"Some places heal you.
Some places remind you why you needed healing."
The hostel room was small, just enough to hold a bed, a desk, and a window that looked out onto nothing in particular. The walls were pale and peeling, and the cupboard creaked like it hadn't been opened in years.
I dropped my bag and sat on the edge of the bed, letting the silence fill the cracks in my mind.
Today had been a lot.
Too much.
Seeing Sia again wasn't just a surprise. It was a wound that hadn't healed reopening at the slightest touch. She looked happy, effortless - like the version of her that existed in my memories had come alive, just... evolved. She wasn't the same schoolgirl who used to hum along to old love songs during lunch breaks. She had grown, and maybe... maybe I hadn't.
Before I could sink deeper into that spiral, the door opened with a thud.
A tall guy with sharp features and a bag slung over one shoulder stepped in, his face breaking into a grin the moment he saw me.
"Aarin? No way!"
I blinked. "Wait - Reyan?"
He dropped his bag and pulled me into a sudden, tight hug.
"You idiot, you didn't tell me you were joining here too!"
I chuckled, overwhelmed but happy. "I didn't even know you applied here."
"Neither did I, until last minute. Life's wild, bro."
Reyan.
The boy I'd lost touch with after school. He was like the spark in a dying matchbox - full of jokes, impulsive, but the kind of person who stayed once he walked into your life.
In that moment, I felt like maybe the universe hadn't been entirely cruel.
Over the next few weeks, life began to pick up pace.
Classes, assignments, crowded mess halls, rushed coffees between lectures. Reyan and I slipped back into friendship like nothing had changed. But something had. I wasn't the same.
Because somewhere between late-night studying and morning bus rides, Sia became routine again.
We weren't in the same class, but our hostels were nearby, and she often walked to the library around the same time I did. Some days, we shared silent walks. Other days, we talked like the past didn't exist.
But for me? It never left.
I noticed everything.
The way she tied her hair differently now.
The way she paused before replying to something emotional.
The way she mentioned her roommates - Meera, Niyati, and Priya - like they were her safe spaces.
And Meera... didn't like me. At all.
She was protective. Cold. Her eyes followed every word I spoke to Sia. Like I was a mistake waiting to happen again.
And maybe I was.
One evening, Sia and I sat in the campus café, watching the rain. It felt like school days again, the hum of soft music, half-filled cups of coffee, words unspoken between sips.
"You still write?" she asked.
"Only when it hurts," I said, not meeting her eyes.
She didn't respond. She didn't need to.
She knew exactly what I meant.
"I'm not the same person anymore, Aarin," she whispered, almost apologetically.
"I know," I said. "But my heart hasn't figured that out yet."
Her eyes dropped to the cup. "You always say things like that."
I smiled bitterly. "And you always act like they don't matter."
She looked at me then - really looked - and for the first time in years, I saw guilt in her eyes.
"I never meant to hurt you," she said.
I wanted to believe that. But the thing about pain is - it never asks for intention.
Later that night, I ran into Meera outside the girls' hostel.
She stopped, arms folded, her voice like glass. "What exactly are you trying to do, Aarin?"
"What?"
"With Sia. Why are you back in her life?"
I kept my voice calm. "I didn't force anything. We're just - "
"You don't get it," she snapped. "You broke her. After school, she was quiet for months. You think love letters and desperate texts are romantic? She was drowning, and you kept pulling her back."
I froze.
That wasn't the story I knew.
To me, I was the one left hurting.
But now I wondered... was my love too much?
"She never told me she felt that way," I whispered.
"Because she's Sia. She doesn't know how to say no without feeling guilty. And you - " Meera stepped closer - "you made her carry your pain too."
Something inside me shattered. Not because Meera hated me.
But because maybe... she was right.
That night, Sia didn't message. She didn't reply the next morning either.
I stood by the library gates, phone in hand, heart heavier than usual.
Reyan walked up beside me. "You okay, man?"
"No," I said quietly. "I think I broke something again."