[You can skip if you want. But I, as the author, would highly advise you to read it!]
***
A boy with white hair and soft golden eyes was sitting on an old steel bench outside the main gate of his college.
Snow fell quietly around him. His pale fingers were already stiff from the cold as he held two paper cups. They were slowly starting to soften at the edges from the heat of the hot chocolate inside.
His name was Raj and he had learned something important about love very early in his life.
It made you do things that were stupid, inconvenient, and sometimes painful. It then made you sit there pretending you did not mind them at all.
"Hah… It's really snowing a lot today."
Raj exhaled as he looked down at the hot chocolate in his hands. He had paid more for them than he should have.
He did not even like sweet drinks! They always made his stomach upset as if they did not suit his food palate. But Pihu, his girlfriend, liked them.
And that alone was enough to make him stand in a long line and tell himself that skipping lunch again was not a big deal.
He lifted his cup slowly, blew the steam away, and took a small sip.
The heat burned his tongue. It was too hot, so hot that it made his eyes sting slightly, but he kept taking small sips anyway.
STEP!
Just then, his girlfriend arrived.
Pihu was just a few steps away from him, hopping lightly from foot to foot. Her arms were trying to fix the strap of her bag while her black hair was covered in small snowflakes, making it look somewhat white.
When she noticed Raj watching her, she tilted her head slightly. Her large, curious eyes looked at him so lovingly that his heart swelled up. His face became red as Pihu frowned and spoke.
"Why do you keep buying these when you don't even like the taste, stupid. This is not worth spending your lunch money on."
"Sorry, my princess," Raj replied quietly.
He did not try to explain himself. He did not try to defend it. He just said it the way he always did when Pihu scolded him for things he knew he would probably do again.
Pihu looked at him for a second, then sighed softly.
"You are going to do it again, aren't you?"
Raj did not answer. He did not need to. The girl in front of him already knew the answer to her own question.
Pihu shook her head, but there was a small smile tugging at her lips as she reached out and lightly pulled his ears. Her hands then gently touched Raj's as she took a cup.
"You are really hopeless, you know. Alright, the lunch is on me today."
Raj rubbed his ears and let out a quiet laugh.
Hopeless.
That word fit him more than he liked to admit.
He glanced down at the hot chocolate in his hands, then back at Pihu. He had always known he was bad with money, bad with planning, and bad at thinking about the future. But when it came to her, he was worse in a very specific way.
He was hopelessly romantic.
Not in the kind of way people bragged about online, but in the quiet, stupid way where he would skip meals, walk longer routes, and stay awake longer than he should just to make her smile.
He would do anything for her.
He already was.
And the worst part was that he did not even feel like he was losing anything when he did.
Pihu then proceeded to sit beside him.
The cold metal of the bench made her shiver for a second, so she immediately slid closer to Raj and hooked her arm through his. Their bodies pressed lightly together like they had done it a thousand times before.
She rested her head against his shoulder without hesitation.
The warmth of Raj felt better than the hot chocolate to Pihu. She wrapped both hands around the cup he had given her and let out a quiet, satisfied sigh.
"This is really nice."
Raj smiled faintly and leaned his head gently against hers.
He liked the quiet moments like this. The ones where he did not have to think too much about money or classes or his next shift. The ones where he could just sit and hear her gossiping about things.
He could listen to them for hours.
Pihu took a careful sip and smiled to herself.
She always acted annoyed when he spent money on her, but inside, it made her feel warm in a way she did not know how to explain. It made her feel loved, as if she knew that as long as this man was around her, nothing could happen to her.
She glanced up at him.
He looked tired, like he always did in the mornings, but there was something gentle in his eyes that made her heart feel full.
He was always looking at her like she mattered. And she loved that.
"We are really going to be late if we stay like this," she said softly, though she made no move to stand up.
Raj smiled at her antics as he replied back.
"We are waiting for the class to come here anyway. Did you forget that we are going on a field trip today?"
"Oh yeah, I forgot it for a second hehe. I even made us some bento boxes."
Pihu's voice was filled with excitement.
Today was their department's field trip. A full day away from lectures, deadlines, and noisy classrooms. Just a bus ride with snacks, photos, and them being together.
Pihu leaned into him a little more.
She liked the way his arm fit around her shoulders. She liked how warm he felt even in the cold. She liked how he never made her feel rushed. Slowly, she closed her eyes.
"Hey, I am happy it is you." She said quietly as Raj looked at her. His chest tightened as he spoke.
"…Me too."
They stayed like that, waiting for their class to gather, while the snow kept falling softly around them.
***
After another fifteen minutes, the bus arrived, as Raj and Pihu stood up together.
They brushed the snow off their clothes and joined the line of students, climbing inside with the rest of their class. They sat beside each other near the middle.
The doors of the bus soon closed with a quiet hiss, and the bus started moving. But just then, something strange happened!
At first, it was just a bit of uneasiness in the air. Then the lights of the bus started flickering. The rate of it only increased with every passing second.
And then—
A sudden white glow burst through the windows.
It was pure and blinding light that swallowed the students and the teachers. It washed over Raj's vision until he could see nothing else.
Pihu's fingers tightened around his sleeve as the world disappeared.
In the empty space where the bus had been, there was nothing left.
Only falling snow.