Out of all the people,
The only different name was mine,
They want temporary temptations,
All I want is to shine,
Now that life took a turn,
Now that we all have to run,
Life is not a piece of cake anymore,
I feel something breaking,
Like I am shattering to the core,
They still call me names they want,
Bless me with bad words and taunts,
They now want me to be lame(dull),
But I am curious about you,
Do you think the same?
The shuttlecock fell at the edge inside boundary of the right service court. The server's hand were still in the air for a second it means that the shot was missed. The two of them heard the teacher clapping. They both faced him on the side.
" Brilliant ! I think I'll only have to work a little on both of you", a smile appeared on both sides. " For now I'd like to teach you both your first lesson. Sejal...",she looked up." You need to jump higher to land your smashes in the other court and for you taehyung, you need to improve focus a little", he nodded. It was him who missed the last shot.
The teacher left. Sejal walked to sit on the seats located sideways. She put her racket in the kit then sat down. She was still sweating.
"Here..", taehyung approach her." Have water", he forwarded a bottle for her. She turned her face to him. A droplet of sweat traveled from tress of her long curtain bangs to reach the ground. Her rest of hair were tied in a ponytail. She grabbed the bottle. He sat on seat present at the other side of the bag.
" Sejal.....", she looked at him." What does that mean?", he asked.
" Pure flowing water", she said." What does your name means?"
"All wishes come true", she nodded, looking back at her bottle.
" You can have your water, miss purity", he said with a smile. She again nodded and opened the bottle.
She was gulping water when he took a glimpse of her then looked back to the ground. She was beautiful and had chocolate brown eyes.
"Why don't you have friends?", he looked up after hearing those words."huh?", she closed the bottle lid to look at him. She repeated her question. " I asked why don't you have friends?"
A cold shiver run down through his spine. He couldn't answer her questioning gaze and look down into his empty hands. Searching something. "How do you know?", he pressed his lips." You always roam around alone, sit alone. The students call you arrogant. They say you don't have any time to make friends", she said all this in almost a single breath. He rubbed his palm with thumb before saying,"do you think the same?", he looked forward at the empty court while pressing his lips inward.
"Well I don't know you that much", she was also looking at a blind spot in empty court." I also had the same opinion about you at first. I thought you are rude, were trying to fade me out, to degrade me...." , she looked at him." But not anymore.... because I felt you were not that bad like those people wants me to think about you. They don't like me and I think it's better to have no company than to have a bad company."
" Happy to learn that you are different from them", she smiled.
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The door moved at a side to expose the person entering the house. She entered a closed the door with a click. Then, walked through the hallway to reach the extensive lounge with combined open kitchen.
"Good evening ", she greeted her mom who was in the kitchen piling up the dishes in cabinet."oh, you're home", she tilted her head to take glimpse of her daughter. "Someone else is home too, dear", a voice reached her ears from the lounge. She turned her head to look at her father in his 50s sitting on the three sitter cream colored couch with a book in his hand. Impulsively, a heartwarming smile appeared on her face.
She took fast steps to reach him. She sat down and hugged him. Her bag was still slung at her shoulders. " You're home early today", she said straightening her back." I am not early. You are the one who's late",he corrected her. Her mom also came out of the kitchen to know the reason of her being late. " Actually, I joined the badminton team here today. We were practicing. That's why I was late."
"Hmm. Good! Means you're enjoying your new school ", she nodded as her father said. " Go and freshen up so that we can atleast fill our bellies miss player", her mother said and Sejal stood up saying "okay", then went towards her room.
The meal was now done and Sejal was cleaning the table with mother wearing black sweatpants and off white sweatshirt. After finishing doing the dishes, Sejal's mom came to the lounge to sit with her husband and daughter." They've been assign the group rape case and were showing no progress. That was the only reason I am transferred here." Her father was saying.
" How long ago was the first case reported?", asked Sejal sitting on the sideways two sitter couch." An year ago..." He stopped a while before saying the next words." She was in the same school as yours."
" Same as hers?", her mother was seemed surprise as well as suddenly worried at the same time. " Hmm. But that was the only case from her school. The rest of three were from other places. ", he was satisfied about the school. " But still..." , she turned her head towards Sejal." Take care of yourself..", in response she nodded with a little press to her lips.
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The car stopped in front of the school. She stepped out with her bag wearing uniform and brown medium hair tied in a ponytail, and then closed the door. The front passenger seat car window rolled down. She bended her knees a little to see the driver.
