Scene First:-

The PG room smelled faintly of vanilla candles and the lavender room spray Emma swore by. Pari sat cross-legged on the narrow bed, her back against the cool wall, while her friend Emma sprawled across the study chair, rambling about some impossible assignment their professor had assigned that morning.

"...and then he said we literally have three days to submit a fifteen-page report. Can you believe that? Pari? Pari, are you even listening to me?"

Pari blinked, dragging herself back into the room. "Yeah, yeah. I'm listening."

She wasn't. Not really. Her body was here, in this small room with its fairy lights strung lazily along the window, but her mind kept drifting... circling back, again and again, to a question she couldn't shake loose no matter how hard she tried.

Why does it suddenly feel like he's everywhere I turn.

It didn't make sense. There was nothing unusual about any of it... nothing that should make her stomach twist the way it did every time his name popped up on her screen.

Emma was still watching her, head tilted, eyes narrowing. "Okay, you've been weird since you got here. What's going on?"

"Nothing," Pari said, a little too fast, a little too bright.

Before Emma could push further, Pari's phone buzzed against the mattress. The sound sliced clean through the room.

Pari's whole body went still.

She stared at the screen a beat too long before picking it up, and when she saw the name flashing across it, something in her chest lurched... sharp, sudden, unwelcome.

Aarav.

Her heart didn't just skip. It stumbled, tripping over itself in a way she hated, in a way she couldn't explain.

Her thumb hovered over the screen. Then, with a short breath, she declined the call. Darkness. Silence. For three seconds, she let herself breathe.

Then it rang again.

Pari squeezed her eyes shut and declined it a second time, harder, as if the force behind her thumb could somehow answer the question circling endlessly in her head.

Why. Why is he calling me. Why now.

It was something quieter than avoidance. A restlessness that showed up the second he was near, like her mind sensed something her eyes hadn't caught yet.

Every time he's around, I feel like I'm missing something. Like there's a piece of this whole picture nobody's showing me.

Her jaw tightened. She hated how much that thought unsettled her. Then- a soft ping.

A message.

Her stomach dropped before she even opened it.

Glitch 'A'😬: Pari. Come out. I'm waiting outside your friend's PG.

Pari's mouth fell open. Her eyes scanned the words twice, as if rereading them might change what they said.

"He's...he's here?" she murmured, forgetting Emma was even in the room.

Emma sat up straighter. "Who's here?"

Pari didn't answer. She was already typing, thumbs moving fast, brows drawn together.

Pari: I'm not coming out. I'm staying here with my friend tonight. I'll come tomorrow.

She hit send and set her jaw, like that settled it.
The reply came almost instantly.

Glitch 'A'😬: If you're not outside in the next five minutes, don't blame me for what happens after.

Pari read it once. Twice. Her eyes rolled...though something underneath the irritation flickered, uneasy, like she couldn't quite tell if he was joking.

Pari: And what exactly will you do?😠 I already told you, I'm coming tomorrow. So tomorrow it is. You're not going to complain Reyansh bhai, 😏I know you won't. So stop trying to scare me for nothing.🥱

She hit send with a satisfied little huff, chin tilted up as though he could see her through the screen, as though her bravado could somehow travel through the wifi signal and land squarely in his smug, infuriating face.

He leaned back against the driver's seat, one arm draped over the wheel, the streetlight outside casting long shadows across the sharp lines of his face. There was something dangerously amused in the way his lips curved, something that said he already knew exactly how this would end.

His thumbs moved over the screen.

Glitch 'A'😬: Of course, why would I tell Reyansh… when I have my own ways of getting you back home. You know what those ways are.

He hit send and could practically picture her face... that scrunched-up, offended little expression she got whenever he cornered her. He didn't have to wait long.

A single emoji came back.
🥱😏

Aarav's laugh this time was real, rougher, shaking his shoulders as he dragged a hand down his face, shaking his head slowly. Stubborn. So unbelievably stubborn.

He shook his head then His thumb moved over the screen, unhurried.

Glitch 'A'😬: Ok then. I'm coming inside. And then I'll bring you outside myself, in front of everyone. And if you still refuse... I don't mind carrying you out either.

He paused, considering, then sent one more.

Glitch 'A'😬: So get it into your mind... you're not staying here tonight. Wherever you live, that's exactly where you'll be. With me. Got it?

Inside, Pari's eyes went wide, the phone nearly slipping from her grip.

"He wouldn't," she whispered under her breath... though the shake in her own voice betrayed her, because some quiet, frustrating part of her already knew he absolutely would.
Her fingers moved fast across the screen, typing with more force than necessary.

Pari: As if I care. I'm not coming out.

Aarav read it and shook his head slightly, the corner of his mouth pulling into something almost fond. "Stubborn Pixel," he murmured to himself, setting the phone down for a second before picking it back up.

