Utpal was a huge anime fan and a keyboardist. Lakshya liked every score Utpal brought to their practice sessions. Both of them were software engineers and knew each other from college. Their friend group had another person. Deepak was a psychologist and he was Lakshya's school friend. Many of their other friends drifted apart, and when Lakshya introduced Utpal and Deepak to each other, they became good friends.

To the convention, Lakshya came with Moksha, Deepak with his girlfriend, and Utpal flirted with some girl at the convention and got himself a plus one.

That day Utpal and Lakshya had 2 songs to perform. After the first one, he no longer had the mood to. But he got himself back together and performed so as to not put the other players in trouble.

When it was all over, he left with Moksha. They had a dinner date planned, but he drove her home. She understood him. She gave him a hug asking him not to think too much.

But how could he not?

He needed to clear his head. He started his bike.

Unfortunately for him, it seemed he did not have a chance.

He parked his bike not paying attention to Shreya and her friend.

However, they were in his way.

"How did you know she'd be here?" Neha's eyes were sharp.

"Really now?" He looked briefly at Neha before fixing his eyes on Shreya.

"Go watch Shreekant." Shreya said. If there was an opportunity to talk to him, she just wanted to.

"You really don't want your brother to know."

Lakshya looked gaunt. It seemed he told the truth when he said she ruined his day. There was a bitter smile on her face. "I won't apologise for what my friend said. You were just as rude before."

"I need none of your sorrys." He clearly implied many more things.

Shreya was silent.

There was commotion among the people. The sun was setting.

Shreya gazed at the bright horizon as the sun disappeared.

When she turned back to Lakshya, she saw him looking at her, rather intently, and into her eyes at that. She was a little shocked.

Lakshya stared at the peaceful look on her face, something he saw for the first time. Orange sun reflected in her pupils and she had a soft golden glow on her face.

When she looked back at him, he looked over to the horizon. "I guess I was indeed a little too rude to you."

Shreya was surprised.

"Bye," he said and went on his way.

"Bye." Shreya whispered when he was already far away.

Shreya's farewell was to Lakshya, however, it was not the other way around. The purpose with which Lakshya visited the beach was to clear his head. Now the bye he said was to his thoughts.

What could he do? He was stuck. He did note that there were currently two paths in front of him. Either he would end up being an unfaithful husband, or he would have to live a life of agony.

The first option seemed much, much better. Even if he would not be loyal to his wife, at least he could be loyal to the love of his life. Should that even be classified under being unfaithful? As long as Moksha was the only girl he would entangle with, he was a good man.

As for Shreya, he had to ignore this problem. He said bye to brooding over the problem. He just had to maintain a cordial stance with her.

∼•∽

"These are so cool!" Shreekant exclaimed looking at a particular pair of Asics.

"Take a look at the other brands too!" Shreya reminded him one final time.

Shreekant was already dead set on that pair of running shoes. They had a striking white and blue combination.

He got off the couch and called his father to check out. When the man, who was looking at shoes in the other part of the mall came in, the sibling pair transformed into much more mature people. Shreekant's eyes no longer sparkled as he hid his excitement and Shreya no longer sighed at her brother. She was just accompanying them.

It was the last weekend that she would get to spend with Shreekant. His flight was scheduled for the next weekend and he would not be back for at least a few months. She would not have tagged along had it not been for this reason.

Their mother had also wanted to come, but her father said he would take care of other business if she could go buy Shreekant what's necessary. His words might seem innocent on the surface, but everyone in the family knew of his intentions. In the end, Lalitha simply said she did not want to go out and checked the list she had written for Shreekant if she had missed anything.

∼•∽

The next week rolled around sooner than expected.

The family went to the airport to send Shreekant off.

Shreekant still had close to two hours for all the security and check-in procedures. Lalitha had already told him everything about how to take care of himself over and over again at home, but she still repeated it one more time. Shekhar did not have much to stay. His disdainful gaze at his wife told so. He told Shreekant to call him regularly and immediately if he needed something.

Shreya just smiled at Shreekant. Her eyes started to water. Never before had she been separated from him ever since he was born. Shreekant subtly rolled his luggage towards his mother and walked a few feet away casually, as if inspecting the airport. Shreya followed. When they were out of earshot, they quickly confirmed that their parents were sitting at the same place.

"Sis..."

"Stop being weird." He called her by her name usually.

"I feel sorry. I'm sorry."

