RagNa SS: Demons [Last Part, Page 41 updt Dec. 16th] - Page 3

First of, I am so very sorry for such a long delay. I had other priorities while my friend also barely got done with her school recently. And after much debate between the two of us, we have decided to make this story a SS (short story) instead of OS (two part one shot) because we both wanted to explore the idea lot more and really play with the character of Raghav that the CVs failed to do. Anyways, because of this very reason, it took us sometime to plan bits of our story and what we would like to see in it. That's why it took us sometime to come up with this part. Of course, this part is a build-up to somethings too. Do I know how long this will be? Hopefully 5 parts but I am not very sure. It's hard to get back to writing right after school lol. Still, hopefully you guys like this part because we tried to give you better taste of RagNa's situation.

Your eyes, they shine so bright I wanna save that light I can't escape this now Unless you show me how

If his memory served right, things began to go downhill precisely a week ago. Coincidentally it all started out after that night at Kamla Ma's place.

He had felt her shake profusely in his arms as he tried to rub soothing circles on her back. When she had calmed down a bit, she had started to pull away. However, for some strange reason, he held on to her firmly. Then, she had again made indication of trying to break the hug, but Raghav had simply held on to her. After few moments of standing like that, she had gasped.

"Ra..Raghav Sir? Wha?" it seemed like she had finally realized that it was him hugging her.

"Shh.." he had said calmly.

When she had made a weak attempt to pull away again after realizing that it was him, he had only brought her closer to himself, really liking the warmth that the hug radiated.

"Sir?" she had sounded slightly inquisitive and surprised.

"Stay.." he had said in a low voice, his voice sounding hoarse due to not being used for a while.

She then seemed to give up on her attempts to break free. Of course, before this encounter could further itself, there were interruptions.

He heard Kamla Ma's door opening and jumped to reality. Consequently, he let go of her without so much as a glance in her direction, not knowing exactly what to say. Kamla Ma had then come outside and taken him inside with her. The whole time he had stayed at their place, he had deliberately avoided making any eye-contact with Kalpi and only glared at her whenever they did incidentally make any eye-contact. Fortunately, his tough exterior had saved him that day when he merely shrugged at her while walking off to his car after bidding good bye to Kamla Ma.

If matters stopped right there, then it may not have been so bad. It would've only ended up with a very confused Kalpana Jadhav, who would have probably decided to shrug it all off as being one of Raghav's famous mood-swing. Alas Raghav Singhania never does anything partly. He had to make sure that everything was fully messy so he could sit in his office and brood, while drowning himself in massive loads of files.

The next day, after the dinner with Kamla Ma, he had made sure that he was constantly in meeting with the clients that Kalpi is not involved in working with. Of course, the avoidance was very subtle to everyone but Sammy and Raghav detested him for being so observant.

"Yaar tu baat baat pe kisi aur ko bula leta hai Kalpi ko file dene ke liye? Her office is right next to this cabin, ja kar tu khud bhi to de sakta hai na?"

Raghav raised his left eyebrow at Sammy, realizing at the proximity that would've required for him to be in and how not ideal that would be at the moment.

"Well, Sammy. We have help for a reason in the office. I am busy and I don't want to walk to her cabin every time I need to give a file. You know how time consuming and inefficient that would be?"

"Achcha? Pehle to kabhi ye khayal nahi aaya tujhe. You used to always drop the files of in her cabin while going to lunch. What happened today?"

Raghav just shrugged and pointed at the half-eaten sandwich, indicating that he doesn't need to go to lunch today.

Sammy laughed again and shook his head. "Theek hai. Phir Kalpana ko yaha bula le. I am sure she won't mind coming here and picking up all of these files. Unlike you, she knows a value of short break and working the leg muscles!"

Of course, Sammy had again hit a raw nerve because Raghav knew how inconvenient that would be as well. For some strange reason, after the hug, his hand had started to twitch whenever she would pass-by as if wanting to feel the same warmth again. That was bad enough in itself, but he didn't want that happening in front of Sammy.

"No, that won't be necessary either. I have given her something important to work on and I won't call her every time I need her to do something for me. We have help in this office for a reason Sammy. They get paid for this and a very good amount too."

"Yeah, you already told me that before," Sammy smiled indulgingly and raised both of his hands in surrender in an attempt to pacify an annoyed looking Raghav.

Raghav thought that was the end of the conversation, when he suddenly felt the files being taken from him. Sammy slid all of them in one hand.

"Chal theek hai. I will drop them off for you. Waise bhi, I have something to talk to her about."