His reply was calm. Measured. Not a threat... more like a simple statement of fact.

Glitch 'A'😬: Alright. No problem. I'm coming in. And afterward, but don't blame me when tomorrow the whole college starts talking about why a professor walked into a girls' PG late at night and carried his student out over his shoulder.

Pari's mouth fell open, her whole body going rigid as the words sank in. She shook her head slowly, as though she could deny the entire situation out of existence.

"This is.... this is actually unbelievable," she muttered, cheeks warm with frustration. "This is exactly why I call him Glitch. Nothing about him makes sense. He just... shows up, and everything stops working right."

In pure irritation, her thumb jabbed the screen.

Pari: Fine. 😡😤

One word. Sent like a door slamming shut.

Aarav read the single word and allowed himself a small, quiet smile... nothing triumphant in it, just something settled, something relieved in a way he didn't examine too closely.

Of course. She never listens the first time. He tipped his head back against the headrest, eyes drifting half-shut for a moment, the smile lingering.

Inside, Pari shot up from the bed, startling Emma, who was watching the whole exchange with open curiosity. Pari paced two restless steps toward the window and back, pressing her palms briefly to her temples.

God, why does this always happen. Why does one message from him turn my entire evening upside down.

Her nostrils flared as the frustration sharpened into something more familiar, easier to hold onto than confusion. First he scolds me in college, in front of the entire class, and then makes me walk out of the classroom like I'm some kind of child being punished — and now he's shown up here too, as if humiliating me once wasn't enough.

A slow, mischievous smile crept across her face, chasing the storm away. Her eyes glinted with the particular satisfaction of someone who had just decided revenge was the only acceptable next move. She picked up her phone.

Let's see how long that calm face of yours survives tonight, she thought. By the time I'm done, my name won't be Pari Oberoi anymore… it'll be Mr. Glitch Malhotra's worst nightmare.

She grabbed her long coat from the hook by the door, shrugging it over her jeans and top with quick, purposeful movements.

Emma frowned, sitting up. "Wait... where are you going?"

Pari paused at the door, schooling her face into something easy, casual. "Ugh, my flat owner that chugalkhor person called my brother because I didn't show up tonight. Bhaiya just messaged me, telling me to go back. I have to go, or he's going to worry."

It wasn't the truth. Not even close.

No one knew that she and Aarav lived in the same flat. Aarav had been firm about that... no one finds out, he'd told her once. And Pari, still, had no idea why.

She just knew that lying felt easier than trying to explain something she didn't understand herself.

What she didn't know... what she had never once suspected... was the real reason Aarav had come here, miles away from India.

___________

Scene Second:-

Pari stood frozen.

The world in front of her had narrowed down to a single, impossible image... one her mind kept rejecting, kept insisting couldn't be real. This had to be a dream. Some terrible, vivid nightmare she'd wake up from any second now, gasping, safe in her room, with Aarav probably knocking on her door asking why she looked so pale.

But the cold wind biting against her skin was real. The murmur of hundreds of voices around her was real. The flashing lights of the police car parked at the college gate... red and blue slicing across the stone pillars of the entrance... were painfully, undeniably real.

Her eyes burned, tears gathering thick and fast, blurring the scene in front of her. She refused to let them fall. Refused. Her nails dug into her palms, crescent moons pressing into skin, and she didn't even register the pain until she felt something warm and wet break the surface... blood, welling up from where her nails had broken skin, but she couldn't bring herself to care. The physical pain was nothing. Nothing compared to what was tearing through her chest.

Beside her, Emma and Alex stood equally frozen, equally shattered, their faces pale with disbelief.

"It can't be true," Alex whispered, voice cracking, shaking his head slowly as though the motion alone could undo what was happening. "How... he's... no... No, there's definitely some misunderstanding. There has to be. How can they treat him like this?"

Pari couldn't answer. Her throat had closed up completely, words dying somewhere behind the lump lodged there.

Her gaze was fixed on him.

On Aarav.

And across the courtyard, through the sea of students, through the chaos of raised phones and whispered speculation, his eyes found hers too.

He didn't look afraid. He didn't look around at the hundreds of eyes on him.... at the students filming, at the professors whispering behind their hands, at the mixture of sympathy and suspicion and outright hostility written across dozens of faces.

Some looked at him like a victim of some horrible mistake. Some looked at him like he was already guilty, already condemned. Some just looked at him like he was something to be afraid of.

He didn't seem to notice any of it. His attention was entirely, completely on her.

The college head, Matthew Collins, stepped forward, his face taut with disbelief, his voice rising with barely restrained anger. "I think there's been some kind of mistake here, officer. He is the most gentlemanly, respectable man on this faculty. He can't... he wouldn't... I have known him for almost eight years. There is no way..."

The officer- Nathan Reed, his badge catching the flashing lights... shook his head sharply, his grip tightening around Aarav's arm hard enough that Pari saw Aarav's jaw flex, though his face betrayed nothing.

