It was already 8:00 AM. Arya, a 14-year-old girl, was getting ready for school. She wished her parents a soft "Good morning," finished her breakfast, and stepped out. Arya deeply respected her parents, but she had always been afraid of her father. She never shared her heart with him, never joked or felt easy in his presence.
As she reached school, her best friend Rara greeted her with a smile.
"Good morning, Arya!" Rara said, tugging at her sleeve. "Did you study for today's math test? It's in the second period!"
Arya nodded slightly. The two of them quickly opened their notebooks and started revising under a tree in the school courtyard. Rara looked nervous — math had always been her weak spot. Her expressions made it clear: she hadn't studied much.
As the bell rang, the second period began. The math teacher entered and asked everyone to settle down. He began distributing the test papers. It was a 100-mark test. Arya, nervous and under pressure, could only solve about 50% of the paper. She expected no more than 45-50 marks.
During recess, Arya and Rara decided to walk around the school instead of sitting in class. They ended up near an old room — a quiet one where students rarely went. Inside were two senior students, both from 11th grade. One of them was Shayen — the class topper, tall, sharp-featured, and known for his calm presence. Girls liked him a lot. But Arya, who had always kept her distance from boys, simply looked at them once and walked away, uninterested.
Rara was the only close friend she had — and even among acquaintances, Arya had always preferred girls. It wasn't shyness. It was protection. From what? Even she didn't know yet.
Back in class, Rara whispered something that caught Arya off guard.
"Did you hear? A girl from our neighborhood... she died."
Arya turned to her with wide eyes. "What? How?"
"They say it was a murder. Her own family killed her. She fell in love with a boy from a lower caste — her family couldn't bear the shame."
Arya was speechless.
"They tried to warn her," Rara continued, her voice lower now, "But she didn't stop meeting him. So they ended it. Quietly."
Arya's mind swirled. In their society, caste was everything. Love across caste lines was treated like a crime. She knew it was wrong, but it was the reality she lived in.
"That's so unfair," Arya finally said. "Why can't a girl choose her own life? Her own love?"
Rara sighed. "Maybe the people who make these rules have never truly loved anyone. If they had, they'd understand. People who love... they don't even hurt a bird, let alone kill someone they once raised."
That evening, Arya returned home — her heart heavy. She was already upset about her test, and now, this brutal truth Rara had shared haunted her. Over dinner, she quietly told her mother about it.
Her mother listened, then gently said, "Beta, this society doesn't accept girls who go against their family's pride. If you ever did something like that, we wouldn't be able to face the world. You mean everything to us — don't ever do anything that brings shame to our name."
Arya didn't reply. She simply nodded, then buried herself in her books, pretending to be focused — hoping her results would at least make her parents smile.
---
Two days later, an announcement spread through the school:
The math teacher had to leave town due to a family emergency. Until his return, he had assigned Shayen and his friend to distribute the test results.
The moment this was known, most girls rushed to Shayen. Some were complaining about marks being cut unfairly, others were just excited to talk to him. Arya stood in line too, silent, hiding in the crowd.
When Shayen handed Arya her test paper, he looked at her... not just looked, but looked — like he already knew her.
"What's your name?" he asked, even though her name was written on the paper.
"Arya," she said quietly.
He checked the marks. "46," he said, smiling slightly. "Not bad."
Arya took her paper and walked away quickly, but something inside her had shifted. That gaze, that moment — it stayed with her. For the first time, she had felt something. Something she had never felt before. Something warm, confusing, and new.
She didn't tell Rara. She didn't tell anyone. But that night, she couldn't sleep. Shayen's face, his eyes — they kept returning to her mind like a song stuck on repeat.
From that day onward, Arya began noticing things. Shayen passed by her class more often. Sometimes, their eyes met. Sometimes, they didn't — but she knew he looked.
She liked it. Yet she avoided it.
She wanted to hide her feelings, fearing he might confess. Because if he did, she wasn't ready. Not yet.
She was in love — but too scared to hold it. Too innocent to express it. And too strong to admit it.
She tried to hide it from the world. But love, they say, only grows when you try to bury it.