Kini007

  There was nothing special about the wooden bench near Classroom 12—old, scratched, uneven. Students sat there only when every other seat was taken. Everyone except Zoe and Riyan. For them… that bench was the beginning of everything. Zoe was the kind of girl teachers adored—organized notes, perfect grades, never late. Riyan was the boy everyone warned her about—detention record, careless smile, jokes in serious moments. They were opposite pages of two different books, never meant to meet. But fate doesn’t care about “meant to.” One rainy morning, the school was too crowded and too noisy. Zoe sat on the bench with her books, and a minute later, Riyan sat next to her with dripping hair and a smirk. “You look like the kind of person who hates noise,” he said. “I look like someone who hates you talking,” she replied. He laughed. She didn’t. But she smiled later when he looked away. From the next day, both came earlier than usual—just to sit on that bench. At first, in silence...

  No loud beginning. No fireworks. Just two teenagers who didn’t know that a simple “Hi” in the school corridor would one day feel like a memory too heavy to carry. Ayaan was the quiet kind of boy—soft-spoken, always with a book in hand, like he was searching for a place that wasn’t reality. And Aria… she was sunshine with shoes on. Loud laugh, messy hair, and eyes that believed everything in life could be fixed with hope. They met in the most ordinary way—Ayaan dropped his notebook, Aria picked it up, and found a page he never intended anyone to read: “If someone ever looks at me like I’m enough, I think I’ll finally breathe.” She looked at him that way. That was the beginning. For months, they shared lunch, secrets, playlists, and dreams. They sent paper planes across the classroom with dumb jokes and half-drawn doodles. Aria always wrote: “Promise me you won’t leave.” Ayaan never promised. He was scared of promises—scared of being someone’s disappointment. But he fell f...