in which he becomes the apricity to her frozen life.
one fall, they meet. bond over macaronis, boba tea and their kids. end up becoming each other's go-to person and best friend.
until one day something changes and they fall into a dilemma.
[update...
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2 YEARS BACK
Brown. What does the color brown signify actually? The same color Aanchal had been encountering quite frequently these days around her, owing to the beautiful autumn of Shardang. They say brown signified warmth and home, given how it was the color of soil — the home to all living and dead — however one couldn’t deny that it also carried an undertone of loneliness and decay. Contrasting much now, wasn’t it? Aanchal thought no differently when she looked at the beautiful maple trees shedding orange leaves like dominoes, while traversing through the woods on her bicycle, pedaling away to the horizon.
It was almost depressing how many people loved autumn to death, even after being well aware of the fact that it was the season of leaves dying on trees and detaching themselves like they never once belonged between those woods. Almost like a child leaving home to prepare for the upcoming adulthood of life. Many of those children never looked back, much like Aanchal. Who had ever thought that leaving her home for higher studies could resort to her never returning back to her nest? But, here she was. Living the same reality for thirteen years now.
It wouldn’t be a lie if she said sometimes she just wanted to leave everything and sleep in her mother’s lap, much like how she used to on the nights that kept her awake against her will. But, she couldn’t. Not anymore. Not when another nine-year-old sought the same warmth for her now and certainly not when the same mother who was a source of comfort and warmth for her, had turned her back on her thirteen years ago, and quite brutally at that. All she had now to call a family was the same nine-year-old who was the reason why Aanchal still smiled on those stormy nights of nightmares.
Aashi, her nine-year-old daughter, was like a little sunshine in her life. Seeping through the canopy of the woods she had built around herself. The only one to crack it open and seep in with her beaming personality, bringing life back in her. And, the one Aanchal could kill people for. She could turn the world black if it came to Aashi. One finger on her, and she could slay it off.
Aanchal had been this way since her childhood, to be quite honest. Fearless and bold, with a side of temper issues but a hidden soft side on the interior. Since Aashi came into her life, the traits had only heightened, be it the fearlessness or the soft corner of her heart, both the cabinets were quite expanded after Aashi’s birth. Life sucked, but it sucked less when Aashi was close.
But, still that void lived somewhere, the one that made her feel she didn't belong here. Even though she was an inhabitant of this town for six years now, she still somewhere felt this was not where she belonged. In Shardang. After all, her home was Vansung. The town of cozy mountain hills and winter’s charm. The one where even the chilliest of nights felt warm, because they screamed comfort. Vansung was a cushion shielding her from the atrocities of the world until it pushed her off the cliff into one. That one unfortunate day changed everything. And just like that, her life slipped through her fingers like sand escaped from the palm of hand.
