Chapter 7:

Chapter 7

 

The key to their plan was subtlety. Raj summed it up in one line only, They would pretend to be in love while pretending not to be in love.

 

The first time he said this, Naina just stared at him with her eyebrows raised, not quite getting what he was trying to tell her. "Could you please repeat that again?" she asked him.

 

Raj explained it patiently, having expected that Naina wouldn't get it the first time around. "Well we'll pretend that we're in love, but while doing so we'll also be pretending that we're not in love around Navin and Tanu, so that if they ask us then we'll both deny it."

 

"So basically we're pretending to be pretending that we're not in love?"

 

"Exactly!" Raj said happily, "Brilliant, right?"

 

"This is going to give me a headache." Naina told him.

 

"It shouldn't be that hard," Raj told her, "We both just have to act in such a way that they believe their plan is working. Small things should do it, nothing too obvious."

 

Naina got a look of glee in her eyes at this, "I can't wait!" she told him, "It's going to be so fun to make fools of them, and at least this way Navin shouldn't feel the need to bother me about marriage for the next year or so."

 

"What about after that?" Raj asked her, "Sooner or later you're just going to have to come out and tell him you refuse to get married until your studies are finished."

 

Naina shrugged, "And you don't think that he'll just come up with a new plan then? I can't believe that he actually did this… well at least he had the good sense to choose you for my future life partner." She told Raj very matter of factly, looking him up and down.

 

Raj almost choked on his coffee. "What??" he spluttered when he put it down.

 

"Well you're not that bad," Naina told him, "In fact if this whole thing hadn't been set up in the first place then…" she suddenly stopped talking, realising that maybe she'd said a bit too much.

 

Raj couldn't believe the way his heart had started beating faster at her words. Sure, he really liked Naina, but he wasn't going to be a part of any plan of Navin's. "I suppose I should be happy that he thought I was a good enough choice to set up with his sister." Raj told her.

 

"Of course you should be," Naina told him, "Except for the fact that he never once consulted you about whether you would actually like to be set up with me or not."

 

"True," Raj admitted, "For all he knew, I could've been in love with somebody else?"

 

"So are you?" Naina asked him, not sure why the answer mattered to her so much.

 

"No," Raj told her, "I'm too busy with my training to go around chasing girls."

 

"Good," Naina told him, feeling a strange sense of relief. "That will make our job much easier."

 

"Well then," Raj told her "It's time to begin  planning our first move…"

 

**

 

They had stayed at the caf for about an hour longer, planning out what they would do over the next two days and then making a slight plan for how they would continue it once Raj was back at the academy. Finally they left and went home, pausing when they were halfway up the street to Naina and Navin's house.

 

"Okay, walk a bit closer to me." Raj told her, "I'm sure they'll be watching from the windows."

 

Naina shifted herself so that she was right next to him, practically sticking to his side.

 

"Not that close!" Raj told her, "We don't want to be too obvious, remember? It has to look natural."

 

Naina rolled her eyes and moved a small distance away, Raj nodded to let her know that it was perfect.

 

"Right then," Naina told him, "I'll just go and enrol in the drama club at college in order to pick up some tips."

 

"It's not quite that bad," Raj told her, "Now let's look as if we're really enjoying ourselves, we should start laughing."

 

"I can't just start laughing!" Naina told him, "Something needs to be funny."

 

"You really do need to go and join drama classes," Raj told her.

 

Seeing the frustrated look on his face, Naina burst out laughing and Raj grinned. "See?" he told her, "It's easier than you think. Now let's just stroll casually up to the house as if we have no idea how long we've been gone for."

 

They did exactly that, Naina swinging the plastic bag that held her new chappals in a very girly way as she continued giggling slightly.

 

Coming up to the gate, they found Navin and Tanu in the front yard, obviously waiting for them. Just as planned, they stopped and froze for a moment, as if feeling unsure about being found coming back together in this way.

 

"You two were gone for quite awhile." Navin said teasingly, "Did you buy the whole shoe store?"

 

"No bhaiyya, just one pair." Naina told him, "But it's a very nice pair!" and excitedly she sat down next to Tanu to show her the new pair of shoes.

 

Raj didn't have to fake the look of affection on his face as he watched Naina showing off her new sandals, he honestly found it very cute how excited she seemed to be about them. He didn't think that she was pretending this bit either, judging by how terrible her previous acting seemed to have been.

 

"So it took you this long to buy one pair of chappals?" Tanu asked them, "You've been gone almost three hours."

 

Naina scoffed at this, "Of course it didn't take three hours to buy one pair of chappals, I'm not that bad. We went for coffee afterwards."

