Chapter 57: This is a gift from me..

The moment Himanshu’s eyes met his... he understood everything in a split second.

​Rahul’s eyes had gone wide. He wasn’t looking at Himanshu like some stranger.

​But the moment Himanshu noticed Rahul’s gaze shift from him to Priya... his eyes widened even more. It was exactly like how his own eyes had popped out seeing Priya with Vaibhav.

​The second he saw Priya, Rahul’s entire posture and facial color changed. His wide eyes couldn’t look at Priya for too long. In a fraction of a second, he nervously stole his gaze away from her.

​His body language made it crystal clear that he didn’t want to stay there for another second. Wasting no time, he kicked up his half-open cycle stand and quickly left with his head down.

​Seeing all this, Himanshu just stood there frozen for a moment. He tried his best to make eye contact with Rahul, but after looking at Priya, Rahul didn’t turn back even once.

​Himanshu figured out this much at least—seeing them together had definitely bothered Rahul.

But his brain was stuck on another problem. If it bothered him so much, why didn’t he tell the classmates about that washroom thing? Maybe... maybe he just wasn’t totally sure about what he saw.

Himanshu told this to himself, trying to push his fear away.

​Thinking all this, Himanshu took a step forward.

But then he realized Priya hadn’t moved an inch.

​The moment he looked back... he froze all over again.

​Priya’s eyes were even wider than Rahul’s. Himanshu could clearly see the sheer fear in them. She was gripping her bag strap so tightly with one hand that her knuckles were turning white. The sweat on her forehead was clearly visible.

And her gaze was still stuck on the exact spot where Rahul had been standing a few moments ago.

​Himanshu hadn’t even seen Priya this panicked when Vaibhav was proposing to her in front of everyone.

​He just kept staring at Priya for a few moments.

Who knows why, but that same morning anxiety had returned to his chest... just with a different name this time.

​Looking down, Himanshu tried to snap her out of this shock.

"Priya..."

​Hearing her name, Priya flinched, quickly lowered her gaze, and started looking here and there.

Wiping the sweat off her forehead, she looked up at the poster above the store and tried to act totally normal... like nothing had just happened.

​Seeing Priya put on this fake act made Himanshu even more restless inside.

Countless thoughts started spinning in his head.

​Why did she get so stressed seeing him? What could be the reason? Were they... were they dating before? Or did they have a bad breakup? No, no, I remember perfectly well that Priya rejected him too. Then what exactly is the deal?

Should I... should I ask her?

​He looked at Priya again.

But seeing her face, Himanshu just couldn’t gather the courage to ask.

​The truth was, Himanshu absolutely didn’t want the last person in his class to stop talking to him too. This fear of losing her was forcing him to overthink every little thing.

​Putting his cycle on the stand, Himanshu was lost in these thoughts.

Priya just stood there waiting for him, turned toward the store, looking inside.

​Without saying a word to each other, they started walking inside the store.

Neither of them had the guts to break that heavy silence.

Honestly, compared to this morning, this whole thing wasn’t even that big of a deal. But who knows why, whatever was in Rahul’s eyes had made the whole vibe so heavy.

​Wandering around the store for a bit and looking at the new manga made both of them feel a little lighter.

​Picking up a manga, Priya finally broke that weird 10-minute silence.

"Ah! Found it..."

​"I thought I was late."

Holding some manga books toward Himanshu, she tried to give him her old familiar smile.

​"You should get this too. You’ll really like this one."

​Himanshu looked at the cover. The manga’s name was: ’I Hate This World.’

​Pausing for a bit, Priya spoke again.

"Dark fantasy books like this connect you with yourself even more."

​Rubbing the back of his neck, Himanshu gave his usual awkward smile and said,

"Is this... ugh... is this like The Demon Queen too?"

​"Yeah, exactly. It’s by the same author."

​Hearing this, Himanshu’s smile faded even more. He couldn’t even hold up that awkward smile anymore.

​Priya grabbed two copies of that manga and tossed them into her basket.

Then she showed Himanshu 6 to 7 more random weird dark fantasy mangas and dumped them in her basket too.

​Anyway, whatever it was... spending this time with Priya felt pretty new and dreamy to Himanshu. Watching her every movement, listening closely to every word she said, his heart was filling with a weird sense of peace.

