Sanskar was a bit perplexed when he saw Satya beside Ruhan trying to comfort him. Sanskar fumed remembering the night in the bus when they fought. He wasn't sure if Satya would comfort or worsen Ruhan's emotions.
"We will be shifting to Tamil Nadu after my middle school and I don't know it's been haunting me so bad that I have to leave this school, my friends and Ragini" Ruhan let out a small cry at the end of his statement which really shocked Sanskar who could listen to them.
He wanted to run and hug Ruhan. He now understood how devastated it was for Ruhan all these days. They had been together from 1st grade and thinking about separation really might have taken a toll on him all these days.
"We will separate anyways at the end of 7th standard Ruhu you know right we have separate schools for girls and boys. Even if you be here you won't see her that often. Their school will be on other side of this area. And you know their school has a huge gate. You won't even be able to see her. And by the way why is it so concerning only about her?' Satya asked even though he knew the answer.
Ruhan wiped his tearful face. "I don't know. You remember the time she stopped talking to me for a month?" Ruhan asked Satya who nodded his head positively. "I have been feeling weird. I was so scared that she will never ever speak to me again. The thought was so scary that I cried all night and still felt so painful" Ruhan tried to control his emotions.
"I am not understanding what is all this. It makes me happy when she laughs or smiles and when she is sad I feel so bad. Sure we had this connection before too but now it looks like my feelings have grown more. Is that even possible?" Ruhan asked as tears developed in his eyes again.
Sanskar wasn't sure if Satya was the person Ruhan should talk to right now when it was him who was spreading nonsense in the class about Ragini and Ruhan from the time they had come back from the trip.
If Ragini wasn't Jayant's sister Sanskar knew it would have been worse. Whenever Ragini and Ruhan spoke multiple people would observe them and have a smile which they would hide as soon as Ragini looked at them.
She sure felt creepy about it. Sanskar just watched her suffer in silence due to all this. If Ruhan had no idea what he was feeling why she had to suffer Sanskar never understood.
She at least had no such emotions towards Ruhan. Ruhan was her friend. Not just friend but best friend. They had spent so much time with each other and had created so many beautiful memories together.
This teasing eyes and then the girls ganging up and torturing her about Ruhan treating her special was too much for Ragini to handle. Her distress was the thing Sanskar started to notice first along with Ruhan's obliviousness towards all this.
Sanskar remembered the smile on Ruhan's face when Ragini had placed her head on his shoulder. How peaceful he was. But then after it is only hell for Ragini. He had never seen her happy again around Ruhan or in general anywhere. It looked like she was loosing a battle. Nor Ruhan was winning any.
Why there were such conflicting emotions he had no idea. He himself didn't knew what exactly emotions are. All his idea of emotions came from the movies he had watched which were a major mislead for a kid of his age.
Satya found Sanskar walking to them. From the night of the fight he has not been in talking terms with Sanskar. And the whole class knew about it and nobody actually knew the reason for their fight. Because Sanskar made sure neither Satya nor Sameer spoke about it who was the sole witness of their conversation.
"I will see you around dude" Satya walked away from there and Sanskar stood in front of Ruhan unsure how to not worsen his situation.
He hugged Ruhan in an attempt to console him. It was the first time he had done this in his life. He didn't know if Ruhan felt it comforting in any way. He just wished he could reduce the burden on his friend.
"I know I would sound selfish when I say this Ruhan" Sanskar spoke as he came out of the hug and looked at a bit relaxed face of his friend.
"I beg you. Don't worsen it than it already is" he said without thinking and Ruhan looked at him confused.
"Can't you see how much Ragini is struggling due to all this?" Sanskar asked pointing at Ragini who smiled at her friend weakly but looked lost in her own world. She would always do it when something bothered her.
Ruhan still didn't understand what Sanskar meant. But he saw Sanskar wasn't lying about Ragini's sadness. How did he miss seeing that he wondered.
"Give her space will you? This is too much for her to handle. She doesn't have any idea about all this Ruhan and your emotions are only making it worse for her. So I beg you please stay away from her. This will spare both of you from the future hurt. You want her to be devastated at the end of our middle school? Do you want her to spend rest of her high school missing you?" Sanskar asked. He himself didn't know how he was speaking all that.
"Have you ever thought how much more painful it will be for both of you at the end of 7th standard to separate if you go like this? I don't know about her but you are going to suffer a lot dude. And she will be tortured more by others over it. You might not have noticed but you treating her special is a topic of her experiencing bullying from our classmates" Sanskar presented his view.
Ruhan was shocked to hear this when Sanskar explained him how Ragini was being target of teasing by the girls and how it stressing her out when the classmates whisper among themselves about her and Ruhan.
Sanskar walked away from there in a hope that Ruhan will get the point. He looked at Ragini who smiled a bit when she met his gaze.
Satya's words about the separation after 7th standard felt like had hit the right spot in his heart and suddenly he felt a kind of physical pain which was weird and indescribable. There were no words how he felt. But he knew Ruhan felt the same but a bit stronger.
"You won't be able to see her that often anyways"
