Oneshots on AsfiYa

The Letter (Part 2)

Asfandyar sat with his head resting against the bed frame as the sun peeked in lightly through the shimmer curtains. He wasn't crying, but there were traces of tears under his eyes. He hadn't slept the whole night. Her words kept playing in his head on loop.

"Kaisi Mohabbat? Ek insaan se attraction or infatuation ka yeh Matlab nahi ki aap uss shaqs se shaadi karle."

 How could she have said that? Did she mean it? Did she not feel absolutely anything for me? He had a truckload of questions popping up in his head. What he didn't have though, was the answers to these questions. Just as her whole soliloquy played in his head one more time, he remembered her curt tone, the generalisations that she had made and then he remembered her expressive eyes, that were filled with love, reciprocity and helplessness?

There was an incongruence. Something didn't fit right, he thought to himself.

"Mai shaadi karna hi nahi chahti. Naa aapse, Naa kisi aur se. Naa aaj aur naa kabhi.", she had said.

Within no time, Asfandyar was thinking about the time when they sat on the hill-top after Saims birthday party, and he had told her that he thought all his problems would get solved if she was with him. He also remembered how she never really responded to that very direct, but indirect confession of love.

Just then, he remembered the time when she had blurted out that she cared and was worried for him. He also remembered starkly how she had immediately disconnected the call after that. All these things were seemingly small. Though Asfandyar had noticed them, he had not payed much attention to them. However, after their conversation at the hospital yesterday, he was able to connect the dots and things slowly started to make more sense to him. He realised that maybe she had been trying to push him away since the very beginning and that her confusing, irrational behaviour had little or nothing to do with him. There was definitely a deeper issue that she wasn't telling him about.

Asfandyar sighed loudly while massaging his forehead. He got up from his bed and walked into the bathroom. He got ready and left for the hospital in a frenzy. He avoided having too much of a conversation with anyone in the house and even declined breakfast. He drove straight to the hospital. He reached the hospital and went into his cabin after taking a brief update about the patients from Dr. Haroon at the reception. He settled down in his chair and switched on his computer. Just then, he saw a white envelope that was kept under the paper weight on his table. He remembered clearly that he hadn't put any envelope like this one on his table yesterday. He picked up the envelope in his hands. It read "To Dr. Asfandyar Ali Khan". Within seconds, he was able to recognise whose handwriting it was. His heart started to beat very fast as he opened the envelope and took two letters out of it.

He read each line in the letter very intently. His eyes widened as he read about Zubia's family and all the challenges that she had faced before she came to Neelum valley. By the time he reached the end of the very long letter, he was crying his eyes out, a part of him was angry too and his hands, that were usually extremely sturdy, were shaking. Everything that she was doing finally made complete sense to him. Asfandyar had found Zubia's ID card a couple of months back and knew that she was the girl he had saved many years back. He chose not to talk to her about it because it was something very personal to her and he didn't want to make her uncomfortable by bringing up her past. However, he had no idea about all the other trauma that his Zubia had gone through.

He drank a glass of water and tried to call Zubia multiple times, but her phone was switched off. He quickly put both the letters back into the envelope, wiped his tears, wore his spectacles, picked up the envelope and almost sprinted towards the reception.

"Dr. Zubia kahan hai?", He asked the receptionist

"Sir, Maine toh unhe kal raat se nahi dekha. Unki toh night duty hai aaj shaayad.", the receptionist said.

"Are you sure ke aapne unhe nahi dekha?", Asfand asked again

"Yes sir, but main hospital ke baaki staff se puchkar aapko batati hoon", the receptionist said.

"Okay", he said and rushed out of the hospital in a frenzy.

He got into the car to search for Zubia. He was scared, very scared and wondered what he would do if he didn't find her. He really couldn't afford to lose her, at any cost. He was trying really hard to hold himself together. He drove around Neelum, but Zubia was nowhere to be seen. He suddenly thought of calling Gaiti and asking her if she had heard from Zubia. However, she hadn't heard from Zubia either. As Asfi continued to drive around, something struck him and he stopped on the side of the road and started walking, rather sprinting. After a kilometre long sprint, he finally stopped and caught some breath as he saw her from a distance. She was there, alive. Asfandyar was relieved, to say the least.

This was the same hilltop where Asfand and Zubia had spent time after Saim's birthday a few months back. Zubia sat there with her head in-between her knees and weeped. Her back was facing Asfandyar.

A (relieved and concerned ): Zubia..

Z (while weeping): A..Aap? Aap yahaan kyun aayein hai? Ab toh aapko sab sach pata chal gaya hoga na? Phir kyun aayein hai yahaan? Main aapke saamne mazeed sharminda nahin hona chahti Dr. Asfandyar. Aap yahaan se chale jayein!

A (after sitting down next to Zubia): Zubia, tumhe pata hai, Kuch mahine pehle hi mujhe tumhaara FSc ka ID card apne samaan se mila. Usi din mujhe yaad aa gaya tha ki tum vahi ladki ho jise Rameez ne phasaya tha. Mujhe yeh bhi yaad hai ke maine tumhe ghar chhoda tha. Maine tumse iss bare mein kabhi koi baat nahi ki kyunki, iss baat ko jaanne ke baad bhi, mere jazbaat tumhaare liye vahi hai, jo pehle the.Par aaj jab mujhe tumhaari zindagi ki poori sachchai ka pata chala, toh tumhaare liye mere mohabbat dugni ho gayi hai, Zubia.

Z: (Looks at him, surprised)

A (while putting his hand on Zubia's hand): Hum sab ka ek maazi hota hai aur ghalatiyaan karna toh jaise humaari fitrat hai. Issiliye toh hum insaan kehlaate hai. Kyun itne saal baad bhi, tum apne aap ko sazaa de rahi ho? Tumne ghalati ki ,uss ghalati se kuch seekha aur vohi ghalati dobaara nahi ki. Yahi toh tumhaari taakat hai! Apne aap ko maaf kardo, Zubia. Please!

Z (while sobbing and refusing to look him in the eye): M-Main aapke kaabil nahi hun

A (while looking at her intently) : Bas! Please! Tum jaisi ho, tumhaare saath jo bhi hua hai, mujhe koi farq nahi padta. Main sirf itna jaanta hoon, ki main tumse beintehaa mohabbat karta hoon aur apni zindagi tumhaare saath guzaarna chahta hoon! Tum meri apni ho, Zubia aur mein Daaniyal bhai ke baad kisi aur apne ko khone ka tassavur bhi nahi kar sakta!

Zubia looked up at Asfandyar and smiled lightly. Within seconds, he pulled her into a warm embrace! One that they had both craved for a while now! They stayed in that position for minutes. Just then Asfand noticed the sun setting and loosened his grip around Zubia. He turned towards the setting sun and she almost automatically rested her head against his shoulders. The soulmates sat there peacefully, as they watched their miseries set away with the sun! 

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Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed this part! It was quite challenging for me write this one. I've tried my best to portray all the emotions that the characters go through! Just imagine SaHad performing these scenes and I'm sure you'll get all the feels!

Special thanks to  @Nehad_forever for the idea of writing Asfi's reaction to Zubia's letter!

Please keep giving me feedback and also ideas for more Oneshots in the comments!

Cheers!!