Gowtham&Nikhita

They weren't set up. They were just going to pick up a friend. Nikki was driving, Gowtham was in the back seat, and they talked a little, but that little bit was enough to create a friendship that would last a lifetime.

For five years they were the kind of friends who never had to explain themselves. The kind that just felt like home. Then life pulled them apart for a stretch, but like a pendulum, they swung back to each other. This time something was different.

For years, Gowtham had a move. He'd drop down to one knee out of nowhere, let the moment hang just long enough, and then start tying his shoe. Every time. Nikki stopped falling for it eventually. So when he got down on one knee in a national garden in Japan on a warm summer afternoon, she probably thought she knew what was coming. She didn't. He had a ring.

She said yes.

They found some grass, put down a picnic blanket, and spent the rest of the day in the sun calling everyone they loved and barely getting the words out.