Love?!? Nah.. (#MissionDesi)

Chapter 12.

"What I am doing here, for God's sake?" Siddhartha thought.

He had pretty good idea what had overcome him. He should have reached Delhi by now. Instead he was on the training with suspicious Ishani eyeing him carefully.

"Don't you have anyone else to stare?" He asked her irritated and pointed at the adjacent compartment, "There is a flock of aunties. Go hang out with your own age group."

Ishani snickered at his response but went anyway.

That gave Siddhartha some room to think clearly. He drew out breath of relief. Finally. From the moment he stepped in here Ishani had been asking questions and he was so perplex at his own action that his answers were jumbled up. She would have laughed if he had told her the truth. So he told her about missing his parents and all. She did not believe his lies of course. But neither gave any damn about it.

"Bhaisaab tickets?" The TC took him out of his trance.

He handed him his ticket. Ishani chose the exact moment to come back.

"You have booked your ticket too?"

"Huh!?! Yeah."

When TC went away Ishani studied him. She was examining him and he was too baffled from inside that it was hard to keep neutral expression.

"Punnu, are you okay na?"

"I have cancer." He replied.

Her eyes widen and quickly understood his joke.

"That was a bad joke."

"I know. Can you stop bothering me please. I am not feeling well, seriously." He told her earnestly.

"Okay. Do you need a medicine or something?" She asked genuinely.

"No I'll just sleep for a while." He went to the upper berth and lied down with his back to her.

Last night's events started to pass in front of him. Ishani looked radiant in that blood red long dress of her, sitting by herself. He was watching her from his where he was sitting. And then Vibhor showed up a date started talking with her. Siddhartha could see Ishani was at ease with him. Usually she did not let any boy around her before she could trust him. That had changed with other things. If she was old Ishani, it would have taken Vibhor a year to even befriend her. New Ishani of course did not wear her guards anymore.

So, at the end of the night, when he saw her slow dancing with him, he knew like everyone else what that meant. They look adorable. His girlfriend, Tia, had commented.

Still he felt a pang, thinking about her and him; thinking about he was not the only guy friend in her life anymore. And every time he thought this his stomach did this weird flips. May be it's just sign of upcoming diarrhea. His roommate had announced. But as per Tia it was early signs of falling in love. The girl was happy about that. She was sure he was falling for her. He doubt that but everybody agreed with Tia.

"Punnu, you traitor. Wake up." Ishani growled. She hit him with plastic bottle.

He woke up and turned around.

"What?" He asked in a sleepy voice.

"You. You. You." Ishani could hardly say a word. Her nostrils flared. From where he was, Ishani looked a small angry kitten to Siddhartha. The thought made him smile.

"Why are you smiling?"

"Trust me. You won't like the answer." Siddhu replied.

She seemed to stare him for a moment or two. So she knew. He sat up.

"Okay. I confess." He told her.

"And why did you do that?" Her voice crackled, "I know you like to tease me,  play jokes on me and annoy me to the hell. We have been doing it from God knows what time. But this time you messed it up."

Oh no. She was seeing it all wrong. He came down stair.

" Look,  I have done nothing wrong. I mean yeah I did give Vibhor some tips here and there. And I did tell him about you and help him win you. But all us fair in love and war. And we seemed to be doing both for quite a long time."

A shock ran on Ishani's face.

"What?"

"You heard it."

"You sat me up with Vibhor?"

"I just helped. The guy was already head over heels."

Ishani opened and closed her mouth to say something.

"I know it's a bad thing. But how can I see you grow old lonely, living with your books and dating bald men to have some fun. You should thank me, I brought you a Bengali knight in shining armor."

"Oh my God." Ishani shook her head, "Punnu. I don't even know how to react to this."

"Then why were you calling me traitor?" Siddhartha asked in confusion.

"Because Mahira found her embarrassing childhood photos posted on Facebook by YOU. And Vibhor just called to inform me that you have sneaked around his room and imprinted his face with lipstick marks while he was sleeping. I am also told that you have also taken pictures." Ishani informed sternly.

Resigned, Siddhartha handed over his phone, letting Ishani delete those pictures. When finished Ishani gave back his phone and started to unpack her food.

"Aren't you angry?" He asked as he took a paratha from her plate.

"Of all things you have done to now, this is not actually notorious or something I should be worried about. I am not angry. I just can't see you thinking for me like that."

Siddhartha smiled as she was not angry and helped himself with the food.

"O soniyo, tu to kabhi Hume thik se janiya hi nai. Tujh se to ladai b hai aur tere naal hi pyaar b."

"Achaa?" Ishani laughed.

The mood lighten from then on. Later that night, when Siddhartha went to sleep he patted himself silently. His plan had worked.

The thing was, when Siddhartha came to realize the consequences of butterflies-in-his-stomach, he did a through research on it. And he came to this conclusion.

1. Ek ladka and ek ladki kabhi dost nahi ho sakte. As per all movies he watched as a part of his research.

2. Chances of him falling for her were high as everyone was rooting for them for no apparent reason.

3. If he didn't do anything, this would lead to heartbeat acceleration and concentration problem.

4. Most of all, he loved what he had with Ishani. This feeling was temporary. For this stupid kind of thing he could not ruin what he had. He did not want anything more.

So, after he cleared his head,  he found the easiest way. Find Ishani someone to end all predictions of half the college. So he played cupid and brought Vibhor and Ishani together.