Chapter 12

The study room was quiet except for the soft shuffling of papers and the occasional click of pens. Naina sat across from Rohan, her notes meticulously arranged, her eyes fixed on the material in front of her. She had tied her hair up into a loose bun, with a few wisps falling against her cheeks. Rohan, however, was only half paying attention to his notes.

"Okay," Naina began softly, flipping through her notebook. "If you can handle the primary research, I'll focus on compiling the data and formatting it for the final report. We should finish it by next week."

"Yeah, sounds like a plan," Rohan replied, though his eyes weren't on his notes. He leaned back, his chair slightly tilted, watching her with quiet curiosity.

Naina glanced up, sensing his gaze. "What?"

"Nothing," he said with a small smile, quickly shaking his head. "Just... you're way more organized than most people I've worked with."

She frowned, slightly puzzled by the comment, but she didn't press further.

As they worked, Rohan couldn't help but notice the subtle things about her—her reserved nature, the way she quietly fidgeted with her pen when thinking, and the way her voice grew softer when she was unsure of something. He thought about his best friend, Ayaan, who was the complete opposite—loud, confident, and always the center of attention. And yet, somehow, he could see why Ayaan had been so drawn to her lately.

Opposites attract, huh? he thought, suppressing a smirk.

Pulling out his phone discreetly, Rohan quickly typed a message to Ayaan:

Rohan: Library. Study room 4. Bring coffee. Important.

"Uh-oh," Rohan suddenly said aloud, glancing at his phone.

"What happened?" Naina asked, her brows knitting together.

"Just remembered I have a meeting reminder for the student council," he said, standing up abruptly and gathering his things. "Completely slipped my mind. You'll be fine here, right?"

"Yeah, of course," Naina replied, looking a bit surprised.

Rohan grabbed his bag, then casually pushed his coffee cup toward her. "You can keep my coffee if you want. I barely touched it." He shot her an easy smile before turning to the door.

As soon as he stepped out, he checked his phone.

Rohan: She's all yours, bro.

Around 10 minutes later, the sound of the study room door opening startled Naina. She glanced up from her notes, and her breath caught when she saw Ayaan stride in, a confident ease in his steps. He was holding two cups of coffee, one in each hand, his light blue T-shirt clinging to his lean, athletic frame and his dark eyes zeroing in on her immediately.

"You're working hard, I see," he remarked, his voice smooth, as he placed one coffee cup in front of her. He slid into the chair Rohan had been sitting in, his presence instantly commanding the room.

She blinked at him, trying to mask her surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Rohan had to urgently leave and said you were alone," Ayaan replied with a casual shrug. "Figured I'd stop by. I brought coffee, didn't I?" His lips curled into a smirk, his gaze unwavering as he leaned back in his chair.

Naina eyed the cup in front of her, her stomach fluttering. She glanced at the coffee Rohan had left behind, hesitating. Should she just drink that one instead?

"Debating which cup to drink?" Ayaan asked, his voice teasing. Before she could respond, he slid his own coffee cup toward her, switching it with Rohan's. "Here, take this one. Mine's better."

"Better?" she asked, her brow arching skeptically.

"Yeah," he said, smirking, a mischievous gleam in his eyes. "Rohan's coffee is lukewarm. Mine's fresh."

She stared at him, momentarily unsure if she should argue, but then she reached for the cup he had just pushed toward her. She hated how her fingers trembled slightly as she took it, but Ayaan's sharp eyes didn't miss the detail.

"Thanks," she mumbled, focusing back on her notes.

He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table, his tone growing playful. "Need help?"

Her head snapped up, an incredulous look on her face. "You're an engineering student. How exactly are you going to help with a medical analytics project?"

Ayaan chuckled softly, pulling one of her printed sheets toward him. "You still use Maths, you'd be surprised. Let's see..." His dark eyes scanned the page, and then he paused, pointing to a line of statistics she'd jotted down.

"This," he said, tapping the paper with his finger, "is wrong."

"What?" she asked, her voice defensive.

He pushed the paper closer to her, a teasing glint in his eyes. "Your percentages don't add up. The base data you used here is off."

Naina frowned, leaning over to check. He wasn't wrong. Flustered, she tried to defend herself. "It's... it's just a minor error."

"Sure," Ayaan said, smirking as he leaned back, his posture all confidence. "Minor, but I noticed it in two seconds. Imagine what your professor would've said."

She glared at him, her cheeks heating. "I was going to fix it anyway."

"Of course you were," he replied, his tone laced with mock sincerity.

"Why are you even here?" she demanded, crossing her arms over her chest.

He leaned forward again, his voice dropping slightly, his gaze locking with hers. "Maybe I missed you."

Her heart skipped a beat at the intensity in his eyes, but she quickly looked away. "Don't start."

Ayaan chuckled, but it wasn't his usual lighthearted laugh. It was deeper, almost knowing. "Start what?"

"You know what," she muttered, focusing hard on her notes, though she wasn't absorbing a single word.

He tilted his head, studying her. "You're good at pretending, Naina. I'll give you that. But you're terrible at hiding how you feel."

She froze, her pen halting mid-word. Slowly, she looked up at him, and the smirk on his face was both infuriating and irresistible.

"Still denying it?" he asked, his voice soft but teasing.

"There's nothing to deny," she said quickly, but her voice betrayed her.

He leaned closer, his hand brushing against hers on the table. She didn't pull away, though her body stiffened at the contact. "You know," he murmured, his voice low and intimate, "I can still feel your lips on mine."

Her breath caught, and she tore her gaze away, pretending to focus on her notes. "Ayaan..."

"What?" he asked, his tone infuriatingly calm. His fingers lightly touched hers again, lingering this time, sending a jolt through her. "You can keep pretending it didn't happen, but I'll remind you as many times as it takes."

She finally looked at him, her eyes wide, her chest rising and falling as she struggled to find words.

"You're impossible," she managed, her voice barely above a whisper.

"And you," he said, leaning even closer, his breath warm against her cheek, "are unforgettable."

The tension between them was palpable, the air thick with unspoken words. His dark eyes flicked to her lips for a brief second before returning to her gaze, making her pulse race. He paused for a moment, his hand brushing a lock of hair from her face as he stared at her, mesmerized.

"Naina?" Ayaan whispered, stepping even closer, "All I can think about right now is kissing you again. Nothing's stopping me but you."

Then, he looked down and sighed, then just as casually as he had entered, he leaned back and stood, grabbing his bag. "Good luck fixing that percentage," he said, his voice teasing again.

Before she could respond, he walked to the door, pausing for a moment. He glanced back, his smirk softening into something more genuine. "And, Naina?"

She looked up at him, her heart still racing.

"Don't pretend this didn't happen," he said softly, his gaze lingering on her for just a moment longer before he walked toward her, his steps slow, almost deliberate.

She opened her mouth to respond, but before she could get a single word out, Ayaan was standing so close to her that she could feel his warmth, his breath brushing against her ear.

"I know you know and remember it, and next time, I won't let you run away so easily," he whispered, his voice rough with the intensity of his words. His hand brushed her cheek, and her breath hitched at the contact, before he let his fingers trail down her neck, sending a shiver through her body.

His lips were so close to her ear that she could feel the heat radiating from him. "I know what you want, your eyes speak more than you do."

Her heart raced, her entire body frozen in place as she felt the weight of his words, the air thick with the unspoken tension between them. Then, before she could respond, he turned and left, his footsteps echoing in the quiet study room, leaving her breathless, confused, and undeniably shaken.

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