POV: Ram (Ramakrishna)
Sometimes, silence feels like protection.
Other times… it turns into punishment.
I sat on the terrace after dinner, the breeze colder than usual. My phone lit up with notifications, some from the group chat, a message from Rithul, and… nothing from her.
Max.
She didn't text after I sat with her near the court.
She didn't need to.
Her eyes had said enough.
She was tired.
Not just from the rumors.
But from all the weight she had to carry alone.
And somewhere inside… a small part of me was glad I was there beside her.
But a bigger part?
It was breaking.
Because no matter how close I stand next to her…
I'm still the boy who never spoke.
I was her senior. I had a hundred chances.
From the first time I saw her in that inter-school competition…
To the days when we slowly became friends…
To the evening I walked her home beside my cycle while the sun fell behind us.
And yet…
I never told her.
I gave her smiles, support, silence — everything except the one truth she deserved to know.
That she was my first love.
That the name "Mike" she gave me… became something I secretly held onto like a badge.
That her favorite blue matched the one I carried everywhere — from my keychain to my playlists — because she once told me "Blue suits you."
But I kept it hidden.
Because I wasn't like Rithul.
He came in bold, direct, loud — and now?
Everyone thought she was his.
Even the staff.
Even she started doubting herself.
And me?
I just watched.
I always just watched.
Watched her glow.
Watched her fade.
Watched her cry in silence.
Watched her name become someone else's sentence.
And now, I'm sitting here, wondering...
What if I had said it first?
Would things be different?
Would she have been mine?
But then… I remember.
Max was never mine to lose.
Because I never even gave her the choice.
Ram's Notes :
I buried my love the day I chose silence over confession.
And now, I'm watching someone else write her story in the pages I never dared to open.
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