___

He had been four years old when his mother had told him that the most colourful insects were the most venomous ones. He was seven years old when he looked into her moss green eyes and realised how much truth that statement held.

There she stood in her neatly ironed uniform, a toothy smile, except that one of her canines was missing. Her light brown hair was tied up into two ponies on top of her head, resembling strikingly to that of two coconut trees. A Hershey's bar extended in his direction.

He recognised the chocolate instantly, it was the fancy one his Abhi Chachu had gotten from the States. It was what his sister and him had fought tooth and nail over. Any other kid his age would have jumped over the opportunity and grabbed the chocolate but, he didn't. He was peculiar like that. Concealing his gluttony, he wordlessly turned his head the other-side.

From the corner of his eye he could see her smile drop, quickly replaced by a frown. Nevertheless the girl put the chocolate down on his table and pulled at his sleeve.

"Naina Menon." She introduced herself, her voice laced thickly with a foreign accent. It was definitely not the same as his Chachu's when he had returned from the States.

"Agastya Bakshi" Reluctantly he introduced himself, still thoroughly fascinated by her, not that he let it show on his face.

"See you around, Agastya!" She smiled widely, as she trodded to the seat behind him and started chatting with the other girls.

Ags-t-ya

Her accent almost made him believe that his parents had been pronouncing his name wrong since birth.

___

Her kindness didn't last long, in-fact it ended in barely weeks. He always gave her the impression that he didn't want to be her friend. His constant blank stares, nonchalant behaviour and rude responses, fuelled Naina's anger towards him. The last straw was when he scored the highest marks in almost all the subjects in their finals and behaved as if he hadn't worked for it at all. Like heck he didn't.

Naina had always excelled first in anything she did. She was a three time abacus winner, a pianist and always on top of her class. How had she landed second to him out of all people?

Her little mind intensified in anger that soon turned to hatred when she heard one of her classmate's whining about how Agastya had given the watchman of their school a bar of Hershey's chocolate on the first day of reopening. That little idiot! How dare he?

From then on there was only one thing on Naina's mind. She wouldn't let him win at all!

There the competition began, the both of them rivalling for marks. Influencing teachers to deduct the other person's marks, not playing fair most times as they tried their best to sabotage each other's efforts. Well, Agastya barely ever put in efforts at all. He was a little, scratch that, he was very much arrogantly smart. And that of course, got on Naina's nerves, because she religiously studied eight hours a day. Her head was always buried in books.

By now, the majority of the class disliked the two of them. They were now in 10th grade and were always isolated from the rest of the class. Naina was a teacher's pet and annoyed the other students whilst asking about due assignments and forgotten tests. She however did have one friend who was incredibly sweet to put up with her atrocious behaviour and a super gregarious cousin who kept her in loop with the outside world. Agastya on the other hand, was always disdainfully aloof, he refused to interact beyond needed, but unlike his foe, he was tolerated or even liked amongst the boys, a result from being their school football captain, while the girls adored him for his boyish charms.

They interacted or more like argued on a daily basis, it was quite the entertainment to their class as they deviated from lectures, debating their abilities much to the teaching faculties' contempt.

Once Agastya had scored a full centum in mathematics, the fifth time in a row that year and had mockingly smiled at Naina when the teacher praised him. Naina had consistently gotten a half mark or one mark less. To rub it in her face, he also went on to proudly promise the teacher that he would score another hundred next time as well, looking directly in her eyes.

In the middle of the class she had screamed at him, "You incorrigible prick! You think you are more superior than anyone around you!"

He just smugly smiled as the teacher reprimanded her, but later that evening he had whispered in her ear during break, when no one was looking.
"I don't just think it. I know it. But don't you worry, my little insect, I will let you bask in my shadow every now or then."

That demeaning piece of shit!

The next time, Naina worked so hard and much to her heart's content, she had gotten a centum and guess who hadn't?
She sassily, walked past him accidentally slamming her answer sheet into his face, but he seemed unfazed at best as he clapped his hands for her along with the rest of the class.

Her centum seemed meaningless. Her hardwork was futile.

That was when Naina Menon realised how much power the nefarious Agastya Bakshi had over her. She loathed it!

