The Unexpected Beginning

It started with a message.

Nothing important.

A casual question.

Then a joke.

Then another message.

Soon, their conversations became a daily habit.

WhatsApp messages stretched late into the night.

Sometimes they discussed their ambitions and families.

Sometimes they talked about their fears.

Sometimes they talked about absolutely nothing.

Those were often the conversations Sahithi enjoyed most.

But there was something Sahithi knew about Suman that made the situation complicated.

Suman had always been a flirt.

He was the kind of person who enjoyed attention and knew exactly how to get it. He liked charming conversations, playful teasing, and the excitement of being wanted.

Over the years, he had been involved in several brief flings and casual relationships.

He rarely allowed himself to become emotionally attached.

For Suman, romance had often been about excitement—the thrill of a new person, the attraction, the flirting, and the feeling of being desired.

He had a reputation for being a womanizer.

People who knew him weren't surprised when another girl appeared beside him.

And perhaps that was why Sahithi tried so hard not to take him seriously in the beginning.

She told herself that she was simply enjoying the conversations.

Nothing more.

But Sahithi was different.

She was young, emotional, and experiencing many of these feelings with an intensity she hadn't anticipated.

The years she had spent focused on studies had left little room for romance.

Now, suddenly, everything seemed new.

A message from Suman could change her entire mood.

A smile from him could stay in her thoughts for hours.

A simple compliment could make her feel unexpectedly shy.

She knew she was developing feelings.

That frightened her.

Because she also knew Suman's reputation.

She wondered whether she was simply another girl who had caught his attention.

Or whether, somehow, this was different.

She began noticing herself changing.

She would check her phone without realizing it.

She would wait for his messages.

She would sometimes type a reply, delete it, rewrite it, and then laugh at herself.

Why did she care so much?

Suman noticed.

Of course he did.

But something unexpected was happening to him too.

For perhaps the first time, the girl he was talking to wasn't simply another flirtation.

Sahithi wasn't impressed by his reputation.

She didn't chase him.

She didn't compete for his attention.

And that made him want to know her even more.

One night, after another long conversation, he finally said what he had been holding back.

“I think I've started falling for you.”

Sahithi stared at the screen.

Her heart seemed to stop for a moment.

She had expected flirting.

She had expected teasing.

She had expected compliments.

She hadn't expected honesty.

After several minutes, she finally typed:

“Are you sure?”

His answer came almost immediately.

“I've never been more sure about anything.”

For Sahithi, those words carried enormous weight.

For Suman, they were the beginning of something he hadn't expected either.

The womanizer who had always treated romance lightly was beginning to discover what it felt like when attraction became attachment.

And the girl who had spent years carefully planning her future was discovering feelings she couldn't organize, calculate, or control.

Neither of them knew where it would lead.

But both of them wanted to find out.