🌸 **EPISODE 1 — "The Quiet Girl"**
**Genre: Romance • School • Love Triangle • Slow burn**
The bell rang sharply, slicing through the morning quietness of the campus. Students rushed past each other in loud clusters—laughing, shouting, greeting their friends after vacation. Backpacks swung, sneakers squeaked, and chatter filled every corridor like a restless wave.
But in the middle of that noise, walked a girl who wished she could disappear.
Bhanu tightened the straps of her bag and kept her gaze fixed on the floor tiles.
Step by step. Quiet. Unseen. Just like always.
This was the first day of the new semester, but for her, it felt the same as every year—another season of avoiding attention, conversations, and curious eyes.
*If I walk fast enough… maybe no one will notice me.*
She slipped through the doors and into the hallway, avoiding groups of excited classmates. Girls squealed about crushes; boys argued about cricket matches. The new noticeboards were already crowded. She just passed by them, invisible.
---
## **The Library — Her Shelter**
Lunch break approached, but the cafeteria was chaos. The library, however, smelled of old pages and calmness.
Bhanu walked straight to her favorite spot, a corner table near the tall window, hidden behind the shelves.
She opened a book—any book, she didn't even read the title—and exhaled.
Silence.
Peace.
No eyes on her. No whispers. No judgment.
But that quiet didn't last long today.
---
## **The Door Moment**
As she left library after lunch, the heavy hallway door almost slipped from her hand.
Someone was coming behind her—she held the door out of reflex.
A boy rushed forward.
"Ah—thanks!" he said, breathlessly.
Bhanu blinked. She'd seen him around. Calm eyes, always polite, always helping teachers. He wasn't loud like others.
But something unexpected happened.
He looked at her—really looked—and said softly:
**"Bhanu, right?"**
Her heart dropped.
*He… knows my name?*
Her lips parted slightly, but no words came out. She simply nodded.
He smiled—warm, gentle, calming.
"I'm Arjun," he introduced, even though she already knew. "Nice to see you."
It wasn't flirtatious. It wasn't loud.
It was sincere.
Bhanu walked away quickly, but her mind kept replaying that smile, that soft tone, that unexpected familiarity.
Arjun watched her leave with a curious expression, as if he wanted to understand her.
---
## **The Popular Boy**
Minutes later, another presence passed by the hallway—one that made every pair of eyes turn.
Goutam.
Captain of the school's music club. The boy everyone admired. Confident, tall, always surrounded by the loudest group.
Girls whispered instantly:
"He's so good-looking!"
"How is he so cool?!"
"Do you think he'll perform this year too?"
They all stared at him.
Except Bhanu.
She looked down, clutching her books and stepping aside to make space. She didn't want trouble.
But for a single second—
**He glanced at her.**
Not at her clothes. Not at her awkward posture.
He looked at her face.
A quick, sharp glance that hit her like a sudden spark.
She froze.
He walked past as if nothing happened. But his steps slowed for half a second—almost unnoticeably.
And just when he thought no one was looking,
he turned his head slightly…
…as if to look at her again.
---
## **Two Boys. One Quiet Girl.**
Bhanu stood there, confused and stiff, holding her books.
Why did Arjun speak to her so gently?
Why did Goutam look at her like that?
Nothing like this ever happened in her life.
She avoided attention.
She avoided people.
She avoided feelings.
But today… the quiet was gone.
Arjun's soft smile.
Goutam's sharp glance.
Something was shifting.
Something she didn't ask for.
Something she didn't understand.
Her heart beat faster.
Her quiet life… was no longer quiet.
---
### 🌸 **End of Episode 1**