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Chapter 4 - PART 4: “THE SILENT EQUATION: MANDA”

After all the chaos, scandal, and seductive algebra of his UEW life, Kwabena Asare had finally

settled into a peaceful routine:

➢ Mark scripts

➢ Drink Sobolo at the North Campus canteen

➢ Avoid eye contact with overly friendly female students

➢ Whisper "Not again" every time his phone buzzed

But fate, like a stubborn math problem, had one more unsolved variable for him.

The Encounter

It was mid-semester exams.

Kwabena had been assigned as an invigilator for "MATH 212: Geometry & Mensuration" for

the Basic Education Level 200s.

He walked into the lecture theatre, took attendance, gave the usual warnings:

"No talking. No phones. And definitely no equations of the heart this time." The

students laughed lightly, except one girl sitting on the third row by the window.

She didn't laugh.

She didn't even blink. She just stared at her

paper with quiet intensity.

Her name tag read: Manda.

Manda

She was the type of lady whose silence filled a room louder than applause. Short with cute ass No lashes. No noise. Just a black pen, spectacles, and braids neatly tied back like she was ready to

calculate her future in peace. When the exams ended, Kwabena walked past the rows collecting

scripts. Then he noticed Manda had drawn a perfect circle on the back of her last sheet… …with an accurate radius and labeled points.

He couldn't help it.

"You… you even revise with art?" he asked, amused.

She looked up and softly said:

"Math is art. You just have to stop overthinking it." Then

she stood up and left, without another word.

Kwabena stood there frozen.

"Math is art? Ei. Who is this Socrates in sneakers?"

The Obsession Begins

He marked all 187 scripts in two days.

Why?

Because he was searching for Manda's paper.

When he finally found it, he sat up straight.

All questions are correct.

Flawless logic.

No unnecessary drama. No quotes. No phone numbers. Just pure, clean answers.

At the bottom of the last page, she had written:

"Thank you for supervising us. Your instructions were clear, unlike the questions ." He

chuckled.

His heart did something strange.

For the first time in UEW, (apart from his colleague crush Rita) he liked someone who didn't like him first.

The Plan

He tried to act normal for two weeks.

Didn't stalk her on WhatsApp.

Didn't Google "how to approach intelligent quiet girls without looking desperate." Didn't

sit outside Ghartey Hall waiting for her to pass.

Okay... maybe once.

Then, during inter-faculty quiz finals, he saw her again.

She was representing the Maths Team as their quiet but lethal "Problem Solving" member.

Kwabena was in the audience, watching with a heart rate like a Wi-Fi signal.

When Manda correctly solved a probability question in under 30 seconds, he clapped so hard, that

a girl in front turned and said:

"Sir please... this isn't a wedding."

After the Quiz

He finally walked up to her.

Voice shaking. Knees betray his adult confidence.

"Hey, uhh… I just wanted to say you were amazing out there."

Manda blinked, then smiled that soft, rare smile that looked like it only came out on special

occasions.

"Thanks. You're the invigilator who told us not to fall in love with X and Y, right?"

He laughed nervously.

"Yeah, well… I think I've made peace with X. But now I'm looking for Y."

She raised an eyebrow. "You sure it's not Z this time?" They

both laughed

And for once… it felt right.

No drama. No equations hiding phone numbers.

Just two quiet math lovers, finally solving for something that mattered.

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