That had made Raghav jump out of his skin as he desperately tried to come up with some excuse to not let Sammy take those files. His attempts were futile because Sammy had been too fast for him and left the office. Why he was so desperate to come up with an excuse, even he didn't know.

Things hadn't improved even a bit when he noticed Sammy deliberately attempting to put both of them in the same room, at the same time. This lead to silent arguments and inevitability of war between the two. Every time he wanted to avoid any contact with her, he saw Sammy's smirk widen. That's the precise reason that the confrontation took place.

Kalpi had seemed to have taken everything in a stride and seemed to have gotten the hint that Raghav was so subtly trying to give her. Raghav was grateful for that. However things began heating up, in his head, when he realized that she had gone back to her old routine, remaining nonchalant about the hug. Of course, that had to mean that either hugging someone like that was a very normal thing for her. Or, that his hug didn't hold any significance. Either way, he didn't like any sounds of it at all. Of course that had nothing to do with the fact that he wasn't used to hugging someone like that and it had been something significant for him. It had more to do with the fact that she remained unaffected. The frustration got to the point that it had finally decided to come out in most unprofessional way he could possibly imagine (at least coming from him).

It was approximately 3 days, 14 hours, and 52 minutes after the dinner at Kamla Ma's house. It wasn't that anyone is keeping track of such a thing. It was just a significant moment because he had merely sat down from finalizing a very hard and important deal. He had dialed Sammy to come in his cabin so they could go out and celebrate. When he was done signing off all of the important paperwork for the day, that's when he saw it. His gaze rose to the transparent door and he saw Kalpi laughing so heartily while leaning slightly into Sammy. He had actually heard the sounds of their laughter because the door had been slightly left ajar by the clerk who had brought him coffee. He shook his head, annoyed with the people at his office. Didn't anyone have courtesy not to laugh like hyenas in the middle of the day when they were at work? Of course, he was well aware of the fact that it was lunch hour but there are many dedicated souls in this office who would be working on something at this time as well.

He tried to get back to his work but it was in vain. He sighed in frustration and put down his pen, while closing the file, when he heard the two people in question come in his office.

"Raghav, I forgot to get something from my cabin. I will get that really quick. Why don't you meet me downstairs? It's closer to my office so I can quickly come there. Is that alright?"

Raghav nodded without thinking and Sammy was gone as soon as he came. When he had tried putting away all of the files, he heard a small thud and saw all of the files that he had given earlier in the day to Kalpi.

"Sir, these are done already and I have already called Mr. Kapoor for the meeting tomorrow."

Raghav scoffed slightly which made Kalpi halt whatever she had meant to say next and looked at him puzzled.

"I didn't realize that you would have time to finish all of this. How do you manage to finish so much work when you're so busy flirting with your colleagues?"

Kalpi's eyebrow shot up and her face seemed amused. "Flirting? And who would I be flirting with Mr. Sighania?"

"Well, my best friend for one. Or do you go around flirting with every bloke that suits your fancy?" Raghav asked irritated as he felt something burning inside of him.

She merely folded her arms and held him in a very penetrating and intense gaze. Of course, he could've have broken it just then but he felt that as highly rude.

"What about you Mr. Singhania? Do you go around hugging people without consent? Or is that another one of your...quirks?" She challenged back.

"From what I remember, and I remember very clearly, you were the one who clutched onto me. I wasn't the one who initiated the hug," he simply said, feeling his confidence come back again.

"Yes only because I thought you were..." he saw her expression changed and her eyes getting wider as she abruptly stopped herself from uttering the next word.

"Who did you think I was? Sammy?"

That was when she had looked the most irritated that he had ever seen her. She hadn't lost her cool for a second before but she had now.

"Doesn't matter who I think it was. The point is that I did try to pull away when you, and I remember this very clearly too, stopped me. May I ask why?" The last bit, if he was really paying attention to her and not to the panic that was building inside of him as he realized that he would need to answer the question, was actually a very hesitant whisper.

"Well, what did you want me to do? Leave you there and go inside? Do you think I am inhuman? Of course I couldn't do that to Kamla Ma's daughter. That lady has raised me and stayed with me when the world had turned its back on me."

Kalpi had again scoffed at him. "Do you know something Mr. Singhania? Please excuse me for my language in what I am about to say next but know that it comes from an honest place. But you're seriously so full of crap! And who I flirt with is my personal matter so long as I don't let that ever interfere with or degrade my work quality."

She had stalked away after saying that, without giving Raghav a chance to speak.

