Chapter 1:A Shade of Lipstick

"Some people fall in love with people. Riya fell in love with sunsets first."

If someone asked Riya to describe herself, she'd probably laugh and say,

"I'm just... me."

Not the prettiest girl in the room.

Not the smartest.

Not the funniest.

Just someone who loved watching the sky change colors every evening.

She believed sunsets were proof that endings didn't always have to be painful. Sometimes they were beautiful enough to make you wait for tomorrow.

She was the kind of person who laughed at her own mistakes before anyone else could.

The kind who tripped over perfectly flat roads.

The kind who could confidently answer a presentation in front of thirty people but would panic if a stranger simply asked, "How are you?"

People often misunderstood her.

She looked calm.

Strong.

Unbothered.

But the truth was painfully different.

A single harsh word could make her eyes sting with tears. She hated crying in front of people, so she became an expert at smiling until she reached home.

She wasn't heartless.

She simply protected her heart too well.

Love?

It was beautiful in movies.

Beautiful in novels.

Beautiful when it happened to someone else.

For herself...

She wasn't sure it even existed.

Maybe that was why fate laughed whenever she made plans.

At eighteen, fresh out of a women's college, Riya had absolutely no intention of working.

Until one midnight, her phone exploded with messages.

Swara: Guys! A company is hiring freshers! Let's all apply together!

Within minutes, five excited replies appeared.

One after another.

"I'm in!"

"Me too!"

"Let's go as a gang!"

Riya stared at the screen before smiling.

If everyone was going...

Why not her?

A week later, six nervous girls stood in front of a huge glass building, adjusting their ID cards and pretending they weren't scared.

"I can't believe we're adults now," one of them groaned.

"We're not adults," Riya replied. "We're children with ID cards."

Everyone burst into laughter.

That was Riya.

Even when she was nervous, she somehow made the people around her smile.

The office was nothing like her college.

Men and women worked together.

Phones rang endlessly.

People walked confidently through long corridors with coffee cups in their hands.

Riya quietly moved behind Swara.

"I've never even spoken to a boy before," she whispered.

Swara laughed.

"They're humans, Riya. Not lions."

"We'll see about that."

The first few weeks passed in laughter, training sessions, silly mistakes, and endless teasing between the six friends.

For the first time in her life, the outside world didn't seem so frightening.

Until one person started noticing the smallest things about her.

His name was Koushal.

He wasn't loud.

He wasn't trying to impress anyone.

He simply... noticed.

One afternoon, while everyone was having lunch, Koushal casually asked Swara,

"Did Riya change her lipstick today?"

Swara frowned.

"What lipstick?"

"The nude shade... she wasn't wearing it yesterday."

Swara looked genuinely confused.

That evening she rushed to Riya's desk.

"Did you wear lipstick today?"

Riya blinked.

"...Yeah. Just a little."

Swara stared at her.

"Do you know who noticed?"

"Who?"

"Koushal."

Riya laughed.

"No way."

"I'm serious! Even I didn't notice."

For the first time, Riya looked across the office toward Koushal.

He wasn't looking at her.

He was quietly working, completely unaware that he'd become the topic of their conversation.

A strange thought crossed her mind.

Even my best friend didn't notice... but he did.

She shook the thought away.

Surely...

It didn't mean anything.

Or at least...

That's what she wanted to believe.

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