 

"Oh really?" Navin asked, very interested. This time Raj noticed the look of delight that he exchanged with Tanu, it just confirmed that they definitely had planned all this.

 

"Oh yes," Naina continued, "Well we had a lot of things to talk about, there's so little time left before you all go back and…" Raj was very impressed with Naina's next bit of acting, maybe he had been wrong to judge her so early on. She looked up suddenly as if realising that she had said too much, and then seemed to become quite uncomfortable. "I'll just go show my new sandals to Ma!" Naina suddenly announced, and went outside.

 

"So you had a good afternoon?" Navin asked Raj, "I just hope you haven't been bored going shopping with Naina,"

 

"Oh no, I enjoyed it a lot." Raj told him, "Naina is fun to be with, so I always have a good time with her." And then pausing as if realising he had also said too much, he put a slightly guilty look on his face.

 

"I'll just go and put my things inside." He told them, and hurried up the steps as if eager to get away.

 

Navin and Tanu grinned at each other, "It looks like 'Operation Marriage' is on its way to being accomplished." Tanisha told him.

 

"Tanu, this was officially your best plan ever." Navin informed her, and gave her a high five.

 

In Naina's bedroom, Raj and Naina were also high fiving each other.

 

"They completely bought it!" Naina exclaimed, "I can't believe how easy it was!"

 

"Don't get too overconfident," Raj warned her, "That was why Navin and Tanu slipped up. Otherwise we might never have realised."

 

"So tonight I'll make sure to sit next to you at dinner as we planned." Naina tells him, "We've got to give them as much hope as possible before they leave here."

 

"And just remember that my parents shouldn't decide that they think we're in love too," Naina told him strictly, "Otherwise before you know it we really will be getting married off."

 

Raj nodded, he respected Naina's desire to wait until her studies were finished before getting married. He didn't agree it was necessary to get the girl of the household married off before the boy, so he saw no reason why Navin and Tanu shouldn't get married before Naina did.

 

"Okay, so we're both ready to put our plan into action." Raj told her, "Your acting before was absolutely excellent."

 

Naina beamed at him, "Thank you very much, maybe I will join the drama society, they might find they've got a new star!"

 

Raj gave her a look as if to say 'I don't think you should take things quite that far.'

 

"So can we have a name for our mission?" Naina asked him, "You know, like in the movies. Army operations always have names."

 

"Is it really necessary?" Raj asked her, although he had to admit, it was quite a fun idea.

 

"Of course it is!" Naina told him, "What if we need to talk about what we're doing in code?"

 

"Okay fine, you can choose the name then." Raj told her.

 

"What about… 'Operation Confusion'?" Naina asked him.

 

"Why 'Operation Confusion'?" Raj asked her, having no idea why she'd picked the name.

 

"Well we're aiming to confuse Bhaiyya and Tanu," Naina informed him.

 

"Fine, 'Operation Confusion' it is." Raj told her, "Now let's get to work…"

 

**

 

That night when they gathered at the table for dinner, Naina sat next to Raj as planned, ignoring a perfectly empty seat beside Navin. For the rest of the meal she made sure that she was quite attentive to Raj, offering to pass him things and checking how he liked the food. The looks on Navin and Tanu's faces almost caused her to burst out laughing. However Naina maintained a perfectly innocent expression, as did Raj. She could tell that Navin was dying to say something, but was stopping himself, obviously worried that he might cause them to be suspicious.

 

'Too late, Bhaiyya.' Naina thought gleefully, 'We already know all about your plan.'

 

They continued the act after dinner, sitting down in the lounge room to play chess together and chat. At least this time they didn't have to act, as both of them genuinely did enjoy spending time with the other one. So it was no challenge at all to look like she was having fun while she was with Raj. The only challenge was to occasionally look shy or appear as if she was gazing at Raj secretly. Of course Naina tried to do this whenever either Navin or Tanu were looking in their direction. This part wasn't too hard either, after all, Raj was an attractive guy, so it wasn't exactly difficult to spend time gazing at him.

 

In fact Naina had to admire her brother's choice for a future husband for her, if this hadn't all been a set up…

 

No, she couldn't think like that, she had made a vow that she wouldn't get married until her studies were finished, and nothing was going to change her mind.

 

Especially not just because Raj had a charming smile, hair she wished she could run her hands through and the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen.

 

Naina decided that that was enough fake adoring glances for one night, it was all starting to affect her mind.

 

'Operation Confusion' had to be a success, her whole future depended on it.

 

So why was she the one who was suddenly becoming confused about what she wanted?

 

 

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