Imperfectly Perfect [FF, ThaHaan] - updated, pg.15!! - Page 5

Hello friends! 🤗

I am in a posting mood today, lol 😆 But you can't imagine how happy I was upon finishing this chapter! It just wouldn't flow, at first, and then, the last part flowed by itself- seriously, I was just typing and the words came to me. It was so not planned in this way, I had two completely different scenarios in mind how this could have gone, and out of nowhere, this third one pops up... and et voila.

Thanks to everyone who has liked and/or commented (on) the last chapter! I am glad you guys are liking this story 😳

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02

Breaking

"Di?"

Thapki blinked, startled out of her muddled thoughts. For a moment, she stared down at the neat words covering half the page of her opened notebook, noticing that her pencil had been hovering over a dot for a while, now. She couldn't even recollect what exactly she had been writing, or why.

Tilting her head to the left, she smiled at Aditi. Though, judging from the frown her sister returned, it looked exactly like the grimace it felt like. "Yes?"

"Are you alright? You've been tensed ever since you returned from the temple, yesterday."

Temple.

In front of her eyes flashed the image of a surprised looking Bihaan, fury just slowly ebbing away from his features and leaving perplexity in its wake. The flicker of vulnerability rushing over his face while he was trying to talk to her. His surprise when he realized his knuckles were sullied with blood.

She pressed her lips into a thin line. Hadn't she vowed to herself to ban each and every thought about that despicable guy from her mind? Why was her determination so weak that it crumbled by the mere brushing of past events? Why couldn't she build stronger walls around her consciousness? Be stronger?

Of course, Aditi would have noticed something was wrong. When did she not? And if she had only guessed it, before, then she would know it for sure, by now. She has never been good in hiding her emotions from her family. Openness and honesty were traits she harbored probably to a certain fault - but she couldn't shake them just off. And it was not always something she was proud of.

"Di." Aditi reached out for her hand and only when she started to gently pry the fingers open did Thapki notice that she had clenched them tightly into her thigh. It was hurting a little. "I know that, with everything that happened, you are hurt," Aditi said, smiling sadly at her. "We didn't object your decision not to marry Dhruvji but... you need to talk to us so that we can help you."

Or worry even more about me. Papa's already ill enough, I can't add more to it.

Thapki sighed tiredly and let her shoulders drop. But Aditi was right. They hadn't objected her decision, not even questioned her about it, having understood that she wouldn't want to recollect the incident of her broken marriage, and probably trying to respect her wish. She couldn't do this to them, anymore. Couldn't bottle up everything and leave all of them with the worry whether she was fine or not. It would be cruel. And this was Aditi, her sister, her best friend - they shared everything with each other.

Aditi wouldn't go tell Maa or Papa about this, either, being aware of the fact that any kind of stress might worsen Papa's health.

"I, well, I m-m-met Bihaan."

In an instant, any gentleness that had been there vanished from Aditi's features, replaced by an icy, hard edge. "Did he do something? I swear, if that idiot still isn't satisfied with-"

"No!" she hastily interrupted her sister's rant, and squeezed her shoulder with her free hand in a calming manner. "No. It was- ah, he b-b-beat Diwakar when D-Di-Diwakar was..." She paused, hesitating for a split second, not sure how exactly to describe what Diwakar had done. How she wished she could simply forget about that ugly encounter and the disgusting words thrown at her. The utter humiliation. "...ins-i-in-insulting me."

Aditi blinked, mouth opening and closing without a sound leaving it. Slowly, she stood up from the couch, arms spread out in front of her, and stared down at Thapki with a confused frown. "He beat up that prick because he insulted you? Why?"

Thapki shrugged and turned her attention back towards her notebook. "It was prob-pr-probably because he w-w-was insulted, too." That was definitely the reason no matter what Bihaan had tried to tell her, afterward. Though, she really didn't understand why the guy had ran after her and tried to explain himself. Why he had to look vulnerable doing so. It didn't suit him.

"I don't understand, to be honest," Aditi's voice drifted to her. "What exactly did happen at the temple?"

Thapki paused, her focus on the last sentence she had penned down. Inflicting pain on others cannot be the only way for certain people to deal with whatever problems they have; it is, most likely, a way for them to hide themselves from others. She closed her lids and shook her head. "It doesn't m-mat-matter, Aditi. F-forget it."

"But Di-"

"Please," she interrupted her. "D-d-drop it."

And Aditi did, which Thapki was grateful for.

"I have an in-interview," she added and thus, closed their previous subject completely. "I m-m-might be late. T-te-tell Papa and Maa n-not to w-w-worry."

###

"I am sorry, Miss Thapki." Arjun Patel, head of the Noida Times Hind, closed the file in front of him and pushed it over the packed table back towards Thapki. He leaned back in his chair and put his reading glasses up on top his head, observing Thapki intently. "Your file is perfect, you solved the task we send out to all applicants brilliantly - but I cannot hire you, unfortunately."

Dumbfounded, Thapki took the file. "I don't un-und-understand. If you-you liked my ap-appli-application, then why?"

