Dil Ki Baat – Part 1: The Unsaid Truth

The flat in Bandra had two bedrooms, one balcony and a kitchen so small that Kabir and Arjun had to take turns to open the fridge. They had lived there for three years, sharing rent, chai and the bathroom schedule. They were good at it. Everybody said so.

They were less good at talking.

On a wet Tuesday night in July, the power was out and the fan had stopped. Arjun sat on the balcony with a candle and a letter in his hand, the envelope still sealed. Kabir found him there, damp from the rain, and sat down on the step without saying anything.

"It's from your mother," Kabir said at last.

"It's from my mother," said Arjun. "She wants me to come home for the family wedding and bring a girl's photograph."

"Are you going?"

"I don't know." Arjun turned the envelope over. "I don't think I can keep pretending any more. Not to her, not to the aunties, not to you."

Kabir's chest tightened. "Pretending what?"

Arjun looked up, and in the candlelight his face was tired and serious and very open.

"That I don't think about you when I'm alone," he said. "That I don't look at you across the kitchen and forget what I was going to say. That I'm fine with being your flatmate and nothing else."

The rain fell steadily on the balcony. Somewhere far below, a radio played an old film song.

Kabir sat very still. He had been waiting three years for someone to say something like that, and he had been terrified it would never happen.

"Arjun," he said slowly. "Can I tell you something too?"

"Yes."

"I've kept a letter in my drawer for two years. I wrote it the night you cut your hand on the broken tap and I bandaged it. I never gave it to you."

"What does it say?"

"That I'm in love with you," said Kabir quietly. "And that I'm sorry I was too scared to say it."

Arjun stared at him. The candle guttered. For a long moment, neither of them moved.

"Can I see the letter?" Arjun asked, very softly.

"Yes," said Kabir. "But first, can I hold your hand? Just here, on the step, in the dark. Only if you want to."

"Yes," whispered Arjun, and reached out.

Their fingers met in the candlelight, cold and slightly shaking, and then held on tight.