Hi guys! This is my first SS ever so if it's disappointing, i'm really sorry.
It's an ISHITA-ASHOK FRIENDHIP SS.
Note :
this takes place right after Ishita confronts Raman at the picnic location he went with Shagun.
In my story : Adi did the accident, Shagun told Raman she did it. Raman is protecting Shagun for adi's sake. Ishita realizes Raman was protecting Shagun. She thinks Raman is doing this because he is romantically involved with Shagun and wants to go back to her.
Not proofread + english is not my mother tongue
"Enemies are people who's story you haven't heard,
or who's face you haven't seen."
Irene Butter
Part one : Ishita and Ashok share their pain
Ashok is sitting in his office, recounting the last events of his romantic life.
From the day Ashok stole Shagun from Raman, he took the habit of congratulating himself for not being blinded by trust and love like Raman had been. Many of his friends told him that he might have won Shagun but that it was a rotten prize : one day she would leave him like she left Raman. Ashok always smirked at that. In his mind, Raman lost Shagun because he was blinded by his own happiness and never noticed Shagun slowly drifting apart from him. He thought that if Raman had woken up from his day dreaming sooner, maybe he could have saved his couple. Ashok was not like that. He loved Shagun but was not blinded by their love, he noticed her every trick, the way she manipulated people, the way her stares hardened when she wasn't happy, and her fake smiles. All of this, he noticed, mostly because he was just like her. So when she announced that her latest plan was to get Raman back, he wasn't even surprised by it. He had realized the change in her as soon as Raman showed his care towards Ishita. Shagun wasn't motivated as much by love or remorse as she was by jealousy. She would die before seeing Raman happy without her.
Ashok did love Shagun but his love suddenly faded when he saw how pathetic she was for still wanting Raman's devoted love. Right now, she had everything : her kid, a loving husband, money, a big house, but still she wanted what she couldn't have : Raman. The Raman she herself left. Ishita's Raman. That thought disgusted him. He realized that he never meant anything to her. While he loved her like his soul mate, she only saw in him a way to fulfill her happiness. Well, she didn't even consider him, she only ever saw his money, his big mansion, his cars, his power and status. Worse is that Ashok knew Shagun was attracted to all of this, he even lured her with expensive gifts but he always thought that she would eventually love him as much as he loved her. He had to admit; he had quite an ego himself and didn't see why a girl -any girl- wouldn't fall for him. So when Shagun didn't fall in love with him after 6 years, his ego had been shattered.
For 6 years he had tried to win Shagun's love, and it worked at first, Shagun never mentioned Raman and Ruhi. But lately, that was all that was in her mind. At first Ashok tried to play her games and to bring Raman down. He wanted to show Shagun that Raman was still and will ever be a looser and there was no point in looking back at him. But the more he tried, the more he saw Raman grow and become as much powerful as him. Hell, he even won Best CEO award ! The more Raman grew, the more Shagun talked about him. Ashok couldn't hide his anger but deep inside, he was proud of his old little employee who would be too shy to even look at his boss in the eyes. And now, he was a successful business man. Sometimes, Ashok even thought that if they weren't nemesis, they could make their enterprises grow together and bring loads of profit to both of their empires. He even could have been happy for Raman's remarriage if this wasn't the reason Shagun was attracted to Raman all over again.
Ashok was not the type of man who begged or prayed for anyone's love and attention and now that Shagun was rubbing in his face that she wanted to go back to Raman, he had no intention to prevent her from doing so. He even let her and Adi live in his house, and he still provided her with money because that didn't impact him at all. His house was too big anyway and he had more money than shagun could waste in a life time. He had stopped caring totally about Shagun.
When he first saw her, he thought that she was an angel made by God for him only and that's why he had no remorse in stealing his employee's wife. But now he realized, with shame, that Shagun was on earth for no one else than herself and he had no interest in her anymore. If Shagun couldn't love him, then to hell with that, he had come so far with love and could just as well go on without.
But anyways, he told himself, nothing of this mattered anymore.
Ashok is now thinking about maybe going back to the US, living his life like he used to do before he met Shagun. It wouldn't fulfill him with happiness but at least he wouldn't feel deception either. He decides to call his best friend to tell him his decision to leave. He is about to pick up the phone on his desk when the phone rings. He picks up and his secretary tells him that there is a woman who wants to meet him urgently. Ashok says that he doesn't want to see anyone right now and hangs up.
"Yeh Shagun bhi... 2 afte se mujko ignore kar rahi hai aur abb mujse urgently meeting karni hai? Bewakoof aurat!"
He picks the phone again to dial his friend when the door of this office opens. It's Ishita. She is angry and her eyes are puffy from crying. The secretary enters behind and says "Sorry Sir, I tried to tell her to go but she just rushed to your office. I'm really sorry sir; sorr..."
Ashok interrupts her : "Leave us alone." "Alright sir."
