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Saturday, 9th March, 12:10.
748 kilometres far from Secunderabad Junction Railway Station, in Madhya Pradesh.

........

The sun was shining brightly in the month of april, making the atmosphere warm. It was the time, when summer would be welcomed officially in the central region of India.

Whilst it was difficult for farmers and labourers to work hard with the scorching sun upon their head, atmosphere was rather cool inside the ac two tier coach of superfast Dakshin Express, as the air conditioner worked properly.

The train was being operated with it's highest speed of sixty eight miles per hour.

Ad'ifaah woke up an hour ago and was sitting beside the window. Continuously looking outside. She was lost in thoughts as always. Train was on full speed, but her thoughts were faster than that. It's said that, mind is the fastest thing in whole world, faster than wind, light and sound waves too. Thoughts have no limitations, one can think everything within a few seconds or can't think anything for days.

Her mind belonged to first category. Even though she doesn't want to think anymore, she couldn't help and control that.

The green stuff though created a bit calm and soothing environment.
The trees standing in a queue beside the railway tracks, were running in the opposite direction and she continued noticing each one of them.

Those trees were reminding her phases of her own life. Some very green and huge trees reminded her of good days of life. Some trees which had fruits or flowers hanging from their branches, reminded her of the beautiful things she has gotten, she felt thankful for those. Few trees had hollows in which the birds were living, it reminded her of the time whenever she found herself helpful to someone else. And there were some dry trees too, reminding the dreadful days of her life.

She turned her head back to see what's happening, when she heard voices of something moving. Her fellow travelers have woken up one by one, after completing necessary amount of slumber.

Raihaan sat upright and looked around the compartment. He found Ad'ifaah sitting silently and observing things, as always. The old couple were busy in their morning chores, in afternoon, whilst the man who looked uninterested was busy with his headphones on, probably watching a movie.

"Good Morning, Mohtarma!" He had wished her morning, in that confidence and sweetness dripping voice of his.

"Good Afternoon!" was what he got in return, with the emphasized 'Afternoon' in her serious voice. As it was really, afternoon. And that should be more than enough from her side. He wanted to argue but then left that thought and corrected his words while chuckling.

Till now, he had become a bit aware of her nature, still mostly unaware. Though one thing he understood, she couldn't tolerate mistakes, not even as tiny as the size of seven words of a letter, 'Morning'. And probably, the mistake made her speak, not his morning wish.

He found another young man occupying the upper berth of other side of the narrow gallery, who probably have arrived there when the train had stopped on some other railway station, while they were asleep.

On the other hand, Ad'ifaah felt frustrated ever since this man has gotten in the train. He had been keeping his eyes on her, with something in those eyes that wasn't even a bit unfamiliar to her. She very well knew that look, which she has been dealing with ever since she came into senses. Nothing new.

And she was well aware of how to teach a good lesson to such perverts, but her current situation didn't allow her. She didn't want to create any commotion and she was glad too that the man joined the train late and she would not have to tolerate him for long.

Ad'ifaah could easily scare him away in the most effective way possible, but that won't be very helpful while travelling, she thought. She wanted peace.

At first she had tried to avoid looking at him, but obviously that won't stop him. So she decided to threaten him with those big eyes of hers. When she glared back at him, the man felt cautious and averted his eyes. Better for him, she thought.

"Chaiyyyyeeee!"

"Pakaude, pakaude!"

The voices of tea sellers and vendors running around filled the atmosphere, as the train halted on a station, with a jolt.

"Betul Railway Station!" The old lady sitting on the berth, which was practically situated upon Ad'ifaah's head, read out loud the name of the station, from the 'Where's my train app?' application, which her son has installed in her phone when he last visited home. He had taught her to use it and now she was an expert in that.

Raihaan and the elderly man decided to get tea for themselves, in those three precious minutes which train was giving them and went out.

When they came back, both were holding one steaming kulhad of tea in their each hands. Whilst the man forwarded one kulhad upwards to his wife, Raihaan settled both the kulhads on the small shelf provided in the middle of both seats. Sitting back on his place, he slided one kulhad towards Ad'ifaah and took the other one in his hands.

"Have tea, Mohtarma!" He had offered. How bad it would look if he had something infront of other people without sharing? He won't like tag of being mannerless getting added with his cool name.

"I don't want, Mohtaram!" Ad'ifaah replied flatly. How could she have something given by a stranger? She was not a kid and she didn't do such stupidity even as a kid. Moreover she didn't want any tea or coffee. If she wanted, she would have had it at sharp eight ante meridian, according to her time table. Though normally she really liked tea served in kulhad.

"Okay!" Raihaan shrugged and gave the other kulhad to the care taker of the coach who was passing by, while he blew air on his own tea and waited for it to be a bit cold. The care taker seemed surprised with his gesture and took it happily.

In a few minutes, Ad'ifaah's phone pinged under the few layers in her bag. It was her mother's message.

"Do not even think to skip your meals. You can't hide from me!"

Her mother has been keeping herself updated about Ad'ifaah's situation, and she presumably had kept an eye on the timing of train too. She kept texting and calling in every one or two hours to check on her.

Sighing Ad'ifaah woke up from her seat to go to the care taker and order for a tea and something else with it, from the pantry car of the train, as she could not win over her mother. Since morning, she hasn't had anything except water from the water bottle given by her mother. As she looked straight, she found the man looking at her once again, but she found it better to leave it for a while.

