"Maa! Mein school hokar aathi hoon!" Aarzoo screamed, making the whole house echo.

(Mom! I'll visit the school and be back!")

"First, I'm not deaf and second, what do you mean 'hokar'? You're not visiting school, you're going to study. Say 'jaakar'," her mother lectured, coming out of the kitchen while she rolled her eyes.

(Hokar- Visit and come, Jaakar- Go and come)

"Same thing, not like I study in school anyway," she whispered the last part but her mother was quick enough to catch her words.

"Aarzoo, your boards are around the corner! Don't doom me on the last day and ask me to teach you the whole syllabus the day before the exam," before she could continue, Angad stepped in.

"Don't scold my bacchi, let her enjoy her teens," he side hugged his daughter while she gave her mom a smug smile.

(Bacchi- Baby)

"Haan, keep pampering her and one day you'll see the importance of my words," she walked away angry.

"I'll go and manofy your mom, so you go and wear your shoes. Your bhai will drop you," she nodded her head while her father followed his wife like a lost puppy.

(Manofy- Convince)

Aarzoo was currently preparing to write her 12th boards and boy, this was the hardest phase of her life so far.

"I have to revise for biology and start my syllabus for psychology," she murmured under her breath while wearing her socks.

As soon as she was about to reach out for her shoes, she saw someone else's feet beside them. She slowly looked up a saw him, her brother's best friend.

Aryan Shekhawat.

"Bhai! Aryan Bhai aagaye!" she called for her brother and gave Aryan a bright smile.

(Bhai! Aryan Bhai is here!)

He ignored the ball of sunshine in front of him and went to sit on the couch.

Her smile immediately dropped, forming a frown on her face.

"Rude-ass, when will he ever change?" she whispered to herself while giving him a side-eye and picking up her bag.

BHAI.

Seriously? Out of everything she decided to call me bhai? It's been 10 years and this girl still doesn't notice my reaction whenever she calls me that. Blind girl.

"Tell bhai that I'm leaving with the driver," she said out of nowhere.

Was she talking to me? I turned back to check if someone else was there. No one.

I turned around and pointed at myself to see if she's talking to me.

"Ji yaha aur koi hein?" she gave me a sarcastic smile and scoffed.

(Is there anyone else present here?)

"Ji aap andhi hein?" I countered questioned her.

(Are you blind?)

"Aryan bha-" before she could sulk and complete that 'sweet' word, I cut her off.

"Fine, I'll let him know,"

"Thank you, bye!" she smiled and left me breathless.

Did she said bye or bhai? I couldn't care less right now. Aarzoo just smiled at me.

Her pearly whites flashing me with the brightest grin.

The beam I'd die for everyday just to see it once. I'd give the world to see her smile with her nose scrunched up.

"Bye," I finally breathed out, long after she left.

It's been ten years since I saw the eight year old Aarzoo, the tiny kid who used to love annoying me. Somewhere in that feeling I found my solace.

Her voice gave me comfort, her antics relaxed me and her presence made me feel at peace.

I couldn't pinpoint it, but it felt like a slow tide pulling me in, gentle but inevitable.It's weird how one girl can make you feel like this without her knowledge.

It's like she's a magnet that pulls me whenever I try to go back. She attracts me back to her, without her knowing.

Since the day I got to know I feel some kind of way for her, way before I could explain that feeling, I tried to distance myself, but I couldn't. I tried to ignore it, of course. After all, she was Aarzoo, my best friend's little sister.

I tried to bury it, but the feelings only grew, quiet but persistent, like a melody stuck in my head that I couldn't shake.

She was always there, lingering in my thoughts at the most inconvenient times.

She was no longer just "Siddharth's sister" to me. She was Aarzoo, and the distinction was growing sharper every day.

Once I made peace with my feelings for her and accepted them, there was no going back.

Whenever she smiled her lips, curved naturally in that slightly quizzical smile, made my chest feel tight.

It was a strange feeling, almost like nostalgia, but new, too. Unsettling but calming.

The more I saw her, the more I couldn't ignore it—the quiet ache in my chest, the stolen glances, the way my thoughts kept circling back to her, like an orbit I couldn't break free from.

I was in love with someone I couldn't have. And every moment spent with her only reminded me of how impossible it was.

She was off-limits, and yet, every glance, every conversation, only pulled me deeper into a place I couldn't escape.

"Aryan!" I felt a shook on my shoulder, getting me out of my thoughts of Aarzoo.

"Bhai, college jana hein ki nahi?" Siddharth joked and gave me his hand to pull me up from the couch.

(Bhai, do you want to go to the college or no?)

"Chal!" I nudged his shoulder, somewhere a pinch of guilt lingered in me for not letting him I like his sister.

(Come on!)

She was off-limits, but every fiber of my being wanted to make her mine.

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Chapter one of the stand-alone series is here!
Hope you all enjoyed it! Constructive criticism is always welcome<3.