He pressed and continued holding the key 9 on his mobile, which is the speed-dial for her number, 98******59. Trrring.. Trrring.. His heart was beating like anything… He was afraid whether she could be able to hear his heart beats. Finally, she picked up. “Hellooo… Whazzup, dear?” A sweet voice came through the phone, which went deep and struck his heart. The sweet lovely voice that he loves to hear all the time… “What happened? Today also you called me? Is something urgent?” Her voice broke his thoughts. He said, “Oh… Actually speaking, Nothing… I just called you for nothing..” He said even if the call was urgent to him. And that’s because he had something serious to say.. He was remembering his previous day’s call on her birthday. And on that day, he had some plans in his mind to tell her something.. May be a surprise for her… May be a shocking news to her. He had called her that midnight and wished her birthday.. He thought that sometimes, his news might spoil her special day. So, he purposefully didn’t tell anything thinking that she might become upset on hearing it and he really don’t want to spoil her special day.. (12 years back…) They were friends, right from their childhood days. Correctly speaking, they were classmates from their fifth year and became friends when they were in year ten. Classmates was the best term used to describe their relationship from fifth year to somewhere in the middle of their eighth year. Actually, she didn’t even notice him until eighth, while he was continuously watching her from the middle of her sixth standard. Okay, for the entire fifth to the middle of sixth, they were strangers to each others, yet classmates. She used to wear very good, nice and of course, glamorous dresses compared to other girls in the class. Also, she used to bring her (kind of) handbag whenever she comes to class, while other girls don’t even have their own wallet. These small things made him infuriated and he didn’t even like to look at her. This was because of his narrow mindedness or country-side attitude that girls should wear decent dresses and not like her dresses, who used to wear frock that reaches just after her knees. He really hated her because of her habit of wearing such dresses and he has been thinking that she was showing-off before everyone. When they were in sixth year, he came to know that she too have someone abroad similar to his dad.. Someone really close to her… So the first (may be the only) factor which was common among them was that they both are NRIs, by the definition. But still he did not like her, and the reason was definitely due to her show-off nature (and he thought that it was because her mom was abroad). He was thinking that even he too is an NRI, he did not do such show-off. Then why was she doing that??? He used to go to school by bus and one day while he was on his way to school, he noticed a familiar face in school uniform, standing in front of a home, waiting for her school bus. Only at that moment, he became aware that her home is situated on his way to school. On that day, while coming back from his school, he just gazed at that home and she was there in courtyard, playing with her brother. Next day morning, when he was passing in front of her home, he just looked at her home, and she was there, waiting for her school bus. He made this as a daily routine to look at her home’s gate whenever he crosses in front of her home and almost all the times, she was there; either waiting for her school bus or playing in the courtyard, without knowing that someone is watching her. Days, weeks and months have passed by and he could not stop himself from looking and searching for her, whenever he pass by home. He also had another chance to see her – it was in their Church, during the Holy Mass. (I forgot to mention that they were classmates in Sunday school). But he never ever made an eye contact with her. Another two years had passed by and both of them were in eighth year. Then something happened that made her to notice him.