"Kuch baatein kehne se nahi, mehsoos karne se samajh aati hai."
"Some things aren't meant to be explained — only felt."
— Aryan Sen
The café felt different today.
Same tea. Same table.
But Akari stirred her cup for too long.
Aryan noticed.
"Still thinking about what Rika said?" he asked softly.
She didn't look up.
"Should I not?"
Aryan sighed.
"I told you the meeting was just business."
Akari nodded. "Maybe I believe you. But I don't trust her."
He paused.
"You trust me, right?"
She finally looked up.
"I did. I do. But…"
He leaned in. "But?"
She exhaled slowly.
"It's not about Rika, Aryan. It's about how… quiet you go when things get real."
Aryan blinked.
"You talk about building things with me.
But sometimes I feel like I'm watching you build a world… from the outside."
Those words hit him deep.
He swallowed his reply.
Because she wasn't wrong.
Back home that night, Akari sat beside Haru doing homework.
But her mind wasn't in the pages.
It was on Aryan's silence.
On Rika's smile.
On the photo she saw online.
On the future she couldn't see clearly anymore.
Aryan, meanwhile, opened his phone —
typed a message:
"Can we talk properly tomorrow?
No distractions. Just us."
He didn't hit send.
Instead, he opened an old voice memo.
His mother's voice. Her lullaby.
He hadn't played it in years.
The next morning…
Akari skipped school.
No texts. No explanations.
Aryan waited. And waited.
And finally… messaged her.
"Akari… I miss our silences. Even they were better than this distance."
She read it.
But didn't reply.
Because some silences… aren't peaceful anymore.
They're painful.
[End of Episode 21]
📝 Next: "Underneath the Fireworks" – A Japanese festival brings them face to face again. But what explodes first: the sky… or their hearts?