SHUBHCHINTAK 20.2
INNER VOICES 21.2
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Sorry guys. Really wanted to go beyond what I had written this time. But I'm so out of time today and have to move. It's pretty quickly done... haven't done much of checks. So sorry in advance if you find anything weird. Here's the next. Looking forward to your precious comments! Love ya!
~ 64 ~
Siddhant had barely taken two steps when the department's door swung open and in poured a couple of faces he didn't want to see at the moment - Cabir, Mukti and Dhruv. He screeched to a halt in his tracks and quickly masked up the rage on his face.
"Whoa-ho! Look who's here!" Cabir bounded off towards Siddhant and stood right before him. "Where on earth did you disappear to dude? We scoured the entire department and figured out that you'd probably left."
Siddhant's flickering eyes darted around and fell on Mukti and Dhruv who had settled down at their desks by now. The amused smirks on their faces troubled him. It was as if they knew something. "Um..." he thought hard of an alibi. "I... was with Waudby. Yeah."
"Waudby? When? Now?" asked Cabir curiously.
"Yeah, just some time back." Siddhant had a tough time in meeting Cabir's probing gaze as he spoke. But guilt forced him to turn his eyes to Roli - the only one who knew the shameful truth of his whereabouts in the past half an hour. And much to his dismay, she was glowering at him with a vicious scowl on her face that screamed "LIAR!"
"Strange," replied Cabir with a hand wringing his chin. "I was there too all this while. So how come I didn't see you? Did you leave earlier?"
Cabir's words knocked the wind out of his guts. Shit. Foiled! His face flushed red and he struggled in vain to cover it up.
Mukti, who had been watching Siddhant's expressions all this while with an amused smirk finally turned back to her PC.
Siddhant cleared his throat and straightened up. "Um. Yeah. That's possible."
"Yeah. By the way..." Cabir's voice dropped and he leaned in closer with curiosity etched on his face. "What were you doing under the desk before?"
"WHAT!!!!?...desk? " His voice transitioned from a shocked bark to a sheepish murmur and his eyes almost popped out of its sockets as he shot back at Cabir. And almost instantly, he looked away in utter embarrassment. He secretly wished that Cabir wasn't talking about the desk which he had chosen to hide under earlier.
"Arre yaar... the desk in the conference room."
This was it. The ultimate. He had literally got what he didn't want. And now... he was seriously thinking about using up the rest of his vacation. To go away to some place for so long that eventually his team would forget that a guy like Siddhant Bhardwaj even existed.
Siddhant looked away. Try as he may, he couldn't face Cabir. His face was red hot and his chest was thumping so hard that he could feel the blood pounding in his ears. "I... I don't know what you're talking about," he answered defensively.
"But I do," replied Cabir coolly. "Give it up bro. I saw you ducking in there before. Drop the pretence. It's over."
Siddhant was so tongue tied that he was twiddling his thumbs now. There was no point in covering up anymore. The cat was out of the bag.
"So..." Cabir drawled with an amused smirk. "Someone likes to play hide and seek, eh?"
Siddhant had nothing to say. No counter points. No arguments. Nothing. He quickly shouldered past him and thundered away to his cabin.
Seeing all this, Mukti was having a tough time in smothering her laughs that were threatening to explode out of her diaphragm. She was so red in the face that it looked like she would burst any minute.
And as for Roli, she looked around at all of them with confusion etched onto her face. Do they know, she wondered.
Meanwhile, Siddhant collapsed onto his chair and blindly scrolled through his mails. But it was pointless. He simply could not channel his concentration. His guts were still writhing inside and his entire being felt weak and wobbly. As for his brain, it had already dissolved into a mess. His confrontation with Cabir had left him trembling in the knees.
"Shit-shit-shit-shit-goddamn-shit!!!" Siddhant moaned in hushed whispers and buried his face into his hands. "This can't be happening! Why goddammit why!!!?" He lifted his face which was contorted into a painful grimace only to get the next slap - Dhruv. He seemed to have been standing there all along and enjoying Siddhant's plight with a satisfied smirk on his face. As always, he was quick to cover it up.
"You!!!!" Siddhant roared at him furiously. "What are you doing here!!!?"
Dhruv almost cowered at Siddhant's angry outburst. "S-sorry Siddhant. I just came to give you this file for review."
"What file?" he snapped like a spitting cobra.
"Sanjay's..." The poor guy mumbled in response.
