'Beyond the Horizon': There's more to it...

Chapter - 7

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Flashback

"Hi" Shehnaaz greeted entering the hallway of a school which usually gets empty towards the second half of the day.

It was a community school and was at a ten-minute walking distance from their relative's place where they have been staying for almost three months now. That is her 'Taya ji' and his family. They had come to join a wedding ceremony but stayed back around two months more on insistence of her Taya and Tayi ji as them getting a chance to meet was only once in a year with their cross-country arrangement, and this time it was falling during the summer vacations having them stretch their stay without much ado.

She was panting and the sweat beads on her skin denoting her exhaustion due to the rush with which she had started from her home and had reached here avoiding any and every eye on the way, the scorching afternoon heat and humidity adding to it. The fear of getting caught intensifying the feeling of panic, stress, and anxiety.

"Hi baby..." Sidharth replied turning towards her, whilst sitting on an empty bench with his back towards the classroom door.

A feeling of a refreshing breeze instantly washing over her entire being with the way he greeted her back.

"Boliye...?" She spoke from the door itself. The 'baby' as always having her red in her face, oh how much she loves, him calling her with such sweet names.

"Come inside first..." He commanded but as politely as he could, taking her out of her dreamlike mental state.

"Ab boliye jaldi...isse pehle ki koi dekh le!" She replied moving inside the classroom handling her dupatta pattingher flustered face with it and and setting it correct over her head, a habit that she has been following from how long she herself had no idea.

It was a common practice for them back in their hometown to cover their head while going out of the houses. It will not be hiding the head all the time at home among the family members but would always be intact covering the chest every time they are out of their respective rooms even at home.

"Relax...Tum kuch jyada hi darpok ho" He replied smirking, getting up from the bench, coming closer to her removing the same head covering, making sure to not touch her in any way that she might get uncomfortable with. Her comfort was his priority.

He would usually do that whenever they would meet which was not a daily thing but at least once in a week's time for last two months. Not that he didn't like to see her with her head enveloped and hair stuck under the covering, but he wanted her to let loose, unchained without bothering much about her looks or appearance when with him. Also, he had an immense liking towards her open long flowing locks. He would love to watch it play with the wind, the baby hair in front tumbling about her face, amplifying the brightness of her skin in contrast with the darkness of those tresses.

It had all started from the day when she was wearing a lehenga and the difference in her look was her bare crown area. It was because of the constant pleadings from their cousins that she and her sister had side-lined one of the very constant exercise of their lives just for the ceremonial look, only for a day. Sidharth for the first time in many years after his sisters', was attending a wedding. The reason? Obvious to his best friend Tanay. Shehnaaz had also started to get a hint of it but it was just a notion she had thought. For Sidharth, it was indeed only to see her once, meet her if possible, much aware of the fact that they wouldn't be able to talk with so many people around, yet he had showed up to such function even after hating social gatherings to the core. And by his good luck he had got to see her without anything concealing the top of her face which now became his favorite look of hers.