Twinkling Firelight ᴿᴸᵛ

Chapter 2: Unexpected

"I--I'm so sorry....I thought 5 bags of food were more than enough", my mother apologized and frowned. My father shook his head.

"Don't Kamala. Let's just go. Clearly, they don't want to welcome our family", my father said through gritted teeth.

Right then, our angry relative cursed at our family which caused a small fire to light up in my father's eyes. He had lost his patience. He then turned back to face the relative and forced a smile. Soon, my father threw a punch at his face and made the relative's nose to break.

"Curse at my family again and I'll make sure to break more than just that nose of yours", he deadpanned. "Hope you'll enjoy the rest of your day", he smiled at the angry relative who's face was frozen in shock.

In the end, the angry relative ended up in a hospital with a bloody broken nose and we never visited them again.

Yeah, that didn't end well. All of that happened because of a bad first impression. Ever since then, my parents have always packed a few extra bags of food whenever we are visiting one's family. Plus, if packing extra food bags could get relatives to throw compliments and a couple of praises at us, what's to lose?

After loading the boot, we sat in the car. My parents sat in the front while my brother and I sat at the back. My father who sat in the driver's seat not too long ago, started the car and smiled happily to himself.

"Everyone ready?", my parents asks my brother and I. We nodded then we set off together in the car to our distant relatives house.

"Get ready to be annoyed", my brother whispered to me and smirked.

"Bring it on, brother". I smiled.

~♡~

"We're here!", my father sang then turned to look at his beloved children. He cringed at the sight of me and my brother.

I am currently on my brother's hair with one hand and attacking him at places where would hurt him with my elbow while my brother is busy being on defense mode, trying his best to get me off him.

"Maths subject is the worst! Science is much better!", I argued.

"What the heck?! Science is worst, you monkey-faced sister! Maths is just about numbers and fun!", he spat. I scoffed at his answer.

"Math is trash! Science is way more better. It's about learning interesting stuff and doing exciting experiments, you dumb plate!", I said and elbowed him at his shoulder. He grunted and called for timeout. I smirked at my victory.

"Radha scores with two and leaves Viraj with zero", I said and stuck my tongue out at him.

"Shut up, daughter of Satan", he told and rolled his eyes.

"The two of you always act like kids rather than mature adults. Sometimes, I forget that Viraj is 22-years-old and Radha is 18-years-old. Act your age, will you?! I've had enough of your childish attitude!".

I flinched at my father's raised voice and Viraj anna stayed quiet with his eyes glued to the ground. It's been so long since he had raised his voice at us.

My brother and I nodded slightly. My father's eyes were burning with rage and I knew what is about to happen next. I held my brother's hand tightly and shut my eyes. He squeezed my hand back for support. Not so long after, I felt a painful sting on my cheek.

I swallowed hard before touching my cheek. There was a slight cut on it and a few drops of my blood were dripping slowly. I quickly grabbed some tissue papers to stop the blood. Tears fell without my consent as I dabbed the tissue papers on my fresh cut.

Soon, the bleeding stopped and I threw the used tissue papers into the small rubbish bin we have in our car. I choked on my tears then forced a smile on my face.

"I--I should've acted m-more mature. I'm so s-sorry for my faults. Thanks for reminding me, appa".

I thought he had changed over the years. I guess I was wrong about that. He's just masking himself and my mum is unaware of it because he only acts this way towards my brother and I when she isn't with us.

When my father slapped me, my mum was busy listening to music with her earphones and carrying our luggages to the front gate of our distant relatives house. So, he saw his opportunity and decided to use it. I'm so stupid. A bandage was placed placed above the cut with the help of my brother. I smiled at him.

Atleast he isn't hurt.

~♡~

We stood in front of our relatives house gate together. My mum rang the house bell three times. A few seconds later, the gates opened and we were greeted by three people who I assume are the Krishav family.

"Welcome, welcome! It has been so long, hasn't it?", Mr Krishav said in Tamil, looking directly at my parents.

"Yes, Aayansh", my mum replied in Tamil and handed him the food bags we've brought for them, earning a smile from Mr and Mrs Krishav.

"You didn't have to do this, Kamala. Your presence is already more than enough for us", said Mrs Krishav to my mum.

"Well, we can't come empty-handed now, can we, Vimala?", my father laughed and Mrs Krishav laughed along with him. Suddenly, their daughter walked towards me and held my pinky finger.

"Come inside our house, akka. My Anna is inside the house. Let's meet him first then play with my cooking set", she smiled with her teeth.

She's so cute!

I nodded and pinched her chubby cheeks lightly. She giggled and asked me to carry her. After having her in my arms, she let out a small chuckle and gave me a long kiss on my cheek.

"Alright, akka. Kiara says run into our house", she said, laughing softly again.

Cuteness overload!!

"Okay, babygirl. Here we go!", I said and carefully sped off with Kiara into her house. Behind us, I could hear everyone chuckling at us.

Once we were inside, I was extremely wowed. Their house looks so luxurious. The Krishav's are definitely in the rich category. I looked at Kiara and found her giggling again. She sure does love laughing.

"Where's your brother, babygirl?", I asked. She shrugged and acted like she didn't have a clue. Oh, so she wants to do this the hard way.

"Tell me, baby---", I tried saying but she had cut me off.

"Or what?", she asked, crossing her arms. So savage for a young girl.

"Or....I'll give you a thousand kisses!", I said then spun her around and gave a kiss every second. She laughed repeatingly while holding her tummy. The more kisses I gave her, the more louder she laughed.

"Kiara, what has got you to laugh so much?", a low and husky voice asked. We both immediately stopped whatever we were doing. I looked at the guy who is currently glaring at me. He stood there wearing a white hoodie and black pants while holding a cup of coffee in his right hand.

Wait, hold up.....

"Who are you?", he asked and I swear I was about to scream out loud.

"Anna!", Kiara said, clapping her hand.

T-this is Mr Krishav's son?!

"Anna, this is our cousin!", Kiara said in Tamil. In my head, I was desperatingly asking her to be quiet. Soon, he stopped glaring and gave me a warm smile instead.

"Hey, beautiful. I'm Lashven Krishav. Nice to meet you".

M-M-Mr Krishav's s-son is my long-term crush! That means....my crush is now my cousin.

At that moment, I, Radha Aashi Kavya, knew that my life is pretty much fucked up.