After he was gone and out of sight, Johum breathed out and calmed her thundering heart. She walked over to her father's desk and picked up a glass of water before gulping it down. Her trembling hands clenched in to fists as she sat down on a chair and placed her hands over her head.
Who was he? He acted as if he knew her but Johum was sure that she had never heard of him or even met him before today. His eyes looked familiar but that was it. A lot of people have Gray eyes but that did not make him familiar.
She was perfectly sure that she have had no memory loss. She never knew this man yet he ignited something inside her. A spark of fear. She feared him already.
His eyes. They were so haunting. They held so many secrets yet were deep hollows of emptiness. Pain, secrets, anguish, anger. So many emotional were there. Yet they were empty.
She didn't know what he wanted from her. I will always take care of you princess. What did he mean by that? He was just her father's business associate. How and why would he take care of her.
That statement alone terrified her. It felt like there was a deeper meaning to that and him taking care of her wasn't only in the means of looking after her.
Johum just knew she had gotten herself in danger, one way or another.
Zayan Helmy.
It was like a lightening bolt had struck her. She stood up, knocking her chair down and picked up her phone from the table. Helmy. Helmy
How could she have forgotten about that. Zaa'ir Helmy. Zayan Helmy. Were they related? Oh no, they weren't. There could be a lot of Helmys out there. They didn't even look like they were related.
But she could not tell that to her beating heart. Johum gathered her things and bolted out of the office with a thudding heart and clammy hands. Gray eyes. They both had gray eyes. They both shared same surname. Oh God!
Johum drove back to the mansion and once she was outside the gates, she got out, threw the keys at a guard and ran inside. Her small purse slapped against her torso as she ran upstairs to her room. She needed to find out if that Zayan was somehow related to her professor.
What if they were related? How did he know her? God what did that man even want from her? She did not want any problems now. She have had enough for life. She would not get herself in to something dangerous...like she had done before.
Johum threw her bag on the bed and opened her laptop. She typed the name of that stranger and was not surprised when articles popped up along with his pictures. She did not bother oggling his pictures no matter how hot he looked. She typed his name along with the professor's and what shocked her were the results.
Brothers.
Of course. Johum huffed and opened up a link that was named as Helmy brothers at International Gymnastics Festivals. She opened the pictures given in the link and went through each and every one of them.
The pictures were taken randomly, with the brothers sitting on a sofa staring at what seemed to be a screen as their heads were tilted sideways, another picture was taken with Zayan Helmy conversing with a woman along with Za'ir Helmy.
There was not a single picture in which he was smiling whereas the other Helmy had a smile on his face. For whatever reason, Johum felt like he was scarier than his brother. He frightened her when his brother made her feel all sorts of things.
She closed the laptop and rubbed her eyes. She didn't know how to go in to the depth of the matter. All she could see was a single path, a path which involved telling Za'ir Helmy about his brother and how he acted like he knew her. She needed to talk to him, know what was happening and why did this all involve her.
She just had to wait for another day and then she would get her answers, only if she got to see the professor. Johum laid down on the bed and faced the ceiling. Great! Now she had another tension in her life. She sighed and rolled over to her side.
She wished her life was not so complicated. She was fine with crushing over one Helmy brother, who knew there was another crazy one who talked to her as if she was a thing in his possession. As if she was his.
She prayed she wouldn't have to face him again. He was scary and Johum would try to tell her father to break all contracts with Rough & Rugged, if that meant getting rid of him. God what had she gotten herself into?
She was only nineteen and there were nineteen thousand problems in her life. Not to mention another problem named as Zayan.
Now that she was calm, she lifted her hand in front of her face and stared at her knuckles. How dare he kiss her hand! She had never let any man touch her like he did and that made her feel disgust. How could she just stand there when he sniffed her like a dog and then kissed her hand.
She should have slapped him so hard, he would have seen stars in the daylight. She should have screamed at him, thrown things at him. But no. She stood there and watched him like a hawk.
Grrr.
What a mess her life was.
🌹
Next day, Johum didn't even need an alarm to wake up for college. She was up at six AM sharp. The first thought to enter her mind was the Helmy brothers. She was anxious to see the deputy dean today and tell him or rather ask him about things.
She got in to a pair of black leather jeans - her favorite colour, with a Gray top and dark brown leather jacket. She pulled up her hair in to a French braid with tendrils falling over her face and coated her eyes with eyeliner and mascara. She applied cherry red lipstick, put on her high heeled boots and walked downstairs.
Nobody was awake this early. Her father had office at ten and Murat being on Vacation, woke up after twelve o'clock. So Johum walked out in the parking lot and found her driver ready for her.
She rolled her eyes and got in the back seat. All the way to university, her led jiggled in anxiousness and she bit her lip as the thoughts about yesterday did not leave her mind.
Upon reaching the destined building, she got out of the car and made her way inside the admin building. She was ready to talk to the deputy dean but her friend jumped in her way.
"Salam. Good morning." Rua shivered.