Grabbing his pencil from behind his ear, the man pointed it towards her. "First of all, your little problem. Well, it might turn out to be a hindrance and I cannot gauge, yet, how well you cope with it. How will you be able to help others if you, yourself, are struggling?"

Thapki stiffened, and lowered her gaze, clutching the file tighter against her chest. She had thought that this job offer would be a lucky one. When she had seen the ad as a poster on a wall in her street, she had immediately thought that this could be her job, at least for the time being. Noida Times Hind was a news channel with also a newspaper subsection and they were planning to open a new department, something like a column - Heart's Advice for Troubled Souls. The idea was to focus on people with real problems- who suffered from an illness, physical challenges and the likes.

People like her.

She had thought due to knowing what it meant to struggle with a disability, she would be able to help out others. But again. Rejection because of something she had no hand in. Yet... "B-b-but doesn't this m-ma-m-make me more apt f-for this j-job? Knowing wh-wha-what it means to str-st-struggle?"

Mister Patel raised a fine eyebrow. "It might or it might not. But that's not the only reason. The news of your marriage with Dhruv Pandey breaking at the last moment, and why, have spread like a wildfire. You backed out yourself, in the end, and all speculations aside, how will you be able to help others if you can't handle your own life? Due to your stammering, might I add."

Thapki couldn't grasp this reasoning. Just because her marriage broke thanks to her inability to talk like a normal person, it made her inapt to become an adviser for other people facing same situations in their lives? How was that even fair? This was wrong, on so many levels!

"But Sir-!"

"I am really sorry." He didn't sound one bit sorry, though. "But this new project is important to us and I won't start it with bad news. You may leave."

For a moment, she didn't react, at all. Though, when she did, she looked him in the eye, hoping that she was able to mask her own crushing disappointment, and said, "I hope that n-ne-n-next time you tr-treat other candi-can-candidates with more professionality and humanity be-b-because you lack it, Sir." And she stood up without another word, leaving the office and its stunned boss.

Once outside the building, she threw the file in a dustbin - only a hint of remorse pulsating through her veins. Another hope crushed. What was she going to tell her parents? They had been so excited for this interview, especially her ill father- and she would have to disappoint them, again. Even by the mere thought of doing so, her insides constricted painfully. God, it hurt so much.

Thapki took a deep, shaky breath and brushed a hand over her face in order to calm herself down. She took out her phone from her bag and send a message to Aditi, who probably was waiting eagerly for it, her thumb trembling slightly. No luck. Didn't get the job.' Maybe Aditi would be able to break the news to their parents before Thapki reached home.

Clutching the strips of her favorite bag tightly, she walked along the busy street. Crowds of people were either, streaming in the opposite direction or the same as her, their cheery chatter and laughter filling her ears. It almost felt as if she was being mocked - by the joy and happiness of others. Unintentionally, she quickened her steps, the urge to get away so intense that it took even her by surprise.

Her feet brought her away from the main street and towards a park where she slipped down on an abandoned bench and buried her face in her palms. She couldn't go home like this. She needed a little time for herself, to cope. To digest another failure in her long list of failures.

***

"Is everything a-al-alright?"

The rickshaw driver, a man probably in his mid-fifties, scratched the back of his head. "I am sorry, Ma'am, but looks like my baby just died."

Thapki climbed out of her seat and surveyed her surroundings. The broad road was completely empty, not even the slightest sight of life. To her side, trees were lined down the hill, whereas on the other side, there was only a forest. And it was already dark.

Just her luck, wasn't it? She should have guessed that something would go wrong the very moment she saw that the usual path towards her home had been barricaded for the night. As if her day hadn't been miserable enough, her misery had go a notch higher!

"I-i-is there nothing you c-c-can do?" she asked the driver.

The man shrugged apologetically. "Sorry, I don't think so. There's no network here but," he pointed down the road in the direction they had come from, "I know where to find help. Though, it's pretty far away from here on foot- wouldn't recommend you coming along with me."

Chewing on her lower lip, Thapki, once again, looked around. From a distance, she believed she was able to hear engine roaring. She wasn't very keen on staying alone here in the middle of the night- the mere thought had her insides in knots. But she wasn't sure if she was able to walk a longer distance. She was exhausted from wandering aimlessly through the park the whole day, and all she wanted to do was go home and curl up in her bed.

"I don't know," she sighed. The roaring engine had not been her imagination- it was very close, by now. A motorcycle?

"You should be okay," the man assured her. "Hardly ever anyone comes this way!"

The motorcycle stopped somewhere behind her, and she heard someone getting down. So much about seldom anyone taking this path... "Everything alright?"

I don't believe this. My luck can't be this horrible.

Slowly, apprehensively, she turned around - and realized that, yes, her luck could be this horrible. What sin had she committed to deserve this? Had she, accidentally, hurt someone? "Are you, by any ch-cha-chance, following me?"

Bihaan raised a single eyebrow. "Does h for this handsome" He made a hand gesture down his body. "Look like o for an obsessive stalker?"

