Arohi's POV
The rehearsal room was loud in the way only love makes it loud.
Meher was curled up beside Nihal on the edge of the stage, her head on his shoulder, both of them laughing at something no one else heard.
Aryan and Isha were running lines, but every time he said "Madam," she grinned like he'd just won a lottery.
Riya and Mudit were arguing over blocking again—she wanted dramatic entrances, he wanted comedic exits.
"You're not Romeo," Riya snapped.
"I'm not trying to be," Mudit shot back. "I'm just saying, if I trip over the prop table again, it's your fault."
"You tripped because you were trying to moonwalk."
"It was a stylistic choice."
They were ridiculous.
And perfect.
I sat in the corner, script in hand, pretending to annotate.
But really, I was watching.
Watching how everyone had found their rhythm.
Their person.
Their pulse.
And then Vedant stepped forward.
No announcement.
No warm-up.
Just him.
Center stage.
Holding silence like it was a spotlight.
He began his monologue.
"I used to think silence was armor.
That if I didn't speak, I couldn't be misunderstood.
That if I didn't feel, I couldn't be broken.
But then someone looked at me like silence wasn't emptiness.
Like it was a language.
And suddenly, I wanted to be fluent."
I stopped breathing.
He wasn't performing.
He was confessing.
His voice didn't rise.
It folded inward.
Like he was speaking to someone he didn't know how to name.
And I knew.
I knew it was me.
Because I had looked at him like that.
Because I had understood his quiet.
Because I had felt mine unravel in his presence.
He finished the monologue.
No applause.
Just stillness.
And then he looked at me.
Not dramatically.
Not like a scene partner.
Like a boy who had finally said the thing he'd been holding.
I looked down at my script.
The words blurred.
Because I wasn't reading anymore.
I was feeling.
And somewhere between Mudit's moonwalk and Meher's laughter,
between Aryan's grin and Isha's eye-roll,
I started loving Vedant.
Not loudly.
Not all at once.
But like a monologue that had been waiting for its cue.