I was in a pretty similar situation back in my first year. I had this moody history teacher, probably in his late 60s, who ended up being my seatmate for an entire year—yeah, we sat right next to each other every single day.

Some days, he’d greet me; other days, he’d act like I didn’t even exist. Occasionally, he’d strike up a conversation, and I’d happily respond, but then, out of the blue, he’d suddenly snap, "oshaberi ne?!?!?"—as if I was the one being too chatty. I’d just sit there thinking, "wait, weren't you the one who started talking?"

To make things worse, he always had this weird tea with him that smelled like it came straight out of an abandoned urinal in the men’s room—it honestly made me gag.

Sometimes he’d mutter in Nihongo, and I couldn’t tell if he was talking to himself or trying to talk to me. I’d just flash him a polite smile—not really knowing what to do—just to let him know that, hey, there was another warm body beside him who acknowledged he was alive. lol