Kiara's POV:

"Will you please tell me what was Nia's reaction?"

"No," Akshay replied causing me to smack his head. I have been requesting him to tell me everything but instead of answering, he wanted to continue with his stubbornness.

"Akshay, This is the last time I'm asking you. Are you going to say it or not?"

"I'm scared to tell you everything." He replied. Scared, why?

"I mean considering how your brain works, I know you will scold me and will assume so many things. I'm scared of them."

"Man, please. I'm born impatient. Just say it already." I demanded and saw him nod.

"Remember the day when I took my anger on you..."

"How can I forget, you were so rude to me," I said cutting his sentence. I knew it was not to time to have fun but it just came out as an usual habit of never leaving a chance to taunt someone.

"Yeah yeah. I know! You don't have to remind me of it all the time." He said. I ignored it and told him to continue.

"That day after you went, Nia came to meet me. I was so angry and unfortunately, even she got the dose of it." He replied with somewhat guilt in his eyes.

"You bad human. You seriously took your anger on her? What did you say?" I asked.

"I scolded her very badly. Called her fool for loving someone who doesn't care about her. Unfortunately, I also told her that Ritik clearly loves someone else and she is just giving it a blind eye."

"You called her fool?" I asked.

"Don't get me wrong, I love her but she is a fool. She didn't figured there is something going on between you two until the day Ritik followed you, not caring about what his family will think."

Damn, This is so so so bad. Ritik shouldn't have done that but that idiot can't control his emotions.

"What did she say?" I asked and came to know that when Nia met Akshay, She looked sad and also told Akshay that she figured who is the person Ritik loves. What shocked me and Akshay was the fact that Nia didn't cry nor talked about it again and now she doesn't looks sad.

"So even before Ritik could tell her everything, she already knew about?" I asked and saw Akshay giving a quick nod.

"And why are you scared?"

"The day when I talk.....I mean scolded her, I said something which I highly regret now." Akshay replied.

"I told her that what she feels for Ritik is not called love. She has mistook her attraction as love. I told her that love is not a one-sided thing and she believed me." He said further and the last line very slowly as if he knew it was his mistake.

"Why would you say that? Of course, love can be a one-sided thing. For example, what I feel for Ritik, what you feel for Nia and....wait." I said cutting my own sentence.

"Do you mean that Nia believed that she was never in love with Ritik and that's why she is happy now?" I asked.

"Yes."

"And are you scared because you are afraid that one day she will realise it's the other way and will get hurt again?"

"Yes again, Kiara. I'm actually scared about that now. Earlier I was not thinking about this but since I thought of it, I can't take it out of my mind." Akshay answered.

"You are a fool Akshay. Why did you even say that to her?"

"I was angry. I'm not overthinking, Nia and me, We truly had some amazing time together. I even thought that she is getting over her feelings for Ritik but when she told me about it, I lost my mind." He replied.

"What do you mean by 'amazing time'?"

"Our three trips, late-night chats, Nia visiting my home and also her calmness after knowing that I love her." He replied making me so shocked.

"When did this all happened? And how did she know about your feelings?"

"It happened when you and Ritik were so busy with each other. Answering your second question, I share everything with my mom. I told her about Nia and the day when she came home, Mom asked me in our native language whether Nia is the girl I was talking about. I said yes and call it fortunately or unfortunately but Nia understood that." He replied and I literally felt like laughing. Nia was always fond of learning new languages.

"Poor boy but you did wrong man."

"Why are you so angry? My mistake is going to make You and Ritik together, isn't it?" He asked. Will it? Maybe not.

"Akshay, Nia will realize one day that she was wrong to believe what you said."

"Will you both for once stop overusing that brain of yours? Nia is not a kid. She knows what she is doing. If she is truly happy then let her be happy. Please don't do something and confuse her. I'm sure she might have thought about it a lot before coming to this conclusion. So please stop overthinking." Anika said.

"I guess she is right," Akshay said and even I agreed to it. Maybe we are truly overthinking.

"Ok fine. Let's go outside, I have some work." I said and took both of them with me. Actually, I didn't had any work, I wanted to look for Ritik.

"Don't tell me you brought me here because you wanted to see him?" Akshay asked probably because he caught me staring at Ritik, who was on the field, playing like there won't be any match in future.

"A sick person shouldn't play, Right?"

"Not a problem if a mentally sick person plays."

"You shut up ok. He had a fever last night." I answered.

"Then why is he exhausting himself?" Akshay asked however I had no answer to his question. When I went to talk with Akshay, Ritik was playing...when I came out, he was still playing.

"What should I do?"

"He knows his limit Kiara, stop overthinking," Akshay said and excused himself as he had some work. Anika took me with her to the library as she wanted to borrow a book. I tried to divert my mind but it kept visualising about some horrible scenarios. What if Ritik falls down? What if something wrong happens with him? What if he is in need of help and no one helps him? I knew he was on the ground, his teammates were with him probably even his best friend must be there but still, I was scared.

