Arhi FF:Mirage Note pg 158 for next thread link - Page 104

"Why are you late? I have been waiting for you from the past half hour." Buaji blared at Khushi, her hands crossed across her chest.

Khushi mentally cursed her luck for landing up in this situation. Her only hope was that Buaji didn't notice Arnav behind her. Chanting Devi Maiyya's name, she walked towards the gate. From the corner of her eyes, she could see Arnav sitting on his bike and watching the scene unfold before his eyes with an amused expression. Why wasn't he going? She panicked.

"What happened, Buaji?" she stammered frightfully, but then noticed a worried expression on her aunt's face.

"There is no electricity in the house for the past few hours. At first, I thought it was due to power cuts. But as the night set in, I noticed light in everyone's house in the neighbourhood, except ours. I tried calling the electrician an hour ago, but they all seemed to have closed their shops for the day." She filled in with the details.

"Oh!" Khushi exclaimed out with relief. So this was the matter. "Buaji, why don't we call Sarala chachi's husband. He is pretty good with all this electrical stuff. You wait here, I'll go and call him." Khushi turned around to leave.

"Sankadevi! Have you forgotten that they are out of town? As if that idea didn't strike my head."  Buaji retorted back.

"What shall we do now?" Khushi asked to herself, clasping her head with her hands.

"Aunty? Can I help you out?" That familiar voice was enough to petrify Khushi and scare the wits out of her. She turned around to glare at him with huge round eyes. What the hell was he doing here?

"May I know who are you?" Buaji asked quizzically, raising her eyebrows suspiciously at Arnav.

After eavesdropping on their conversation, he had decided to help them out. Afterall, he had known something about electrical stuff and maybe, he could be of some help to them.

"I'm Arnav, Khushi's friend. Sorry for listening to your private conversation but I came to drop her home. I'm sure I can help you with this problem." He suggested.

"Ay Khushi! Since when did you start being dropped home by this guy?" she questioned with narrow eyes. "And you never mentioned about him being your friend?"

Khushi apologetically looked at Buaji's face, sneaking a glance at Arnav, who was busy staring amusedly at both the women. "What the F*ck!" she muttered inside her breath so that only he could hear it.

"What?" he questioned back silently with his eyes, not before receiving a death stare from her.

"Forget about that Aunty, it's a long story. But we need to look at the problem at hand. Khushi, can you show me the main switch board?" Arnav asked diverting Buaji's attention from the topic.

"Babua, are you an electrician?" Buaji questioned him, following behind the two of them, who carefully made their way into the house amidst the darkness.

"No Aunty, I'm even better than that." Arnav declared proudly.

"Khushi, can you get me torchlight and a tool box?" He asked, while Khushi hurried into the living room to get one. She was happy to go away for petty errands like these, as long as she wasn't engaged into a conversation with Buaji.

With the help of the torchlight, Arnav studied the electrical board. Rotating some screws, he opened the panel and studied it a bit, until he finally exclaimed out after enlightenment. "The fuse has blown up. It needs to be replaced. Since I don't have a spare one, I'll give a direct connection to the circuit. But tomorrow, call up the electrician to fix a new one." And with that he proceeded to work with the wires, pulling out some of them and fixing them with the other free ends. And with few minutes, the electricity was back and so was a huge smile on Buaji's face.

"Oh Babua! You fixed it.  Thank you so much for helping us out." She said pulling him into a hug that nearly suffocated him.

"It's ok Aunty. It wasn't any big deal." He gasped trying to free himself from the tight grip of the woman.

"Have a seat. Do you want to stay for dinner?" Buaji asked enthusiastically completely happy with the young man.

"No Aunty. Got to go. Maybe next time. " he apologised and turned around to leave. In front of him, Khushi stood leaning on the wall, glaring at him.

"Sankadevi! Stop glaring at him and leave him till the gate. Is this how you treat your friends who help you out? Go!" Buaji ordered, while Khushi reluctantly followed Arnav outside. She could see him grinning at her near death experience at Buaji's hands.

After making sure they were out of direct line of sight from Buaji's vision, Arnav pulled her to one side of the compound.

"What?" He asked smirking at her, placing his hands on her waist.

