Being the only Indian act played on the stage, Radha-Krishna play was showered with applauses from the crowd. The audience were quite satisfied with the play along with the judges.

At the end of the competition, Anuradha and her team brought back a trophy, winning the third place in the competition, a trophy for amazing backdrop setup and the official declaration of hosting next year's annual competition.

Everyone were celebrating for the first twenty minutes of the trip back to their hostel then slowly all drifted to a short nap. The bus was almost silent with only few whispering and the cars whooshing ahead of the bus.

Anuradha sat at the front with Cameron as he was insisting to talk to her and also to enjoy the view. That never happened, Cameron was the first to sleep right after the bus took off. Anuradha was grateful for the silent ride as she enjoyed the beautiful view of the nature painting the huge canvas.

At the end of the bus, Karthik sat in a corner with a medal in his hand. Gazing at the big gold coin with words engraved on it, a pair of eyes flashed before him.

A pair of brown eyes looking straight into his, sending an unusual feel in him. He held the medal tighter and shut his eyes trying to get the strange feel out of him. It wasn't leaving him, it just got stronger. Twitching from within. Musical notes unexpectedly started assembling themselves mentally forming a beautiful tune.

A melodious tune.

'What kind of feel is this?' he asked himself as he took out a piece of paper and pen, jolting down the notes before they fade away. Karthik Manohar had the ear to ear smile writing down the notes.

Replacing the pen and paper with the medal again, Karthik Manohar gazed out the window. They were passing by the countryside somewhere between Bath and London, the cottages that came to his view gave him a wish to stay in such house one day.

His mind drifted to some hours back.

The winners have been finalised and the six teams were called on stage. The stage was almost filled that it was getting hard to distinguish which team is which.

The committee had hand over a number of envelopes to the host to announce the winner as they took the position at the end of the stage on the right side where all the trophies were kept.

Anuradha's team won a trophy for the Best Backdrop Setup throughout the competition. A very first award for the evening, Anuradha was very proud of  Christopher. 

The next call of their name shook the ground off, Best Couple Act Performance. Anuradha and Manohar exchanged glances with so much confusion as they walked to the award presenter.

The presenter whispered, "You both did tremendous job in all you act as a couple. All the best"

'The Best Couple Act Performance' Karthik Manohar read it again for the hundredth time or so.

And each time he read it, there was a twitch in him.

He tried to shake off the thought and put back the medal inside his bag nicely cover in a fabric so he won't see it again.

The sky was already covered with black velvet studded with blings by the time they reach their hostel.

All knew it was time for filling in the stomach when Manoj started to grumble as he moved things into the store where they keep they props and costumes.

Soon they found a place for them in the canteen and ordered the not-so-good food just to stop the growling in them.

Too tired to get good food.

In the silent devouring someone from the end of he table asked about Anuradha's sudden disappearance and it was time to do some story telling.

Manohar took the privilege of narrating them on what happen.

"It's best for you if you leave her" Anuradha snapped her head to the direction of the voice.

"What took you so long?" Anuradha yelled to Manohar.

Manohar gasped at Anuradha question, "What?"

"Enough!" Ana yanked her as she winced.

"Shut and leave me!"

"Leave her, Ana!"

"NO!"

Ana, Anuradha and Manohar got into an argument for no reason. Anuradha now got what Ana was trying to say earlier.

Ana wanted to keep them here until their slot gets over and they won't be able to perform.

Manohar kept looking behind as if he was waiting for someone to come.

"Ana! Leave her or you will regret later for doing this" Manohar let out a sigh of relieve as Tiffany walked to group.

"What took you so long, Tiffany?" Manohar yelled as she passed him.

"It's not easy to find a place you never been before" she said and head to Anuradha and the girls. The boys with them had ran off as soon as Manohar and Jacob came now only a few girls were left.

Manohar had called Tiffany to help as he won't be able to do much with so many girls and boys who looked no less than goons.

"You are trying to spoil our college name Ana!" Tiffany said. "Leave her or you will have to face your father" Tiffany personally knew Ana and her father thus it made it easier for her to let Anuradha go feeling defeated.

It was not that easy but a little struggle from Anuradha's side freed her from the girls' hold.

"Manohar is solely to be blamed for all the happenings today because if he had gone with anyone of them, I wouldn't have got caught by them and we wouldn't have been rushing to start our play today" Anuradha suddenly blurted.

A few seconds of silence followed a thunderous laughter as everyone started to eat their dinner again.

*-*-*-*

The topic rose again at the same place by the same person but the two who reacted earlier now remained calm. Why?

They aren't alone but the entire Dance and Drama Club members were present as well.

Anuradha and Manohar uttered nothing as everyone was continuously talking about their play in particular to justify the judges' made the right decision in giving them the Best Couple Performance award.

As Anuradha's gaze was stuck on the creamy soup in front of her, Manohar had his on hers.

'That brown eyes'

****************

2024 author's note: I did not do much editing to this chapter although it had everything everywhere. It's an absolute chaos, sorry about that. 

https://youtu.be/ohvUrStUGjY