𝐄𝐐𝐔𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 ♡

| CHAPTER 6 |

Today started off well. Everything seemed to be going fine for now, hopefully, things will continue to get better.

I didn’t trip on my own shoelaces. A miracle, honestly. But you know how sometimes you get that weird gut feeling that your life is about to take a sharp U-turn into chaos?

Yeah…that. I felt it creeping in.

"Don’t overthink, Ruhi," I told myself, brushing off the thought like a piece of lint. "It’s your first day. Be normal for once."

Our class teacher walked in, holding a stack of files, "Good morning, ma'am!" the whole class echoed, sounding way too energetic for 8:00 a.m.

When my turn came to introduce myself, my brain was short-circuited. My palms were ice cold, my heartbeat could probably be heard from space, and my throat felt like I’d swallowed sandpaper.

As I waited for my turn to speak, our eyes met again. Mr. Arrogant’s gaze was just so....annoying.

I rolled my eyes at him, and he raised an eyebrow, clearly amused. Ugh.

What’s his problem? Is this a staring competition or he is just jobless?

I guess the second one is right.

Finally, after my introduction was done and I sat back down, I could still feel his eyes on me.

When I looked up, he gave me that weird, smug, chocolate-brown-eyed look, the kind that instantly made me want to throw my notebook at his face.

But.

His eyes… held something else too. Something softer, almost unguarded like a flicker of warmth hidden behind all that arrogance. For a second, it didn’t feel like he was mocking me anymore. It felt like he was seeing me, really seeing me, and that thought alone made my heart skip the tiniest beat.

I blinked, breaking the eye contact first, pretending to rummage through my notes just to distract myself.

"Nope, Ruhanika. Don’t go there," I whispered internally. "He is still the same annoying, self-absorbed jerk with good hair and annoyingly pretty eyes. That’s it."

But that fleeting softness in his gaze lingered in the back of my mind and no matter how much I tried to ignore it, a part of me couldn’t forget the way it almost felt… gentle.

I rolled my eyes again.

'Ruhii, don't roll your eyes so much, they might pop out of your eye socket,' my subconscious mocked me.

I sighed.

Oh, and did I mention teachers apparently love torturing students on the first day itself? Like seriously, ma’am, world peace can wait, maybe let us breathe before introducing thirty chapters and ten assignments.

To be honest, I was super excited for my first day. New campus, new people, new start but by the second lecture, I was already mentally drafting my resignation from student life. I mean, I would even finished three chapters in advance because being prepared sounded smart... until physics showed up like an evil villain.