Love Train

Encounter One

✩ Encounter 1✩ 

Life had been pretty much monotonous for her, nothing new or nothing exciting happening. Nothing worth writing a story about. Nothing to wonder about, until that day.

Travelling in the metro, to reach her college was a routine she'd become used to, in the last year. Waiting for the metro to come, she was just scrolling through the Instagram feed, pausing at something she liked, tagging her friends at something. Just another day in the boring life of hers, she thought.

The announcement burst through the speakers, the train to go to her destination would be arriving in some time, locking the phone, she stood straighter, adjusted her bag properly and tapped her feet until the metro came. She always has been a little impatient. She and everyone who become her little world were very much used to it. But not the guy standing next to her. No, not a guy but a middle-aged man, who has no wonder been more bored in life than she could ever imagine being. He has an annoyed look on his face as she constantly keeps on tapping her foot and she knows that, but she really doesn't care.

Anyways, someone or the other is always going to get annoyed wherever you go, that doesn't mean you stop doing the thing that annoys someone else. Just one of the quotes she lives by.

Before the middle-aged man, wearing the same old light blue shirt and those black dress pants gets more annoyed, the metro is in sight.

Once she steps in through those automated doors, the cool air of air condition hits her and she immediately relaxes, summer in Mumbai are the worse. Looking around for a place to sit, she finds a corner seat and the seat next to it empty. After taking her seat at the corner, she finally looks around the metro. The metro, as usual, is conveniently filled with office goers and students at 8 in the morning, these are the only passengers you will find.

There's an empty seat next to her, and then there's a hot cute guy sitting in the seat next to it. Seemingly very much interested in whatever he is doing on his phone, with earphones in, he is probably listening to some music.

Feeling that someone is staring at him, he looks up from his phone and catches her staring at him, embarrassed that she got caught looking, she looks away with a slight blush on her cheeks. Normally, she wouldn't care, but this time, her heart seemed to care and fluttered a little when she saw him looking at her when she saw him through her peripheral vision.

A station or two went, people got in, people got out. But these two people sitting, nearly next to each other, with one empty seat in the middle of them didn't interact anymore. Both busy on their phones, one aimlessly scrolling through her news feed and the other chatting to his friend.

Then came the main stop, where most of the crowd would get on and there wouldn't be a place to stand properly, much less sit. For some unknown reason, not known to either of them. The guy shifted to the seat exactly next to her, and then one of the everyday office goer took his place.

Her heart skipped a beat, her mind wandered a bit. She couldn't understand why he would suddenly shift his seat out of nowhere, not that she was complaining. That's for sure. He was leaning towards his phone, scrolling through his playlist. She peeped in at his phone and saw the song he was currently listening to.

One of her favourite jams, one of the songs she never thought she would find a guy listening to. It felt like it was meant to be, it felt too unreal, it felt dreamlike, too much coincidence her mind thought, it's probable fate, her heart screamed in joy.

But then, her stop came and she had to face the world now, her little bubble had been broken, she took one last glance at the boy in keds and then stepped out of the train.

She wanted to tell someone about this, but she felt like it was too special for anyone to know, so she kept to herself, for now.

Her practical mind told her, it was just once upon a time thing, her ever romantic heart said, it's a serendipity thing.

She decided to just let it be, even though both her mind and heart wondered about this chance encounter.

Her mind said, you will never meet him again, her heart said, you will surely meet him again.

They probably shouldn't again. But they probably will.

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Unedited.

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