The next evening, Lakshya packed up his work at 6 sharp.

He went 2 floors down to meet Moksha.

Someone alerted Moksha as soon as they saw him. "Moksha! Don't you dare ditch us for him!"

The girl did not bother if he heard her. She continued, this time speaking to him instead, "We're in the middle of testing. Later we also got to deploy the build."

Moksha finally turned to him and gave him a smile. Then she pouted.

Lakshya smiled back and shook his head.

Moksha put down her headphones after typing 'brb' into the chat.

She got off her chair and crossed over her colleague's on her way.

"The build from the last sprint spilled over...," she whispered to him while she made a cute face.

Lakshya chuckled. He held her hand and swung it a little bit.

"Your loss." He said, tilting his head.

She hit him. "Your loss!" She really loved it when he dropped her off on his motorbike. She had to take the office cab today.

He stifled his laughter as he hid his face from her. Next, he looked into her eyes. "My loss, beautiful."

"Moksha? Yes, Harsha. She is currently..." Her friend said into her headset.

"Hey!" Moksha said to her. God knew how embarrassed she would be if her friend said she was talking with her boyfriend for the whole team to hear.

"Let's talk tomorrow over lunch," she told Lakshya. She then went to her desk, hitting her colleague on her way.

Lakshya smiled at her and waved but she did not look at him.

He knew she was upset with the whole proposal thing he pulled a month ago. She was finally ready to talk about it.

He waited for a while more. He decided to keep aside two full hours for lunch the next day.

He waved again.

Moksha looked at him this time. She stopped, glared at him, then pouted and finally waved back.

Content and happy, Lakshya finally left.

∼•∽

Lakshya spent until the agreed upon lunch restlessly.

He could not get much work done. His thoughts flew to the past.

He first met Moksha when he went to their college for a hackathon. He was in his final year and she was in her second year.

She was not a competitor, but was there to document the event.

That was the first thing he knew about her, that she was passionate about photography.

At first glance she did not look much different from the rest of her friends. All were wearing their club T-shirts, with a big lens and shutter on them and all had white caps on.

The hackathon ran for 24 hours. At 2 A.M. one of his friends was asleep. Another was eating one apple after another while never taking his eyes off the monitor.

He was unable to fight his sleep or hunger. He told them he would get something from the canteen and walked out.

In the cool midnight breeze, on that dark road, he soon realised he was not alone.

A girl from the photography club was also walking in the same direction.

"Heading to the canteen?" He asked as he turned around to her.

The girl nodded before looking straight ahead.

"I'm going there too."

She softly said, "Oh."

When they passed under a streetlight, a portion of her face remained dark under the shadow of her cap. But he saw the rest. She was beautiful, with a fair and round face.

Most importantly, she looked so unsure, Lakshya almost laughed in her face.

"Which year are you in?"

"Second."

She picked her pace.

Lakshya walked at his own pace. He hoped she was just shy and not averse to him.

In the canteen he spotted her sitting alone.

Soon after receiving his order, he joined her.

This time he got a proper look at her face. She was pretty.

However, he made her uncomfortable again. For once he was not proud of the slightly gangster persona his hair gave him.

They ate in silence.

When they finished, he said, "Thank you. I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable."

She quickly denied. "No. Not all."

And so, they walked back together.

"I am Laksh. Fourth year. NSC college."

"My name is Moksha."

After walking a few more steps, he asked her, "Are you tired?"

"Not really. I was, but after eating, no."

The walk slowed down. The talk continued.

In the second half of their way, she took a pause and told him to stay right where he was.

She whipped out her phone, ran away from him, bent a little and clicked a few pictures. Then she clicked a few more sitting on the road.

She ran back to show off her skills.

He had to admit. He never thought he could look so handsome. "I am so good looking."

That was the first time she pouted at him.

They laughed it off the rest of their way.

The next morning when the competition ended, Lakshya asked for her contact info. He had a very legitimate reason for it too. It was for the photos.

She raised her brows at him with a smile in her eyes as they exchanged numbers.

That was the start of a friendship which the both knew wasn't just that.

∼•∽

On the other hand, Shreya's days were increasingly tense.

She looked at the clock again. Four minutes had passed.

"Are you okay?" Zahra asked. She was Shreya's colleague.

"Huh?" Shreya said, not quite catching her.

"Nothing." Zahra shrugged off. "Let's continue tomorrow. It's six."

"Sure," Shreya said.

Five minutes later, Zahra was ready to head home. But Shreya was not.

"We can do it tomorrow."

"It's okay. I'll note down another set of observations too."

