I shook my head. ‘You were my friend too, Raghu,’ I said, my voice thick with unshed tears. I cleared my throat unsuccessfully and found that my eyes had filled up with tears, much to my horror. I wiped them away quickly and took a deep breath. This had to be said.

‘But then you asked her to be your girlfriend . . .’ I was having so much trouble speaking.

He was shaking his head rapidly.

‘No . . . it seems so stupid now. But . . .’ he breathed out, rubbing his forehead with his palm.

‘What?’ I asked.

‘I was such an idiot back then,’ he said in a low voice.

‘What do you mean?’

‘I was planning to take revenge on her for being mean to you,’ he said quickly, closing his eyes.

I stared back at him, not believing his words but the expression on his face—embarrassment mixed with shame—had me covering my own mouth with my hand, trying to quell the disbelieving laughter that was threatening to bubble through.

He opened one eye and then the other. ‘I was such an idiot,’ he repeated in a whisper.

That he had been thinking of me, even during his silly plan of revenge was making me happy. I punched his arm.

‘You still are,’ I said.

‘So you stopped talking to me because of that?’ He looked like a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders and I felt the same too.

Before I could answer, he got up. ‘Let’s go for a walk!’

‘Now?’ I asked, surprised.

He nodded and walked towards the back gate. I called out to Ma and told her before following him. We walked in silence for a bit. The moonlit night and the trees lining the road made it all very romantic.

I was feeling a burst of happiness so intense that I could never remember feeling something like it, and I didn’t want it to stop. But his question hung between us.

‘Yeah, well, I just couldn’t face you,’ I said.

He bumped his shoulder with mine. I stifled my annoyance at him for being completely unaware of how everything he did played havoc with my head and my senses.

‘That’s silly. I wish we’d spoken about it before and cleared the air. But I’m glad we got the chance now.’ He smiled at me and I felt it like a sucker punch to my stomach. My mouth went dry.

‘Let’s go back home,’ I told him, turning back.

‘What? Already? Let’s walk around a bit more,’ he insisted.

Shrugging, I tried to match my pace to his longer strides.

‘What exactly did you mean by revenge?’ I asked him. The word had been bugging me since he said it.

He scratched the side of his head and wrinkled his nose. ‘Do we have to talk about that?’