I believe that a powerful story is a glass of wine. It numbs you, makes you dizzy, and in the end, tires your body, just so every cell in you can feel the effect of it.
It doesn't end there. It was wrong to write, 'in the end.'
The real effect starts blossoming when one wakes up and keeps remembering the moment when the wine finally kicked in, just like that one specific line in the story, which remains with us.
It doesn't leave you until you end up craving it in your real life.
But stories don't turn into reality. They stay in the book, they stay in your mind, unlike a human being. A human being who carries just as much power as a story. Maybe more.
That being is the most powerful because that person has the power everyone wishes to have over people.
And that person with such power was Vihan. Or we can say, he had suddenly become that powerful and Leena felt it when the first thought of her morning was his smile.
The smile he was pondering on the puppy.
She could not forget the mole near his lips, the tinted color of his lips, and the brightness in his eyes.
She had slept last night, thinking of those same features. Maybe that is why she woke up with the same features in her head.
It consumed her well-being, confused her, and made her unstable for the day. And like always, Vritti noticed it.
"Did you dream of him again?" The first question of the morning was as they walked to their classroom.
"No-no!" Unstable breaths and with unstable steps, Leena answered, wishing not to talk about him, because he was already sitting in her head.
"Then what is it?" Vritti, unstirred, added another question. She knew Leena needed to talk about him, but Leena, like her usual self, discarded the conversation and uttered her words as a bold statement. "I don't like him! Stop pushing it in my head."
But the rage in her tone spoke otherwise. It was almost as if she was trying to make herself believe that because a crack in her belief had started to appear.
The day went on with the same frustration lingering overhead, which made her unreachable. She did not wish to talk to Vritti, she knew Vritti would repeat her question.
In the crowd of students, she wished to disappear, leaving Vritti in the classroom, but halted when suddenly, Vihan showed his face, from another classroom, in the middle of the corridor, right after their classes had been dismissed.
He quickly noticed her, and a gentle smile curled his lips, accompanying his red cheeks and bright, joyful eyes.
Brain-dead for that moment, she noticed his hair was messy, and his hands were holding the strings of his bag, as usual. He never changes, she thought.
No matter how far she pushes him, he always smiles at her like that. He always looks at her like that. Like his eyes want to tell her something: something she already knew.
Watching her frozen in her place, for a second he stood in the middle of the crowd, welcoming a world of their own.
The music of the students' words suddenly died, the time stopped, and the coldness in the weather warmed up.
She felt that change as well. She could feel the warmth of their desires, her heart in her chest speaking louder for her to shut it down.
And for that moment she did not try to kill that noise, she tried to listen to it; she wanted to understand it so her frustration could leave her body. A step she had ignored to take.
That sound continued to talk to her and whisper something. It got louder at the sight of him starting to step toward her.
He was walking fast, but her eyes saw his every step profoundly.
Her struggling ears suddenly started functioning well, listening to her heart talking, as her eyes found him gazing at her with warmth, his feet getting closer.
She found tranquility in his steps, getting closer and closer to her, her heart in expectation of him showing his need for her once again.
But he simply passed by her, leaving her cold in the middle of the corridor.
She felt her heart sinking, her ears noticing the chatter of the students coming back, and her eyes finding the crowd before her once again.
It was like a snap of a finger, which had broken the world they created in that mere moment.
She wasn't expecting that.
"Hey!" Ridhan spoke with astonishment, as he saw Vihan stopping before him, a few steps behind Leena. He had been wondering all day why Vihan was not eager any longer to see Leena.
Vihan was astoundingly calm and content from the morning. He was smiling and was overjoyed, which interested Ridhan.
"Are you not going to talk to Leena?" He simply questioned, watching the smile on Vihan's face turn into astonishment. "What?"
"You did not talk to Leena. Is there something wrong with you two?" Ridhan's question came as a surprise to Vihan because he was doing what Leena had asked him to do.
He was trying not to meddle in her life and wait for her. He did explain that to Ridhan as well, which only astonished and worried him even more.
Up until now, he believed Leena also liked him, but that request by her was not at all from a person who felt that way.
But he could not inform Vihan of that. He was too content and overjoyed because he thought Leena did not need him to approach her to like him, which was a crazy assumption of his.
How could someone be so naïve?
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END OF THE CHAPTER
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