Of course, he couldn't exactly tell her the real reason that he had told her to stay - the hug had felt nice. It was probably due to the fact that he had very minimal human contact with anyone after his mother. He hadn't ever felt the need to because he couldn't really miss what he never had. However, when he had felt the sensation of a warm hug, it's only reasonable to assume that he had wanted to stay longer in it. That kind of thing, however logical, wouldn't go very well with others if he had said aloud so he had decided to lie instead. Of course, that didn't end very well either seeing as Kalpana had minimized any contact with him and only came to him when it was absolutely necessary.

He still remembered that night so clearly that it was starting to worry him. Not only that, he had been experiencing erratic heartbeat, shortness of breath, and other such phenomenon. When he had check with his personal doctor, the doctor had confirmed that everything seemed normal and there was nothing to worry about. However, that was exactly the reason he was worried because that would mean that the reason for all those symptoms would be something (or someone) external, which he wasn't sure that he was ready to admit yet.

"Raghav Sir!" Pakhi whined.

"Ah yeah Pakhi. The content is good. Just get these through Sammy and let him see if it's appropriate. If he says yes, then go for it."

Pakhi smiled broadly at him and shifted a little closer to him on the sofa.

"Raghav Sir, if you're available tonight then do you want to have dinner with me?"

Coincidentally, that was the exact moment that Kalpi had chosen to walk in his office. She had noted the proximity of the situation and looked down so he could've some privacy. He could see her discomfort and he was enjoying it. It had been a while he had seen her so out of sorts.

"Sure Pakhi. We should go and have dinner tonight?" he said loudly. He didn't know what made him speak so loudly while maintaining his gaze at Kalpi, but it seemed to pay off when he saw Kalpi's eye quickly shooting up and meeting with him. He smirked again, while she looked away. There wasn't even a single emotion on her face, yet her eyes (despite being at a distant) told a very different story. Somehow, he felt satisfied.

"Did you need something Ms. Jadhav?" he said while looking at her.

"Sir can I speak to you alone? It's important."

Pakhi had seen this cue and walked out, giving them some privacy.

"Yes Ms. Jadhav?"

"Sir, I spoke to you really impolitely last week and I just came here to apologize for my behavior."

"That's alright Ms. Jadhav. I can definitely extend some professional courtesy to you from time to you seeing as you're so beneficial for this company. But please don't forget your place again."

She had merely stared at him and spoke again, "Sir I hope you realize that what I said still stands. My personal matters should not be up for discussion if they don't affect my work. I would really appreciate that discretion."

Raghav didn't exactly know how to respond to that so he merely nodded. She didn't wait any second and quickly left. So things were supposed to be normal now?

Unfortunately for Raghav, the normalcy was far from forthcoming. Where he should've gone to the dinner and forgotten all about office, he had been completely a terrible company for Pakhi and she was upset with him by the end of it all. The reason he hadn't been so entertaining wasn't that he was distracted. If anything, he was more than attentive. That was what had been terrible. He had compared everything little thing Pakhi did or said and imagined how Kalpi would've done or replied instead. He was making a conversation with Kalpi in his head when there was a perfectly entertaining and more than interested company sitting in front of him.

Things didn't just stop to that evening. Things had escalated in the days that came. He felt annoyed at the fact that she had deviated from her dress code again. Of course, he couldn't reprimand her because she was still abiding by the company dress code but it still irked him. Not only that, she had started pinning her hair up, just like he had wanted before, and he had strangely felt annoyed at that. But that wasn't the end of it. She had started coming a little later than her usual time; though it wasn't late according to the official hours so he couldn't really say anything to her. And he had initially been mistaken into thinking that they had an understanding of sorts where she came early along with him so they could both conquer the day together.

She also seemed to have quite a bond going with Sammy, and there were people whispering about them. When he had told Sammy to be careful and maintain professional distance since they were still at the office, Sammy had merely seemed amused and then smirked at him. Much to his annoyance, Sammy had increased his visits to Kalpi's cabin and made sure to always mention the tidbits to their conversations whenever he realized that Raghav was ignoring him for some important work. He really didn't need to hear what Kalpi and Sammy talked about, no matter how curious he was.

The only saving grace to this entire normalcy" was the smile that she usually gave him. That smile still hadn't changed and that was what really kept him sane. Of course, Raghav Sighania's life wasn't so simple. The world came crashing down at him when he realized how dependent he was beginning to be on that unnerving smile. Everyone knows what the meant. He could not let that happen.

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Alright, so this is the end of the next part. I promise that we will be more regular with the updates compared to before. It's hard to structure everything in one part that's why we decided to make it longer. Please do read and review to let us know how you're liking the story so far. It will be so much APPRECIATED! Sorry for any typos. 😳