Love Wired

When Atharva saw Shravya, she was standing beneath the tall windows of the campus library, sunlight tracing her silhouette as she flipped through a management book far too advanced for a first-year. Her calm expression was infuriating. The same calm that had cost him his first rank.

She didn’t even look up when he entered, but she knew.

He could tell by the faint smirk tugging at the corner of her lips, the kind that dared him to say something first.

"You’re the scholarship student, right?" Atharva’s voice was smooth, but his eyes held a sharpness that could slice through silence. "Didn’t think people who danced their way into college could top an entrance exam."

Shravya finally met his gaze, warm brown meeting cold steel. "Didn’t think people who bought their way in would care so much about second place."

The air thickened between them. Around them, whispers from students hushed to nothing, as though even the books were waiting for someone to speak.

He stepped closer, close enough for her to catch the faint scent of sandalwood and arrogance.

"Enjoy it while it lasts," he said softly. "The spotlight doesn’t stay long on borrowed talent."

She closed her book, slow and deliberate, her bangles clinking like quiet applause.

"Good," she replied, turning away. "I never liked the spotlight anyway. I just like winning."

And for the first time in his perfectly measured life, Atharva felt something slip, a crack in his composure, a spark he couldn’t name.

From that moment, every lecture became a battlefield. Every quiz, a duel. Every accidental glance, a silent challenge.

Neither of them realized yet that rivalry was just the first wire connecting them.

Hope there are good firefighters around because the Indian Institute of Management, Indore, is about to catch fire!!