Sameera's POV:
The buzz of post-event exhaustion had finally settled, only to be replaced by the dread of deadlines. The college canteen was overflowing-half the campus seemed to be here, some frantically typing out assignments, others chasing seniors for formatting help, and a few just nursing their caffeine addictions like it was a personality trait.
I sat at our usual corner table with Sanskruti, Janhvi, Shreya, and the rest, half-listening as everyone cribbed about submissions. My laptop sat open, screen blank, but I was too distracted to focus. My eyes kept flicking toward the far end of the canteen-where Saharsh and his group were helping a few of our classmates fix corrupted files and broken PDFs like campus superheroes.
Sanskruti suddenly nudged me with her elbow and said, "So... you gonna tell us or what?"
"Tell you what?" I asked, sipping my watery iced tea.
"About you and Mr. MBA's romantic walk that night," Janhvi grinned like she'd uncovered a national secret.
I nearly choked, "What rubbish, he's my old classmate."
"What... He is what?" Shreya said with her eyes wide.
I nodded still a little dazed myself, but the smile tugged at my lips gave me away. "Yep. Turns out Mr. MBA Heartthrob is my childhood classmate. I found out that night only. Saharsh Wankhade was my classmate till 4th standard."
"You serious?" Aryan said from the other table, clearly eavesdropping.
"Dead serious," I said. "He called me by my old nickname. That's when it hit me."
"Don't just stop there!" Janhvi demanded. "Give us some spicy childhood stories of yours."
I sighed. "Okay, there's this one I still haven't forgotten..."
The table went quiet.
"So one day in class, Saharsh walks up to me during recess, all serious, and hands me this tiny blue diary. I kid you not, it was the size of my palm. He goes, "Write your phone number in this and give it back to me tomorrow.'"
"Ohhh," Shreya gasped dramatically. "Smooth criminal."
I snorted. "It wasn't like that! I mean, I thought it was just some friend thing. I was actually excited. So I go home, write my number with my best pen-obviously-and bring it the next day."
"And then?" Sanskruti leaned in.
"Then these three girls from class find out I was the first to get the diary. They corner me near the water cooler and start interrogating me like I'm in some crime drama. One of them legit asked if I was planning to marry him."
The group burst out laughing.
"What did you do?!" Atharva asked between chuckles.
"I cried," I said flatly. "I was nine, okay?"
"Oh my god," Janhvi giggled. "Saharsh caused school drama even back then."
"Next thing I know, he stands up in class and announces that he's taking everyone's number because he's the new class in-charge and he's supposed to make a contact list. He gave the diary to every single student."
"Oof," Aryan said. "That man had unintentionally created a harem."
I rolled my eyes, but I was laughing too. "And guess what? The diary got filled before it even came back to me. I never saw it again."
"Tragic," Sanskruti said, dramatically placing a hand on her chest. "First love... lost to admin duties."
"And now," Janhvi added, grinning, "he's right there. Still causing chaos. Still making girls stare."
My eyes drifted involuntarily toward the table across the room where Saharsh sat with Kiara and Shivam, helping them fix a formatting error in their Word doc.
As if sensing it, Saharsh glanced up.
Our eyes met for a second.
A second too long.
He looked away with a small smile, but the damage was done. The back of my neck was warm.
"Someone's looking," Shreya whispered.
"Shut up," I muttered, hiding my smile behind a sip of iced tea.
"But he was," Sanskruti grinned. "You're basically the diary girl forever now."
Saharsh's POV:
From across the chaos of the canteen, my eyes found her.
Her voice was too far to hear clearly, but the way she smiled when she spoke-it pulled something in me. That same damn tug I'd been feeling since the day she crashed back into my life.
"...and then he gave me this tiny diary-like this much!" she gestured with her fingers, the girls around her cracking up, "-and told me to write my number. Just me. And all the girls lost their minds-until he casually announced that he'd be taking everyone's numbers because he was class incharge."
Wait-was she talking about me?
