Intro: A glimpse of YASHIKA ☆

YASH SINGHANIA ☆

Yash Singhania is the man everyone envies. The world sees him as an empire in human form-towering, indomitable, and terrifyingly perfect. But perfection is a cruel prison. Beneath the tailored suits and the razor-sharp smile is a man broken into fragments so small, even he can't piece himself back together. His nights are his undoing. When the applause fades and the rooms empty, he is left with nothing but silence-a deafening, suffocating void.

The weight of expectations is relentless. For years, he has carried the dreams of others, twisted into burdens on his shoulders. Be the best. Stay the best. Never falter. Never fall. It's an endless mantra that crushes him, yet he never complains. He can't. Because Yash Singhania is not allowed to fail.

But when the night stretches cold and endless, he breaks. Tears stream silently down his face, soaking the pillows that bear witness to his vulnerability. He clutches his chest, desperate to breathe past the invisible chains that bind him. His laughter, his arrogance, his confidence-they are all a performance. A performance for a world that will never see the man behind the curtain, trembling under the weight of being everything to everyone and nothing to himself.

ISHIKA SEHGAL ☆

Ishika Sehgal, on the other hand, is a storm-a tempest of strength and defiance. She's the woman every girl wants to be, the kind of person who doesn't take no for an answer. She's sharp-tongued, fearless, and unapologetic. But storms aren't born-they are created, often by pain.

Behind Ishika's fierce independence lies a girl who never got the love she needed. A girl who grew up in a house where silence screamed louder than words. Her father, a man of power and prestige, saw her as a pawn-a means to an end. She spent her childhood chasing his approval, only to find herself met with indifference. "You're not enough" his cold eyes seemed to say every time she tried. And so, she stopped trying.

Her mother's absence was a wound that never healed. Ishika doesn't even remember her face anymore, just the feeling of her arms-warm, protective, and irreplaceable. She craves that warmth in the deepest, most fragile parts of her soul, but she doesn't know how to ask for it. She's too scared to be vulnerable, too scared to let anyone see that beneath her armor is a girl who just wants to be loved.

YASHIKA ☆

When Yash and Ishika stand before the world, they are rivals. But in the quiet moments, they are shattered beings, each carrying pieces of themselves they don't know how to fix.

The question isn't whether they'll fall in love. The question is whether love is enough to heal wounds this deep. Because what happens when two broken people try to hold each other? Do they mend each other's cracks, or do they shatter further, scattering the pieces into nothing?

Some night, Yash wonders if the expectations will kill him. Some night, Ishika wonders if she's even capable of being loved. They are strangers, yet the same. Two halves of a broken mirror, reflecting pain neither of them dares to speak of.

But what if? What if their brokeness isn't the end of the story? What if the fractures in their hearts aren't weaknesses, but the place where light enters? What if, against all odds, they could be each other's safe place?

What if... just this once, love could be enough?

━━༻❁༺━━

NOTE ☆

1) No cheating, no arrange marriage trope.

2) Slow burn romance.

3) No misunderstandings, no dumb female lead or rapist/abusive/egoistic male lead.

4) No smut. Detailed scenes with emotional turmoil.

5) Normally written in 3rd person's POV but I might switch into other character's POV as per convenience.

6) Tropes:

• Rivals to lovers (because enemies to lovers is overrated)
• Healing each other
• Broken × Broken
• Business rivals
• Forbidden love

Note: Please excuse the grammatical errors. Honestly, I review the chapters multiple times before publishing but if there are STILL grammatical errors, please don't mind them! <3

Thank you! ♡