Zahra was displeased. It had been ten days since they started working together. She, who was always the first to adapt to new work and places, was finding it unnerving with Shreya.

"I will take my own observations." She turned around and left without waiting for Shreya's reply.

Shreya did not give any mind to what she said.

She hated going back home. She looked at the time again, praying it would not go so fast.

Finally it struck eight when she recorded a third set of observations. With dread, she stood up, dragging herself to her father's car.

The driver was silent throughout the ride, although he was the kind to make some small talk.

The moment she got home stepped in, her father asked, "Is work hectic?"

His voice had concern.

A little unsure, she answered softly, "Yes."

He nodded and did not say anything.

She quickly had her dinner, did not speak a word to her mother and went into her room.

Once engulfed in the darkness, her tense heart settled.

Since that time she cried on Sunday, she had not cried.

But she was at her limit.

She broke down, biting on the blanket.

She tried to remember some happy times. All of them were moments she spent with her friends or at the institute. She did not have any happy moments at home. Even when she found out she was accepted for her fellowship, it was only relief.

Around an hour later, her eyes felt dry.

Just thinking about how painful her eyes would be tomorrow when she'd have to input the observations and set the computer up for analysis, she cried another round.

She badly needed a break. But if that break meant staying home, she just as much did not want it.

∼•∽

The next morning, she looked at her red eyes in the mirror. If her father found out, he'd once again start the blame game.

She clenched her fists tight in order to avoid crying again.

Somehow she calmed down. But her heart was tense.

Just like the previous day, she gobbled down her food before exiting the home.

Her father's driver and his car were ready to drop her off.

∼•∽

At the research institute, Shreya was on time. But Zahra wasn't there yet.

She hoped Zahra would come soon. She wanted to ask her help to input their observations to the computer. Her eyes felt so dry, apart from checking the time when she woke up, she did not look into her phone.

The clock ticked on as Shreya sat idle.

Finally, her patience was up. She looked into her phone with slitted eyes and called Zahra.

"I'm almost there!" Zahra cut the call after shouting.

Soon she did come in, catching her breath.

"Sorry, Shreya!"

"I don't want to look at the monitor today. I'll do the hard labour. Please help me fill these in and take care of the analysis." Shreya handed over the observations she took down last night. "Oh! Pick the best one out and throw the rest away. You can make your own observations," she said with her eyes closed.

Zahra stopped fixing her hijab. "This is the first time we are meeting right?"

"Was it your ghost until yesterday?" Shreya was not in the mood to joke. She never was, for a long, long time.

"Then why do you do this?" Zahra put on her white lab coat. Shreya definitely had some animosity towards her. To Shreya's frown and slitted eyes she answered, "You want me to be seen like a pushover, don't you?"

While she left home early yesterday, Shreya had stayed back to complete the experiment. Today, apparently she had to just run the analyses while Shreya would proceed with more tests on the element. All the other colleagues would think she was snobbish and Shreya was diligent. How smart!

Shreya closed eyes, picked two bunches of paper from the stack she pushed to Zahra, and proceeded to the dustbin.

Alarmed, Zahra immediately stopped her. "Thank you! Thank you for yesterday."

She snatched up the papers and breathed a sigh. She was already an hour late! She had to set up everything and run the tests again and that would make it clear as day that she was late.

"Why do you not want to see the monitor?" Zahra asked, not seeming to look at Shreya.

Shreya turned to her and opened her eyes.

Zahra sucked in a hiss. The reddishness was definitely not normal. "Do you want to go to the doctor?"

Shreya closed them back before she showed her a bottle of eye-drops.

"Why did you even come? You should've taken a rest and slept."

"My head is also aching. If you don't mind..."

"Sheesh, okay. I shut up."

While Shreya put on her gloves, Zahra removed hers.

Their work went on in an appreciable amount of silence until lunch.

"Did you poke something in them?" Zahra asked. "No... no one would poke anything into both the eyes."

Shreya sighed with a mix of disbelief and frustration. "Do you think I wanted my eyes to be like this?"

"Then... did you cry? Over what?"

"Why? Can't I just cry over nothing?"

"Sheesh..." Zahra shook her head. What a sassy colleague! But she actually Shreya a little bit, or she would not bother talking to her. This was a day the two talked quite a lot compared to before. She did not know about Shreya. But on her part, she took her to be her friend.

When it was time to leave, Zahra decided to stay.

After half-an-hour however, she said, "You still won't leave?"

"I told you, I love my work."

"Okay. You love your work. I'll go love my hubby! Bye!" She got ready to leave.

