"Excuse me" she politely tapped on his shoulder.
He turned back to look at her and a wide smile spread across his face. He got up from the bench and hugged her.
"Oh my god is this really you? I couldn't recognise you!" He said while still not believing for what his eyes were seeing was a girl in messy bun tank top denim shorts and a knee length shrug. But the most mesmerizing part of her was her dark amber eyes that shined the brightest.
"Oh I could say the same about you" she nudged him.
"How did you change so much Arun? I mean you really had a glow up! last year you were much different what happened?"
"It's nothing really you know I've had a thing for basketball like you do for chess , so I joined basketball team and this is the result"
"You're so unreal"
She laughed.
Was it just him or did his heart actually skip a beat hearing her soft laughter?
"Ohh yeah? Tell me about yourself, how'd the things go for you? "
"Ohh well I started yoga classes right after the summer last year so I got in a good shape I guess"
"I see, so tell me more? How's your pineapple doing?"
He asked and she paused before realising that he was referring to her crush from 9th class who rejected her because she didn't know the square of 22 .
Then she smacked Arun, "C'mon, it's been years since I last saw him I don't even know where he is now. I've gotten over him"
"Doesn't look that way though, well whatever let's go grab some juice"
"Yeah!"
And then they talked and laughed together while the sun was still setting with the soft chilled breeze hitting the sound of the sea waves and the insects buzzing all around the place, glimpse of moon and stars was visible.
Arun noticed something on diya's cheek and leaned in to clear it off with his hand. he planted his hand on diya's cheek. While he leaned in shocked and flustered diya slapped his hand away.
"What are you doing idiot?"
"There's something on your cheek" Arun spoke without being totally clueless of the action he just took.
"Ohh"
"Stupid! stupid! stupid! you really thought he was going to do something else?"
She felt embarassed for her actions.
"Yes let me remove it.... there you go!"
After that diya recieved a call from her aunt calling her home for dinner so they finally said bye and left for home.
On his way home vansh called Arun and asked him if he told her or not.
"I just couldn't tell her.. I don't think she thinks of me for more than her best friend."
"You'll never know if you don't try buddy!"
"I will ask her this year for sure!"
"You say that everytime!"
"No, I don't!"
"Yeah. Whatever Arun."
"Oh? We have some really brave version of vansh here huh? If you got guts why don't you go and ask Vani out man?"
"That's different!"
And they argued a little before hanging up.
It had been years now since Arun started liking diya more than a friend but just couldn't ask her out because he feared he would lose diya if it turned out the other way. So he kept it a secret.
Back on her way home diya was still day dreaming about how beautiful her day was and thinking about how she couldn't bring herself to tell Arun about how she feels. But she was afraid just like him. What if she lost him? And what if he hates her for that? So she decided to keep it to herself. Lost in her thoughts diya was walking and thinking about the time when she threw Arun's chocolate in the sand because he was teasing her by calling her a coconut.
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