"Are you trying to get me killed? What was the need for you to suddenly appear out of nowhere and scare the hell out of me? Buaji has no idea about you. Now she is going to bombard me with never ending questions about you. And then chances are she won't allow me to meet you anymore. Do you want this to happen?" she whispered furiously, summoning all her frustrations out at him.

"So you were worried that you won't be allowed to meet me?" he asked back calmly, cupping her face with his hands. "Don't worry about that. I think I've done a pretty job with impressing her.  See, now I needn't sneak into your house through the back door to meet you. I can come and meet you whenever I want to."

"Yeah! I guess you are right." She replied reflecting back on what he had just said. "But still, you won't be forgiven so easily for this." She pouted back at him, gripping his collar and pulling his face closer to hers.

"We'll see about that. But now I want my fees. Did you think I will work for free?" he asked with a mischievous smirk.

"Huh! I thought helping was done without expecting anything in return for it. So how much do you charge?" she asked back.

"I don't want cash. I want something else, from you." He said cocking his eyebrow.

"What?" she asked wondering what was going on in his mind.

"Not today. When the time comes. But don't forget about this Khushi."

"Ok, now I'm worried. Tell me!" she protested, but he was in no mood to listen.

"Goodnight Khushi! I'll see you tomorrow. Otherwise, Buaji will come in search of you if you don't return back soon." He said walking out of the gate, waving at her.

"Goodnight Arnav!" she waved back, knowing that he was absolutely right. She waited till he sped away from the gate and then silently walked back into the house, still wondering what he wanted from her was.

o0o

In the morning, Khushi was sitting at the breakfast table, relieved that Buaji hadn't pursued the topic about Arnav last night. After he had left, she had returned back into the house and their night routines had resumed, that included a quiet dinner and viewing television. But this relief was going to be short lived because she immediately saw Buaji come to the dining table with a cup of tea in her hand and Khushi knew that this meant serious business. Her Aunt never drank her cup of tea at the dining table. It used to be always on the couch. And by calculating her facial expressions and the mood, Khushi knew a serious talk was coming up.

"Khushi, So what is going on between you and that boy?" Buaji asked casually, making Khushi choke on her tea.

Here it comes! She rolled her eyes.

"Nothing, Buaji. He is just my friend." She replied instantly, not knowing what else to say.

"I see the influence Lavanya is having on you. You are starting to adopt her lifestyle. I know about her tales with boys. But Khushi, as your Bua, I consider you to be my daughter and would always want the best for you. You are naive at times and trust anyone very easily. But boys are never to be trusted. They only want to use you and once, they are done with you, they will dump you like thrash and you won't even realize when it happened. I don't want the same thing happening to you. I trust you and I hope that you are smart enough to make the right choice." Buaji paused to take another sip of tea from her cup.

"Lavanya isn't serious with any boy. Hence, she isn't affected that easily with heart breaks. But you on the other hand, put your heart and soul into any relationship. And with the things that they do to naive girls like you, you would be completely shattered. And I don't want you to go through this. Well, if there is something going on between you two, then I want you to make sure you know his intentions, find out more about him and then decide for yourself."

As much as she hated sitting through this awkward conversation with her aunt, Khushi knew that whatever Buaji had said was true.  She had hardly known anything about Arnav. In such a short span, she had grown really close to him. But he had seemed like a nice and genuine guy. Even though he was weird and strange at times, she was actually comfortable with his close proximity. And above all, he had never taken any advantage of her.

No, she couldn't doubt Arnav. Why should she? Just because some guys were like that, didn't mean everyone had vile intentions.

Yes, Arnav wasn't like everyone else. He was different and that was what she liked about him.

o0o

"Khushi, you may leave for the day. There is some important work at hospital and thus, I have to leave immediately. Can you reschedule all the appointments for today?" Akash asked putting some files into his bag.

"Oh sure!" Khushi replied glancing at the clock on the wall. It was just 12 noon and she was thoroughly surprised at this sudden turn of events for the day.

"So how is your Buaji? Any complaints about her health." He asked approaching near her desk.

"She's fine now. All because of your treatment." Khushi smiled at him.

