Chapter 15
Chapter 14:
Neelu had returned back later that night after Naina had already gone to sleep, so they didn't get to talk until they woke up early the next morning.
"So how was your night?" Naina asked her mischievously, digging for gossip. While she might not have decided to carry out an operation for the Neelu and Alekh, it didn't mean she didn't want to know what was going on.
"Why are you asking me about my night?" Neelu teased her, "Shouldn't you be telling me about yours instead? A guy climbing up to your room, I'm quite impressed. Hopefully you were able to get some privacy after we left."
Naina wasn't sure why she blushed so much at this. "It was nothing like that," she told Neelu, "Raj left soon after you guys did, he just had something to tell me."
"Oh really, something to tell you?" Neelu asked her with eyebrows raised, "And he had to climb into your room in the middle of the night to say it? So what was this thing he had to say?"
"I don't know," Naina suddenly frowned, "He was just about to tell me something when Alekh arrived."
Neelu grimaced, "Sorry for the bad timing, you should've told me that you had plans. I would've made sure that we didn't disturb you."
"No it's not… I mean…There were no plans…" Naina started getting flustered, not sure of what to say, "I'm going to see him before I leave anyway, so I'll just ask him then."
"Just make sure that your brother doesn't find out." Neelu told her seriously, as a member of Operation Golmaal her main objective was to make Naina and Raj realise their feelings, without any interference from both Navin and Tanisha. "God knows what Yudi would do if you knew I was out with Alekh last night."
Naina laughed at that, "Don't worry," she told Neelu, "None of us will tell Yudi. And as far as Navin is concerned… I've got it under control."
**
Meanwhile Yudi had finally found time to tell Navin and Tanu everything that he had learned the day before, taking them both aside before they could go for breakfast.
Both Navin and Tanisha's faces lit up with delight when Yudi repeated what Suriji had said about Naina being Raj's girlfriend, and they high fived each other.
"Excellent, Yudi!" Tanisha told him happily, "You've managed to get us confirmation of what we suspected all along. After this you'll have all the help you could ever want in winning Shalini over."
"But that's not the end of it guys," Yudi told them, feeling even prouder of himself for being able to tell them the next bit, "Last night I was on my way to bed when I passed by the girl's hostel and guess what I saw? Raj climbing out of your sister's window." He grinned, happy that he'd managed to get this very exclusive information.
However Navin was not happy about this at all.
"He was climbing out of my sister's room?? What the hell was he doing in her room??"
"Navin, calm down." Tanu told him, "It could be perfectly innocent. Maybe he just went there to talk to her."
"Innocent?" Navin asked with a snort, "Yeah right, like talking all we do when I climb into your room."
Tanisha gave an embarrassed cough, trying to remind him that Yudi was still standing there and that he shouldn't be saying any more on that topic.
Navin suddenly realised exactly what he had been saying in front of his friend, "Uh… I mean… well what was he doing in her room?"
"I have no idea," Yudi replied with a shrug, "But when I ran into him he did ask me not to tell you about it."
"That damn… I trust him with my sister and this is what happens! He starts climbing into her room in the middle of the night! Well that's it, I've had enough, I'm going to go and ask him what his intentions are right now!" Navin fumed, not able to believe that this was happening.
"Just wait one minute, Navin." Tanu told him desperately, realising that he was about to ruin their whole plan, "Raj is your best friend, your room mate. You know him better than anyone else. Do you honestly feel that he's going to be doing anything with your sister that he shouldn't be? Come on, he's not that type of guy. Just calm down and think about it."
Navin took a deep breath and really did think about it. He had to admit that Tanu was right, as well as he knew Raj, he wasn't the type of guy to do anything like that.
"Okay, fine." Navin said, "But I'm going to watching them both very carefully at breakfast this morning."
Except that neither of them ever turned up for breakfast.
**
Carrying out their plan to disappear together for awhile before Naina left, Raj took her down to the lake, where they sat on a large stone, their backs together so that they were leaning against each other.
"So how long do you think we should stay down here?" Naina asked him, hoping that it would be for quite awhile. "How long is it going to take them to notice that we're not there?"
"Well I would say at least half an hour," Raj replied quite seriously, "But you never know, maybe we should stay down here even longer."
"I can't believe I'm going back again so soon," Naina told him quite glumly, "I wish I lived closer to the academy so that we could see each other more often. I mean, uh, so that I could see all of you more often."
"I wish you did too," Raj told her, "I… we all really miss you when you're not here with us. Everything seems more fun when you're around."
A silly grin came onto Naina's face at this comment, she was glad that she had her back to him so that he couldn't see. "Home is so dull without all of you," she told Raj, "I don't enjoy college as much as I used to, instead I spend all my time thinking about… about our mission."
"Don't worry, Naina." Raj told her seriously, "Even if our mission isn't successful, I won't let them force you into anything that you don't want to do and that's a promise."
