They soon ate sandwiches and Urvin even playfully fed him some green grapes, per their deal, as they continued to work on their studies in comfortable silence.
“Mainu tere baalon di burgundy streaks acchi lagdi hai, waise,” he said suddenly, breaking the quiet.
She blinked, surprised, but kept sketching.
“Thank you. Ek saal ho gaya aise hi.”
“Accha lagda hai. Par tere natural color jinna accha nahi. Purane dark brown baalon vich teri aankhein bohot khubsurat lagti si, tainu pata hai? But… blonde aur burgundy ek accha change hai.”
Her pencil paused completely as she considered what he said, then slowly went back to the drawing. “Brown better si? Blonde highlights de naal?”
“Haan. Bohot pyara lagda si. Perfect, actually.”
She bit her lip and nodded softly.
“Shayad… shayad main aage jaake wapas color change kar lavaan,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper and nearly lost on the cool breeze off the lake.
Urvin drew for a while longer, then finally put her new pencil down to look up at her brother. Tilting her head, her next words were said carefully and softly. “Oye… main ik gal puchhaan tainu?”
“Pooch.”
“Tu kisi nu date kyun nahi karda?”
He blinked, completely caught off guard.
“Tainu kisne keha ki main nahi karda?”
“Main tainu jaandi haan… tu is baare vich brag zaroor karda. Ya kam se kam Papaji nu phone te dassda. Par jab ton tu is university vich aaya hai, tune kisi kudi da zikr tak nahi kitta.” She grinned a little and reached over to give his shoulder a playful push. “Chal jhoothe, tu bohot smart hai. Mainu mat bol ki teri class vich aisi kudian nahi ne jo tere vich interested hon.”
“Oh, interested toh bohot ne.” He nodded with fake confidence. Then, he shrugged, putting himself down. “Shuru vich, kam se kam. Phir main apna muh kholda haan aur unhe pata chalda hai ki main koi dhang di conversation nahi kar sakda, aur kisi vi behes ton peeche nahi hat sakda.”
Urvin frowned a little at Vyom’s brutal honesty. “Eh… eh sach nahi ho sakda,” she said, despite knowing the exact truth of it.
“Haan, yakeen karna mushkil hai na?” He chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. “Main kabhi vi pyari kudian naal baat karne vich accha nahi reha.”
“Mainu chhod kar, amiright?”
He grinned in return. “Shayad… shayad tu utni pyari nahi hai jinni tu sochdi hai.” But Vyom’s dark blush completely betrayed his true feelings on that specific subject.
Urvin quickly looked down at her pad to hide her own intensely red cheeks. Her heart beat a little faster as she reminded herself to stay focused and smoothly guide Vyom towards her plan for tonight.
“Tu sach vich idiot hai,” she said, shaking her head with a smile as she started sketching once again.
“Tu eh bohot baar boldi hai.”
“Tu mauke hi inne denda hai.”
A nice, cool breeze picked up off the water. Neither of them spoke for a while, but both of them sure went through their own intense inner thoughts as they thought about what dangerous, taboo lines they were either already walking or were heavily thinking about crossing.
Urvin popped a grape into her mouth as she prepared herself to push her idea forward. However, Vyom beat her to it.
