September 20 (Friday)
10:19 AM
The casual, ambient noise of Room 407 was suddenly severed, plunging into a deafening silence.
Dr. Ricky Manazaki was slowly approaching the clustered circle of Group Falcon at the back of the room. The chill, idol-like aura he usually carried had completely evaporated, replaced by the heavy, suffocating pressure of absolute disappointment.
Jiro lifted his head from the wooden desk. His heart was hammering violently against his ribs, skipping beats as he stared blankly at the approaching professor. The Apex Strategist's mind was in total disarray, completely unable to compute a counter-measure for the hollow score.
Dr. Manazaki stopped right in front of their clustered armchairs. He looked down at them, his voice calm but laced with a heavy sigh.
"Oh, Group Falcon, what happened?" Dr. Manazaki asked softly. "Why did you all get zero? What will we do now, ah?"
The light, nervous smiles that Nica Rosa, Lindsey Soliko, Windy Viyago, and Mekayla Sano had been using as a defense mechanism instantly melted away, turning into deep, worried frowns.
The Class Treasurer, swallowing her pride, met his gaze and calmly answered.
"Doc, sorry po," Lindsey apologized, her voice quiet. "It's so hard po eh."
Mekayla immediately backed her up, nodding anxiously. "Doc, we didn't get it po. It was a bit confusing."
Dr. Manazaki looked at the devastated group. He acknowledged the steep difficulty curve of the word problems, realizing the heavy logical trap had completely cornered them. The strict professor paused, letting the silence hang for a moment before offering a lifeline.
"Children, uhh, this is so hard," Dr. Manazaki admitted. "But you all are required to take a remedial exam next Friday ah. Or else, your prelim grade would be zero, children."
A collective wave of relief washed over the girls.
"Okay po, Doc," the group chorused, nodding vigorously. "Thanks po!"
Meanwhile, Jiro remained completely speechless. He was just blank-minded, still unable to believe how his calculations had failed so catastrophically. The hollow score had delivered an undeniable, pounding headache.
And then, his internal calendar synced up with the timeline. His eyes widened slightly. His internal monologue went into a sudden, chaotic overdrive.
Wait, wait, wait… WHAT??? Jiro panicked internally. Next Friday… so it is September 27!! My birthday! Plus… a remedial exam?? Shit! The universe was literally giving Jiro a failed math test as a birthday gift! Top-tier tragedy.
With the ultimatum delivered, the group dispersed, dragging the heavy wooden armchairs back into their original, rigid classroom configuration.
Back at the front of the room, Dr. Manazaki shifted the frequency away from the devastating exam and announced crucial updates regarding their NSTP activities. He addressed the Commander, Hidy Medona, detailing the strict requirements for the LTS weekly documentation and the NSTP Adopt-A-Place initiative.
"I am hoping that the BEEd 1 can comply thoroughly and completely ah," Dr. Manazaki instructed the class. "We need to send the LTS proposal letters—the ones with the signatures of the parents of the children you are tutoring—along with your documentation and journals to the main Morong campus, straight to the NSTP head by December."
Hidy immediately stood up, relaying the administrative protocol to the cohort. "Guys, please put your works inside a sliding folder po so they won't get crumpled or lost ah."
Dr. Manazaki then shifted his focus to the physical labor aspect. He pleased everyone to execute their Adopt-A-Place activity properly so that there would be visible progress around the campus, explicitly suggesting the installation of instructional signages in the hallways or the cafeteria, especially for the groups assigned to those specific coordinates.
Finally, around 11:03 AM, the heavy academic pressure was lifted.
"Alright, class dismissed," Dr. Manazaki announced. "You can take your break time now. And Group Falcon, do not forget your remedial next Friday ah. Also, you can use this free time to conduct your Adopt-A-Place activities so you can just submit them next week."
He also dropped a quick patch note before leaving, confirming that the bureaucratic error regarding Cicille Masha missing from the official NSTP masterlist had already been resolved.
As Dr. Manazaki finally walked out of the room, the noise of BEEd 1-A instantly exploded back to life. They were now facing a massive, four-hour stretch of free time before Mrs. Giany Talashiro's UTS class at 3:00 PM.
Some students opted to stay in the room, pulling out their packed lunches and immediately diving into their usual heavy gossiping to recover their mental stamina.
Amidst the chatter, the same rogue BSED English 1-A students entered the room again, mingling with their BEEd friends.
Jiro, still sitting quietly at his desk, overheard their conversation.
"Oh, the questions were different?" one of the BSED English students said, sounding surprised.
