The Ludo board remained between them, unfinished energy still sitting in its corners.
Neither of them moved to pack it away right away.
That small pause after the game always felt slightly different.
Not ending.
Not continuation either.
Just a soft in-between.
Aanya finally looked up from her phone.
"I'm hungry," she said casually.
Sagnik glanced at the clock once.
Then back at her.
"That's usually how time works."
She ignored that.
"I won dinner. So I choose."
He exhaled lightly.
"Of course you do."
Aanya tilted her head slightly.
"I'm thinking."
"That's dangerous."
"I know."
A pause.
Then she stepped back into the room properly again, as if she had never fully left.
"Outside," she said.
"Now?"
"Unless you're planning to cook something revolutionary in your room, yes."
"I don't cook."
"I know. That's why we're going out."
There was no debate in her tone.
Just conclusion.
Sagnik stood up slowly, brushing his hands once as if resetting the moment.
Aanya was already moving around the room in small, efficient motions—picking up her hair tie, checking her phone again, adjusting her bag strap like she was aligning herself with the next part of the day.
He watched her for a second without meaning to.
Then looked away.
"Where?" he asked.
Aanya paused.
That was the only real decision she seemed to consider.
Not if they were going.
Only where.
"Not canteen," she said immediately.
"That was never in question."
"Good."
She thought for a moment longer.
Then nodded slightly to herself.
"There's that place near the gate."
Sagnik nodded once.
"That's far."
"We just played Ludo for forty minutes. You can walk."
"I didn't complain."
"You were about to."
"I wasn't."
"You were thinking about it."
He didn't argue further.
Because she was already right.
Aanya slipped her phone into her pocket.
"Come on," she said.
Then, after a beat—
"Winner's hungry."
Sagnik adjusted his bag.
"Winner is always hungry."
Aanya smiled at that, small and satisfied.
"Exactly."
And just like that, it wasn't a decision anymore.
It was simply what happened next.
They left the room together without closing the conversation behind them—only the door.
The corridor outside was louder, brighter, more real than the quiet they had just been sitting in.
Aanya walked slightly ahead again, as if the game had never really ended—only shifted format.
Sagnik followed.
Not behind her.
Not beside her.
Just in the same movement.
And somehow, that was enough to turn a win into a plan for dinner.