Episode-3

Chapter 3: The Weight of Unspoken Words

The days had begun to bleed into one another, each one indistinguishable from the next. Aarav’s routine, once comfortable in its monotony, now felt like a cage. He kept waking up early, unable to shake off the pull of the diary. Each page, each word, tangled itself in his thoughts, making him restless.

That night, as the rain continued its gentle, endless rhythm outside, Aarav opened the diary again. He didn’t even need to force it anymore. The act of reading it had become a ritual — one that calmed his mind, even as it stirred his heart.

“Day 12: I wonder if everyone has a secret they’re afraid to say out loud. I think mine is that I’m afraid of being seen. Not seen in the way we all are in public, but seen in a way that makes someone truly understand you. Because once they understand, they’ll see your flaws, your cracks. And if they see that, they might leave.”

Aarav stopped, his thumb hovering over the next page.

Her words settled into his chest, heavy but quiet, like something unspoken but understood. He had read them before, but now they felt different. Personal. As though they weren’t just Meher’s thoughts anymore. They were his.

He put the diary down and stared out the window.

Was it possible to fall for someone you hadn’t even met? Someone you had no proof of, other than the ink on a page? Was it foolishness, or just the craving of a soul that had never been seen, reaching out to another that seemed just as invisible?

He was losing himself in these words. In her.

It wasn’t just curiosity anymore. He wanted to know her. Her laugh. The way she tucked her hair behind her ear when she was nervous. Her smile — real and raw, the kind that wasn’t meant for anyone else but her.

But it was all a fantasy.

He closed his eyes, the image of her elusive face flashing in his mind like a dream he could never quite touch.

The next day, Aarav couldn’t focus at work. Every glance at his phone screen felt like a betrayal, pulling him away from the one thing that had captured his attention — her words.

He felt torn. A quiet ache had taken root inside him. Every part of his life felt distant now — the people he spoke to, the tasks he completed, the routine he once clung to for comfort.

He didn’t care about the projects that needed his attention. He didn’t care about the colleagues who came and went. He only cared about the girl in the pages.

It wasn’t love, not yet. But it was something stronger — a pull he couldn’t explain. Something raw and real, like a current running through the air.

That night, as he read another entry, he felt himself unraveling.

“Day 15: I passed by someone today who reminded me of you. Or maybe it was just the feeling. The way you look at the world. There are times I think we must be the same. Not in the obvious ways. But in the parts we hide. I wonder if you’re searching for me too.”

Aarav’s hand trembled as he closed the diary. His breath caught in his throat. She knew. She had to.

She had felt him too.

He had been thinking of her — her words, her thoughts, her presence — but here she was, telling him, without even knowing him, that she had felt something too.

That maybe, just maybe, they weren’t so different after all.

His pulse raced. He needed to know more. He had to find her.

But as soon as the thought crossed his mind, another one came, darker and quieter:

What if I can’t?

What if this was all a fantasy? A story he had built around a single page of words. What if Meher didn’t exist at all? What if the whole thing was just some strange coincidence, some trick of the universe?

His mind spun in circles, caught between longing and fear.

The next day, as Aarav walked through the city, the air around him felt heavier than usual. It wasn’t the weight of the rainclouds. It was the weight of something else — something inside him.

He passed the familiar streets, his footsteps lost in the noise of the city. But everything felt distant now. Unimportant. He wanted to scream, to run, to tear through the world until he found her.

The girl with the words that spoke to him.

But she was gone. Out of reach. Like a dream he had no right to chase.

He paused near the station, where they had first crossed paths. He didn’t know why, but his feet led him there — as if the universe had decided he needed to be here. He stood for a long time, watching the trains pull in and out.

And for the first time since he had started reading her words, Aarav asked himself:

What if she had never wanted to be found?

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***