Shreya did not really understand. "Because I'm crying?"

"You should have been the one to leave at this age. I don't care much... we should have been switched to take each other's place... Get married soon and leave." When their father approved of the man she had chosen, he was so happy. Finally his sister was getting what she wanted. Moreover, he would keep it to himself, but he also thought Lakshya was the coolest of all. He was looking forward to their marriage, in fact. To have a sister was great, but to have such a cool guy as his brother-in-law was something else.

Shreya sighed. "I'll miss you but I'm so happy."

"If you don't feel okay, just give me a call. I'll answer even if I'm in class."

Shreya nodded. Between them, there were times like this when one could not tell who was the elder sibling.

"Get married soon but don't get married in the middle of my semester."

"Who just said he would take my call mid-class!"

They laughed for a bit.

"I will go then."

"You have to become the best doctor, okay? All the best." Shreya hugged him.

The family watched until he went out of sight.

∼•∽

It was evening on Saturday when Shreekant walked into India's most prestigious medical university, AIIMS, in New Delhi, taking in every view. He still could not believe it. He knew he was capable, he knew he deserved this, yet he was just so thankful. It was a dream come true and he was starting this phase of learning with much more passion and conscientiousness than when he was preparing for the exam.

On the first day, during the ice-breaking session, a professor asked, "Which is the most effective medication for the cold?"

The class was silent.

He prompted again, "It's fine if your answer is wrong. Just from your general experience or from what you've studied." This professor picked where his lecture would start and in what direction it would proceed based on his students' answers.

Shreekant was a little lost. But he somewhere felt it was an answer he had to give with much faith. He said, from somewhere middle in the class, "Augmentin."

For a moment the class was silent.

Then whispers started.

The professor said, "Well, do you know what it is?"

"It's for the common cold." The whispers only got louder. And this time, Shreekant knew those were all about him.

"Class." Silence again. "Any more answers?" The professor continued after two seconds. "Augmentin is an antibiotic." He walked to a corner.

"Cold, common cold, is very often a viral infection," he said looking at Shreekant.

Shreekant merely nodded. He understood. At the same time, he did not want to understand more. He did not want to dwell on the past much and any implications that his thinking would make.

After class however, right after the teacher left, a group of a dozen guys stopped him. These were the bunch that became friends over the last day while he simply kept that time to cut off all his thoughts, and in a sense, to be truly free. He did not unpack, nor did he play any games. He had touched his phone only to deliver a text home that he had reached safely.

Yesterday when he laid back in the lawn alone, someone from this bunch commented that he was acting all high and mighty like the king of the campus. That time, he thought it was a senior and gave an appeasing smile and the guy ignored him thereafter. Now that he realised, he did not like this group at all.

Shreekant's mood was already at an all time low. No matter how much he tried, thoughts kept popping in his head as he tried to reason why his dad, who was so scared of side effects, even got him the wrong medicine.

He tried to bypass them but they occupied the whole walkway. "For all that acting aloof, Mr 9th ranker, you thought bacteria caused the cold?"

"Move."

"Oh, humble down brother!" One of them rested his elbow on Shreekant's shoulder. At that moment, he snapped. He grabbed the guy's arm and tackled him to the ground. Before a moan came out of him, he punched his jaw, with a lot of force.

"Are you crazy!" Another shouted and helped the guy on the ground while everyone around took a step back.

Shreekant walked out on the scene, but he could only take a few steps. Someone lounged at him from the back, pushing him onto the ground. His chin hit the floor and it soon started bleeding.

It was a scratch but when he noticed the bleeding, Shreekant completely lost it. In fact, he did not get along well with anyone outside his family despite trying throughout the years. Now that they were away, he had no one to give an explanation to.

He grabbed the copper bottle on the teacher's desk and hit the guy with it dangerously close to the eye. Not stopping there, as if the hits were fuelling his rage, he hit another guy's forehead.

"I'm still bleeding," was all he said before the next guy got a punch.

"None of you is bleeding yet, huh?" To the onlookers gathered from the commotion, who were mostly classmates, who they were seeing seemed to be a crazy psycho, not the studious and hardworking guy they thought him to be.

That afternoon, he did not let them have lunch, nor did he eat anything. The group moved to the grounds from the classroom and a full blown fight broke out. One against a handful of people. But somehow, Shreekant had a top hand, he seemed indomitable.

When it was all over, it was the other side that called for a truce first. Shreekant was nowhere near giving up. But he turned around and left for his dorm.

