6:02 PM — Same Café, Same Chaos

Siya had reached the dangerous stage of comfort where she forgot this man was technically a stranger and started arguing with him naturally.

Which was exactly how disasters begin.

“You still haven’t told me your name,” she said suspiciously, sipping her cold coffee.

The stranger looked calm. Too calm.

“Maybe I enjoy mystery.”

Aaru immediately gagged loudly. “EW. That was so main-character coded.”

Kabir nodded once. “Agreed.”

The stranger looked betrayed. “You too?”

“I work for you, sir. I don’t support you emotionally.”

Siya blinked. “Wait—you work for him?”

Aaru gasped dramatically and slapped the table.

“I KNEW IT.”

“Knew WHAT?” Siya asked

“This man,” Aaru pointed at the stranger, “has rich traumatized businessman energy. And this one—” she pointed at Kabir, “—looks like he hides bodies professionally.”

Kabir stared blankly. “I do paperwork.”

“No normal paperwork creates your eye bags.”

The waiter arrived nervously with pasta.

Unfortunately—

At the exact same moment—

Aaru decided to demonstrate how Siya fainted earlier.

“So she was standing like this—”

She stood dramatically on one foot beside the table.

Kabir instantly moved his coffee away like sensing danger spiritually.

“And then suddenly she goes—”

Aaru attempted a dramatic collapse.

Her foot caught the chair leg.

Everything slowed down.

“OH NO—” Siya yelled.

Aaru grabbed the tablecloth for balance.

BIG mistake.

Plates moved.

Glasses tilted.

The pasta launched directly into Kabir’s lap.

Silence.

Utter silence.

Aaru froze mid-fall.

Kabir looked down slowly at the red sauce covering his black jeans.

The café stopped breathing collectively.

Then—

A little child nearby whispered loudly.

“Mumma that uncle got attacked by noodles.”

Siya SNORTED.

One tiny accidental snort.

That was it.

The stranger looked at her.

She looked at Kabir’s horrified face.

Then Aaru—still half hanging off the chair like a failed action hero.

And suddenly Siya burst out laughing.

Full laughing.

The kind where you physically bend forward and can’t breathe.

Aaru started laughing too.

“OH MY GOD I’M SO SORRY—”

Kabir looked dead inside. “It’s warm.”

That somehow made it worse.

Even the stranger covered his mouth briefly because he was losing the fight not to laugh.

Aaru pointed accusingly between laughs. “WHY WERE YOU HOLDING THE PASTA LIKE A DIVORCED FATHER AT A FOOD COURT?”

Kabir finally snapped.

“WHY WERE YOU REENACTING A MEDICAL EMERGENCY?”

“FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES!”

“You almost killed me with penne!”

The waiter quietly placed tissues down and walked away because this table clearly needed divine intervention.

Siya was crying laughing now.

Actual tears.

And the stranger—

The terrifyingly intense stranger—

Was openly laughing too.

Not polite smiling.

Laughing.

Low and helpless and completely ruining Siya’s ability to think rationally.

Aaru suddenly stopped laughing and looked at Siya dramatically.

“…oh no.”

“What?” Siya wheezed.

“You like him.”

The entire table froze.

Kabir whispered immediately, “And we’re back to suffering.”

“I DO NOT.”

“You literally look happier than WiFi after router restart.”

Siya threw a tissue at her.

The stranger leaned back in his chair watching the chaos quietly.

Amused.

Dangerously amused.

Then—

A waiter approached nervously holding a tiny chocolate pastry.

“Um… sir,” he said awkwardly to the stranger, “the lady at table six sent this.”

Everyone turned.

A girl near the window smiled shyly at him.

Aaru gasped like discovering breaking news.

“OHHHHH.”

Siya instantly looked away for absolutely no reason at all.

The stranger glanced once toward the girl.

Then calmly pushed the pastry toward Siya instead.

“You eat it.”

Silence.

Aaru’s mouth fell open.

Kabir closed his eyes slowly because he sensed incoming disaster.

The girl at table six looked heartbroken immediately.

Siya blinked. “…why?”

“You fainted today.”

“That’s your medical reasoning?”

“Yes.”

Aaru whispered aggressively, “THAT WAS FLIRTING.”

“It was NOT.”

Kabir muttered, “I need alcohol.”

The stranger looked at Siya again.

Completely ignoring everyone else now.

“You laugh loudly,” he said quietly.

Siya blinked.

“What?”

“You should do it more often.”

And somehow—

Somehow—

That simple sentence hit harder than every intense thing he’d said all evening.

Unfortunately the emotional moment lasted exactly three seconds because—

Aaru suddenly pointed toward the café entrance in horror.

“WAIT.”

Everyone turned.

Three girls from Siya’s college had just entered.

And they spotted Siya instantly.

One girl gasped dramatically.

Another grabbed her friend’s arm.

Because Siya—

The quiet Wattpad girl—

Was sitting with an insanely attractive man while another guy wore pasta like fashion.

One of the girls whispered loudly—

“BRO SIYA PULLED A MAFIA MAN.”

Aaru stood immediately.

“Oh this is spreading through college by tomorrow morning.”