Yet Another Shaggy Dog Story.

I went to SM last month to watch a movie and my dad asked me out to buy siopao from Bob's when I was done. I'm not at all a fan of Bob's signature siopao. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. But what can I do?

Anyway, when I got to SM, I was no longer in the mood to watch anything. So I decided to just buy the siopao instead. I was told it would take a few minutes to prepare, so I proceeded to find a seat. And to my surprise, I saw the only professor who ever flunked me (I also failed my first Political Science thesis, but that's another story).

The flunking was kind of a farce actually. The registrar messed up and gave me Tax 2. It turns out that I still needed to take up Accounting 3 and Tax 1, subjects I was still a long ways off from taking. By the time I found out that it was all a mistake, it was already midterms and I was already having a hell of a time keeping up with everyone. Everyone else was barely getting through the whole subject and there were other students even worse off than I was. It didn't help that the instructor was what we Filipinos call a "terror".

My professor made it clear that I was a moron for not taking note of the situation sooner. He told me to get things cleared up with the registrar. I was then supposed to get a form that essentially cleared things up so that the whole incident will not reflect on my transcript, which he would sign. The subject would then not appear on the transcript.

I did this of course and proceeded to quit attending his classes. Then I learned from one of my classmates that he was pissed for not attending his classes. "So what?", I reasoned. It wasn't going to reflect on my transcript anyway (despite my inability to get a refund). Besides, I was failing the heck out of it anyway.

After the finals, I learned that the bastard went ahead and failed me anyway, sullying my as of then, unsullied record. Turns out he didn't submit the little slip of paper that would've cleared things up. Would've taken him all of 30 seconds. Instead, he went through the additional trouble of calculating my grades through the midterms and my null grade through the endterms for a subject that I was not supposed to take and he submitted THAT.

In retrospect, It probably will not matter all that much in the greater scheme of things. But damned if it wasn't annoying the heck out of me at the time. For some reason, we never encountered each other all that often in the corridors, probably because he was in another part of the campus most of the time. When we did meet, I would sort of raise my hand slightly to greet him and he'd give me a look, and nothing more. He did however, compensate by giving me a look dripping with the contempt that I doubt I deserved. I still think it was pretty funny.

Now, 4 years later after the whole Tax 2 incident, I was in yet another situation where it would be rude not to acknowledge him. And I'm never rude on purpose.

Physically speaking, he was quite grotty looking, even if his clothes did seem clean. It'd be hard to find a one word concept that could encapsulate that man's being. "Antisocial" would be an understatement. Old accountants who happen to be confirmed bachelors aren't much into social niceties, so it would seem. He was alone and hunched over a bowl of soup, in a part of the restaurant where it would most unlikely he would have to interact with anyone.

In other words, he was in my spot.

I greeted him cordially, in the same way I did back in college: with a slight arm raise and a forced smile. He let out a slight grunt, along with a glance that lasted for but a small part of a second. As if to say, "I saw you. Now leave me alone."

No wonder everyone had at least a few bad things to say about him.

Man, he's cool.