If you wouldn't find her. I will

Setting: Elemental International College Grounds. Late afternoon. Shadows stretch long across the golden grass. The breeze grows colder. Tina walks alone — her footsteps echoing against the stone paths.

She had checked the classrooms.

The locker hall.

The library.

The gardens.

Even the art room.

> "Where are you…" she whispered, voice laced with quiet worry.

Aahi Shaikh — the girl who arrived like poetry and vanished like a ghost.

Tina was now searching hallways like they were puzzle pieces. Her heart thumped — not with fear, but with something deeper: an unshakable sense that Aahi needed someone. Now.

She turned a corner.

And froze.

> There, ahead, near the fountain, stood Aarif.

Alone. Backpack slung low. Headphones around his neck. A distant look in his eyes, like the whole world annoyed him.

Tina rushed forward.

> "Aarif!"

He looked up slowly, brows raised.

> "The new girl—Aahi—she's missing," Tina said breathlessly. "She didn't come to class. I've checked everywhere."

His expression didn't change.

> "Why are you telling me?" he said flatly.

> "Because…" Tina hesitated, "you were with her earlier, weren't you?"

Aarif's jaw clenched. Just a twitch.

> "She's not my responsibility."

Then, without another word, he turned and walked away — cold, sharp, like a door slamming shut.

Tina stood frozen for a second.

But then she gritted her teeth and turned the other way.

> "Fine. If you won't find her... I will."

---

The college has a forest trail — quiet, mostly ignored. A line of trees near the back campus where nature crept in gently. No one came here often.

But Tina's instinct pulled her there.

The leaves crunched under her shoes. Sunlight broke in golden shards through tall trees. The world hushed itself around her — like the forest itself was listening.

Then…

She saw her.

---

Aahi.

Sitting on the edge of a fallen log. Her knees tucked into her chest. Hair covering her face. Her scarf loosely wrapped, one end dragging in the dirt. Her bag sat beside her, unopened.

She looked like someone who had tried hard to hold in her tears… and failed.

Tina's heart broke.

> "Aahi…" she whispered.

Aahi looked up — eyes red, cheeks stained, but still trying to hold on to her calm.

> "I didn't think anyone would come," Aahi said softly.

> "You shouldn't be alone out here," Tina said, walking forward gently. "It's not safe."

> "It's safer than people," Aahi replied. Her voice didn't shake. It was the kind of voice that had broken already.

Tina didn't push. She just sat beside her. Quiet.

> "I saw what happened," she finally said.

Aahi turned her face slowly.

Tina met her gaze.

> "I know you didn't deserve it."

The forest held them in stillness — like it agreed.

---