Linda answered curtly to Anne's question.

Seeing Linda was annoyed made Anne chuckle, then their conversation stopped because Professor Gilbert walked into the classroom at exactly seven in the morning. Some students who arrived late immediately ran and sat on the seats quickly to follow the lesson that had just started. After the lesson had started for about thirty minutes, Linda finally realized that Anne had just cut her hair short. Linda, who was shocked when she saw Anne's short hair, made a little noise in the back seat and made Professor Gilbert clear his throat.

"Linda, focus," Anne whispered softly as she continued to stare at Professor Gilbert.

"Why did you cut your hair that short, Anne?" Linda asked, no less slowly.

"So that I don't use up a lot of shampoo," said Anne quietly speaking.

Linda was seen biting her lower lip firmly so as not to laugh at Anne's answer. Because she didn't want to make Professor Gilbert angry, Linda finally tried to focus. She did not want to look for trouble with her lecturer even though she actually still had a lot of things she wanted to ask Anne about Anne's short hair.

* * *

< Berlin, Germany >

Aaron, who had arrived in Berlin since last night, had come to the civil registry office in the city to find out about Anne this morning. Actually, foreigners were not allowed to go to the registry office to find out about the status of a person, but as Daniel said that Aaron was not just a regular person, finally the employees in the civil registry office allowed him.

"According to data, this lady named Marianne is still single, sir, she was not married or divorced. So it is impossible if you say that she is a widow," said a civil registry officer to Aaron when showing Anne's personal data, which was still registered as a German citizen. 

"Are you serious?" asked Aaron coldly.

"Yes sir, if you don't believe it, just look for yourself at ..."

"Print his data on paper, I want to read it carefully," Aaron said, quickly cutting off the words of the civil registry officer who had been paid by Daniel.

"Okay sir, wait a moment," the officer replied back.

Aaron, who sat in the private room looked angry. He was annoyed because he felt cheated by Anne. Not long after that, he even held her complete personal data. It was clear on paper that Anne was still single and had never been married. 

"Let's go back to London, Daniel, and prepare my wedding, I want to drag Anne to the altar to get married," Aaron said quietly with his fists clenched with emotion. 

"Are you serious about getting married to ..."

"Do you think I'm joking, Daniel?!" scolded Aaron coldly as he turned around and glared at Daniel.

to be continued