"You are not beautiful… you should say yes. No one better will come."
She said it very normally.
Like it was just a simple thing.
Aarvika didn't reply.
She just stood there quietly.
Like she didn't hear anything.
But she heard everything.
Every single word.
It was her aunt.
Maybe for her, it was just advice.
Maybe she didn't think it would hurt.
But it did.
Aarvika only said one thing.
"No."
She was not ready for marriage.
Not now.
Not like this.
Not with someone she didn't even know.
But her one "no" became something else.
Like she had done something wrong.
She didn't argue.
Didn't explain.
Because somewhere she already knew—
no one really wanted to understand her.
She walked to her room slowly.
Closed the door.
The room was quiet.
But her mind was not.
"You are not beautiful…"
The words kept repeating again and again.
She sat on the bed.
Looking at nothing.
She didn't cry.
At least not immediately.
She just felt… strange.
"I don't know why this is hurting so much…" she thought.
Because no one had said it before.
At least not directly.
But still…
somewhere inside—
she had already felt it.
Many times.
In small things.
When people praised others more.
When attention was never on her.
When she felt like she was just… there.
Not invisible.
But not important either.
After some time, she looked at the mirror.
She stood in front of it.
Quietly.
Looking at herself.
Her face.
Her eyes.
Her expression.
Nothing looked wrong.
But still—
something didn't feel right.
"I don't look that bad… right?" she whispered.
No answer.
She looked away.
Because looking more made her feel worse.
Maybe it was not about beauty.
Maybe it was something else.
Something deeper.
A feeling she couldn't explain.
Like she was not enough.
She sat back on the bed and hugged her knees.
"I don't know why I feel like this…"
Her voice was very soft.
Almost like she was talking to herself.
She closed her eyes.
Trying to ignore everything.
But thoughts don't stop like that.
They stay.
They repeat.
"You are not beautiful…"
Her fingers tightened slightly.
"No…" she whispered.
But deep inside—
she knew this feeling was not new.
It had been there for a long time.
And suddenly…
a memory came back.
Not fully clear.
But enough to feel something.
Fear.
Her breathing slowed.
And slowly…
she was not in her room anymore.
She was small again.
Sitting on a chair.
Alone.
Her feet not touching the ground.
Her hands holding the edge tightly.
Looking around.
Searching.
Waiting.
And for a moment…
she really felt
no one was coming back.