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Abhi read that message and exhaled deeply, pressing his palm to his forehead.
Abhi (8:58 PM)
It’s not your fault. Or mine.
None of this was planned.
But I think we owe it to her now… to give her space.
His fingers slowed. He stared at the blinking cursor.
Even if it means we… step back too.
But he didn’t type that. Not yet.
Meghana stared at the ceiling, arms folded over her stomach.
Meghana (9:00 PM)
I know.
But I hate that it hurts her.
And I hate that it didn’t stop me, she didn’t type.
Abhi (9:03 PM)
So do I.
She’s light, you know. Something fresh.
Even in the way she argues or teases
It’s her way of saying “I’m here.”
He smiled faintly.
Remembering her flippant remarks, her sideways glances.
The charm in her mischief.
Meghana (9:06 PM)
She hasn’t said that today.
It was typed simply.
But in her chest, the sentence felt heavier than all the others.
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Abhi (9:08 PM)
But she’s still here.
He needed that to be true.
He needed to believe that her silence wasn’t final.
Meghana (9:11 PM)
You’re right. She’s not gone.
Just retreating. Figuring things out.
And maybe… deciding who she wants to be in this story.
She caught herself rereading that last line.
That’s what this is, isn’t it? A story.
One we never scripted.
Abhi (9:13 PM)
I’ll wait. However long it takes.
I don’t want her to feel like she has to choose between us. Or walk away from either of us.
He swallowed.
His throat dry.
But if she does walk away… it’ll hurt.
Meghana (9:15 PM)
That’s the thing with you, Abhi.
You make it hard to walk away.
She pressed send before she could change her mind.
Abhi (9:17 PM)
You didn’t.
Meghana (9:18 PM)
I couldn’t.
She sat with that for a while. And for a moment, her room didn’t feel quite so silent.
Meghana (9:24 PM)
Can I be honest?
After this morning… I didn’t just feel exposed. I felt… seen.
And it scared me, how much I liked it.
Too much, she thought.
Maybe too late.
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Abhi (9:26 PM)
You weren’t the only one who felt that.
You gave me something I didn’t know I was ready to receive.
He stared at her words.
Exposed.
Seen.
He knew exactly what she meant.
Meghana (9:28 PM)
What was it?
She was afraid to ask.
But more afraid not to.
Abhi (9:30 PM)
Space to be soft. And still be strong.
Space to want someone without fear of being too much.
His chest rose slowly as he hit send.
That was the truth.
Maybe the truest thing he’d said all day.
Meghana (9:32 PM)
Then we both gave each other something real.
Even if we have to wait to see what it becomes.
A long pause.
Neither typed.
Both just… sat with the weight of it.
Abhi (9:39 PM)
Do you think she’ll be okay?
Meghana (9:42 PM)
She’s strong. But she’s also younger. It’s not the pain that worries me—it’s the silence.
Let her be silent for a while. But be there when she breaks it.
Abhi (9:44 PM)
I will.
And I’ll be here for you too.
Even if there’s no yoga mat in the room tomorrow.
Meghana (9:46 PM)
That mat was just a surface.
What happened between us wasn’t confined to it.
She put her phone down then, breathing slower.
And for the first time all evening, her fingers stopped shaking.
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Varnika’s Private Night – Wednesday, 10:45 PM
The room was dim. Just the bedside lamp lit one corner in a soft amber glow.
Varnika sat curled near the window, legs pulled to her chest, her cheek pressed lightly to her knee.
Outside, Hyderabad murmured on—horns in the distance, the faint whoosh of a metro slipping past.
But in 403, it was silent.
Meghana hadn’t spoken much all evening.
And Varnika hadn’t made it easy.
She had come home quietly after her university visit—Uber dropped her off mid-afternoon, and she went straight to the guest room without a word.
No jokes. No teasing. Not even eye contact.
She couldn’t.
She had seen too much.
That moment in the morning—the stillness, the tension, the way Meghana’s body folded around Abhi’s, like something practiced and personal.
The way his hands had held her waist like they knew exactly where to land.
It wasn’t yoga.
It wasn’t even about fitness.
It was closeness.
And it was deliberate.
And she had walked in on it like some wide-eyed fool.
At first, she had wanted to laugh it off.
Tease.
Make one of her classic one-liners.
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But her chest had tightened.
Something inside her had curled up, some combination of hurt and embarrassment and… confusion.
She had been the one to say it didn’t matter.
That she didn’t mind if something was happening between them.
But she had lied.
She didn’t know she had lied until that moment.
She bit her lower lip, hard.
Not to cry.
Just to ground herself.