Irritation stirred in the pit of her stomach, hot and fast. Only that guy... "Well, I c-c-can't stand looking at your h-ha-handsome self, so, leave."

"Wait!" Her driver pushed himself between them and stared from one to the other. "You know each other?"

"Obviously, genius," Bihaan huffed.

"My rickshaw doesn't start," he continued to explain, ignoring Bihaan's plain rudeness. "And I wouldn't want the Ma'am to be stuck here alone while I get help."

Understanding dawned upon Bihaan, a sight which made Thapki more than nervous, but before she could have opened her mouth, he said, "No problem! You go ahead, I'll take her home."

"What?"

"Good. Take care!" That said, the driver was already hurrying down the road, leaving her alone with the very person she didn't want to be alone with. She didn't even want to see his face, for God's sake! Neither his self-satisfied smirk.

"So," he drawled as he leaned back and supported himself by placing his palms on the handle of his bike. "Ever driven on this?"

Thapki clicked her tongue in displeasure and shook her head. "I'd much r-ra-rather walk home than t-t-ta-take your help!" To emphasize her words, she strutted past him, relishing the stunned expression crossing his features when she did so.

That man had nerves. After everything that had transpired between them, how could he behave so... so casually? As if nothing was amiss. As if there was not a rift of betrayals and humiliations between them. Maybe he didn't take what he had done to her seriously. Maybe he didn't care as much for his brother as she had believed, once. Maybe he didn't think about anything and anyone besides himself. That was the only explanation for him not being affected by the incidents of the past.

And she despised him for it.

Bihaan's heavy steps were following her hurriedly, trying to catch up, it seemed. "Wait!" She stepped more to the left when he was walking next to her, distancing herself from him. "Look, I don't mean any harm! I honestly want to help you, nothing more."

"Honestly?" Thapki repeated and let mocking venom color her voice. "As if y-y-you know what this m-m-means."

"I don't want to argue," he said tersely. "It is very late, you can't walk home all alone!"

Thapki quickened her pace. "I am d-d-doing just that, a-am I not?"

"You stubborn-!" He reached out and grabbed her right wrist. "Would you stop for a moment?"

Instinctively, she jerked away. "Don't touch me!"

She used too much momentum.

Something beneath her left heel gave in.

Her arms flailed wildly in an attempt to balance her which only achieved for her right ankle to twist painfully. Panic rushed through her veins, freezing her blood, her heart stopping for too long a moment. She could see Bihaan's eyes open in surprised shock, and he lurched forward- everything else happened too quickly for her mind to catch up with it.

She was flying - and then, rolling. There were arms around her, on her lower back and on the back of her head; and a forehead pressed into the crook of her shoulder. Her own was pressed against something solid, yet, not hard enough to be the earth of the hill.

Platsh.

Water smothered her, flooding down on her on all sides and forcing the air out of her lungs. Unintentionally, she opened her mouth, wanting to breathe but all that entered was burning water. And there was still something engulfing her, making it impossible to move. Panicked, she lashed out- hitting against what felt like a chest, gurgling desperately as she was sinking.

I am going to die.

And suddenly, she was moving upward, further and further, until her head broke through the surface of the water.

But even then, she couldn't breathe. Her vision was blurry, darkness creeping up on the edges, and the last thing she saw was Bihaan's scared face mere inches from her own. Numbness welcomed her into its inviting arms. Though, she wasn't really unconscious- the veil of unconsciousness broke and renewed itself again and again, not letting her out of its iron grip, but not keeping sensations and flickers of images away.

There had been hands on her stomach, squeezing... A voice, familiar, ringing through the darkness towards her... a pool of brown depths hovering over her... Lips pressed hard against her own... Sizzling noises... The rustle of clothes...

#

Huh? Thapki blinked a few times before opening her eyes fully - her vision was filled by a crackling fire right in front of her. What? She squinted, trying to ignore the throbbing in her temples. What had happened? Where was she? Why was there a fire? How did she come to lay here against... a tree? The last thing that came to her was...

Bihaan persisting to drop her off at home and during their argument, she lost her balance and toppled down the hill on the side of the road.

Oh.

Completely awake now, she let her gaze wander- until it roved down herself. Her heart gave a violent tug as horror engulfed her. No.

She wasn't wearing her pink salwar kameez. She wasn't wearing a salwar, at all, her legs bare and only covered till her mid-thighs by a white shirt. Her tree was moving slightly at her back, there were legs on each side of hers, and... rough hands were running up and down her thighs, sending small, electric jolt through her.

God.

Thapki scrambled to her feet, in her hurry she hit her elbow against something, a chest, which elicited a pained moan from the person she had been resting against. She stumbled forward, falling down when searing pain shot through her ankle, but braced herself immediately on her hands and stood up, again. When she whirled around, arms protectively wrapped around herself, heart pounding viciously in her chest and tears burning in her eyes, she came face to face to a ragged looking Bihaan who was rubbing his stomach where she had hit him- his naked stomach.

"Damn!" he hissed angrily. "Unconscious I liked you a lot better."