∼•∽

Shreya was in a low mood since Shreekant left. Zahra knew the reason and she commented that she never saw siblings with such an age gap have such a tight bond. She rambled on about her relationship with her younger and older siblings who were also spread apart in their ages.

One of those days, work ended sooner as it was a group day off. Shreya again did not want to head home, especially not when the clock was yet to strike 4.

"You!" Zahra was frustrated. "Let's make this competition even, okay? If you keep this up, you'll get all the brownie points!"

"Shut up and leave." Shreya's mood was really bad.

"Sheesh, I shut up, alright. Please go back soon."

Shreya stood and packed up to leave suddenly. She left before Zahra, leaving her dumbfounded.

Shreya walked straight to the car and told the driver she would walk around and shop a little. Then she would call him. With much bravery, she added, "You don't have to tell these details to my father."

It was a rather dangerous move, especially since she had no legitimate reason to be roaming around and her decision was on a whim. There was no one younger than her at home, so if her father found out and became upset, she would accept all the scolding. Shreekant may not be affected, but it had always been in her instinct to keep things peaceful for his sake.

She left her lunch bag in the car and proceeded on her way.

She pulled out her phone and speed dialled her brother.

Shreekant was walking out of the class after everyone did. Avoiding his classmates seemed to be the only solution to not bother himself with the meaningful gazes he received every time.

"Shreya!"

"It has been three days. Don't you know to call? Do you think messages will be enough?"

Shreekant was in a good mood from receiving his sister's call, and also from hearing her agitated tone. "Didn't I tell you to call me whenever you feel like?"

"How is everything?"

"It's amazing! Are you at the lab?" Shreekant was never going to let her know and be worried. After all, he could take care of his problems.

"No. I am on a stroll," she said softly.

"What are you doing? Are your classes done?"

"Yeah, just done." Shreekant told her more about his new daily routine, leaving out the unnecessary.

When they spoke for 40 minutes, they said their goodbyes.

Shreya was now holding a packet of curd. She dropped her phone into her bag and crouched down near a kitten. It was the first time she saw this one. It was clearly a juvenile, unafraid of a human it had never seen before. She wondered if it could tear open the plastic packaging.

After some thought, Shreya scoured the road and pavements for a nice big leaf. She was about to give up. She stood up to stretch a bit and caught sight of something.

A deep red almond leaf twirled in the wind as it slowly descended.

Shreya picked it up and it was perfectly curved. She found some stones and put them on either side of the leaf lest it should topple. She cut open the packet and emptied the curd into the leaf.

Satisfied, she gestured for the kitten to come and get the food. At first it looked at her with big, innocent eyes. But with Shreya's gestures it finally seemed to understand. It slowly came closer, one step at a time.

Then it meowed. Shreya meowed back as she took a step back. Yeah, yeah, that's right. It's all yours, she thought.

Soon the little animal finished half of the curd before slowing its pace.

Shreya said bye to it and turned back.

It was then that she had the first hallucination of her life. She was seeing her fiance!

Was she that stressed?

The figure was at the intersection of the alley and the main road. She could be mistaken as there was quite a distance between them. Or she was really hallucinating.

As she walked closer, she was more convinced she was seeing things.

"You looked crazy half the time."

"What?" Shreya dumbly responded.

"Nothing."

Then slowly Shreya called out his name.

Lakshya raised his brows. "What?"

She soon shook her head. "Why... did you come?"

Lakshya laughed to himself. If he had a choice, would he have come? His sister was so damn adamant that he sent the cookies that his niece helped her make to Shreya.

He held out his hand.

Shreya looked at his face and made no movement.

"Some snacks. From Lata."

Shreya carefully took the bag. Inside was a heavy box. It was labelled, 'From Akshita' followed by a few flowers and hearts. The writing was readable at best.

Akshita was Lata's daughter. Shreya found it surprising. She politely thanked Lakshya with a small smile.

When Lakshya saw her smile, something ticked off in his head.

"I had to come all the way and even had to search for you. Give me your number. Next time, you can just pick things up from the reception at my work."

Shreya, as sensitive as she had always been, could not feel worse. She'd rather him not bring the snacks to her and trash them instead. That way, at least she would not have to hear this.

She spelled out her phone number and pulled out her phone.

But Lakshya walked towards his bike. Without a look back, he rode off.