They were openly gossiping that the exact questions on the exam were actually entirely different across the various sections.
Jiro just closed his eyes for a second. Ah. The leaked intel was… different. Dr. Manazaki really changed questions.
Unable to handle the suffocating atmosphere of the classroom anymore, Jiro stood up and walked out.
He needed air. He stepped out into the open hallway, walking toward the concrete corridor fence right in front of the open doorway of Room 407, just beside the DOWN ONLY stairs.
He leaned heavily against the cold concrete. He faced the overcast sky, watching the looming, dark Habagat rain clouds rolling in. In the far horizon, the faint, gray silhouette of the Metro Manila skyline stood quietly against the incoming storm.
He was highly disappointed. He was utterly embarrassed by his own performance.
Crap! Why did I do that?! Jiro's internal monologue raged, his grip tightening on the concrete ledge. Am I that stupid?? Goddamn! These bastards relied too much on me… now it is my fault. This wouldn't happen if it is not because of me.
He dropped his head, letting it rest on his crossed arms against the surface of the fence. He was absolutely destroying himself from the inside, the guilt of leading his entire squad into an academic ambush weighing heavily on his shoulders.
A few moments later, the group of girls emerged from the open Room 407 doorway. Niewi, Mira, Lindsey, Nica, and Mekayla stepped out into the hallway, planning to go downstairs to buy some snacks.
They immediately spotted Jiro's slumped figure leaning against the concrete fence.
Lindsey and Niewi broke away from the group and gently approached him.
Lindsey reached out, softly patting his back to break his isolation.
"Beh, that's okay," Lindsey comforted him, her voice entirely devoid of her usual merchant loudness. "At least you did some effort. We will just make up for it next time beh. Just move on now."
Niewi stepped up right beside her, offering her own layer of support.
"Jiro, don't be sad ah," Niewi urged gently. "We still have a remedial, midterm, and finals, oh, right? We still have a lot of time."
Jiro slowly lifted his head from his arms. He looked at them. He was still deeply disappointed, but there were no tears in his eyes.
Instead, something entirely different snapped.
He just started laughing.
"HAHAHAHA!!" Jiro laughed loudly, a dry, slightly unhinged sound echoing in the hallway. "Chill… that is just Math, right? Just Math… just word problems… ugh."
The girls froze, utterly stunned by the unexpected, chaotic reaction. They were fully prepared to comfort a broken student, not deal with a strategist having a psychological malfunction.
Lindsey was left completely speechless for a second before a nervous smile cracked on her face.
"Huh? Hahaha," Lindsey muttered, shaking her head. "You're crazy."
Realizing their comforting mission had encountered an unpredictable glitch, Niewi decided to just shift the objective. They were about to head down to the cafeteria anyway.
"We will go to the cafeteria, want to come with us?" Niewi asked.
Jiro's system immediately rebooted, his core survival protocol overriding the madness.
Energy Conservation activated.
"Well… uhh…" Jiro replied, waving his hand lazily. "I will stay here."
The girls nodded, turning around to head downstairs, leaving Jiro to his own devices. Once they were gone, Jiro let out a long, grounding exhale and slowly walked back into the room.
12:18 PM
Before the scattered wanderers could fully disperse into the campus, Mira Palida briefly activated her merchant mode. She stood near the teacher's table, distributing a fresh batch of 1/4 blue index cards and exactly 20 pieces of sliding folders to the students who had requested her pasabuy service earlier in the week.
Even the 29-year-old Lore Master, Reo Bairo, set up a temporary logistics hub at her desk. She smoothly handed over printed copies of the LTS tutorial documentation and journals, along with sets of 1x1 and 2x2 ID pictures, to the cohorts who had commissioned her printing services.
In an instant, a collective crafting session erupted across Room 407. Many students frantically pulled out glue tubes and tape, desperately securing their 2x2 portraits onto their newly acquired blue index cards to prepare for Mrs. Giany Talashiro's impending UTS recitation phase later that afternoon.
The long four-hour break stretched out before them. A significant portion of the BEEd 1-A class opted to stay holed up in the humid classroom. Small study circles formed as some students aggressively reviewed their notes, cramming for the grueling preliminary examinations in FIL 1 and ART 1 scheduled for the Saturday marathon tomorrow, heavily focusing on the topics that had already been reported.
It was an exhausting expanse of free time. The boredom drove the cohort to split their activities. Some students slumped over their armchairs, desperately trying to catch up on lost sleep. Others migrated out to the open hallway, pulling out their phones to choreograph and film TikTok dances to break the monotony. A few restless wanderers simply roamed the campus grounds, exploring the concrete labyrinth.
