What do you do when things get too overwhelming? When nothing seems to make sense and you feel like you would burst from the stress bubbling inside of you? When problems seem to attack you from every possible direction? A normal person would say; try to find the solution by logical thinking. But our protagonist's answer would be; Sleep.

It's not that he always retorts to sleep when things get too much but as he would say; You can't always have the energy to fight things head on, sometimes you gotta escape for a while and let your head breathe a bit. Maybe it's an unhealthy means of coping but it gives him a temporary relief from the constant feeling of loneliness and stress. Might not work for everyone but it does for him, so he sticks to it.

“Bro, wake up!!”

“Wake up, it's almost noon!”

Abhishek sighed when he didn't get a response to his calling even once. Putting away the book in his hand, he got up, marching to his friend and roommate's room to wake him up.

And there he was, sleeping without a care in the world while hugging his pillow. Some of the rays of sunlight pierced through his window, falling on his face but even that didn't seem to wake him up. Apparently he was also smiling in his sleep.

Must be dreaming. Abhishek thought, chuckling a bit. He decided to call him again, shaking his arm. "Shubman, get up. Come on.”

Shubman mumbled something sleepily, turning his back to Abhishek and burying his face in his pillow.

Abhishek smiled slightly, shaking him again. “Get up, dude. It's almost noon. Till when will you sleep?”

“Lemme sleep.” Shubman mumbled, still not opening his eyes. “I was up late working on my assignment.”

“I'm going out for lunch. You already missed breakfast, you'll miss lunch too, so get up.” Abhishek said, snatching away the pillow from Shubman's hands.

That got a groan out of Shubman, who opened one eye to look at him. “You go, I'm not hungry anyways.”

Abhishek rolled his eyes at him. “Shut up, and get freshed immediately. You'll have to cook later otherwise.” He said, turning off the fan in the room. This was a move he learned from his mother and it always worked.

Shubman groaned once again, finally sitting up. “Accha, go now, I'll be out in a few minutes.”

“You better.” Abhishek said, leaving the room. “It's my treat, by the way.”

Shubman sighed softly, laying back down again. After a minute of laying in his bed motionless, he forcefully dragged himself to the bathroom so as to not fall asleep again.

He chuckled as he looked at his reflection in the mirror. God, these dark circles. You look like an old man, Shubman. His brain whispered, making him roll his eyes at his own thoughts.

Though he does use sleep as a way of escape, he still is running short on sleep these days as the guy also has a tendency to work relentlessly to quiet his overthinking brain. He has a lot of assignments to complete; the guy would say in his defense. So proper rest has been out of the equation for quite a while now .

He had actually set an alarm because Abhishek has kind of made it a ritual to go out to eat on Sundays, and even though Shubman doesn't really like going out a lot and would prefer to just stay in, he had to admit it was a much needed ordeal in his everyday busy and quite boring life, that just consisted of going to college, coming back and studying and then working. Socialising wasn't a part of his life and though he preferred to keep it that way, sometimes going out and enjoying a bit wasn't that bad.

Shubman sighed, deciding to freshen up  before Abhishek barges in his room again. 

Abhishek was completely dressed when Shubman came out of his room. They soon left the house, deciding to walk to their favourite restaurant that wasn't too far.

“Shubi,” Abhishek started after they reached the restaurant and ordered their food. “I was thinking of going home for two or three days, do you wanna come with me?”

Shubman smiled at the offer but shook his head. “Nah, you go. I have so much work to complete.”

“You sure you'll be fine here?” Abhishek asked, a bit of concern seeping through his tone that he tried to hide.

Shubman rolled his eyes playfully, suppressing a smile. “Of course, papa ji, I'm not a kid anymore.”

Abhishek let out a sigh at his unserious friend, shaking his head. “Okay, if you say so.”

“By the way, what happened with Neha?” He asked.

“What happened matlab?” Shubman asked back instead of answering. “Kuch bhi to nahi hua.”

“I heard she asked you out or something.” Abhishek said as their food arrived. After thanking the waiter, he again turned his attention to Shubman, waiting for his answer.

“Yeah, she had.” Shubman replied, starting to eat.

