Maria didn't go to the location.
Not that morning.
Not that day.
She tried to be normal instead.
School. Noise. Faces. Laughter that felt too loud. Friends talking, teachers explaining—everything moved exactly the way it always had, and that scared her more than the messages.
Because he stayed.
Every time she closed her eyes, she
heard his voice.
Not echoing. Not fading.
Waiting.
That night, she finally opened the location again.
It wasn't some strange place.
No abandoned building.
No dramatic cliff.
It was a bus stop.
Her bus stop.
Her breath caught.
"That's not possible…" she whispered.
She went anyway.
The streetlights were already on when she reached there. The bus stop was empty, quiet except for distant traffic.
The same bench she had sat on a hundred times. Same cracked pavement. Same smell of dust and rain.
She stood there, phone clutched in her hand.
"I came," she said aloud, her voice barely steady. "Now what?"
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then—
"You always say things out loud when you're scared."
Maria froze.
That voice.
Not from her phone.
Not from her head.
From behind her.
She turned slowly.
He stood a few steps away, hands in his pockets, exactly as she had seen him in the dream—same eyes, same expression, the same sadness that didn't belong to someone her age.
Real. Solid. Breathing.
Her knees nearly gave out.
"You're—" her voice broke. "You're not real."
He smiled faintly. Not happy. Not amused.
"That's what I hoped," he said. "But you remembered."
Tears filled her eyes again. "Who are you?"
He hesitated. For the first time, he looked unsure.
"My name is Anan," he said finally. "And I exist because of you."( who just looks like Dhiran)
That made no sense. "That's impossible."
"I know." He nodded. "I said the same thing."
He sat on the bench, patting the space beside him—not inviting, not pressuring. Just… there.
She didn't sit.
"How do you know my dreams?" she demanded. "How do you know when I wake up? How do you know me?"
Anan looked at her then—really looked at her.
"Because your world dreamed me first," he said. "You just happened to be the one who heard it."
Seeing her confusion, he continued, voice calm but heavy.
"Some dreams aren't created by the mind," he said. "They're memories trying to return."
Maria felt cold. "Return from where?"
"From a place that shouldn't overlap with yours," he replied. "But it did."
He explained it slowly.
He wasn't a ghost.
Not dead.
"I was from a parallel timeline—one where you had made a different choice years ago".
A small one. So small it felt meaningless at the time.
In his world, she never forgot him.
In this one… she did.
"The dream," he said quietly, "wasn't random. It was the moment our timelines brushed past each other. Just for a few hours."
Her heart ached. "Then why do I feel like I lost something I never had?"
"Because in my world," Arin said, his voice lowering, "you had me."
Silence stretched between them.
Finally she asked the question she was afraid of.
"What happens now?"
He looked away, jaw tightening.
"That depends on you."
Her chest tightened. "On me?"
"If you keep seeing me," he said, "your memories will come back. Slowly. Painfully."
"And if that happens… this timeline won't stay stable."
She swallowed. "And if I don't?"
"Then I disappear," he said simply. "For good."
Her breath shook. "So you came just to say goodbye?"
"No," he said, meeting her eyes again.
"I came to give you the choice I never got."
The bus headlights appeared at the end of the road.
Her bus.
Her world.
Anan stood up.
"When the bus arrives," he said, "you decide. Step onto it, and you forget me. Stay…"
He didn't finish the sentence.
The bus slowed.
Doors opened.
People began to get down.
Maria stood there, frozen, heart
screaming in two directions.
One step forward meant safety.
One step back meant truth.
As she hesitated, Anan spoke one last time, softly:
"Whatever you choose, Maria… just know this—
what we felt was real in every world it existed."
The bus door waited.
So did he.
And Maria knows after this incident, something is terrifying that—
"There was a love but that efforts are from one side— there is no use"
——×——×——×——×——×——×—–
Thank you so muchhh for reading my novel guysss 🎀✨
Let's see what Maria has realised and who is the Anan in next chapter–untill then byeee 💖
Secret★: In real life there is no obstacle stopping them (Maria and Dhiran).
There is only one person trying.