Junoon | Obsession

19

As RK absentmindedly swirled his tumbler within his hands, the amber liquid within it swirled as well, the ice within it clinking. But the sound of it did nothing to snap RK from his thoughts.

All RK could think of was how the woman with the very filmy name had been crying, that too, because of him. It truly was strange - just the other night she had been yelling at him, calling him insolent and other names. Yet here she was the very next day, crying because she had felt bad about what she had said. Sure, she hadn't been crying over the name-calling, but rather because she had learned about his father.

"I'm so sorry... I'm really sorry."

RK took a sip of his drink, the cool liquid rushing down his throat.

"I didn't know, I'm so sorry."

He refilled the tumbler with more whiskey.

"You didn't deserve to lose your father like that."

RK paused for a moment, then placed the bottle down and looked at the amber liquid within the tumbler. Again, those horrible memories from his past played in his mind, haunting him and making his mostly-stone heart ache. Whatever bit that hadn't turned to stone yet was simply because of the painful memories. It just wouldn't let him fully turn into stone, taunting him with the pain it provided so that he would never stop feeling it.

"RK? RK snap out of it! I'm really sorry, I shouldn't have said any of those things, I'm truly sorry! RK- Rishabh!"

RK snapped out of his memories and looked at the tumbler he had been gripping onto tightly.

People rarely call me that.

"Chief..."

RK glanced at Bittuji from the corner of his eye as he entered the bar area.

"Dinner is ready and it's all been placed on the table."

He simply waved his hand in acknowledgement.

"Um, chief, there was another matter I needed to talk to you about."

"Are you waiting for the moon to come out and then tell me," he said sarcastically. "What is it," and he took a sip.

"Chief, an inspector from the Delhi police called."

RK didn't even need to hear the rest of it to know what Bittuji was going to say next; it was so predictable.

"Apparently, they raided some shady gentleman's club, and once again-"

"Kulbhushan 'Kuku' Bhatia and Sikandar 'Sikki' Bhatia of the Bhatia Group of Badmaash Company were caught," RK completed.

"Exactly, chief."

Idiots. "Well?"

"I handled it already so the media will know nothing happened."

As expected. "Good."

"We're lucky the inspector called me first thing, but how long will we keep getting lucky for? At one point or another they will get caught-"

"Better if they did," RK said, turning in his stool to face Bittuji. "Maybe once my so-called stepfather and so-called stepbrother get publicly shamed, they'll learn. Then again, what shame can you expect from rats? They're attracted to garbage no matter what."