Hamsa walked out of the restroom as she wiped her wet hair with a towel. Aditya could really feel the difference in Hamsa tonight, she had a constant, everlasting smile on her face, her eyes clear and limpid as she ambled towards the small kitchen with a leisurely gait. She wore a comfortable red night suit with a grey coloured printed cartoon characters. Some droplets could still be seen on her exposed neck and slender hands as refraction of room light could be seen which made her look absolutely refreshing and sensuous at the same time.

Though Aditya interacted in an intimate, physical level with Hamsa, the fact was he did not encourage any crooked thoughts as he could sense that Hamsa was very vulnerable in spirit and any impulsive action on his part would probably cause more damage than anything else. He would definitely look down upon himself even if Hamsa did not blame him. So, usually, he would spend most of his time staying in Tya's world or in the garage.

He was not apologetic of the fact that his blood would start boiling the moment he woke in the morning with Hamsa hugging him firmly. In the beginning, it was in control when he saw Hamsa's tear-stained face but the fact was that for the past few days Hamsa would be having a blissful smile on her face and the crying had stopped. This made it all the more hard for him to resist from hugging her back.

He was not a typical teenager who had no idea of what he was feeling or what he had to do. One had to know that he was living 'another' life in a dream world in which he was very 'experienced' in these matters.

Aditya sneaked glances at Hamsa, who seemed to be perfectly at home as she rubbed her hair with a soft blue towel in a hurry, causing unwanted but highly eye-catching motions of her bosom. That pair absolutely did not follow the direction of the rest of her body. If she moved in one direction, they moved in another.

'Does this girl know that she is practically teasing a ticking bomb every day? Why does it seem that she is even more irresistible today? Adi, don't think that just because you helped her and gave her some protection, you get the right to keep her forever,' Aditya slapped himself lightly as he closed his eyes and shook his head. But before he knew it, Aditya was back to staring at Hamsa as he swallowed his saliva before it leaked outside.

Hamsa turned to look at Aditya who was making a swallowing motion but did not seem to notice anything as she smiled and spoke in a mellow voice, "Adi, you also go and fresh up while I make some mushroom soup for us today. Oh wait, I used up the hot water, you have to wait for a few minutes otherwise if you bathed with cold water in this season, you might get sick."

"Cold water?" That's what he needed right now the most. Aditya did not think twice as he grabbed his towel and dived into the bathroom despite Hamsa's attempts to stop him.

In the bathroom, Aditya sat on the floor under the gentle drizzle of the shower as the cold water brought his body back to normal temperature and his head cooled. His mind regained some clarity of thought as he rebuked himself for spending time on these thoughts when there was a lot he had yet to accomplish. He closed his eyes and went to visit Tya. It was time to have a nice chat with him as to why the promised ability was still not developed. He had assumed that as he had given away only a week's worth of energy to Hamsa, he would have the ability ready after a week delay but things seemed to be a little different.

"Tya, what happened to the ability you promised, a week had already passed," Aditya said to the being with overloaded cuteness who flew around him and finally settled on his shoulder.

"Adi, you seem to have miscalculated you have not only given the energy of a week to Hamsa but also the energy accumulated by me before, so you have to wait another week for your ability," Tya replied in its characteristic adorable tone as he looked at Aditya with blinking eyes.

"What! I didn't expect that I have to wait for another week," Aditya said as he held his forehead but when he remembered Hamsa's cheerful face. Maybe it was worth it, also there was nothing he could do now anyway.

Aditya creased his brows as he asked Tya a question which he had asked him when he had first contacted Tya, "Tya, you have read so many books and know the nature of my world now, right? So, by now, have you figured out the way of explaining your world to me in layman terms? I am just curious as sometimes I feel like this world and you are supernatural like ghos… cough cough gods (he wanted to say ghost but ended up saying gods so as to not hurt Tya's feelings.)"

Tya was excited when he heard Aditya's question as he replied, "Elder brother Adi, I have not reached any conclusion yet but I can say assuredly that there is no your world and my world."

"What do you mean?" Aditya pricked his ears as he was also excited that the most basic mystery about Tya was going to be unveiled at last.

"Well, I think that both of us living in the same world. There is only a difference of perspectives." Tya remarked as he looked at Aditya's blank face with shining eyes.

"You lost me at 'same world'," Aditya said as he was a little depressed at having to ask a 'child' to give the explanation in simple terms.

"Elder brother, it's really simple to understand. Imagine a soup boiling in a soup pot."

"Okay"

"Now, imagine yourself becoming an ant and see the same boiling soup from an ant's perspective. Wouldn't it be similar to a hot, boiling magma in a volcano?" Tya said as he tried to strike up a teacher's pose only to end up looking more cuddly.

"Okay, I get that people experience this world based on their own size and capacity. An ant might see a small wall as if it was a giant fortress wall that reaches the sky.' Aditya nodded interestingly as he also gave another metaphor but he still didn't understand where Tya was going with this example.

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Tya looked at Aditya who still had the same blank face as he explained patiently, "So when you are in the human form, you experience this world as if it is made up of all kinds of things like animals, birds, trees, cars and other humans. But when you become like this," Tya pointed at the transparent foggy form of Aditya which was composed of rays of all colours and said, "you experience the same world but with a different perspective." Here, Tya pointed at the beautiful world filled with spheres of myriad colours which transformed into fogs emitting brilliant lights and vice-versa.

Aditya was dumbstruck when he heard these words as he looked around this world dyed with multitude shades and asked, "you mean that this is a different reality and not my imagination?"

"Definitely, you don't think I am a figment of your own imagination? Tya is a separate being with his own thoughts and wishes, "Tya replied in a pitiful tone as if he was hurt with Aditya's words.

