Hum Aapke Hain Kaun?

5. Mera Naam Mat Lo

'Yuhi hoti hai na
S

ab ki kahani
Shuru hogi kahan
Kisi ne na jaani
Itfaqon mein lakho mein milte hai ajnabi'

~ Anjaana Anjaani ki Kahani 

Barely even five minutes after he left the Choudhury's rooms, Prem is back, a taller man following him. 'Who's that?' Nisha muses, watching the men pass by the kitchen window. 

'Nisha, would you stop watching your crush and help me get the naashto ready?' Pooja asks her sister, hardly even bothering to try and keep the laughter from her voice. 

'I'm not watching anybody!' the younger girl snaps, turning back to her sister. 'And I thought you already took the chai and stuff out there?' 

'I did, but Prem went to get his brother. Is he just supposed to sit there with nothing to eat? And besides, I couldn't take much out before. Now you're here, you can help.' Pooja answers. 'And by the way, you didn't deny that he's your crush,' she continues on before Nisha can respond, smiling teasingly at her little sister as she pulls down cups from a cupboard and directs Nisha to start getting biscuits and various other snacks out with a gesture towards another cupboard. 

'No he's not,' she mutters, turning around with her hands full of snacks and sticking her tongue out. 'You know I don't look at guys like that. They're all stupid, especially that one.' 

'Oh come on Nisha, you've hardly known him five minutes.' 

'It doesn't matter, he ran into me, made me late and I didn't get a single shot today!' she bursts, angrily pulling open a packet of chevdo and pouring it into a bowl. 

'He ran into you or you ran into him?' the elder of the two sisters asks with a knowing look. Pooja is well aware of how very clumsy her baby sister can be - especially when she's got her mind on an idea for a new artistic piece. 

'Okay so maybe I ran into him. And maybe he saved my butt from hitting the floor. But still, if he wasn't in the way, I would've made it outside in time,' she huffs, grabbing small plates and putting them on the serving tray besides the snacks her older sister has already arranged there. 

'Was he really in the way Nisha?' 

'Yes!' she exclaims, a little too quickly. Pooja gives her a look, and she groans, shaking her head. 'Okay, fine, maybe not. I was trying to get my camera out of my bag and the zip was stuck and the next thing I know I'm running into him.' 

'And now you're mad at him because you ran into him?' Nisha just huffs and sticks her tongue out again, getting a laugh from her older sister. 'More like you just need an excuse to be mad at him so you don't look too closely at those feelings that you won't admit to having, hmm?' 

'Didiiii,' Nisha whines, stretching the word out. 

'Nishaaa,' Pooja mimics, getting yet another annoyed puff of air from her little sister. But before Nisha can even begin to think up an argument, their mother calls from the sitting room. Nisha huffs again but follows her older sister from the kitchen to the sitting room, each of them carrying a tray. 

As they set the trays down on the coffee table, Nisha realises her sister was correct in saying that she'd not been able to bring out much food before Nisha had returned; the only evidence of there even being food in the room was a mostly empty plate of biscuits. She absentmindedly removes the plates and snacks from her tray, arranging them nicely on the table, not hardly paying any attention to the words being exchanged between her parents and their guests until she hears her father addressing her sister. 

'Pooja beti, this is Rajesh,' he says. Nisha looks up, wondering why their father had only addressed her sister. When she spots the way the two are looking at each other - and the way her parents are looking at Rajesh's kaka - she realises that there's something going on and smiles to herself. 

'Hi,' Pooja greets, looking down shyly. Nisha has to suppress a snort; while her older sister may look like a shy, quiet girl, she's far from it. Pooja's innocent face had often led to Nisha being blamed for her sister's pranks, taking the blame and the punishment while the older girl got off scott-free. The look on Pooja's face is one that Nisha knows well; she's putting on the act that their parents expect to see. 

'Hey,' Rajesh returns. Nisha can tell that the shyness written on his face is very much real and she smiles a little. If what she's thinking is right, it's possible that her sister may have just found the guy she's been wishing for. 

'Beti, Rajesh has never been here before, he was saying how nice it would be to take a look around. Why don't you take him, show him around?' their ma asks. 

'I, uh, okay Ma,' Pooja agrees with a nod. Without another word, she gestures to Rajesh to follow her as she walks out the door. 

As her sister leaves, Nisha follows, not nothing that Prem is behind her until they're through the doors and he throws out his arm to stop her. 'Arre! Aap kahan chale?' (Where are you going?) he asks, looking at her with  those mischievous eyes and annoying smirk. (And she'll be lying if she says that she doesn't find the look to die for. Though she wouldn't be caught dead saying it out loud). 

'Aap se matlab?' (What's it to you?) she snaps back, turning her face away from him. 

'Aap unhe akele mein baat karne dijiye na... aap humse baat kijiye,' (Let them talk alone. You talk to me.) he says. She looks at him, ready to give some kind of snappy retort but sees that he actually looks slightly nervous, a hand rubbing at the back of his neck. And, just as she had when she'd seen the same action earlier, she finds herself thinking it's cute and biting her tongue to stop herself from saying so. 

'And why would I do that?' she asks instead, thanking her lucky stars when she notes that her voice had come out with the slightly scathing tone she had intended. 

'Why not?' he returns. 'Unless you're still mad at me?' And that damned smirk is back. Before she can do something stupid like maybe tell him how good that smirk looks on his stupid face, she turns to stalk off. 'Nisha ji,' he calls after her, making her freeze in her tracks. She turns to look over her shoulder, fixing him with a glare.

'Mera naam mat lo,' (don't take my name,) she all but spits, before turning and stomping away. 

Left alone, Prem smiles to himself. He doesn't know why but he enjoys teasing her, riling her up. He loves the reaction he provokes and, despite it barely having been a minute since she stormed off, he already finds himself thinking of more ways to wind her up the next time they see each other. 

A/N: I know it's been forever since I updated and I'm sorry!! Also sorry for the mega short chapter. I literally sat down and wrote it in about an hour and a half because I didn't realise it's 25 years of Hum Aapke Hain Koun today and of course I had to update for that. 

I hope you all enjoyed it and I'll see you hopefully soon