And I Found Love

2. Yuvraj's Girlfriend

"Yuvraj's girlfriend?"....... Abhimanyu repeated her words in a mocking tone. "Is that your only identity?", he asked, maintaining the same tone again.

Akshara raised her brows as she stared at him blankly, trying to understand his question, or maybe the way he asked it.

"Then why are you in my room right now?", he raised another one, seeing no answer for the first question to which her expressions finally changed and she looked around in confusion. "Is this your room?......I thought it's Yuvraj's", she said, feeling embarrassed enough for Abhimanyu to witness it.

"So you came here.....", he paused and looked back at the open window of his room and continued - "by climbing from there thinking that it's your boyfriend's room? Why? Did your boyfriend never invited you to his house properly before that you had to seek inside like a thief?"

His questions embarrassed her furthermore and she looked down staring at her toes. Her cheeks flushed red, both due to the awkwardness and also because of the frustration of being questioned by a stranger this way.

"He didn't reveal about us yet to his family. But he said he will do it soon, then he will properly introduce me. It's just that I wanted to talk to him about something and that's why I came here", she finally spoke, defending her boyfriend.

"And you came to the wrong room. Now leave", he shot back, sounding rude enough to his own ears as well when Akshara raised her head, staring back at him. "And how is this your room? Who are you?", she asked. Her tone was a mix of anger and confusion because of his behaviour.

"He is unfortunately the adopted son of my father", a voice came from behind. Akshara turned to look at the person who was standing at the entrance of the room, passing glares in Abhimanyu's direction.

"Yuvraj!!", she released a relieved sigh seeing him there while Yuvraj ignored her completely by keeping his eyes fixed on his elder brother- Abhimanyu.

Abhimanyu too reciprocated those stares in his direction. He was once again hit with the "adopted" taunts that he heard ever since he was a child but he made sure to stay expressionless, not letting even the slightest emotion to be visible on his face.

"But you told me you are the only child", Akshara broke their fierce eye contact with her statement after finally grasping his words. "Means he is your brother?", she added, feeling a bit of guilt for questioning Abhimanyu about his room or identity.

"Did you miss the word 'adopted' Akshara? He was an orphan who was just adopted by my parents. He is not my brother", Yuvraj spat out with rage that made Akshara stiffen at her place. She clearly disliked the way Yuvraj mentioned about him being an orphan.

She passed a glance at Abhimanyu's direction and at the same time Abhimanyu's eyes met her's, noticing a hint of sympathy in her eyes for him. And he hated it, he hated when anyone showed him sympathy after hearing about his background. Sympathy made him feel weak and inferior. And Abhimanyu could tolerate anything but feeling inferior, that too infront of his so called arrogant brother Yuvraj. "I hope you got your answer as to who I am and why it's my room", he said to her in a calm yet intense voice that clearly hinted that he is not welcoming her harmless sympathy at all. "Now if you got your answers, please take your useless boyfriend in his room and do whatever you both want to do there. I have many more important things to deal with", he said and turned around to unpack his things, completely ignoring them further.

Before Akshara could say anything or react, Yuvraj grabbed her wrist and took her away from the room.

Abhimanyu continued unpacking his bags while Yuvraj's taunts kept running in his head.

"You are worthless. You were just a formality, just a second option before I was born ", these were Yuvraj's exact words which he spoke to Abhimanyu last time as a child when Abhimanyu was being moved to the hostel, faraway from home.