When Raghavendra finally listened to her and laid down properly, neither of them spoke afterward.

Kashvi quietly sat beside his hospital bed while keeping her hands on her lap, watching him silently so he could rest properly.

Meanwhile, Raghavendra tried his best to ignore her presence.

But how could he?

The girl had been staring at him nonstop ever since he woke up.

It almost felt like she was trying to burn a hole through his forehead with her eyes.

“Stop staring,” he muttered irritably, finally breaking the silence between them. “Just what do you want from me?”

Raghavendra slowly turned his eyes toward her.

Kashvi blinked before tilting her head slightly.

“I want you to get better,” she answered honestly.

“I mean why?”

“Because… why not?”

Raghavendra frowned faintly before looking away again.

“Ugh… never mind.”

Kashvi puffed her cheeks a little after hearing his annoyed tone.

Still, she could not blame him.

Actually, seeing him this guarded only made her heart ache more.

Raghavendra had lived his whole life expecting pain from people, not kindness.

So naturally, even concern looked suspicious to him.

Before he passed out earlier, he had already heard her voice while those boys were beating him up. He knew she was the same girl who suddenly appeared and scared them away.

Honestly, being brought to the hospital after getting beaten up made sense.

But what he could not understand was why she looked so worried about him

As if she already knew him.

As if his pain genuinely upset her.

And that was exactly what made him suspicious.

Meanwhile, Kashvi quietly looked at him while pressing her lips together.

'Of course he would not understand,' she thought bitterly. 'How do I explain this to you? That I know your entire life? That I cried while reading your ending? That you are my favorite character?'

Her chest tightened painfully again.

Even now, looking at him lying weakly on that hospital bed made her emotional.

This was Raghavendra Rathore.

The future villain everyone feared.

The man who would one day become cold enough to terrify an entire city.

But right now

He just looked tired.

So unbearably tired.

Kashvi lowered her gaze toward his bruised knuckles.

Her eyes stung again.

'Those idiots really hit him this badly…'

Honestly, she still wanted to go back and hit those boys herself.

She had never felt this angry while reading the novel before.

Because reading something and witnessing it with her own eyes truly felt like heaven and earth.

The pain became real.

His suffering became real.

Everything became painfully real.

Raghavendra slowly shut his eyes again.

'Although it did not seem like she was lying,' he thought while recalling her watery eyes from earlier. 'Tch… those bastards. I will deal with them later.'

His body still felt heavy with exhaustion.

It did not take long before his breathing slowly deepened again.

Kashvi stared at him quietly before finally releasing a relieved sigh.

“Good,” she whispered softly. “Just sleep.”

The room fell silent afterward.

Kashvi carefully leaned back into her chair before glancing outside the hospital window.

The city lights glittered quietly against the dark Mumbai night.

Everything still felt surreal.

Even now, Kashvi still believed this might just be a dream she would eventually wake up from.

Maybe tomorrow morning she would open her eyes inside that hospital room from her old life again.

Maybe all of this would disappear.

And strangely…

That thought hurt her more than expected.

'I still have to message Chairman Chauhan…' she remembered suddenly.

Kashvi immediately took out her phone before sending a message to her father.

Since Maya Chauhan was extremely loved by her father in the novel, Kashvi knew he would not force her to come home immediately.

But then she remembered something else.

Earlier that morning, she told Lucia she would join her father for dinner.

Guilt instantly crept into her chest.

“Oops…”

After hesitating for nearly a whole minute, Kashvi typed another message carefully.

[To: Papa

Sorry, Papa. I promise I will have dinner with you tomorrow. ❤️ ]

The moment she sent it, Kashvi immediately covered her face.

“Oh god… that was so embarrassing.”

Still…

A small smile appeared on her lips afterward.

In the original story, Maya and her father slowly drifted apart because neither of them properly expressed their feelings.

And Kashvi genuinely wanted to fix that.

But right now…

Right now, she wanted to stay here.

With Raghavendra.

Even if this world disappeared tomorrow.

Even if he never remembered her.

Even if this was all just a dream.

Kashvi lowered her eyes toward the sleeping boy quietly.

“At least once,” she whispered. “I want someone to care for you properly.”

---

In the middle of the night, Raghavendra slowly opened his eyes again.

His first reaction was to press his fingers against his temple because of the lingering headache bothering him.

The hospital room remained dimly lit with warm lights.

Thankfully, it was not bright enough to worsen his headache.

He exhaled quietly before glancing toward the chair beside his bed.

'Right… she probably left already.'

But the moment his eyes landed there, his thoughts stopped.

Kashvi was still there.

She had fallen asleep while sitting beside him.

Her head rested against her folded arm near the edge of the bed while strands of hair slightly covered her face.

Raghavendra stared at her silently.

“To think she stayed,” he muttered quietly. “Even people I know would not stay in a hospital for me.”

A ridiculing chuckle escaped his lips afterward.

He had long stopped believing in kindness.

People always wanted something in return eventually.

That was simply how the world worked.

So no matter how sincere this girl looked, Raghavendra refused to lower his guard completely.

Still…

He quietly looked at her sleeping face again.

She genuinely looked exhausted.

Even her eyes earlier looked swollen from crying.

'What a weird girl.'

Raghavendra slowly moved, intending to leave the hospital while she slept.

But the moment he shifted, he realized something.

Kashvi was holding his hand.

His eyes widened slightly.

“What the…”

“Do not go…” she mumbled sleepily while tightening her fingers around his hand gently. “Please… get better…”

The rest of her words turned into incomprehensible mumbling.

But Raghavendra had already frozen.

He stared quietly at her sleeping face.

Even asleep, she looked worried.

As if she was genuinely afraid he would disappear if she let go.

“Tch.”

He clicked his tongue softly before leaning back against the pillow again.

Raghavendra stayed awake for a long time after that.

Silently staring at the ceiling.

Silently feeling the warmth of her hand wrapped around his.

She did not seem bothered by the rough calluses on his skin.

Nor the bruises.

Nor the dried blood.

Nothing.

For the first time in a very long time, someone held his hand gently without disgust.

Without fear.

Without wanting anything.

“What a strange person,” he mumbled quietly after hours of silence before slowly closing his eyes again.

That night, for the first time in the seventeen years of Raghavendra Rathore’s life, the faint warmth wrapped around his hand became enough to fight against the endless winter he had endured alone for far too long.