LOVE IN THE SHADOWS OF RIVALRY [Duet-1]

NEHARIKA OBEROI ×RUDRAKSHA MALHOTRA

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She is fire where he is rain
He breathed she lived
Opposite like water and fire but at the end all together.

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At St. Evernight Boarding School, two souls burned in silent war.

Rudraksha Malhotra and Neharika oberoi

Enemies. Rivals. A hatred so deep it had no beginning, no end.

Their clashes were legendary-venom-laced words, ice-cold glares, battles fought in whispered insults and stolen victories. He was all sharp edges and reckless storms. She was untouchable, a queen of fire and frost. They were oil and water, fire and ice, the kind of opposites that weren't meant to mix.

Yet they did.

Everywhere rudraksha went, neharika was there. Every time neharika turned a corner, rudraksha was already leaning against the wall, arms crossed, waiting. They were drawn together, bound by something neither could name.

It wasn't longing. Never that. It couldn't be.

And yet-

When she laughed at someone else's joke, rudraksha clenched his fists. When he brushed past another girl, neharika's stomach twisted in ways she refused to understand.

Hatred shouldn't feel like this.

Hatred shouldn't steal the air from their lungs when the other walked away.

Hatred shouldn't make them memorize the rhythm of each other's footsteps, the exact shade of their eyes in the dim glow of dormitory halls.

One stormy night, when the world outside howled with rain, they found themselves alone. Thunder cracked, but the silence between them was louder. Something unspoken surged-wild, electric, undeniable.

NEHARIKA shoved him first. "I *hate* you."

Rudraksha smirked, stepping closer. "Liar."

She didn't back away. Neither did he.

Because hatred was never supposed to feel like gravity.

And yet, here they were-trapped in a war where the battlefield was their own hearts.

Would they name it? Or would they burn in its fire, forever refusing to