The duo walks along the side hand in hand, with the younger chattering away gleefully. Arivu excitedly explained how he took a bet from one of his classmates to pick up a stack of printouts from the Xerox shop and bring it to class all by himself. 

"That is incredibly dangerous!" Yashvi exclaims, shocked.

"Because I'm blind?" Arivu asks, rolling his eyes.

"You are a 6 year old kid walking by himself on a busy street. Blindness has nothing to do with how much danger you could have been in right now!"

Arivu quiets down for a few seconds, before muttering in a small voice, "But I have to prove to them that I'm normal."

"What?" She asks.

"I have to prove that just because I'm blind, it doesn't mean that I'm not normal!" He says louder.

"And how do you prove yourself?"

"By doing their dares. Like walking a whole day without my stick, or diving into a pool by myself."

"Kid! You could have gotten seriously hurt!"

"I mean I have a couple times, but I have to prove-"

"You don't have to prove anything," Yashvi interrupts. "I mean it doesn't even make sense for you to prove that you're normal, when you aren't."

Arivu's face falls hearing that, but Yashvi continues.

"You are extraordinary. Any normal kid will be terrified to go down the streets by himself, but you were brave. Do not forget how cautious you were when offered to help. They definitely knew what they were doing when they named you. There is a slight chance that I may be biased, but you are the smartest, bravest, cutest, and most charming kid I have ever met. People that care about you would never purposely put you in a risk. So why would you go out of your way to prove yourself to them when you are already good enough?"

Arivu's face brightens up once more. "I liked that," he exclaims.

"Liked what?" Yashvi asks, confused.

"When you said I was smart and brave, and called me extraordinary. I liked that," he explains joyfully.

"Well, I am only saying the truth," she states with a smile.

"By the way, can I buy you a cup of coffee?" Arivu asks.

"I know I said you were charming, but you are still too young for me," Yashvi jokes.

"Not as a date! It's to replace the c8up I dropped!" Arivu exclaims with a roll of his eyes.

"I already told you it's not needed. I actually hate black coffee," she replies with a grimace.

"Then why did you buy it?"

"Because I needed something to wake me up, and black coffee does that with fewer calories."

"Why does fewer calories matter?"

"Because too many calories will make me gain weight when I'm trying to lose it."

"Why are you trying to lose weight?"

"So that I can look beautiful."

"You don't think you look beautiful?"

"It's not that.. just that I probably look better if I could fix a few things. Like others."

"What would you fix?"

"My nose is too big. My skin is dark and has some discoloration. I also have a huge forehead and really chubby cheeks. I would fix all that," Yashvi lists out everything she would change about herself.

Arivu takes a few seconds to think before declaring, "I don't understand any of that. In fact, I don't even know what you look like, but I still know that you are beautiful."

"How do you know that?" Yashvi asks with a smile.

"When someone realizes I'm blind, they usually leave silently, thinking I won't know. I've had people leave while I'm talking or people pretend to not be there when I call for them. Others will treat me like a baby who can't do anything. But you weren't like that. You could have just left after we bumped. Instead, you helped me and didn't treat me any different. That makes you beautiful," he declares firmly once again.

Yashvi just softly asks, "Is that so?" The little boy's words melted her heart, but the insecurities within still refused to believe Arivu's words.

"Yes! You don't have to prove anything. You are good enough. You. Are. Beautiful!" Arivu insists. 

Pearls of tears glide down Yashvi's cheeks as she leaves the child's hand and cups his face softly.

"Thank you-" she starts to say, but before she can finish, a sudden wave of dizziness attacks her. 

"Yashvi?" Arivu calls out in confusion. "Yashvi? YASHVI!"

And I successfully finished with a cliffhanger! By the way, this chapter has not been proofread at all, so there will be some mistakes.

I had a hard time writing this chapter because giving advice or a pep talk is easy, but believing in it is hard. So whatever Arivu says, it had to be something that even I could believe.

Anyways, how was the chapter? The next chapter is the last one!

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