.ISHQ BADA NACHAVE.

Akshita checked her phone for the third time in five minutes.

7:58 PM.

She smiled nervously and smoothed the maroon colour saree he always teased her about.

“You look like a poet who lost her pen,” he once said, admiring with his dark black eyes. “Tragic. yet beautiful.”

Tonight, he said, "I want to celebrate the happiest day of my love with her just her and me, no one else."

She waited. And waited.

8:26 PM. Still nothing.

Her fingers hovered over her phone when it rang — a familiar number.

Vikrant.

Abhishek’s best friend. His only friend, really.

She answered with a smile. “Tell your brooding bestie he’s late and I’m threatening to eat all the dessert before he arrives.”

But the voice on the other end wasn’t playful it was like the cold silence before Tsunami.

“Akshita... where are you right now?” Vikrant asked. His voice was raw, shaky.

“In the restaurant. Waiting for him.”

A pause. Long. Too long.

She could hear the wind. Distant traffic. A siren.Then—

“There’s been an accident.”

Everything inside her stilled.

“What… are you saying?”

“It was bad, Akshita. I was following him. We were supposed to meet. But he—he never made it. The car… it flipped.”

“No…” Her voice cracked. “No, no. You’re lying. He was just texting me.”

“I tried to get to him. I swear, I tried. He was breathing. He said your name. But by the time help came—”

“bhaiya, where are you now? Which hospital? I’m coming.”

But silence.

“bhaiya? Hello? Vikrant!!!”

She screamed.The call dropped.

She stared at the screen. Called back.

No answer.

Called again. Number not reachable.

She tried Abhishek’s phone. Straight to voicemail.

She ran out into the street, rain soaking her dress, heart racing, and eyes searching.

That's when her phone rang with a notification from him.her heart raced as she checked it.

A notification just before everything fell apart.

“IF I DON’T SHOW UP TONIGHT, JUST KNOW THIS: I NEVER MEANT TO LOVE YOU. BUT I DID. SO DEEPLY, IT SCARED ME.”

The last time she ever heard of him.

To be continued.