As I stood awestruck in the middle of the empty platform, her final statement continued to linger in my head, repeating itself a thousand times and forcing me back into the painful cycle of self-evaluation.

"HAA! Okay, let's calm down..." I whispered to myself, taking a deep breath and shaking my head roughly in an attempt to reorder my thoughts; But as I did so, very unexpectedly a faded out cheering sound blurred into my mind, drawing all of my attention towards it.

A chill flowed down my spine as I began re-collecting that memory, the one, to which I had often succumbed, during the previous months. 

As my mind drifted towards that particular instant, glimpses from that day began flashing vividly in front of my eyes, enveloping my consciousness with a touch of harmony. It was the memory of that day, four months ago, the day we had thought to be the end, 

The day of our college fest...

"...ITI#* ITI# ITI# ITI#...!"

... enthusiastic performances, loud cheers and heavy emotions had enveloped the crowd. The students gathered in front of the stage were in high spirits, awaiting the final band of the day, ITI#, to grace the stage with their performance. Everyone was nearly exhausted at that point from the non-stop performances since the afternoon, with very few breaks in between. 

After screaming, dancing and joking around for nearly five to six hours, I was thoroughly exhausted and was sweating like crazy so, taking advantage of the short break before the final performance, I sneaked out from the crowd, and stealthily walked back to the area near the food stalls.

As I advanced towards the juice shop, all of a sudden, the gentle and wet strumming sound of an electric guitar filled the atmosphere with a powerful ambience, 

"...HELLO EVERYONE!"

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" 

A united yell from the crowd, overruled the sound of the speakers for a moment,

"...Thank you all for waiting so lon- KIIIIiiiiiiiiiiiIIINGGG..." the mic buzzed out loudly as the lead singer of ITI#, Rishit, began addressing everyone,

"...ITI# ITI# ITI# ITI#...!" 

The united cheering began once again and lasted for a while before he began speaking again. 

"...We are ITI# and we are here to fill your hearts with a melody, you all have never experienced. Hope you all are in HIGH SPIRITS..!?" he yelled, instantly adding an high energy vibe to the moist atmosphere

"LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...!!!"

"Okay, so before we begin, I would just want to take a moment to introduce ourselves, so... starting from the right, we have..."

I quickly jogged to the nearest food stall and bought myself a can of orange juice while Rishit continued with the interactions.

The area near the food stalls was almost empty as nearly all the staff and students had gathered in front of the stage to witness the final event of the day. As I gazed around to analyze the crowd from the back, I noticed that the students who were standing between the high energy crowd at the very front and the food stalls, at the back of the field near me, were mostly in couples. 

While sipping on the orange juice, I tried my best to keep my focus on the stage, to avoid unnecessary cringe scenarios,

"...LET'S BEGIN...!" 

Rishit declared after a short while, addressing the other members of ITI# and with four loud hits on the cymbal, their performance began with a bang. 

Their first song was an original named Amar Hashi**. 

The lyrics of the song was really powerful, along with a really catchy and emotional melody that was well in sync with the feel of the lyrics, adding a rich ambience to its overall meaning.   

I stood there at the back, listening to their soulful performance for a while before a rythmic buzzing sound caught my attention,

Instinctively taking my mobile phone out from my pocket, I found out that the one who was calling me was none other than Avinash. 

After tucking the mobile back into my trouser pocket, I quickly gulped down the rest of the orange juice and then, just as I was about to join the crowd, my eyes unexpectedly caught a glimpse of a very familiar figure standing at some distance to my right.

Gazing carefully at that direction for a moment, I affirmed that the person I was looking at, was infact her... Onjoli! I began walking towards her, my eyes glued to her presence in that particular scene, where I was looking at...

I continued gaping at her, until I was only two feets away from her...

A sudden realisation dawned upon me like wildfire, punching me back to reality from the numerous scenarios that were running in my mind.