"Morning." She greeted as she kept walking. Rua jogged by her side and looked at her weirdly.
"Why are you in so much hurry? The first class starts at seven thirty and it's currently seven." She asked. Johum stopped and turned towards her.
"Well, as you can see, I am not headed towards our department. I am going to Admin department." Johum said, looking at Rua's confused face. She discreetly thought; What is she doing here so early. Her first class starts at eight thirty. And she does not have Math with me.
But Johum dismissed that thought. It was university and Rua might have had something to take care of. Like her. Duh! Nobody had problems like her.
"Oh. For what?" Rua asked.
"I have to talk to Mr. Helmy." Johum shrugged. Rua's eyes snapped towards Johum and she looked annoyed.
"Johum! Why can't you just let him go?"
"I am not holding him by any means."
"I mean, it hurts me to see you chasing him like this," Rua grabbed her hand and gave her a worried look, "He doesn't even look at you. He doesn't deserve you." She grabbed Johum's hand and squeezed. Johum's heart warmed at the concern and she smiled.
"Hey don't worry. I am not there to have a look at him." She laughed, "I have something to discuss with him. It's important." She pressed her lips together and sighed. Rua smiled and patted her hand.
"Okay. I'll be waiting here." She nodded. Johum turned around and left for the building. When she reached his office, she knew he was inside. Because of his cologne lurking outside the room.
She took a deep breath, blew out and then softly knocked on the door. After the knock, she made her presence known by opening the door and stepping inside.
"Hello Sir." Johum greeted, looking at a mess of hair as he worked on the paper with a pen. He stopped and looked up, this time his eyes clashed with hers. Johum swallowed before she saw his eyes widening and then moving down.
"Morning. How may I be of help?" He asked, clearing his throat. Well, you can love me. She blinked her eyes and cleared her throat before taking a seat in front of him.
"I needed to discuss something with you." She let out a sigh and pulled out her cell phone from the pocket of her jacket.
"What may that be?" He asked. Johum opened the screenshots she saved in her phone and just stared at them for a few moments.
"I need a few answers sir and...they are not about college." She confessed. His eyebrows furrowed and once again she noticed that he could not help but stare at her. His eyes flicked to her red lips before he looked down and his cheeks turned pink. Johum licked her lips and waited for his reply.
"I am not understanding you miss." He shook his head as his lips turned in to a frown indicating that he was thinking quite hard.
"You will." She said, "I want to know about...Zayan Helmy." And the reaction was not expected at all. Sure she expected him to be shocked and wonder how she knew about his brother. But she did not think it would be this intense. In the spur of moment, he forgot his modesty. His eyes stared at her and there was burning fury in his eyes like molten lava. His jaw was set hard and his nostrils flared as the pen that he was holding snapped.
"How do you know him?" He asked, still not removing his eyes from her face. And although she had wanted him to look at her, his gaze made her uncomfortable and squirm in her chair.
"I..." was she supposed to tell him what happened in the office yesterday? He was still a stranger to her and no matter how much she liked him, Johum couldn't spare her secrets to him. What would he think of her when she revealed how close she had been with her brother? She bit the side of her cheek and wondered what she should say.
"Have you met him? Has he done something?" He asked away, still fixing his sharp eyes on her face. Johum looked at the phone on the table and gulped.
"I...met him. He looked familiar and..." Za'ir stood up from his chair furiously. He got up and clenched his fists before placing them on the table in front of him and leaned forward to her eye level.
"Stay away from him." He almost growled and Johum did not like the fact that he scared her at that time. He seemed to be a completely different person right now. She did not like him in this form, he almost resembled a beast. And the beast did not look like her saviour. It looked like it would harm her if she poked him. She swallowed the bitter taste in her mouth and looked up at him.
"Why?" She asked. His jaw ticked and he huffed through his nose.
"He might be related to me." He spat the word related. "But he is dangerous man. He can hurt you, so stay away from him." He looked at her. She swallowed and nodded.
"But he..."
"You don't want to know more about him. He will be your worst nightmare if you ever once looked at him." Oh he already is...
"Okay." She gritted her teeth, got up and walked out.
Johum was naive sometimes but she was not stupid. So many questions flooded her mind.
Why did he not ask where he met her? Why was his reaction showing like he knew it was going to happen? Why did he look at her as of he knew her before this? Why did it look like something tragic was going to happen to her?
And that something would involved the brothers.
🌹
Johum was not herself for the next two days. She attended classes but barely understood anything. Her friends were worried about him, especially Rua who kept asking what Za'ir had said that had upset her so much.
She didn't want to dump her problems on others or want to drag her friends in to her messed up life. So, she told them that she was having problems with her family and she would be okay in few days.
Who knew she would be wondering more about Zayan than Za'ir for next two days.
She wanted to get her mind off of the brothers so she asked her friends to come and hangout with her at the mall. Rua was busy and so was Sam which angered her. So she went alone...
And that was the mistake.
🌹
Chapter Four and five have been updated. Make sure to read them in order and do not forget to vote and share your views.