“So, what did you say?” Abhishek asked, starting to get curious.

Shubman just shrugged in response.

“Wait, are you still on your “I don't have time for relationships” funda?” Abhishek asked again with a chuckle, finally starting to eat as well.

“Shut up.” Shubman mumbled with a mouthful. It's not about time or something, it's just that he isn't too fond of being in relationships since growing up he only saw broken homes all around him.

“Wait, what happens if you fall in love with someone?” Abhishek asked, taking a sip of his drink. “The one in a lifetime kind of love? Are you still going to resist?”

“As if that is ever going to happen.” Shubman mumbled with an eye roll.

“What if it does?” Abhishek prodded.

Shubman let out a soft sigh, thinking. Being wholly and madly in love with someone and being loved like he's the only person in the whole world, his love’s person, the thought does make his heart skip a beat, not that he's ever going to admit it. Love is scary and pretty much a gamble, you never know what you're dealing with; that's what he had always told himself and Shubman is someone who always plays it safe.

“Well, then jo hoga dekha jayega.” He answered with a shrug.

-

“Ishu.”

Ishan looked up from his book as he heard his door being barged open. His room was like every other room in the palace, sophisticated and elegant, also kind of dark with only few lamps scattered around. It was enough to see clearly though.

“When will you learn how to knock, Aarya?” He asked with a sigh, putting away his book.

The girl, Aarya, who entered the room giggled, jumping beside him on his bed. “Never.”

She was his cousin. Younger in age but kind of his best friend. The only person he hung out with except Ahiraj and Shreyas.

“I heard you got permission to go to the human world, is that true?” Aarya asked excitedly, pretty much more excited than him.

“Yeah, it's true.” Ishan smiled.

“Yayyy, I'm so happy for you!!” She exclaimed, almost squealing.

Ishan just smiled at the enthusiasm.

“But I still can't believe it.” Aarya added. “Visha di allowing you to go to the human is actually the shock of the year. Are you sure it wasn't a dream or something?” She asked, emphasizing on each word for the dramatization.

“You’re exaggerating.” Ishan rolled his eyes, laying down on the bed and staring at his plain black ceiling.

“It is.” Aarya insisted. “Visha di despises the human world. And she's also a bit of a khadoos.” She said the last line quietly but Ishan still heard it.

“Come on, she's not. She's very nice.” He said.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Aarya waved her hand dismissively, wanting to talk about the human world instead of other things. “When you come back, you gotta tell me everything about your experience, cause you know we can't talk through the mind link if you're in a whole different world altogether.”

Ishan sat up, showing her the pendant Visha gave him. “Visha di gave this to me, it's a communicating device so I can still talk to you.”

“Oh, this is so cool.” Aarya exclaimed. “I'm so happy for you!”

“Vaise what will you do after going there?” She asked.

“I'm not sure.” Ishan mumbled, thinking. “Whatever people my age do, I guess.”

Aarya laughed. “You're literally 123 years old, Ishu. I doubt humans live that long.”

Ishan rolled his eyes at her. “I'm physically still twenty three, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Aarya muttered, still chuckling. “I guess you can ask Shrey what people “your age” do.” She added, making air quotations.

“Hm.” Ishan hummed.

“Are you fine?” Aarya asked, noticing something was off with him today. “You're acting kind of strange.”

“I don't know, I feel a little scared.” Ishan admitted, sighing. “I feel like something is about to happen.”

“Going somewhere completely unknown is a very big decision, I think that is why you are worried. But isn't this what you always wanted?” Aarya said, her tone softer now.

“Yeah, I did.” Ishan answered. He himself couldn't understand why he was feeling so restless, he should've been excited, but it felt like there was something holding him back.

“You'll be fine, Ishu.” Aarya said softly, patting his shoulder.

“I hope.” Ishan mumbled, almost to himself. He could only pray for it.

-

Hello, everyone. How y'all doing?

You know, whenever I don't write for 3 to 4 days, it takes so much will power to again write something new for me. I'm sorry, I know this chapter isn't good but please bear with me. I'll try my best to make the next one more interesting.

On a different note, I haven't thought if I am going to add Abhiyank in this one. Do we want that?