Nandini reached the institute on her scooty. Since the institute was close to her house, she was allowed to take her scooty to go there. She parked it and walked towards the classroom. She was wearing skin tight denims and sleeveless top, hair tied in a messy bun.

Manik was already there, solving some sums and the girls eyeing him. But as the girls saw Nandini walking towards him , they sighed defeatedly and looked away. Nandini chirpily said a shy hi'. He looked up from his book with a wide smile and said hi'. He tilted his head and looked behind her inquisitively, then looked at her again, "where is navya?" he asked with a glint of hope. Nandini smiled, she knew he would be super happy to know that navya is absent today, "she is not going to come today" nandini answered and watched his face. "really??" he exclaimed, but realising that he shouldn't have reacted that way, quickly faked a cough, "ummm, ermmm, i mean, why has she not come today?" nandini suppressed a smile and answered, "usey kahi jana tha apni mom k sath" she said and manik nodded his head lazily "main yaha baith jaun??" nandini asked cutely and manik realised that she has been standing all the while and scolded himself for his ungentlemanly behaviour while nodding furtively for her to sit. As nandini sat she inspected the papers on his desk "assignment paper? Tumne complete ni kiya?"
"ni, yeh bas last question bacha hai ..." he replied and started solving while nandini guided him a bit.

Soon they were done and were discussing some questions when two boys came to sit on their bench beside nandini. The bench was 4 seater. At first manik and nandini both didn't notice but as their discussion ended, manik saw the boys who were doing nothing but the possessive side of him, suggested to exchange seats with nandini. He looked at nandini, who was busy stuffing papers in her bag.

He weighed the consequences, will she get offended that i am interfering too much. But then he couldn't contain himself and forgot about weighing pros and cons and asked "nandini , let's exchange seats?" she looked at him , then at her side towards the boys and then looked back at him and nodded "ok" she felt happy because by only these little gestures of him , she knew that she has a spot in his heart because he never has said those words of assurance.

They both got up and manik bent backwards making way for her to pass. In the process, their body rubbed at unwanted places and both experienced such emotions that should never be let out on the surface.

Nandini didn't want the awkwardness to prevail, so she asked him about the chapter that was going to be discussed today in the class and just then the teacher arrived and class started.

It was the third hour, and chemistry class was going on, the last class for the day. Manik looked at his side and found nandini dozing off. Scared that the teacher might see, manik poked nandini on her arms with his pen. Nandini's eyes immediately snapped open in alert. She looked for any sign of danger of having been caught sleeping in the class by the teacher, but to her relief, she found him still explaining some organic reaction at the front of the class. She looked at manik, who was scribbling something on the copy. He nudged her to read his note that he had written. It read

"why are you always so sleepy?"

She scribbled the answer and bit her inner cheeks to control her smile
"because i don't sleep at night"

He took the copy from her and after reading, wrote something again and then pushed the copy towards her. She read

"acha? Don't tell me you study the whole night"

"i don't"

"so what do you do? Play with mosquitoes?"

She stifled a laugh before writing back:

"no. I keep thinking about you."
She noticed his body stiffened after reading her reply. So she quickly snatched the copy and wrote

"i was just joking. Relax. Actually i don't feel sleepy during the night and in the morning its hard to leave the bed, because its in the morning that goddess of sleep seems to bless me."

she conveniently covered it up. She didn't want him to think that he effected her so much, otherwise he wouldn't think twice before withdrawing himself from her. It was good this way, atleast they were close and friends'.

Manik just smiled but didn't reply back and pretended that he had suddenly found something important in the reaction and the equations being explained. Nandini scolded herself for being impulsive and spoiling the moment.

Finally, the class got over and students started walking out. Manik and nandini were at the last.

"kya hum one hour group study ni kar sakte aaj? Ye assignment k kuch questions solve kar lete together. It would be easier.." nandini suggested as the assignment question given today were really tough. Manik looked at his watch. It was beyond 6 now. His mother must be waiting, then he looked at nandini's worried face. He deliberated for a moment, then took out his phone and gestured nandini to keep quiet and she bobbed her head.

"hello maa, aaj na institute mein kuch tough questions mile hain. Islye friend k sath baith kar solve karna chahta tha"

"ni, bas one hour.."

"ok thank you maa"

He hung up and looked at nandini.
"thank you" she said immediately

"give me a minute, too"

"ok" he said smiling.

"hello mummy, aaj na i will be a little late"

"no, papa ko mat bhejna, i have scooty na.."

