He was the quiet boy with a perfect smile.

She was the loud girl who never believed in love.

But when she stepped into the dark hallway that day...

She saw something she wasn't supposed to —

and now his smile follows her everywhere.

No one talked to Aarav.

Not because he was mean.

Because his smile never faded — not even when no one was looking.

I only noticed him when I dropped my red journal near the old third-floor hallway — the one that was sealed after the fire last year.

I shouldn’t have gone alone.

The hallway was cold. Silent.

My journal sat just inside Room 302.

When I opened the door…

He was there.

Sitting on a broken desk, sketching.

He didn’t look surprised. He didn’t say hello.

He just smiled.

And turned his notebook around.

He had drawn me.

Sleeping.

"You dropped this," he said calmly.

My journal was on the desk… next to something dark. Wet. Red.

I froze.

"You write like someone who's never been seen," he added, "I liked that."

I backed away.

He stepped forward.

“You saw too much,” he whispered. “Now you belong to the secret too.”

---

The next day, he sat beside me in class.

No one said a thing.

He smiled.

And I couldn’t breathe.

In my locker, a note waited:

> "I saved your journal.

Now you owe me your silence.

Or your smile.

Pick one."