"Under the greens, I stayed

As the sky cried and my heart grieved

Waiting for the tears to consume

My meaningless existence"

**

HIMA PHYSICALLY RECOILED at her words.But after seeing Soumik's shocked face, she was forced to think again to check if it was enough to pique the boy's interest.
Around them, it continued to pour down, but to drink in that detail, both of them had to be aware, which they were not at the moment. It was as if they were locked in some kind of trance, neither looking away as if the moment, as fragile as ice, would melt before they knew. And it did. He chuckled, eyes crinkling at the corners as he smiled. "That was…something."
"You think?"
"Mhm." They continued walking, the pace slow and careful in the rain. The duo don't speak for a while, letting themselves be embraced by the sound of the rain slowing down. Soumik kept his gaze ahead, so did Hima.
"Want me to hold your umbrella?" Soumik asked, startling Hima. She looked away from the road to steal a glance at him.
"Huh? No."
He raised one of his eyebrows in question even though Hima couldn't see it. "Really? Your hand must be hurting a lot." He pointed at her trembling fingers.
Hima glanced down at her hand and tightened her hold. If she were asked to be honest, it did hurt. But a light burn on her upper arm was not enough for her to let go of her umbrella.
"It's fine really." she insisted, grip growing former. Soumik clicked his tongue. Hima thought that was the end—but no. As though a play of the wicked wind, the umbrella was being snatched away from her. She, from the sheer force of it, went along with the pull, making the water from the edges of the umbrella spill over her shoulder.

She squealed, following the direction in which the umbrella was moving, ears falling silent to the hearty laughter from the boy. Hima, with her heart thundering in her ears, finally found a way to snatch back her umbrella by tugging it toward her, which also resulted in pulling the boy toward her. Hima placed a hand in between her and Soumik until they were separated by mere inches.
"What was that about?!"

Soumik grinned, ear to ear. "Nothing."

Hima wanted to scoff—maybe even laugh. How was she supposed to dry her bag in this rain?

At this point, Hima couldn't even lie about not regretting asking the boy to come with her. Having had enough, she peered into the boy's eyes, firm and bold "Do that again and I'm kicking you out." she declared. Soumik kept his gaze locked with hers and whistles low.
Ignoring what she said, he continued walking alongside her, still holding on to the umbrella, fingers on the verge of meeting, trudging a territory foreign to both of them.
"You know," he started, still smiling, "I always wanted to talk to you since day one."
"Then why didn't you?"
"Well..."  his lips twisted into a wry smile as if he was contemplating whether to say it or not. “I did. On several occasions but—” he smiled to himself. “Never did we manage to hold a conversation for this long.”
"Also,” he began, the playfulness slipping into his voice once again, “Has anyone told you that you have an unapproachable aura?"
"What?" she asked, perplexed. Without taking his eyes off the road, he pulled Hima to his side to prevent her from stepping into the muddy river on the road. "There is something about you that is intimidating to others. I would have approached you, trust me, but I couldn’t. It seemed as if my mere presence would cause you more sting than a blade."
"Then what is making you so comfortable to say all this to me?"
A wide grin replaced the faint smile from before and Hima sensed trouble before it even began. "I was wondering when you'll ask! Now that you have," a dramatic pause. "Let’s just say, you remind me of someone!" he trailed off.
"Who?"
He looked in the opposite direction with a thoughtful expression and maintained it for a few moments before breaking it with a snap of his fingers. Eyes glimmering, gaze mischievous he blurted out, "Guess who~"
A face suddenly appeared in the canvas of her mind, their name playing in the background startling her. Her heart sang the name before her mind could. A year and a half was spent trailing after people and places with the said person, on a sea shore in Trivandrum especially on Thursday evenings— could it be him? Tires screeched as the bus sped past them. Hima blinked and shook off her thoughts. Soumik sped up in his steps and urged her to walk at the same pace as him when the private bus slowed down. They both half ran- half walked to the bus stop, right when the Asna stopped completely and waited for the doors to open.

The warmth from bodies engulfed her the moment the doors opened and Hima paused for a few seconds, sighing, waiting for the boy to step in. "Aren't you going to step in?" He murmured.
I should be the one asking that. She thought.