When she came back, Raihaan was on a phone call and she could hear him saying.

"No, If you break the promise, I'll break your bones!" He threatened the person on other end, with an irritated face, yet it didn't seem that serious. He ended the call after humming with a sigh.

But perhaps it didn't go well with Ad'ifaah. What came to her mind first was, 'Was he some kind of goon?' Though he really didn't look like one, and even if he was, she wasn't scared of him.

They were strangers and their each action would creat a notion about them infront of the other, as they won't get to know about other person directly.

The words also reminded her about the incidents of her life, which she was trying to forget, but now felt all the waves of thoughts coming back to her and hitting hard.

She sat there, feeling lost. Until the care taker came with the cup of tea and a sandwich. Raihaan frowned seeing that, why would she deny if she had to take it later? Probably scared.

She held the cup, feeling empty. Still, finished the sandwich somehow and the hot liquid in three sips, her tongue burning with it. She hadn't learnt to waste food.

After minutes which felt like hours of continuous staring at the fields from window, her mind diverted with the noise.

"Delicious!"

"Suger crush!"

"Divine!"

The loud voices were produced by the device in Raihaan's hand. Some more voices of popping candies filled the compartment as Ad'ifaah observed small details.

Raihaan was playing candy crush on his iPhone eleven pro. 'Spoilt son of a rich father' was the thought that came to her mind instantly specially after what she heard few minutes ago, but she would prefer to be rather uninterested and care less about that.

"Uncle, be careful. Don't fall down from there." Raihaan looked up at the elderly man who was looking down at his phone, eagerly. "Wanna play the game!?" He raised his eyebrows and laughed.

"Try it. I'll install it in your phone if you like it!" Raihaan said and raised his arms to give.

"Sure, Son!" The man gladly accepted the offer. When did they became so close? Ad'ifaah Thought.

Ad'ifaah had seen some typical owners of expensive devices taking care of them like fragile flowers, they couldn't even let someone touch it and here this man was passing it like volleyball. Though, she couldn't think that she has created perhaps a wrong notion about him.

"What are you looking at, Mohtarma!? I don't think you're unaware of Candy Crush, but I can give you if you want." Raihaan raised an eyebrow with a grin. "Escape the stress of today!" He said dramatically and winked.

Raihaan presumably had gotten an idea about her 'stress', because, her face didn't tell that she was a rude or arrogant person. He guessed, she might be having some problems. Somewhere he found himself curious to know more about her and he was even enjoying her expressions which she would give after listening to his words. She seemed to be interesting.

Whereas, Ad'ifaah felt weird. How crazy things could be or how crazy he could be?

A look at the elderly man's face said, he was enjoying it. Raihaan took his phone and installed candy crush saga in it and both became busy playing it. As people need some entertainment in such long and boring journeys.

Ad'ifaah didn't have anything to do expect checking messages sent by her mother and brother. She looked out once again, as random thoughts crossed her mind once again.

Raihaan knew to enjoy life, to smile brightly. It was the first point written on the very first page of his book of life formulas and he has been giving it a huge amount of importance. He also knew how to adopt changes of life.

Whilst enjoyment was the last point in Ad'ifaah's book of life formulas and most ignored point too. She didn't have time for such things, neither her heart nor her schedule allowed her. And adopting the changes of life wasn't very easy for her.

However, now when she doesn't have anything better to do, she could thought about the last point as well and it would be a waste of time and efforts of her mother and younger brother, if she didn't think about that, still. She won't let that happen.

So she came to a conclusion and decided that she would get a few good books to read from the next station where train would stop for a longer duration. She liked reading books, that was the best type of entertainment she could think about so far, and it would be a good use of time too. She would have brought her favourite books, but couldn't as the situations hadn't been very favourable.

Little did they know, they were going to change the formulas of their life, or the whole book. Slowly.

"Let me see, how it feels!" Raihaan woke up saying that and grabbed the curtains and pulled them down, as they were stuck in the middle of upper berth and ladder.

Always crazy, Ad'ifaah thought only to change the thought immediately as Raihaan spread the curtains across the compartment, turning it in a more cozy and private place.

Why didn't she noticed the curtains? It would have saved her from the greedy stares the man. She won't have to feel uncomfortable till now. Such simple thing, still she couldn't think about that, whilst she had thought about all the dangerous action she could take against him.

Probably that was the problem with her, about which her mother has been saying since forever. Ad'ifaah would stop thinking and living completely whenever she was stressed or angry. That time, her brain would leave her alone and go for hibernation.

Raihaan have been noticing the bad stare of the man since sometime now and he thought she could deal with it, but as she didn't do anything effective, he had to come up with his kind of solutions. Smart and simple.

Ad'ifaah wanted to thank him for that, but it was her notion, that it would show her weakness. So she converted her thoughts according to her convenience, he helped her because she had helped him. And he won't have been there to help her, if she hadn't helped him to get in train. Simple!

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Finally, done! It's the longest chapter I've written so far. Haha!
But couldn't cut it short as I'm writing according to time and places.

And, there's no particular size of a chapter decided. It can be very short and very long too.

Anyway, what do you think about them? Something seems wrong, doesn't it?(◠‿・)-☆

Mohtarma and Mohtaram are urdu words, useful for addressing a female and male, with respect.

Keep Smiling!(◕ᴗ◕✿)