Ishita comes closer to his desk. He smirks at her "Ishita, aap yahan? May I know the reason?"
"Kya ab aap kush ho? Are you haapy now?" Ishita voices trembles with anger. Ashok looks at her, not understanding, so ishita continues "Last week you came at my office and you told me that something was up between Raman and Shagun and I didn't believe you. So now that the whole truth is out, you must be really happy! You have destroyed my marriage, you have destroyed my couple, my happiness, my everything! Well, congratulations Mr. Ashok." Ishita slowclaps sarcastically, with tears running down her face. "Once again you won! Congrats..." she says as she turns around to leave.
"Ishita!!" Ashok calls her. She turns around and see a very angry ashok. He gets up from his chair and come closer to her. She is afraid.
"I had come to your clinic to see if maybe we could team up to get back what was ours. But you kept on shutting me down, because you put your trust in Raman above everything else. And now look where we're at. I won't stoop so low as to put the blame on you -like you just did with me- but I will ask you : are YOU happy? What does your blind trust in Raman have brought you?" Ishita looks at him with tears filling her eyes, constricting her face not to cry.
He sighs in frustration and turns away from her. "Should I remind you that I'm being cheated on too? We're BOTH miserable right now." He stops, he realizes that it's not like him to share what's on his heart. "Listen, I can see you need to vent your anger on someone and apparently you chose to do it on me instead of Raman and you know what? I don't even care. I'm tired of all this Raman Shagun drama. You want to scream at me? You want to throw chappals at me? Just do so and when you're done, close the door on your way out."
He goes back at his desk and sits with his head in his hands. Ishita is still crying but felt guilty. She knows that she was wrong on coming here to insult Ashok, but he had been Raman and her nemesis this past few months and she thought that somehow he was responsible for what she was going through.
She comes closer and sits on the chair in front of Ashok's desk. She takes a tissue paper on his desk and clears her nose. At the sound he lifts his head and looks at her. She just sits her, looking at the ground.
"Now what?! You're still here?" he says angrily.
"I don't know." She says calmly. "I just need to sit down and try to calm myself."
"And you chose to do it here?!" Ashok says in disbelief.
"Yes. You said it yourself. We're both miserable. So why not share our pain?"
"What?! Share our pain? Who do you think I am? Your best friend? If you're done insulting me, just get out of my office, I'd rather be alone than share my "pain" with you".
Ishita doesn't move. She seems to be thinking. Ashok doesn't know what to do. He is too tired to put on the "big mean ashok act" so he decids to just let her be. After a moment, Ishita starts
"You know. I never expected love from Raman." Ashok is shocked by her words and look at her. Ishita finds confidence in his stare and continues "I know that you and Shagun think that we're madly in love with each other" she laughs "but that's not the case." She can feel Ashok is surprised, even if he doesn't let it show on his face. "I first came into his life for Ruhi. She is the love of my life. I could give my life away for her you know?... I can't explain to you how much she means to me. But Raman... for many months he was just a stranger to me and it's just recently that we've began to bond with each other, as friends first and lately as confident."
Ashok is listening silently. "If I'm honest, I'm not mad at him for wanting to go back at Shagun. She used to tell me that Raman was hers and hers only. And it didn't hurt me because I knew there was truth in it. And myself, I wanted Raman to have a good relationship with her for the kids' sake. I wanted him to respect her but I never thought... I never thought he would want to "be" with her... in that way. After all she did to him... I just can't believe it." She pauses...
"Right now, I'm just sad, because I feel like all we had these past months was nothing to him. Nothing! From the first day, I knew that this marriage was weak and would break at the first occasion so I gave it all my heart, strength and patience to make it stronger, because I wanted to save it for Ruhi's sake. I gave all my trust to Raman because I knew that without it this marriage couldn't work. But still it wasn't enough. I never expected Raman to love me but I never ever thought he would ever leave me. I saw the goodness in him, I saw how much he cared for his family and how he sticks by their side through good and bad and he never leaves them. And I thought... I thought I was too part of his family. But I guess I was not." Tears are running down her face but she continues.
"I'm sad. And I'm scared. He's probably already thinking of divorcing me and I don't care about that! But I don't know how I'll survive if he takes Ruhi away from me. I can't blame him for wanting to have his family back together" she tries to smile "but... but what about me?" She looks at Ashok and breaks down crying.
Ashok gets up, goes around the desk and sits on the chair next to ishita. He takes her hands in his. He doesn't say anything because there is nothing to say. All he knows is that the woman sitting in front of him has her heart broken and he can do nothing except showing her support. She looks at him, utterly surprised and stops crying. They look at each other in the eyes and suddenly ishita asks "How do you do it?" He takes his hands back and lays back on the chair. With a smile he asks "Doing what?" Ishita says "Staying so strong?"