___

A day came for the class of XI-A, something they had never expected to see. A Halley's Comet!
It came striding in class, in the face of Mrs Mihika Bajaj. She was the strictest teacher in the entire grade and taught Physics.

Their previous physics teacher had gone on maternity leave and as a result the class of XI-A was deployed into the fingers of the devil herself.

She strode into class carrying a stack of unchecked answer papers under one arm and a steel scale under the other. Dressed in a dark brown saree and a high bun added with intense kajal and a huge bindi, she looked like a vamp straight out of a daily soap most saw on their cable tvs.
A stark contrast to their previous physics teacher who was as soft spoken as a feather.

Soon she took over the last task that was left of their class before their pre-boards. A pair project. Randomly dividing the class of 44, into pairs of 22, she ended up sorting the two rivals into a single pair. Of course, Agastya & Naina were paired together.

What a blasphemy. Nobody had dared to sort the duo conjunctively in their years studying together. All the teachers were well aware of the budding competition and enmity, and surprisingly had always resorted to maintaining the peace. Some teachers just preferred pairing them up with weaker students to help them cope up or rather just enjoyed the entertaining feud. It oddly had never crossed their minds to pair them up.

Naina had rushed to the teacher's desk as fast as she could and profusely explained all the reasons as to why this was a bad decision, but the devil refused to even acknowledge her presence as she continued marking the papers, occasionally sipping onto her tea from the paper cup. She was already infuriated at being held up with extra work because of the lack in physics faculty and hated whiney children anyways. So she thundered down at Naina.

"Stop complaining, girl! You either do this or don't. I will not give you marks. Now go away."

A teary eyed Naina filled with wrath and humiliation of being screamed at in front of the entire class quietly went back and sat down at her seat. She leaned her head down into her folded arms and let the silent tears fall. Her friend, Roop, gently rubbed her back in consolation and muttered curses against the teacher, while her cousin, Aagney, cracked stupid jokes trying to cheer her up. But none of that worked and this remained until the end of the school day. Almost everyone felt bad for Naina Menon that day. Even the ones that didn't like her.

When the dispersal started, instead of taking the school bus, Naina decided to walk. She didn't want to go home early and study. She just wanted to cry her heart out and hope that Mrs Mihika ends up falling in sewage or has a rabid dog chase after her.

"Menon!"
She ignored it, because she knew who it was.

"Naina! Stop." The voice called out following by thudding foot steps, catching up with her.

"With all due respect, which is none. You are the last person I want to see right now." She snarled as soon as his face came into her vision.

"I know. But, we need to work together, whether you like it or not. So to make you a little less miserable I have a plan."  Came his breathy voice as his lean chest heaved up and down from the running.

"Just leave me alone, Bakshi." Naina sighed, tired out of her wits, it had been a long day. She turned around about to leave but, he grabbed her by the forearm turning her back around.

"It's about Mrs Mihika, little insect!" His eyes twinkled with mischief, something that she had never seen before.

"What about her? I don't care." She replied back bitterly, his warm fingers still wrapped around her arm.

"Well, it involves puncturing her bike and something along the lines of her not leaving school early."

"I don't trust you at all, Bakshi. I would rather believe a pathological stranger over the likes of you."

"I hope you don't, for your own wellbeing. But, would you rather let your animosity towards me take over the hatred you feel for Mrs Mihika is the question." Agastya smirked gleefully, as he tilted his head sideways. Soft black tresses falling on his forehead.

Naina stared at him wide eyed, the wheels in her brain spinning for all the possibilities.

Do not pretend that you are some meek, pathetic little goodie two shoes, when I can literally see that vicious mind of yours working behind your eyes!, he wanted to scream. It was like a moth lured in to the flame.

"Why are you doing this?" She questioned a few beats later, looking at him with challenging eyes. The same ones she gave him everytime they started writing their papers.

He simply shrugged, not even bothering to acknowledge her question. This caused Naina to want to smack him in the face with her lunch bag, but she held back and took a deep breath before replying.

"Let's get this over with. Tell me your plan."

___

That year, Naina Menon & Agastya Bakshi's project had been the best the school had seen in years. It was a working prototype of a sustainable generator that ran on plastic waste.
The project was later featured in a local newspaper which was progressively nominated for a science fair award.

