With Mangoes And Chocolates | ✓

16. Please.

I clung on to Bhavuk's arm like my life dependent on it. He had this checked, grey flannel shirt on and the fabric of his sleeves felt extremely warm against my skin. I leaned more into it while our hands still remained intertwined.

It was cold but the atmosphere was exceptionally comfortable; there were hardly any humans around us. None.

"Yeah, I am with a baby koala," I heard him say.
I giggled. "You chose to suffer."

"If this is suffering, I'd do it all my life."
"You'd become a koala expert at the end of it."

We got started on discussing about koalas and Australia. It wasn't soon when the subject shifted to higher studies and colleges.

I was so freaking curious to know about his future plans because I knew they would be something riveting. He seemed hesitant at first. I didn't know why he didn't want to share it. But he did.

He told me everything he'd mapped out for the next years and honestly, it kinda shook me how strategic it sounded. Everything made sense and he seemed to know exactly what he wanted.

I didn't get the whole of it, but he definitely wanted to do something in statistics. He said that he loved it. He wanted to get into a good university, preferably an Ivy League. I'd always kind of wanted that too.

"Have you thought about which one?" I chirped.
"Columbia or UPenn, Harvard seems too far fetched. And hard."
"They're all hard."
"I'm trying."

He was trying, really. He was a part of the school council, was into sports, and also a straight A student. If he didn't get admitted into the kind of university he desired, they probably didn't deserve him.

"Statistics, huh?" I raised my eyebrows. "Thought you'd want to work in a museum or something."
He gave me a confused smile. "Why would you think so?"
"Your smile is a work of art."

I didn't know if I had some eye disorder or I actually saw his ears turning red. Ohmigosh. I'd just made Bhavuk Thakur feel shy with a lame pickup line.

"Thanks," he told me and the heaven knew that I had never heard him so genuine before.
"Thanking is for peasants," I grinned. "Give me a twirl."

He caught my fingers and twirled me around—once, twice, thrice. I laughed and giggled and eventually threw my arms around his neck. I had always wanted to experience this, at least once in my lifetime. Cliché but yeah.

We (he) borrowed badmintons from some of the kids. Not exactly borrow, more like Bhavuk bullied them into it. As much as I wanted to scold him for that, it felt kinda funny.

We played for a while. He was good at it, for obvious reasons. But so was I. At least that was what he told me. I had played a lot of badminton in my childhood. It wasn't foreign to me but I didn't know I was good at it, too.

"Why didn't you participate in the sports meet? Damn, you can play."
"I don't do sports."
"You've got the height." He said, referring to my five-five self.
"It's tiring." I sighed.

He took me to a park when I insisted. He looked carefully, I didn't know why. Was there a bad guy following us? Bhavuk didn't seem like a secret agent kinda. He could be one, though.

We entered through the gates. I took in the freshness of the leaves, the grass and the almost deserted ground.

There were a bunch of guys looking right at us from a distance, and I recognized them. Bhavuk used to hang out with them.

"Shit, no, we need to back off," he pulled me away but I resisted.
"Why? Let's have a chit-chat. You know them."
"They won't like it." He told me.