About two months ago, I corrected a guy in my class when he answered a question wrong. He looked annoyed. I’m 22, and apparently I have now reached the stage of adulthood where a classroom correction can develop a lengthy administrative afterlife.
Three weeks ago, it was raining, so I kept my beanie on throughout class. When he walked toward my group, he looked down, smiled or laughed, and put a hand on his neck. Once he reached us, he angled his body toward the others and avoided looking at me.
I avoided looking at him, too. If he wasn’t going to acknowledge me, I wasn’t about to supply both sides of the eye contact. This arrangement has produced very little useful information, but excellent consistency.
Since then, whenever I look toward him, he seems to avoid me. His friends also seem reluctant to talk to me or meet my eyes. It feels like they dislike me, although nobody has actually said so. As far as I know, the entire case against me consists of having the correct answer in public.
I keep thinking that if I hadn’t corrected him, somebody else would have. Two months feels like a generous amount of time to recover from a wrong answer. I’ve wondered whether he’s insecure or immature, though I’m working from an annoyed expression and a considerable shortage of conversation.
Yesterday, he arrived a little late. When I participated in class, he looked in my direction. Whether he was looking directly at me is less clear. Later, when we split into groups, he didn’t have anyone to work with and joined a group near mine. That put him facing roughly our way, which did very little to improve the quality of my evidence.
He never spoke to me or my group. When I passed him and his friends, he didn’t look at me. At other moments, when I seemed busy, I had the impression he was looking over.
His friends continued ignoring me. He continued saying nothing. And despite all that, I’m left with a question that seems slightly ambitious given the available material: could he like me?