After hours of messy, unstructured free time—during which groups completely failed to initiate any actual physical labor for their NSTP Adopt-A-Place activity—the clock finally ticked closer to the 3:00 PM mark.
The UTS block was about to begin.
At exactly 3:06 PM, Mrs. Giany Talashiro stepped through the doorway. Her sharp, authoritative aura instantly filled the ambient noise of Room 407, silencing the lingering chatter.
She marched straight to the teacher's table, unzipped her professional bag, and pulled out her laptop. Once it booted up, she opened the Excel masterlist file, efficiently calling out their surnames alphabetically to check the attendance directly from her screen.
Without wasting another second, she grabbed the remote, aimed it at the wall-mounted Smart T.V., and smoothly executed the wireless screencast to project her presentation for the afternoon.
"Okay, 1 BEEd, kindly bring out your index cards now," Mrs. Talashiro instructed, her voice commanding and crisp.
A flurry of movement followed as the class scrambled to retrieve the blue cards they had just painstakingly crafted.
With the administrative requirements cleared, she launched directly into the syllabus. The very first topic she tackled was a deep dive into the Introduction to Philosophy. She broke down the core definitions—explaining it as the "love of wisdom" and the fundamental "study of knowledge."
She then smoothly transitioned into a complex, historical timeline, introducing the prominent philosophers and their distinct perspectives regarding the self, the body, and the soul.
Students quickly noted her distinct speaking quirk. She had a habit of repeatedly dropping the same filler phrases, constantly padding her heavy academic lore with a rapid-fire "basically..." and "something like that."
Despite the repetitive verbal tics, the information dropped relentlessly as she discussed the foundational theories of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. She moved through the eras, covering St. Augustine and Rene Descartes, before finally breaking down the concepts of John Locke, David Hume, and Immanuel Kant.
Following the heavy theoretical lecture, Mrs. Talashiro immediately initiated a rapid-fire recitation phase. She called out questions, testing their retention of the philosophical concepts. Every time a student managed to deliver a correct answer, she simply walked over to their desk, efficiently signing her name on their prepared index cards before immediately moving on to the next question.
After concluding the philosophical gauntlet, she seamlessly pivoted to the next major topic: Sociology.
She discussed the societal frameworks and theories with the same sharp precision. And then, right before the class could even process the transition, she dropped a massive academic ambush.
"Alright, prepare a 1/2 lengthwise yellow paper," Mrs. Talashiro announced calmly, pulling up a new slide. "We will have a long quiz. Twenty items."
A collective, synchronized groan echoed through the room, but the instructor was completely unbothered.
The quiz was surprisingly brutal. It wasn't a simple multiple-choice test; it was a grueling mix of identification, enumeration, and the dreaded modified true or false questions.
Jiro stared at his yellow paper, his mind frantically digging through the philosophical lore he had just absorbed. He answered methodically, calculating the best possible responses. When the checking phase concluded, Jiro looked down at his score. He had secured a solid 14 out of 20.
Not bad, he thought, quietly satisfied with the result.
With the assessment finished, Mrs. Talashiro delivered a crucial update regarding the academic calendar.
"Listen, 1 BEEd, regarding your preliminary examination in UTS, it will be scheduled during the midterm week ah," Mrs. Talashiro explained, looking across the exhausted faces. "So, basically, the prelim and midterm exams will be combined into a single, comprehensive test. Is that okay with you?"
The cohort eagerly nodded in agreement. Pushing an exam further down the timeline was a massive relief to their current stress levels. "Yes po, Ma'am!"
Before concluding the session, she laid out the framework for their major project.
"For your project, you will create a presentation," she announced. "I will provide the specific topics, and the class will be divided and assigned accordingly per topic. And remember my format rules ah. I do not want presentations with overly bright, blinding colors, or text that is too small to read. It is okay to have a nice design, but do not make it overwhelmingly cluttered."
She paused, making sure her final condition was perfectly clear.
"And to clarify, you will not be reporting this in front of the class. You are only required to create and submit the presentation file itself. But listen carefully—if you fail to submit it on the exact deadline, you will receive an automatic cinco (5.0) from me. Understood?"
"Yes po, Ma'am," the class responded, fully aware of her strict deadlines.
"I will likely provide the topics by next month," she added finally.
At 4:41 PM, the grueling UTS class was officially dismissed.
Group Delta immediately activated their sweeping protocols, initiating the mandated weekly cleaning routine. The vast majority of the BEEd 1-A cohort grabbed their heavy bags and poured out of the classroom, eager to escape the campus and begin their weekend.
