My Encounters With The Prettiest Eyes

6. More And More About Her

More And More About Her

Sunday 9th October 2022
BS College Group

We came out for lunch after a long time. I rarely opened my phone in front of my parents whenever we went out.

I noticed I had been added to a WhatsApp group named "BS College" with two star emojis beside it.

"Is this the group for SV College students?" I texted.

I opened Cricbuzz to check the score of the match between Australia and England. When I closed it, I saw a count badge on my WhatsApp.

"Hanji," someone with the username Snjna had replied. It was Sanjana from batch 1.

I replied back, "Okay," and put my phone back in my bag. Who would even care if she replied to me?

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"Acha...so you go by bus daily?" I don't remember who asked me this question.
"Yup," I replied, "...Me, Kirti, and many other students of B2 travel by bus."

I was further told that even Sanjana J from Batch 1 took the bus to travel, which surprised me.

"Huh? I never saw her."Where does she stay?" I continued to ask.
"Belsar.", was the reply I got.

Belsar was in the opposite direction, so she must be waiting at the bus stop on the other side of the road. That explained why I never noticed her before, even though her bus stop was right in front of ours.

One day, as I waited at my usual bus stop, I kept a keen eye on the stop across the road. It was where I got off every morning for class. Yet, I had never noticed its existence while returning. At the corner of the bus stop, I finally spotted her.

"Ha! There she is." After scanning the people waiting and sitting there, I finally found her. She had open black hair and wore a black mask up to her nose. She was busy on her phone as bus number 52 arrived. The bus halted along the length of the stop, and when it departed, she wasn't there, indicating she had boarded it, confirming she lived in Belsar.

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I distinctly remember seeing Sanjana J with Achintya toward the end of the year. They were playing something outside the Kenzie building during the break between lectures. Observing them, my first thought was,

"Acha toh ye janaab inke saath ghumte hai."

("So, these two hang out together.")

Then one day after physics class, as I approached the bus stop, I saw both of them at Sanjana's bus stop. She leaned against the pole, and Achintya did the talking.

"Aur bhai, sab badhiya?" I asked him, shaking hands. We used to be part of the same gang in ninth and tenth grade, so we were somewhat close and it was a nice coincidence that we both joined the same JEE coaching centre. He was in batch 1, and I was in batch 2, so we hardly ever met during breaks. I had invited him to my birthday party, but he couldn't make it, which made me feel quite bad.

"Yup, all good here." He always shook hands firmly, and then things got awkward. Out of curiosity, I turned to the masked girl.

"Hey, uh,Sanjana, have you finished all the tutorials?"

Given that she was from the elite batch, which was nearly eight steps ahead of ours in studies and everything else, I expected her to have completed all the assignments diligently. Our batch, on the other hand, wasn't far behind in making sure we lagged behind batch 1. Students paid others to complete their tutorials.

Still leaning on the pole, she glanced at the main road where her bus would arrive. She looked at me for a second, then immediately returned her gaze, shaking her head.

"Acha," I nodded, silently agreeing. The situation became even more embarrassing for me! Quickly bidding Achintya goodbye, I hurried to my bus stop.

It was an awkward encounter.

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Some day of December

One day in December, after class, we walked to our usual bus stop. Mia asked Wadhul a question that had always intrigued her.

"What type of girl do you like?"

"I just need one... anyone is fine," he declared.

"How about Sanjana?" she asked. As we approached the bus stop, I saw Sanjana J on the other side, as usual engrossed in her phone, which prompted Mia's question to Wadhul.

"Nah, she's not my type. She'd reject me outright," he stated.

On one of those rare days in 2022, I let bus number 54 go and waited for 55, which dropped me directly in front of my building. Wadhul had already left, leaving just Mia and me waiting.

"She has a boyfriend," Mia stated. I turned to her and asked, "How do you know?"

"I can tell just by looking at her." It was merely a prediction.

Interestingly, this wasn't the first time I'd heard she had a boyfriend, but I couldn't recall where I'd heard it before.