THE BEGINING
Delhi heat.
Not the normal kind.
The kind that makes the road look like it’s melting, makes your school shirt stick to your back, and somehow makes the walk home feel twice as long.
Cars and bikes kept rushing past me, horns going off every few seconds. Somewhere nearby, a street vendor was shouting over the traffic, while the smell of dust, petrol, and hot food mixed together in the afternoon air.
And there I was.
Walking home from school.
Disappointed.
As always.
Why, you ask?
Why not ask?
Grades?
Huh.
Far away from good.
I barely passed most of the time.
And if you looked at me, you’d probably understand the other problem without me having to explain it. I was so thin that a particularly cool breeze could probably send me flying from Delhi all the way to New York.
Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration.
Maybe.
And then there was her.
Well...
Let’s not talk about her.
She didn’t even care that I existed.
Yeah.
That one hurt.
Anyway, I was telling you something about me, right?
Yeah...
Where was I?
Oh.
Walking down the road disappointingly.
I’m a Class 12 student, by the way.
Science stream.
Don’t ask me why.
Honestly, I don’t know either.
And my name is Reyansh.
Apparently, it means a ray of light.
Funny, isn’t it?
Because if you look at my life right now, the only thing I can see is darkness.
Not normal darkness.
I’m talking about whole-pitch-black darkness.
Don’t laugh at me.
Okay?
Secretly, though, I had always wished for one thing.
I wished I could become a little stronger.
Not some superhero-level strong.
Just...
A little stronger.
A little smarter.
A little better.
Good enough that people would notice me.
Not that I cared about them noticing me.
I just wanted...
Maybe...
Her to notice me.
Yeah.
I forgot to tell you her name.
Kiara.
Don’t ask me what it means.
Just search it.
But seriously, there was something else I wanted even more.
I wanted to make my parents proud.
They spent so much on me.
School.
Classes.
Books.
Everything.
And I was just...
Well...
Me.
It’s not like I wasn’t trying.
I gave my best every single time.
I really did.
It just...
wasn’t clicking.
But you know what?
Something happened that day.
Well...
Not that day.
That night.