" I will not be here at the leaving time so you have to walk to home",said the driver."Don't worry, I have no problem in walking home", she replied and turned over to go into the school. She knew that he had to head back to his village. Well, she walked from the entrance to the front ground. Then, took a look at her watch. She was 20 minutes early. A smile appeared on her face."let's explore the school a little more",
There were still many places she hadn't seen yet so she headed towards those places. She explored the basketball court and music room. Then went to the library. She slightly opened the door to see if anyone's inside. Everything was cear. Librarian wasn't there.She entered the library closing the door and then start walking. At the front were the chair and tables for reading till the end of room and on the right side were more than 10 columns of books. She walked through one of them. She looked at the books with widened eyes before taking a turn and walking back through the same row.
She walked between the tables and chairs. She was about to turn back when her eyes caught the sight of something. Someone's shoes. She stopped there. There was someone between the Last table and the wall. Did someone fainted?
She slowly walked towards the shoes. She bended a little only to see taehyung lying there sideways with his bag at a side. "Is it taehyung? Then why he is lying here ? Is he sleeping?", many questions popped in her mind. She sat down on her knees and shook his shoe a little. "Hey.. wake up", he didn't responded. He was sleeping soundly. She stood to get a liitle closer towards his face as there was some space in the gap so she could sit there easily.
" Taehyung..... wake up", she said as she shook his sleeve a little." Wake up man we'll be late for class", her tone wasnt that much high more like a whisper. He moved a little and again got still. His hairs fell on his forehead . What should I do to this dead body?
Just then she noticed his face. A teardrop that lefted the eye. She sat still. Was he crying? Something was weird about him. The very next moment she took a tissue paper from the side pocket of her bag . She rolled and forwarded it to wipe the teardrop making sure that her finger was not touching his skin. His eyes quinched. The first bell rang. She got startled by it. She looked at the door not knowing taehyung just woke up. The next moment he sat down with a jerk making her more startled. Her eyes widened. She immediately moved back. Her bag touch the wall. The tissue was still in her finger. She put it down.
He was straight in front of her looking with his brown eyes into her brown. Something just blocked her throat. She wondered why didn't she kept bag in the class which was forbidding her to move backward. Just then her startled face changed into a poker face... Emotionless...
" How can you sleep here at this time, Mr head. You should know rules yourself as well. I was walking you up from the past 5 minutes worring that you'll miss the class." she glared at him. He was still looking at her.
"You can go I'll come later", she stood up, managed to get out of the gap. She walking towards the door when she heard something. " And don't worry...I know my limits", these words stopped her for a while but then she continued to walk. The door was almost slam shut.
Taehyung emerged from the last table cleaning his shirt by hand. He took a glimpse of the closed door. He got the point that she don't trust anyone easily not even him and the sudden change in expression was a part of her trust issues. He smile mildly for once.
Sejal entered the class to reach her seat." You're late than usual", the girl with a bob cut at her left side said. "No I was early. I decided to explore the school a little more but see I am not late for class." She said.
"Oh, I see that's the reason" she nodded a little.
" Listen, did you defeated taehyung that much badly yesterday ?", the girl sitting in front of her turn around 360° and folded her arms on her table to ask her.
"No..", someone interrupted her words. " He must be weeping somewhere in the corner of the school. He thinks he can beat you. That rude can't beat our lovely Sejal", a passing boy stopped there to say all this laughing. Sejal looked up at him, with a hidden glare. Someone from the back called him. He went to that person.
"Leave him, tell us what happened?", the girl with bob said this to ignore him.
"Nothing much. Teacher declared us teammates and we had a practice session of three matches which was a tie", faces of both the girls relaxed and the one sitting in front of her lifted her arms.
"But why are you asking?", she lifted both of her brows.
"He is always early to school. I think this might be the first time he's late. Everyone's whispering that he might be defeated by you", Sejal poked inner side of her cheek for while. The second bell rang. The class was now about to start." I think you all always make fake assumptions about him. You are not his friend so you're believing all this", she was saying calmily." Think if anyday someone says that we both are late so we're having an affair. Would you like to believe it or not ?"
They both shook their head. She leaned back in the chair, shrugging her shoulders. Just then taehyung appeared at the door with his bag in one hand facing downwards. Then he lifted his face, slung bag at his shoulder and entered the class with his ethereal charisma. Sejal tilted her head a little and pointed with one of her brows towards the door making them both look at him. He was walking towards his seat, lefting both of their mouth opened.
"Look... he's here", her words brought them brought them both to reality. Now they looked at her.
"Well, I think you're right", one of them said.
"Thankfully he was sleeping. Otherwise it would have been really embarassing."
She thought.
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