Safe to say, the once rivalling duo didn't hate each other as much. After puncturing Mrs Mihika's tires that day, they ran hard and fast until they reached the neighbourhood they lived in. They then shared a mango duet and chocobar, chatting about their project and more. Unsurprisingly enough their topics of interest were quite similar, ranging from books to songs.

What only brought them closer was when, once a classmate of theirs, Vinay, blamed Naina for copying from him during one of their chemistry exams. Vinay had always been a close third or even fourth occasionally in studies to Naina and Agastya. So the claim was investigated by the higher authorities, the risk of suspension loomed high over Naina's head. But, just then Agastya had jumped in, asking the teachers to check the cctv that was right outside their classroom, fortunately giving a direct view on the table where Vinay and Naina had written their exam.

Much to Vinay's chagrin, the surveillance only revealed how he was trying to peep into an oblivious Naina's paper, while she didn't even lift her head the entire time.

Vinay was not suspended as such, because of his influential parents but Agastya did skill-fully manage to disbar him from all of the games that year.

Naina and Agastya's cordial relationship grew skies after that. They even sat beside each other and shared lunches, talking in hushed voices.

At one point the psychology students of their class were so fascinated by the change in the dynamics that they had somehow convinced their teacher to let them conduct a case report on the duo. That is how unknowingly for the first time, Naina and  Agastya had become part of a social experiment.

____

Then came the day, another turn into the history of their school, the now class of XII-A, was wrapping up their pre-boards and were in hasty preparations for their farewell. The most awaited event in any student's life.

Naina had been going to all of Agastya's football games only because he had very graciously invited her, not that she'd willingly go anyways. She secretly loved the way his eyes would search for her in the crowd and would light up the second they landed on her, like a puppy seeing its treat.

She was the first person he would smile at whenever they won. It made her feel so giddy in the stomach. Their correspondence with each other had changed so much and in her heart she knew certain feelings were brewing within. Feelings she was refusing to acknowledge.

"Naina?" A familiar voice called out for her as she sat on the bleachers, overlooking another one of Agastya's games with a Chemistry textbook resting on her lap.

"Dev!" Naina smiled acknowledging him. He was a classmate from her Computer Class. "Please sit."

"Naina.. I actually wanted to ask you something." He exclaimed, fixing his glasses as he nervously pulled at his shirt.

"Yes?" She frowned, signalling him to continue.

"Well.. I heard a few girls talking about how one of them is going to ask Agastya to be her boyfriend.. and so I thought if Agastya is not dating you.. then, would you like to be my girlfriend?" Dev professed with eyes full of sincerity. But, Naina's mind had halted the moment he mentioned Agastya's name linked with someone else.

She hurriedly stood up, her book hugged to her chest, her eyes unconsciously darting towards him on the field, the boy who ripped her heart out, without her knowledge. How dare he? She never gave him the permission to do that, did she? But it was her mistake after all. She wasn't supposed to fall.

Pushing past Dev, she exited the bleachers. Dev still calling out her name. Eyes filled with heavy tears, her moss green eyes drowning to the depths of the ocean.

Suddenly, she turned around to the remorsefully apologetic Dev.
"I am so sorry, Dev. You are a great guy and you deserve a girl who will like you just as much as you like her. I just simply know that I am not that girl."

As brutally harsh that was, it was all Naina could come up with. Her heart felt so heavy, like it had no cure. Why did it have to be him? Why was Agastya Bakshi the cause of her madness once again? Why couldn't she bring herself to hate him once again like before?

Her brain knew what she had to do, but her heart just wasn't ready.

___

By the time the farewell had arrived, the ice was back between Agastya and Naina. Well, Naina ignored him whenever she saw. She had started to look at the floor rather than staring him down in the eye with fierceness everytime she passed by him. He felt like he had started dying a little on the inside, whenever that happened.

He was beyond frustrated about it. Because he didn't know what had happened. They had been as perfectly fine as they had ever been before his game. She had even waved at him from the bleachers. But then she had disappeared by the time the game ended.

