DICKhou : Here's the rough recording of the track...
DICKhou : Let me know if this works or if you need any changes
Junak sat upright from where he was lounging on the living room sofa. The large room decorated with certificates, trophies and family photos was deserted except for him and a big brown stray dog that sat near the door, basking in the sunlight. She perked up when Junak noisily scuffled through his pockets and pulled out his earbuds. He connected them to his phone and pressed play.
The familiar note of a typical Bihu song – flute, the dhool and a few guys hooting – flooded in. Leading the song was the dhool. It was the same melody that Junak and Dikhou had finalised the day before accompanied by the flute, pepa, xutuli, toka and gogona.
It was perfect!
The track was four minutes long. The moment the music faded, Junak jumped to his feet and ran out of the room. The dog eyed him lazily. "Banhi. Niri!" he shouted. Priti, amused at his excitement, told him his friends were in their room so he made his way upstairs, taking two steps at a time.
The door to their room was open, so he walked in with a loud cheer.
Banhi looked up. She was sitting on the bed with the laptop open in front of her. She smiled, taking off her headphones. "Someone looks happy."
Junak went and sat beside her. "Where's Niri?"
Banhi chuckled. She had a dreamy look on her face whenever she spoke about her girlfriend; Junak didn't think she realised it. "She's befriended this group of teenage girls. I dunno what all that's about but she's been hanging out with them a lot."
"The dancers?"
"No. The dancers are like our age. I've only met Gagori though, she seems cool."
Junak nodded, impatient now with their ongoing conversation. He had exciting news to share. He beamed at his friend and showed her his phone. "Guess who got the music."
Banhi squealed. "Oh my god, for real?"
Junak nodded.
"Play it, play it, play it!!"
He handed her his earbuds and pressed play. Her face lit up, eyes wide and lips pulled into a grin. She bobbed her head to the beat. "I love it," she shouted. Though the music was more or less the same, she listened to the whole of it and then pulled out the earbuds. "This is great!"
"I know right!"
"Dikhou made it?"
Junak did not like the way she smirked while asking the question. "Yeah. And some guys from a nearby village."
Banhi smiled suggestively. "Didn't you talk to him yesterday? This was fast."
Junak frowned. Now that he thought of it, it was fast. It was just the morning before that they were discussing it and now, the track was in his hands. Did Dikhou go over to the other village, speak to the musicians and get the recording in such a short duration?
"He's nice," Banhi commented, off-handedly, but Junak knew her well enough to know what she was insinuating.
He rolled his eyes. "Will you stop trying to set me up with him?"
"I'm trying no such thing. You thought of it so maybe you're the one who wants it."
Junak gaped at her. He picked up the pillow lying next to him and threw it at her face.
"Ow, hey!" She grabbed the pillow and was about to return fire when Grandma appeared at the door, smiling. She hastily threw the pillow on the bed and said, "Aita."
Junak rolled his eyes.
"Here you are," Grandma said. "Where's Niribili?"
"She's out," Junak answered, then added, "Why, is something wrong?"
"No, no." She waved her hand dismissively. "The guys are fishing in our backyard, I thought you kids would be interested in watching. Or filming."
"Fishing?"
"Yeah. We have a pond in our backyard. Haven't you seen?"
There was a cluster of ominous-looking betelnut trees behind the house that Junak was too scared to cross, so no, he hadn't seen any pond. "Will you walk me to the pond?" he asked, shamelessly.
Banhi hit him on his shoulder, while his grandmother laughed. "Of course. I wouldn't want you to get lost now. Come on."
Junak got to his feet and then turned to Banhi. "You coming?"
She shook his head. "I got to finish some edits." She gestured at the laptop. "You go ahead. I'll join you."
"Okay."
***
In daylight, the trees weren't that scary. With his camera held close to his chest, he followed his grandmother as she led him through a narrow, worn-out trail through the tree line.
When they emerged on the other side, he stopped short on his tracks.
The pond was huge. It looked like it was quite deep too, its waters reflecting the blue sky overhead. Wide patches of grassy land lay around it, where a few cows are grazing.
On the other end of the pond, several metres away from where Junak was standing, were two men, waddling through the water, without their shirts on. One of them sported the annoyingly familiar mop of curly hair.
As Junak contemplated his next move, Grandma came to stand beside him and said, "Go on. I'm sure you can manage the rest of the way." She chuckled. Before he could reply, she turned her face away and shouted, "Dikhou, look who wanted to come watch."
