It didn't start with love
14 February 2026 — a birthday photo, a forgotten app, and a message from nowhere
A photo, a forgotten app, and a message from nowhere
Honest truth, Ganishaa — I had stopped believing any of this existed for me. For two and a half years I had quietly made my peace with being alone, and the only prayer I ever really meant was this: if someone is meant to walk into my life, let her be the first and the last. Otherwise, let me stay single. I said that to God with my whole chest, over and over, never knowing He was busy writing your name at the end of that prayer.
Then February happened. I installed Snapchat for one silly little reason — a friend wanted a birthday photo. That's all. The moment passed, I should have deleted it and forgotten it existed. But something wouldn't let me. And then, out of the blue, your message landed. To this day I can't tell you how that request was even sent, or when, or who pressed the button. It just happened. Like it was always late, and it had finally arrived. And I told myself what any sensible person would: it's a ten-minute conversation. It'll come, it'll go.
I could not have been more wrong if I tried. And I am so, so glad about it.
The night I started waiting
The next day we talked again. You told me about your boards, and somewhere in that second conversation the ground under me quietly changed. This stopped being a ten-minute thing. It was quickly becoming the only thing.
We played truth or dare, and in that game you described — without even meaning to — the exact person you want for life. What you expect, what you'd never compromise on, what kind of man he has to be. And I remember thinking with a clarity I'd never had before: she's the one. And I am not letting this go.
From that night, every hour of my day rearranged itself around one idea: get through the day, reach the night, talk to her again. You became my sunset in reverse. Nobody had ever made me live for the dark like that. Only you.
Nineteen days of silence
Then the boards came between us, and we stopped talking. Nineteen whole days. And here's the part I have never really said out loud: I kept checking your date sheet. Not casually, not like a friend. I counted the days, counted down to when it would finally be over, and used to wonder how your paper must have gone even though I had no right to ask.
On the 7th, when your last paper ended, I messaged you again. I genuinely thought you'd forgotten me. I told myself: it's been this long, she's moved on, my feelings were one-sided anyway. But you replied. And that one small hello after nineteen days of silence quietly kept the whole universe of us alive.
And later, when you told me you were just playing Holi and roaming around with your friends after the boards ended — that's when it clicked. All those nineteen days of waiting, the whole reason I hadn't messaged you, was just my own fear. You weren't even gone. You were out there, covered in gulal, being happy — and here I was, counting hours for a girl who never once left.
I have never been so glad to be wrong in my life.
Sri Lanka told me everything
Every snap, and one night that changed it all
Before Sri Lanka, we had started handing each other real things — not just conversations, but actual pieces of ourselves. Secrets. Little corners of trust. And I remember exactly how it felt to be trusted like that, by you, of all people.
Then you left. And you took me to every corner of a country I'd never seen through your eyes — every view, every street, every small thing you found beautiful, snapped and sent to me. When the network failed, you came back and told me anyway. And then came that night: you sat with your masi, your whole family around you, and instead of sending me away, you stayed on the call. You chose me, in a room full of people.
You could have hung up a dozen times that night. You didn't. And there, under that realisation, I knew it for the first time in full: I love her. Not "she's nice to talk to." I was completely, hopelessly in love with you.
"You could have ended the call. You stayed. That was the night I knew I loved you."
SRI LANKA · THE MASI NIGHT · ETCHED FOREVERThe day I told you, and the day my world shook
I have this one habit with you that has never broken: I cannot hide anything from you. So I said it. I told you I loved you. And three days later, everything shook.
Your best friend proposed to you — and everyone around you was pushing you to say yes. The perfect choice. He deserves you. I cried that day, Ganishaa. Not dramatically, not for long, I never cry like that. Just a little. Because I was so scared you would stop talking to me. You had already become an addiction I couldn't put down.
And then, in the middle of that storm, you did the one thing that gave me my first real hope: you told your friends that I deserved a fair chance too. That single sentence kept my heart beating.
The fear stayed, I won't lie. He's her childhood friend, I thought. He knows her more. He cares more. If it comes to choosing, the pressure, the manipulation — I'll lose. But then I thought: she spoke up for me. She gave me a fair chance. So I will try. Whatever the result, I will try. I could not let this go without trying.
The voice I fell for
You came home that day with a bad throat, so the call didn't happen then. But when we finally heard each other for the first time — I felt something I still trip over trying to explain. Safe is the closest word. Like I had been walking around with a missing piece of home, and your voice just walked in and plugged itself in. And you know what, babyy — your voice is the softest sound the world ever made. I tried to explain it, failed, and honestly stopped trying.
And then the calls started growing. 11 to 12:20. Then 12:30, 12:40, 12:50, 1:00, 1:30, 2:00. Me telling you go to sleep, you have school, you have class. And screaming inside at how happy I was that we were still talking. I never once wanted to cut that call.
Then it was my turn to have exams, and you supported me through every single one. We'd study together on call. I'd read things out to you. And you understood — you were patient with me the way nobody in my life had ever been. You kept giving up your sleep to stay with me, and you'd wave it off like it cost nothing. It cost me everything in guilt sometimes. And earned me more love than I can ever repay.
Every beat of us, including the ones that hurt
And then my stupid sense of humour ruined a Tuesday. That chicken-and-dog remark, right in front of Prince. You were upset because of me, and I swear — I have never known panic like that in my life. Because in that moment I felt, with my whole chest, how badly it breaks me when the one who is hurting is you. To love you is to have my whole sky change colour the second your smile dips even a little.
