Shreya blinked her eyes open when she heard soft sobs. She got up leaning on her uninjured hand and looked around confused for a second. It took her a minute to realize that she was in a hospital. Her head hurt like hell.

But before she could really do anything at all, a soft bundle of fresh landed over her body crushing her in a hug.. a hug that was painful for Shreya. She had bumps and bruises all over her body.

"Hiss.." Shreya couldn't help but let out a groan. More than being painful, the pain just came when she was not prepared for it. Or else, Shreya actually had a pretty good resilience to pain.

"Akira, Shreya is hurt.. you are hurting her!" Bharath told her from behind having an anxious face.

Akira instantly pulled away with watery eyes and looked at Shreya terrified as she said, "Sorry.. sorry. I did not mean it.."

"It's okay. I am alright.." Shreya said smiling at Akira.

Akira did not give did not smile back, but instead, she leaned forward and hugged Shreya all over again.

Her arms wrapped around Shreya's neck tightly as she sobbed away all over again. Akira made sure she did not touch any of the wrapped-up parts this time around.

Shreya helplessly looked at Bharath that clearly asked without words, 'What was happening here? Why Akira was here!'

Of all the people, why did they have to bring the little girl here when she was in this condition.

"It's all your fault, idiot. You got into an accident and you did not inform any one of us of what was going on. Even the guys driving Akira did not know anything at all. And the news said you were on the verge of dying!!!" Bharath answered sarcastically rolling his eyes at Shreya.

That is when Shreya realized her blunder. Her arms around Akira tightened unconsciously.

"As soon as she came from the school, she saw the news.. she started sobbing uncontrollably instantly. And we couldn't reach Charan either.. he was busy on a meeting. Then, with no other option, Preethi called up Adam.. even he did not pick his phone for a while. But when he did pick the phone, he roughly informed us of everything going on. Even then, the little girl did not believe us no matter how much we tried to convince her. She said they were just lying to not scare her.. clever little devil. So, with no other option, Adam asked Andrew to take us here.. As soon as she saw you lying like this all wrapped up like a present, she started her waterworks again."

Just as she heard everything Bharath had said, Shreya's guilt doubled.

With everything going on, she did not think about how it would affect Akira and Charan.. it completely slipped her mind. You cannot really fault her.. things had been very intense since midnight. She barely had time to breathe.

Her head had been going round and round with thoughts that were pretty much out of her own control. Even though she had a grasp of what was happening after a little inquiry, that did not stop her from overthinking and getting herself into problems in her head that are not even present in the first place until she actually collapsed. In all this, she seemed to have overlooked something so important.

"Baby.." Shreya called out softly trying to pull Akira from her embrace so that she can talk to her. Even when others might not have been able to hear it, Shreya could clearly hear her silent sobs.

Even when she seemed to be quietly hugging Shreya and nothing else, Shreya could still feel her tears running down her back.

She really really hated this day more than any other. She seemed to be messing up pretty much everything today from when it started.

"Baby," Shreya called out again as she tried to gently pry her arms from around her. Seeing Akira like that hurt Shreya in more places than one.

This was the girl she vowed to protect.. she wanted to keep her happy and safe all the time.

But somehow today, she herself became the reason for her weeping her eyes out for god knows how long.

Akira did not let Shreya pull her away though no matter how much Shreya tried. Instead, Akira just tightened her arms a little more around Shreya every time she tried to pull away.

Shreya, at last, gave up when Akira let out a soft whimper.

"I'm so sorry, baby. I did not mean to scare you.. I really did not. I just.. I just had so much work to do that it slipped my mind to call you.. I really did not want to scare you like. Sorry, okay!" Shreya softly tried to console and convince her.

"I am perfectly fine now.. nothing happened to me. The doctors are just trying to make me look like a mummy to be funny. I am not that hurt.. The bandages are all just for show.." Shreya started lamenting utter nonsense after a while. She was getting restless and scared with how much Akira was crying.

Bharath gave her a look that said, 'You are already like this.. think about our situation.'

After all, all his family had tried until all their mouths went dry to convince her that Shreya was okay. But no matter what they said, Akira did not believe it one bit.

He really cursed for switching on the TV and having the bad luck of the television opening to a news channel.

Akira's face brightened instantly when she saw Shreya's photo being flashed on the news. But that same face paled instantly when she heard the news.

Before he could even react, the news guys showed the picture of the crash site.. Akira, of course, instantly recognized Shreya's car in a heartbeat. After all, Shreya had taken Akira on a ride in the same damn car countless times.