That night, Aarav lay in bed, restless.
The ceiling above blurred as his thoughts kept circling back to Anaya—her white dress, her soft smile, the way she looked away when their eyes met. It had only been a moment at the café, but it hit him harder than he expected.
He had seen her after a month.
And suddenly, everything he had pushed away came rushing back—the sound of her laugh, the way she used to wait for him, the light in her eyes when she spoke about her dreams.
He missed her.
Worse, he realized he might have fallen for her when he wasn't even looking. And now, she had slipped through his fingers.
She no longer revolved around him. No more casual greetings. No more checking if he had eaten. No more looking at him like he meant something.
And that silence... it ached.
Across the city, Anaya stared out the window of her hostel, her friends laughing in the background. Her heart wasn't broken—just unsettled. She didn't understand why seeing Aarav with someone else felt like a crack beneath her skin.
She told herself it didn't matter anymore.
But deep down, it still did.
Maybe not because she wanted him, she thought, but because for so long, she did.
And now that chapter had closed, but without any real ending.
The next morning, Aarav picked up his phone more times than he could count. He opened her chat. Typed. Deleted. Rewrote. Deleted again.
Nothing felt right.
Frustrated, he called Karan—his best friend, his reality check.
"Dude, why do you sound like you just got dumped?" Karan joked.
"I think I finally figured it out," Aarav said quietly. "It's Anaya."
There was a pause. "Took you long enough."
"I saw her yesterday. And something just… clicked. I've been so focused on everything else, I didn't realize how much I've been thinking about her. And now… I think I'm in love with her."
Karan didn't laugh this time. "You sure?"
"I don't know when it happened. I just know it's real. And I let her go."
"Then don't keep letting her go. Text her. Talk to her. Tell her."
Aarav looked at her name on his screen. A chat filled with old messages and a lot of silence.
He wasn't sure where to begin.
But he knew he couldn't stay silent anymore.
After a long internal struggle, Aarav finally gathered the courage and typed:
"Hey! Are you well?"
He stared at the screen for a few seconds before hitting Send.
It was just a simple message. Short. Casual. But for Aarav, it felt heavier than anything he'd ever written.
All day, between project meetings and class discussions, his mind wandered to her. Every time his phone buzzed, he hoped it was her. Each time it wasn't, a strange restlessness settled inside him.
Why isn't she replying? Did she see it? Is she ignoring me?
He kept checking if the message had been seen.
It hadn't.
On the other side of the city, Anaya was buried in her world of project submissions and back-to-back lectures. The week had been brutal, and today was no exception. She hadn't even looked at her phone properly since morning. Her group had insisted on finishing the entire project in one go, and by the time it was done, she was too drained to even think.
Dragging herself into the dorm room, she dropped her bag on the bed, slipped out of her shoes, and rested for a minute.
After a warm shower and quick dinner, she finally picked up her phone to glance through the notifications.
Group chats.
Missed calls.
Study reminders.
Library alerts.
And then… one notification made her sit up straight.
Aarav: Hey! Are you well?
Her fingers froze above the screen.
Aarav?
She blinked twice to make sure she wasn't imagining it.
He had messaged her.
For a moment, she just stared at it, not knowing what to feel.
Shock?
Confusion?
Excitement?
A mix of all?
It had been weeks since they had spoken. Since that brief moment at the café, neither of them had reached out. She had tried to put that part of her life behind. She had even started to believe she was succeeding.
But just one message… and everything came rushing back.
Her heart raced a little, but she reminded herself—he's probably just being polite.
Still, she couldn't stop her thumb from hovering over the message, rereading it again and again.
He didn't say much, but it was him. It was enough to shake her calm.
Back in his hostel, Aarav was pretending to concentrate on his notes, but the phone screen remained in his peripheral vision. Every five minutes, he would glance at it, wondering why she hadn't replied yet.
Maybe she doesn't want to talk to me.
Maybe I'm too late.
But something inside him refused to let go of hope.
He didn't know how she would react.
He didn't even know if she still cared.
All he knew was—he wanted to talk to her. Really talk. Not as someone who took her for granted, but as someone who finally realized her worth.
That night, as Anaya sat on her bed staring at the message, her roommate walked in.
"You okay? You've been staring at your screen like you saw a ghost."
She gave a small smile. "Not a ghost. Just someone I didn't expect."
The roommate didn't press further. And Anaya, still unsure, didn't respond to the message right away.
But her mind kept drifting back to it.
Back to him.
And Aarav, on his side, still waited—his heart holding onto the tiny thread of hope that maybe, just maybe… this could be a new beginning.