There was also that whole confusion with your friend. You suddenly went quiet on me, and for three days my heart sat at half-speed, inventing a hundred reasons and finding none. When I finally gathered the courage to ask, you told me everything — and yes, the mistake was mine. A real one. I fought with my own friends over it. I missed college for days, because I couldn't stand being the person who had made you pull away.
And then we fixed it. You let me back in, and the relief that flooded me came right back as I typed these words. That is how I know this is real — the cracks, the repairs, all of it. It has always been real.
8 June 2026 · 10:22 PM
The night you finally said yes
Then the hints started. Soft ones, then louder ones, then ones so loud my heart started rehearsing a speech it had never been brave enough to deliver. And then, on 8 June 2026, at exactly 10:22 PM, you said yes.
I replay that night the way people replay photographs of their happiest day: the pause before your reply, the thud in my chest, the way everything on earth seemed to hold its breath at 10:22. Two hearts, sitting in two different cities but already one, decided to jump together. When that word left you — yes — my whole life tilted into colour. That night we didn't just begin a relationship. We began a forever.
"We didn't just start a relationship that night — we started a forever."
8 JUNE 2026 · 10:22 PM · ETCHED FOREVERThe video call I was too scared to make
There's something I need you to finally stop doubting, babyy. I had never video-called anyone except mummy, papa and tanmay — and above each of them, I kept you. I respected you more than anyone I had ever spoken on a screen to, and the thought of letting you actually see my face? It terrified me like nothing else.
I was scared and couldn't find the words for it: what if you don't like how I look? What if I don't match the boy you built in your head? I had quietly spent my whole life believing I wasn't much to look at, and the one thing I could never risk was losing you. So fear did what fear does — it shut me up completely.
And then you said it: "you don't trust me that much." Babyy, I cried. Literally, actually cried. Because it was true, and it hit me the way only the truth can. That night it finally clicked: I love her. She loves me. So what the hell is the problem? Look at me. Look at her. The only wall in the way was my own fear — and you had already told me it wasn't there.
So know this now and never doubt it again: whenever you want a video call, I'm in. Just say the word, and I'll show you the boy who has been yours since way before he knew the words for it.
The day I'll never forget
21 June 2026 · the day I saw you for the first time
5:15 PM — the day I won in life
Sunday, 21 June. The day I had spent months dreaming about. I reached the theatre before you, and I don't think I have ever been that nervous in my entire life. So nervous that I crossed the gate without realising, walked straight past it and missed the entrance of the building entirely — who misses the entrance of a theatre? Then I pulled my courage together, walked back inside, and the second I stepped in and saw you — one second, just one — I was the most nervous I have ever been. I sat ahead. Not beside you. Ahead. As if my body forgot how seating works.
Then you threw that little bag of stuff at me — the lifafa — and you ignored my message. And I started getting angry. At myself. I was doing everything wrong. But then we planned it out properly, and finally, we sat together.
And then you did it. You reached for my hand. You initiated it. And babyy, my heart stopped for a second — and then started beating in a rhythm I had never felt before. Secure. Safe. Home. I had a matching session that day and I cut it off, and I did not regret it for a single second. I just wanted to stay. Because I held your hand and thought: I won in life today. I WON IN LIFE.
And the scrunchie. When I saw the scrunchie, my face turned red. My hands turned red. I have never been that honest in front of someone, and I don't even know why it did that to me — it just did. And then we sat there, side by side, holding hands for so long that I stopped wanting to ever let go. I wanted to pull your hand closer to my side, because some part of me kept repeating: she's mine. This is mine.
All that time we'd spent across screens played backward inside my head while I sat next to you — the snaps, the nineteen days, the masi night, the confession, the fair chance, the first call, the 3AM goodnights — and I got emotional, babyy. There were moments I genuinely thought: is this even real, or am I dreaming? And at every single point, I wanted to lift you up, hug you tight, kiss you, and tell the whole world: look. She's mine. She has always been mine.
❤ 21 June 2026 — 5:15 PM ❤
We didn't get a hug, we didn't get a kiss — but I held your hand and thought: I won in life.
After the theatre, the real us began
The theatre was the doorway to everywhere. After 21 June we started meeting for real — softly, secretly, the way two people who had waited forever tend to. And with every one of those meetings, you became a little more mine.
You snuck out at 3 AM just to be close to me, and handed me a night that still owns my heart — your first hug, you asleep against my chest while I counted your breathing and stayed awake only to feel you exist beside me. Then came the night we simply walked, no destination, no watch, no hour. Then the rain, us both soaked through, and me lifting you up while you laughed louder than the whole sky. You called it the best date you'd ever had. We also survived our hardest lesson in those same days — the night I truly learned what "no means no" is, when my throat closed, I couldn't eat for a day, and the whole world whispered that you were gone. But you came back. You stayed. You chose me anyway, and I returned with a promise carved into me: I will never be the reason those eyes cry again.
And the last time we met, you put your entire trust in my hands — your whole self, your whole heart. Do you know how heavy, how sacred a gift like that is to me? I will carry it like the most precious thing I own, because it is. You handed me your safest secret, and I'm keeping it until my last breath.
Right now is the hardest phase. No meetings. No walks. No rain. But I am still here, still yours, still waiting. I want nothing more than a long drive with you, a hug at 3 AM, a forehead kiss. Whenever you're ready, I'll be there in ten minutes. I have loved you since before I knew love was allowed to be this big. And I will always want you — every version of you, every mood, every phase. Always.