Evening 5:30 pm, Bengaluru

I am taking a walk in the nearby park. It was a beautiful evening, the sky was a little cloudy, and since it was rainy season, thin raindrops are falling, maybe there will be heavy rain tonight. But as of now, none of it matters. Right now all I care about is the lovely scenery, cloudy sky, chirping of birds, and the cool breeze that is soothing to the heart, all this feels like I slipped into some fantasy world. If possible I'd like to stick to this moment forever. But there is an old saying, "following the pleasure, comes the pain" and I am not an exception to this. With the beautiful scenery, the memories connected to it started to flow through my mind. Yes! that day also has nice weather just like now.

This story has started almost six years ago. Back then, I was studying Engineering 2nd year. That day was fresher's day in our college, every staff member and the senior student was so busy making preparations to welcome freshers. Among these busy people, there was not much work for us 2nd-year students, we were just happy that there were no classes that day. I and my group are chit-chatting under a tree inside the college campus. Since it is the rainy season, the sky is cloudy and the weather is somewhat cool. People who don't have any work are just chilling in this cool weather. In those happy moments, I heard a thin voice from behind.

"Excuse me, can you tell me how can I go to the auditorium?", I turned to find the source of the voice. That moment felt like time has stopped, I can't see anything for a moment, not the clouds, not the people, not my surroundings, all I can see is the girl who was speaking to me. She's speaking to me, but none of it is audible to me. I just kept looking at her. Among the cool weather, the chirping of the birds, and the light rain shower that has just started, she looked like a fairy descended to earth for me. It felt like a message from God himself, a message for me saying that "She's the one for you".

"Excuse me, bro, can you please tell me where to go for the auditorium", a second call from her brought me back to reality as my heart almost skipped a beat when I heard the word "bro". I suddenly grabbed my friend who was sitting next to me and said "Of course, he'll tell you, he'd be happy to be your bro". My poor friend, shocked by this kept looking at me in confusion. I looked at him apologetically and pleaded to cover me.

"When it comes to love, friends are the only ones who can become scapegoats to support you"

Understanding me, he told them the directions to the auditorium and turned to me with the look of "You better remember this", I smiled at him thankfully. After listening, she proceeded to the auditorium. But while going, she gently looked at me with a little smile on her face. My heart started pounding when I saw her smile. It was like a once-in-a-life moment for me.

Later I came to know that she's a fresher in our college in the same branch as me. As time passes, we started talking to each other, and months later on one fine day I proposed to her and she accepted after toying with me for a while. Finally, we're in a relationship, originally I was pretty good at my studies, but I started to fall behind due to some of these distractions. As a result, I kept a bunch of backlogs behind, but I've never bothered with it. I was full of hope that I will build a future with her. But as the wise one says "Nothing ever goes as planned in this accursed world", eventually she broke up with me saying I am not good enough for her, things are not working out between us bla bla bla... and left me just like that.

It was so hard for me to take, I even went into depression for a couple of months. But I finally decided to move on and build my career instead. I cleared my backlogs and worked hard to build my skills. After a while, my work started to show results, my profile got recognized and I got placed in a decent job. I didn't get into any other relationships after that, nor I am interested. But someday I really hope to find a person who is really for me.

It's not easy for me to get over my past and forget her. After all, she was my first love and the moments we spent together were real. Even if she's not with me, her memories will stick with me forever.

I took a deep breath, the air is so cool, it's been an hour since I came here. But the wonderful scenery now felt like it was saying a different message. Yeah! That's right, I've finally realized that last time it's not that nature wasn't trying to tell me that she's the one for me. Maybe it was warning me to run before I'd get involved in something bad. Unfortunately, I didn't get the message right that time.

The sky was so calm, finally when I look up at the sky one thing that comes to my mind.

"Oh! God, you really need to work on your communication skills. Things are getting misunderstood here".