“I love you,” she whispered into her pink cell phone. Nothing but music and the rustle of paper returned what she thought was an open and honest expression. “Did you hear me?” she paused. “I said I love you.” Nandini waited for a response and slowly her heart started racing. A storm of thoughts surrounded her mind, as the music from the other side of the phone seemed to get louder. “Oh!” she thought, “I have committed a big mistake” and cut the phone right away.

She moved around in the hall area restlessly, not wanting to believe what had just happened. After all these years of friendship, Nandini thought that Arjun would someday express his love to her. However, Nandini could not wait more and so she took the first step. But damn, all this gutsiness felt so wrong to her right now.

She felt dejected about the fact that Arjun did not say a word after she confessed her love for him. “He could have said no to me or at least could have asked me to talk about this later. Just some words would have been sufficient”, she said to herself. Nandini could not contain her displaced emotions and therefore she decided to meet Arjun. She swiftly slipped on her sneakers and ran up the stairs to reach the terrace. A few hostel girls were present there, but Nandini did not care and so she jumped on to the terrace of the next building. She was not some athletic champion, but over the years she had mastered the art of sneaking out from the girl’s hostel to the boy’s hostel, thanks to Arjun.

Though she had started in a hurry, Nandini now felt her legs slowing down steadily as she was nearing Arjun’s room. She again found her heart pounding, like at the time on the phone and suddenly, she stopped. She turned and started to walk back to her hostel. Until, a creaky sound halted her movement and she looked back. A tall bearded guy, with black curly locks falling over his forehead, wearing ripped denims and a check shirt, was standing in the corridor, looking at her. It was Arjun. Nandini began to tremble looking towards him and gathered some courage to ask him, “Why didn’t you say anything on the phone?” He said, “Wasn’t the music and the sound of the letter pad papers enough?’ Angrily Nandini replied, “No”. Arjun then asked, “What else do you expect from a poet?” Nandini was not in a mood to say anything anymore, however her insides craved to listen to those three magical words from Arjun’s mouth.

Nandini began to leave and in the spur of the moment, Arjun ran and hugged her from behind. She broke down into tears as her fluttering feelings could not stay within her any more. Arjun turned her face towards him and wiped off her tears. And then, surprised Nandini with yet another question, “Will you marry me?”

On hearing this, Nandini was dazed and felt that she was living a dream. She kept on looking into his eyes and then Arjun interrupted their love struck moment, asking Nandini for an answer. She didn’t say anything and just coughed. Arjun was puzzled, he again asked her, “Ms Nandini Biswas, will you marry me?’ Nandini still coughed. Arjun felt little jitters in his stomach. He gave a confused look to Nandini and then, she looked at him and said, “Wasn’t the sound of my cough enough?” They both burst out laughing and embraced each other with the joy and warmth of their new found love.