Why do I have to dream about it again?

"In love, even lions are conquered by deer."

I don't know who said it but it has always stayed with me.

This is the story of a mighty lion and a beautiful deer. Well...….

No… this is the story of a beautiful siren who uses his enchanted powers to lure travelers into his trap.

Now, if you ask me 'Who am I and what role do I play in this story?'

Well… for that you'll have to read the story until the very end.

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Evening darkness had spread in every direction. The heavy rain only deepened the gloom. Beneath a large tree, on a lonely bench, two figures were wrapped around each other in the faint mist. One pair of lips kept pressing soft kisses against the other's neck.

Amid the thunder and flashes of lightning, quiet, muffled moans could be heard.

Suddenly his eyes snapped open. The first sensation he felt was the lingering warmth of someone's breath on his neck. He immediately raised a hand and touched the spot.

'Scratch. Scratch.'

He dug his nails into his skin, overwhelmed by a sudden, intense itch.

'Scratch. Scratch. Scratch.'

He clawed at the spot more aggressively.

When a burning sensation finally spread across his skin, he pulled his hand away and held it before his eyes. A faint smear of blood stained his fingernails.

Taking a deep breath, he tossed the comforter aside and got out of bed to head toward the bathroom.

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After skipping the first two or three classes, when he finally left his room, the sun had been blazing so fiercely it felt like it was going to burn down his brain. But by the time he reached the university, the sky was completely overcast with heavy dark clouds. Despite sprinting at top speed, a sudden torrential downpour had soaked him to the bone by the time he made it to the corridor.

"Damn this awful weather," he muttered, shaking the raindrops from his hair, he shot the sky a resentful glare.

"What's the point of rain if the heat is exactly the same?" The rain was failing miserably to break the oppressive heat. Suffocating in the humidity, he considered heading inside the classroom. But just before he could turn around, he caught sight of someone standing in the corridor across the small courtyard.

Leaning casually against a pillar, the figure was taking drags from a cigarette, watching the rain. Or perhaps... he was watching him.

His heart stumbled and then suddenly lurched into a frantic rhythm. He squinted, trying to get a better look but the relentless, driving rain blurred everything in sight.

Before he could curse the rain again, cross the courtyard, stand right in front of the man and look at him properly, intensely with his own eyes, the stranger seemed to sense his intentions. He dropped his cigarette, crushed it beneath the tip of his shoe and walked away.

Truth be told, to Mannat it felt as though it wasn't the cigarette on the ground but his own heart that had just been crushed beneath that shoe.

Unrequited love strikes exactly like that.No warning.

It arrives, settles itself inside your heart and refuses to leave. You can neither keep it peacefully nor throw it out.

That was exactly Minnat's situation.

Somewhere along the line he had fallen for Ziyyan, the beautiful disaster.

He wasn't someone who worshipped appearances.

But it was an undeniable truth that he had never seen anyone so breathtaking in his life. Or perhaps more than Zayaan's looks the real culprit was the moment they had first met.

The incident itself was ridiculous but for Mannat it was equally beautiful and profoundly embarrassing.

It had all started when Mannat's friends .... the most useless bunch in the world, made late-night plans for a beachside barbecue. And naturally, barbecue turned into a game of Truth or Dare. Who knows whose devilish brain hatched the idea or if it was just Mannat's rotten luck but he chose "dare."

And his dare was???

The group decided that he would wade deep into the water and pretend to drown. And whoever came to rescue him (if anyone actually did) he had to lightly flirt with them.

The plan was to recreate a classic movie trope: the heroine is drowning, the hero arrives in the nick of time, and as the two drenched bodies lock eyes, they fall madly in love.

Except here, the script had a twist. Instead of a heroine, these wretched, spoiled, freeloading friends wanted to spark a romance between a hero and a hero.

Mannat had chosen his fate. The dare was set and backing out was no longer an option, lest he become the laughingstock of his friends. Besides, they lived in an era where a romance or relationship between two men wasn't considered taboo anyway.

Sticking to the plan, Mannat waded out into the ocean until he reached deep water. He tried to check if anyone outside of his group was actually around, but the pitch-black night made it impossible to see a thing. Forced to take a shot in the dark, he splashed around playfully before deliberately slipping under and crying out for help.

He screamed for a long time. His throat was growing raw and his ribs ached from the effort but it seemed the beach was empty. And if anyone was there, they certainly weren't bothering to jump in. Mannat was just about to admit defeat and quiet down when he suddenly felt himself being lifted above the water's surface. Two arms slipped firmly beneath his back and legs.

Startled, he looked up. Seeing the man's face illuminated by the moonlight, Mannat was struck completely speechless.

"Are you okay?" The voice startled him out of his daze.

At the time, Mannat weighed around 65 or 70 kilos, yet the man was carrying him through the water with effortless ease as if he weren't holding a heavy, flesh-and-blood human but a delicate wax doll.

"Yeah, I'm fine." It felt like a direct hit to Mannat's masculinity. Being carried bridal-style was incredibly awkward.

"What were you doing in the water at this hour? And is that your group?" the man asked, his gaze fixed sharply on Mannat's face. He was clearly looking toward the shore, where Mannat's friends were all standing and watching the spectacle.

"Yeah...." the normally sharp-tongued Mannat replied, suddenly at a loss for words.

Shit… he should have said No.

"Then why didn't they come save you?"

The first part of the dare was a success. Now it was time to flirt. Mannat squirmed, pretending to struggle against the man's hold.

"Because I didn't want to be saved. I went into the water on my own. Why did you come? Why did you save me?"

Yeah ,he got nervous and instead of flirting ,he started sprouting nonsense.

"I wasn't going to but your agonizing screams for help has woken up almost half the city. They should be arriving shortly." The man tightened his grip, completely neutralizing Mannat's attempts to get down.

"...." Mannat had completely forgotten that he was the one who had been screaming bloody murder.

"Well, I'm human, aren't I? I panicked, and something must have slipped out. That doesn't mean you have to come running! Haven't you ever seen someone dying before?" Firing back a retort, Mannat tried to wriggle out of his arms again.

Forget the flirting, Mannat was getting angry 'why the hell this man saved him when he was ready to die'.

The man stopped walking. He stared at Mannat for a few seconds. It was only a fleeting moment but to Mannat, it felt like sparks were about to shoot from those eyes and burn him to ashes. Before Mannat could utter a word out of sheer intimidation the man simply opened his arms.

"Splash."

Mannat was dropped straight into the water.

"Ouch! What the hell? Who puts someone down like that?" Groaning, Minnat splashed helplessly.

"Then die drowning," the man shot back. He turned and walked away, leaving a utterly dumbfounded Mannat in his wake.

Mannat wanted to chase after him but by then his friends had rushed over and were bombarding him with questions to figure out what had just happened.

As soon as the stranger disappeared from sight a strange sadness washed over Mannat. He didn't understand it but he remained standing there for a long time, staring in the direction the man had gone.

Eventually, the chaos died down and everyone headed home. Mannat reached his room and collapsed onto his bed. His soaking wet clothes were ruining the mattress but he didn't care.

He couldn't stop thinking about that brief few-minute encounter. And one thought kept circling his mind: Would he ever be able to see him again?

At the time he was convinced he would never cross paths with that man again. But he was wrong. They did meet again and under incredibly strange circumstances.

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