On the first day of college, Arnav decided he wouldn't talk to anyone.
New places always made him feel small. He sat on the last bench, eyes fixed outside the window where the trees swayed under a heavy sky.
Then a bag dropped beside him.
"Is this seat taken?"
The girl didn't wait for an answer. She sat down and smiled.
"I'm Meghla."
There was a strange brightness in her eyes — the kind that disturbed quiet lives. From that day on, Arnav's silence filled with her stories, her laughter, her storms.
Meghla loved the rain.
"If you run from beautiful things," she would say,
"life becomes too short."
Somewhere between shared tea and stolen afternoons, Arnav fell in love.