Chapter 7: Silence and Small Gestures

The morning sunlight crept softly into the bedroom.

Veeresh stirred, his head pounding, his mouth dry. He blinked a few times, trying to remember the chaos of the previous night. The yelling. The accusations. The pain. And...

Poornima.

He turned to the side — but the space beside him was empty.

His heart skipped a beat. She wasn’t there.

“She always used to wake up after me...” he mumbled, rubbing his temples. “She should’ve been here.”

But the emptiness said everything.

Dragging himself out of bed, he walked into the kitchen, quietly making himself a strong cup of coffee. The silence around the house felt heavier than usual — a silence that now echoed with his own guilt.

Across the hallway, the guest room door was slightly ajar.

He looked in. She was there — dressed neatly, her hair tied back, her eyes swollen and dull.

She didn’t even glance at him.

He didn’t say a word either.

Something inside him twisted, but he brushed it off and turned away.

After getting ready, he boiled water and made Maggi. Two bowls. Out of habit.

He finished his portion in silence, left the other bowl on the counter, and walked out of the house without a word.

Poornima, after a few moments, came out of the guest room. She noticed the empty space at the table, her eyes falling on the lone bowl of Maggi left on the counter.

She stared at it.

Her heart clenched.

A small, almost invisible smile tugged at her lips, painful but soft.

“He still remembered...” she whispered.

She sat down slowly and began eating — not because she was hungry, but because for the first time in two days, she felt something that wasn’t pain.

A small gesture. A bowl of noodles. A memory of friendship that still lingered somewhere between broken vows and misunderstood emotions.

She finished the meal quietly, cleaned the bowl, got ready for work, and left the house — carrying a fragile hope that maybe... just maybe, all wasn’t lost yet.