Nobody announced it dramatically.. it just happened the way things sometimes do.. slowly and then all at once.. Schools closed. Streets emptied. The whole world seemed to exhale and hold its breath at the same time.. Wushan, which was never really quiet, became quiet..
Denita spent the first few days thinking it would be a week.. then two weeks.. then she stopped counting and just let the days fold into each other.. mornings that looked like afternoons, afternoons that dissolved into evenings without asking permission.. Mian sent voice notes often.. long rambling ones about nothing.. which Denita loved.. she would lie on her bed and listen to Mian describe what she ate for lunch with the complete seriousness of someone reporting important news..
Avet she did not think about particularly.. he was a school person.. and school was gone now.. people have their places and his place had simply.. paused.. So when his name appeared on her phone one unremarkable afternoon.. she stared at it for a second..
Hey.. how are you managing the syllabus in this lockdown..
Denita read it.. smiled a little at how very Avet it was.. asking about syllabus like that was the real concern of the hour.. She typed back.. Barely managing.. the chapters just keep increasing.. He
replied immediately.. which she noticed but did not note.. And just like that.. a door opened..
It started honestly enough.. Avet was stuck on a chapter and Denita was the best person he knew to ask.. everyone in class knew she was the one you went to when a concept refused to make sense.. she had a way of explaining things without making you feel small for not understanding them already.. She never complained.. not once.. he would send her a problem at odd hours and she would work through it with him step by step.. sometimes a voice note, sometimes typing it out so clearly that it finally clicked.. Avet would stare at her explanation and think.. how does she make it look so simple.. She genuinely did not mind.. that was the thing about Denita.. she never helped people like it was a favour.. she helped like it was just the obvious thing to do.. Thank you.. he would say.. every time without fail.. It is fine.. she would reply.. every time.. like it truly was..
But studying together online has a way of becoming other things.. a solved problem would lead to a small joke.. the joke would lead to a story.. the story would lead to another.. and somehow an hour of syllabus would stretch into three hours of everything else.. She was funny.. effortlessly, naturally funny.. she would describe their chemistry chapter like a courtroom drama, the molecules on trial for crimes against students everywhere.. Avet would reply with laughing emojis and then.. I cannot study this seriously anymore, thank you for ruining it.. She made him laugh easily in those early weeks.. and laughter, when you are lonely and the world is locked and everything feels uncertain, is not a small thing.. it is actually everything.. The hours grew.. what started as afternoon texts stretched into evenings.. evenings stretched past dinner.. past ten.. past eleven.. Neither of them mentioned it..