"Get in first." He pressed, adjusting the umbrella making it easy for her to step inside without getting drenched in the rain. With no further questions, Hima followed his orders and stepped inside with the boy trailing behind her. He quickly closed the umbrella and got himself a little drenched, shuddering in discomfort. He searched inside his pockets to pull up a handkerchief to keep himself dry.
There were no seats for them inside the bus, making standing through the ride the only option left. Soumik looked at her and held up the umbrella towards her, only to hold back, his hands resting on his sides.

"I can hold it." Hima protested.
"It will be uncomfortable for you," Soumik looked at the crowd behind her and then down at his hand, "with all these people behind. Let me hold this. I insist," he quickly added.
"Are you normally this pushy?" Hima blurted out without thinking.
Soumik appeared a bit surprised, but other than that he didn’t give away any kind of emotion on his face. "Sorry?"
"It's nothing."
The rest of the ride was silent. Two girls from St. Theresa high school giggled to themselves about some boy from their class at the back.
She zoned out in the middle, thinking about why the boy would waste his time going after these chatterboxes, when she heard a light chuckle from her left. Soumik looked unfazed, his gaze set straight, just as it had been since they boarded the bus; his lips, however, were turned up slightly at the corners.

Feeling her gaze upon him, Soumik twisted his head to her side. "Yes?"
Hima shook her head and looked away from the boy without any questions, but not without taking another proper glimpse of his face. Her hand tightens around the handgrip.
It was going to be the longest thirty minutes of her life.

Autumn had already set foot on the streets even though the month had only begun a week before. Leaves that were vibrant green just a few weeks earlier were now half crimson and golden on the trees with black spots and rotten cores. The heat that was eating her alive had been replaced with delicate coolness.

As she was walking by, the sweet scent of something pleasant invaded her senses. She threw a glance at the mini flower shop to her right, catching a glimpse of roses and jasmine saplings. Some of them were fully bloomed while others remained green. When she entered the school campus, just a few meters away from the shop, she walked by many familiar faces and wordlessly greeted them with a pleasant smile.
She finally entered her classroom just in time to see Vismaya, who was laughing along with their two classmates, alone in the classroom. Hima wordlessly entered the classroom, and her eyes met Rahul's, who was leaning over the table.

"Oh hey, Hima." he greeted, making the other two look in her direction.
"Darling!" greeted Vismaya, glimmering under the sunlight and Hima responded by puckering her lips in a mock imitation of a kiss. "Hey guys!" she greeted while inching towards the girl and giving her a side hug.
She kept her bag over the table and sat down on a seat other than hers in the front. "You're early today."
"Yeah, Mom prepared breakfast early today."
"Hima? You are early today." Joffin noted as he walked inside the classroom, his bag coming off his shoulders. He threw it to his table, which was on the right side of the classroom and watched as it hit the table and fell to the ground with a thud. He wordlessly went to the bag and picked it up from the floor and gently placed it on the table.
"Good morning to you too Joffin." Tansir said, amused at his friend's antics. The boy huffed and walked out. Tansir simply chuckled to himself and followed the boy, their loud laughter ringing in the almost empty hallway. A firm tug on her uniform sleeve brought her back to a very excited Vismaya sitting behind her.

"Guess who I met on my way~" With every word that left her mouth, she tugged Hima's sleeve, and Hima moved the hand to the back of her chair.

"Who?"
"Midhun chettan" she squealed. Hima was puzzled.
"Who?"
"Girl Midhun. Midhun chettan!"
"Oh." Hima drawled. "Your brother’s friend Midhun right? The guy who is second year in college?”
"Yess!"
"And?"

A frustrated sigh. "Can't you at least pretend to be interested for my sake?"
"No."
"A best friend you are." Vismaya's disappointed tone irked something in Hima and the girl rolled her eyes. She turned her chair around and sat down so that she was facing Vismaya completely. With a smile wider than her usual ones Hima started, "All right. Go on, what did he do?"

"Well I was passing by the street and...." Vismaya's words faded out into the background with laughter from outside the classroom. More and more people entered the classroom with passing minutes. Hima managed to pay attention to the crucial details of Vismaya's one-sided love story as she always did.

