Avenging Rohit (OR, the ICT exacts revenge on Sofia Hayat)

Rahul's hairdressing

Rahul led Bhuvi and Bumrah to the spa on the 4th floor.

"Why the hell are we going in there?" asked Jassi in alarm.

"They'll send her here. The hotel authorities, I mean," said Rahul. "Now both of you just do as I say."

___________

"Madam, we're extremely sorry for the mishap," the hotel owner kept saying profusely. Finally he made his offer. "We would like to present you a free visit to the spa to clean up this mess. You are, of course, free to avail any other services there too."

Virat glanced at Rohit, both of them having overheard this.

"I've got a funny feeling that's where Rahul has gone," whispered Virat in glee.

___________

Jassi, dressed as an employee of the salon, nearly jumped with joy when Sofia Hayat came in, just as Rahul had predicted.

"What happened to your hair, ma'am?" he asked in polite concern, as her hair was plastered on both sides, still dripping with milk.

"Some ruffian tried to harass me," she said angrily. "Can you fix it up?"

"Of course, of course," assured Bumrah.

Rahul, dressed properly as well, came up. Both of them were wearing sunglasses lest their victim recognised them, and the trick seemed to be working--there was no recognition on her face.

Rahul, who could speak in beautiful English when he wanted to, talked Sofia Hayat into having a hair spa and head massage and what sounded like all sorts of convincing nonsense to Jassi.

Bumrah brought the special mixture the three of them had concocted ten minutes back using instructions from Google.

Rahul played the role of a salon employee to perfection and Jassi did well as assistant too, except for the moment when he tripped over a table in over-excitement, knocking all the bottles off the table onto the ground.

"Be careful, Shyam! Clear up the mess at once!" said the salon manager sharply from inside his small chamber.

Within an hour, their tweaks began to show its effects as Sofia's hair was starting to turn a distinct shade of green.

"Rahul, it's wor--" began Jassi in the background in a thrilled whisper.

"Shh!" Rahul glared at him. "Message Virat immediately, tell him to manage the reception!" Rahul said in a barely audible whisper.

"You're done, ma'am," he said in a normal voice as Bumrah took up his phone.

"Thank you," said Sofia, standing up and removing the mask off her face.

Then she stared at her reflection, frozen.

"What in the world did you do to my hair?" she screamed.

Rahul stared at her, wide-eyed. He removed his sunglasses to take a better look.

"YOU!" Sofia's shriek nearly brought the roof down. "HOW DID YOU GET HERE?"

"I'm just an employee," said Rahul, his head bowed. "I don't know how--Shyam, what conditioner did you add?" he demanded, looking at Jassi, who had also removed his glasses.

"Must've been a--a green dye," said Jassi, his voice trembling dangerously with suppressed laughter.

"You fools," hissed Sofia. She strode across the room and threw open the door of the manager's chamber.

"Sir, I want to know who gave these two the authority--" she began.

The manager turned around from his computer.

Sofia stopped speaking and stood there spluttering.

Bhuvi grinned at her from his chair.

"Frauds," she muttered, and as a last-ditch attempt, grabbed the intercom and dialled the reception number.

"I'll report you all!" she declared, and waited for someone to pick up the phone.

____________

~Few minutes back~

"Jassi told me to manage the reception," said Virat, who was in Jinks' room with Rohit after breakfast.

Virat's phone beeped again. "Fast, he says."

Jinks and Rohit stood up at once. "Let's go!"

The three of them rushed to the reception. Virat and Rohit pulled the receptionist aside with some lame logic like, "Where's the TV remote in my room?" while Jinks slipped behind the desk.

As Rohit and Virat took the receptionist away, right on cue, the phone rang.

"Hello?"

"I'm calling from the salon," said Sofia's harsh voice. "I have been mistreated here by people I suspect to be fake employees."

Jinks wondered what those three had been up to.

"Could you give details, please, ma'am?" he said politely.

"They coloured my hair green!"

Jinks snorted with laughter, and he thought he heard Jassi's explosive laughter on the other end of the phone as well. As he was trying to sober up, Rohit and Virat (minus the receptionist) came in eagerly.

"What happened?" cried both of them, seeing Jinks choking with laughter.

"I want an answer!" screeched the voice on the phone.

"They coloured her hair green," whispered Jinks to his best friends.

Rohit exploded. Virat, however, grabbed the phone from Jinks and said in a very Virat Kohli-like voice, "It was part of your free trial, madam. I'm sure you appreciate our goodwill."

And Virat put down the receiver, and joined Rohit and Jinks' shouts of laughter as they left the reception.

As they reached their team's floor, they met Rahul, Bhuvi and Jassi coming towards their direction, staggering with laughter.

"You were brilliant!" Virat slapped then on their backs proudly.

"How did you manage to pull that off?" asked Jinks admiringly.

"I'll call all of them to my room again," said Rohit. "We want a proper account!"