Paayal - His Scarred Butterfly ✅

4 - IS IT LOVE?

இது காதலா முதல் காதலா
ஒரு பெண்ணிடம் உருவானதா
இது நிலைக்குமா
நீடிக்குமா நெஞ்சே!
(Is it love? Is it first love?
It has bloomed on a girl.
Will it be sempiternal?
Will it last forever, oh my heart!)

The next morning, Paayal got ready super early to school and bounced out of her home earlier than any other day. However, she didn't proceed to school straight. She stood in a corner of a street and waited for Krishna's arrival. She was aware of Krishna's route.

Krishna entered that lane in his cycle where she was standing, just as expected. A gentle smile appeared on her lips, as soon as her eyes landed on him.

Krishna too spotted her in the corner of that lane, all his decisions to ignore her vanishing in the air. He was upset with her and opted to look at her as a third person the previous night. But, on seeing her now, the emotions for her sprouted in him again just like a withering plant comes back to life upon receiving water. He just couldn't hate that innocent face. His heart wanted to stop the cycle and to accompany her. But he kept his emotions in check as the impact of her hurting words was still lingering in him.

When Krishna was about to cross Paayal, "Krishna.. " Paayal called him to apologize.

However, amidst the bustling morning crowd filled with buses, two wheelers and the ear eating horns, he couldn't notice her soft voice and proceeded to pass by her. Paayal was disappointed and walked to school in a hope to talk with him in school.

Krishna reached his classroom.

"Good morning, Ajay," Krishna told him, placing his bag on the floor, sitting on the bench.

But Ajay didn't respond him. He was busy with their classmate, Nithin. Ajay and Nithin were drowned in a paper, writing something with serious faces. Their serious faces seemed as if they were discussing the mystery of the bermuda triangle. Krishna peeped into the paper and made an exasperated look, as they were playing FLAMES with the names, Nithin and their junior girl Harini.

Krishna tapped Ajay's head gently and rolled his eyes. "Are you both keeping your faces seriously for this game?!"

"Krishna, don't say this as a game. It predicts our relationship with anyone accurately. I love Harini na. Look here. It's a marriage between me and Harini." Nithin blushed. Krishna wanted to laugh at his innocence. But he didn't want to dishearten him by laughing. He kept quiet to keep his spirits up and pulled out his chemistry book to revise as they had chemistry test on that day.

Paayal entered the classroom by then. Krishna's eyes caught her casually. As soon as he saw her, he recalled what Nithin said about the FLAMES game. Though he knew that it was just a fun game, he couldn't control himself from trying his name and Paayal's name in that game. After all, he was also innocent at heart.

He leafed through the pages of his chemistry book and found an empty place to write. He placed his book on his lap and wrote their names secretly without Ajay's knowledge. When he was done with it, his face beamed with happiness as the result came as marriage. Even if he got the state rank in his board exams, his face wouldn't have beamed with that much happiness.

He turned his eyes immediately and involuntarily to Paayal, as if the moth turns to light. But she was not there in her place. She went somewhere out of the class, it seemed.

Suddenly, he snapped back to reality, his color draining from his face by remembering her hurting words.

"She thinks of me as a bad person and an annoyance. The result should have been the enemy. But how come marriage?? Hence proved that it is just a fun game." He thought with a sarcastic smile and took his eraser to erase those names from his book.