"Is love blooming?"

Part - 1

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Days were passing by, faster than Lasya or anyone could think of. The internals were all completed and Lasya did well in it.

Even the relation between Lasya and Shravas seems to be okay now as they have turned acquaintances to each other. Shravas is happy with this progress and Lasya is also enjoying his low key status with her.

At least he is not turning his head away from me, is what she says sometimes when she finds him staring at her.

Little did she know, the actual reason for his stares.

Internal results came out and Shravas turned out to be the topper again in his batch and hence his friends asked for a treat and he had thrown a party overnight at a lounge club at his game arena, where he had taken a shot of Vodka with his friends for fun but the fun has resulted in him with a huge hangover giving him a big headache.

"Don't drink much, let go of it", one of his friends has said to him. But he didn't pay any heed and continued to drink and enjoying the mild state it brings on for some time!

"Vasu, we have a college tomorrow for God's sake! We cant even skip!", Kinshuk had reprimanded but it all went to deaf ears.

And here he is now, walking still all tipsy over the college corridor not taking someone's attention was on him all the time he entered the college through his car today.

He woke up a little late and missed college bus so his driver dropped him off to his college and here we are, walking all in his glory!

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Shravas was walking by when his wrist was being pulled to an empty room. He was in a dilemma about what's going on.

The room was dark and there was no sign of humans instead all you can see is the unused furniture scattering around the place.

"What the ...?" He couldn't complete until a hand covered his mouth.

After a minute of silence, she removed her hands from his mouth.

"I ..I am sorry. I was just concerned for you." Lasya said after a while of hesitation, looking here and there.

He was surprised seeing her here along with him. He moved towards her very close, and couldn't know what came over as he cupped her face with his hands. He had a smile on his face and was about to place a forehead kiss but left the idea as he doesn't want her to feel needy or say desperate.

Lasya was cautious as he was leaning forward towards her, but was staying still cause somewhere she knew, he wouldn't do anything that can put her sanity into the stake.

He then pulled away and stared at her, literally groaning mentally.

'What was I doing?', Shravas thought and closed his eyes with frustration.

Taking a deep breath he asked, "Btw why are you here? What do you want? Are you alright?", He raised his eyebrows with concern.

She cleared her throat, not able to say anything as at once it's like no words are available for why she was so worried. Without saying anything, she took some tablets from her sling and gave it to him with a water bottle.

"Here take this, you will be feeling better within 15 minutes."

He looked at her hand and yes, he can see the tablets for real. He gave her a are you kidding me look? With a small smile.

She shook her head in disbelief. She touched his cheeks and forcefully opened his mouth then quickly placed the tablets. She pushed the water bottle towards him and gestured him to gulp it down. He did as she said without arguing, obeyed just like an obedient child.

A small giggle left her throat seeing his cute pout after the intake of tablets. When her work was completed, without saying anything he tried to walk past him but within a second, he pulled her back holding her waist towards him and she smashed to his hard chest.

This is the first time they are close to each other.

Both of them can hear their heartbeats beating rapidly across their ribs. Her back was facing his chest and he tightened his hold around her waist.

He turned her around and made her face him lifting her chin making her eyes lock in his. There was a glint of joy in his eyes which can make her heart flutter in happiness.

"Thank You Lasya. I didn't expect you to give me the tablets but I do really appreciate your caring nature towards me." He said looking deeply into her eyes.

She shuddered in his intense glance and started looking here and there.

"I somehow knew you had a party last night cause of our internal result and I thought to help you with your headache since we are friends. So, yeah hope it will help you ease your pain", she let out, wriggling in his arms and looking everywhere but him.

"Look at me, Lasya" he whispered near her ear erupting tremors all through her body.

She didn't pay any heed.

"Look at me my love" her heart boomed with eagerness with the endearments he is giving her.

She looked at him with hope in his eyes.

"We are friends?", He stated as he couldn't believe and let it out as a question.

