Chapter 5
--- SHRAVAN’S Point of view ---
I exhaled softly as I melted into my bed and ran my fingers through my hair. Today was a really stressful day. I didn’t think I would be so affected by seeing Suman again. I thought that time and distance would suppress my feelings for her but I was so wrong. Even after all these years, her stare was enough to unnerve me. During the whole meeting, she kept staring at me and I felt like a teenage boy again. Only I know how I got through that meeting by holding myself together.
I couldn’t stop thinking about her. She had not aged a bit in these past seven years. Infact, she looked more beautiful than ever. Her eyes still had that challenging look and she sat there with a tall posture with her hair tied back in a tight bun. Suddenly, I was trying to remember how she looked with her hair open. I had to remind myself that whatever feelings I have for her, no one could know about it...including Suman.
When she got into that spat with Prakash, I realized that if anyone knew about our past, they would just cook up rumors that would affect both of our military careers that we both worked so hard for. The reality is that we are colleagues in this mission. Unfortunately, I had witnessed it many times before, how these rumors affected women more than men. If someone were to find out about our past, no one would raise questions about me but they would accuse Suman of flirting with me, her Senior, to climb the ladder of success. I would never let anyone taint Suman’s reputation or spoil her hard work. I had to keep my personal life far away from my professional life for both of us.
But, I was taken aback by the anger Sumo had inside her. Her outburst at Prakash was justified but if I didn’t intervene, she might as well have strangled him. I wish I could’ve comforted her and tried to cool her down. But, she was here as my Junior and not my best friend therefore a line had to be maintained. I plan to talk to her once we are alone. It couldn’t be a coincidence that we met again. It’s destiny and we are meant to be together. I let her go then and didn’t confess my love for her but this time I would not let go of her so easily. I just hoped that over these years she had realized that my father and I were not responsible for what happened to Vijay Uncle.
Suddenly, I heard a knock at my door. Who could it be so late in the evening? I opened the door and a tall, slim girl with a high ponytail was standing at my door. “Hi, Major Shravan? I’m Dr. Naina. We’ve met a couple times in Vrindavan at Kavita Aunty’s house.” I think this was the girl that mom had mentioned to me earlier.
“Hello, nice to meet you. Yes, mom told me that you would be joining for this mission. Please come in. How are you doing?” It would have been rude if I had not invited her in. This girl was very different from who I remembered from Vrindavan. Perhaps, I had her confused with someone else. She looked like she easily could’ve been a model with her smooth skin and perfect figure.
“Kavita Aunty sent some homemade food for you. You know, I am really excited to be working with you in this mission! Honestly, you were my inspiration for joining the Army Medical Corps.” She batted her long eyelashes and I felt a little awkward.
“Thanks for the food but...uhh...I’m not even a doctor.” I was genuinely confused. How did she get inspired by me?
“Oh well, I heard a lot about you from Aunty and when you visited Vrindavan, you always had this confidence that was so admirable.” She flashed her pearly teeth. I didn’t realize she noticed me that much when I visited considering that I didn’t even remember her.
“Umm...thanks. We’ll talk in the morning? You should get some sleep since we are heading for Ladakh early tomorrow.” As an army gentleman, I escorted her to the female quarters, since it was late. She chattered a lot on the way but I was spacing out and thinking about Suman.
Then I saw the girl I couldn’t stop thinking about. Suman walked out with some women from her regiment and they were loading the trucks with heavy boxes to prepare for Ladakh. Suman shot an odd look towards me as I said good night to Naina. I recognized that expression of Sumo’s: she raises her left eyebrow and tightens her lips. It was usually her look of disapproval. I walked towards her, “Hey Captain! Need some help there? Those look a little heavy”.
She put the box down and put her hands on her hip and looked at me, “No thank you, Major Shravan Devraj Malhotra. I can do it myself. I’m not a damsel in distress.” She grumbled and picked up the box again. I could sense that she was angry but I wasn’t sure what I did to make her so upset. She was fine when we left the meeting. She even stopped to thank me!
“You know, you can do this in the morning. It’s getting late and we have to leave for Ladakh early in the morning. I would rather have you well-rested than tired and overworked.”
“No need to show so much concern for me, Sir! I’m loading the trucks now so we can leave on time in the morning.”, She rolled her eyes and replied snidely. She still had the habit of flaring her nose in anger but she still looked just as cute. I decided that it was best to leave her alone as my presence would only fuel her anger.
As I stepped away, I saw a box that was on the edge of the truck and was about to fall on Sumo. “Suman!” I yelled out and quickly pulled her towards me as we heard the box fall. I felt lightning go through my body as her soft body crashed into mine. She let out a small gasp. I had one arm around her waist and the other around her back tightly. We were so close that I could feel her heartbeat and her warm breath against my neck. I looked into her eyes and softly asked, “You okay?” She nodded and slowly removed her arm from my neck, brought it down to my chest, and slightly pushed me away, indicating me to let go. The ladies from her regiment were all staring at us so I quickly moved away before anyone got the wrong idea. Although, if I could, I would have never let her go.
“Erm...thank you. I’ve got it from here. Good Night, Major”, she replied and quickly looked away.
“Just please be careful. I don’t want you to get hurt. Good night.” I gave her a light smile. She didn’t respond and started picking up the boxes again.
