Unlikely Variables

Kaushiki has been hearing Vinyas's name for as long as she can remember.

From friends who think it's hilarious. From neighbours who think it's inevitable. From people who decided, very early on, that the two of them made sense-even when she didn't.

Now she's in her first year of college, studying datascience, and trying very hard to be taken seriously. She likes things that make sense. Equations. Rules. Problems with answers. People are harder. Feelings even more so.

Vinyas studies economics in the same college, doing it mostly because it's expected of him. He's good, dependable, the kind of person who fits neatly into other people's plans. Kaushiki tells herself she doesn't think about him anymore. Whatever crush she had in eighth grade was brief, unnecessary, and not worth naming. She never told him. It didn't feel important then.

Except it isn't.