Scene 1: Dev Can't Find Her
It was lunchtime. Dev walked through the canteen. No Payal. Checked the stairs. The corridor. The library.
Nowhere.
"She's avoiding me again," he muttered, pretending to be annoyed—but the concern in his eyes said something else.
Just then, he noticed soft music playing near the art room. He followed it.
And there she was.
Sitting on the floor, alone, with a sketchpad on her lap. Her braid loosely hanging over one shoulder, paint on her fingers.
She hadn't noticed him.
Her pencil danced—drawing a silhouette of a man holding an umbrella over a girl in the rain.
Dev leaned on the door, arms crossed, watching.
Quietly, he whispered, "So this is where you hide when you're not running from me."
Payal gasped, slamming the sketchbook shut.
He walked in. "Don't worry. I won't peek… much."
She looked down. Embarrassed.
He sat beside her on the floor. "That was beautiful. The sketch. Was that… me?"
She looked at him. "No."
He grinned. "Liar."
Scene 2: The Secret Room
Payal sighed and opened the sketchbook again. "I draw things I can't say."
Dev grew serious for a moment. "Then I should start drawing too."
She looked at him, confused.
He leaned closer and whispered, "Because ever since I saw you, my words don't make sense."
She rolled her eyes. "You flirt with everything that breathes."
Dev tilted his head. "You think I'm a player, don't you?"
"…Aren't you?"
"I used to be," he admitted, looking away. "Before you. Before I met someone who didn't care about my charm. Who was scared of me instead of impressed."
Payal frowned. "So… you liked that?"
He smiled softly. "No. I hated it. But it made me try harder. It made me real."
Scene 3: Confession in Colors
Payal picked up a brush and handed it to him. "Then paint."
Dev stared. "You trust me with your stuff?"
"Only this once."
They painted. Quiet. Simple. Peaceful.
Until Dev whispered, "You make me nervous."
She paused. "You? Nervous?"
He nodded, still painting. "Because with you… I don't know what I'm doing."
She didn't answer. But her cheeks turned pink.
Scene 4: Dev's Message That Night
Payal lay in bed, sketching absentmindedly when her phone buzzed.
Dev:
"You don't have to say anything. But if one day, you're not scared of me anymore…
Can I be the one who holds your umbrella in the rain?"
She stared at the message for a long time.
Then wrote back:
"Maybe."