Her thoughts spiraled
Images of Abhi laughing with her at the park,
His voice when he called her brave,
His silence when she brushed against him on the scooter.
Was it all one-sided?
Or worse… was she just a placeholder?
She buried her face in her arms.
And it hit her, not just jealousy, not just ache.
It was something deeper: the fear that she had let herself feel too much, too fast.
That she had started to imagine something that wasn’t hers to imagine.
That she had read kindness and attention as signs of something more.
That her sister… may have gotten there first.
She sat there for a long time, unmoving, letting the city pass outside her window.
Eventually, she pulled the thin throw over her shoulders and slid into bed, facing the wall.
She didn’t turn off the lamp.
She needed light tonight.
She needed something that didn’t shift or surprise her.
Because everything else had.
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Wednesday, 11:42 PM – Messages That Don't Need Replies
Abhi sat on the edge of his bed, the phone dimly lit in his hand.
A single unread message blinked from Meghana—just a soft “She’s still quiet.” He had nothing to reply.
Instead, he opened Varnika’s chat again.
She was online.
His heart kicked.
But then it calmed. He knew she wouldn’t write.
Still... he typed.
Abhi:
I was thinking about your interview today.
I hope the panel didn’t ask too many weird questions.
Sent.
Blue ticks.
Instantly.
She was watching.
He swallowed, waiting.
Nothing.
He typed again, slowly.
Abhi:
I missed your chatter today.
The quiet felt too heavy.
Pause.
Blue ticks.
Still no reply.
He rested his thumb against the keyboard.
Then typed, paused, deleted.
Typed again.
Abhi:
You left without a word this morning.
I don’t blame you. Just… I wish I could explain.
But maybe you don’t want that right now. I get it.
A long breath.
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Abhi:
Still, I wanted to tell you something.
I noticed your bag on the scooter. That space between us?
I didn’t push past it.
Not just because of the bag, Varnika.
Because I saw how much you were hurting.
He waited.
Not expecting a reply.
The ticks turned blue.
Seen.
She is seeing his messages.
It is enough for him.
He knows that he is communicating with her.
She is reading all his messages, she didn't turn off the phone.
It didn’t make him feel better.
It didn’t make him feel worse.
Just… real.
He rubbed the back of his neck, staring at the wall.
The apartment was silent except for the occasional tick of the ceiling fan.
He kept going.
Abhi:
You don’t have to reply tonight.
Or tomorrow.
I just… I need you to know this wasn’t a game. Not to me.
Not to Meghana either.
Another pause.
Abhi:
You came into my life like a gust of wind that rearranged the furniture.
I don’t know what everything means yet.
But I liked the way you made me feel at home.
Sent.
Seen.
He stared at the message. Then finally typed one more.
Abhi:
Sleep well.
I’m here if and when you’re ready.
He stared at the screen for another minute.
Then slowly placed the phone down, screen-up—watching it once, hoping… and letting go.
Varnika never replied.
But he knew she’d read every word.
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Thursday Late Morning – Varnika and Meghana: The Stillness Before the Break
The house was unusually quiet.
Meghana stood by the kitchen counter, staring into a half-filled glass of water.
Her phone lay untouched beside her, though her eyes flicked toward it every few minutes.
No new messages.
No movement from the other room.
The bedroom door hadn’t opened since last night.
Varnika had skipped breakfast.
Skipped speaking.
She had stayed inside with the kind of silence that didn’t feel peaceful
It felt deliberate.
But now, sometime past 11, the door opened.
Meghana turned.
Her breath caught just a little.
Varnika stood there, dressed in a fresh kurti and jeans.
Her hair was braided loosely over one shoulder, and her face was scrubbed clean, but her eyes carried a sharpness that hadn’t dulled overnight.
“Hey,” Meghana said softly. She didn’t smile.
Varnika didn’t answer immediately.
She walked toward the living room, picked up a water bottle, and took a long sip.
Her movements were calm.
Controlled.
But her silence still cut through the air like tension before a storm.
Meghana waited.
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Finally, Varnika spoke
Her voice low, but clear. “I’ve booked a cab for this evening. I’m going to stay with Chinni aunty and family for a few days.”
That was it.
No explanation. No apology. No anger.
But Meghana heard it all in the tone.
She nodded slowly. “Okay… is this because of yesterday morning?”
Varnika’s laugh was short, not cruel, just dry. “What do you think?”
Meghana’s chest tightened. “I didn’t mean for you to walk in like that. We didn’t plan it. I should’ve...”
“It’s not about what you planned,” Varnika interrupted.
Her tone sharpened, though her volume stayed low. “It’s about what you already knew was happening. And you didn’t think I deserved to know.”