If there was a cliff nearby, Junak would've no doubt jumped right off of it. "Aita!" he hissed.
"What?"
UGH!!!! Old people could not take hints!
"Hey!" Dikhou called, raising an arm. "Come on."
Surely, it would look odder if Junak walked away now. Right? Sucking in a deep breath, he turned away from his grandmother and began walking along the bank, towards Dikhou. The pond looked even deeper from up close and he noticed an occasional fish breaking the surface. It was all very pretty and all, except the fact that someone there was half-naked; which would've been cool, really, if not for the weird incident that happened last night.
Which, Junak was sure, he was overthinking. Like, nothing happened. Right?
Nothing. Happened.
As Junak neared, he saw a large net was spread along the pond. Jatin was walking alongside it, raising the net and collecting any fish that tried to cross through it and got stuck.
Dikhou, on the other hand... well, he stood nearer to the bank. The water reached up to his waist, doing nothing to hide all that skin that Junak did his best not to stare at. It shouldn't have been hard – Dikhou was a jerk and Junak wasn't interested – but last night's memories still lingered. Especially the weight of him, the scent of him and how nice and warm he felt against Junak.
"Fuck," Junak muttered under his breath. He was seriously, tragically touch starved.
Dikhou eyed Junak as the latter walked closer. "Did you get the track I sent?" He was holding onto some strange fishing instrument made of bamboo, carelessly propped over his shoulder. Junak had to drag his eyes away from his fingers, his hands and those really well-toned arms.
"Y-Yeah."
Dikhou raised his brows. "All good?"
"Yeah, yeah." Junak's fingers fidgeted with the camera strap. "Yeah – aren't you cold?" he blurted before he could help himself.
"Can't really walk into the water with a leather jacket or something." He shrugged, then slowly broke into a mischievous grin. "Do you want to join?"
"No! No, I... I'm here to–" He wanted to say shoot because honestly, that was his plan, but now it just felt... weirdly inappropriate. "Watch," he ended lamely.
Dikhou was biting back a laugh. "It's fun. I'll teach you how to use this." He gestured at the bamboo trap he was holding. "It's called a polo."
Despite everything, Junak was curious. It was a simple conical instrument, with both ends open. "How do you catch fish with it?"
Like a kid excited to show off his science project, Dikhou beamed and said, "Come on down. I'll show you."
"That sounds suspicious."
Dikhou rolled his eyes. "What are you scared of?"
Good question. What was he scared of? It was just a pond, and among other things, he loved water bodies. That was why he came running here after all.
He took the camera off his neck and gently placed it on the ground. He then pulled out of his sweater, took off his shoes and socks, shivering slightly as the cold air hit him.
Okay, maybe this wasn't a good idea after all.
"Come on, you won't be cold in the water," Dikhou prompted.
Junak frowned but did not question it. He folded his sweatpants at his ankles and made his way down the slope of the bank, careful not to slip. The ground was soft and muddy under him.
Dikhou stepped closer to the edge and held out a hand. Junak took it, almost on reflex – Dikhou's fingers were cold and pruned, and like, really firm – and walked into the pond.
The water was freezing.
"Fuck, you lied!" Junak cried.
"I'm surprised you're still surprised."
Jerk! Junak huffed. He scooped a handful of that cold water and threw it at Dikhou's face.
"Hey!" Dikhou let go of Junak's hand to splash water back at him. "You're a kid."
"You're a kid," Junak retorted, using both hands to splash water at Dikhou who backed away, laughing and trying to shield his face.
"Stop it, you'll scare away the fish," Dikhou cried, but it was clear he was enjoying it.
Junak was thigh-deep in water but he was completely drenched after their little game. He ran a wet hand over his face, pushing back his hair. "Fine. It's cold, so let's just get this over it."
Dikhou beamed.
"If I fall sick, it's on you."
"Well, you already passed out once so it won't be very original – hey!"
Junak kicked the water at Dikhou.
"Dikhou-da!" Jatin cried from where he stood a couple of metres away, submerged till his chest. "The big fish are over there." He pointed at somewhere on the other side of the pond.
Dikhou nodded and looked at Junak. "Come on."
"I don't know what to do. I've only fished with fishing rods."
"That's boring." Dikhou made his way through the water and Junak followed close behind, keeping his eyes at anything but his bare back. He had really nice shoulders, though, and those arms –
Dikhou came to a halt and turned to Junak. "Have you seen anyone use this before?" He held out the polo towards Junak who shook his head. "Okay, it's pretty simple." He held it by the smaller opening and bent down and thrust it down into the water, the larger opening landing firmly on the ground at their feet. "You plug it in, like this."
