A Beginning - Ballads of Rapture OS (Part II)

Zoya sensed Asad's presence and looked up. He was giving her a weird look, a very weird look. "What did I do now?" she thought. "I hope he has not yet realized that I broke his cellphone again! The last time he made me rebuild it three times. This time, he will probably just break my phone and be done with it!". He closed his room door and walked in to the living room, still staring at her. While she liked his presence, his impulsive reactions bothered her a lot. She definitely did not want to be caught before the cellphone was restored. She was almost done with a couple more minutes of work remaining. "Mr. Khan, have you had too much sun today?" she suddenly asked. Startled into reality by the sound of her voice, he took a moment before realizing that she had asked a question, one that he had to answer. But all he could see was her alluring eyes seeking an answer to an insipid question. All he could say was "What?". "Mr. Khan, I asked, why are you looking at me like I have grown a unicorn horn upon my forehead?" she asked. "Me? Staring at you? Stop day-dreaming Miss Farooqui", he managed to respond albeit a bit flustered. Why could he not just tell her what he felt? "I am not day-dreaming. You were staring! Like I belonged on a different planet", Zoya continued. "You do belong on a different planet. You never behave or do things that normal human beings do anyway!" Asad followed on with the sparring. She had a retort for that but realized that her work was done. She better hand him over the cellphone and run to her room before he went ballistic she thought. "Well, I cannot be normal because normal human beings do not know how to fix everything that breaks. Whatever planet that puts me on is one blessed place. Here, take your cellphone. I dropped it from the dining table by mistake this morning and have fixed it now. Sorry". She handed over the cellphone, collected everything in haste and got up to break into a quick run. And then she tripped! Asad was looking at the cellphone in his hand one moment and the next stopping Zoya from falling. Zoya felt his arms around her, arms that had held her each time she almost fell, arms that felt like the safest place on earth. He was so close that she could look at the flecks in his eyes. Eyes that spoke so much, eyes that could berate her and melt her in the span of a second. She wanted time to stop. He wanted time to stop. He should tell her now, he thought. If this was what eternity felt like, he did not want to let go, ever. The slamming of a door brought her out of her dream. Zoya quickly disentangled herself from Asad and ran to her room.

He had not let go of her immediately! Had she imagined that tightening of his arms or was it real? His proximity affected her. She could not think or talk coherently and it did something to her breathing! But all these were exulting feelings that made her want to smile for no reason, made her want to go back into his arms where there was no place for anyone other than her. The past few months had tested them, in excruciating manner at times, but during every step of the way she had experienced a feeling of belonging that was new to her. He chided her, reproached her constantly but protected her like he cherished her, like no other man ever had. She decided to ask herself that one question which she had run away from for a long long time, "Am I in love with Mr. Khan?".

Asad felt the emptiness engulf him as soon as Zoya ran away. He had seen her eyes widen when he had held on to her for a moment longer, not in shock but in recognition of that captivation between them. He could not delay telling her anymore. Every moment apart from her devastated him. But how could he? Courage failed him at the mere thought of confiding in her. He looked down to see the mobile phone, broken again when it fell from his hand. A smile crossed his lips as he remembered, a bandaged phone hanging down a ribbon in front of his window with a hand-written note, it had sown the basis for Zoya's presence in his life. She had healed him. "I love you Zoya!" he spoke aloud to an empty room.

"I love you Zoya!". When Tanveer heard Asad telling this out loud in the living room, she knew the time had come. To script the ending of this love story. They had to be apart in order for her life to reach its culmination, they had to be apart in order for her to avenge every atrocity life had thrown at her. They had to be apart!