Moran - Dare to Love

Part 13

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Continuing from the last part,

*****

Monami knocks on the black colour front door. She thinks about the code that she has just cracked. Chills are going down her spine.

She’s knocked on the door for a long time, but there’s no answer.

 “Tap.. Tap…” She persists.

She takes out her phone to call him. 

Karan answers in a tired voice: “Tum neend me chl rahi ho kya? Raat ki 1 baj rahe hain.”

Monami:  "Aap Ghar par ho na? Darwaza kholiye!”

Monami waits outside his apartment for another five minutes before Karan opens the door. He is wearing a bathrobe. His hair is still damp and with occasional drop of water forming at the tips and dripping down onto his bathrobe. The robe is ‘open’ around the neckline, revealing the top part of his chest.

He glances at her and smiles: "You can change your mind, with the proviso that you have to make me breakfast tomorrow morning."

Monami: "Nahi.. main......" He walks inside the house.

Monami has no choice but to follow behind him.

It’s the first time she stepped in the house ever since he has moved into the apartment. Everything looks more or less like what she remembers.  Except… there is now a porcelain bathtub in the middle of the living room.

This bathtub is twice the size of the one in her apartment. The tub is filled, with steam rising into the air, which means Karan just took a bath. Next to the tub, there’s a little side table with a tall glass, filled with the flower tea Monami recommended.

Karan takes a seat on the sofa, one leg overlapping the other, underneath his big bathrobe. He looks at her: " Well,  what makes you come to my house at this time of the night in your pyjamas…” His eyes slides over her face: “… like a frightened bird?”

Monami sits across from him: "Sid ne Saurav ki place or jo numbers mile the usse related ek email send kiya hua hain..aapko”

Karan takes out his silver notebook from beneath the coffee table.

After only a few seconds, he raises his hand to close the screen. He stands up. Monami notices that his face has turned a little pale, with a sharp cold look in his eyes.

 She says softly: "Agar aap inn numbers ko alphabets se replace kro toh...."

Karan turns and walks to a room.

Monami follows behind.

******

Karan’s study.

One side of the wall is a large bookcase, filled with boxes and boxes of file. It extends all the way to the ceiling.

Monami watches Karan reaches for one of the boxes on the top shelve. He places the box on his study table and starts to take out a few folders. These folders are big and thick. On the side of each folder, there’s a label that reads: 27-211, California , Flower Cannibal.

Karan is scanning the documents in the file. Monami asks: “ Saurav aisa message kyon leave karega aakhir?"

“Yeh usne nahi leave kiya hain." Karan says without looking, still scanning those documents: “He is a simple guy, aise complex codes use karna.. he is incapable. Aur uski personality k basis par agar usse kuch signals leave krne the toh they should be totems, or abstract symbols like knights and emblems."