He wanted to ask her out to be his girlfriend soon. He thought everything was going well, but now did he realise that despite him liking her a lot, like alot. Her being everything he wanted and more. Her being his. Girls like her don't fall for boys like him. That was his reality after all.

The one girl he wanted didn't want him.

But, he did want to know what went wrong. He just hoped she would come to the farewell, or else he would have to sneak over to her house and confront.

Right then, she walked in. In a mahogany red layered saari, her short hair twisted in a bun and two rustic looking earrings dangling from her ears. A thin gold chain with the letter N strung around her dainty neck.

Tadpaaye mujhe teri sabhi baatein
Ek baar ae deewane jhootha hi sahi pyaar toh kar

The lyrics to her favourite song rang in his ears. He didn't know what was happening but his heart sped up and he couldn't breathe properly. It felt like a dream. Till now he felt like he was missing her in waves, but, tonight he was drowning, even when she stood right in front of him.

Main bhooli nahin haseen mulaaqaatein
Bechain karke mujhko mujhse yun na pher nazar

Her eyes began scanning the auditorium probably searching for him, before they did land on his, as if knowing his gaze was on her. He was staring back right at her.

Roothega na mujhse, mere saathiya yeh vaada kar
Tere bina mushkil hai jeena mera mere dilbar

They looked at each other, baffled in love or hate, the lines had blurred long back. Taking slow steps Naina started towards him, he sprinted quickly towards her. He himself was dressed immaculately in a black two pieces suit, his hair gelled back. Everyone was definitely eyeing all over the duo.

"Agastya.." she said his name for the first time in years, it was always Bakshi or a curse word. But tonight it was just Ags-t-ya, her faint accent still lingered.

"Naina.." A whispered, swallowing the lump that was forming in his throat.

"Can we talk somewhere more private?" She asked looking at him expectantly through her moss green eyes, painted with a winged liner and a silver shade of eyeshadow.

He wordlessly grabbed her hand and dragged her towards the block where their classrooms where, where they had met each other the first time. The door was open, as he had sneaked the keys from the watchman.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" She questioned as soon as they reached, looking at him with her demanding eyes. If she kept doing this, he would be on his knees for her.

"I don't." He answered truthfully watching her slump down on a desk behind, in relief.

"Do you plan on having one?"

"Well.." a small smile played at his lips as she frowned in anticipation, waiting for his answer. "Depends on if the girl I am going to ask out says yes."

Licking her red stained lips, she expectantly looked at him.
"Who is this girl?"

"Let's start all over again shall we?" He grumbled out wide, removing a Hershey's chocolate bar from his pocket and sliding it towards her on the desk.

"Agastya Bakshi."

"Naina Menon" She replied a few beats later, a wide toothy grin breaking at her lips, this time all her teeth were intact.
The same smile that couldn't let him think straight the entire day. It was as unforgettable as ever.

It was always her. Her since the time she had entered his life, his school. Everytime she glared at him. Everytime she cursed him for scoring more than her. Everytime she was petty to prove herself better. Everytime she won. Everytime he ate, he studied, he slept. She was everything & everywhere. It was always her.

"So what's this between us?" She questioned, crossing one leg on top of the other. The stupid grin not leaving her face.

Agastya walked towards her and leaned down on his knees before her. His eyes twinkling with joy and a similar grin on his lips.
"Nothing" he whispered, but by then Naina had jumped into his arms, clashing her lips against his. Bruising force against his soft ones. She wanted him to know. To have no doubts.
His hand wrapped around the back of her neck as the other held her waist, kissing her back equally, mustering all his pent up years of longing.

He was right, there was nothing between them. Not even air. They were moulded perfectly to each other.
Pulling back, the both of them breathed hard, their foreheads resting against each other.

"I don't hate you. I never did." Naina felt the need to say it out loud. To have him hear it.

"I know, little insect." He murmured, tightening his arms around her, as he leaned back.

"I should have hated you, you know. You were a jackass." She looked at him, her eyes shining with nothing but adoration.

"You should have. But I am glad you didn't." He whispered softly, his hands on either side of side of her head, his thumb caressing her cheeks tenderly. "I am the luckiest jackass in the whole wide world that you couldn't manage to hate."

___

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