Summer, 1990, KV Locality, Delhi

It's a bright summer afternoon, Kids are on their summer vacation and are playing in the playground behind the locality.

A five-year-old Eifad steps out from her building accompanied by her mother. In one hand, she held a green plastic shove and with the other she held a small red plastic bucket.

'Beta, you play with your friends' Aisha, Eifad's mother, said. The girl nods her head and turns around walking into the playground. Her mother sat on the bench with other ladies; the ladies greet her dryly. Because of Eifad's behavior, everyone prefers keeping a distance from the mother-daughter duo.

Eifad looks around deciding on which ride she goes first, swings? Slides? Monkey bar? Or simply play in the sand, make sand castles perhaps. Eifad decides to play in the sand. She is artistic and loves building things, painting, and writing.

'Hey! Weirdo, you can't play here' Rida, one of the girls said. Rida is one of the favorite girls in the locality; she is pretty, cheerful, and friendly and Eifad, totally opposite.

Eifad glares at her

'Hey, Rida speak nicely haven't you heard about Avni' another girl, Kiah whispered. Rida shrugged.

'This weirdo had hit her head with a rock; there was so much blood...poor she.' Kiah, another girl, informed Rida.

'Yeah, be careful this weirdo will do the same to you too' Reshma, another girl from Rida's friend circle said.

Rida scoffs, she shooed these warning off stating she is not afraid of any weirdos and she is taking martial art classes, she will give it back to Eifad if she tries anything funny.

Eifad continues to glare at Rida; she glares back. Then deciding it will be a waste of time arguing with Rida, Eifad decides to play in one corner of the sand. She doesn't like crowd, but she had wanted to play with the girls. She has no friend, everyone has labelled as a weirdo and boycotted her. Any normal kid would have cried and perhaps get into mild depression probably thinking as something "something must be wrong with me", initially Eifad did too, but by now she is used to this treatment by other kids. Now, she has become strong, silently taking the taunts, which eventually starts to build up inside her slowly making her emotionless.

But being a five-year-old girl she was craved for a friend, after all, she is a kid and kids need a friend, just one friend.

Eifad silently goes to a secluded corner and sit folding her legs neatly. She places her bucket to her side and with her shove she starts to dig into the sand. Rida and other girls shoot her a disgusted look, but Eifad is oblivious to it.

When she is doing something creative, or anything that she loves, everything but that thing disappears for her. She gets completely involved, getting zoned out into what she is doing.

As she works a young boy stands beside her, he is same age as Eifad. He looks on impressed how Eifad is working so dedicatedly on her sand castle, which is turning out good.

'Hey!' he said, Eifad ignores him and continues with her work.

'Shad' the boy introduced himself sticking out his hand, he is ignored once again. Shad frowns

He shrugs and sits beside Eifad, he looks around and finds a small white flower beside him. He thinks if he charms Eifad then perhaps he will gain her attention, but little does he know that Eifad isn't someone who gets impressed or attracted this way, unlike girls.

'For you' Shad tried bringing the flower in front of Eifad's face. Finally, she turns her head and looks at Shad. He smiles victoriously. She looks away again, back into making her sand castle. Shad frowns.

'May I help you?' He offered. Ignored.

He then extends his hand and is about to touch the sand castle when Eifad held his hand. It happened in split seconds Shad is taken aback. Eifad has good reflexes. She glares at Shad and shakes her head warning him to back off. Shad gulps and moves his hand back. She then continues doing her work.

For a minute Shad contemplated to walk away, but something about this girl made him stay. He simply sits there watching her work.

'Wow!' Shad complimented looking at a small, simple yet beautiful sand castle. Eifad smile slightly, her smile widens as Shad continues to praise her work. She felt pride and also touched because this is the first time someone is actually complimenting her. Besides her father, she is close to no one. Only he takes interest in what she does, and now this new boy is praising her. She is happy.

'I am new here, and I want to be your friend' Shad said, and Eifad is stunned. He extends his hand again 'I am Shad, will you be my friend?' he said smiling warmly at her.

Again, this is the first time someone has offered to be her friend. Eifad looks at his hand and is hesitant for few seconds; she doesn't trust easily. But then there is something different about this boy.

He is the first one to have spoken nicely to her, first, one to appreciate and compliment her, first one to offer being friends with her. Besides all that, with his slim figure, white complexion, brown hair, and honey colored eyes and cute dimpled smile, he looks gorgeous. Eifad held his hand. The moment their skin touched Eifad felt a strange electric jolt, she couldn't understand what it meant, she has never felt like this before. But then she shook hands with a boy before.

Then onwards, it was a new beginning of their friendship. Eifad and Shad become inseparable, always together. Many envied their bond. Eifad had only one friend- Shad, and he had only one friend- Eifad, though he mingled and was friendly with other boys too but really close to only Eifad.

Over the years Eifad's friendship blossoms into love but Shad's didn't...