Our Forbidden Love

30.

The next few days felt like a blur for Kiara. She avoided Agastya in the halls, skipped his lectures, and let her assignments pile up. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t escape the storm brewing inside her.

Especially not when Meher was always around.

Meher Kapoor. The new professor who seemed to appear out of nowhere, sliding into their lives with perfectly timed smiles and eyes that lingered a second too long on Agastya.

And the worst part? He let her.

Kiara watched from the far end of the seminar hall as Meher leaned against Agastya’s desk, laughing softly at something he’d said. Her fingertips grazed his sleeve as she tilted her head, her posture casual but intimate. Too intimate.

Kiara's stomach twisted. She knew that kind of body language. She had seen it before. She had used it before.

But Agastya didn’t push Meher away.

Instead, he smiled ....actually smiled and said something that made Meher laugh again.

It felt like a slap.

She turned before her tears could betray her and left the room without a sound.

🦢

It was late evening when she saw them again.

As Kiara turned to walk away, the sound of Meher’s laugh soft, smooth, and far too familiar lingered behind her like a bitter perfume.

She hadn’t meant to eavesdrop.

But her legs wouldn’t move.

She stood just outside the half-closed staffroom door, frozen in place, listening to a voice that made her skin crawl and a laugh from him that she hadn’t heard in days. Not since he last smiled at her.

Meher’s voice was casual, flirtatious. “Still as grumpy as ever, Agastya. Tell me you haven’t changed completely.”

“You’re still annoying,” he replied, but there was a strange ease in his voice. A softness Kiara had been chasing for weeks.

Meher chuckled. “I missed that. Us.”

Us.

The word hit Kiara like a slap.

There was a pause...too long. Then Agastya replied, lower now. “That was years ago.”

“But not forgotten,” Meher said quietly, and in the silence that followed, Kiara felt something inside her shatter.

She didn’t stay to hear the rest.

She walked away blindly, not knowing where her feet were taking her just that she needed to be anywhere else.

🦢

Later, in the empty classroom…

Kiara sat at the farthest bench, her head buried in her arms. The walls felt like they were closing in. She wasn’t sure what she hated more, the fact that she cared so much, or that he didn’t.

She’d always known this thing between them was dangerous. Fragile. But she never thought she’d be the only one breaking.

“Miss Mehta.”

His voice. Low. Icy.

She flinched.

He was standing at the doorway, hands in his pockets, eyes unreadable. She quickly wiped her cheeks with the sleeve of her hoodie.

“What do you want?” she whispered.

“You skipped my class.”

“i don't want to see you.”

He stepped inside, closing the door behind him with a quiet click that somehow sounded too loud in the silence.

“Don’t play this game, Kiara.”

She looked up, eyes swollen, angry. “You want to talk about games? Go ask your new favorite colleague to join.”

His jaw tightened. “You heard us.”

She laughed bitterly. “Don’t flatter yourself. I didn’t mean to. But you didn’t deny it either.”

“Deny what?”

“That she meant something to you.”

Silence.

He didn't move. Just stood there, like he was made of stone.

“I don’t care,” Kiara lied. “You can be with whoever you want.”

Agastya walked toward her slowly, his voice low. Dangerous. “Then why are you crying?”

“I’m not.”

He stopped right in front of her. “Don’t lie to me.”

She hated him for how well he knew her. For how he always looked calm while she was the one falling apart.

“I’m just a student, right?” she spat. “Why should it matter what I think or feel?”

His gaze dropped to her trembling hands. “You’re not just a student.”

“Then what am I?”

That silenced him. But his eyes... his eyes gave him away.

There it was  the hunger, the restraint, the battle he’d been fighting for far too long.

“Say it,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “Or let me go.”

But he didn’t say it.

He just walked away.

And Kiara was left alone again ...but this time, her tears didn’t fall silently.