​But... who knows why, whenever Priya wasn’t looking at him, he kept shoving his hands deep into both his pants pockets and his bag’s zipper, mentally calculating something over and over again.

​Well, he was terrified that he might end up having to pay for all these manga books himself.

​Alright then... he did the math in his head.

Right pocket has 10 $ , left side has 5 $ , and maybe 35 in the bag...

Oh no! I only have 50 bucks on me!

​Right then, Priya’s voice chimed in.

"Are you not getting anything?"

​Looking at the sad state of his pockets, Himanshu had no clue what to say. In a panic, he just blurted out whatever came to mind.

"No... um... I bought some yesterday."

​Hearing this, Priya’s smile dropped a little.

"Oh... okay. Got it."

​She said it keeping her eyes on the basket, almost like she was a bit annoyed or sad about it.

​In his rush and panic, these were the only words that managed to escape Himanshu’s mouth.

And thanks to those very words, Himanshu was ready to curse himself out all over again.

​But Priya’s next line made Himanshu feel a little proud of his lie.

​"Alright then... if you don’t mind, can we buy the manga together?"

​Without wasting a single second, Himanshu shrugged.

"Yeah, yeah! Why not... that sounds great."

​Priya gave a smile, turned toward the counter, and said,

"We can get a 20% discount this way."

​Himanshu’s face was honestly worth seeing after hearing that. His innocent, happy smile instantly crumpled like a crushed water bottle.

​All these years, he had never even paid attention to this ’couples discount’ offer at the store.

​Who knows why, but suddenly everything about Priya and the manga store just clicked in Himanshu’s brain.

​So... is this why I got ’The Demon Queen’ manga for cheap? I thought there was some sale going on.

​Staring at Priya’s back, he furrowed his eyebrows.

So... did she just bring me here for this? For a discount?

​For some reason, Priya was starting to look a little selfish and mean to him now.

​Dragging his heavy body, Himanshu followed Priya to the counter.

Pulling out the 35 $ from his bag and the leftover cash from his pockets, he clenched it all in his fist, just waiting to hear the total amount.

​As the manga prices kept adding up on the bill, Himanshu’s heartbeat kept racing at the exact same speed.

​But finally, he let out a deep sigh of relief. After the 20% discount, the total bill came out to 94$ , which meant Himanshu’s half was 47$.

​The last bit of cash he had saved from the demon was now completely gone, paying half the bill for Priya’s weird ’dark fantasy’ books.

​Even though he had zero interest in these books, and he hadn’t even bought a single thing for himself... still, acting as a ’couple’ with Priya to pay that bill brought a kind of happiness that was way bigger than the pain of losing his money.

Just as Himanshu reached his hand forward with the cash... even before he could, Priya quickly tapped her debit card on the machine.

​Beep!

​And Himanshu’s tightly clenched fist just stayed hanging right there in the air. Right in front of his eyes, the ’Payment Successful’ message popped up on the machine’s screen, and the entire amount got deducted.

​Right then, Priya’s voice came from beside him.

She was telling the guy standing at the counter, "Could you pack these separately for us?"

​The counter guy nodded, and in just a few moments... a plastic bag filled with those dark fantasy mangas was handed straight into Himanshu’s hands.

​Looking at the plastic bag hanging from his hand, Himanshu blinked twice. He couldn’t even believe what had just suddenly happened. His brain was still stuck on the calculation that he had to pay his half of the bill.

​"Why did you... why did you do this?"

Staring at the plastic bag, the words just slipped out of Himanshu’s mouth in a panic.

​"Did what?"

Priya shrugged her shoulders, looking at him with total innocence.

​"Why did you pay the whole amount? When I was supposed to pay my half!"

With a bit of frustration and panic, Himanshu shoved his hand, still clutching the cash, right in front of Priya.

​For a second, Priya just kept looking at Himanshu’s serious face and his extended hand.

And then... she suddenly burst out laughing. To hide her laugh, she quickly pressed one hand over her mouth.

​Himanshu just kept staring at her with his furrowed eyebrows in pure confusion. What was so funny about this? Did I crack a joke or something?

​After laughing like that for a few moments, calming herself down a bit, Priya gave a really sweet and relaxed smile and said,

"This is a gift from me... for coming along with me.