the last leaf...

The last leaf finally took its path to the ground.

And with it, something in me fell too — quietly, almost respectfully.

Like it knew I was already broken.

My name is Adarsh gupta . Seventeen years of being... good.

Good son. Good boy. Good friend.

Too good, maybe.

And somewhere along the way, the world stopped being good to me.

My parents no longer listened to me.

My friends vanished into the noise of their own lives.

Even my brother, once my partner in mischief and midnight talks, became a stranger behind a locked door.

I was left in the silence.

Heavy. Unforgiving. Endless.

One night, drowning in loneliness, I downloaded an old app—Chit Chat.

The home of strangers.

Of maybe.

Of "what if someone out there understands?"

Thirty-two minutes later, I matched with someone.

Kunal.

That name felt familiar.

And when I clicked on his profile, a tiny spark danced in my chest.

We had talked before—months ago.

He had disappeared then, like everyone else.

But now... he was back.

And for the first time in a long while, something inside me whispered, "Maybe this time... someone stays."

"Hey...,” I typed, nervous.

"Hey," he replied almost instantly. "You found me again?"

I smiled. A real one. Small, but real.

Kunal wasn’t loud or overly affectionate.

He wasn’t texting every second.

But he was there.

Honest. Gentle. Curious.

He never ignored me. He just responded in his own rhythm — soft, human, natural.

And even when our conversations were short, they carried a quiet warmth.

"What should I call you?" he asked one

Adarsh. But... call me whatever you like."

"Hmm. I’ll call you crazy boi. Or maybe... stupid fellow 😂l."

I laughed out loud at that. He didn’t know it, but he had just stitched a tiny patch over a bleeding part of me.

From that day, I called him Kuku.

A soft, silly name only I used.

A name that made my chest feel less hollow.

But the truth is... the ache is never fully left.

Even while talking to him, I felt this creeping shadow in my chest — a voice that said, "He doesn’t see the whole you. He won’t stay either."

That voice made me do something I now regret.

Something that started as a joke, a harmless test.

Something that became slow unraveling.

I created another account.

Arsh.

Just a name. Just a mask.

Just me... pretending to be someone else.

I added Kunal from it, curious, maybe even desperate.

He accepted Immediately.

"Do you remember me?" I asked, my fingers trembling slightly as I typed from the Arsh account.

"Of course I do," Kunal replied instantly.

My breath caught.

A tiny gasp escaped my lips.

He remembers...?

But... remember who?

My heart beats louder, faster, as if trying to punch through my chest.

Excited.

Terrified.

I continued chatting, my words playful, teasing him like a mischievous shadow.

But as our conversation stretched,

a strange realization dawned on me.

He thought Arsh was someone else.

Someone he already knew.

Someone real.

Maybe a memory from somewhere I didn’t know.

Still, I played along, smiling into my phone like a little thief stealing moments that weren’t truly mine.

"Yrr dude," I typed, my fingers dancing over the keys, "I met someone... he was so cute and mature. At the age of seventeen!!!"

I pressed send, my lips curving into a bittersweet smile.

Cute.

Mature.

Seventeen.

I was talking about myself, without even saying it.

Suddenly, a message popped on my real account—Adarsh's!

Ping!

Kunal.

"Hey... do you know Arsh?" he asked.

My throat dried instantly.

"Yeah," I replied, trying to steady my shaking fingers. "But... how do you know him?"

There was a pause.

I could almost feel him smiling through the screen.

"Sixth sense," he finally wrote.

And then:

"Also, I needed someone to talk to. He’s Arsh... that same guy."

The screen blurred before my eyes.

Not from sadness.

Not from happiness.

But from the sheer weight of everything unsaid between the lines.

In that moment, it wasn’t about right or wrong.

It wasn’t about lies or truths.

I wanted to say the truth.!!

But I waited and talk a bit more but something happened which changed me a lot what do u think so I need to carry on?

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