"nahi mummy, please, "

"acha ok, manik mujhe company de dega building tak, uske ghar k raste mein hi mera ghar hai" nandini said this and looked at manik, who was smiling looking elsewhere.

"ab khush??"

"ok bye, love you, mummy"

Nandini hung up.

"acha, i am your body guard now??" he asked looking amused.

"not body guard, you are my guy friend and men are supposed to be chivalrous...they don't leave a girl alone in the night" nandini spoke

"acha, hmm, chivalrous, haan?? So princess, kya aap study room mein chalne ki takleef karengi?" manik spoke dramatically. Nandini liked the way he addressed her, PRINCESS.

After a one hour study, both left the institute on nandini's scooty. Manik was riding the two-wheeler and nandini sat in the back with her legs across. She held the back of the scooty for support refraining from the urge to keep her palm on his shoulder. The cool, night breeze blew ruffling nandini's hair and manik watched her face in the rear view mirror of the scooty, without her knowledge. But at one point of time , accidently their eyes met in the mirror, and manik looked away, hurriedly while nandini blushed profusely, smiling to herself.

As he stopped near her building, nandini got down and noticed that her mother was standing in the balcony, looking down at them.

Nandini waved her hand to her mother and manik looked up too and then seeing her mother, folded his hands in acknowledgement. He saw her signalling him to come up, so through the movement of his hand , he told her that he has to go and parked the scooty and giving a last glance to nandini , and waving a bye, he walked away from there.

"hey mumma!" nandini chirped getting inside the house.

"so was it really for the assignment that you stayed late or..." nandini's mom didn't complete, trailing off in order to tease her daughter.

"mom!" nandini whined , "don't speak that way...i have told you already that he is not that type of a boy...he loves his family too much...to go against them" nandini spoke in a matter-of-fact tone lokking down at her palms, as she sat down on the sofa.

Her mother came and sat down beside her lightly patting her head "its ok beta...ab sad mat ho! I believe you will get whatever is in your destiny...acha batao...kya khaogi?? Kuch special banau?? Like your favourite pizza..? or the pasta with red sauce?? Ya kuch aur khana h tumhe??"

Nandini smiled faintly "nahi mom make something usual...and what about papa? Is he not home yet??"

"no he must be coming...acha chalo get up and get freshened up...fast!" her mother tried to distract her.

"hmmm" nandini answered lazily and got up and went inside her room.

After freshening up, she sat down on the bed. Her mother's teasing had really disturbed her. She didn't want to think of him that way, but she was just not able to believe that he couldn't be hers. She glanced at her phone. Only talking to him, would calm her down. But she can't call him.

He had strictly warned her against it as his sisters would always be in a hurry to pick his phone.

So she opened whatsapp and after deliberating for a long time, she finally texted him.

Hi

And waited for his reply. What if he doesn't text her book.? What if he doesn't feel for her? What if ...

Hi

Her what if's stopped as his text came after 8 minutes. She thought of an excuse to give for texting him. It took 2 minutes and after that she typed and sent.

I reached home.

Oh that's great! I thought i dropped you outside your building and you reached now? What took you so long?
She knew he was being sarcastic, as she had been lame.

No actually i meant ...did you reach home?

Oh acha so now i=you, great!...jokes apart..yes i reached around 30 minutes ago safe and sound. ;-)

Did he just wrote i=you , just like that or he was trying to imply something?' nandini thought but then she scolded herself for over thinking. She thought of replying something so that the conversation could continue but then she couldn't find anything substantial. 5 minutes passed and when she didn't reply , his text came.

Kya hua? Why this silent treatment?
She tried to clarify first.

Am i disturbing you?. She asked

Nandini what's the matter? Tell me? koi problem hai?

Tumhe kese pata? Nandini asked surprised.

Of course ! its obvious from the way you are talking. Now tell me what happened?

Manik, you know me so well?

Nandini, don't start it again!

Hmmm ok

She knew he must be sighing at the other end.

Do you have anything else to say? He asked.

No

He waited for any further text from her side after that simple no'. He wanted to talk more but he couldn't take the step forward and waited for her to make the move. But after waiting for almost 7 minutes, when he didn't get a text from her side, he sent a final text.

Good night, nandini.

She replied almost immediately
Gd nt. Swt drmz. Tc.

He smiled at her use of abbreviations, and kept the phone aside and began studying. So did nandini. She felt lighter, if not happier. Talking to him, always calms her down, no matter what he speaks and how he speaks!
And in this manner the day came to an end.

ANOTHER DAY ENDED FOR THEM AND A NEW DAY WAITED TO BE UNFURLED, REVEALING A NEW SHADE OF LOVE...