Chapter 1 : The First Time I Saw Him
Weekends at the hostel always felt the same — loud, lazy, predictable. So when Anya dragged me to her friend’s apartment, I didn’t expect anything different. Just a change of walls, maybe better food, and a few faces I’d forget by Monday.
The apartment smelled like incense, masala, and cigarette smoke — a strange mix of warmth and chaos. Music played somewhere in the hall, boys laughing, plates clinking. Anya pulled me straight into the kitchen, insisting we help with lunch like we belonged there.
I was busy chopping onions when I heard him for the first time.
“Are you sure she knows what she’s doing? I can already smell the disaster.”
The laughter that followed filled the room. I turned slightly, frowning. My friend rolled her eyes. “Shut up, Arav!” she shouted back, but she was laughing too.
Arav. The name didn’t mean much. I thought he was Sahil — the guy Anya mentioned last night when I wasn’t really listening.
Curiosity made me glance toward the doorway. He was standing there, leaning against the wall like he’d been there forever — cigarette in one hand, amusement in his eyes. He looked relaxed, like someone who didn’t need attention but got it anyway. His smirk wasn’t loud or cocky — it was quiet, confident, dangerous in a way I couldn’t explain.
He said something else to Anya that made everyone laugh again. I didn’t catch the words — just his voice, deep and unbothered, like he had all the time in the world. Then he turned and walked away.
That was it. No hello, no glance, not even a moment that should have mattered. But somehow, it did.
I went back to cutting onions, pretending it was nothing. But his voice stayed in the air — and for reasons I didn’t understand, I kept hearing it even after he left.
Later, when Anya mentioned Sahil again, I realized the truth. The one I’d mistaken for someone else was Arav.
And for the briefest moment, I wished I hadn’t learned his name at all.
© All Rights Reserved
