Khushi walked away from the room murmuring some excuse about needing water and walked aimlessly through the hospital. She couldn't pretend in front of her family anymore. She had been pretending for over 10 years, ever since the death of her own parents.
At first she had been asked at least 10 times a day how she was feeling and if she was missing her parents. Even if she wanted to, the constant questions would never let her forget that her parents wouldn't be returning. So Khushi had adopted a happy persona so they wouldn't need to ask her, they could just assume she was happy and that was it. Khushi had been playing the role for so long that now she almost believed it herself until tonight.
The pain of her parent's death had been unbearable, how would she deal with losing her precious Babuji? He had never once in 10 years treated her differently to Jiji and unlike her Amma and Bua he hadn't even once brought up the fact that she wasn't his biological daughter. It was almost as if he had forgotten she wasn't his own and given her all the love of a father that she'd thought she'd never experience again.
But now seeing him in that condition Khushi felt as if her heart was breaking. She knew it was selfish to think like this but her pain was so much greater than anyone else's. It just wasn't the same for Jiji. She hadn't already lost a father once, she hadn't borne the same burden as Khushi, she couldn't understand Khushi's pain.
And then Khushi saw him, standing silently watching her. In his blue jumper he reminded her somehow of a lake in the middle of the desert and she didn't think, she just ran. Here finally was someone who understood, somebody who had experienced her pain and Khushi wanted only to be with him right now.
With her tear filled eyes she misjudged the distance between them and collided right into his hard chest. Her hands immediately held onto him tight as his own right hand held onto her waist to steady them both.
This was it, this was what she had been searching for her whole life and she finally allowed herself to let go of all her walls, all her facade and cry unreservedly.
***
Still so impatient for today's episode that I ended up writing this instead of doing my work :P
Send me a Buddy Request if you want Future PMs and you can check out my other Short Story on the hug over here.
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