"We have proof, Mr. Collins." Nathan said, voice flat, final.

"We've already shown you the files. Please don't interfere. You cannot obstruct a police investigation, or stop us from taking a criminal into custody."

Criminal.

The word hit Pari like a physical blow. Her breath caught somewhere in her throat, a broken, silent gasp, her whole body flinching.

Across the courtyard, Aarav's eyes locked onto hers the instant the word left the officer's mouth. He gave the faintest shake of his head... barely perceptible, meant for her and her alone... his eyes saying what his mouth couldn't.
Don't. Don't let anyone know. Please.

Pari's hand flew to her mouth, palm pressing hard against her lips to hold back the sound threatening to claw its way out of her.

Matthew Collins tried again, his voice lower now, pleading. "Okay. Fine. We won't interfere with your process. But at least... at least don't parachute one of this college's most respected professors out in handcuffs, in front of every single student. Look around you. They're all watching him."

Nathan Reed's mouth curved into something smug, something cruel, as his gaze slid over to Aarav with open contempt before flicking back to Matthew.

"Your reputed professor," he said, voice dripping with sarcasm, "should have thought about that before committing a crime like this."

Then he turned, taking in the courtyard... the hundreds of students frozen mid-step, phones raised, eyes wide... and something dark and satisfied settled over his expression.

"Now," he said, loud enough for the crowd to hear, savoring it, "let everyone watch how their professor gets what's coming to him."

He started dragging Aarav forward, toward the waiting police car.

A few students instinctively moved to block the path, faces stricken, voices rising in protest... but it was chaos, disorganized, useless against the officer's grip.

Pari's body moved before her mind caught up. She pushed through the crowd, breaking into a run, closing the distance toward him. She needed to touch him, hold him, make sure this was real and not the nightmare her mind kept insisting it was.

But Aarav knew her. Knew exactly what she was about to do, she is going to hug him... And even now, even with his arm twisted back, even being dragged toward a car that would take him God knew where...his first thought was still her.

He gave the smallest shake of his head, stopping her mid-step, and leaned in just enough that his next words were meant for her ears only, low and urgent beneath the noise of the crowd.

"Go straight to the flat from here. Don't stop anywhere. You know which room to stay in until...." His eyes held hers, steady despite everything. "First Call Kabir... And don't leave that room until he gets there. Not for anything. And don't turn off the light.... Understand?"

Pari nodded, tears finally spilling over, hot and fast down her cheeks, her teeth sinking into her lower lip hard enough to bruise, trying... failing, to hold back the sob building in her chest.

And then, impossibly, Aarav smiled at her.
Small. Soft. Steady, like he wasn't the one being dragged away in front of an entire college.

"Don't cry too much, okay?" he said, voice gentler than the moment had any right to allow. "I already made dinner in the morning, remember? So eat and take your medicine. Don't stay hungry." A pause, his eyes softening further, something achingly tender beneath the calm. "Pixel."

Before she could respond, before she could say any of the hundred things crowding her throat, Nathan Reed yanked Aarav's arm hard, shoving him toward the car with rough, deliberate force. The door slammed shut behind him... a sound that echoed through Pari's chest like a gunshot.

Within a minute, the car was gone, disappearing through the college gates, red and blue lights fading into the grey afternoon.
Pari couldn't hold herself together any longer.

Her knees nearly buckled beneath her as Emma caught her, pulling her into a tight hold, and Pari collapsed into the embrace, sobbing into her friend's shoulder, her whole body shaking.

Far off, at opposite ends of the courtyard, two figures stood among the dispersing crowd... unnoticed, unremarkable, blending seamlessly into the chaos. Each wore a single earbud, tucked discreetly out of sight.

Both were smiling.

Slowly, without hurry, they turned their heads... meeting each other's gaze across the distance, across the crowd, across the wreckage of what had just unfolded.

A voice murmured through the earpiece, quiet and satisfied.

"Now the real game begins, Pari Oberoi." A pause. A slow, deliberate smile spreading further. "Aarav saved you for a long time."

The figures held each other's gaze, something dark and victorious passing between them without a single word needing to be spoken aloud. "Now... who's going to save you?"

**********************************************

And so, we begin Pari and Aarav’s journey...🌸

And trust me, this prologue is just a little glimpse of what’s coming. This story is going to be something different.

You’ve already seen the tropes.... cybersecurity, hacking, secrets, suspense... so obviously, their story isn’t going to be that simple.

So, are you ready to begin Pari and Aarav’s journey?

If you enjoyed the prologue, please don’t forget to leave a comment and tell me what you think. Your reactions mean a lot to me. 🫶

I’ll be posting the first chapter of "Wanna Be Yours" soon.

I hope you all enjoy this story and stay with me throughout their journey. 🤍

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