PROLOGUE
Some Stories Begin Twice
"The strange thing about first love is that you rarely know it's your first love while you're living it. You only realize it years later, when a familiar face walks past you... and suddenly every version of yourself you've ever been comes rushing back."
The bookstore smelled like old paper and fresh coffee.
It was the kind of place where people whispered without anyone asking them to.
Aaradhya loved places like this.
She ran her fingers along the spines of novels as she walked through the aisle, reading titles she had no intention of buying.
Books had always made more sense than people.
People left.
Books stayed.
A small smile appeared on her lips.
Maybe that was why she'd spent years writing stories instead of living them.
She reached for a cream-colored novel on the highest shelf.
At the exact same moment...
Another hand reached for it.
Warm fingers brushed against hers.
"I'm sorry."
The voice.
Her heart forgot how to beat.
Slowly...
She looked up.
Grey eyes.
A familiar smile.
The same quiet expression she'd spent years trying to forget.
Shivaansh.
For a second...
Neither of them moved.
Neither of them smiled.
Neither of them spoke.
The world didn't stop.
People continued browsing.
Someone laughed near the cafe.
A page turned somewhere behind them.
And yet...
For Aaradhya...
Time had quietly folded back on itself.
"Hi..." he said softly.
It had been four years.
And somehow...
That one word carried every conversation they had never had.