Meghana inhaled. “You asked me when you arrived if there was anything between us. I said no, because… at that time, there wasn’t. I didn’t lie to you.”
Varnika turned to face her now, eyes steady, jaw tight. “Maybe not then. But things changed. And you didn’t tell me.”
There it was.
The hurt beneath the control.
A quiet wound, not screaming, just aching.
Meghana stepped closer. “I didn’t know how. Or when. I didn’t want to make it weird.”
“It was already weird,” Varnika said, her voice dropping to a whisper. “It was already something. I could feel it.”
Silence stretched.
Meghana’s voice softened. “So you did mind?”
A long pause.
Varnika blinked slowly, as if deciding whether to lie.
Finally, she said, “I didn’t think I did. But I guess… watching it happen right in front of me, like I wasn’t even in the room, yeah. I minded.”
She looked away. “I didn’t like that I minded. I didn’t expect it. And I didn’t want to.”
The air between them trembled.
“I just need space,” Varnika said, almost gently now. “To clear my head. To… remind myself I’m not some silly girl getting caught in things she doesn’t understand.”
“You’re not silly,” Meghana said quickly. “You’re not.”
Varnika met her gaze again. “Then let me go. Without trying to fix this today.”
Meghana’s lips parted, then closed. She nodded.
“You’ll tell Abhi?” she asked quietly.
Varnika shrugged. “I’ll stop by. Not for long.”
She turned toward her room, but then paused.
“And for what it’s worth,” she said, glancing back, “you didn’t do anything wrong. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t get hurt.”
Then she walked back inside and shut the door behind her.
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25-06-2025, 02:23 AM
(This post was last modified: 25-06-2025, 03:08 AM by shailu4ever. Edited 1 time in total. Edited 1 time in total.)
Thursday Afternoon – Flat 203: Unsaid Words and Unfolding Distance
Abhi had been pacing his living room for a while now.
The laptop screen sat open with emails waiting to be answered, but he hadn’t touched the keyboard in over twenty minutes.
His phone was on silent, but he kept checking it anyway, as if willing a notification to appear.
When the soft knock came on his door, he turned so fast that the floor creaked beneath him.
He didn’t expect her to come.
But there she was. Varnika.
Dressed in a casual maroon t-shirt and light blue jeans, her hair loosely gathered in a clip, she stood at the doorway like she wasn’t sure she wanted to be there.
Her eyes were tired but sharp, her expression unreadable.
Her arms were crossed.
Not defensive, just contained.
Her eyes met his, but only briefly.
Abhi opened the door slowly. “Hey…”
“Can I come in for a minute?” she asked.
Her voice was calm, but the edges were flat, controlled.
“Of course,” he said, stepping aside gently.
He stepped aside without a word.
Varnika stepped slowly into Abhi’s flat, pausing just a few feet from the door.
The soft click behind her as it closed seemed to echo more than it should in the silence.
The air inside 203 was cooler, quieter, the curtains drawn just enough to let in a filtered wash of golden afternoon light.
It painted warm lines across the living room floor, catching on the edges of a bookshelf, a corner lamp, the muted green of an indoor plant leaning toward the balcony.
She didn’t say anything at first.
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25-06-2025, 02:30 AM
(This post was last modified: 25-06-2025, 03:10 AM by shailu4ever. Edited 1 time in total. Edited 1 time in total.)
She walked in slowly, not with curiosity, but with intention.
Her eyes moved across the space—not to admire, but to anchor herself.
As if looking for something to hold onto.
The sofa.
The dining table.
A backpack hanging by the shoe rack.
“I’ve never been here before,” she said, not turning around.
Abhi shut the door gently. “I know.”
She walked toward the middle of the room, but didn’t sit.
Her fingers traced the edge of the dining table absently, then dropped away.
There was silence.
“You wanted to talk?” he asked quietly, careful not to fill the space too quickly.
She nodded faintly. “Not talk. Just… I didn’t want to leave without showing you what that morning did to me.”
That landed.
He stood a few feet away
Hands in his pockets, unsure whether to approach or give her space.
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25-06-2025, 02:32 AM
(This post was last modified: 25-06-2025, 03:15 AM by shailu4ever. Edited 1 time in total. Edited 1 time in total.)
She finally looked at him
Eyes searching, as if trying to see past the person she liked into the one who surprised her.
“I thought I was okay,” she said.
“When I said I didn’t mind, I meant it. But I didn’t see it coming. That moment. That… closeness.”
Abhi swallowed. “I didn’t expect you to walk in.”
“I know you didn’t,” she said, cutting him off
Not unkindly.
Just firmly. “And I know it wasn’t meant to hurt me. But it did. Not because of jealousy. Not even because of you. But because…”
She hesitated. “It made me realize I didn’t understand what story I was part of.”
