Karthik Manohar looked over the crowd. The most favourite view of his, the view of his fans waiting to shower love on him. An established singer from the famous band Wings, is a soul that loves to be let free and one who is always up for mischiefs and having fun interacting with his fans. In every concert, Manohar would make a unique entry to the stage thus this time he wanted to make his entrance walking up from the crowd to the stage.

Anuradha stood in a queue for ticket checking with her two friends Cameron and Christopher. Anuradha being a music lover never failed to attend her favourite bands' concert each time they come to her city.

Looking over the queue, 'will I ever get in before the concert starts' she thought. Soon their turn came and three of them rushed in to get the nearest spot to the stage with Cameron and Christopher guarding her like a baby.

The show was about to start and the fans are already screaming the names of the artist and whistling in craze waiting for the band to rock the night.

All preparation was set right, after two songs from Manoj and Shika the guitarist and lady singer of the band, Manohar would join them from where ever he is.

In the crowd Manohar sneaked in with a hoody and a huge black shade to disguise himself surrounding him, his friends who now turned to be bodyguards till he reaches the stage.

The first song by Manoj excited the crowd as they kept moving, dancing and jumping to the song. Slowly, he started moving forward towards the stage.

"I can't see a thing from here, Cam!" Anuradha shouted. Grabbing one of the two's hand, she walked to the front of the stage pushing the many crazy going fans. Sweat beads started flowing down her face by the time she reached to a viewable spot.

"Ahh... isn't this better?" she said.

"Indeed, better and nearer" came a husky voice, a voice which does not belong to any of her two friends. Anuradha almost jumped out of her skin when she turned and realised she had pulled a complete stranger leaving her two friends behind.

"I-I'm-I'm sorry. I thought you were... I'm sorry" her cheeks flushed red.

"It's better to enjoy the moment. You can be embarrassed about this later" he whispered softly in her ear.

*--*--*

"What just happen?" Manohar thought. He was suddenly pulled by a girl out of nowhere pushing and squeezing through the crowd, heading to the front as though she had come to help him reach the stage before the song ends.

Her enthusiasm fascinated him, as she kept singing along while squeezing through the crowd.

The fire ball that's sinking into the horizon, spreading shades of orange glowed the sky depicting the same glow she had on her. Tint of red hue on her cheeks deepened, dropping her head down, she stammered for an apology.

Something about her was giving a breeze of new profound feeling in him. He wanted to see more of that enthusiastic girl and not the one who's going to spend the rest of the day feeling embarrassed.

"Where have all your excitement gone?" he asked after observing her a minute.

"I lost all my excitement, I need to go and find my friends" she said ready to walk back to where she came from.

"What?! Lost excitement? Now was that because you grabbed my hand rather your friends'?"

"It's my fault, I should have seen before dragging you with me... I... uh... never mind" Anuradha couldn't put her feeling into proper word. Though she could hardly see his feature, his close proximity and his voice was giving her a whole new feel, something she never felt before.

Her turning quiet wasn't what he wanted to see, not after seeing how excited she was when she reached the front. His mobile kept ringing but his concentration was all on the glow. "You know what? Follow me" he grabbed her hand and walked out of the crowd to the backstage which for some reason she wasn't sceptic at all.

"Where are you taking me" breathed through gritted teeth.

"Let me help cheer you up because you pulled me thinking of someone else made all your enthusiasm drain out" they enter into a room.

"Never mind mister. As soon as the Wings Rockstar makes his entry all my drained excitement and enthusiasm will be all pumped up again." His mouth twitched on hearing that.

"You won't be able to get the same spot now. So, let me sing for you" he offered as he pushed her to sit down and walked to the other side of the room.

"No thank you. It's for the Rockstar Manohar that I came not to hear you" ignoring her, Manohar dialled a series of number on his mobile.

"Give me twenty minutes, I will be up" the call was short, Anuradha now started to ponder who he actually is and why did he bring her here.

"You want to hear Manohar? You will hear him soon" he said taking off his hoody showing his back to her. She almost fell off from the chair she sat.

"Th_that ja-jacket" she stammered pointing to the black jacket he wore under his hoody.

Manohar's signature jacket, every Wings member wears one as such with their initial in every concert of theirs. Anuradha couldn't go wrong in differentiating between the two Ms in the band.

"The jacket?" he prompt turning around showing the real him without the huge black shades and the hoody that covered half of his face earlier.

Gulping the lump in her throat, "Ma_Manohar?" she said his name almost breathless.