Before I could stop myself, I was already walking toward their table. Shivam called out something behind me, but I barely registered it. I caught the quick exchange of glances between the girls as I reached them. Sanskruti smirked and shifted just enough to make room for me right beside Sameera. That was all the invitation I needed.
"Hope you're not telling all my secrets," I said casually, sliding into the seat beside her.
Sameera blinked, caught off-guard. "You wish," she muttered under her breath, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. Her kajal-lined eyes didn't meet mine, but her cheeks turned the faintest pink.
I glanced at her screen, filled with red underlines and chaotic formatting. "This is the legendary event report?" I teased.
She groaned, hiding her face. "I hate everything."
"I can tell," I said, chuckling. "Mind if I help?"
She pushed the laptop toward me with a sigh, muttering, "Be my guest. Maybe your MBA brain can save this."
As I scrolled through her mess of a document, I couldn't help but glance at her. Up close, she was a dangerous distraction-loose tendrils of her wavy hair curled near her jawline, catching the light as she tilted her head. The fruity trace of her perfume-peach, maybe? Or something with berries-kept drifting toward me, messing with my focus more than her jumbled paragraphs ever could.
God, how did she manage to look like this while panicking over fonts and line spacing?
"Don't stare," she said suddenly, not looking up from her phone, "It's rude."
I smirked. "I wasn't staring. I was... observing."
"Yeah? Observing what?" she asked, a teasing edge in her voice.
I typed something and said without missing a beat, "How the girl who practically set the stage on fire on event night can't handle a Word document."
Sameera choked on a laugh, shaking her head. "You're the worst."
I shrugged, eyes back on the screen-but the smile on my face didn't fade.
Not when she was this close.
Not when it felt like maybe, just maybe... we were exactly where we were supposed to be.
The girls eventually gathered their things, mumbling something about another lecture, and left in a flurry of laughter and noisy goodbyes. Sameera tossed a quick thanks over her shoulder before disappearing down the corridor-though she didn't notice how my eyes lingered a bit longer than they should have.
As she walked away with her friends, something tugged at my chest.
It wasn't some passing attraction anymore.
Not just admiration or a harmless crush.
This-this was something real.
Somewhere between her sarcastic comebacks, the way she bit her lower lip when she was deep in thought, and the small smile she gave when she finally figured something out-I'd fallen. And I hadn't even realised it until now.
She didn't need to try. It was in the way she carried herself. Confident, messy, stubborn, and unapologetically herself. She could be chaotic and bossy one second, and quietly thoughtful the next.
And damn... it got to me.
The way she just walked off, chatting with the girls like she hadn't turned my entire brain upside down-I couldn't even look away.
It hit me all at once.
I liked her.
No-I really liked her.
And there was no hiding it from myself anymore.
"Bro, you're zoning out hard," Aryan's voice dragged me back.
"What?" I blinked.
"The girl's gone for barely two seconds and you look like someone took your oxygen tank," Shivam added, snickering.
I gave a small smile, scratching the back of my neck.
"I think I like her," I admitted, finally saying it out loud-not just to them, but to myself.
Aryan's mouth dropped open. "You what?"
Atharva practically dropped his phone. "Wait... like like-like?"
"I mean..." I exhaled. "I've been denying it. But yeah. She's it."
Shivam let out a low whistle. "Dude. This escalated from childhood nostalgia to full-on campus rom-com."
Ujjwal leaned forward. "So, that blue diary back then... it really was just for her, wasn't it?"
I nodded, smiling slightly. "Yeah. It was meant only for her. I just... didn't have the guts to say it. When all the girls freaked out, I had to improvise."
Aryan groaned dramatically. "Are you serious right now? This guy was Romeo before we even hit puberty. And now he's dropping confessions like he's in a Yash Raj film."
Atharva thumped my shoulder. "You dark horse. You had a first crush and she turned out to be your college spark too. Yeh twist toh writer bhi nahi likh sakta tha."
I laughed along, but deep inside, something had clicked. For the first time, I wasn't just looking back.
I was ready to move forward-with her.