After some days

Zoya wasn’t used to peace.

Back home, peace was something people promised you right before they broke it.

But here, in Mumbai — with Aarfa, and the Xavier campus, and strangely even the awkward silences she shared with Akif — peace wasn’t just real.

It was soft.

It was safe.

Until she noticed something weird.

Aarfa was acting… off.

Not sad. Just… jumpy.

---

“Okay, what’s wrong with you?” Zoya asked while unwrapping her sandwich on the college lawn.

Aarfa looked up mid-bite. “What?”

“You’re smiling at your phone like it just flirted with you.”

Aarfa rolled her eyes and locked the screen. “Shut up.”

Zoya narrowed her eyes. “Tell me.”

Aarfa bit her lip. “It’s Ayaan.”

Zoya blinked. “Akif’s best friend Ayaan?? The goofy one who can’t sit still for five seconds?”

“Yeah…” Aarfa said, like she wasn’t proud of it.

“What did he do?”

“He… called me cute in the group chat last night.”

Zoya’s eyes widened. “And??”

“And I said shut up.”

Zoya blinked. “You said SHUT UP??”

“I panicked!”

---

Meanwhile…

Ayaan was leaning against his bike in the parking lot, tossing a basketball up and down.

“Bro,” Akif said, walking up behind him, “you texted her ‘you looked cute yesterday’ and expected what, exactly?”

“I don’t know,” Ayaan muttered. “A thank you? A heart? A little you too, handsome maybe?”

Akif just stared at him.

“You don’t get it,” Ayaan groaned. “Aarfa’s not like other girls. She’s smart, savage, and terrifying. When she looks at me, I forget my own name.”

Akif smirked. “So, you’re gone?”

“Fully. Helplessly. Drowned.”

---

Back with Zoya and Aarfa…

Zoya grinned. “You like him.”

“No, I don’t.”

“You doooo.”

“Fine, maybe I like the idea of him.”

“The idea of him?? What is he, a mirage?”

Aarfa threw a grass leaf at her. “Shut up.”

Zoya leaned back on the grass, smiling. “Just admit it. He makes you laugh, he texts you late at night, and he looks at you like you’re the only girl in a 10 km radius.”

Aarfa rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t hide the blush.

> Maybe it wasn’t a full-blown crush.

But it was something.

---

That evening, the group was hanging out at Xavier’s rooftop café. Laughter, soft music, cold air.

Ayaan walked in late — as usual — holding two iced coffees.

He walked straight to Aarfa.

> “I didn’t know what you liked, so I got you vanilla,” he said casually, handing her the drink.

Aarfa blinked. “Why did you—”

“I stalked your story highlights. You posted it like, three months ago.”

Zoya choked on her drink.

Akif, sitting beside her, smirked and whispered, “Smooth.”

Aarfa stared at the drink. “That’s… oddly impressive.”

Ayaan grinned. “So I’m not blocked yet?”

“You’re on thin ice,” she muttered, sipping the drink.

But she smiled.

And Zoya saw it.

---

Later that night, in their apartment...

Aarfa was brushing her hair in front of the mirror.

Zoya, curled up with her notebook, casually said, “So… are we going to talk about the coffee thing?”

Aarfa met her gaze in the mirror. “What if he’s not serious?”

Zoya looked up. “You think he’d stalk your story for coffee flavour and hand it to you in front of the group just to mess around?”

Aarfa was silent.

“You’re scared,” Zoya added softly. “Just like I am with Akif.”

Aarfa turned, raising an eyebrow. “You admit it now?”

Zoya smiled shyly. “Maybe now.”

---

> Two girls.

Two boys.

One city.

And a hundred emotions they didn’t know how to name yet.

---

To be continued…