However, a small faction lingered behind. Jiro, Lindsey, Mekayla, and Nica were still inside Room 407, gathered around an armchair desk and casually discussing their delayed NSTP activity.
Suddenly, three girls from BSED English 1-A happened to pass by the open doorway. They spotted the group and immediately called out to Lindsey.
The two engaged in a brief, hushed conversation near the door. As they talked, Lindsey's eyes locked onto the physical item the BSED English student was carrying. It was a crisp, printed copy of a document.
It was the official KSU template for the LTS and NSTP Donation Drive and Adopt-A-Place reports.
Lindsey's merchant instincts flared. "Uy, can I take a picture of that?" she asked eagerly.
The students agreed. Lindsey quickly placed the printed template flat on an armchair desk, pulled out her phone, and snapped a clear, high-resolution photo of the official formatting guidelines.
"Thanks ah!" Lindsey grinned, handing the paper back.
As the three BSED students left, Lindsey turned back to her group, proudly displaying the digital loot on her screen.
Jiro looked at the picture, a highly satisfied smirk creeping onto his face. He let out a dry laugh.
"Hahaha," Jiro chuckled softly. "Only we know about this template formatting right now."
Mekayla and Lindsey burst into laughter, fully realizing the tactical advantage they had just accidentally acquired.
"Yeah, exactly," Lindsey agreed, grinning widely. "We are so lucky we decided to stay here longer eh."
With the exclusive intel secured, they finally packed up their belongings. They ensured both the front and back doors of Room 407 were securely closed before descending the DOWN ONLY stairs.
As they carefully navigated the damp concrete steps, the Apex Strategist mind triggered Jiro's curiosity about their backgrounds.
"Uhh, Lindsey..." Jiro spoke up, his voice echoing slightly in the stairwell.
Lindsey glanced back over her shoulder, gripping the handrail carefully as she stepped down. "Oh, why Jiro?"
"Why did you choose BEEd?" Jiro asked, letting out a dry, amused chuckle. "Hahahaha."
Lindsey let out a long, heavy sigh that perfectly summarized the universal state university experience.
"Eh, beh, I actually tried to take the entrance exam here for Nursing," Lindsey admitted, a hint of playful frustration in her voice. "Eh... it seems I failed to pass the entrance exam, so I was referred here. It should be I'm in Nursing eh, I wasn't supposed to be an elementary teacher."
She shook her head, adjusting her grip on her bag. "The standard for Nursing here is just so high. Plus, KSU Taytay is the only campus around here that offers free tuition for Nursing... that's why I applied here even though I'm all the way from Binangonan."
Jiro was genuinely shocked by her college background limbo. He deeply acknowledged it, still unable to completely believe the plot twist.
"Ay, weh? Really? You really look like an aspirant teacher eh, hahahaha," Jiro reacted.
Lindsey shook her head once again, while Nica smiled and Mekayla laughed at the banter.
"Luh, hahaha. I just want to be a nurse, not a teacher," Lindsey replied, before turning the question back at him. "Eh, how about you Jiro?"
"Eh, uhmm, since I was in STEM, I want to be a Civil Engineer."
Even though Jiro wasn't finished yet, Lindsey connected the dots and said something immediately.
"So, you took an exam in Morong? Because I know, in Morong they have Civil Engineering there and also a bunch of courses."
Jiro suddenly agreed and nodded.
"Exactly, yeah. But I failed to pass an entrance exam there, lol hahaha. So I was referred to another course there, but I only lasted a few days and then I transferred here. It was so far eh, and exhausting."
"Ahh, yeah, true beh," Lindsey agreed sympathetically. "Morong is so far, plus always traffic. So, you're already drained just from the commute."
"True, true," Jiro muttered while continuously descending.
Hearing this sudden lore drop, both Mekayla and Nica couldn't believe it.
"Oh, you came from Morong?" they asked, surprised by his hidden academic history.
"Yeah, yeah," Jiro nodded, before shifting the spotlight directly onto the two quietest members of the group. "And you two guys?"
As they reached the landing and began their descent to the second floor, the group had to quickly shift sideways to dodge a rushing Nursing student in a pristine white uniform who was hurrying up the stairs.
Nica seemed completely unbothered by the near-collision and answered Jiro's previous question.
"Well, beh, I was originally planning to study in Pasig, but the slots there were already full," Nica explained. "Still Educ, though. I didn't even know there was an Educ program here in Taytay until later. So I tried applying here and passed."
