After that day I could not dominate my eyes because they started searching for him. I never missed any chance if I saw him in college compound. I felt I was a toddler in love, trying to uncertainly move towards the love story which was, as I felt, going to be unusual. It might be called crush or flippant thought but the truth is I had begun to like him; in fact I was in love with him, though there had never been even an exchange of greeting between us. I could not express my feelings to him and what I felt for him and at the same time I just kept on thinking about him day and night.

It could be owing to my good fortune or one might call it a coincidence, one day, I I got a chance to talk to him. There was a project in which both of us had to work together. He was shy by nature but that didn’t make me worry because being with him did not push me to talk to him I just wanted him to be with me. He never talked to me but we just exchanged glances at each other. We had been working together on the project for two days but he never called me by my name. His signals were quite eloquent to understand. I found that he was perfect and he worked very diligently. When the project was over, I felt I had to tell him that I was in love with him. That day he was standing close to me and I could feel his breaths on my neck. It felt highly sensational and I was lost in the pangs of love. I wished he would hug me tightly and kiss me on my lips but nothing of that sort happened.

The project we had been working on was highly successful. I was not as happy because of the success of the project as I was for the date I was going to have with him for the first time. He was shy in asking me out but he did. I could not believe my ears and I pinched myself several times to make it sure that it was not a dream.

That evening we danced together and I felt as if in heaven, clinging to him, feeling his sweet breaths, listening to his heart beats.

After the dance, he dropped me at my home but before leaving me he embraced me tightly and planted a kiss on my left cheek. I felt strange because I was expecting a kiss on my lips. He did not say anything and released me from his arms and walked away. I kept looking at him till the end of the street.  I think that was the most wonderful evening in my college life.

The following day, when I reached the college, I did not find him anywhere.  I called him several times but he did not receive my call. I asked his friends but no one could tell me where he was. Three days passed but he did not come to college.

After about ten days, he came back and told me that he had gone out of station. I did not enquire much because I was delighted to see him back. After that we began to date twice or thrice in a week. We went places and were really happy. Three years passed like three months. He did not say a single word which suggested that he loved me. He was happy to be with me. I was happy but I wanted him to confess his love. I wanted to do the same but opportunities eluded me.

After three years, one evening, his friends informed me that he had left the college hostel. I was surprised because he had never told me that he was going away.

After my graduation, I joined a multi-national company and got busy in my work. I remembered him every day. Two years passed and his memories were fading away.

One evening, when I came back home, I found a big parcel lying at my doorsteps. I was surprised because my name and address was there but there was no mention of the sender.

I carried the parcel in and opened it with growing curiosity. The box was full of papers. I began to pull them out. They were letters written to me. I was surprised because every sheet of paper had just one line ‘I love you very much…’

The last letter was sent by his parents and it read that he had passed away the week before. He had brain tumour and the death was imminent and he knew it.

His parents had thanked me that I had given five years of life to their son. According to them, the doctors had told them, about five years before that their son would not survive more than one month but they said that he survived for five years because he was in love with a girl. I was that girl. He could never rally courage to confess his love to me.

While reading that last letter, my tears were uncontrollably falling down and I did not try to stop them because I was happy that he loved me. I regret that I could do nothing for him. Had he informed me about his brain tumour, I would have given him the moments of love which could have lulled him to the sleep of no return.