The storm had been brewing all afternoon, a relentless barrage of thunder and lightning that rattled the windows of the lecture hall. The evening session on advanced calculus was dragging on, the professor's voice droning like the distant rumble outside. Disha sat in the back row, her notebook half-filled with scribbles, her mind wandering to Aryan and the secret world they shared in her dorm room. The campus in Kanpur was alive with the usual chaos—students rushing between classes, the faint smell of rain-soaked earth mixing with the aroma of chai from the nearby canteen. But then, without warning, the lights flickered once, twice, and plunged into darkness. A collective gasp echoed through the hall, followed by the buzz of phones lighting up like fireflies.