"Yeah, you are Tina's friend so as mine", she looked everywhere but him. He let out a small chuckle.

"Okay, we are friends and hope we will be like this close to each other." He started caressing her cheeks.

She nods without trusting her own voice.

'What's happening?', her heart asked her, cause it was pumping rapidly!

'I dont know, but whatever it is, I am really liking it', Lasya thought mentally.

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He placed a kiss on her forehead and slowly murmured a 'thank you little hearts', in his low voice.

She pushed him away as she hears that.  "Come again"

She kept her hand above her hips and tilts her head to left with a smirk as if she just now caught a cat.

"Huh?" He gave her a what are you talking about the look?

"What did you just say?" He bit his tongue and mentally smacked his head for not controlling his mouth.

"Nothing, I told thank you. What's in with you today? Why are you interrogating me now?" He said without stuttering and straightened himself to stand confident in front of her. But he knows very well she will not let it go.

"Hey, my headache is slightly decreased now. I think we should go to our class if you don't want to be late." He gave her a hint of punctuality hoping she would let him go leaving the topic.

"Okay, I heard something, where someone very special of mine uses that for me as an endearment. So I just wondered how come you...anyway, leave it. Yeah, it's already late. I guess we shall get going. I hope you are feeling better now. Next time don't drink too much like you can't handle your head!", She said in authority as if it is a very important matter of fact and left the room nudging his shoulders by hers.

He was dumbstruck hearing her order but he loved the way she is trying to control him. That's what all he wanted in his life. He rubbed his nape with a never-ending smile on his face.

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They both didn't see each other again during college hours.

Lasya was drained out due to hectic lab duties whereas Shravas was assigned with some upcoming events charge.

Shravas was sitting on the bus eagerly waiting for it to start and reach home so that he could fall asleep.

But something strikes in his mind.

Lasya!

Where is she?

He just looked here and there but couldn't find any sign of her instead he saw her friend, Nihi coming towards the bus.

Also, he was feeling some bad vibes since his heart started beating fast all of a sudden. He quickly got up from the seat and jumped out from the bus making Nihi jump from fright.

"Hey Nihi, where is Lasya?", He asked panting.

"She ..she..is in the storage room. Vandana miss asked her to keep something in it", Nihi replied stuttering a bit not knowing why it is he, acting like this.

"Why you didn't accompany her?" His question made her eyebrows knot in confusion. And she didn't know what to tell.

"She only told me to go and wait on the bus as she will come very soon. So I left her and here I am", she said as if it's not a big issue.

Little did she know her careless answer made him lose his mind and his blood boiled in anger.

"How could you do that Nihi? How could you leave her all alone that too in a dark storage room? If something happens to her, you will have to face me for sure. Now come on let's find and accompany her."

"Okay, okay. We will go", Nihi said to make him calm.

He literally dragged her towards the storage room letting the bus driver know they are going and asked him to wait for 30 minutes more.

Nihi couldn't understand what's happening and why is he being worried this much.

They started moving towards the room and they can hear faint voices from inside.

"See I told you, she is in trouble. oh God, we shall hope she is fine and well", he sends few daggers towards Nihi and moved towards the room.

Nihi started sweating due to his loud voice and she can surely tell that something is cooking between them.

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On the other side, as per her madam said, she was in search of the cupboard where CD's are placed. While she was searching, a small voice boomed near her ears. Turning out, she found it was Venkat's voice.

"Hey, Venkat! You here?"

Lasya asked in surprise as she placed the programming CDs back in the rack.

He cleared his throat awkwardly and looked here and there before replying.
"Yeah, I just wanna talk to you. So I came here in search of you"

Lasya knew something was not right, as there was an uneasiness covering all of his faces. He was nervous, more like a bit of unsure was screaming from his face.

"Oh.. tell what was bothering you, that you couldn't wait for me to come outside to tell me?" She asked trying to look intimidated by crossing her arms over her chest even if she is hell nervous thinking why is he here.

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To be continued...

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Thank you 😁