Jiro was genuinely impressed. Unlike him and Lindsey, who were just victims of the quota system, Nica was an actual aspiring teacher.
"Oh, why?" Jiro asked respectfully, curious about her dedication.
"Beh, I just want to teach abroad... especially in Thailand. Because I have relatives there eh," Nica smiled.
"Sawasdee ka!" Jiro suddenly blurted out, playfully activating his inner polyglot.
"Sawasdee khrap!" Nica cheerfully replied, pressing her palms together and performing a respectful wai greeting gesture. A second later, her eyes lit up as she realized what just happened. "Wait, you speak Thai, Jiro?" she asked, her pitch rising with genuine curiosity.
"Uh, no," Jiro deadpanned. "Just living in Taytay (Thai-Thai), hahaha."
The terrible pun destroyed Nica's awe in a matter of seconds.
"You're not funny!" Nica scolded, playfully slapping his arm and widening her eyes at him in mock anger. A moment later, she broke character and laughed it off. "Just kidding beh! Hahaha."
With the joke settled, Jiro finally turned his attention to the last member of the group. He looked at Mekayla, who had just been continuously smiling and laughing the entire time.
"Eh, how about you, Mek?"
Mekayla just giggled. "I don't know, hehehe hahaha. I really don't know how I got here, hahaha!"
Jiro simply stared at her with a deadpan, fish-eyed expression.
Huh? What? his Apex Strategist mind echoed, completely failing to compute how someone could just accidentally wander into a four-year degree program without a solid plan.
Before he could analyze her further, they finally stepped off the final step and onto the ground floor hallway.
"Beh, do you have siblings?" Lindsey suddenly asked, smoothly changing the topic.
Jiro simply muttered, "Yes."
Both Nica and Lindsey stopped for a brief second, visibly intrigued. "So, are you the eldest? Or the youngest?"
"Youngest... yeah," Jiro replied casually. "Pangatlo ako—I'm the third."
The three girls literally gasped in shock. They couldn't believe he was the youngest in his family. With his serious demeanor, constant strategic planning, and overall exhausted aura, he completely radiated strict eldest-sibling vibes!
"Oh, eh where are your siblings?" Lindsey asked, fully invested now. "Do they have work now?"
"Uhh, no, they are both still studying," Jiro answered simply.
"Where? And what course?" Nica quickly chimed in, matching Lindsey's curiosity.
"Well, my brother is now graduating. I.T. or I.S. over in the Binangonan campus," Jiro explained. "And my sister is now in her third year. Nursing. She is actually studying here on this campus."
The three girls were genuinely shocked. Not only did his siblings have highly competitive, decent courses, but his older sister was literally walking the same grounds as them in a pristine white uniform!
"Uy, may I know what your sister's name is?" Lindsey asked eagerly.
Jiro shifted slightly, feeling a sudden wave of shyness. As an advocate of Energy Conservation, he wasn't entirely comfortable revealing his private family dynamics and personal lore to anyone. It felt like giving away tactical information. But looking at his groupmates' expectant faces, he decided to try being a bit more open.
"It's Jaizel Sanata," he answered quietly.
The three girls simply nodded, committing the name to memory.
With the exclusive intel secured and their bonds slightly deeper, they finally exited the KSU campus gates around 5:20 PM and hailed a tricycle together, heading home to prepare for the Saturday marathon.
The evening eventually settled over the province. Many BEEd 1-A students were locked in their homes, aggressively studying and silently worrying if the specific topics they had reported in FIL 1 and ART 1 would actually appear on tomorrow's preliminary exams.
Then, suddenly, the KSU TAYTAY BEED 1-A main group chat buzzed loudly.
At exactly 8:19 PM, the Vice President, Princess Cleria, had dropped a massive, shocking administrative update that completely disrupted their weekend preparations.
Princess Cleria: "@everyone, Sir Casto is no longer our professor for P.E. It's someone else now, so please stop overthinking, okay? Let's just wait for our new professor to be announced. But Sir Casto is still around the campus; his hold on the department was just lessened po."
To back up her devastating claim, she forwarded a screenshot of a private conversation confirming the sudden roster change.
The intel was absolute. They officially had no P.E. classes tomorrow. Mr. Casto had been entirely removed from the COE department's lineup. He was now exclusively assigned as the P.E. instructor for the CON (College of Nursing) department, leaving the COE department with a completely vacant, ghost TBA slot for P.E.
The entire BEEd 1-A cohort was shocked. They were left completely speechless, internally going crazy over the sudden, inexplicable loss of their favorite chill professor.
END OF THE HEADACHE RESULT