It Started With A Mistake

8. Annoying But Charming

"We need it to sound like we learned something and didn't just survive," Ananya muttered, eyes scanning the slide.

"Learned what? Rishi's Excel addiction?" Aman asked dryly.

"Character development," Rishi announced. "From bar graphs to pies."

Shruti clapped once. "Focus. I don't want to sleep at 3 a.m. again."

After ten minutes.

"We're actually done," Meera whispered like she couldn't believe it.

Shruti high-fived Aman. "Look at us. A functioning, semi-responsible group."

As the group packed up their things, laughter still lingering in the air, they made their way out of the college lawn, the evening breeze brushing past as the sun dipped lower behind the buildings.

Next day

The classroom was silent except for the light scrape of chalk and the rustle of papers. Bright afternoon light poured in through the windows, streaking across the floor and the blackboard where their presentation points had been neatly written out in chalk.

Ananya stood near the board, holding a chalk and her cue cards, adjusting her sleeves every few seconds. Karan was slouched at one of the desks, a pen tapping slowly between his fingers. "Start whenever, Miss. I'm all ears," he said, looking almost too serious

She cleared her throat and began explaining the first segment of their project. "So, our assignment was to study a real business, and after our site visit to Shree Vastra Exports, we focused on how a family-run brand balances traditional hand embroidery with modern digital printing. We noticed that their target customers-especially NRIs-prefer limited-edition collections because it feels more exclusive. That's also why their festive lines sell out faster."

Karan tilted his head, smirking. "Hmm. Insightful."

She blinked, slightly surprised.

Then he added, "But also... slightly boring. You sound like one of those business news anchors."

Her jaw dropped. "Excuse me?!"

He grinned, leaning forward on the desk. "I mean the content's solid. But you're saying it like you're reading a report. You literally saw aunties picking designs and uncle ji showing us fabric samples. Talk like you were there, not inside a PDF."

That line made her pause. She didn't say anything, but inside, her heart did one of those weird somersault-things. Why was he always like this?

"Fine," she muttered, scanning her cue cards again. "Take two."

He clapped once. "Action, Miss Field Reporter."

She gave him a look but spoke again, this time more naturally. "Okay, so when we visited Shree Vastra Exports' production unit, we saw how they mix hand embroidery with digital prints to scale up. Most walk-in customers chose pieces based on the zari work and how 'Instagrammable' it looked. Meanwhile, their export buyers placed bulk orders only after video calls and checking catalogues online. Plus, festival collections moved fastest-especially if they were named things like 'Shaadi Edit' or 'Puja Pick'."

Karan nodded slowly, pretending to be impressed. Then he actually clapped. "Much better. Now it sounds like you know what you're talking about."

"Obviously," she said, lifting her chin.

"But still," he added, teasing, "you sure emotional appeal will help during Q&A?"

She smirked. "Only if you freeze on stage and forget your lines."

"Touché," he said, shaking his head with a grin. "You know, for someone who looks sweet, you're kind of savage."

"Only when necessary," she said sweetly, flipping the next cue card.

Karan smirked and stood up, taking her place near the board. "Your turn to judge, then."

He picked up a chalk piece, effortlessly writing out key terms and flow arrows as he spoke. And somehow, he made "data interpretation" sound interesting. Ananya sat where he had earlier, half-listening and half-noticing the way he walked while explaining-confident but not showy, precise but not stiff.

He didn't glance at his notes once.

Why was that weirdly attractive?

He finished explaining the core methods, then turned to her. "Well?"

Ananya blinked. "Hmm?"

He stepped closer. "Feedback, Miss. Or were you lost in my data points?"

"You missed the third metric," she said quickly, pretending to read from his notes. "Also, stop saying 'basically' before every sentence. It sounds lazy."

He tilted his head. "Basically, that's a harsh review."

She laughed, finally relaxing. "Basically, deal with it."

"You just said it too."

"I-" She narrowed her eyes and chucked a chalk piece at him. It missed by an inch.

He grinned, completely unbothered. "Temper, temper."

"Annoying," she muttered.

"But charming," he added, standing dangerously close now. Just a few feet. "Admit it."

"I'd rather not," she said, clutching her cue cards like a shield.

His eyes danced with mischief. "One day."

She bit her cheek to keep from smiling too obviously.

Their laughter filled the room for a moment before it sank into a comfortable silence. They went back and forth a couple more times-fine-tuning slides, shortening bullet points, changing "however" to "but" for casual tone. Each suggestion came with a joke. Each correction with a smirk.

At some point, Ananya looked down and realized her fingers were smudged with chalk. So were Karan's.

"You know," she said, wiping her hand on a tissue. "We're spending more time on the vibe than the content."

"Vibe is everything," he replied easily, lounging against the desk again. "If the vibe is good, the marks follow."

She raised a brow. "Did you just make that up?"

"Yup." He grinned. "But sounded convincing, right?"

She shook her head, but her cheeks were hurting from smiling now.

Then his phone buzzed. He glanced at it.

"Others are done too," he said, stretching. "They're heading to the canteen. Let's go?"

Ananya gathered her cue cards and laptop. "Sure."

As they walked out, a quiet moment passed between them. Just footsteps echoing through the corridor and golden sunlight catching dust in the air.

"Senior?" she said suddenly.

He turned. "Yeah?"

"Thanks for being... chill."

He looked at her, unreadable for a second, then shrugged like it was no big deal. "You're fun when you're not being dramatic."

"I wasn't-okay, fine. I'll ignore that."

He chuckled again. "That's the spirit."

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