For a Monday that wasn't that bad of a start. Even though the season was of fall, the sun remained forever hot and cruel. Hima marvelled as cool water ran over her hands. She quickly cleansed her hands after removing her watch to avoid getting it wet.
"Hima aren't you coming?" Ammu who passed by her stopped to ask.
"I'll be there, you go ahead!"
After giving it a thought, everyone agreed that they would take turns to take care of the notice board. Three people would actively manage the board on a day, and another three of the twelve members would handle it the day after.

Today's team of three consisted of Hima, Soumik, and Ammu again. Hima had no problem working with Ammu, though she was unsure if the said girl would feel comfortable in her presence.
Hima half wanted to strangle the boy and half wanted to strangle herself for expecting Soumik to be on time.
She briskly headed down through the corridors to where their club's notice board was. She passed by a few familiar faces, excitedly spilling out a few 'hi's and a few 'hey's.
Wild strands of hair fell over her eyes, and some coiled around her face.
Hima pulled out her hair tie with one hand and held her hair in place with the other. With the hair tie firmly held between her lips, she fixed her hair. God forbid, that Bindhu Teacher finds her not in full uniform. When she reached the first floor of the building, she spotted Sini with a box walking through a crowd of students. As the crowd cleared, she spotted Vismaya, whom she had abandoned in the classroom nearly ten minutes ago with Soumik, whom she was, for a failure of a reason, trying to find.

They both were invested in something Soumik was holding—an article to be pinned, Hima presumed. At least he was being useful. She slowed down in her steps when she was nearing the duo.

Vismaya was pointing at something in the paper with a proud smile on her face, and Soumik was seemingly captivated by the content. His soft gaze was now a familiar sight for her.
Just in time, Vismaya stepped backward and glanced in her direction. A wide smile formed on her lips, and she spoke lightly forcing Hima to read her lips.

'There she comes.'
Huh?
Soumik immediately whipped his head to her side, holding a certain emotion in his eyes that she couldn't fathom. For some reason, it made her throat dry.

"What is it?" she questioned as she neared them both. "Why are you two looking at me like that?"
Vismaya faced her arms crossed and her lips pulled up in a smirk. "Oh, nothing. Our Soumik here is an avid reader of a certain poet, and I happened to know them. We were talking about the new piece with him explaining what he thinks is said in it, with me understanding nothing."
Soumik chuckled, "So you did not understand what I was talking about after all."

Vismaya grinned, "Sorry." Soumik smiled and shook his head in dismissal. "It's fine."
"Wait," Hima started connecting the dots in her mind, "you were reading…my poems?"
Soumik avoided her eyes, a shy hand coming up to rub the back of his neck. Hima gaped at him in surprise. "I didn't think someone would stop by to read it, let alone become an avid reader."
And the reader to be you. She added in her mind.
"Where should I put this?" Vismaya asked Soumik, and the moment was broken. He faced her and asked with a smile. "What is in it?"
"These are the paintings from last Friday, one of  which we kept aside because there were no empty spaces left for them."
"Oh," Soumik nodded, "keep it on the table, I'll pin them."
"Sorry, ladies, duty calls." He shoved it into Vismaya's hands, careful at that, and with that, he shifted away. Vismaya scoffed amusedly. "Look at him getting flustered."

"Give me that." Hima snatched the paper out of Vismaya's grasp. And indeed, it was her article for today. "He was reading my poems."
She hummed.
"Who knew he had a thing for that?” Hima thought aloud.
Vismaya moved towards the wall and leaned against it. Someone who passed by accidentally bumped into her, and he muttered a sorry which she brushed off with a shake of her head.

"That guy is interested in very few things- poetry being one of them. Remember the painting from weeks ago? The one that had you in awe?"
Bright yellow and green bamboo trees clouded her vision. How could she ever forget about that?
"What about the painting?" Hima found herself asking while her hands busied themselves with taking down the pinned articles.
"Well, he drew it," Vismaya stated simply, and Hima stopped to glance back briefly.

"For real?"
"Yes. I have never seen him draw with my own eyes, but I've heard words of it. About how someone has seen his skills during a middle school competition." She explained. "I think someone was Faizal which makes sense when you remember they both have been around each other since their childhood.”

It made perfect sense in her mind now that she heard it. Without knowing what to say, Hima went back to taking down the previous articles on the right side of the board.