People go crazy over the superficial beauty of the moon. They behold the beautiful sight with nothing but admiration in their wide eyes. Could by envy as well for it has been blessed with beauty everyone else yearns to have. Little do they know all that beauty is just borrowed and beneath lies nothing but scars. Stark and dark. Incorrigibly stained. They don't understand that the outward beauty is ephemeral; vanishes with just a snap of fingers. And what matters is the one our hearts contain.

She felt so fragile under his touch. So pure. So frail. He dreaded that she might break if he held her too tight. This woman, right in his arms, was an epitome of courage and bravery. As pure as the first rain of the season. The last whimsical croon of a dying bird. Oh, just how wrong he had been about her!

"No, this is worng!" Safa said as she pulled away, abruptly.

"What?" He looked confounded, his eyes scrunched together.

"This." She took a step back as she shook her head. He understood what she was getting at.

Clearing his throat, he raved a hand through his perfectly gelled raven hair. "I... I'm gonna go check the car." He pointed in the direction of the car and she nodded, her gaze constantly on the ground.

She couldn't believe what she had told him. I should not have said that. Not to mention the event that had just taken place. She was angry at her naivety. But one thing was crystal clear; she didn't feel violated under his touch. Rather, it felt like a balm that ended the temporary outcome of the constant turmoil invoking insider her. Smoldering and brutal.

"I'm gonna go sit by the lake, then." Her voice was incoherent. What had happend was still too much to take in at the moment. He just nodded slightly, trying to give her as much space as she needed and wanted.

Turning around, she had just taken a step when something crunched under her foot. She bent down to get a better look at it. It was her phone. "It has broken." She picked it up.

"We'll get it fixed once we get back." Her eyes trailed towards him the first time after their hug curated with unheard miseries and unsaid emotions.

"We'll get through this."

"We'll get it fixed."

We.

Just one simple word, yet assuring you that you are not alone. And for Safa Hayat, it was as new as freshly baked bread. So tasteful and soft.

But, no Safa Hayat didn't trust people easily. She peered back at him with an analyzing look and, then, there was that déjà vu again. She scrutinized on him to brainstorm as to where she had seen him before but nothing knocked at the door of her already filled brain. She couldn't ask him because the first and the last time she did, he had shrugged it off.

"You go relax now and I'll go and fix the car." His voice pulled her out of her musings. Giving a slight nod, she moved towards the lake.

******

Asmara was pacing around the living area when Arham, after what felt like an eternity, finally showed up.

"Any news?" She interrogated with anticipation. Even though she didn't want to call him up but all the negative thoughts of Safa not reaching and on top of that her phone going straight to voicemail compelled her to do that. Azlan wasn't attending her calls either so she didn't have any other option other than to take help from the man she had been trying to avoid. But, guess, the odds were not in her favor.

"The car broke down. They're on their way, now." He divulged as he pocketed his phone.

Then why the hell aren't they receiving my calls?" She ran scarlet with both fear and ire.

"Safa's phone broke and Azlan's was in the car while he was fixing the tyre so he didn't know."

"Oh!" She heaved a sigh of relief as she plonked down on the couch. Arham moved towards the kitchen counter to get her a glass of water.

"Thank you!" She said as she grabbed the glass and the dainty white gold crusted on her ring finger gleamed under the tube light. A pang of pain clenched his heart in its onyx. The angst embossed in his face gave away the tale of self-sorrow. It was more like a shocker to him. A teeny tiny betrayel as the news of her engagement didn't even reach him. Deliberately or not, he didn't know. What he did know was that it hurt. Oh, it hurt so bad!

Convulsing his head with a sad smile, he had just turned away when she called after him.

"You can stay here till they arrive... if you want." Stealing her gaze away quickly, she put the glass on the table.

He knew how worked up she had gotten for her friend so not wanting to leave her alone, he nodded slightly and situated himself on the adjacent count.

After what felt like forever, he finally chirped with a meek and corny tone. "Congratulations!"

She turned her head towards him as a scowl settled on her forehead in confusion. "For what?"

"Your engagement." He eyed the ring as if it was pretty obvious.

