Disguised Darling|✓

Episode 9

It's almost six months after they've entered the orphanage that Mihir hears his sister crying for the first time.

"Bhai!" Mishti wails, running towards him and he immediately puts aside his plate of food that he had difficultly acquired from the mess because they have been increasingly corrupt these past few weeks since the man with a kind smile, the one he has got to know as Daya sir has stopped visiting the orphanage as frequently as before.

"What happened, Chutki? Why are you crying?" he asks, cradling his sister to his chest as she sniffs into his shoulder.

"Bhai, she said - she said that mummy-papa will not come back to us. She -" the crying girl gathers her breath with a lot of difficulty before she releases another sob, her words coming out choked up. "- she said that mummy-papa are dead and will never c-come back. What's dead, Bhai? And why will they not come back to us?" the girl asks as she sobs incessantly, clutching at her brother's shirt, unable to see the darkening expression on her brother's face.

"It's - it's nothing, Chutki. They will come back. It's just that they will take some time more to do so. But until then you have Bhai with you, don't you? Do you not love me?" he asks, feigning a pout when in reality all he wants is to cry, to mourn the loss of their parents but he can't, not in front of his baby sister.

Mishti doesn't need to know about death right now. All she needs is to colour her drawings pretty, eat good food, learn about vowels and cuddle with her brother as he tells her a story to sleep.

"I thought you loved me more than them, but you don't." he puts on a sad face, the tears in his eyes not a pretence, but the little girl quickly gives in to his silly tricks, looking at him with wobbling lips. She shakes her head. "No bhai!" she wails, almost too close to his ears but he doesn't mind, "I love you more than mummy papa. They went on a trip without me, but you didn't and you'll never do, right?" the little girl asks, almost scared as if wondering what she'll do if her brother answers with a yes; if he too leaves her behind. But all her doubts vanish as her brother kisses her chubby cheeks and continues to do so until she giggles.

"No, I am never going anywhere without my Chutki. Never. Ok?" Mihir asks and sees as his little sister nods happily, sighing.

"Now, see what I have for you, Barfi! Come on, sit here and I'll make you eat it."

"I'm a big girl, bhai, I can eat it by myself!"

Mihir wakes up with an instance of past clouding his mind, his heart worrying for his sister, not willing to relax.

He has been terribly missing his Chutki since the day she has left. In the twenty-seven years of his life out of which he has spent twenty-two years with his baby sister, the siblings have never been separated before this - this was a first for both of them. In fact, the reason why he had been mad on Mishti when she had gone to that house without telling him was not because it was an irresponsible act (even though it was) but mainly because she hadn't hugged him goodbye and now they had to live apart for days on end.

Safe to say, he's more worried for her safety than Mishti herself.

However, once Mihir remembers that the problem has already been taken care of and there is no need for his sister to worry anymore, he forces himself to relax, trying to breathe in the not so fresh air of his scented room, ventures downstairs in search of his friends as well as some food as soon as he freshens up. But as he does, he observes the house being too quiet.

Frowning slightly, he first checks through all their rooms, bathrooms, calling out their names, but when he doesn't hear any reply, he goes and checks the living room. But when even that proves to be empty, Mihir lets himself panic, promptly searching for his phone to look for any messages they might've dropped for him, simultaneously making his way towards the kitchen, it being the only place that he hasn't checked.