“I never knew Riya Mukherjee could act so well.”
.
.
.
Riya’s eyes shot open. She knew he might be upset today , the entire ETF knew. Arjun was called to the Headquarters for Roshni’s case today, Rathore had told them secretly. So, Arjun was supposed to join the team in Pune the following day. Riya on the other hand was supposed to join the team later on the same day. She was about to leave for Pune, when she received Rathore’s call, asking her to reach office asap.
Rathore sent her the picture of a tattoo. The same tattoo was found on a victim’s body in a case few months back. They doubted that the two cases might be linked. So, Riya was assigned the job of scanning the files and finding the case file.
There sat Riya, on the floor, in the middle of Rathore’s cabin, surrounded by files, carefully going through each one. Three hours passed by. Her head was throbbing in pain but there was no sign of success. Some files were clearly not here . She decided to grab a cup of coffee and begin searching again.
She dragged her tired body to the pantry and opened the shelf to look for coffee powder. Suddenly, her eyes fell on Arjun's empty tea glass.
“BINGO", she shouted in excitement, throwing her arms in the air like a baby. “Some files are in Arjun Sir's cabin. I gave him to sign them.” She said, almost running in the corridor that lead to Arjun’s cabin.
She opened the door carefully, entering the ‘RESTRICTED ZONE'. She smiled remembering how Shree and Chotu had ragged her in her initial days and dared her to put a “LION’S DEN, ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK" sticker on Arjun’s cabin door.
She instantly brought down all the files kept on Arjun’s table to the floor, adjusted herself comfortably against the wall, put her ear buds on, began reading the files again.
When suddenly, to her bad luck Arjun walked in the ETF office. He too, was tired with the day's happenings, and frustrated as well. The Commissioner kept on telling him to wait for the right time before he would provide him with any information about Sikander. “How long will Roshni have to wait for justice?”, he muttered under his breath. Dragging his feet to his cabin, he was about to open the door when he saw Riya, sitting on the floor, clicking some pictures from a file, while several others lying open around her. “What is she looking for here in my cabin?", Arjun thought. “Is it about Roshni, she always wanted to know what happened? And she might have thought this is the right time with no one around".
But before Arjun could react and confront her, she grabbed her bag in excitement and was gone. He rushed, following her. She got into a cab. Arjun too, moved quickly towards hi SUV, wasting no time. Following the cab, in no time he understood where she was heading to.
Next thing he remembers is her shivering form in front of him. But he felt no pity. She appeared to him, a prey, and he felt like a predator.
“Sir......maine.......kuch....kuch bhi nhi.....kiya!”
That was it. That brought the end of Arjun’s patience. He took two steps back leaving her wrists, nodding his head in disbelief and SMILING, wickedly, shocking Riya. In no time, he pounced on her, covering those two steps back in one.
“I never knew Riya Mukherjee could act so well”, he said.
Hurt was evident in Riya’s eyes, but today no one could stop him. The meeting with the Commissioner had already set his soul on fire, and Riya’s actions were just adding fuel to it.
“Didn’t I tell you to stay away from my personal life. But you don’t seem to understand.”
“Tumhe lagta hai m bewakoof hu, tumhari harkatein smjh nahi aati mujhe?
Mujhe sb dikhai bhi deta h aur smjh bhi aata h.”
She nodded in negative, controlling her sobs, in an attempt to say something, but he began speaking before she could.
“M Rathore ya Shree nahi hu. In Sab ka asar mujh p nahi hoga", he said pointing towards the tears she was shedding, his voice full of hatred.
Though Arjun was not somebody who would disrespect a girl, but today he didn’t seem to be in his senses. Angry he was, at himself, at her, the World and every damn thing around.
Angry at how he is unable to get Roshni her justice. Angry at how Riya is trying to get into his world. Disappointed at how he is unable to get Riya out of his head at times when it should be only Roshni he should be thinking about.
His chain of thoughts were broken by Riya’s sobs. And to cover up for his inner turmoil, he began again, “Door raho mujhse, meri zindagi se. Nafrat h mujhe unn logon se jo meri zindagi mein taank jhaank krte hain. Nafrat h mujhe tum jaisi ladkiyon se. I don’t want to see your face.”
This was enough for Riya. She freed herself from his grip and immediately ran inside the building, without saying a word.
Arjun ran his fingers in his hair, sighing. Without wasting a second, he too drove away in his SUV.
Both were unaware of another pair of eyes watching over this drama in broad daylight. Riya’s landlord.
The old man, used his non-existent IQ and believed every word the angry policeman said. Riya’s coming home late, ‘somebody' coming to drop her each night, he just connected the dots and cooked up a story on his own. In short, the damage was done. Asked Riya to vacate the house and when she didn’t listen to him, he threw away her stuff. So, Riya had to finally give in. She gathered all her stuff that she could, and left.
*Present*
Arjun realised he could do nothing now without letting Rathore know about it all. So gathering all the courage he was left with, he began dragging his feet towards the office. He moved towards Rathore’s cabin only to find it vacant. Concluding he was in the conference room, he opened the door of the conference room and got the shock of his life.
There she was, engrossed in a file. After causing all that trouble to him, there she was smiling at something Shree whispered in her ear, completely unaffected by his presence. Arjun took a deep sigh of relief to find her safe, catching Rathore’s attention. Rathore gave him a questioning look, to which he instantly looked away and moved towards his seat. As soon he sat at his usual spot, he noticed something unusual. Riya was not sitting next to him. She had switched places with Shree and now Shree sat between him and Riya.
This irked him. “Is she ignoring me? I need to talk to her about the stunt she pulled out yesterday.”
Arjun looked at the clock. 5 minutes to 10. At 10, Riya would go and make coffee for everyone and be alone in the pantry. That is when he could talk to her.
Impatiently, he kept looking at the clock every now and then, and today those 5 minutes didn’t seem to pass. He kept playing with his pen in anticipation. Rathore could clearly sense his anxiety. “Rawte!”, he said in a low voice only for him to hear, frowning. Their eyes met for a second, and Arjun banged the pen on the table in response.
He again looked at the clock only to find it was already 10:02. But Riya didn’t budge. Before he could think anything further, Chotu walked in with 4 cups of coffee. If looks could kill, Chotu wouldn’t have been alive to serve those mugs to everyone. Little Raju also walked in with Arjun’s cutting chai. Shree had ordered that for him. All in all, the chance was wasted.
As time flew by, what caught Arjun’s attention was the fact that Riya didn’t even look at him, no eye contact, no conversation, nothing. It was like he didn’t exist. This was driving him insane.
Later in the day, a new case came up. Arjun almost jumped in excitement. But as Rathore was dividing teams, he ordered Shree and Chotu to go with Arjun while Riya goes with him. Arjun’s face dropped instantly. It had been the other way around, always. Even how much he hated it, Rathore always made Riya tag along with him. But today, when he wanted her to be with him, he did just the opposite. “Dushman", he cursed him inwardly.