Her phone rang and it was Adnan, her husband of 6 months. She waved it in front of Shreya much to the latter's dismay.

Shreya groaned when the light entered her eyes.

"Sorry! Bye!" Zahra escaped.

When it was 8, Shreya checked her eyes in the restroom. They were much better compared to the morning.

When she sat in her father's car, she put a drop of lubricant in each of her eyes.

∼•∽

On the other end of the city, Lakshya woke up fresh.

He sat up, grabbing his phone. Instead of texting Moksha a good morning like everyday, he called her up.

There was a graony whine on the other side.

"Good morning," Lakshya greeted, a smile on his lips.

"Morning," said her sleepy voice.

"I love you."

"I love you too..." Her voice was still full of sleep.

Lakshya shook his head. She only had 30 minutes until the office cab would come to pick her up. Whoever said women needed hours and hours to get ready were horribly wrong. Moksha could get ready in half the time that he, a guy, did.

"Get up and get ready."

After a pause she replied, "There are two more minutes until my alarm."

Silence prevailed on both sides for a minute.

"Let's go out for lunch."

"Yeah."

"See you."

"Hm."

When the call ended, Moksha turned over in her bed.

She did not know what to do at all. She loved Lakshya. A lot, in fact. But she was not ready for marriage at all. She was worried for them.

Her shrill alarm got her out of her thoughts and out of her bed.

∼•∽

Over breakfast, Lakshya's mother, Amulya, pushed a girl's photo in front of him.

"Maa!"

She took it back and pushed to him a different one.

"I am not marrying! At least for another 5 years!" He was frustrated!

She smiled at him, too sweetly. He guessed her next move.

"Did you hear that?" she shouted towards the bedroom.

Before Lakshman, his father, could respond, he shouted, "I said I am not marrying this soon." He was actually scared of his father.

Amulya still smiled at him.

Lakshman walked to the dining and sat across Lakshya.

"No one is asking you to marry this month." Lakshman smiled at him.

Looking at the couple's extra radiant faces, Lakshya lost his appetite.

"Dad, mom, please don't smile like that." He also smiled. "I won't agree."

The three kept smiling for a few whole minutes. Then Lakshman broke his facade.

"You promised me. By the end of this year."

"I am breaking my promise. When Moksha is ready." Although his parents never met Moksha, he showed them her photos. That seemed to be a mistake. Because he was sure that his father did not smile just because Moksha and he looked great together, but because he could push him to get married earlier.

Lakshman was furious. "Didn't I tell you to cut it off with her!"

"If she really loved you she'd be ready! Both of your careers are settled. What more does she want?" Amulya said.

"She's just twenty two!"

"That's even good. All the girls we find are either your age or more! But what's the use if she is not serious?" Lakshman said.

Leaving the half finished plate, Lakshya stood up.

"Lucky!" Lakshman stood up too and kicked his chair.

The screech stopped Lakshya.

"Your grandad is growing older. He still doesn't talk to me. Last time he finally spoke to me. After thirty years! Do you know what he said? He asked me about you."

"How many times do you want to tell me this? He said I was at the right age to marry because a quarter of my lifespan is over. So now I should nod my head and agree?

"I already saw a girl because I promised. I can't do anything if she says she doesn't like me."

"So you like her?" Amulya grabbed the opportunity. Lakshya had been reluctant to tell them how his meeting with Shreya went when she had asked.

Lakshman cut her off. "Is this how you speak to me? If you get married now, your grandad said he will forget how I used to be."

Lakshya saw the sadness in those words, but he ignored his father.

Amulya asked him again, pulling Lakshman back by the arm, "So if she doesn't dislike you, you will marry her, right?"

Lakshya looked at her for a while. "Fine. Because I promised and visited them with you, fine."

Although he seemed reluctant, he considered it a safe bet. Since he already told the girl in question that he was not ready and since her attitude was clear, he was safe. He recollected how rude and annoyed she seemed when he texted her. It was definitely a safe bet.

"If this match fails, you should not force me."

Both his parents were unwilling to promise him that. He gave them a smile and ran to his bike.

∼•∽

A/N:
Hey guys! Long time no see. I seem to be getting better with my depressive symptoms. But I'm yet to organize my life and get it together.

Still, I'm barely able to concentrate. But I wrote out a thousand words of this story... A scene somewhere in the second half. I think that is going to be the angstiest part.

And here is a collage I had posted on Instagram from my trip.

See you on Feb 21, 2023. Speaking of which... Happy New Year, you all! ❤️