Naina shifted, turning slightly so that she could see his face. "I can't believe I only met you two months ago." She tells Raj, "What on earth did I do without you before that?"
Raj grins, "I was thinking exactly the same thing."
They both stared at each other, lost in their own thoughts. It was only the noise of a bird call which disturbed them.
Naina shook herself out of her daze, scolding herself for getting so easily distracted. "I've got something for you," Naina told him, feeling embarrassed even though it is part of their plan, "I don't know if it's the right time or not, but I've brought you a photo of me, you know, so Navin can find it, or something…"
She hands over the photo of herself, one in which she is looking directly into the camera smiling. Raj doesn't know whether Navin will find it or not, but he's glad he now has something to remind him of Naina's smile. He knows that if he's ever feeling down, then all he'll ever have to do is look at it to cheer himself up. He quickly puts it into his jacket pocket, not wanting to lose it.
"I don't have one to give you in return." Raj tells her, and then feels like slapping himself in the forehead for his stupidity. After all, why would she need a photo of him? There's nobody at home who needs to catch her looking at one.
"That's alright," Naina told him cheerfully, not seeming to realise what Raj had been thinking, "I've actually got quite a few pictures of you, first from your trip at Diwali and now even more from this Republic Day."
"That's good," Raj replies happily, absurdly pleased by the fact that she has his photo somewhere at home.
"So uh, I bought you a present." Naina tells Raj a bit hesitantly, "I don't know whether you'll like it or not… but I thought it would be good if there was something for Navin and Tanu to notice after I left. And, well, I owed you a present after those chappals!" She hoped he wouldn't guess exactly how long it had taken her to choose something or how nervous she was to be actually giving it to him.
"You really didn't have to, Naina…" he tells her, embarrassed by the fact that she had thought to get him a present and he didn't think of getting her anything.
"Still…" Shyly, Naina presses a small box into his hands. Opening it, Raj sees quite an expensive looking sports watch, one that is absolutely perfect for a future soldier.
"Naina this is wonderful," he tells her honestly, putting it on immediately and then admiring it on his wrist, "But how much did it cost you?"
"Leave it," Naina tells him, slightly embarrassed, "It wasn't too much, and I have my part time job after college."
"It really is the perfect present," Raj tells her, "I couldn't have asked for anything better."
Impulsively, Raj decides that he has to give Naina something too. Pulling one of the rings off his finger, he presses it into her hand. "This is for you," he tells her, "I don't know if it will fit you, but you could wear it or…"
"Raj, I can't take this," Naina tells him, now feeling even more embarrassed than before, "This ring… well it looks like something your family has given you. "
"It doesn't matter," Raj tells her, "I want you to have it, and uh… you can make sure that Navin and Tanu see it as you're leaving." He says the last bit almost as an afterthought, it really wasn't the reason that he gave it to her, but he feels like he needs to have some sort of excuse to be giving a present this important.
Blushing slightly, Naina tries it on a variety of her fingers before finally finding a place where it will fit. No matter what excuse Raj had given, it still felt incredibly special to be wearing his ring on her hand.
"So, uh…" hesitantly, Naina raised the topic that she had been wanting to ask him since last night, "What were you going to tell me before Alekh came in last night?"
Raj took a deep breath before continuing, even he wasn't sure exactly what he had been going to tell Naina last night or how much he would've been brave enough to say.
"Actually," he begins, and he really would like to reach out and take one of her hands again, but now that it's happening in daylight by the lake rather than in her room at night, it's quite a bit harder. "I wanted to tell you that no matter how this began, or what reasons Navin and Tanu had for introducing us, I'm really glad they did." Finally gaining the courage, he reaches out and takes one of her hands in his, holding it loosely, he doesn't dare to do any more than that. "You really are very special to me, Naina, and it's hard to imagine what my life would be like now if we hadn't met. So no matter how everything turns out, you have me in your life now whether you like it or not." He finished with a small grin, thinking that it was probably best not to get any more serious than that right now.
Naina couldn't help smiling either, and she holds his hand even tighter. "You've said everything that I could want to say, Raj." She tells him, "And as far as you being in my life, do you really think that I'd let you leave even if you wanted to?"
They sit there grinning at each other like fools for a moment, still holding hands until suddenly the academy's bell rings, reminding Raj that he's got classes to attend and Naina that she's got a bus to catch.
"So I guess we should go back up," she tells him a little reluctantly, "Hopefully Bhaiyya won't be too annoyed about us disappearing for this long."
"Annoyed?" Raj laughed, "I expect that he'll be happier than anyone else."
Not letting go of her hand, he helped her back up the hill to the academy, patiently waiting for her to climb in spite of the fact that she had some trouble on the stones on the way up. It was only when they were much closer to the academy that Raj dropped her hand, no longer having any real excuse to hold it.