Shreya looked down at her phone. Of course there was no missed call. He seemed to hate the idea of her having his phone number so much that he refused to confirm it with a call.

With a low mood, she went back to the car. Thankfully, the car did not move from where it was and the driver was inside the car. At least he knew to respect her privacy. Her father would want every detail about her time outside the TIFR main gate should he know about her activity.

∼•∽

Lakshya was at his cubicle with code on the monitors before him. Due to inactivity they went into sleep mode with a soft sound.

Yet Lakshya was absorbed in the video he had recorded just before. The first frame showed Shreya crouched. She was rummaging through fallen leaves with a twig.

When Lakshya learned that Shreya's department had half a day off, he was pissed off for having to make a wasteful journey. But then he found the car. He had seen the driver at the engagement party. So he asked him where Shreya was. The man guiltily said, "She went in this direction, sir. She told me not to tell her father what she would do. I did not follow her because if I know, it's hard to pretend not to know if he asks. Or else, I would have kept an eye out for her."

Lakshya scoffed in his head. What a life! She must be the princess of the family.

He then followed the direction the driver had pointed. It did not take him long to find her.

She was, to put it simply, weird doing god knows what. On an impulse and because he was amused, he started recording, just to catch what it was all about. It wasn't until she started motioning for the cat that all of her shenanigans made sense. That was also when he finally noticed a small cat nearby all this time.

He did not put his phone down until she had walked a couple of steps towards him. He thought she had caught him, but she didn't.

After watching the video over and over again, he thought if he should delete it. For now, let it be, he thought. It was not like his phone was running out of space.

∼•∽

In the evening, Lakshya dropped Moksha home. They were going strong. But the only people who knew and who were cheering and rooting for them were their friends. Among them the only ones who knew of the whole situation were Lakshya's friends.

"See you tomorrow."

"See you." Moksha smiled. She was still not comfortable thinking about marriage. Just the word itself was daunting, much less the whole concept.

But more daunting was the impending marriage between Lakshya and Shreya. Her heart was in a knot. How should she feel? What should she do? She wanted to confide in her mother, who already knew that she was in a relationship with Lakshya. But she didn't even know if she was ready to accept what she would say.

Whatever anyone said, whatever happened, she absolutely hated the idea of not having Lakshya as her boyfriend.

He was her first love. She loved him for almost four years. Lakshya promised to her that he would divorce whenever she was ready.

Why was she even thinking so much? Nothing changed between them after Lakshya got engaged. Nothing would change even after he got married.

After dinner, she called Lakshya.

Since the engagement Lakshya avoided talking to her on the phone. He said he did not want to have a fight with his parents in case they noticed. They were texting. But at this moment, she wanted to talk to him.

The phone rang and rang.

Finally, it was picked up.

"Moksha, is everything alright?" His low voice came through.

"Just wanted to talk to you."

"Suddenly miss me?" Lakshya smiled as he softly shut the door to his room.

"Is the call okay?"

"I missed you too."

There was something special about being on the phone until falling asleep. They talked and talked until both could not control their yawns.

"You are pushing your hair back, aren't you?" Lakshya said, suppressing a yawn as he combed through his own hair.

Moksha's hand stopped midway on the other side and she laughed happily. She had picked up his habits and this was one.

Love was beautiful indeed. Why would she trade this for anything?

The call ended as the two exchanged an I love you and slept off.

∼•∽

A/N:
Things will pick up pace from now on, although the romance will still be a slow burn. The story will focus much more on our main couple's relationship. If you found any errors or inconsistencies, comment inline, so I can edit them. I am quite busy I'm not even proof reading, I'm so sorry! (/_\) My life's going great, btw!

Happy to announce that RH has won two awards during this time:
1. 2nd in The Happiness Awards by for Romance category.
2. 3rd in The Blossom Awards by for New Adult category.

A HUGE SHOUTOUT to for making this beautiful cover as part of the prize for the 1st award mentioned above! Thank you so much! <333

Love you all.

Btw, TTHT made it to the final round of The AMBYS. As always, thank you for reading! See you soon!

I'd be lying if I say since I don't have time to read your comments or that I'm too busy to look forward to them. I will! I am already looking forward to all the comments! Replies may be delayed, but I will reply by the next update for sure.

OH, DON'T CLICK OUT YET!

Since one of you, my precious readers, has requested an update before schedule, and because I have a few chapters accumulated, the next chapter is already up! So scroll away and I'll see you next month!