"Hello, everyone...!" she happily proclaimed wearing a radiant smile, her eyes shining brightly.
I turned back slowly to face the owner of that voice,
It felt like the flow of time had stopped,
Moments and memories from the last three years hazed my subconsious with a subtle touch of romance as I imagined myself standing with her in the middle of a stadium filled with roses. She was standing right in front of me, in a stunning white saree adorned with intricate green embroidery and held a garland crafted from freshly picked flowers. The whole stadium seemed to be applauding and cheering at us as she slowly approached me, her cheeks flushed with red and her eyes filled with glittering rays of hope. I could feel my hands reaching up to her -
"They say,"
Everything stopped all of a sudden as a deep and cold voice reverberated throughout the stadium.
A chill flowed down my spine as I noticed a shadow figure of a man, all clad in black, was standing in the distance staring at me, "They say that imagination creates reality...!" he exclaimed in an husky dialect, walking slowly towards me "But..."
In the blink of an eye, it was as if he disappeared and then teleported himself right in front of me... BUT "WHO-"...! Before I could say anything, the ground which I was standing on gave away all of a sudden,
"....is that really so?"
I found myself falling into the depths of a never ending abyss tainted with that voice, which was seemingly mine...
"Onjoli...?"
It was Alo's panicked excitement, that suddenly brought me back to my senses. I quickly abandoned the world of my creation, and returned to reality. Getting lost in random imaginations had turned into a common occurence for me ever since I started working on Shilpi.
"Onjoli!" Alo yelled, as she ran over and enveloped her in a warm hug, "You-You know, I missed listening to your stories s-so much!" she muttered with a shaking voice. Wrapping her hands tightly around Alo, Onjoli smiled empathetically at her,
"Me too," she whispered, "I really missed your presence you know, especially for this previous month,"
The two of them hugging filled my consciousness with the taste of a deja vu... and also made me really emotional at the same time.
Maybe it was due to the fact that I could somewhat relate to their emotions...
A heavy feeling in my heart began choking me as I dreadfully realized that the end was near...!
As they loosened their grip, Abhoy approached them; "Yo Onjoli, how have you been?" he asked, resting a hand on Alo's shoulder.
"Well, I'm doing just fine," she replied, wearing a hopeful grin.
"That's good to know," he said, smiling back at her, "Alo was constantly worried about you throughout the break, you know"
"Seems like it," she replied, squishing Alo's cheeks, "Hey, what about you Rup? You kind of seem all quiet back there..." she asked, inquisitively,
Putting his hands out of his trouser pockets, he responded, "Well, I... I am kind of feeling happy to witness all these real life emotions, all around me today,"
"Real life emotions!?" Abhoy exclaimed in terror, his eyes nearly bulging out of his sockets,
"Umm," Rup continued, "...like I had grown so damn tired of those cliche algorithms of drama games and stuff, huff; coincidences in real life feel so umm, real, you know..."
All four of us were equally dumbfounded after listening to his honest confession. Ever since I had met him nearly four years ago, Rup had always been a passionate gamer and he absolutely loved having long holidays. The fact that he was talking about emotions and stuff was kind of... heartbreaking.
"Whoa; Hearing you complain about games, this is new...!" Alo commented,
"Why do I feel so sad after listening to what he just said?" asked Abhoy, jesting a confused expression,
Unused to receiving complements, Rup smiled hesitantly, scratching his head.
"Anyway, Good job on realizing that," Onjoli cheered, enthusiastically, "So..."
"Okay now," Alo chirped, cutting off Onjoli, "Returning back to Dhriti's intial proposal, I think that there's still some time left before the class begins, so you two," she paused, looking at me and Onjoli, "....can grab a nice little tea break. We will be heading to class, bye!" she said, tugging at Abhoy's hand and leaving in a hurry.
"Oi Alo-"
"See you guys later," Rup added, dashing after them, sporting a mischievous smile at me. As they left in a hurry, I smiled softly, re-collecting the uncountable times I had requested them for a similar set up in the past, and how they had failed to achieve that every single time.
"L-let's go, then," I stammered, looking at her unable to find an appropriate way to react to the drastic turn of events.
Most of the students had already left the station by then so it was only me and Onjoli, standing on the nearly deserted platform.
"Hmm.. okay," she replied with an eye contact, still so overwhelming and powerful,
As we set off on our little adventure off route to the tea shop, my heart began sinking infinitely into nothingness...
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