Chapter 10

The staff room was unusually quiet in the late afternoon. Poornima entered with her usual grace, a novel tucked under her arm. She set her books on the desk and settled into her chair, slipping easily into the quiet comfort of reading.

Across the room, Veeresh Raj had just returned from his lecture. He paused at the door for a brief moment before stepping inside. His gaze instinctively found her.

Poornima felt it. Slowly, she lifted her eyes from the page. Their gazes locked.

Something unspoken passed between them. Veeresh’s eyes, sharp yet strangely gentle, seemed to say something she couldn’t decipher. It wasn’t the commanding authority of a professor or the cold calculation of a businessman—it was quieter, deeper, like he was speaking without words.

Poornima’s fingers froze on the page of her book. For a second, her usually composed self faltered. What is he trying to tell me?

Veeresh broke the moment first. With a faint, unreadable smile, he moved across the room and sat at his own desk, opening a file as if nothing had happened. The air between them, however, carried a weight she couldn’t explain.

Poornima tried to return to her reading, but the words blurred on the page. She stole another glance at him—his posture straight, his attention seemingly fixed on papers—but she knew. There was something behind those eyes, something he had let her glimpse, and it had unsettled her.

Confusion wrapped around her thoughts. She was used to stories of love, longing, and silent glances—she taught them every day. But this? This was different. This was real.

And for the first time, Poornima Rai found herself wondering not about Shakespeare’s heroes, but about the enigmatic professor who could say so much without uttering a single word.