The temple steps were deserted.
Only one lamp was burning —
and in its flickering flame,
it felt like a truth was trembling.
Aavya sat there, alone.
In her hands was an old diary —
covered in dust, its pages stained with tears.
When Arjun arrived, his steps were slow —
as if he already knew that tonight,
he would hear something that could break his heart.
---
"Sit, Arjun… today I want my silence to speak as testimony."
Aavya began to speak —
slowly, shakily,
as if every word was bleeding from a wound…
---
"Neel and I…"
> "Neel was my first friend — since school days.
When everyone saw my silence as weakness,
he had said — ‘Staying quiet is a strength too.’
He brought color to my world… that was all ink before."
> "We grew up together.
But something changed in 11th grade…
He wasn’t just a friend anymore.
He started saying things like —
‘You are only mine. And if anyone comes close to you… I won’t tolerate it.’"
Arjun listened quietly, without interrupting a single word.
> "Then one night… we went to a party.
I laughed and spoke with another boy…
and Neel grabbed my hand tightly.
In front of everyone.
He twisted my fingers…
and I stayed silent… like I always did."
Tears began to fall from Aavya’s eyes.
> “That night, he locked me in a room.
Said — ‘You won’t come out until you apologize.’
And I… I just sat there. All night. Alone.”
---
"I never told anyone… not my mom, not the school."
> "Because I thought it was my fault.
I felt — maybe I laughed too much…
Maybe my silence had become my punishment.”
> "After that, I stopped speaking.
Completely… truly.
Mom tried to reach me, but she didn’t last long either.
And after she passed away…
Neel came again. To my house.
Said — ‘Now there’s no one left to save you from me.’”
---
"That’s when I started running…"
> "Changed cities. Changed colleges.
Changed myself.
But how do you run from the past?"
> "Then you came…
For the first time, someone looked at me without questions,
touched me without breaking me…
and tried to gently piece back my shattered self."
---
"Now you tell me, Arjun…"
> “Can you make peace out of my broken story?”
“Or will this silence become my punishment again?”
---
Arjun's reply… after a long pause…
He didn’t say anything for a while.
He gently took Aavya’s diary in his hands,
closed it slowly…
and sat beside her, saying:
> “If every page of this diary holds tears…
then let my love be its cover —
so no more pages ever have to tear.”
> “It doesn’t matter what you’ve endured…
what matters is that you’ve started speaking now.
And you chose me… for your truth.”
> “I can’t change your past…
but I’ll be in every tomorrow —
when you speak, and even when you only look.”
---
Then, for the first time, Aavya asked something more…
> “Arjun… will you stay?”
“When everyone else walks away… will you still be there?”
Arjun only said —
> “I am the one who stays when no one else does.
Because with you, silence no longer lives alone — it has a name now… and it's Arjun.”
---
That night…
There were no lamps left on the temple steps,
no whisper of wind —
but between two hearts,
a new light had quietly begun to glow.
