700 ᏦᎥᏝᎧᎷᏋᏖᏒᏋᏕ ᏗᏇᏗᎩ

Chapter 11: A Quiet Goodbye to the Roads

The revision exams rolled in like quiet storms. Every day brought a new test, another subject, another set of scribbled notes folded and crammed into pockets, another moment of stress masked behind laughter. For most students, it was a time to pull away from friends and sink deep into books. But for Harshan and Ishwaani, the terrace became their refuge—a secret sky between two rooftops where numbers and formulas floated next to half-spoken dreams.

Their study routine changed with the seasons of exams. They'd come home after school, eat quickly, and then meet upstairs by 7 PM, notebooks in hand. From opposite terraces, they'd quiz each other: Physics definitions, derivations, Tamil essay prompts, English poems, and Social Science dates. But after an hour or so, their pens would fall silent and the books would lie open, forgotten, as they let the wind speak for them.

One such evening, the sky was unusually clear. The moon was a silent silver sentinel above them. Ishwaani sat cross-legged on her side, swinging her pen between her fingers. "When these exams end," she said, not looking up, "do you think all this will change?"

Harshan glanced at her. "What do you mean?"

She looked at him finally. "This. Us. Our walks. Our... terrace talks."

He paused, choosing his words carefully. "I don’t want it to change. Do you?"

She shook her head. "No. But sometimes, even if we don’t want it, things shift."

Before he could reply, h She frowned with a heavy sigh, she said, "My sister’s college holidays have started. From tomorrow, she’s going to pick me up after school. No more after-school walks."

The words hit him like a sudden gust. He knew this was inevitable, that something would eventually interrupt their little tradition. But knowing didn’t make it hurt any less.

He tried to smile. "At least she’s not stopping you from climbing the terrace."

"Not yet," she said with a half-smile. "So we still have the stars."

Chapter 11: A Quiet Goodbye to the Roads

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It was the last day before revision exams concluded. Harshan had waited a few extra minutes outside the school gate, hoping to catch her. She emerged from the building, clutching her books close to her chest, her hair loose and windblown from the class fan.

"No more walks till 12th start" she said.

"Yeah," Harshan replied

A soft smile on her face. "Let’s go then. One last time."

They took the long route home deliberately, bypassing the shortcut near the temple and opting instead for the path past the post office and the old park. The world moved around them—buses roared, children laughed from behind compound walls, shopkeepers shouted—but between Harshan and Ishwaani, it felt like an isolated bubble of calm.

At one point, she paused beside a small garden that had begun to bloom with marigolds and jasmine.

"You ever think about how flowers still bloom in exam season?" she said.

Harshan laughed. "They probably don’t have biology paper tomorrow."

She gave him a mock punch on the arm. "You know what I mean. Everything keeps moving. Even when we feel stuck."

They sat on the park bench for a while, pretending to revise physics formulas, but really just talking about everything else—music, movies, dreams, and sometimes, fears they didn’t know how to name.