"Okay..."
"And then." He took it out of the water so Junak could see. "Put your hand through here," he shoved his arm through the smaller opening and fisted his fingers, "catch the fish. If you managed to trap it."
"What?" Junak gawked. "That's it?"
"Yeah." He held it out towards Junak. "Want to try?"
Junak took it gingerly with both hands. At its widest, its girth was almost about the size of his waist. Following Dikhou's instructions, he shoved it into the ground. "There's no way it works," he said, reaching down to put his arm into the trap. His fingers met water. No fish.
"It works. You just need skills and patience and the knowledge and–"
"Okay, okay, I got it!"
Dikhou grinned, his smile near blinding.
Junak pulled out the polo and returned it to the other man. "You do it first."
"Okay. Come on." Dikhou took the trap and made his way further into the pond. With each step, he put the polo into the water, then took it out and then thrust it down again at a slightly different spot. "Don't flail about, you'll scare the fish."
"I'm not flailing–"
"And hush, no loud noises either – you need to stop doing that!"
Junak laughed after splashing a handful of water at his face. The scowl that Dikhou shot him was worth everything. "Show me what you got."
"Patience!" Dikhou drawled but continued to walk about with the polo.
It was fun to watch, at first. But as the minutes trickled by, Junak got bored of the same old repetitive actions. And that his eyes could revel better in watching the curve of Dikhou's muscles, the way they strained with his movements, was not sitting well with Junak. "How long is this going to take?" he whined. "I thought you said you had the skills and the–"
"Patience, I said." Dikhou rolled his eyes. "And I'll get it if you stop blabbering for a change."
"I'm not–"
"Gotcha!" Dikhou exclaimed. He was bent over the polo and grinning up at Junak.
Junak felt his heart skip a beat. As he watched, Dikhou leaned down and when he pulled his hand out of the water, there was a silver fish thrashing about between his fingers.
"Whoa." Junak gaped, unable to hide the awe from his voice.
Dikhou was smirking now. Without looking away from Junak, he called Jatin to come and take the fish. That Dikhou was staring right back at him was the only thing stopping his eyes from wandering across all that skin in front of him. That it was dripping wet was certainly not helping.
It was almost cruel, really.
"Ooh, it's big," Jatin mused as he reached them and Junak nearly choked as his mind went to places it shouldn't have.
Thankfully, no one else there was going to hell except him.
Dikhou handed the fish to Jatin and then held out the polo to Junak. "You want a go?"
He nodded. He grabbed the trap and after cracking his neck to the sides, he began to copy what Dikhou had been doing earlier; he'd plug the trap into the ground, reach inside it, and pull it out and try again at another place when he came up empty-handed.
For the first five tries, it felt cool, the excitement of doing something new. And then it faded, anger and frustration taking their place. That Dikhou was following close behind with his stupid, naked body was also definitely not helping.
By the end of ten minutes, which felt like hours or maybe even years, Junak was completely and utterly frustrated out of his mind. "Stupid. Fish." He shouted, slamming the polo on the ground.
"Whoa, okay," Dikhou said. "Patience, remember?"
"Fuck. Patience." He just wanted to catch one fish, so as to not completely humiliate himself in front of that Jerk. Was that too much to ask?! "Ugh!!"
"Jun."
Junak felt his heart trip over itself. He shoved the trap into the water and turned to face Dikhou with his hands on his hips.
The smile Dikhou wore was strangely calming and not at all mocking. "I see that you're very invested," he spoke softly and slowly.
Junak hmphed and stomped his feet.
Dikhou chuckled lightly and took a step closer. He opened his mouth to say something but froze midway, his eyes going wide.
"What?" Junak scowled.
"Do you hear it?"
"What?"
He was full-on grinning now. "Check inside the polo, Jun."
Junak was suddenly too excited to notice how it was the second time Dikhou had called him that and his heart did that weird flip all over again. He bent down and pushed his hand through the opening of the polo.
Something slippery slapped against his fingers.
He gasped, his eyes wide, mouth agape.
Dikhou caught his gaze with equal enthusiasm. "Careful, now. Hold it tight."
That was easier said than done. The fish was a slippery little bastard and it took Junak several tries to firmly grab its body. Once he was sure it won't escape, he sucked in a deep breath and pulled out his arm.
There, glistening under the sun, was a silver fish squirming between his fingers.
~~~
A/n
I love this chapter, I'd been dying to write this chapter hehe.