Her Exclusive Healer

When Our Eyes Locked

It was a strange day, I closed my laptop and decided to walk in the evening around 7 pm. I slipped into my black track pants and a red t-shirt. Picked up my phone and placed my neckband around my neck. I combed my hair into an updo with my favourite black claw clip. It seemed like getting ready to go on a war as walking wasn't any less than a war, for someone like me who would prefer to stay home rather than go out. I got my shoes from the balcony and started wearing them while calling out for my mother.

"Mummy, main bahar jaa rahi walk karne."

(Mom I am going out for a walk)

"Kyaaaaa? Wapas bolna," she said in her most dramatic voice.

(Whatttt? Say it again)

"Going out for a walk," I replied while heading towards the door.

"Aaj sooraj paschim se nikla h kya?" she yelled from the kitchen laughing, to make sure I heard her.

(Has the sun risen from the west today?)

"Yaar Mummy aap bhi na, Jaldi wapas aa jaungi bye," I replied in annoyance and strode out of the door.

(Yaar mom you too, I will come back soon)

As I stepped outside, awestricken I glanced at the sky where the sunset was leaving its orange shades and fading into blue at a slow pace, as if the time had slowed down only for what was going to happen in the next few moments. I opened Spotify on my phone to play the playlist "Enjoy Hindi"  which I curated to soothe my life. I walked on the road while breathing in fresh air as much as possible. It had been ages since I had come out in the last two months.

These roads in the neighborhood of SSR Nagar of Hyderabad felt similar yet different from where I have stayed all the years while moving every three years. Due to my father's job who's a government employee getting transfers every three years. It has been two months back in Hyderabad, the city of pearls I left a decade ago. Over the years, it has become a metropolitan city while still maintaining the glow of Charminar and Nizam's palaces.

I follow my childhood friends on Instagram who stayed in Hyderabad but haven't been in touch, we just follow each other. I was reflecting on the twists and turns my life has experienced and how I am graduating in a month when a car honked and I was back in the reality from my inner monologue. Standing on the edge of an intersection. I looked towards my right and then left, and decided to go straight. I was on the other side of the crossing when I heard someone calling my name. I removed my left earbuds as it felt like someone calling from my left. I turned, locking my eyes with a boy who was around my age, tall with his dark hair shining ("Was it the streetlight or my imagination"). I felt as if the time stopped with Love at First Sight (RHTDM) playing in my right earbuds. It's him - Ayushmann, the realization got me goosebumps and a string of nervousness ran through my whole body. It felt as if my world had come to a halt, "How does he remember me?" I said under my breath. "Hi," said Ayushmann while he walked in my direction, and in a few seconds, he was standing in front of me at a mere distance of a meter.

"Hi, how have you been?" he asked looking straight into my eyes.

"Umm...," I answered with a blank expression unable to say anything as my mind was running wild with different How's when he called my name again.

"Ishika, pechana nahi?" with a puzzled look. (Ishika, did you not recognize me?)

"Hi, Ayushmann what are you doing here?" I murmured.

"Why don't you answer my question first?" He shot back.

"Oh, I am good. Now it's your turn to answer my question", I said, gaining my exposure while crossing my arms, and standing straight while holding my head high.

"Haal chaal na puch kar what am I doing here, is your first question?" he asked with a smirk.

(Instead of asking how am I, you are asking what am I doing here)

"Yes, I didn't expect to see you here. You still in Hyderabad?" I enquired very well knowing that he was still here in the city.

"Umm... that's two questions which one do you want me to answer first?" He said while smiling (more like a devilish grin).

"Both."

"I was visiting my uncle for the weekend and yes, I am still in Hyderabad while you left," with a gloomy voice, his eyes deepened conveying a distant yearning.

I felt a pinch of pain in those last words unable to hold the eye contact we were having. His eyes appeared to convey the feeling of being left behind. But why? After what he did the last time. I diverted the conversation by asking him what he does and got to know that he's a lawyer in the making. One more year for him to graduate and I would be graduating in a few months as a computer science engineer, I informed him. Then he told me that this weekend would be the last before his semester exams started. Took a break in his uncle's home which is just, thirty minutes away from his Law college located out of the city.

There was a gentle breeze letting a strand of my hair come loose. Making me break the eye contact, when he asked, "When did you come back?". Expecting the question I replied instead of avoiding it, "It had been two months since I had moved back."

After catching up on for a while we decided to say our goodbyes. Turning back to continue my walk whilst wearing my earbuds when he called me again.

"Ishika, listen wo ek cheez puchni thi"

(Ishika, listen I wanted to ask something)

"Say it," I said, looking back.

"So when can we meet again?" he asked with earnest eyes, carrying a hope he couldn't hide.

"I don't know," I said acting unbothered by his question.

"Can I have your number instead so we can catch up some other time?"

"Umm... we are actually, connected on social media. If you can find me among your 600+ followers maybe then you will have my number. Goodbye," I said hoping to never meet again even if it was a coincidence.

I started walking back in the direction of my home while enjoying the upbeat songs. Feeling triumphed, until I realized- "Oh crap! I gave him the biggest clue." I muttered, slapping my forehead thinking as expected of a typical Ishika. Then I thought, there is no way he would find me among his many followers and my account is itself a big mystery. 

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