She finally moved to the edge of the couch but didn’t sit.
She stood with her back to him now.
“I felt like a fool, Abhi. For letting myself enjoy things that maybe weren’t meant for me to enjoy.”
“That’s not true,” he said softly.
She turned, eyes sharp but not cruel. “Then what is true? That I was a background character in something already unfolding?"
"That while I was hugging you from the backseat of your scooter, you were dreaming about her arms around you?”
He didn’t respond.
She let the silence hang, then exhaled. “Sorry. That was unfair.”
“No,” he said. “It wasn’t.”
Varnika finally sat—not in comfort.
But because her legs were tired from holding tension.
She sank into the couch like someone who hadn’t rested in days.
Abhi sat too, but on the other side.
There was a long pause.
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25-06-2025, 02:34 AM
(This post was last modified: 25-06-2025, 03:25 AM by shailu4ever. Edited 2 times in total. Edited 2 times in total.)
“I’m going to my relatives’ place this evening,”
she said quietly. “Just for a few days. I need to… step back. Breathe.”
He nodded slowly. “I get it.”
She looked down at her hands, then at the floor.
Her voice broke slightly when she said, “I don’t want to be angry with you. ”
"I don’t even know if I am angry. ”
“But I do feel… misplaced.”
Abhi leaned forward, elbows on his knees.
His voice was steady, but laced with quiet hurt.
“You were never misplaced. You made things lighter, warmer. Being around you… never felt like background.”
She blinked a few times.
Then gave a small, sad smile. “Don’t say sweet things now. I’m trying hard not to cry.”
He didn't say anything.
But he didn’t look away either.
Then, slowly, carefully, she stood. “I should go.”
He rose too.
She walked to the door
Opened it halfway.
Then paused.
Without turning
She said, “I liked being part of your days. Even if it was brief.”
And then she left.
This time, he didn’t follow.
But he stood in that silence for a long while
Letting her absence echo deeper than her presence ever had.
---
End of Chapter - I
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Hi everyone,
I'm excited to share that Chapter 1 is now complete!
I’d love to hear your thoughts, what did you enjoy, what stood out, and what could be improved? Your feedback is incredibly valuable as I move forward.
Also, I’m curious to know: What are your expectations for Chapter 2?
Any ideas, hopes, or directions you'd like to see explored?
Please like, comment, and share your feedback.
I’m looking forward to hearing from you all!
Warm regards,
-- Shailu
![[+]](https://xossipy.com/themes/sharepoint/collapse_collapsed.png)
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Alright everyone, I'm calling it a night—it’s getting pretty late!
Thank you all for your support so far.
Good night and take care!
-- Shailu
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Thank you all for your incredible support so far.
Wrapping up Chapter 1 has been an exciting journey, and I’m thrilled to dive into Chapter 2, filled with fresh twists, surprises, and new directions.
Let’s pick things up and continue the adventure together.
Abhi steps into a new territory in this chapter.
Stay tuned, Chapter 2 is just about to begin!
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Hi All
In the midst of Abhi’s emotional turmoil, as he grapples with the highs and lows of his inner world, in the 1st Chapter. I want to start this 2nd Chapter with bringing Madhavi closer to him.
She, more than anyone, had always been his steady anchor. I knew that bringing her closer to him, in this moment of chaos, might be the very thing he needed.
But I wasn’t certain. There were so many layers to their relationship, so many things unsaid. Could they truly find their way to one another amidst the storm? I could only hope.
What do you think?
Should I guide them toward this connection, or will it create more distance than closeness?
Your thoughts would mean the world to me.
-- Shailu
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"Hey everyone, I'm still waiting to hear your thoughts on the new story name. I haven’t received any feedback from anyone since I made the change."
Let me know if you want it to sound more formal or casual!
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First strengthen the relationship between meghna nd abhi completely nd also increase the closeness between Madhvi and Abhi...but also start the friendship between Vamika and Abhi in a new way
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(25-06-2025, 09:19 PM)Yash121 Wrote: First strengthen the relationship between meghna nd abhi completely nd also increase the closeness between Madhvi and Abhi...but also start the friendship between Vamika and Abhi in a new way
Hi Yash121
Thanks for the feedback!
Things are going to pick up speed in Chapter 2.
I’m following the plan as I set initially, and everything you mentioned is on its way.
The bond between Meghna and Abhi will deepen, Madhvi and Abhi’s closeness will grow, and Abhi and Vamika’s new friendship will begin soon. Stay tuned, it’s all coming together!
Please don't forget to leave your comments, likes or feedback.
Really appreciate your inputs.
-- Shailu
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