His Scarred Butterfly ✅

39 - SHARING HER PAINS

வெண்பனி போலே கண்களில் ஆடும்
மல்லிகை தோட்டம் கண்டேன்
அழகான வெள்ளைக்கிங்கே
கலங்கங்கள் இல்லை.
(A white jasmine garden is dancing
in your eyes like white snow.
There are no stains
in the beautiful white.)

As Paayal and Diya drifted into a slumber, Krishna's eyes glanced through the room. The wide spaced room, pastel pink coloured walls, matching curtains, the floor-to-ceiling glass windows which offered a panoramic view of the lush green garden, wooden furniture, everything fell on his eyes. But, Ignoring everything, his eyes were dragged to a wall frame in which teenage Paayal was swinging gracefully in a banyan tree with a radiant infectious smile. He fixed his eyes on the wall frame, admiring her for a moment and then continued to glance through the spacious room. That's when his eyes caught Paayal's drawing notebook which was on the bedside table. The painting on the page attracted his eyes. "It must be Paayal's drawing or painting notebook," He thought, leaning a little without disturbing Paayal who was on his lap and took that notebook.

Curiously, He opened it to admire his Paayal's paintings. The front page read, 'The Best Days Of My Life With The Best Person I Have Ever Known. My love - V. Krishna'

His heart fluttered, a warmth enveloping him, his face beaming with a bright smile. With increased curiosity, he flipped the pages one by one. With each stroke of Paayal's artistic expression he found a nostalgia engulfing him. Every moment from their innocent first meeting to their last sweet moment of eating cotton candy was illustrated beautifully.

He reminisced each moment with a permanent smile on his face, and he wanted to kiss Paayal for immortalizing their beautiful memories with her artistic strokes. Leaning down to Paayal, he softly kissed her forehead, silently thanking her for making a gallery of their love that would last forever.

Paayal who was in half sleep by now, stirred out of sleep completely. She looked up with a drowsy yet warm smile, and asked, "Did you kiss me now?"

"Yes, For your beautiful drawings,"

"Oh, Did you see those drawings?" She asked, sitting up.

He replied with a nod, "Yes, They are incredibly beautiful and you are a great artist."

She smiled. "And, Have you noticed the front cover? A girl and butterfly! I painted it by symbolising me to the girl and you to the butterfly. I thought I can never make that butterfly as mine. I thought I can never even reach the butterfly..."

He intervened, "But now, the butterfly reached you and imprisoned itself in you. Butterfly feels, being imprisoned in you is it's freedom,"

She added with a warm smile, "And, it spreaded it's colours to me. The Paayal who was broken, now has grown colorful feathers."

He smiled, "I am happy that you have grown feathers," and added, "Then, You have drawn all of our good memories. But only one moment is missing."

Paayal's brows furrowed in confusion. "Is it? As far as I know, I drew every good moment of us. Which one did I miss?"

"Actually, What you missed is not our good moment together. But it's my best moment. The moment when I saw you for the first time," He admitted.

"We saw each other in school right?! I drew it on the first page itself. Didn't you see it?" Paayal asked confusingly.

"No...." He began, and turned his eyes to Diya. Little Diya was slumbering in her dream world.

Krishna suggested, "Let's go out and talk. Let us not disturb Diya," He got down from the bed. Paayal followed him. They both walked out of the room.