Kanika's POV
-Flashback-
It was 17 September 2022, around 11:25 pm, and I was in my room. The light from my laptop that was open in front of me and a 0-watt bulb on the edge of the ceiling filled my room with enough light that it made sure it wasn't all dark. I have always been scared of darkness.
I was reading a manga. There were many different tabs open on my screen at the same time. When I saw a number blinking on my Instagram tab indicating a notification, I checked, and it was messages from a group chat named Crescent Heaven. It was a random group chat that I joined when I was getting bored and was new to Instagram. They were messing around and joking and I joined them when admin added a new member but he didn't come active just yet and soon other members went offline too to play an online game and I resumed my reading, I was reading a romance fantasy manga it was super cute and the leads were finally confessing and the chapter ended on their confession and the other chapters were yet to be published so I just sat there like what now should I sleep or read another manga but my internal debated as soon as I saw the same blink as before on and saw that the new guy had come active.
"Anyone up?" a message from him in the group.
"Me," I responded.
I waited a minute or two, but his response didn't come, so I decided to sleep as it was already 12 am, but as soon as I was about to click the close on screen, his message came.
"Hello."
"Hi. Introduction?"
"Anant Shukla."
"From?"
"Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh."
"Age?"
"18.
Ab yeh inquiry ho gayi ho toh aap bhi apna introduction de hi dijiye," he teased in a sarcastic tone.
(If your inquiry is done now, then give me your introduction too.)
"Ji ji bilkul, (yes, yes, sure)
Kanu
Jaipur, Rajasthan
16
Nice to meet you, Ji."
"Nice to meet you, too. Itna late jagne ka reason?"
(the reason you are awake so late?)
"Well, I was waiting for a message from my prince." I responded, showing my enthusiasm, and soon turned it into dramatic sorrow, "but it looks like I mistook the notifications."
"Wow, I am hurt. I am going away guys. I am not needed." And he matched my drama.
"Bye bye, see you, good night." I was getting tired, now I wanted to sleep.
"Really?" he asked to confirm if I was just joking around even now or not.
"Really," I confirmed that I wasn't joking and was really sleepy.
"Okay, good night."
I just liked his message and closed my laptop and went to sleep.
—-----------
Everything went on normally for a few days after that night. We messed around in the group, but that didn't really mean we were friends or something. In fact, we didn't even like each other that much. He was kinda narcissistic, and I was sarcastic. He would always try to talk big about himself, and I was always ready with my sarcastic comments to hit his nerves. It became my daily goal to annoy him and get on his nerves, and the feelings were mutual. He never held back on his revenge. He would spam Chad face emoji with a cigarette and that dead smile with an upside-down face. God, I hated those, and he knew it.
But his actual personality was totally something else, which I hate to admit, but it attracted me a lot.
But sometimes we used to click on many things like our dramatic side with unnecessary over reactions, songs, and many more.
I remember how we were just copy-pasting lyrics of one song just because another member of the group sang a few lines, and we liked it, so we started singing it too. How?
By copy-pasting lyrics in chat, he did the male lines, I did the female lines, and even this silliest time-wasting thing also felt enjoyable at that moment.
The song was (Yeh Raaten Yeh Mausam by Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhosle), and the way we were copy-pasting the lyrics felt so intimate that it felt like we were singing it to each other.
"Yeh apan kya kr rahe hai?" I typed, asking, knowing full well of our time-wasting stupidity.
(What are we doing?)
"Pata nahi, ~Rahe saans jab tak, yeh bandhan na toote~" he continued, copy-pasting the lyrics, clearly showing he was having fun.
(Don't know. ~As long as we breathe, may this bond never break~)
"Pr maja arra hai. ~Tumhein dil diya hai Yeh vaada kiya hai
Sanam, main tumhari rahungi sada~" I copied and pasted the lyrics, continuing after him.
(But it is fun. ~I have given you my heart, I have made this promise, my love, I will always be yours~)
"True. ~Yeh raatein, yeh mausam Nadi ka kinaara, yeh chanchal hawa~" he agreed with me as he pasted the last lines of the song that are originally sung in a chorus by both the singers.
(~These nights, this season, the riverbank, this playful breeze~)
I don't think he knows, but I later got teased by other members for him when he wasn't active, and I would just deny it outright because at that moment, I had never thought of it like that; I never knew what the future held for us at that moment.