Laura never believed in love stories. Not the mushy ones, not the fairy-tales, not even the modern ones her friends obsessed about. She believed in realism, in punctual bus timings, in the smell of new notebooks, in dreams that required discipline—not butterflies.

But that belief cracked one dusky evening in 2012, on a narrow lane where the air smelled faintly of incense from a nearby temple and the hum of distant traffic blended with soft conversations.

She was returning from her cousin’s evening puja, walking with her sister and two cousins, the warm light from the corridor lamps reflecting on her pink dupatta. She was thinking about college assignments, tomorrow’s lecture, the long bus ride home… ordinary things. Predictable things.

And then—it happened.

Someone stepped into the dim passage from the opposite side. A boy. Tall, dressed in a simple navy-blue t-shirt, hair slightly messy like he had just returned from a ride. He wasn’t smiling, yet his eyes carried a strange warmth—as if they recognized her even before her mind had processed his presence.

For the smallest second, something inside her paused.

Her breath.

Her thoughts.

Even her footsteps.

The world turned strangely quiet—not in a poetic way, but in a real way. As if someone had lowered the volume of life. The laughter of her cousins behind her dissolved. The distant honks disappeared. Her heartbeat was suddenly louder than everything else.

He kept walking… closer… closer… and then their eyes met.

Just that. One glance.

But in that glance Laura felt something she could never explain later—something wild and steady at the same time, like monsoon winds meeting the still surface of a lake.

A flicker of recognition?

Or destiny playing a small, harmless trick?

She didn’t know. But it tugged something inside her, some soft, untouched place she didn't even know existed.

He looked straight at her. Not at her clothes, not at her hands, not at the floor. At her eyes—directly, calmly, with a depth that made her forget moving. She didn’t blink for a moment, afraid the connection would break.

Then, too quickly, he passed her. The corridor lights shifted, her heartbeat resumed its normal pace, and the world returned with its usual noises.

She inhaled sharply, realizing only then that she had continued walking ahead alone. Her cousins were several steps behind, giggling about something entirely unrelated.

She turned, embarrassed, pretending she had just been fast—nothing unusual.

But her mind?

It was nowhere near the corridor anymore.

It was replaying the flash.

That moment.

Those eyes.

“No,” she told herself, almost scolding. “Don’t be foolish. You don’t fall for strangers.”

Yet for the rest of the walk, she couldn’t stop feeling that strange pull in her chest. Something warm. Something hopeful. Something she tried hard to ignore.

She didn’t go back to her cousin’s home for months after that. She stayed away intentionally. She told herself it was for studies, for focus, for discipline.

But somewhere deep inside, she knew the truth.

She was afraid.

Afraid of what one simple glance had awakened.

Afraid of how easily one boy she didn’t even know had shaken her carefully built walls.

Afraid that if she saw him again… the feeling might not disappear.

But feelings have their own strange ways of returning.

And destiny always sends signs—quiet, unexpected, persistent.

Laura didn’t know it then, but that single fleeting moment would shape the next many years of her life—her dreams, her heartbreaks, her silence, her strength.

And the love story she never believed in… had already begun.