It's been days since Ella's graduation. She has been working hard on her paintings to get them into exhibitions. Tori is also working on the cinematography project she has been assigned.
Ella was having lunch today while she read highlights about the theme of the upcoming art exhibition. What caught her attention was the third art exhibition theme. The theme is that artists can portray their thoughts in the context of literature. Her eyes sparkle at the living opportunity in front of her. She can portray her art skills as well as show the viewers at an exhibition her literature skills. eating her lunch in a hurry. She quickly rushes to take a quick shower. Dressing up in a long pink floral dress paired with white slippers and a tote bag She rushes towards the library in town nearest to her house. She decided to go by foot, as it was a walking distance of 15 minutes. Plugging her headphones in, she dashes outside her house.
She was humming to a song on her way but bumped into someone. "Oh, sorry, I didn't see you," she says as she kneels down to collect the fallen belongings of the owner. There was a book and a sketch of a road nearby. She was amazed by the sketch but didn't budge as it was none of her business.
"Uh, here are your belongings." She wasn't able to complete her sentence once her eyes met the person in front of her. The same mysterious male, all in a long black hoodie and plain jeans with bed hairs.
"It's alright, I wasn't looking ahead, my fault," he says as he instantly grabs his belongings.
Ella wanted to strike up a conversation with him in order to get to know him better, so she did. "Um, hey, I have seen you."
She pauses as the tall male stares deeply into her eyes, hissing in irritation as he knew her already, which she got a clue of too. as she flashes a confident smile. "Ah, you are the one that saved me earlier, a week ago."
"Uh-huh, oh yes, not a big deal; you must not show your lunatic self to everyone," says the male trying to bypass her. Ella's confidence was staggering, but she tried to keep herself together.
"Excuse me?" She says it softly enough for him to hear. She doesn't know why she wanted to tell him about her day. So she goes on, "I wasn't a lunatic. That day, I had just graduated and wanted to reach an NGO as soon as possible to celebrate my birthday with my babies. So I was in a hurry, that's all."
The male listens to her words, and her words cause his lips to twitch upward a little. but he stopped himself from doing so. "Why are you telling me this?" he says in annoyance. Ella, not knowing the answer to this and being honest, states, "I don't know," looking blankly at her hands. Her words caused the man's neck to twist at full speed. He stares at her intensely, and she lifts her head momentarily too. Both of their eyes met for a while. They stared at each other for some time, but Ella was the one to break eye contact and mumble "Sorry" before walking past him in the opposite direction. He just stays there for a while. before walking in another direction.
While walking towards the library, Ella mumbles to herself, "Why did I say that? How can I say something like that to a stranger? I don't even know him. He must be thinking of me as a lunatic now. God, why is it always me? The world is so small. I don't even know his name. What's his name? Argh, I am dumb."
Entering the library, she looked for literature books with art and concepts like hers. Her concept was about the biased system, but in a romantic way. Skimming through the shelves, her eye caught sight of none other than "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen. She instantly grabs that book and starts to read it. While reading, she learned that the theme of the book is "enemies to lovers." That's when she decided she would draw pictures about different literary tropes and explain them in her own words. She didn't read the book fully, as it was already dawn by this time and getting late. For some unknown reason, she didn't bring the book along with her—an excuse to go out of the house again or something else. She places her ribbon-pin-like bookmark inside the book, places it on its original shelf, and leaves.
While walking down the streets, she stopped at an ice cream corner to satisfy her sweet tooth. She was in deep thought about her art when someone snatched her bag and ran away.
"Hey, give me my bag!" She yells and runs behind the thief. "Stop," she kept on screaming, but he didn't listen. Suddenly she staggers and falls to the ground, twisting her left foot in the process. "Ahh," she yelps in pain, and she tries to get up but falls down again.
Her vision was blurred with the tears of frustration as the bag contained all her valuable belongings for exhibition. But after 10 minutes, she heard footsteps approaching her. She looked up to see the same guy from earlier in the evening standing in front of her. Tears were flowing down her cheeks as she kept looking at him sadly.
Her sadness didn't last longer as it was replaced by shock once she saw his right hand holding her bag. "My bag," she says through hiccups as she wipes her tears with the back of her hand.
"Here, now how long do you want to stay down there?" he says as he hands her his left hand to get up. She lowers her head and silently grabs his hand to get up but falls down in mid-step due to pain in her ankle. Before she could fall, the male caught her by waist. "Hey, you alright?" left his mouth. She stares blankly at him through teary eyes.
He just checks down on her foot to see if her ankle was twisted; worse, her knee was bleeding. In the next moment, he instantly carries her in bridal style.
"Hey, wait!" Ella says it loudly.
"No, your knee is bleeding. Let me take you to a clinic," the male says.
"But—" Ella retorts.
"Trust me," he says, staring deeply into her eyes. Ella calms down as she nods her head in agreement slowly and wraps her arms around his neck for support. As the duo moves towards clinic in dull silence.