Author pov...

Everything felt like a blur to Neel it was as if a thick darkness had swallowed his world.

Stumbling up from the floor, he grabbed the bedsheet with trembling hands.

He tied one end to the ceiling fan and looped the other around his neck, desperate to escape the pain by ending it all.

As the bedsheet tightened, the suffocating pressure choked the breath out of Neel.

Just as his eyes began to flutter shut, a vision of little

Aisha appeared before him. 'What is your name? Tell me, what's your name?' she kept asking innocently.

Neel wanted to answer, but his throat was crushed, and his breath finally gave out.

He didn't even try to save himself he just let go.

Suddenly, Ayush burst into the flat.

His heart sank as he saw Neel hanging from the fan. Panic surged through him.

He lunged onto the bed, lifting Neel’s legs to relieve the pressure from the noose.

But it was too late Neel had already lost consciousness.

Terrified, Ayush kept shaking him, desperately calling his name, but Neel remained unresponsive.

With trembling hands, Ayush finally freed Neel from the fan and lowered him onto the bed.

He kept slapping Neel's cheeks, pleading for him to open his eyes, but there was no response.

Shaking with fear, Ayush realized he couldn't wait any longer.

He scooped Neel’s limp body into his arms and struggled through the building to his car.

His heart was racing as he drove frantically, praying they would reach the hospital in time.

Ayush rushed Neel into the hospital, his hands trembling and his heart pounding wildly in his chest. “Doctor, please… he tried to kill himself. Please save him,” he pleaded, his voice breaking.

The doctors immediately placed Neel on a stretcher and wheeled him inside the emergency room.

Nurses surrounded him, checking his pulse, his breathing, his fading consciousness.

An oxygen mask was secured over his face as machines began to beep urgently around him.

“Pulse is weak… oxygen levels are low,” one doctor said quickly.

“Start oxygen support. Prepare the ICU,” another order, his tone sharp but controlled.

Ayush stood outside the emergency room, frozen, his mind numb with fear.

Through the small glass window, he could see flashes of movement doctors working rapidly, nurses adjusting tubes, the rise and fall of Neel’s chest that seemed painfully slow.

Minutes felt like hours.

Inside, the doctor checked Neel’s eyes with a small light, then gently examined the deep red marks around his neck. “He’s lucky he was brought in on time,” he murmured. “We still have a chance.”

They inserted an IV line, letting the fluids flow into his veins, willing life back into his fragile body.

After what felt like an eternity, the doors finally opened.

The doctor stepped out, removing his gloves, his expression serious but calmer than before.

“He’s alive,” he said softly. “He’s critical, but he’s fighting. The next few hours are very important.”

Ayush’s legs nearly gave way in relief as tears filled his eyes.

He pressed his hands together, whispering a broken thank you, as hope fragile but real  flickered back into the darkness.

Meanwhile, in the depths of his unconsciousness, Neel drifted far away from the present back into the fragile, sunlit memories of his childhood, where everything was simple… and Aisha was always by his side.

He saw a little girl running across a field, her laughter ringing like tiny bells in the warm air.

Her hair flew behind her as she turned back, smiling at him  the same bright, careless smile that had once been the center of his world.

“Neel, catch me if you can!” she called, her voice echoing softly in the quiet corners of his fading mind.

And he ran… just like he used to.

No pain, no darkness, no suffocating weight in his chest only the innocent happiness of those days when loving her felt as natural as breathing.

In that dreamlike place, he wasn’t broken. He wasn’t lost.

He was just a boy again… and Aisha was still there, waiting for him.

Meanwhile, Aisha boarded a train in Delhi, completely oblivious to its destination.

As the train pulled away, she stared out of the window, her mind drifting back to her childhood memories with Neel.

Neel was ten years old, and Aisha was only six when he first came to her house during the summer holidays with his father.

Quiet and reserved, Neel stood close to his dad, his small hands clenched together, eyes silently

observing everything around him.

Aisha’s father, Yogesh, smiled warmly and said, “Aisha beta, this is Neel… and Neel, this is Aisha, my daughter.”

