Twinj: It’s Always Been You: Episode 9

Hello everyone!! Thank you for your love for my stories. It means a huge lot, and also feels a little discouraging to see the responses decreasing. Although I have the next few episodes already written, I don’t even feel like posting them anymore. I don’t know what you guys make out of this, but isn’t that the least a writer can expect? Alright, I’m sorry for that outburst. Hope it made the point clear without hurting anyone. Happy reading!!

Twinj: It’s Always Been You: Episode 9

A quick recap: Usha makes Kunj realise that the person he had wronged was Twinkle. He turns up at her workplace to apologise but is misunderstood and leaves her crying instead. He then leaves with the resolve to make things right his own way.

Twinkle was not happy with having to work with Kunj on that project. Or at least, that’s what she projected to the world. In the confine of her cabin, she prepared herself to face him on a regular basis, reminding herself that he was nothing to her anymore, and her only business with him would be to work on the project her father had assigned her. Her mind brought back flashes of him staring at her at the meeting that had been called an hour ago for the hundredth time, and it was definitely not helping her resolve. She had been drumming on her table with her fingers anxiously when one of her juniors informed her that work would begin soon and she needed to accompany them. She nodded with a hesitant smile, picked up her files and walked out of her cabin. She was walking at a comfortable pace, reading something on a paper that had just been handed to her, when she bumped hard into someone. She closed her eyes tight, anticipating a loud, hurtful fall, but it never came. She opened her eyes to see Kunj’s eyes looking right at her. He had held her right in time. She looked away when she heard some giggles from the small crowd they had attracted. She freed herself, murmured something that sounded like a ‘Thank you’, shot a glare at the others staring at them, making sure they dispersed immediately and walked away.

“Oh my God! Really? It was just the first day and you both have already had your ‘moment’?” Aparna spoke, laughing loudly as she air-quoted the word moment. They were having lunch with Chinki at a restaurant at convenient distances to both of their workplaces. Aparna had detected immediately that Twinkle was avoiding making eye contacts with her and Chinki when she came in. She had spilled the beans on repeated insistence, but Chinki definitely did not find the whole thing funny. She had been almost glaring at Aparna. When Chinki could no longer tolerate it, she burst out, “Seriously, Twinkle? She’s your friend? She laughs at things that you don’t appreciate happening to you, and goes and meets people that have deliberately hurt you, and look at her extreme audacity to act like such a good soul!” Twinkle looked at Chinki with a confused expression while Aparna choked on the water she was drinking. “Chinki, would you listen to me, please? I know you might think whatever I’ve been doing is wrong, but I would never cause Twinkle harm!” Aparna protested, throwing her hands up in disbelief. “You’re so right! You are meeting Alisha for Twinkle’s well-being, aren’t you?” Chinki almost screamed.

A very serious silence prevailed for longer than the girls would have liked. Twinkle noticed that Aparna seemed to be slightly relieved when Chinki brought up Alisha’s name. There was definitely something bigger that she had been hiding, but right now this seemed more important. Chinki on the other hand was huffing angrily, refusing to even look at Aparna. “She’s my patient.” Aparna announced, shocking them out of their wits. “I’m really sorry, Twinkle! I had no idea she was the one I was expected to treat. Her mother was the one who got in touch with me, and when I realised, it was too late to back off.” Aparna explained and Twinkle nodded understandingly. Chinki scoffed and continued her allegations, “My goodness! You’re so naïve, Twinkle!! I can’t believe she’s trapping you with such an atrocious lie! Alisha would need treatment for what exactly? She’s the devil incarnate herself after all!” Twinkle turned to Aparna for an explanation, finding it hard to believe for herself that Alisha could be suffering from something similar to that which she had herself battled against for months. “I’m sorry I can’t reveal details Twinkle, it’s against the ethics of my profession, but she really needs help, and I couldn’t..” Aparna spoke resignedly, and as expected, Chinki didn’t trust her. Instead, she picked up her bag and walked away. Twinkle passed a weak smile to Aparna and left under the pretext of some work too.

Twinkle was more than surprised when Kunj openly acknowledged her for a set of papers that she had worked on. She had always believed he was the one that was better with this business stuff, and his praise definitely made her feel proud of herself. She smiled at him, to which he responded with a wink. Her eyes widened at that, and she looked around immediately to make sure nobody had seen that. When her eyes got back to him, she saw him giggling at her response, making her look away again. Looking up from some work some time later, she saw Kunj typing furiously on his phone, then erase all that he had written and then type again. She looked on amusedly, when she saw a notification pop up on her phone. However, she wasn’t able to open it as some of her colleagues swarmed around her with some doubts and clarifications. She realised that her eyes looked for him every few minutes involuntarily ever since his appreciation that afternoon, and now she couldn’t get any work done. She looked around to find a suitable place for herself that she could move to so that she wouldn’t be sitting opposite to him. “He’s a distraction!” She thought to herself, and smacked her own forehead for even letting that thought in. All her actions were carefully observed by someone though.

Kunj watched on as a few hours later, people began to get up and leave one by one, and soon he and Twinkle were the only ones left in the huge room. He looked for Twinkle, who had shifted to another table where it was a little inconvenient for him to see her. She seemed to be wrapping up for the day too. He followed her actions carefully for some time, laughing to himself as she put something in a drawer and locked it, but then realised she would need it, so she opened the drawer again and took it out and by then she had forgotten what she was doing before she remembered to take it out. He looked away when he noticed her finally open the message that he had sent her. She simply glanced at the long message, not patient enough to read it anymore, and walked over to his table. “I was just suggesting. There’s no compulsion or anything!” Kunj said quickly, but was surprised to hear a sigh in return. “I didn’t read this. So I don’t know what it is about, calm down.” She said, and he was evidently not happy with that, but still managed to force a smile.

“Rules?” He asked for what seemed like the hundredth time, and Twinkle rolled her eyes in disbelief. “Yes Kunj, we’ll be needing rules so that we can work together without creating problems for each other.” She explained, but he still didn’t seem to get it. She hopped onto his table, took a deep breath and began, “We are both aware that I had fallen in love with you, Kunj. Besides, whatever happened that night was really tragic, whatever you might say to defend yourself. I don’t know about you, but it’s really hard for me to be in the same room as you, with your usual cheerfulness! It brings back flashes from that night..” Kunj stood up and walked close to her when he heard her sob. He quickly pulled her into his embrace, unaware of why he had done that, but it seemed to provide Twinkle the very relief she needed, since he felt her give in quietly with absolutely no protest. When he was sure that she had stopped crying, he broke the hug and cupped her face. She looked at him like a deer caught in a headlight, suddenly realising how dangerously close she was to him. She nodded in a ‘No’ and tried to pull back, but he didn’t let her go. “I love you” he said, his voice almost a whisper, but sufficient to bring the butterflies in her tummy back to life. He leaned closer to her and placed a loving peck on her forehead, while she closed her eyes, finding the peace that was missing from her for so long in his proximity.

That’s it for now guys. Lots of love!