Mohabbat ka Hisaab

Chapter 1

Hello everyone! I'm Kiki, and this is my first time writing. 😊 I'm still learning, so there may be a few mistakes. If you notice anything I could improve, please let me know in the comments. Your feedback would really help me improve and do better in the next chapter. Thank you so much for reading and supporting me! ❤️🙏

Anaya Khurana saw her name on the notice board and her jaw dropped.

Hello, I'm Anaya Khurana, and today my best friend Riya and I are bunking college. Yes, I know it's wrong — but I'm Anaya, and for me, every wrong thing is right.

I was running away from college when I spotted something on the notice board that left my mouth hanging open.

There was a notice board in the main corridor of the college that nobody normally read. Anaya never read it either — because according to her, only two types of people read notice boards: those who are extremely serious, and those who are extremely bored. She was neither.

While Anaya was running, a tiny pebble had gotten into her shoe, making it difficult to sprint. So she stopped to take it out — one hand against the wall for support, the other pulling off her shoe — all while glancing around nervously to make sure no teacher spotted her mid-escape. That's when her eyes landed on the notice board.

"Annual Fest Committee — Co-heads: Anaya Khurana and Veer Rajawat"

Anaya stood up straight.

Shoes still in hand, rubbing her eyes with the other hand, she stared at the notice board in complete disbelief. She had absolutely no idea what was happening.

Her eyes — which just two seconds ago had been half-bored and half-mischievous — were now wide open. So wide that Riya later said, "Looking at you, I felt like someone had stuffed a chilli into your mouth."

She said just one word, in one breath, with the kind of eerie calm that only comes when your brain hasn't even begun to process something yet:

"No."

Riya — standing beside Anaya with a canteen samosa raised halfway to her mouth in one hand and her phone in the other — slowly lowered the samosa. She placed a hand on Anaya's shoulder and asked, "Anaya, are you okay?"

Anaya turned to look at Riya and screamed at the top of her lungs —

"NOOOOOOO........."

"What kind of joke is this?!"

She said it so loudly that Riya got startled — and the samosa slipped right out of her hand and fell to the floor. Riya looked down at it with a deeply tragic expression, grief swimming in her eyes, and crouched down beside it. "I hadn't even taken a single bite of this beautiful, tempting samosa," she said mournfully, "and you made me drop it."

Anaya pulled Riya back up and said, "What kind of joke is this? Me and Veer — together — as co-heads of the committee? Is someone pranking me? Is this fake?"

Riya examined the notice carefully. "It doesn't look fake... oh — it has the college's official stamp on it. And the principal's signature too."

"I have to work with that... that person?" Anaya said the word "person" like it was an insult. "Veer Rajawat — that guy — the one who once silenced me with just one look."

Her hand moved instinctively to her chest, as if the memory still stung. "I remember that day to this day. That look — I still remember it. Anaya Khurana — me — whom no one has managed to silence from Class 3 right up until today. Not teachers, not Papa, not... not even that auto driver who argues with me every single day."

Riya thought for a second. "Technically, your grandmother did once—"

"Riya." There was a clear warning in Anaya's voice.

"...Okay fine, no one has."

"Thank you."

Anaya took a deep breath — in through the nose, out through the mouth, "phuuuuu" — like someone doing meditation. Then she adjusted her bag firmly on both shoulders, gave the notice board one long, steady look, and walked away.

Riya picked up the fallen samosa with a tissue, walked over to the dustbin with grief-stricken eyes, held it over the bin, turned her face away to the side — and dropped it in. Then, with a deeply mournful expression, she shuffled after Anaya.

"So you're going to the meeting?" Riya asked.

"Yes, I'll go," Anaya said with a sigh.

"But...."

"If that Veer Rajawat gives me that look even once, I swear I will write directly to the principal. A handwritten letter. Blue ink. With underlining."

Riya burst out laughing at that. Anaya shot her a sharp glare. "Sorry."

The committee had scheduled the meeting at 3 PM.

The committee room — that small room in B-Wing where nobody usually came — and Anaya, deliberately, arrived five minutes late. She placed her hand on the door.

She paused for a second.

He'll be sitting in there. With that expression. Anaya took a deep breath, and slowly pushed the door open and—

The moment she opened the committee room door, she spotted four people inside — Veer, Sameer, and Aryan. She quickly shut the door again and began talking to herself.

"This... did I see that wrong? A senior... what is a senior doing in this committee meeting?"