Love is in the air!

"Is it the same girl who was with you that day at the Gurukul's gate?" Vindhya asked in an expressionless voice.

Yash understood that she was referring to their first meeting.

He smiled and replied, "Yes, her name is Mrignayani. We have been friends for a long time and…"

"Good for you. Wish you luck," she cut his narrative and walked off.

"She sure is bossy. Doesn't let anyone else complete their sentences, huh!" he muttered before turning away.

Vindhya stood leaning against a Gulmohar tree, trying to get serenity back in her demeanor. She couldn't believe his temerity to come and say this on her face. How dare he? How dare he pit that worthless girl against her. Was he seriously going to let go of her for that bumpkin??

As the semester neared its end, a lot of things started happening across the campus. Apart from the exams, there was another event coming up and that was the quarterly sports meet. Every year, this was the first time that the youngest kids, aged nine and ten, participated in a sport of their choosing.

To help them, the senior students who excelled in that particular sport mentored them, along with receiving coaching from the sports instructor. Since Mriga was amongst the top three archers of her batch, she had been asked to instruct the nine-year olds. This was the first time that she had been given such a role.

After telling Vindhya the truth about his feelings, Yash went looking for Mriga and told her that hence forth, he would come see her outside her dorm every morning before the classes started and escort her back from the library every night. In his words, he wanted to begin and end his day with her. She blushed hard, recalling the incident from the previous night.

Two days later

"Sorry, have you been waiting here for long?" asked Mriga as she panted after running down the steps, with her heavy bow.

Few girls crossed the two of them, giving them speculating looks.

"G'morning. No, I just arrived. But why are you taking your bow and arrow to the class?" he asked in confusion.

Surprise was reflected in her eyes.

She said, "Didn't I tell you last night that I have to go straight to the sports ground today onwards for the next ten days? I am in charge of the training of the level one archers."

Yash turned sheepish and replied, "I, uh… might not have paid much attention to your words last night. The thing is, ahem… holding your hand makes me kind of get a brain freeze and I have nearly no recollection of what was spoken between us since the time we left the library, holding hands till we bid each other farewell right here."

Mriga looked at his blushing face and fell in love all over again. How could he be so cute!!

Suddenly realizing that she had been staring at his face for sometime, she leaned forward and replied gravely, "Ok. I shall remember to extract my hand from yours everytime I want to tell you something important."

Yash gave her an injured look. Trust his girl to thrash the romance out of any and every statement of his!

Feeling pleased with herself after that cheeky comment, she hoisted the heavy quiver, filled with arrows on one shoulder and offered the bow to him to hold.

"Walk me to the sports ground…?" she asked.

He took the bow with a smile and nodded his head.

Other end of the Gurukul

"My only word of advice for you is to try and not scare the poor kids with your attitude. They are only ten years old and would get terrorized looking at this big guy scolding them. It will be bad for their morale," Vandit advised Abhirath in a sagely voice as they walked out of the boys' dorm together.

"Really? Are you implying that I bully you?" he turned sideways to look at the guy who had turned into an unexpected friend from a stranger in a short span of time.

"I am not implying. I am saying it loud and clear," Vandit said with a wicked gleam in his eyes.

Abhirath was currently ranked as the number one player in the Archers group across all levels. Since many years, he had competed with players senior to him, due to his amazing skills. As a result, he had never ended up competing with Mriga till date.

"Uh, by the way, didn't you take too long this morning to get ready? I could hear a few people grumbling in the bathing area about a guy being inside the shower for more than twenty minutes on a school day. Was that you? Per chance, is it because you saw the list of students who will be training the juniors?" Vandit teased him.

Abhirath tried to fake nonchalance and replied, "Of course, I saw the list. I am the one who wrote it, so I would know, right."

Vandit clapped his bony hand on his friend's shoulder, "Aha! I wondered when I saw the list that how come the top ranked archer was teaching a level two group. Didn't you refuse to do so last year saying that the rank one archer needs to train the hardest and it would be a waste of your time in teaching basics to newcomers? I know this because I have many friends in the Archery team. I was wondering about what has changed this year for your attitude to undergo a complete change. Maybe… someone else hadn't been qualified to tutor the juniors last time but she has come up the ranks this year. Could that be the reason? Am I correct, big bro?"

Abhirath stopped in his tracks and turned to glare at his impertinent friend. Ever since Vandit had discovered his soft corner for Mriga, he never let go of an opportunity to pull his leg.

"Stop being a pest. You are over reading the whole thing. I just thought that the juniors would gain from my experience and hence I have decided to help them. Whoever else is on the list, is not my concern. The sports teacher decided upon the names of the mentors," he said a touch defensively.

But Vandit wasn't done with him yet.

"Is that so? Then why did I hear someone grumble that the Archery instructor leaves all decisions in your hand, since you are better than him in everything. Oh wait! The one who told me this, was the person who had mentored the juniors last year and had expected to be picked up for the same this year too, since he had done a decent job at it. But imagine his surprise when he saw the names on the list. Apparently, Mriga hadn't even applied for the mentoring post. Wonder why the coach picked her," Vandit pretended to scratch his head.