When Hearts Collide

|•Chapter 1•|

**Author's POV**

The sun hung low over the horizon, casting a golden hue over the small town of Akola. The air was thick with the scent of jasmine, the smell of a slow, languid evening that signaled the end of another day. Children raced through the narrow lanes, chasing each other with laughter that echoed through the streets, while the soft chime of temple bells rang in the distance. It was a town that thrived on simplicity, where everyone knew each other’s names, and the winding roads felt like familiar friends.

In one such neighborhood, nestled between rows of aging houses with crumbling bricks and faded paint, stood a modest home with a large, ancient banyan tree at its heart. Under its sprawling branches sat two children, their feet swinging lazily as they talked about everything and nothing. They were inseparable, tied by an invisible thread of friendship that no one, not even time, seemed able to break.

“I’m telling you, Naina, one day, we’ll both leave this place. You’ll be the best interior designer in all of India, and I’ll… well, I’ll figure out something important too,” Ekansh declared, his face glowing with the kind of confidence only a twelve-year-old could muster.

Naina, sitting beside him, smirked. She was only a year younger, but the difference hardly mattered. They were equals in every way—partners in mischief, protectors of each other’s secrets, and the best of friends. Her dark hair, braided neatly, rested on her shoulder, and her eyes sparkled with amusement.

“You? Important? Please,” she teased, nudging him with her elbow. “You’ll be too busy running your father’s boring textile shop.”

Ekansh rolled his eyes. “Yeah, right. And you’ll be too busy drawing pretty curtains for rich people.”

They both broke into laughter, the kind that came easily between them. The teasing, the jokes—this was how it always was with Ekansh and Naina. For as long as they could remember, they had been a constant in each other’s lives. From playing gully cricket to sneaking into the local sweet shop for stolen ladoos, there wasn’t a single memory of their childhood that didn’t include the other.

But even in their youthful banter, there was something deeper, something neither of them fully understood yet. A bond that ran deeper than friendship, though neither dared to speak it aloud.

As the sun continued to dip below the horizon, painting the sky in shades of orange and pink, Naina glanced at Ekansh. “Do you ever think about what’ll happen when we grow up?” she asked, her voice softer now, the playful edge gone.

Ekansh tilted his head, puzzled by the sudden seriousness. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. Things will change, right? I mean, we’ll go to different schools, maybe move to different cities. What if we… I don’t know, stop being friends?”

The thought hadn’t crossed his mind before, and now that it did, it felt wrong. Unnatural. Ekansh frowned, turning to face her fully. “That’s never going to happen, Naina. We’ll always be friends. No matter where we go.”