Some first meetings are loud.

  The kind with introductions and handshakes and names you forget five minutes later.

  Theirs wasn’t like that.

  It began with a silence in a classroom full of noise—two strangers standing in the same space, unaware that this small, forgettable morning would stay with them longer than most of their college memories.

  They were in the same college, but strangers until that morning.

  It was their first semester at St. Xavier’s College, and both of them were enrolled in the B.Sc. Computer Science course. Maggie had already been talking to almost everyone in class. She wasn’t loud, but she had that easy, friendly way of making people comfortable—like she’d somehow decided that awkwardness didn’t deserve to exist.

  When the professor announced that three students would be sent for the viva, Maggie straightened up, confident enough to face it. Confidence, unfortunately, didn’t come with guaranteed memory.

  “Group three,” the professor said. “Maggie… Arav… and Ananya.”

  Maggie glanced sideways at the boy standing near the window. She had noticed him before—handsome in a quiet way, the kind of person who didn’t try to stand out yet somehow did. A few girls in class always seemed to whisper when he walked past, pretending they weren’t whispering about him. But he kept to himself, eyes lowered, calm and distant—like he was just there to attend college, not star in anyone’s imagination.

  This was the first time they were actually in the same space.

  The viva room felt smaller than the classroom. The topper girl, Ananya, stood between them, calm and confident, like she had personally prepared for this viva since birth. As soon as the professor began asking questions, she answered one after another without hesitation.

  Maggie opened her mouth to speak once—then closed it. The answer slipped away from her mind the moment Ananya spoke so confidently. Her brain decided this was the perfect moment to act like it had never studied anything in its life.

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  Arav stood quietly beside her. He knew some of the answers, but the words refused to come out. His silence was not arrogance; it was the kind of silence that came from overthinking, from mentally preparing a perfect answer and then running out of time to say it.

  The professor nodded in approval at Ananya’s answers.

  “Very good,” she said, clearly impressed.

  Then her eyes turned sharp as they moved to Maggie and Arav.

  “You two,” she said, her voice firm, “you are standing here without knowing anything. This is a viva, not a punishment. Learn the answers properly and come back. Otherwise, I will fail both of you.”

  Maggie’s face burned with embarrassment. She nodded quickly.

  “I’m sorry, ma’am.”

  In her head, she added, Please don’t fail me in the first week. I just learned where the canteen is.

  Arav murmured an apology too, his voice low, like he was apologizing to the air itself.

  They walked back to class side by side, both quiet at first. The scolding hung between them, awkward and heavy.

  “I swear I studied,” Maggie said suddenly, breaking the silence. “My brain just… disappeared in there. Like it went on lunch break without telling me.”

  Arav let out a small, nervous smile. “Same. I think my brain saw Ananya answering everything and decided, ‘Cool, my work here is done.’”

  That was the first real moment between them—the shared embarrassment, the small laugh that followed. Something about failing together made it easier.

  They sat together and opened their notes. Maggie, with her natural leadership instinct, started organizing what they needed to revise.

  “Okay, we’ll split the topics,” she said. “You take these, I’ll take those. Then we’ll quiz each other. And if we fail again, we’ll at least fail with full confidence.”

  Arav nodded, grateful for her calm confidence. He helped her too, pointing out a few things she had missed. They weren’t close. They weren’t friends yet. But in that moment, they were on the same side—two students fighting the same academic disaster.

  When they finally felt ready and went back to the viva room, the professor wasn’t there anymore.

  Another teacher informed them that the viva had been postponed.

  For a second, neither of them spoke.

  All that rushing. All that nervous studying. For nothing.

  They both sighed at the same time.

  Maggie laughed first. “So… we got scolded for free?”

  Arav shook his head, a little regretful, a little amused. “Looks like it. Emotional damage, zero marks.”

  They stood there, disappointed—but not alone in it.

  That awkward, shared regret became the beginning of their first conversation.

  Not dramatic. Not special.

  Just two people who failed together, studied together, and walked back to class side by side—without knowing that this small moment would matter more than it should.