12

"I'm Sorry." He apologized again. His heart melted as he stood there watching her. They stood not taking the eyes off each other. Dariya felt something hot near her nose. She touched and It was blood.

"You're bleeding. Don't look down." He said. he took her bag and dug for the kerchief. He took them and touched the nose. She moved his hand off and did it herself. She stood looking up the sky for the bleeding to stop. He didn't know what to do or what to tell her. He wanted to speak to her. Infact he had a lot to tell. But he wasn't sure if she would be willing.

They went to the park nearby and sat at the two ends of the chair. Dariya still not worn out from her foul mood. The park seemed packed with people since its weekend. With family, with pets, exercising, some coming for a picnic and some feeding the duck in the pond nearby them. Dariya sat there still, correcting her hair once a while. "You have grown up well." Lu Han finally broke the silence.

"You too. You look like a man," she told him.

"I am one," he said back correcting his denim jacket sitting in a relaxed position. She rolled her eyes and looked away while he sat there watching her.

"How have you been?" he asked as if he didn't know anything. But she smiled and said, "Things have been good." She took a deep breath. "After you left, I did so many wonderful things. I withdrew from the volleyball team, I changed school, I stopped pottery, I joined a big university and the only thing I did was fight with everyone at home, every single day. Everything has been pretty much-controlled by the others so..." she actually opened naturally with him as if they have been in touch all the time.

He moved closer "You look kind of pretty looking closer now. I don't know if am mistaken. But still, the same panda look lingers around you somewhere. Still chubby cheeks." He mocked her. She hit him on his arms and they laughed. "You are not the same. You look really pretty." He said after sometimes. She didn't say anything back. "It's a compliment," he said.

"Thanks," she said smiling, still looking away, tensed to meet his eyes.They resolved the fight and sat there in silence for a bit more time.

It was past lunchtime while Dariya reached home. Luckily there was no one down the hall. She silently climbed upstairs and shut herself in the room. She was feeling good after a really long time. She couldn't help but sit smiling. She changed quickly and lay in the bed, happily. She kind of for a moment looked forward for good things to happen in her life but reversed her thought to not jinx it. Since they exchanged the numbers Dariya and Lu Han kept in touch every day. 'MORNING MONKEY' he would text every morning and thus begins the chat battle for the whole day.