"Oh, don't embarrass me. I think she is better because of your constant care. Well, I have to say you do a pretty good job in taking care of people around you. For instance, what would I have done without you in this clinic? You seem to manage just about everything here and make my life easier." He said smiling back at her. He could see her blushing at his remarks.

"Now, you are embarrassing me Akash. I only do my job." Khushi replied back.

Akash loved the way she uttered his name. It felt nice and different. He didn't know what was happening to him, but from the first time he had laid his eyes on her, he knew that there was something in her that captured all his attention. And whenever she was around him, he couldn't stop observing the minute details in her.  Whether it was the way she furrowed her eyebrows when she was thinking deeply or the way she fiddled with her duppatta when she was tense. None of it went amiss his eyes.

"Akash... Akash... Hello?" she snapped her fingers in front of his face. "Where are you lost?" she chuckled with laughter observing his eyes lost in some distant world.

"Oh, nothing." He replied embarrassed at being caught staring at her. "I'll see you tomorrow then!" he said and hurried out of the door before he did something stupid.

"Bye!" she called out behind him. Now turning her attention to the desk, she wondered what she was going to the do for the rest of the day. She didn't want to go home so soon.

Maybe she could try calling up Arnav to find out if he was free. But then her eyes suddenly lit up with a brilliant idea that flashed into her mind.

Yes, she could give a surprise visit to Arnav's home. Afterall, hadn't he come to her home in the middle of the night. Maybe this was best idea for payback. But then she realised that she didn't know his address.

Wait! She could find out from the clinic's records. Afterall, there must be some record of it in here. She turned towards the computer on her desk and accessed the clinic's database.

She typed Arnav's name hoping it would be there. Keeping her fingers crossed, she pressed the enter key. Only one entry was displayed.

Arnav Singh.

Haww... His surname was Singh? And she had never even known this much about him. She hoped that this was the same Arnav and not another person. Clicking on the name she found out the address. 515 200, 2 nd street, Indira Nagar. This wasn't far away from the clinic. She could easily go over there. But what if he wasn't at home.

Well, she had the whole day to her. She could take a risk. If he wasn't at home, she could return back or else, maybe meet his family. This would be the best opportunity for her to get to know more about him. After ten minutes of rescheduling all the appointments for the day, she picked up her bag and left the clinic, locking the door behind her.

It was time for some adventure.

o0o

She stood outside a grey and white coloured house.  The huge windows were tinted and didn't give any hint about the inmates inside the walls.  She recognised his bike parked at the entrance of the double storey house that confirmed that this was indeed his home as well as his presence at home. Even at the middle of the day, she noticed that the locality seemed to be eerily quiet.

Slowing opening the gate, without making any noise, she stepped inside and walked towards the main door. On her way inside, she noticed the well kempt garden on either sides of her with wide varieties of plants. Even though it was a small area, it still looked wonderful, enhancing the beauty of the house.

She pressed the door bell, not sure of what was she expecting. There seemed to be no signs of movement inside the house. Maybe there wasn't anyone at home. She pressed the door bell once again. Still, no one opened the door.

She was about to turn back and leave, when suddenly she heard the door creak open. She stopped in her tracks and faced the person at the door. There in front of her, stood Arnav clad in his black shorts and vest, completely drenched in sweat as if he had just returned from a marathon. His hair was completely ruffled, while she could hear him panting for breath.

"Hey!" she greeted him with a huge smile on her face. "Surprise!"

Arnav couldn't believe his eyes. He felt the colour immediately drain out from his face.

What on earth was she doing here? His eyes widened out with shock.

"Khushi?" he whispered unsure of the sight in front of him. Was he really hallucinating in the middle of the day?

Khushi didn't miss out the sudden change in the expressions of his face. Why was he staring at her like he had seen some ghost? She narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

Something was definitely wrong.

CHAPTER 21

Plz note that this will be the last chapter on this thread. Chapter 21 will be posted in a new thread as this thread will soon cross 150 pages. So wait for the new thread in the IPKKND forum.😃

And thank you everyone for praying for my mom. But her condition is such that things don't turn good overnight. It's a long battle. That's all I can say.