Two months had passed since that exhausting day at college. Anushri and Amey had settled into a routine—a life of quiet coexistence. The unspoken tension between them had dulled, replaced by an unacknowledged distance. They weren’t fighting anymore, but they weren’t really talking either. Each day followed a pattern: Anushri went to college, buried herself in lectures and books house charos, and came home to find Amey either engrossed in his laptop or stretched out on the couch. Their conversations had become transactional, limited to questions about dinner or updates about billsAnushri stirred awake as the first rays of sunlight