2 | she needs distance.

unedited

・・・

When they caught sight of their daughter's sullen face as she played around with the peas on her plate, Anu and Vineet knew something was wrong. Peas was never the issue with her daughter, unlike her father.

"It's definitely that boy." Vineet narrowed his eyes, fixing his glasses on his nose. Anu let out a silent sigh, "Why do you keep dragging that poor boy into everything? Just what do you have against him?"

Vineet huffed, knowing he didn't have an answer to that question. All he knew was that the boy had nonchalantly captured his precious daughter's heart and was being careless with it. Anu removed her apron and whispered to Vineet to take care of the kitchen.

"Tara?"

Her daughter looked up at her. She was turning out to resemble Anu in a lot of ways. Such as keeping her worries to herself.

"Will you tell me what's wrong? Maybe I can help you."

Sitara glanced at her father who maintained a pretense of not hearing them, even though he could clearly do so. A hint of a smile appeared on her face. It, then, vanished as she remembered the subject of the question. Her eyes returned to her plate.

"It turns out I might have ended up with an unrequited crush. That's all. I just need to move on now."

It really wasn't as simple as a crush. She had spent her entire life with this boy, thinking it would continue that way. Now, suddenly, reality had poured cold water on everything. Sitara wondered how she let herself get that delusional.

Vineet's expression narrowed further. How dare that boy not like his cute daughter? Next time, the boy came for physics tuition, he would be sure to teach him a lesson.

Anu glanced at her husband, having learnt how to read and predict his thoughts, "Husband dearest, you will not do anything to that poor boy in his tuitions. Do you understand me?"

Vineet blinked at having been called 'husband dearest'. He nodded, absentmindedly.

Sitara glanced between her parents, "You...already know who I liked?"

Anu laughed, as she picked up an apple and placed it on Sitara's plate, "We're your parents, little love. We know everything, always. Eat that apple before you leave."

Sitara felt her heart ease a bit, the sorrow from before lightening up even if only temporarily.

"I don't know what exactly happened." Anu continued, gently. She pondered about the best way to deal with the situation. Sometimes, thinking about what her mother would do helped. Not this time. If Anita Anand had seen her grand daughter, she would brought a broomstick to Maya's house. Anu didn't want to do that.

Anu, also having observed her best friend's eldest son, knew that perhaps Sitara's feelings weren't unrequited. She glanced at her daughter, wondering what misunderstanding had occurred. Whatever it was, Anu glanced at her grumbling husband, she hoped it was resolved before the next physics tuition class.

"Don't dwell too much on it. Crushes are normal but you need to focus on your studies right now. Your love life will come later."

Vineet had a rush of nostalgia as he heard the statement. He made a mental note to take Anu to the Pulan central beach. It had been awhile since they had been there.

"Say, do you want to visit your grandmother for the next month? It will bring you a change of air."

Sitara's grandmother had moved to a quainter district on the border of pulan city, wanting to have the best of both the worlds - a lush, countryside air as well as city culture not too far away.

Sitara nodded, fixing a smile on her face, "That will be nice.  I will go."

Anu gave her a few pats on the head before heading back into the kitchen. Anu's daughter braced herself for the last working day of 11th grade. After this, she could completely avoid Agastya with no issue and mend her heart.

Hopefully.

────

a/n : this story is really just a one-shot broken up into chapters, turning it into a novelette of sorts. hope you guys liked the anu & vineet sneak-peek. agastya's pov will feature in the last chapter.