"No, it's not like that. How could I imagine such a cute and good being like Tya? Tya is the most beautiful person I have ever seen in my life," Aditya flattered immediately in a fawning voice and Tya immediately regained his smiling face. Appeasing Tya was probably the easiest job in the world.

"So, Tya if we take your previous analogy of the ant and applied it to us, then from what perspective am I seeing this world?" Aditya asked eagerly, he felt he was finally able to get to the root of this matter.

Tya put up his 'Great Thinker's pose' as he said, "I can't find the exact word to describe your condition but if I have to take the approximate word, I would say that you are currently viewing this world from the perspective of a sub-atomic particle."

"Sub-atomic particle?" Aditya's mind exploded when he heard this answer. He was a son of a physicist after all. He knew more than other people his age so he was even more shocked when he heard this answer. He once again took a look at this world as he asked, "So, you are saying that this is the domain of sub-atomic particles?"

Tya shook his head as he corrected, "I think we can call this place as the 'Quantum Realm'."

"Quantum Realm?"

Aditya's mind became numb as names like Neils Bohr, Max Planck, Einstein, Schrodinger, Heisenberg popped up in his mind as well as those weird principles like Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, Schrodinger's cat etc came to his mind. These were the names and principles he had listened to, while growing up instead of bedtime stories, from his father. His father dreamed of unravelling the truths of the sub-atomic world which was still largely undiscovered and he wanted his son to take up this mantle which, of course, failed to materialize.

So, even today if someone brought up the topic of Atomic Physics, that person would be blacklisted by Aditya immediately because this science almost became a childhood trauma for him. He had never imagined that he would have to hear these very words from Tya. Ironically, it was him who was so interested in knowing about this world which turned out to be the very subject he had run away from, all his life.

'Karma is a Bitch', these were the words that came to Aditya's mind as he smiled bitterly. He looked at Tya as he said, "So, you are saying that the place you reside and the place that I have been visiting from the past month is the quantum realm. No wonder the concept of time is skewed here."

Tya nodded innocently as he looked at Aditya carefully and said with a straight face, "But, I think that the contemporary knowledge is very backward, I would even say it is very crude. I have read in some book that you have only discovered 5% of this true reality like protons, neutrons and electrons and other elementary particles like quarks. I had great difficulty connecting this world to that knowledge as they have not even scratched the surface of the truth and everything is mostly wrong."

With this one sentence, Tya had successfully managed to insult the whole human civilization which was the first time for Aditya as he did not know how to react when he saw Tya's cute face.

"Cough cough… well, there have been many recent discoveries which you might not know," Aditya made a futile attempt to defend the whole humanity which felt weird to him. But, deep inside, he knew that there have not been any substantial discoveries recently except for the Higg's Boson experiment in the Large Hadron Collider (Geneva).

Luckily Tya was gullible as he nodded seriously and said, "I am sorry Adi, I judged before knowing the truth."

"Cough cough… it's fine, everyone makes mistakes. Tya, if this is the quantum realm, then how am I able to access this place and what is the 'me' right now," Aditya said as he gestured towards his foggy form which was clearly not his real body. He did not even know how he was able to exist in this form in this world.

"That is because of me, elder brother Adi. Your bond with me enables you to access this world. As for who I am, for all functional purposes, you can refer to me as a being of this space. As to what kind of bond it is and how it is possible, I am still not able to give a legit explanation." Tya responded as he adorably blinked his large eyes as he looked at Aditya.

Tya continued, "Also, I can't clearly explain your form but if I have to specify a word that you might understand. I would address the 'you' right now as a 'Soul particle'."

"Soul Particle? Aren't Souls a part of mythology and folklore. Do people really have a soul?" Aditya asked as his mind continued to take heavy blows today. He did not think that the question he had asked to divert his mind from Hamsa actually resulted in such a ground-breaking revelation.

"Well, didn't I say that I am using that word for lack of a better one to effectively communicate my meaning. But the soul I am referring to is not those shown in the movies which are transparent, human-shaped, filled with fog." Tya explained. Aditya looked at his form and back at Tya as he said with squinted eyes, "Tya, you are not playing me, right?"

Tya shook his head as he replied, "Elder brother, did you ever wonder that why are there living organisms and non-living organism made of the same materials and elements? What is life? How is it created? The food that you eat is not living but ends up becoming a 'live' part of you in the form of skin, bone, brain etc? How do you have a consciousness?"

"Nah, I don't have any plans of becoming a monk yet, so I would think about them when I am unable to do anything else if you get what I mean," Aditya replied decisively. He did not get to sleep with even one woman and here Tya was trying to drag him into searching for life's meaning.

"So you are saying that there is a sub-atomic particle in each of the living organisms which acts as a soul?"Aditya asked as he put the information he got in simple terms.

"Yes, but the matter or energy which make up a soul is not yet discovered by your civilization and you have conveniently categorized these under the categories of 'Dark Matter' and 'Dark Energy' when they are anything but dark in nature," Tya concluded his speech while Aditya closed his eyes to let this knowledge, which departed radically from the norm, sink in.

After sometime Aditya raised his head as he asked sincerely, "So, you are saying that the energy which is currently the cause of my abilities comes from this so-called 'Dark Energy'."

"Yes, to be exact, the force is a part of this 'Dark Energy'. I act as a receptor or a receiver for this energy enabling your soul and through your soul, your mind and body to be enriched. I am like the gateway which makes absorbing this energy possible for you." Tya elaborated as he smiled brightly.

"So, now that you are so knowledgeable, did you find out who are you? And, why do you share this bond with me?" Aditya asked earnestly as he looked at Tya. This was a question which was bugging him since the beginning.

"I don't know."

"..."