"Someone has to be..." he responds. Ishita has a small laugh. She wipes her tears away and says "You can pretend all you want, I know you're deeply in love with shagun. How do you manage to get through what is happening? Don't you miss Shagun? Her love?"
"There was none." Ashok says coldly.
Ishita is surprised but she doesn't dare to ask what he means. Ashok see her surprise and laugh. "I guess our stories are more similar than what it seems. Just like Raman never loved you, Shagun never loved me. Raman needed you for Ruhi's custody. And Shagun needed me to have a reputation. Yes, some people may still see her as "the woman who left Raman" but most of the people she meets nowadays see her as Mr Khanna's girlfriend. The rich, powerful, influent Mr Khanna!" he laughs. "She loves it, being part of the elite, being treated like a queen everywhere she goes. This is what I am to her : a pass to all the expensive places of the town."
Ishita feels suddenly sad for him. She knew that Shagun couldn't love anyone but herself, but she didn't knew Ashok was hurt by it. She thought he only wanted a trophy wife and didn't care about love. She is ashamed of herself. She had such a bad image of Ashok that she didn't think he deserved love, or that he wanted it.
For a second, she can't look at him in the eyes and he understands. He laughs, not one of his sarcastic evil laughs, but a genuine one. She looks at him surprised "Oh ishita... please at least don't pity me! I'm over it now. As I told you, Shagun never loved me and after 6 years I'm myself tired of running after her and I feel like I can let her go pretty easily. Unlike you, I have not any reason to still be attached to Shagun : I never really paid attention to her son. So it's easy for me to "stay strong" as you put it." He smiles. "And anyways what's the point in being 6ft2 if I'm not even strong !" They both laugh at his joke.
At this moment, an employee entered the office. He was holding a tray with a cup of coffee on it. When he saw both Ashok and Ishita together, he excused himself "Sorry Sir, I didn't know you were in a.. meeting. Sorry" Ashok, suddenly in a good mood told him, "Don't worry about it." The employee was shocked to see his boss in a good mood that he was unsure about what to do. He said "Thank you Sir. Err. Sorry, I mean... Err." Ashok and ishita both laugh again as the employed quickly put the tray on a table beside the door and leaves, closing the door, embarrassed at his own clumsiness.
Ashok looks at the tray and see that there is only one cup of coffee (as he is usually alone in his office). He says "I should ask for another cup. Would you drink coffee or tea?" Ishita is hesitant. "I should probably go home now. I've wasted enough of your time." Ashok is disappointed because for the first time in ages he was enjoying someone's company but he understands that it may be awkward for Ishita to have a tea time with him.
They both get up. Ishita says "Mr Khanna..." "Please, I'd rather have you calling me by my name." Ishita is hesistant but since she call Shagun by her name, she doesn't see why she should call Ashok differently. She says "Ashok... I'm very sorry for coming like a hurricane in your office. I'm really not like this usually. It's just that..." She stops because she can't say 'it's just that I always felt like you were the one to blame for everything!' Ashok understands what is going through her mind and says "Don't worry Ishita, I can understand. I used to blame Raman for everything that went wrong between Shagun and me." Ishita realizes he knows what's in her mind so she blushes out of shame. Ashok adds "And really, I should thank you for coming today, I've finally got a taste of those famous lectures of yours!" They both start laughing again.
When they stop, ishita say again "I should go now." Ashok nods but he is still disappointed. He really wants her to stay a little bit with him, just to chit chat because he feels that right now she is the only one who can understand him.
Ishita starts walking towards the door, but she thinks of her home. She'll have to face Raman who will shower her with his guilt. There will be also a sad Mrs Bhalla, a smirking Simmi, a confused Ruhi, and Mrs Bhalla and Romi will probably pity her. She doesn't feel like facing this all. She will eventually, but not right now. She stops at the door and looks at the coffee cup. She turns around and sees Ashok standing against his desk, fidgeting and looking down. She says "You know what?" Ashok stands straight and looks at her surprised. "What Ishita?" "I've changed my mind. I'd love to drink a cold cappuccino!" Ashok smile, a genuine smile and not his evil little grin.
"I'm not sure my employee knows how to make it. But I know a little coffee shop down the street that makes delicious drinks! Maybe we should go? I need to get out of here for a moment" He smiles again and points at the phone on his desk which started ringing.
It takes half a second for ishita to say yes. She could find it inappropriate to meet with a man but to meet with the man whose girlfriend is trying to steal her husband, seems more funny than inappropriate to be honest. And so they go.
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This first part can be taken as an OS, but I've written a continuation of this story. You can read it here if you want :
PART 2 : ishOk team up to make Shagun confess!
PART 3 : Shagun confession + Ishita needs time away from raman.
PART 4 : Ishita and Ashok back at the coffee shop
If you've enjoyed this first part, don't forget to hit the like and leave me a comment, good or bad, i take it all ! 😉
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