❝ Love is breathing, getting lost in your eyes, then forgetting how to breathe.❞

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A beautiful sunny day it was.

Siya was sitting in her classroom, near the window pane, from where she could easily notice Raghav and Anamika were gossiping with each other.

It's been two days since he was ignoring her. Why she didn't know.

"Seems like your boyfriend forgets about you. Doesn't he?" Riya came out of nowhere and sat beside Siya nudging her elbow mockingly.

"He isn't my boyfriend." Siya glared but her smirk deepened.

"Oh, I know. But don't you think he always ignores you?"

"N-no. He's just talking."

"I thought the same Siya when he was with me. I know him better than you."

"Anamika and he are both get the admission to the same hospital. So why does he waste his time with you huh? He's like that, plays with emotions." Riya continued as each word pierced a needle into her already fragile heart.

Siya stood up, ignoring her tauntings yet her subconscious already captured—  somewhere might be she was right.

"Truth is always bitter. You can't escape from it!" Riya shouted from behind her running figure as a lone tear slipped down from her eyes merging over her tank top.

'Am I that much ugly that he avoids looking at me?'

'Am I that much irritating that he refuses to talk with me?'

'Am I that priceless to him?'

Thousands of questions were roaming into her mind, whose answers she didn't know so that her heart believed that it was the only truth.

She came face to face with Raghav after he waved his hands towards Anamika who just left a minute ago.

"I wanna talk with you." she expressed with a light hope, vowing herself that after that she would never show her face to him again.

"Go ahead." his expression was blank like before.

"Why are you avoiding me? Did I do something wrong?" her eyes were pleading which ached his heart unlike anything yet he succeeded to remain his stern face.

"Nothing like that. I'm just a bit busy nowadays." he forced a smile as his casual voice didn't seem to do anything great to her exaggerating beats. "You tell me, do you need anything?"

"I very well know Raghav you must be hiding something from me. Please share it. I'm so tense, I can't even slee-"

"Can't we talk professionally only?" His statement broke her heart completely. The little shine of hope she was feeling, was vanished instantly.

He no longer wanted to be her friend. The 'professional' word created such a huge distance between them, she couldn't imagine it in her wildest nightmares.

But today when she knew everything it was useless to expect. So she stepped back, returned him the same tight smile, and ran from there without noticing the teardrops that made a line over his cheeks— the line of their crossed paths, broken, injured heart.

He never meant to hurt her in any way though he ended up hurting her in most possible ways. He wished her to forget him but seemed like it was way more painful for him to do such.

🍃

The next morning Siya woke up with a massive migraine. Her eyes and nose were puffy red which proved her mental condition right then.

Without minding the burning sensation on her forehead, she forced herself to the bathroom and began to wash her hair with cold water, totally unaware of the effect.

After finishing up with her morning routine she came out on the balcony, rubbing her damp hair with a dry towel. Her eyelids were heavy, little coughs were appearing from her sore throat as her nose tip started paining due to constant sneezing. Tears welled up in her eyes the more she thought about him.

But soon it broke by the beeping sound of her phone. As she reached over to grab it the caller id flashed through the screen or as if through her heart!

Raghav

She hesitantly put it near her ear and tried hard to control her sneezing.

"Hello, Siya! Mr. Agarwal is calling you to his cabin for an important work. You should've brought the no-" he abruptly stopped by a sneezing sound coming from another side.

"Hello, Siya! Are you okay? Your hea-"

"I'm fine. You don't nee-need to-" *Sneeze* "wo-worry." she completed with so much difficulty.

"Are you kidding me?! You surely catch a cold again by da-"

"Can't we talk professionally only?" he paused. Hadn't any idea his statement would backfire on him like this. He felt guilty to hear her voice. He must have been more softer with her that day. He barely had 3-4 days in this dormitory so why be so rude? He would leave her after that.

A panic rose beneath his chest as he heard her coughing very badly. He was very well aware of her carelessness when it came to her health. She caught cold very easily.

"Siya! Hello! Siya! Listen to me. Hello!" the phone cut but he continued to shout for some seconds.

"Damn it!" throwing the phone over the bed he made his way to Mr. Agarwal's cabin, hoping she must be there— how stubborn she was.

He must have caught her before she went.

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After finishing the discussion with Mr. Agarwal she headed to her room and excused today's classes as she didn't at all feeling well. Her head spun from various thoughts until she noticed some ruffle sounds from the front.

Anamika had her arms wrapped around Raghav's body as he continued to stroke her hair.

The books from her hand dropped all of a sudden without her knowledge, which caught both of their attention towards her.

"Adams-so so-sorry."

She muttered under her breath quickly before gathering her stuff and practically ran from there ignoring his shoutings, ignoring her own tears.

But Raghav was quick enough to catch her arm and yanked her to the nearby wall of the narrow alley, quite hidden from everyone's view.

"Listen to me please." his pleading voice couldn't stop her wriggling as he hold her wrists firmly as their bodies were incredibly closed against each other.

By just touching her hand he flinched as he abruptly flung over his palm to check on her temples, "You're burning from fever Siya!"

"It's none of your business, leave me!" her voice was weak though the bitterness in it was as clear as water.

"No!" he was stern too.

"Why? I say sorry na for interrupting you both. I know I'm ugly from inside, ugly from the outside. Why do you care...?" The last lines came out as a whisper for their proximity or maybe for her weakness.

"Who said you're ugly? Don't you know, you're beautiful from inside, beautiful from the outside like the way you're. Why always do you feel yourself low Siya?"

"BECAUSE THIS IS THE TRUTH AND WE CAN'T ESCAPE FROM IT!" she yelled-whispered.

"Okay, But can I know what makes you so pissed off?" his question hinted a slight tease as her eyes focused on his emerald orbs, deeply. He wanted to distract her mind.

"No-nothing." she looked away which only confirmed his judgment was true.

So he leaned forward to the side of her face, to her ear. His hot breath fanned over her shoulder as she closed her eyes shut as a shudder ran down her spine.

"You. are...JEALOUS! you're jealous Ms. Siya Chauhan!" he sprinted out from there as soon as the words slipped out from his tongue and her eyes became wide opened— reality strike her hard as she ran behind him, yelling to stop.

After what seemed like ages, they stopped in the mid of the lake, panting heavily. He looked at her figure— hands on knees, trying to catch her unsteady breaths.

He took a step forward, standing in front of her, "Look, what a great doctor I'm." showing his fake collar he looked at her with pride. She raised an eyebrow at him.

Seeing her confused look he took off a drop of salty sweat from her forehead and pointed it, "I vanished your fever in just one minute. Or waise bhi it was gone already by the fire of your jealousy..." A sly smile crafted his lips as she glared at him.

Tears of anger, frustration and sorrow gathered together in the corner of her eyes and it all flowed down smoothly like a stream.

He cupped her cheeks and wiped the tears gently— pressing his lips softly at her temple and giving there a feathery kiss, "I'm sorry." was all he could manage to say before she drowned into his warmth and closed her eyes letting the darkness engulfed.

Little did they know might be this was the last but least blissful memory which would linger in their hearts because a shadow of a storm was already sneaking at them from a distance with a crafty look before disappearing from everyone's sight.

🍃

Danger is ahead.

Btw, what do you think is the relationship between Anamika and Raghav?