“Question number 12.”

He turned his head towards his blue haired pretty companion, who sat beside him on the bench facing the empty road. After walking for a long time, their feet had begun to pain.

“Go on,” he said waiting for the next trivia.

“I noticed this at the station. Why were you so scared of that dog? Are you so scared of all dogs?”

“Why?” as if it was the most absurd question in the world, he turned to her with his answer. 

“They are ferocious evil animals! They can bite the flesh off your bone in one try! They can smell fear! And yet you ask me, why am I scared of dogs?”

She smiled, shook her head and replied, “But not really. They are sweet, loyal, caring and loving animals. They are the best companion a man can have.”

“No, they aren’t!” 

She felt him get a little agitated. After waiting for a few seconds for him to calm down, she asked him, “What’s going on? What did a dog ever do to you?”

He drew his lips into a thin line, contemplating on whether to tell her the truth. She found this cute.

He began, “I was around 6 years old. My neighbor then had a dog. A big dog. It was huge!” he started gesturing with his hand. She nodded, encouraging him. 

“One day I was playing in our yard with my ball. I had just gone in the house for something. But when I came out, the neighbor dog had destroyed my ball,” he complained to her. She felt as if she was listening to one of her kindergarten students talk.

“Go on sweety,” she encouraged him to go on.

“Then it attacked me! That big dog. Just jumped on me. I fell backward. Thank god my mum came. Else I don’t know what would have happened to me,” he placed a hand over his chest as he sighed.

“Wow. It's okay. It's done. It's past,” she reassured him, and he nodded, feeling better.

“But you do know it was just trying to play with you, right?” she asked him.

“You don’t know that! You weren’t there! It was a huge, ferocious dog!”

“Alright. Alright.”

She pacified him and then sat quietly, unable to decide whether to talk about dogs anymore. Clearly it was a sensitive topic. But it was he who decided to break the silence.

“You love dogs, don’t you?”

She smiled at his sudden question. “Is it that obvious?”

“You seem like someone who loves a lot of things,” he said, and she nodded.

“Nature?” he asked. She nodded.

“Music?” 

“You saw my headphones.”

“Colours?”

She lifted her a strand of her blue hair.

“Art?”

“You remember my bag?” as soon as she asked this question, he remembered her bag with patchwork on it. 

“Oh yeah! Dance?”

“Now there is something I do not like,” she said,

“Really? You do not like dance?” he asked her.

“It's not that I don’t like it. It's just that dance does not like me,” she shrugged her shoulders. When he smiled, she added, “But you should see my sister. She dances so gracefully. Like a swan.”

He smiled faintly watching her get lost in her thoughts again. And then he said, “Is dance her ‘thing’?”

“Yeah,” she nodded.

“What about your other sisters?” he asked further. Raising an eyebrow at him, she asked, “Questions about family? Are we playing again?” 

“I believe we are. Question number 13,” he said with a smile.

She smiled and continued, “Two elder and two younger sisters. In that order, academics, dance, music and science. That’s their field.”

“And what about you?” he tilted his head to get a clearer view of her face.

“Me?” she asked pointing at herself. When he nodded, she replied, “I keep them all happy. That’s what I do.”

“Do you regret sometimes? About life or about your family?” he asked, unsure of whether he should have asked.

She looked at him suddenly. She was smiling but she was serious. He could tell. 

She said, “Everyone has one or another hardship or a sad back story. Then why should mine be any special? We all have hardships. Mine isn’t that big. So, I’d rather not worry about it and live my life happily.”

“True. True. I agree,” he nodded his head.

Suddenly he turned his head towards complete darkness. 

“What?” she asked, following his gaze.

“I thought I saw something move.”