His Favourite Book

Chapter 23 - Who was it?

After the night out, everyone went home to make up for whatever sleep they had missed. It was a bank holiday. Aashna and Abhimanyu met again at the department for their poster presentation with their professor. Both of them presented their respective research Titles, Abstracts, Hypotheses, Literature Reviews, Methodologies, and the constructed Items (questions) for their semi-structured, qualitative interviews. They spent a good period of time having discussions with their professor about their work. They jotted down all the good points, points that were to be improved upon, points to be retained, and the ones to be deleted. They met the Head of their Department and a few other Psychology professors to consult them for a word. Once things were finalised, and everything seemed good enough to proceed further with, they received a declaration and a permission letter stamped by the department, for them to rightfully conduct their research in the society. They also received a few contacts of experts and respective letters of recommendation for reviews on their interview questions. They finally packed up, ready to enter the next, most crucial stage of their research- the Conduction.

They were out of their University by 3 pm. Very few people were visible around them. Everyone was probably enjoying the weekday holiday. Aashna clicked a few photos of the clear sky, also capturing a few birds, and then prepared to leave, when Abhimanyu stopped her. "Hey, how are you going home?"

"The same way I came here, Rickshaw."

"Let me drop you home. I'm sorry for that bicycle thing-"

"That's fine." She said and started walking away."

"No, really. I'm somehow responsible, too. Please don't deny." He tried to undo some damages done by Drishti. "Also, I want to talk to you so..."

After that last statement, Aashna had to agree. She sat in the passenger seat of his car, while he was out on a call with his driver uncle. He asked his driver uncle to take a leave today, so he could drive Aashna home. Once they drove off, he said, "So... you remember the first day we met? I told you that this research is very important to me. Uhm... I don't know how and where to start actually... Please bear with my jumbled thoughts. So you might have already guessed from my room that I come from a pure money-minded family. The generations have worked only to own a huge bank account and lead a luxurious, royal life. But you know, somehow, with all of that... I have noticed... that most of them have lost the basic sense of humanity. You understand how that works? It's like- they would go to any lengths to make massive sums of profits. This is exactly what was passed down to me. I consider myself thankful to God that I deny some parts of that ideology. You know, they want me to have an elite job. Elite as in... ummm..."

"I know, I know."

"Right? Yeah, so as I said if I do that just for the sake of it, I might turn into one of them. But again, they are my family. I am a part of them, no? So now... Yes, here comes the main point. Now I have decided to publish a research paper and become a worthy and trusted Clinical Psychologist. That should sound elite to them, right? I hope it does. You see, I'm gonna become a person that everyone looks up to. Well, many if not all. I'm gonna have my own identity established." He paused for a brief moment, contemplating whether he should say the next thought. He finally did. "Now that I am an adult, I am always compared to all those over-eligible elders. My parents are very strict. They want me to keep away from people who don't have a similar mindset. I am always hiding away from them, trying to get some work done, having more interactions with new people to learn new perspectives on things and all. They still don't know about our online meetings, by the way. They're usually out during the evenings when we are on the calls. Anyway, so that's that."

Aashna looked at him and gave him an assuring smile. "I'm sure your hard work and sincerity will pay off good stuff someday."

"Same... same. I wish." He stopped at a red signal and hesitantly spoke up, again, "Thanks... for listening, and not replying with some silly advice... I really just wanted to let this all out."

"You're welcome."

- X - X - X - X - X -

They had arrived near the ChaiScript book cafe. Aashna had asked him to drop her there as she had missed staying there. After a whole week and a half, she finally found the time to be there. As they were about to get off, Aashna insisted that he stay for a while. Both of them were tired, after all. Abhimanyu agreed and parked his car nearby.

Meanwhile, Aashna turned around only to find Kartik gawking at something inside the cafe. His face, in between both his palms, was stuck on the window pane. She peeked inside to try and see what might have caught his attention, but no luck. She walked up to stand behind him. She tiptoed all the way to surpass his shoulder and again tried to see what was so interesting inside.

"We're harassing books now?" Her voice came out rather loud near his ears.

He jolted up and pushed the whole of his back against the window, spreading his arms all over. "OOOWWWW! OH GOD! WHAT ARE YOU-"

"What are YOU doing? Here? And why?" She stood there with arms akimbo.

"Why? Can't I come here?"

"To stand here? Like this? Staring into souls? NO!"

Kartik saw Abhimanyu coming to them and coughed her off. "Shhh. Let's go in."

While Kartik and Abhimanyu collected their drink orders from the desk, Muskan entered with some files and spiral-bound notebooks. She sat there on one of the tables in the middle row. She had decided to do more of her internship work now that she had a holiday. Kartik went up to her, which made Abhimanyu follow him, unwillingly. He clearly didn't like going near Muskan. Aashna, before she could follow them, was stopped by Khushi to talk about something. The same time, Aditya came out for the same.

Abhimanyu sat two seats away from Muskan while Kartik stood there beside her, trying to hear Aashna's conversation with Khushi and Aditya. While his eyes were fixed on them, Muskan leaned forward and opened her mouth, trying to capture the straw from his glass. Kartik saw her and held instinctively the glass closer to her mouth, and went back to his attempts at the conversation. Here, Muskan had quickly gulped in a huge chunk from his drink and still continued drinking. Realising the sudden weight loss from his hand, Kartik looked down at his glass and snatched the straw away from her mouth.

"AYEEEE! YOU-" He shouted as he took a step back.

"MMMAAAAHAHHAA" Muskan sat up straight and laughed her heart out after finally gulping the last sip in her mouth. "That was divine oh my god wow I want more." She said and moved forward to grab his glass again.

He lightly slapped her hand away while trying to control his laughter. "You are one pathetic human, you know that? Stay away from my food woman." He looked at his one-fourth of leftover drink and then his eyes fell on Abhimanyu. "You. Stop laughing at me. AAAARGH WHAT AM I GONNA DOOOOOOO!"

Abhimanyu hadn't realised since when he had started smiling around them. "I'm sorry, that was fun. I want that drink too, by the way. What is it? More like, what WAS it?"

Kartik gave him a death glare. "Y'all are so wrong for making fun of me every time-"

*THUD*

Kartik was interrupted by a medium-sized stone that was thrown into the cafe. Obviously, to hurt someone purposefully.

___________________________________________

A/N: That's all for today. Do interact if you like the story! :)

See you in the next chapter!