Neel looked at her but said nothing.

Aisha, however, beamed at him with an innocent smile that lit up her tiny face. “Neel, will you play with me?” she asked eagerly.

Neel remained silent, lowering his gaze.

“Aisha, don’t trouble Neel, okay?”

Yogesh said gently. “I’m going to the office with his father. When Neel’s papa comes back tonight, he’ll take him home. Promise me you won’t trouble him.”

Aisha looked up at him with wide, innocent eyes and nodded softly. “Hmm… Papa, I won’t trouble him.”

“And don’t trouble your mummy either, Aisha. She isn’t feeling well today,” he added.

“Okay, Papa,” she replied obediently.

Neel’s father, Ravindra, who had been quietly watching, noticed Aisha’s little face puff up in mock annoyance as Yogesh kept instructing her.

He chuckled and said, “Sir, Aisha beti seems like a very sweet child. She doesn’t trouble anyone. Why are you warning her so much?”

Yogesh laughed affectionately. “Yes, I know my princess doesn’t trouble anyone… she just talks so much that people end up getting troubled on their own.”

Aisha pouted even more, crossing her tiny arms.

Ravindra shook his head with a smile. “No, sir. Aisha beti speaks such lovely things that people feel happy listening to her.”

Yogesh’s eyes softened as he looked at his daughter, a quiet smile forming on his face. “Hmm… that’s true.”

When Yogesh and Ravindra left for the office, only Neel and Aisha remained in the house.

Neel quietly took out a book from his bag and began to read, as if the world around him didn’t exist.

But Aisha was not someone who could sit in silence.

She plopped down beside him and started talking endlessly, her curious

little eyes fixed on his calm face.

“Which school do you go to? How old are you? Why are you so tall? Why don’t you say anything? Do you know I got a baby brother a week ago? Mama and Papa don’t let me go near him much. They say he’s very small… but why is he so small?” she asked in one breath, barely pausing.

Neel kept his eyes on the book, pretending to read, though the corners of the page trembled slightly in his hands.

“Acha… will you play with me?” she asked again, softer this time. “No one plays with me. Will you be my friend? Please say something…”

Her voice, so full of innocent hope, hung in the quiet room.

Neel kept reading his book, not looking at her even once. It was as if her presence didn’t matter at all.

When Aisha realized he was completely ignoring her, anger bubbled up inside her tiny heart.

In a sudden burst of frustration, she grabbed his hair and pulled it hard.

Neel winced in pain, his fingers tightening around the book, but he still didn’t say a word.

The pain throbbed where her small hand tugged at his hair, yet he remained silent, as if he had built walls around himself that no one could cross.

“Say something! Why don’t you talk?” Aisha demanded angrily, her voice trembling with hurt more than rage.

But Neel gave no answer.

Just then, Aisha’s mother, Shilpa, stepped out of her room and froze at the sight before her.

Her eyes widened in shock.

“Aisha! What are you doing? Leave his hair right now!” she shouted, rushing toward them.

Startled and frightened, Aisha immediately let go.

Fear flashed across her face, and before anyone could stop her, she ran away to her room.

Shilpa turned to Neel at once, her expression softening with concern.

She knelt beside him gently. “Are you okay, beta?” she asked in a tender voice.

Neel didn’t reply.

Tears had quietly filled his eyes, clinging to his lashes, but he stayed silent holding back his pain the only way he knew how.

Shilpa gently placed her hand on the spot where Aisha had pulled his hair, softly rubbing it as if she could ease his pain. “I’m so sorry, beta,” she said tenderly. “She’s just a little child… she doesn’t understand. Please forgive her, okay?”

Neel said nothing.

His head remained lowered, his eyes fixed on the floor, as if the words couldn’t reach the quiet place he had hidden himself in.

Seeing him like that made Shilpa’s heart ache with guilt.

She sighed softly, then spoke in a warmer tone, trying to comfort him. “Come on… the food is ready. You must be hungry, right?”

Still, no response.

“Come with me,” she said gently.

