Year: 2019
"Aira! Check the result fast!" her father said, standing right beside her.
Aira sat on the sofa, tapping her feet nervously against the floor. She was holding her father's phone, staring at the screen as the page kept loading. Her heart was beating too fast.
Please... just load.
Suddenly, the word appeared.
PASS.
"Pass!" she shouted, her eyes widening in disbelief. She quickly turned the phone toward her father.
Her father took the phone from her hands and immediately started calculating her marks. Meanwhile, Aira jumped up and ran across the room.
"Mamaaaaaa!" she screamed.
"I passed the exam!!!"
Her mother came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a towel. She sighed.
"So what? It was corona time. Obviously, you would pass."
Aira stopped running. Her smile slowly faded as she looked at her mother.
Her father cleared his throat. "Good. Now we'll take admission in B.Sc.(—Bachelor's in Science)."
Aira straightened up. "But... I want to prepare for NEET. I don't want to do B.Sc. I want to become a doctor."
Her father didn't even look at her. He kept scrolling on his phone.
"NEET is not your cup of tea. Stop dreaming."
"Who said that?" Aira said firmly. "Just give me one year. I'll prove it."
"One year?" he scoffed. "Wasting time. No... I'll go to the cyber café and ask about admissions."
Without another word, he stood up.
Aira felt something sink inside her.
She quietly went to the rooftop and sat in the center. Evening had arrived. The sky was clear, the air cool. Greenery surrounded the houses below. A soft wind brushed her face.
She closed her eyes and sighed.
How will I become a doctor?
Like this... I'll never become one.
She lay down on the rooftop floor, staring at the sky.
"I have to do something," she whispered. "But what?"
That night, she sat watching TV when her father returned from work and joined her. After a moment, she spoke softly.
"Papa... why don't we talk to Rajiya ? Her sister is in the medical field. Maybe she can guide us."
Her father glanced at her, then back at the TV.
"We'll think about it later."
Days passed like this.
Soon, Aira found herself standing at the gate of a government college in her city, documents clutched in her hands. She took a deep breath and stepped inside.
She walked through the science department building, looking around nervously. Finally, she stopped at a window.
"Excuse me, sir," she said softly. "Is first-year document submission here?"
A young man sitting there shook his head. "No. Chemistry department."
"Where is it?" she asked.
"Go right. You'll see it."
"Okay... thank you."
She walked away, rolling her eyes. What kind of college is this?
At the chemistry department window, a short man , she asked the same question and he nodded, took her documents, and said nothing. That was it.
She returned home, went straight to her parents' room, changed her clothes, and collapsed on the bed.
"No friends from my old school. No one I know," she murmured into her pillow.
"What a college life."
She fell asleep.
When she woke up, it was already 6 p.m. She went to the kitchen, made tea for herself and her mother, and sat beside her.
"Well," her mother said calmly, sipping tea, "now I'm thinking about your marriage."
Aira froze. "What? I'm not ready. I'll reject them on their face."
"Shame on you," her mother snapped. "Don't say things you'll regret."
"I'm saying the truth," Aira replied quietly. "I don't want to get married. I want to study. I want to achieve my goal."
"Do whatever you want after marriage," her mother said coldly.
"Why?" Aira raised her voice. "I DON'T WANT TO MARRY ANYONE."
The sound echoed.
Her mother slapped her.
Aira didn't say a word. She threw the leftover tea into the sink and ran to the rooftop. Sitting in a corner, she hugged herself as tears slipped down her face. Darkness slowly covered the sky.
Later, she wiped her tears, went back inside, and turned on the TV.
She didn't talk to her mother.
It was past 11 p.m. when her father came home. Aira was asleep on the floor, the TV remote still in her hand.
"Aira," he said gently, shaking her. "Did you eat dinner?"
"Yes," she lied, half asleep.
Her mother scoffed. "She didn't. I made rotis. She only knows how to throw tantrums."
"Stop," her father said. He helped Aira sit up. "Come, eat. Tell me what happened."
She suddenly started crying.
"I don't want to get married."
He handed her a glass of water. "Okay. Okay. You're not getting married."
That was enough.
They ate together. That night, she slept in the shared bedroom—because in a middle-class family, privacy is a luxury. Even if there's an extra room, it's for studying, not for sleeping alone.
The next day was a summer afternoon. The cooler hummed softly. Hum Aapke Hain Koun played on the TV. Aira lay on the bed, scrolling through her father's phone.
She opened Pinterest, searching for dresses.
Scroll.
Scroll.
Then she stopped.
A picture.
Her eyes locked onto it.
A boy with blue hair.
She tapped the image, completely mesmerized. In the comments, she read a single letter.
V.
She frowned.
Is that a boy?
In her entire life, she had never seen a boy with blue hair.
Curious, she searched.
South Korea.
BTS.
A music group.
She struggled with the name.
"Kim Ta... Tae... Taehyung?"
Was it a name or a country? Why was it so hard?
She clicked more pictures.
Seven boys appeared on her screen.
"Why do they all look like twin brothers?" she laughed.
"Wait... this pink-haired one is baby-coded."
"Oh my God, he's so cute."
"Wait—blue hair guy is handsome too."
She didn't know it yet.
But a door had opened.