Whereas before both of them had tried to make sure Navin and Tanu saw any displays of affection between them, now for reasons that neither wished to admit, they would prefer to keep these moments quiet.
Raj was about to continue going towards the academy when Naina stopped him with a hand on his arm.
"Raj, I was thinking… what if we say goodbye properly here?" she asked him. "I mean in front of Navin and Tanu and everyone, we'll have to put on an act, but if we say goodbye now…"
Even Raj had been thinking the same thing, wondering how he should be saying goodbye to Naina in front of Navin and Tanisha when what he really wanted to do was hug her properly before she went back.
"Then let's say goodbye here," Raj told her, "After all, we won't get to see each other again until…"
"You never know, I might come to visit again soon," Naina tells him hopefully, "After all, we have a few holidays coming up from college, and Neelu says that I can stay with her whenever I'm in town."
Raj couldn't describe how happy this thought made him, "I'd like it if you came to visit again soon, Naina." He told her sincerely, "And not just for planning our mission, I really, really miss you when you're not here."
Impulsively, Naina reached out to hug him, wrapping her arms around his waist. Raj gladly hugged her back, his arms around her shoulders and her head against his chest. He could've sighed with contentment right then, in fact he could've stood like that all day, except…
"Uh Naina, I think you're about to get late to your bus. And if we don't get back now then your brother really is going to be more annoyed than happy."
"Oh, right." Naina replied, and reluctantly took her hands from around his waist.
They walked back to the academy as fast as possible, both thinking that maybe they'd gotten a bit carried away in trying to disappear for awhile together.
When they arrived back, Navin and Tanu were waiting on the front steps with Naina's bag, Alekh, Yudi and Neelu were also there, Neelu obviously waiting to say goodbye to her brother. Neelu and Alekh weren't actually saying anything to each other, but occasionally they would glance at each other when Yudi wasn't looking with small identical grins.
"Oh Bhaiyya! Bhabie!" Naina exclaimed just a bit too brightly, suddenly nervous due to the look on Navin's face, "How nice of you to bring my bag down! You didn't need to do that, I would've done it myself!"
"We didn't do it," Tanu replied, "Neelu did. She seemed to think that you were going to be gone quite awhile." Neelu just winked at Naina, obviously happy that she'd come back so late.
"Oh, well thanks Neelu." Naina told her, "I hope I'll see you the next time I'm in Ambala!"
"Me too!" Neelu replied and gave her a quick hug.
"Well you should get going, sis." Yudi told her, "Academy is about to start?"
"Can't I stay a bit longer?" Neelu asked, obviously wanting to see what would happen yet, but she gave in due to the look that Yudi was giving her, signally to Alekh that he'd better tell her later how everything had worked out.
"So where were you all this time?" Navin asked her, "You disappeared early this morning, I wanted to spend some time with you." Raj couldn't help but nervously note that Navin seemed to be glaring at him rather fiercely. He honestly had expected Navin to happy…
"Well actually I wanted to see the academy's lake, and I ran into Raj on the way to breakfast, so he offered to show me." Naina improvised quickly.
"Oh did he," Navin remarked sarcastically, "So very nice of him."
Raj was starting to look a little scared, and Tanu elbowed Navin in the ribs as discretely as possible, trying to tell him to shut up before he ruined everything.
Despite their plan, Naina did her best to keep the hand with the ring on it hidden. No matter what excuses Raj had given for why he wanted her to have it, it just seemed too special to be using as some time of trump card in their game.
"I'm sorry Bhaiyya, I really am." Naina told him, hoping that his mood was going to improve before she left, "I honestly didn't realise that we were going to be getting back to the academy this late."
"It's alright, Naina." Navin told her, softening a little bit, "I'm just going to miss you that's all, that's why my mood is a little bit off." That and the fact that he was still annoyed Raj had climbed into her room last night…
"Don't worry Bhaiyya, I'll try to come and visit soon." Naina tells him, giving him a huge hug, "And I'll call you often, just concentrate on becoming the best cadet." She also hugged Tanu, then Alekh who was waiting to say goodbye too, and finally hugged Raj very briefly, not wanting to do more than that when the frown still hadn't left Navin's face.
"Call to let us know you got home safely." Navin tells her, and Naina nods, before waving goodbye and climbing into the auto.
Raj watches her as she leaves, waiting for the very last glimpse of her face. Naina turns around as the auto is about to exit the gate and the smile she gives him is enough to make him feel a hundred times better.
Raj follows Navin, Tanisha and Alekh inside and they head to their first class of the day, not wanting to be late.
It's only in the afternoon when Raj is only in his room that he takes out the picture of Naina from his pocket and stares at it. He's come to a realisation that he can no longer deny.
He is completely and hopelessly in love with Naina Singh Ahluwalia.
Operation Confusion is so not going according to plan.
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