TejRan : What Love Feels Like

Part-9

Disclaimer : All the characters written below are imaginary and a work of pure fiction. There is no resemblance to any incident or situation and is written as work of fiction.

Karan was about to go the floor when he passed by her vanity and heard her voice. Her cry. She was sobbing loudly and he could clearly hear ber gasp for breath. He immediately went to the door and leaned along it. He wanted to go inside so bad because he had realised what had happened. Teja must have seen him talk to her. He closed his eyes in frustration. Why can't teja trust him? And in this entire process she was not only hurting him but also herself. He was about to knock the door but decided against it and went on floor after wiping his tears.

After his shot was done he went straight to Aru's school to pick her up.

"papa...."she came running to him as soon as she saw him come out of the car.

"choco pie...." he picked her up and kissed her nose. "did you have to wait for too long?i am sorry my baby...." he hugged her tightly.

"no papa i just came out and was standing with ma'am....you are on time...." she pointed at her class teacher who was at the gate. He gave a polite nod to her teacher and made her sit in the car and started to drive.

"did you finish your tiffin?" he asked her softly.

"yes papa...." was looking outside at the ice cream parlour as their car stopped at a signal.

He followed her gaze and chuckled.

"i want to have ice cream....will you have one?" he said controlling his chuckle.

"yes papa please...." she clapped immediately and he parked by the side of the road and went to the ice cream parlour.

They sat inside and ordered their favorite butter scotch and chocolate ice cream for each of them and chatted happily about how Aru's day at school was. Karan fed her the ice cream and had it himself and then drove back to set.

"bhaiya...." one of his staff came forward as soon as he and aru came out of the car.

"hmmm?" he picked aru up and looked at him.

"bhabi asked did you go to pick aru up....i told her you would bring her here....hearing that bhabi booked a cab and went somewhere...."

"hain?where?" he asked in confusion.

"she didn't say omi bhaiya asked....her shot for the day was over so she left....may be she went home?" he asked karan unsure.

"why will she go home when she knows i will come here?" karan was a little bit scared. He knew teja had again misunderstood him when she had seen him talking to her.

"bhaiya you have your shot left...." he reminded him.

"i know but we decided that we will stay back and go home with aru together....anyway...." he tried to convince himself that she is fine and went inside the vanity absent mindedly.

"papa....papa...." aru poked him as he kept her on the bed.

"huh?" he looked at her coming out of his trance.

"i am calling you since so long...." she pouted.

"sorry baby....i was just thinking about something...." he caressed her hair and served her lunch which teja had packed and brought for all of them on set.

"papa you?where is mumma?" she asked as he started to feed her.

"mumma is away for work....she will come back....i will have lunch with her...." he said softly. He knew teja had gone out without eating and the way he was freaking out internally wouldn't let him eat. He was just calm for the sake of Aru.

He went and finished his shot for the day leaving Aru with omi and came back. Teja had not come back. He had called his neighbours to check his home and she was not home. Her phone was switched off. She was not with her parents or her close friends.

Karan didn't know what to do. He drove Aru back to home and helped her with the homework and it was already night. He fed her dinner and put her to sleep by telling her a story and came to the lounge and sat on the couch covering his face , leaving the door of their room

With each hour he was freaking out. Omi had gone to search for her while he had to stay with Aru. But he knew Omi won't be able to find her. If se didn't want anyone to find her she would make sure they can't. He sighed heavily and leaned his head back on the couch.

"please come back...." he whispered to himself.

He went to the balcony and looked down to see him Omi or teja was coming back. He was so freaked out but he was so helpless. He cannot go anywhere leaving Aru. She would need one of her parent with her anyway. He somewhere deep down felt happy knowing Teja had that confidence in him to leave Aru completely under his responsibility. He ran his finger through his hair and went back and sat on the couch. His heart was thudding in his chest and he was controlling himself from overthinking.

He checked the wall clock. It was half an hour passed 12. It was serious. He had dialled omi a few times and he still didn't have any idea about where she was.

He got up and started to pace in the living room. After a good fifteen minutes he heard the bell. He almost ran and opened the door and sighed in relief seeing her. Before he could understand what was happening , she came a couple of steps forward and held his collar.

"you still meet her?karan....you still meet her...." she shook him.

"Teja you are drunk....come...." he held her shoulder and took her inside and made her sit on the couch.

"you still meet her sunny?" she choked and looked at him as he went to the dining table. He poured water in a glass and came back to her and gave her the glass.
She looked at the glass and chuckled.

"so you care?you love me right?i know you do...." she looked at him with tears.

"then why did you leave?why did you not trust me?" he made her drink the water.

"how could i not trust my eyes?there is a difference between trusting and being stupid right sunny?" she held his collar and shook him again. "why did you do what you did?if you loved me why karan?" she pushed her face into his chest and sobbed. "i loved you....and you...."

"you loved me?and you don't now?" he gulped. He was angry at her. For leaving the set without telling anyone and then missing for ge entire day. For freaking hin out. For not trusting him. But in that moment all he could ask was this.

"i do....i am a fool....in all these years all i could do was miss you and cry for you even after what you did...." she was breathing heavily. "every night i hugged your hoodie just to breath in your smell....i felt so alone...."

"i didn't do anything....and you had our family....you had aru....think about me...." he chuckled with tears.

"yeah right...." she said sarcastically and pushed him away. "stop this drama....just stop....you still have my photo in your wallet....i saw it when you opened your wallet....you have our photo on our side table....on the walls....it looks like you love me...." she shouted angrily.

"teja aru is sleeping...." he quickly went and closed the door of the bedroom and came back.

"answer me....why do you make it look like you love me when clearly you don't....or you do....i don't know....you have a daughter....don't you have any shame karan?you still meet her...." she pushed him angrily.

"shut up teja....don't say anything you might regret later...." he gulped with tears brimming in his eyes.