Kaise Hua : A Tale of Two Imperfects

Chapter 5

Dahleez pe, mere dil ki,

Jo rakhe hain tune kadam,

Tere naam pe meri zindagi,

Likhdi mere humdum..

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Luggage was packed. Mr. & Mrs. Daruwala were about to leave for the airport today. Their son was to pick them up from the airport itself.

"I'll miss you my child." Mrs. Daruwala stated while giving a tight hug to Riddhima, sniffling.

"I'll miss you too aunty. But don't worry, I will video call you once in a while." Riddhima said while rubbing her back slowly.

"Riddhi please think once more beta. We've no problem in-" Mr. Daruwala was interrupted.

"No uncle. Please. I've already talked to a friend and I'll shift to her house just today." Riddhima said, smiling a little.

Both of them sighed while looking at each other. After abiding an emotional good bye, Riddhima was waving at their retreating car. She was feeling upset as well, as she had spent a beautiful time with them.

But some people are meant to leave our lives.

She went back to her overthinking while collecting her luggage and booking a cab in the process.

After sometime, she was in front of her new abode. She had the spare key as they had talked the previous day about her shifting in the afternoon. As Diksha would be in the office at that time, she had given her a spare key.

They've been known each other for over 20 days. Riddhima had to shift her stuff and some heavy belongings prior, so she had to sometimes visit her. In start, Diksha was a little rude to her. Maybe because she was insecure of her. But over the time, she had started to like Riddhima's company and her sweet nature.

And she was less rude to her now. They talked normally.

She unlocked the door of the house and entered inside, dragging her trolley bag and went to her room.

In the last 20 days, Ritik & Diksha were usually busy with the new assigned task of their common department so they just met for lunch with Raj and so, he wasn't really known of the fact that Diksha has a flatmate now.

Whatever talk related to Riddhima happened during their working hours whenever they thought of something related to it to talk about.

Ritik was working on a file and looked very stressed. While typing on the keyboard, Diksha noticed Ritik massaging his temple. He looked restless. Diksha pursed her lips before finally dragging her office chair towards his and poking her finger to his arm. When he glanced at her, she raised her eyebrows twice as if asking what happened. He gestured towards the laptop screen indicating his headache because of work. She nodded, understanding, took a tissue from nearby stand and wrote something on it, then went back to her adjacent seat while dragging the tissue secretly on his desk and then started to work again.

He opened the tissue to see written, "Coffee after work?"

His lips curved to a smile as he made a thumbs up doodle on the tissue handing it back to her.

She smiled seeing him working again and resumed her work as well.

In the evening, Raj was done with his work earlier than usual. So he messaged on the group named 'Gandhi ji ke 3 bandar' which contained Diksha, Ritik and him.

"Guys mera kaam hogya. Tum logo ko kitna time hai?"

"Bhai ye Mehta chhode tab na. Meeting bulai hai humare department ki. Hume 7 baj jayenge kamse kam. Tu nikal." Ritik replied.

"Thik hai kal milte hain fir." Raj sent a message to which Diksha & Raj reacted with a thumbs up.

Riddhima had set her room and was now cleaning her bookshelf. She was wiping the books one by one while putting them in order in the shelf she had shifted from her previous place, while humming old songs.

Raj was in his home and was preparing dinner for him. He was craving for his favourite ingredient, Paneer today. So he thought to try a new Paneer dish but when he looked in the fridge, he was running out of it. So he thought to make a purchase of it from their neighborhood grocery shop.

He went there and bought paneer along with 2 chocolates and thought to drop by at Ritik's and give it to him and another one to Diksha.

If the actions didn't convey enough, let me tell you. Raj is very caring towards the people he love. And he was sure the meeting would have left both of his best friends exhausted, which is why he thought to do this for them.

When he went to Ritik's home, he was met with his parents. They told him that Ritik wasn't back yet.

He looked at the watch to see that it was 7.30 already. He thought to call him once but it was not reachable. He thought that maybe Ritik would have stopped by at Diksha's flat for sometime and decided to give it to them the next day, but somehow he stopped by at Diksha's flat.

Ritik stopped his bike at a small cozy cafe which was at a 15 minute distance from the office. Both of them descended the bike and went inside. Both of them ordered the same mocha they liked there with a chocolate and red velvet pastry.

Diksha looked around while Ritik stretched his arms, looking around.

"Is Mehta ki biwi ko iski shikayat lagani padegi. Saala ghar me joru ke saamne rukta nahi hoga aur humare saamne rukta nahi." Ritik said, making funny faces to which Diksha giggled looking at him.

"Bol to aise raha hai jaise teri joru ke saamne teri bahot aawaz niklegi." Diksha teased him with a smirk.

"Uski aankhon se nazar hate tab to kuch keh paunga na." His elbow supported his fist which he had put against his cheek, looking dreamily at Diksha. She tugged her hair behind her ear while looking around, completely ignoring the warmth her cheeks possessed at the impact of Ritik's statement.

Riddhima was done with her cleaning and decided to go to the park downstairs to relax for sometime. She took her phone in her pocket and was going to open the door. As it was a double swing door, she opened it against herself and it landed straight at Raj's face.

He groaned a bit squinting his eyes, holding his nose which was hurt by the sudden accident and Riddhima's eyes widened looking at a stranger, she had just hit.

She quickly squealed, "I'm so sorry!" and forwarded her hand to touch his face when Raj opened his eyes at the unknown voice and damn, he was lost in her worried eyes for a while.

Somewhere far away, radio played.

Aankhon mein teri
Ajab si ajab si adaayein hain
Ho.. aankhon mein teri
Ajab si ajab si adaayein hain
Dil ko bana de jo patang saansein
Yeh teri woh haawayein hai

A/n: Did Raj just develop a crush guys? Well, Riddhima is all worth it ;)

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