Even before Dhruv could hand it over, Siddhant snatched it from him. "Give that here!!!" he barked angrily and stormed through it.
Dhruv stood rooted to his spot and watched his boss' angry scowl nervously.
"Why the hell did you bring this to me now?" Siddhant snarled.
Dhruv was dumbfounded. "But Siddhant... it was you who wanted to see this file. You had mailed me about it..."
"So!!!? Does it mean that you have to bring it now? Or do you think that you can barge in as and when you please?"
Siddhant's rude demeanour never failed to hurt Dhruv or anyone else. He was so stumped that he couldn't even utter a single word. But Siddhant paid no heed and rambled on. "Dude. Get this straight. From now on, if you've got some work with me you've got to check with me first! Find out if I'm free or not! And then. ONLY then walk into my room. Do you understand!!!?"
"Y-yes Siddhant..." he stammered in response.
"Goddammit! This isn't the first time I'm telling you. How many times do I have to tell you? What are you? A retard or something!!!? Now take this shit and get ou---"
Siddhant had almost flung the file out of the door but paused as he noticed Roli watching them over her shoulder. Her workstation was right across his cabin door, so it was pretty easy for him to spot her. The moment he set eyes on her, a couple of resolutions that he had made earlier came floating back to his memories - to be good with his team. To make up for all the torture he had put them through. And what are you doing now?
Besides getting a grip on himself, Siddhant couldn't get to keep his eyes open. They felt so heavy with guilt that he could barely keep them conscious. He quietly placed the file on the desk and sighed. "I'll... see it later. Will let you know," he said. He had cooled down remarkably and this left Dhruv confused and dumbstruck.
"Okay. Thanks Siddhant," he replied and evacuated the premises immediately.
By the time he gathered the strength to look up once again, Roli had already turned back to the PC in front of her. He buried his face into his hands once again and took a deep breath. Surprisingly, he felt much relaxed. "Shit man..." he whispered to himself. "What are you doing? What had you decided to do and what were you going to do? Pathetic!"
He returned his attention to Roli who was busy at her workstation. It was placed in such a way that he could see her at all times. Fortunately or unfortunately. Because the moment he set eyes on her, he felt challenged. Desperate. Hopeless. He so badly wanted to change her perceptions about him and it seemed next to impossible. It was obvious that she wasn't going to give in so soon. No girl would.
I need to get her alone for a while, he thought, but how? Idea!
"Roli!" he called out in authoritative voice.
In response, she turned around on her chair and gave him a haphazardly glance. "Yes Siddhant?" she asked just for the sake of it. Talking to him was something she'd avoid doing if she had a choice.
"Get me file number 1528," he instructed as he pulled out a box file and extracted a set of documents from it.
Roli could sense all eyes on her. She hated to follow his orders but she had no choice. Without a single word, she went to the filing room and picked up the file. He's always asking me to pick this file. What's so special about it?
She opened it up and flipped through the attached documents. It belonged to an employee called as Tejinder Singh. Quality Department. QA/QC Engineer. Nothing fishy.
She rolled her eyes irritably, returned to his cabin with the file and placed it on the desk.
Siddhant who was pretending to be super busy by pouring out all his concentration onto a large excel sheet glanced up at her. "Close the door," he said grimly.
Roli proceeded to do so but stepped out of the room in the process.
"No-no. Inside," said Siddhant.
Now what!!!? She glanced at him briefly before pushing into the room and closing the door.
"Sit," he instructed with his eyes still on the paper.
Instructions followed without question. She sat quietly with her eyes trying to decipher the upside down numbers on the papers that laid before Siddhant. It was all that she could do to mask up the anxiety. Being in his vicinity was one thing she could tolerate. Other than the hatred she harboured against him, it was the butterflies fluttering in her tummy that put her at great discomfort. She could sense his tensed gaze boring into her face, checking out each and every move that she made.
Why's that he still makes me nervous? One part of her hated the man he was. A hideous beast who didn't give an eff about others. Whereas the other part of her still went wild when he was around. How she had longed to be closer to him. Know him inside out. Be his most dependable colleague and buddy. She had so badly dreamt of being envied by others. But alas! He turned out to be a monster who fashioned her as his favourite target instead and it broke her.
Siddhant grew increasingly fidgety. The words were stuck in his throat but he didn't know where to start. It was clear that she wouldn't be the one to take the first step, so he decided to break the silence first.
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Kumkum Bhagya
