Prologue
Sometimes, the people who change your life are the ones you wish you’d never met.
If someone had asked Zeeshan Malik a year ago whether he believed in love at first sight, he would have laughed until tears filled his eyes.
Love?
Not interested.
He had his family, his friends, and enough chaos in his life already.
Then he met Zain Khan.
Correction...
He crashed into him.
Literally.
Their first conversation lasted less than a minute.
It ended with an argument.
Their second conversation ended the same way.
By the end of the first week, they had argued over the television remote, parking spaces, kitchen shelves, music volume, air conditioner settings, and even which side of the sofa belonged to whom.
They were complete opposites.
Zeeshan was loud where Zain was quiet.
Messy where Zain was organized.
Impulsive where Zain planned everything.
If Zeeshan was fire...
Zain was ice.
Living under the same roof felt less like fate and more like a punishment neither of them had signed up for.
Their families thought the fights were amusing.
Their friends made bets on who would apologize first.
No one realized that every sarcastic remark, every stolen glance, and every accidental moment together was quietly changing something neither of them understood.
Because hatred is easy.
Indifference is simple.
But the space between hate and love...
...is where everything becomes dangerous.
Neither Zeeshan nor Zain expected the other to become important.
Neither planned to lower their walls.
And neither knew that one simple nickname would one day mean more than a thousand confessions.
A nickname only one person would ever be allowed to say.
“Shan.”
It wouldn’t happen today.
Or tomorrow.
Not even next month.
First...
They had to become enemies.
Then rivals.
Then reluctant friends.
Only after breaking each other’s patience...
Would they slowly begin breaking down each other’s walls.
And by the time they realized they had fallen in love...
It would already be far too late to stop.
This is the story of two boys who couldn’t stand each other...
Until they couldn’t imagine a world without the other.
