"Would you be my girlfri—"
The last word never came.
Or perhaps it did.
Perhaps somewhere in the distance, beneath the sound of the waves, he had finished it.
Aanya smiled.
The smile remained even as the world around her began to change.
The sea grew quieter.
The wind disappeared.
The sand beneath her feet no longer felt warm.
Something else replaced it.
Something hard.
Something still.
Her breathing changed.
The sound of the waves became a distant hum.
Then even that began to disappear.
She tried to open her eyes.
They felt impossibly heavy.
She blinked.
Light.
White.
Too bright.
She closed them again.
For a moment, she thought she was still dreaming.
Then she opened them.
And there he was.
Sagnik.
Right in front of her.
Close enough that she could see the faint tiredness beneath his eyes.
Close enough that she could see the familiar curve of his mouth.
He was looking at her.
Aanya stared.
She didn't hear anything.
Not the room.
Not the machines.
Not the voices somewhere beyond him.
Nothing.
Just him.
Her eyes moved slowly across his face.
As though she needed to make sure he was real.
He looked exactly as he had moments ago.
The same eyes.
The same expression.
The same person who had been kneeling in front of her on the beach.
Her hand moved.
Slowly.
Almost without permission.
She lifted it toward him.
Sagnik's expression changed immediately.
His eyes widened.
He leaned closer.
Aanya's fingers reached his face.
They touched his cheek.
Warm.
Real.
Her thumb moved faintly against his skin.
Sagnik froze.
For a moment, he didn't seem to understand what she was doing.
Then his hand came up and covered hers.
His lips moved.
She couldn't hear him.
She only watched.
His mouth formed her name.
"Aanya."
Nothing.
She stared at him.
Her fingers were still against his face.
He said something again.
She couldn't hear it.
Everything remained underwater.
Muted.
Far away.
Aanya's eyes drifted over his shoulder.
White walls.
A ceiling she didn't recognize.
A light above her.
Something attached to her hand.
A thin line running from somewhere beside her.
Her breathing caught.
She looked back at him.
Sagnik was still there.
Still holding her hand against his face.
His eyes were red.
Not crying.
Just tired.
Terribly tired.
She stared at him for several seconds.
Then her lips parted.
A whisper came out.
"Yes."
Sagnik's face changed.
He leaned closer.
"What?"
Aanya blinked.
Her voice was barely there.
"Yes."
He looked confused.
"Yes to what?"
She frowned slightly.
Her eyes searched his face.
The beach.
The water.
His knee sinking into the sand.
His hands around hers.
His smile.
The question.
It came back in fragments.
Would you be my—
She swallowed.
"Girl..."
The word faded.
Sagnik stared at her.
And then—
something inside her shifted.
The silence began to crack.
A sound returned first.
A faint, repetitive beep.
Then another.
A voice somewhere nearby.
The rustle of fabric.
Footsteps.
Someone saying something she couldn't understand.
The room slowly returned to her.
The white walls became clearer.
The smell reached her.
Sharp.
Clinical.
Unfamiliar.
Her hand trembled beneath his.
She looked down.
There was tape on her skin.
A cannula.
An IV line.
Her eyes widened.
She looked around again.
Not the beach.
Not the sky.
Not the sea.
A room.
A hospital room.
Her breathing became uneven.
Sagnik immediately noticed.
"Aanya."
This time she heard him.
His voice.
Real.
Close.
But wrong.
Not wrong because it was him.
Wrong because it wasn't the voice she'd just heard on the beach.
She looked back at him.
He was standing beside the bed.
Not kneeling in the sand.
There was no sunset behind him.
No ocean.
No wind.
His face was pale with exhaustion.
His hand was still holding hers.
Aanya stared at him.
Then whispered:
"Where...?"
Sagnik's throat moved.
"You've woken up."
She looked at him.
"What?"
"You've woken up."
The words made no sense.
She frowned.
"I was..."
Her voice broke.
"I was with you."
His eyes softened.
"I know."
"No."
She shook her head weakly.
"I mean..."
She looked at him desperately.
"You were..."
Her eyes filled.
"You were asking me something."
Sagnik went completely still.
For one terrible second, neither of them spoke.
Then Aanya's expression changed.
Not all at once.
Piece by piece.
The dream began retreating.
The beach.
The evening.
His smile.
The unfinished question.
All of it slipping away.
Her fingers tightened around his.
"Sagnik..."
"I'm here."
She looked at him.
And somehow that made it worse.
Because he was here.
But not there.
Not the way he had been.
Not in the life she had just lived.
Aanya's lips trembled.
"Did..."
She stopped.
Tried again.
"Did you ask me something?"
Sagnik stared at her.
His eyes filled with something she couldn't understand.
He didn't answer immediately.
Aanya waited.
Then—
he shook his head.
"No."
One word.
Quiet.
Final.
Aanya's face fell.
And somewhere inside her, something broke so silently that nobody else in the room could hear it.
She closed her eyes.
A single tear escaped.
Sagnik tightened his hold on her hand.
He didn't know what she had seen.
He didn't know who she had been with.
He didn't know why she was crying.
All he knew was that she had finally opened her eyes.
And he was there.
So he stayed.
Just as he always had.
Even though neither of them knew yet what waking up would mean.