This time, Neel slowly stood up and followed her, his small steps hesitant, like he was unsure where he belonged.

They walked to the dining table, where Shilpa asked the maid to serve food for him.

Then she turned to the maid and said, “Go call Aisha too. Tell her to come eat.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the maid replied before walking away.

The maid brought Aisha to the dining table. Aisha knew she had done something wrong to Neel, and the guilt sat heavily in her small heart.

She walked slowly and stood beside the table, her fingers nervously twisting the edge of her dress.

Shilpa looked at her sternly. “Aisha, say sorry to Neel right now.”

Aisha hesitated, then muttered defensively, “But he wasn’t talking to me… that’s why I pulled his hair.”

Shilpa’s expression hardened. “So if someone doesn’t talk to you,  will you hurt them?” she said sharply. “Say sorry this instant or be ready for

boarding school.”

Fear flashed across Aisha’s face. Her eyes widened, and she quickly turned toward Neel.

“Sorry…” she whispered, her voice small and trembling.

Neel didn’t respond. He kept eating quietly, as if he hadn’t heard her at all.

When he gave no reaction, frustration burned inside Aisha again. She clenched her tiny fists but said nothing this time.

Shilpa exhaled, her tone softening.

“Okay, now sit and eat.”

Aisha silently took her seat and began to eat, stealing small glances at Neel the quiet boy who had somehow become the center of her storm of emotions.

The entire summer passed like that. Neel never spoke to anyone.

He remained wrapped in his silence, distant and unreachable.

Aisha grew more and more annoyed with him  angry that he wouldn’t talk to her, wouldn’t play with her, wouldn’t even become her friend.

Then summer ended, and Neel stopped coming to her house altogether.

Aisha started going to her new school, unaware that Neel studied in the same school too.

He was four years older than her, in a completely different class, living in a world far from hers.

One day, Aisha was standing outside the school with her friends when her eyes suddenly fell on a familiar figure.

It was Neel.

Some older boys had surrounded him, teasing and pushing him around. Aisha frowned in confusion.

She didn’t understand why he was just standing there quietly… why he wasn’t saying anything, why he wasn’t fighting back.

Then one of the boys shoved him hard.

Neel lost his balance and fell to the ground, his hand scraping against the rough surface.

A sharp sting shot through his palm as blood slowly appeared.

Before she even realized it, Aisha was

already running toward them, her small feet pounding against the ground.

“Why are you all troubling him?” she shouted, standing in front of Neel like a tiny shield. “Go away, or I’ll tell the teacher!”

Her voice trembled, but her eyes burned with fierce determination.

The older boys burst into laughter. “Oh really? You’ll call the teacher? Go ahead  let’s see what they do,” one of them mocked.

Neel stood silently behind Aisha, his head slightly lowered, saying nothing.

Just then, Aisha spotted a few teachers walking toward the corridor.

Her eyes lit up, and she waved frantically. “Sir! Ma’am! Please come here these boys are troubling us!” she called out loudly.

The teachers hurried over. “What happened?” they asked, their voices firm.

Aisha quickly told them everything, her words tumbling out in a rush.

As she spoke, the confidence drained from the older boys’ faces.

Fear replaced their earlier arrogance.

The teachers scolded them harshly and gave them punishment, sending them away in silence.

Aisha’s face brightened instantly.

She turned toward Neel with a wide, proud smile the kind that shone like sunlight after a storm.

But Neel said nothing.

He simply turned and began to walk

away.

Aisha’s smile faded, replaced by irritation.

She stomped after him and blocked his path. “Hey! Where are you going? I saved you at least say thank you!”

Neel remained quiet and tried to walk past her again.

She stepped in front of him once more, crossing her arms. “So much attitude, huh? I’m talking to you nicely and you’re acting like this?”

Neel hesitated. His fingers curled slightly, his eyes flickering with nervousness.

Gathering all his courage, he finally whispered, almost inaudibly, “Thank you…”

The moment his voice reached her ears, Aisha froze.

Her eyes widened in pure shock.

For the first time, she had heard him speak.

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