TWIN IN LOVE

THE_UNIVERSITY_YEARS_AND_ARIA

CHAPTER 4

University life came with freedom, dorms, lectures, late‑night parties, and new faces. Jaden enrolled in Business Administration. Jane pursued Literature. They lived on the same campus but in separate hostels, separate circles and still found ways to steal glances, secret handshakes, coded messages slipped into textbooks. Then came Aria. Tall, elegant, Tanzanian‑Italian, studying International Relations. She noticed Jaden first for his quiet confidence, his smile that reached his eyes, the way he helped a classmate fix a broken laptop without expecting, thanks. One afternoon, after a lecture on globalization, she approached him.

“You’re Jaden Mwangi, right? I saw your debate last week. You’re brilliant.”

He blushed. “Thanks. You’re Aria, yeah? I heard you’re the president of the African Students’ Union.”

They talked for hours about politics, music, dreams. She wanted to work for the UN. He wanted to build a school in rural Tanzania. By the end of the week, they were inseparable. Jane watched from afar, the way he laughed louder with Aria, the way he texted back instantly, the way he dressed nicer and felt her heart crack. She confronted him one night, outside the library, voice sharp as a knife.

“Who is she?”

He didn’t pretend to not know, “said Aria. She’s… different. She doesn’t judge me. She doesn’t look at me like I’m a monster. She just… sees me.”

“And what about me?”

Jane didn’t scream. She didn’t cry. She just stared, her eyes dry, voice colder than morning ugoro in the highlands, and asked what would shatter their world: “So… you love her more than me?”

Jaden flinched like she’d slapped him. “That’s not fair. You’re my sister. You’re my everything. But Aria… she doesn’t carry the weight of our secret. She doesn’t look at me like I’m a curse. She chooses me without the guilt, without the fear.”

Jane stepped back, arms wrapped around herself like a shield. “So that’s it? You’re choosing her. Over me.”

He reached for her, but she pulled away. “Don’t touch me. Not now. Not until you decide who you really want. Your sister… or your lover.”

Aria found him later, sitting alone on the steps of the Humanities building, head in his hands. “Hey,” she said softly, sitting beside him. “Are you okay?”

He looked up, eyes red. “I’m losing her. And I don’t know how to fix it.”

Aria didn’t flinch. “Then fix it, not by hiding, but by choosing. Who do you want to wake up beside tomorrow? Who do you want to grow old with?”

He stared at the fading sunset, thinking of Jane. Her laugh, her touch, the way she knew his thoughts before he spoke them. Then he thought of Aria. Her strength, her light, the way she made him feel… normal.

And for the first time, he realized he didn’t have to choose one or the other. He could choose to be honest. To be brave. To be the man Jane deserved even if it meant losing her.