"Oh, this." She swerved her gaze towards the ring and a somber look descended upon her eyes which wasn't quit hard to catch. She never wore her engagement ring that often. But, today, she did it purposely; to remind herself that she was already someone else's and wasn't supposed to feel like she had been for past few weeks.

"I didn't get engaged just now. I've been for a really long time..." She paused for a moment, as if calculating to say more or not.

But, no she didn't want to be reticent anymore. And no, it wasn't because of Arham that she had started feeling this way about her relation. Her heart had never been at peace about this since the day she got bounded in this unwanted relationship; during the age she didn't even know the meaning of this sacred feeling: love. But, now, this man, sitting right beside her, had pushed all the right strings of her conflicted heart. For the very first time she had acknowledged in her heart that she didn't want this honour bound relationship. She couldn't. But she was helpless.

"...when I was a kid." She let out and it was as if someone had jagged a knife through Arham's heart and turned it over and over again to the point that it became numb. It wasn't about him anymore. It had become about her and only her, now. Her countenance gave away her feelings about this nonsensical relationship and it ached him.

"When you were a kid?" He squakwked. "You've got to be kidding me." Shock and perplexed, his eyes had dilated to full extent.

"This is how things work in our 'mighty' and 'respectable' family." Her tone was laced with pure hate. "They never let us marry out of cast. My cousin did and you know what they did with her?" She looked at him with a humorless chuckle contradicting her red rimmed eyes.

He waited for her to go on without interrupting her. She needed to let all that out. Her venting was long over due.

"They beat her to the point that she lost her last breath on her way to the hospital." She sniffed as she held on to her tears mirroring his watery and anguished eyes.

"I always wish baba were alive so he could somehow stop this injustice being inflicted on his own children as well. He had always abhorred this toxic culture. He would always say it's only a person's own right to choose their partner and none other's since they're the ones who get to spend the rest of their lives together and not his holier-than-thou brothers." She fidgeted with the ends of her dupatta.

"But he left us all so soon. And my mother is not strong enough to fight with them. They are so powerful. And she's just a woman. A weakling they can easily crush under their feet."

"Hey, no. Look at me." He turned his entire torso in her direction. "Women are not weak, arlight? They're the strongest creatures on this mother earth. See? Even we call this strong planet mother; a woman." A chuckle escaped through her tears clogged throat. He grinned. "You should break this engagement if you're not at peace with it." A glimmer of hope flickered but died immediately on her response.

"Easy for you to say!" She snorted.

"What do you mean? So, you're still gonna marry the guy you don't even love?"

"Do I have any other choice?" She asked rhetorically with stern expressions.

"Broaden your horizon. And try acknowledging your own existence. Make a move. Allah will definitely carve a path. You just have to stay determined." It wasn't because he wanted her, but, because he wanted her to have her freedom.

"It's easier said than done. You're not in my shoes, that's why you can't understand me." She stood up, holding the glass. "Besides, he's not that bad of a guy." She felt bad for lying but she didn't want to prolong this conversation anymore and to her relief, the doorbell had rung, announcing Safa's presence.

"I'll go and check." He said without looking at her and walked out. Still, she had detected the hurt in his eyes as it perforated through her already broken heart.

******

"You look so dull." Asmara said as she made Safa sit on the couch. Azlan had left from outside. "Is everything alright?" She placed a glass of mango juice in front of her.

"Of course, she'd feel that way after those absolutely amazing hours with that Voldemort." Arham piped in.

Just how much she needed this! This clown to distract her from her ordeal. Her clown! Well, everyone hides their pain under the veneer of clownery.

She had already started feeling better as she gave a little chortle. But for how long? Guess, the time will tell.

******

A/N

Hey, y'all amazing (not Azlan amazing) people! I know I went MIA all of a sudden but that's because my uni has come back to action, now. And, God, is it sucking the blood out of me! NO TIME FOR REST! YOUR ALREADY CRAZY AUTHOR IS GOING ALL THE MORE CRAZY!!! But I did make up for my MIA with this PRETTY LOOOONG chapter so now don't act like Azlan-the-miser and shower your love or else I'm... well, I'll still love y'all.