Rishabh was sitting in his room after the long walk, checking his mail. To is surprise, he heard his door open and Tani's voice came. "Do you want to check out the trail road with me?"
Rishabh looked up, blinking rapidly, wondering what to say.
"Can you speak?" demanded Tani.
"Yeah...erm...yes, sure," said Rishabh, standing up so fast that he nearly fell down. Tani tried not to grin at his now-ordinary goofiness.
Rishabh followed Tani to the gate of the resort and paused, waiting for Jassi and maybe someone else to come. Tani walked ahead, and then realized that he had fallen behind. She turned and asked, "Now what?"
"Isn't anyone else coming with us?" ask Rishabh.
Tani raised an eyebrow. "Do you want anyone else to come?"
"Um, no, no...I didn't mean that!"
Tani laughed and beckoned him over. "God you get so awkward, it's kinda cute."
Rishabh felt the blood rushing to his cheeks, but he smiled shyly. It was the first time Tani was being so open with him. What was it with mountain resorts to mess with people's minds? he found himself wondering.
"You're so..." he began.
"What, intimidating? I know that."
"No-I mean you are intimidating but you're also interesting," said Rishabh. "Like as though you had layers..."
Tani looked at him, startled, because it had been a odd yet nice thing to say.
They entered the rocky road winding upwards.
"In case you're wondering, you're nice too," she said. "More than what meets the eyes."
Rishabh gaped at her. "Is there?"
Tani internally sighed.
"Yeah, there's a very resilient guy under that goofy armour," she said, sounding pretty philosophical even to herself. But she did mean it.
Rishabh realized with a warm feeling that Tani, in spite of her intimidating manner, in spite of her closeness with Jassi, had noticed him after all.
He should have known that his stars would not let him live in that happy daze for long, because just that moment Tani tripped over an unexpected bump in the road and fell down heavily.
Rishabh bent and put an arm around her shoulder instinctively. "Are you ok?" he asked anxiously.
Tani began to feel like she had twisted her ankle, but she still said, "Yeah, I can manage."
Rishabh drew away his arm. Tani tried to stand up but her feet did not hold up and she stumbled again.
"Come on I'll support you, let's sit on the bench, then when the pain reduces we can go back," said Rishabh.
"I said I can manage," said Tani, a note of strictness creeeping into her voice as usual.
Something fell in place in Rishabh's mind.
"It won't kill you to take help once in a while you know, especially when you're injured," he said, probably being braver than he had ever been. Tani stared at him in shock, and he added in a softer tone, "Let me help you...please."
His forceful tone seemed to have done some good after all, because finally Tani pulled his arm around her and admitted, "It's hurting a bit."
"It will subside," said Rishabh, feeling delighted on several levels at once. "Just...just lean on me and walk to that bench."
*********
Siri and Shivam came back to the resort, still dripping wet, and both hoping that they could reach their rooms unnoticed to avoid questions.
Unfortunately they had to pass the pool, and came face to face with Hardik and Yuzi, who stared at them like Chistmas had come early. [Hardik had finally given up flirting with Siri and took especial delight when he saw her with Shivam].
"Aha," said Hardik. "So what have you two been doing?"
Shivam quite looked like he was considering answering him, but Siri told him, "Just ignore him." To Hardik she said, "Mind your own business."
Hardik jumped off the seat and trailed after them. Yuzi followed, and both of them badgered them with questions and wisecracks till Siri wanted to push them both into the lake immediately.
Jaddu and Jinks appeared in front of them, and they took one look at the four and got the situation at once. They also saw how severely pissed off Siri and Shivam were looking, because clearly they didn't appreciate being interrupted like this.
If it was anyone else, Jaddu would have supported Hardik whole-heartedly, but this was his younger sister.
"Why don't you come away with us for a while?" Jinks was suggesting good-naturedly to Hardik and Yuzi, sending a glance at Jaddu to warn him to stay off.
"No thanks bhaiya, we're all right," said Yuzi quickly.
"No you're not," said Jaddu smoothly. "I mean, maybe you are all right, but you can be better!" He put an overbearing arm each around either of them and forcefully dragged them away, before anyone could even say a word.
Jinks looked stunned at Jaddu's helpfulness, and Jaddu turned around and winked at Siri.
Siri grinned back. Jaddu bhaiya was definitely a very cool brother to have at times.
Then Siri suddenly remembered something and ran after them. Shivam stared after her, dismayed.
"Yuzi, where's Kuldeep?" asked Siri anxiously.
"He has gone on a walk with Ahona," said Yuzi.
"Why did you let him?"
"What will she do? Murder Kuliya?" asked Hardik contrarily.
Yuzi smacked him on the head hard as Siri said, "Well, no..."
She tried to ignore her sixth sense that was telling her that this had not been a good idea.
***********
Neha, finding Rohit's room empty, finally found him in Virat's room.
"Can I come in?"
Rohit and Virat and Jassi (who was also present there) stared at her.
"Have you ever asked for permission before?" asked Virat, mildly worried.
No, she had not, but Rohit could see that she had been in a weird mood from morning. He knew the reason, of course-everyone did, but Rohit did think she could take a mere fight with Kuldeep a little more lightly. Which reminded him, it took sheer calibre to fight with Kuldeep at all.
"Come in already," said Virat.
Neha came and sat down beside Rohit bhaiya, wishing he had been alone. She wanted to have him to herself for a while, because talking to him always made her feel better.
"Rohit bhaiya," she began.
"What happened?"
"I just..."
Rohit got her message and got off the couch. "We're going for a walk," he told Virat and Jassi as Neha grinned.
"You're the best," she told him as they were walking down the stairs. "You're the absolute best!"
"Yeah, right," said Rohit sarcastically. "By the way why are you so depressed? For god's sake go and talk to Kuliya if it matters so much!"
"I don't even want to talk to him," said Neha.
"Sure you don't," said Rohit.
Neha scowled at him. Rohit decided it would be wise to change the topic at once.
"My mother's home is nearby, do you know? My parents are here visiting now. We can go to visit them tomorrow," said Rohit.
"Great," said Neha, half-heartedly.
Rohit rested his arm on her shoulder and said, "The trail starts here. Do you want to climb it?"
"Yeah, let's."
After a while, they most unexpectedly came across Rishabh and Tani sitting together on a bench, the former with his arm around the latter.
Neha's eyes lit up instantaneously, and she started to rush forward. Rohit pulled her back, whispering, "Are you seriously considering going there?"
"We could go and congratulate them," said Neha.
"No. There's no need, we're going back right now," said Rohit.
Neha did not agree, but she did not have any choice when Rohit bhaiya led her back down the path they came from.
"At least let's go to Hardik to tell him of our success!"
Rohit knew for a fact that this had nothing to do with Neha and Hardik's match-making, but since it made her look so much brighter than few minutes before, he could let her live in that delusion.
"Go," said Rohit.
"You come with me too!"
They went off together to look for Hardik.