Wednesday - 2:47 AM
Neel couldn't sleep. He'd been staring at his phone for hours, waiting for S—for Shanaya—to respond.
Finally, a message popped up.
S: I'm sorry I ran
A: You're awake
S: Couldn't sleep
S: Been thinking all night
A: Same
S: Neel... it's really you, isn't it?
A: Yeah. It's really me.
A: And you're S. My S.
S: Your S?
A: The person I talked to every night for three weeks
A: The person who understood me better than anyone
A: The person I was starting to...
S: Starting to what?
A: Never mind
S: No, tell me
A: The person I was starting to fall for
S: ...
S: Neel, we hate each other in real life
A: Hated. Past tense. And did we really hate each other?
A: Or did we just decide to hate each other because it was easier than admitting we might have something in common?
S: ...
S: I don't know anymore
A: I do
A: We were rivals because we saw ourselves in each other
A: We both hide online. We both create fake identities. We both prefer screens to faces.
A: We're the same, Shanaya. We always were.
S: Then why do we pretend to be different people online?
A: Because it's easier to be vulnerable when you're someone else
S: ...
S: I pretend to be Arnav because as Arnav, I can be confident without being judged
A: I pretend to be Akanksha because as Akanksha, I can be gentle without being seen as weak
S: But with each other, as A and S, we didn't pretend
A: No. We didn't.
A: That was real, Shanaya. That was us.
S: I'm scared, Neel
A: Of what?
S: That this will ruin what we had
S: That now that we know who we are, we'll go back to being rivals
A: Or maybe
A: Now that we know who we are
A: We can stop hiding
Thursday - The Library Meeting
They'd agreed to meet. Same table. Same library. But everything felt different.
Neel arrived first, nervous energy making his leg bounce under the table. When Shanaya walked in, their eyes met, and for a moment, neither moved.
Then Shanaya smiled—that real smile, not her social one—and Neel felt something in his chest unlock.
"Hi, A," she said, sitting down.
"Hi, S."
They sat in comfortable silence for a moment.
"This is weird," Shanaya finally said.
"Yeah."
"Good weird or bad weird?"
"I don't know yet," Neel admitted. "You?"
"Same." She looked down at her hands. "I read through all our messages last night. Every single one."
"Me too."
"And I realized something."
"What?"
"The person I was falling for online... is the same person sitting in front of me now." She looked up, meeting his eyes. "I was falling for you, Neel. The real you. I just didn't know it was you."
Neel's breath caught. "I was falling for you too. Am falling for you."
"Even though I'm loud and annoying?" She smiled through watery eyes.
"You're not annoying. You're... alive. You make everything brighter." He reached across the table, hesitating. "Can I?"
She placed her hand in his. "Yeah."
"And I'm not actually cold and distant?"
"No. You're thoughtful. Deep. You notice things other people miss."
They sat there, hands linked across the table, both smiling like idiots.
"So what now?" Shanaya asked.
"Now? Now we stop pretending. Both online and offline."
"No more Arnav Seghal?"
"No more Akanksha Oberoi?"
They looked at each other and laughed.
"Maybe we keep them," Neel said. "As reminders of how we found each other."
"Through fake identities and unexpected connections."
"The most unexpected connection."