A Thin Line

prologue

Many people believed that Randhir Singh Shekawat hated Sanyukta Aggarwal. Those people were completely wrong. Radhir didn't loathe the girl; he hated the way she made him feel.

He might admit (maybe when he was piss drunk after a campus party) he didn't hate having her around in class. Throughout his school days and even during the two years of coaching for competitive exams, he hadn't found himself a worthy opponent in academics. He wasn't being arrogant, there truly was no one to grapple with other than the Russian authors of voluminous Physics textbooks. He enjoyed the challenge but he always wished he had a less abstract opponent to battle. Enter Sanyukta Aggarwal. Who knew that such a tiny girl could have such an imposing presence in class? With her around, he was forced to try a little harder, solve a little faster, sit up a little straighter.

It scared him that he was learning to trust her. He had built a wall to push away other people. Throughout his childhood, he had avoided forming deep relationships with any of his peers, because he wasn't ready to open up. He had scars in his past, after all. It wasn't his fault, a workaholic mother and alcoholic father would do that to any child. Somehow though, even without her trying, he had begun to trust her and rely on her. He had shown her parts of himself that he had kept hidden for so long, he had forgotten they existed.

The way she interacted with people confused him. She genuinely saw the best in people (except, it seemed, him). Even when her father and brother were taking away the only thing she had ever wanted for herself to force her into the role of her housewife, she loved them. She listened to everything they told her to do, no matter how much it killed her inside. He just couldn't comprehend the fact that she loved her family so much she was ready to sacrifice everything for them.

He hated the fact that she made him feel so protective. He would never let any harm come to her. When it came to Sanyukta, Randhir's rule was, "Nobody messes with you but me." Then that idiot Sameer Mittal had come along and he had made her miss her final exam, he had made her almost give up her dream, he had made her seem so lost and broken that he could feel her pain himself. The worst part was, he could do nothing to help her, because this was what she had chosen.

He was awed that she had faith in him. He didn't think he'd ever be able to place his life in the hands of anyone else, like she had in the final task of the fest. He thought it was so foolish of her to trust anyone else with her life.

He loved her spirit. He loved the fact that she was so passionate about her dream she was ready to burn her face to follow it. He didn't think he knew any girl who would be ready to sacrifice her looks for her dream.

He would never admit it (even to himself, even in the dead of the night when his most honest thoughts swarmed his exhausted mind) but she made him feel so torn up inside. She was supposed to be his enemy, but there were so many times when they were thrown together. It was supposed to be just him, Randhir Singh Shekawat against the world, but somewhere along the last two years, it had become 'us against the world.'

But mostly, he hated the fact that he couldn't stop thinking about her.

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