As I started to walk away, I heard her mutter under her breath, “Well, too late for that”. I was confused by what she meant. This girl was beyond my understanding. I walked back to my apartment but couldn’t stop thinking about what she said.
The next morning, I headed to the cantonment and saw that Suman’s regiment had already loaded their trucks. They probably finished it last night. Now, she was doing a drill and warming up with her regiment while other regiments were not even up yet. I was not surprised to see how dedicated and disciplined she still was. She is definitely one of the finest army officers with true leadership skills.
Soon after, everyone started loading their trucks and prepared to leave for Ladakh. We were all deciding who would sit in which car and truck. We decided that all the officers would travel together. This meant that Suman and I would be together. But, then Suman disagreed with this because she felt that it was segregation by rank which weakens unity. She suggested that we all travel with our own regiments. This is what made Suman different. She treated her juniors as equals rather than just throwing orders at them. But, somewhere I felt as if she was trying to avoid me.
The drive to Ladakh was very long but we took breaks in between. We stopped in Manali to rest for the night. Everyone was setting up their tents and the cooks were passing out tea. My eyes searched for Suman as our team was large with many regiments. I finally saw her, a little far away from our camp, sitting alone on a hill watching the sunset. I realized that she didn’t get any tea and it was chilly. I grabbed a tea for her and put another glass underneath because I remembered how she would burn her hands when she touched hot glass.
I walked towards the hill where she was sitting. I hoped she wouldn’t get angry by seeing me again. When I got there, to my surprise, I saw tears flowing down her beautiful face. I sat next to her but she was so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t even notice me. I gently nudged her with my arm and she broke out of her thoughts. She took the tea from me and gave a sad smile as she looked at the second glass I had underneath it. We sat in silence for a while. She took a deep sigh, wiped her tears away, and took a sip of the tea. I softly asked, “Hey...you okay?”.
She finally spoke in a gentle voice as she looked at the sunset over the hills, “Isn’t it so beautiful?” Guessing from her tone, she didn’t seem angry at me anymore.
I looked at her with awe, “Yeah...really beautiful.” The bright orange and pink hues of the sky were reflecting on her delicate skin. The crisp wind blew the little pieces of hair around her face. I felt a calmness take over me that I hadn’t felt in years.
“Have you ever been to Manali before?” She looked at me as I averted my gaze from her to back at the sunset. I was surprised that she was talking to me so normally after ignoring me the whole day.
“Yeah...a couple of times. It’s quite a fascinating place. How about you?”
“This is my first time here. Shravan, do you remember the picture I used to show you of Papa when he was young and new in the army?” I was taken aback by this sudden question. “He looked so young and didn’t even have a mustache back then”, she giggled. “You know, he took that picture here in Manali. He used to say that Manali was heaven on earth and that one day he’d bring us here.” I watched her silently as her lower lip started to quiver. She was trying to hold back the tears that were forming in her eyes. I hesitated but then put my hand on her back to console her. She covered her face and she quietly broke down crying, “I miss him so much, Shravan.”
I felt a lump in my throat and could feel my own eyes welling up with tears. “Yeah...I understand...me too.” I started thinking about my own father. I put my hand on hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. I said to her, “If he was here today, he’d be really proud of the woman you’ve become. So successful, dedicated, and intelligent but above all a kind and strong human being.” She looked at me and gave me a teary but genuine smile.
She had calmed down and subconsciously moved closer to me. Our shoulders were almost touching and I held back from putting my arms around her. We sat in silence watching the sun disappear behind the hills. I got up and outstretched my arm for her, “We should get going. It’s getting late.” She nodded and took my hand. We walked back in silence but if you listened carefully, even our silence had so much to say. We were two friends that were torn apart by anger and misunderstandings. But, no matter how hard we tried to forget each other, we couldn’t because our love overcame any bitterness in our hearts. Even after all these years, we found solace in each other.
We reached our camp and I looked at her. Her eyes were swollen from crying and her face was pale from the crisp wind. “Are you going to be okay, now?”, I asked. She nodded and started walking towards her tent. I watched her walk away for a bit and then turned to leave myself but stopped when I heard her call out my name.
“Shravan! Thank you...for being there for me. Good night.” She smiled and headed into her tent. I took a deep breath and smiled to myself. I realized that she addressed me as Shravan and not Major Shravan. I felt like someone had removed a large heavy object from my heart and now I could finally breathe. This was going to be a start of a new beginning.
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A/N: Hello everyone! Thank you to everyone that commented/liked/read Ch. 4. I'm back with an update! I realized that I've been updating every other day. This is because I don't have a life and also because I am very intrigued with my own story 😆 As usual, please comment/like, I really appreciate seeing your comments as it motivates me even more. Shout-out to my silent readers who also take out time to read my story. Sorry, if there are any grammar mistakes or inaccuracies. I already replied to comments. I hope all you are staying safe and healthy!
I actually struggled writing this chapter a lot. I felt like I had a writer's block and then had an "aha!" moment lol and I feel like this is the best chapter I have written yet! I also included Mohit's famous "just colleagues" dialogue in there too. I don't know why I chose Dehradun and Manali to write about because I have never been there but it definitely is on my travel list! Please, please, please comment! I like to know your perspective too!
Edited by alina.b - 4 years ago
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