"When will this end?" I asked as it was already half hour yet her book was not issued to her.

"Done." She said and took the book from the counter.

"Sorry, they were finding the stamp and that took a lot of time." She said further.

"It's ok," I replied and went towards the football ground. Ritik was still playing and Viraj was not on the field.

"Since when he is playing?" I asked Sakshi.

"Almost two hours." She replied. I asked her about Viraj and came to know that he went home as he wanted to take his mother to the hospital for her routine check-up. What a nice guy!

"Will you stop him, please?" I requested, however, she said that she already tried to do it as even she knows Ritik had fever last night but he didn't listen.

"Don't worry. It's their second game I guess and it will end now. I don't think anyone will play after that." She Stated. Hope so. I waited for five more minutes and saw the game end. I was happy to see everyone parting from the field until Ritik said his next sentence.

"One more game."

"What the hell!" Sakshi said and shot him with a glare however he was too busy to look at her. Why are you doing this Ritik?

"Should I talk with his coach?" I asked.

"Don't even think. He is very strict. I mean I don't know how it will turn out but I heard that he believes in the line, 'If he woman is your biggest supporter, she can be your biggest distraction as well' and he wants his boys to stay out of distraction. If you go and talk to him, either he will get ready or will scold Ritik."

"Both outcomes are good," I said and went towards Riyaz sir. I greeted him and gained all the courage to say whatever I wanted to say.

"I have a request to make. As what I have heard about you, maybe you will get angry but I have no option left. Sorry if I say something wrong but Ritik is sick and yet he is playing. He is not listening to anyone, will you please tell him to go home?" I said in one go and by the time I finished, I saw a smile on his face.

"Are you the reason why my captain is so aggressive on the field these days?" He asked.

"Aggressive?" I asked as I was not sure if I heard it right.

"Yes, aggressive. When heart breaks people are usually aggressive, aren't they?" Sir asked and I was tongue-tied. Our teachers really do understand a lot about us. Ritik is always aggressive on the field but if Sir is saying, I guess his aggression must be on the another level. What if Ritik is imagining the ball as me and then kicking it to take out all his frustration?

Geez, why do I imagine such stupid things?

"I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. I'm sorry if I did, wait I will tell him to go home."

"No no, please don't say sorry. You didn't make me uncomfortable. I was thinking about something else." I tried to explain however he didn't looked much impressed. Sir called Ritik and the moment he saw me beside Sir, I felt like running from there.

"Yes sir?" Ritik asked as he came and stood far away from me. He looked confused and I knew soon that confusion was going to turn into anger. Why didn't I move from here? Idiot me!

"Enough for today. Go home." Sir said calmly. Ritik looked more confused this time, he looked at me again and after a few more seconds, he glared at me.

"I'm sorry sir. Nothing is going on between us. I swear I won't let anything distract my performance and...."

"Ritik, I'm not scolding you. Neither I said you are distracted. I heard you are sick so I'm telling you to go home. Rest properly, we have some great matches in the coming months. I don't want you to miss them." Sir stated.

"I'm fine now. Moreover, it was just a little fever."

"Why are you lying?" I blurted out and immediately apologised like a scared puppy once I saw Ritik shooting me with a deathly glare.

"Stop scaring her man. She was concerned about you and that's why she dared to come and talk to me which anyone could hardly do." Sir said.

"It's nothing like you think," Ritik stated.

"Maybe but she does care about you. So go home now."

"She doesn't," Ritik said and without waiting for Sir's reply, he turned and went away from there.

"Thank you so much and I will make sure not to interrupt his game again," I said and left from there. I saw Ritik arguing with Sakshi however she looked very calm and composed. I didn't dare to face Ritik so I decided to turn back.

"Kiara, Ritik wants to ask you something," Sakshi said and even though it was unwillingly, I went and stood in front of him.

"Yes?" I asked.

"I didn't call her," Ritik said to Sakshi.

"I have an important call to make, bye guys." She said and ran from there.

"What are you trying to do now? Were you not the one who told me to stay away from you? Why are you interfering in my life now?" Ritik asked angrily.

"I'm sorry," I replied and even before Ritik could say anything, I saw Nia coming towards us. Again I felt like running. I didn't wish to face her, I was guilty about everything.

"Hi, guys." She greeted cheerfully. Her calmness scared me but I hoped that whatever Anika said was true and me and Akshay are just overthinking.

"Shall we talk?" She asked.

"Yeah sure, let's go from here," Ritik said.

"Ritik, I want to talk with you both," Nia stated and I literally begged the land to swallow me. I wanted to talk with Nia but not when Ritik was there with us.

Thank you.