Ayra's eyes, glistening with tears of realization and affection after hearing Aryan's deep confessions, sought his. She gently wiped the moisture from her face.
"Why are you so mad about me, Aryan?" she asked, her voice soft with wonder.
Aryan smiled, the fatigue briefly lifting from his face. He nodded a silent dismissal to Runa, who returned the gesture with a warm smile and quiet best wishes before leaving the room.
Alone with Ayra, Aryan's voice became intimate, charged with the weight of years.
"The first day I met you, I completely lost myself," he confessed. "I don't know if you noticed, but I was so nervous I could barely speak. In that moment, I realized my life had finally found its missing piece. It's you, Ayra. Without you, I am incomplete."
He took her hands in his, speaking with the conviction of a man reborn. "Ayra, you are my world. You changed everything about me. I just want to be with you, always. We will spend our time together, laughing, smiling, crying—sharing every sadness and every joy. There is no happier place for me in this world, but when you are with me, every location becomes my happiest place. Every moment becomes perfect, and everything looks beautiful. I just want to be with you, always."
Ayra's eyes were pools of emotion. "Aryan, your love is more profound than I ever knew. But how did you pass those days when I seemed to neglect your love and rejected your proposals?"
Aryan sighed, a ghost of the old pain passing over his features. "Hmm... back then, I wasn't sure what scared me more: Either that you would never start loving me, or that I would never stop loving you. I couldn't simply drop my feelings for you."
He tightened his grip on her hand. "It is hard, Ayra, to wait around for something we know might never happen. But it is even harder to give up when we know it is everything we want. That's why I never quit, even when the probability was almost zero. I had to smile on the outside, but only I knew that I was dying inside. Because to love someone so completely, without being loved back, hurts more than anything else in the world."
Ayra started to cry, wrapping her arms around him and holding him tight, finally understanding the true cost of her protective silence.
"Ayra, please don't cry," Aryan said, gently pulling back. "If you start crying too, who will console my heart, which cries for you always?"
He consoled her, then his mood shifted, a playful light returning to his eyes. "You know something else? I love dreaming because in my dreams, you are actually mine. Just think: how can I get sleep with that happiest feeling? That's why I always asked you to wish me a bad night."
Ayra looked at him, confused. "How is that a bad night?"
"Because," he explained, "it's not a 'good night' if I don't have proper sleep! And Ayra, I always wanted to talk to you, but sometimes I didn't know what to talk about. Just your voice and your words fill me. That's why I always used to prolong our conversations. Recalling everything we spoke about felt like a small vacation."
The Ultimate Vow
Ayra's gaze turned serious, asking the question that had always hung between them. "Aryan, if I were not yours, what would you have done? Would you have moved on?"
Aryan thought deeply, his gaze resting on the window, looking out to the future.
"Ayra, you are the one I loved more than myself. From the moment we met until this very second, my love for you has only increased. If you were to put a full stop to my love, it would only be when the holy spirits come to take me."
He shook his head decisively. "If you were not mine, I wouldn't move on and marry someone else. I could never punish someone else's life—someone who steps into my world with huge belief in me and my love—because I could never love her. So, I would wish to stay as a single man... Hmm... No, that's not right. I wouldn't be single."
He looked at her, his eyes filled with the depth of his devotion.
"Even then, I would have my lover. She would be none other than our moments and the feelings I have for you, Ayra. I would spend the rest of my life by loving the love on you."