Aarohi didn't ease into this memory.
It didn't pull her gently.
It hit her.
Like lightning.
She woke in the middle of the night with her hand clutching her chest so tightly her nails dug into her skin.
Her heart wasn't racing.
It was pounding.
Heavy. Decisive. Certain.
Arin shot up from the chair beside her bed.
"Aarohi—"
She looked at him, and something in her eyes had changed.
"It's the night," she whispered.
"What night?"
Her voice trembled.
"The night he said it."
Arin went still.
"No—"
But she was already slipping.
---
Past Life
It was raining.
Not the soft drizzle from before.
Not gentle.
Not forgiving.
This rain was violent. Loud. Endless.
Aara stood under the dim streetlight near the empty road outside school. Her uniform clung to her skin. Her hair stuck to her cheeks.
She was shaking.
Not from the cold.
From what she had just heard.
Riaan stood in front of her, soaked, breath uneven, eyes red — not from tears, but from holding them back.
"Aara, I can't do this anymore."
Her heart cracked.
"Do what?"
He stepped closer.
"Pretend."
The rain drowned out everything except his voice.
"Pretend that you're just a friend. Pretend that it doesn't hurt when you're not beside me. Pretend that I don't wait for you every morning like my day doesn't start without you."
Aara's fingers trembled.
"Riaan…"
He shook his head.
"No. Let me finish. Please. Just let me say it once."
Her breath caught.
"I tried to ignore it. I tried to convince myself it's just attachment. Just habit. Just loneliness."
His voice broke.
"But it's not."
Aara's heartbeat became painful.
Riaan stepped even closer, rain sliding down his face like tears.
"When you smile, I feel alive. When you cry, I feel useless. When you're scared, I want to protect you from the whole world. And when I imagine a future…"
He swallowed hard.
"You're the only thing in it."
Aara's world tilted.
She whispered, shaking,
"Don't say things like that…"
"Why?" he demanded softly.
"Because it changes everything."
"It already changed," he said.
The silence between them filled with something heavy.
Truth.
He finally said it.
Not loudly. Not dramatically.
Just honestly.
"I love you, Aara."
The world didn't explode.
The rain didn't stop.
The sky didn't split.
But her heart did.
It broke open.
Not in pain.
In surrender.
Her lips trembled.
She wanted to run.
She wanted to deny it.
She wanted to protect herself from loving something that felt too fragile to survive.
But she looked at him.
Really looked.
At the boy who stayed. At the boy who found her. At the boy who cried in her arms. At the boy who never once treated her like she was nothing.
And she realized—
She had loved him long before this night.
She just hadn't been brave enough to admit it.
Her voice came out barely audible.
"You're stupid."
Riaan blinked.
She stepped forward.
"Because I've been in love with you for months."
His breath stopped.
"What?"
Aara's tears mixed with rain.
"I just didn't know how to say it."
Riaan stared at her like she had just handed him the universe.
"You… you love me?"
She nodded.
"I think I started the day I was scared to lose you."
He laughed softly — broken, relieved, disbelieving.
Then he pulled her into him.
Not gently this time.
Not careful.
Desperate.
His arms wrapped around her waist, lifting her slightly off the ground.
She clutched his shirt, burying her face into his chest.
"I love you," he whispered again.
"I love you," she answered.
And this time—
It wasn't silent.
It wasn't implied.
It was real.
---
Present
Aarohi jerked back into her body with a sob that tore through her throat.
Arin grabbed her shoulders.
"What did you see?"
Her face was wet.
Her breathing uneven.
"He said it," she whispered.
Arin's chest tightened painfully.
"And?"
Aarohi looked at him, shattered.
"She said it back."
The room felt smaller.
He slowly let go of her arms.
"You felt it."
Aarohi pressed her hands against her chest like she was trying to hold something inside.
"It was so real, Arin."
Her voice broke.
"They weren't confused anymore. They weren't scared. They knew."
Arin turned away, jaw tight.
"Aarohi, those feelings belong to another lifetime."
She shook her head.
"But my heart reacted."
Silence fell heavy.
Then—
The air changed.
Not cold.
Not warm.
Just different.
A presence stood near the window.
Not shadow.
Not blur.
Shape.
Outline.
Closer than ever.
And for the first time—
Aarohi didn't just feel him.
She saw him.
Faint.
Translucent.
But him.
Riaan.
He didn't speak.
He just looked at her.
The same eyes.
The same softness.
The same ache.
Arin couldn't see anything.
But he saw her face pale.
"Aarohi?"
She whispered, breath shaking,
"He's here."
And Riaan's voice finally filled the room—
Not as a memory.
Not as an echo.
But as something standing between worlds.
"I kept my promise."
Aarohi's heart stopped.
Because this wasn't past anymore.
This was now.