The next school day had a different energy. Maybe it was the aftermath of the literary fest, or maybe it was something subtler—like the shift in the way Karthik and Ananya looked at each other.
Not much had been said between them since the race to the street corner. But sometimes, silence held more weight than words.
During lunch, they sat in their usual spot beneath the neem tree. Ananya had brought extra curd rice in a steel tiffin and offered him a bite without asking. He took it with a small smile, wiping the edge of the spoon before handing it back.
Karthik watched her chew slowly, distracted, as if her mind was elsewhere.
"You okay?" he asked.
She looked at him, almost surprised. "Yeah. Just… thinking."
"About?"
"Everything," she said. "School. Home. Us."
That word again—us. It was starting to sound less accidental each time she said it.
Before he could reply, Meena and Vishal plopped down nearby, mid-argument about who had won the spelling bee. Their voices were loud and dramatic, completely disrupting the quiet moment. Ananya laughed and joined the teasing, but Karthik noticed that her eyes kept flicking back to him.
Later in English class, the teacher assigned a paired dialogue-writing activity. Naturally, Karthik and Ananya were grouped together. The prompt? "Write a conversation between two people who want to say something important but keep hesitating."
Karthik nearly laughed. The universe clearly had a sense of humor.
They stared at the blank paper for a few minutes.
"This feels weirdly familiar," Ananya muttered.
He smiled. "Let's just write what we know."
She nodded. Together, they started crafting a fictional pair of students, speaking in half-truths and paused confessions. Every sentence they wrote felt like a reflection of their own journey—awkward, tender, and just on the edge of something more.
By the time they turned in the paper, Karthik's fingers brushed hers. Neither moved away.
As the bell rang, Ananya leaned in slightly and whispered, "We really do suck at hiding things."
Karthik grinned. "Maybe it's time we stop trying."
She gave him a look—equal parts amused and curious. "Maybe."
The hallway was crowded, the noise of footsteps and chatter rising like a tide. But in that moment, Karthik didn't hear any of it. Just the echo of what was left unsaid between them… and the certainty that someday soon, those words would be spoken.
Not today. But someday.
And that was enough.
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End of chapter 102