“So…Anvi…how are you feeling? We are starting with the test today. Nervous? Excited? Or something else?”

Anvi thought for a moment and spoke.

“I think I feel curious. I want to see how this device works.”

Aahan nodded and then continued.

“Our Day 1 is planned in the natural setting. We are going to visit the Botanical Garden and look for any trigger responses.”

He explained and she nodded, buzzing with curiosity to find out what happened. They sat in the car and Aahan kept the conversation going. Asking her questions, trying to get the viewers to know her better. 

Anvi answered his questions and the two shared a few laughs in between. They reached their location and got out of the car. They walked slowly through the garden, observing people, plants and each other. 

Aahan was very careful about the pendant and was looking for any sign of a trigger. Anvi too, looked at him from time to time to make sure she was doing it right.

They sat in the area where most people sat. some with their families, some with friends and some with their partners. Anvi took out the novel she brought along and got immersed in it. Soon she was lost in her own imaginary world not caring about the camera continuously recording her or the man with her observing her.

Aahan was observing Anvi. Each movement of hers with an unconscious attention. He noticed the way she shifted when the scene changed. The way her shoulder tensed when she read a tension filled scene. The way she bit her lip and a faint blush covered her cheeks when she read something swoon-worthy. The way she maintained a poker face which he assumed she did when she read any smut scene. A smile formed on his face seeing her actions. 

As Anvi reads her novel, she feels her pendant emit a soft, warm pulse, like a heartbeat against her skin. It’s not constant. It happens just once, then fades. She pauses, sits straight and looks around.

No one was looking at her. “Was that…the device? Or just a fluke?” She thinks and looks at Aahan to confirm. Aahan sees Anvi pause and touch the pendant lightly, just for a second. 

He notices the edge of the pendant glow for a few seconds. The light was strong, indicating a strong resonance but barely visible in the sharp sunlight. He knows what it means.

The cameraman focuses on the pendant and Anvi’s phone when she checks her notification which reads “You experienced a moment of emotional resonance at 11:42 AM.” Anvi looks at the notification with surprise and looks around again. 

Aahan doesn’t mention his own pendant pulsing. His glow feature is disabled but he discreetly checks the notification on his phone.

Resonance spike detected between Pendant ID: A-4 and Device Cluster: Aahan-01

He clicks his phone shut and doesn’t speak a word. He has a few more benefits being the founder. Her pendant is given limited access for the purposes of the test.

He doesn’t want to interfere and lets Anvi’s device figure it out on its own. But the notification lingers on the back of his mind the whole day. “She should not know it was me.” He thinks and remains quiet.

On the backhand, the team of experts review the data and confirm the score of Phase 1 as 94. They seal the scores in an envelope to be disclosed at the end of the entire test.

The next four days, the same thing happens. Anvi’s pendant pulses and displays the same message with different time stamps. Aahan’s does too but he doesn’t check the notification anymore. 

The device enters Phase 2 and pairs itself with Aahan’s. 

The Vlogs for the first week are posted for all five of them. The responses on each of them are crazy. People are enjoying it like some reality show.

Anvi returns after the weekend, ready to explore through the second week. The pulses she experienced during the first week made her even more curious.

The two are seated in an open-air cafe with a lakeside view. They sit across from each other. People around them murmur in curiosity seeing the recording going on. 

Aahan and Anvi sit across from each other. He asks her questions about her first week. 

“How do you think you are emotionally? And how do you think that emotional side of you was shaped?”

He asked her. Anvi thought for a moment and then answered with a little hesitation.

“I think I am more of a practical person than an emotional one. Mere parents kehte hai ki mujhe koi emotional baaton mai nhi phasa sakta because I lack certain emotions. I mean I have seen people cry over movie scenes or over a stranger’s pain and I don’t understand how it is possible. Mai na hi uss character se aur na hi uss stranger se emotionally attached hu jo mai unke liye ro sku. So I would describe myself as an emotionally detached person.”

(My parents say that no one can trap me in emotional talks because I lack certain emotions….I am neither emotionally connected to that character nor that stranger that I cry for them.)

She shrugged and he looked at her trying to access her answer. He then nods and speaks.

“You think of yourself as an emotionally detached person but I think it is only because you stop yourself from feeling someone else’s pain. Think of a situation like this. You see a person grieving over something that you too have grieved over at a certain point in life. You’d not feel their pain but your own that you experienced. Hum rote hai isliye nhi kyunki wo insaan hamare liye khaas hai but isliye kyunki wo moment jo wo experience kr rha hai wo hum mehsoos kr chuke hai.”

(We don’t cry because that person is special to us but because what he/she is experiencing at that moment, we have felt that.)

He said softly and she felt herself losing in his words. 

“I… I never thought of it that way.”

“Ab sochna. Whenever you see someone, grieving or enjoying. Just relate it to something that you felt in that moment and you’ll realise that you’re not emotionally detached you’re just…someone who sees emotions differently.”

(Think now.)