"That's me" reducing the distance between them to almost a couple of feet, he gazed deep into her eyes. "Will you wait for me till I come back?" Manohar asked with hesitation, the guts he had when he brought her to the backstage flew in mere second as she looked at him with no expression.

He wanted to know more about her, for some reason the amber glow Manohar saw in her was pulling him closer to her. He didn't want her to say no, he waited but the constant pounding on the door was forcing him to leave her without him knowing her answer.

Anuradha stood there, perplexed as thousands of emotions running through her. She couldn't bring herself up to say a single word, her whole being turned numb. Anuradha simply looked at him.

He sighed, "I hope to see you when I come back from my performance" he ran out closing the door behind.

Anuradha's rapid heartbeat wasn't letting her to even speak, she had not moved even an inch ever since he left the room. Nothing brought her out of her trance, not that sound vibration nor the constant ringing of her phone.

Announcing a sudden change of plan in the concert after five songs, he left the stage leaving behind the disappointed fans.

Rushing back to the room, he waited for a second and cracked open the door. There she sat on the couch fidgeting with her fingers. Anuradha stood up the moment he entered the room.

"Hey! I thought you left" he said softly.

"I couldn't" was the only word she said not breaking their eye contact.

"Maybe we should go away from here?" the excitement in her was evident through her eyes that he did not wait for her to answer instead he took her hand. Throwing his signature jacket away, grabbing his hoody they headed out of the concert.

Anuradha couldn't believe her fate today, she was with her most favourite Rockstar in his car going where? She didn't care.

Enjoying the silent ride, Manohar stole glances from her at every passing traffic signals.

Finally, the drive came to stop at an ice cream parlour. "It's my favourite place, I don't remember the last time I came here but thought of bringing you here now."

"Like ice cream?" he asked

"Love them" she gave a contented smile while eyeing the ice creams.

"Do you always do this?" she asked.

"Do what?"

"Bringing random fans out like this"

"Do I look like that?"

She shrugged.

"Okay, hmm... what you like about Manohar from the Wings?" too curious to know what she thinks about him.

"I think he is very genuine, love his fans, talented, humble..." list of what she thinks of him kept growing till she almost forgot to whom she was talking to and Manohar wasn't getting tired of her never-ending list.

"And I love him for who he is" she said smiling and almost regretting for saying that when her eyes met the pair of unrelenting stare.

Sensing the awkwardness, Manohar cleared his throat and changed topic. "So, what's your name?"

"Why don't you make a guess?" she answered him with a question.

"Woah... this is going to be tough one"

"Just try"

"hmm..." taking all his sweet time, he finally spoke after ten long minutes. "My mother is an ardent devotee of Lord Krishna and assuming she prays for my protection from the evil's eyes and you are no devil's angel..." she frowned with a smile.

"Keeping my mother in heart and Lord Krishna in mind.... Your name... Radha?" he said.

She was totally struck dumb that he actually guessed her name right, Anu Radha.

The loud ringtone from her mobile brought her out of her frozen self.

"Hello" she answered which accidentally got the speaker on, she jumped out of her skin when the person on the other side of the line shouted.

"Radha! Where the hell are you?" trying to catch the phone as though it was just taken out from the oven, she off the speaker and answered the call.

Manohar couldn't get hold of his excitement, he smiled ear to ear as he had guessed her name correctly in one go. 'She is probably the one, mom sent for me' he thought looking out the sky thanking his mom who resides in heaven with Krishna.

Anuradha gave a sheepish smile as soon as ending the call. "Smart, you actually guessed it right. Are you some kind of sorcerer? "she asked.

"I just became one" he replied enjoying the glow turning hues of red.

"Radha." Her being called by him suddenly sounded sweeter than it already was. "Will your list of what you think of Manohar and the love for him be the same for me?"' he asked, a complex yet simple question.

"But both are the same person, right?" she wasn't able to comprehend.

"That Manohar is Rockstar Manohar. I want to be Radha's Manohar" he said looking directly into her not eyes but soul. The glow he saw in her wasn't just any glow, she was an angel sent by his mother. For him.

Radha.

Radha the new light to his life.

There wasn't any need to exchange words when the soul had found it's another half. The glistening corner of her eyes and her curved lips was the answer she could give.

People say good things happens at the right time, Karthik Manohar and Anuradha are no exception to that. Their similarity in interest brought them together from stranger to soulmates.

Love blooms even in the middle of a music festival.

Radha-Manohar, A Glow for the Rhythm.          

Word count: 1903 words

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A short story written for a contest. #RomanceMusicFestival
Published: April 27th 2018

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Love, DEVA <3