1 CHAPTER 01

When I first met Jake, I didn't recognize him immediately. During lunch when he closed my eyes using his cold hands and asked me to guess who it was, even I don't know why I said his name out loud, "Jake....?"

Jake was an exchange student that joined our college in the final semester. The eighth semester of college is usually for projects and internships. But Jake joined my college as an exchange student in the eighth semester, for me.

We used to play together when we were children. I don't even remember what we used to play together or how it all started. Honestly, it all feels like a distant memory to me, my childhood, I mean, my childhood with him.

I was a loner for my whole college life, more like I didn't know how to make friends. I've been home-schooling since young and never really had friends ever since I was a kid. There was no specific reason for all this, I am not sick or anything nor are my parents over-protective or anything of that sort. It was more like they were busy with their own things and I liked being alone so I never complained.

That's why me playing with Jake when I was a kid feels like a distant memory and it took a while for me to remember him.

Jake was three years older than me. I remember I was five or maybe six years old when we played together. When I try to remember him there is this one particular memory that I always remember, me sitting on a swing and giggling as I urge him to push faster and him pushing the swing from behind me. I don't remember his face or his expression at that time but I remember that I kept giggling and used to turn around and give him a massive grin from time to time.

I don't clearly remember how I was in the past. To me, my past has always been like a vague memory since every day felt the same to me. And when I met Jake again in college I was an introverted girl with literally no friends but after I met him, I changed, everything changed. And I remember everything after that, very clearly.

He became my first friend maybe we were already friends when we were children, but now we have become friends again.

I got placed at an MNC and was working on my final year project then. I was sitting inside the college cafeteria and was working on my project report on my own when suddenly someone closed my eyes from behind me and asked me to guess who it was. And that cold sensation from his huge hands at that time, I'll never forget them. The first thought that came to my mind was my memory of the swing, so, I blurred that out, the name that came together along with the memory, "Jake….?"

The hands that were covering my eyes went stiff, completely stiff. I tried to remove them to turn around to see who it was. The him that I saw then is another memory about him that I'll never forget. Black messy hair, round brown eyes that clearly showed shock, plain white t-shirt with round neck, black ripped jeans, military-style silver locket, black round stud in one ear, while the other ear was pierced but was empty.

"No way…. Did your parents tell you that you'll meet me today?", No they didn't and honestly I was very shocked too about why I even said that.

Later he told me as he sat down that Jake and I were engaged and his parents thought that maybe we could start by being friends so he joined my college as an exchange student even though he graduated from college long ago.

He jumped right into the topic and that shocked me. It felt like a disaster, meeting him out of blue and me engaged with him? Everything just didn't sit well with me. I wanted to go home and ask my parents about it and I did just that. I said "Excuse me, I need to go", stood up, and walked out on him. And went straight home. He just sat there and didn't stop me as if that's exactly what he wanted.

My thoughts kept running here and there along the way. I didn't think about the engagement instead I kept thinking about reasons to reject it. But when I went home and confronted my parents the first question that came out was "Why him? Why am I engaged to Jake?"