chapter 59
Tales of the Heart
Chapters 60, 61 are updated on ScrollStack.
Chapter start
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It is a rainy afternoon. Aaira is sitting near the glass window in her room and looking outside where it is raining heavily.
There is a sad expression on her face, and she is lost in some thoughts.
It is surprising even for her that why she is not going out today to enjoy this rain, If today had been any other day, she would not have sat inside watching the rain like this, instead she would have gone out and got drenched in it and enjoyed it as she loves rain alot.
Well, seeing this rain, her eyes also become moist when she remembers Reyansh.
They had decided that both of them would get drenched together whenever it rains next time, but today it is raining but both of them are not together.
Her heart becomes heavy remembering all the good things that happened between them.
It's been two days now and there has been no conversation between them.
And It is not that she did not try from her side, she called and messaged him but Reyansh did not give any reply from his side.
And today one of the biggest reasons for Aira's sadness is that Reyansh is going to Delhi tonight, their internship is going to start from tomorrow, she has a few hours where she can meet him, but she does not understand what to do now.
She could not meet him for the last two days on the pretext of college as their classes were off to prepare for going to their internship place.
And now she doesn't even want to go directly to his house because she remembers very well that when she went to his house 2 days back, he was not happy with her presence and his not answering any of her calls and messages is also telling her that he is still not in the mood to forgive her or talk to her.
" can we meet? " Aaira takes her phone and sends this message to Reyansh again, leaving behind all her hesitation.
ð¦ð¦
On the other side
Reyansh is also standing near the window in his room watching the rain outside, lost in some thoughts.
There is a sad smile on his face while thinking about some things.
And while he is lost in his thoughts, he comes out of his thoughts when he hears the sound of a message being received on his phone.
He takes his phone in his hand and sees that he has received a message from none other than Aaira, where she is expressing her desire to meet him.
But after reading her message, he takes a deep breath and without giving her any reply he puts his phone back in his pants pocket, disappointing her once again.
ð¦ð¦
At the Mehra office
Ikshita is sitting at her table, and next to her sits Aarav doing his work, his full attention is on his laptop and files.
But Ikshita's entire focus is on Aarav, Well she still doesn't understand why she doesn't like seeing him sad like this but maybe she knows it somewhere but she is a bit confused.
Well, Ikshita is still not able to get over the guilt of that day where she hurt Aarav's sore spot by unknowingly saying the things which were the real reason behind his sadness.
She has said sorry to him but she hasn't received any forgiveness from Aarav because obviously he doesn't talk to her so how will he forgive her.
But all these things aside, she also wonders that if this reason is true then how can anyone break the heart of such a cute guy.
Yes of course along with his grumpiness, she finds him cute too.
He is grumpy only with her, otherwise she has seen how politely he interacts with people in the entire office and he treats her well too as long as she doesn't do anything to bother him.
" Aarav... Not stopping herself, Ikshita again takes the initiative to talk to him.
There, on hearing her words, Arav stops from his work but he does not turn towards her and Ikshita takes a deep breath.
" Aarav, forgive me if I ever said anything wrong to you but at least we can be friends?" Ikshita says while extending her hand of friendship towards him.
And even on hearing this, Aarav doesn't say anything but Ikshita says further after thinking something...She doesn't know why but she really wants to talk to him and wants to see his sadness reduce somewhere.
" You know, sometimes talking helps. I might be new here, but I can listen if you need to vent." Ikshita tells him and hearing this Aarav takes a deep breath.
" I am not a sick person who needs any help, I am absolutely fine the way I am." Aarav just says this and gets up and leaves from there which Ikshita sees.
" It is not necessary that only the sick need help.
And it is your stubbornness that you are fine and you do not need anyone's help but you really need to throw out the pain buried in your heart because life doesn't stop with the departure of a person, we don't stop being happy, the name of life is to keep moving, find happiness in every moment.
This life is long and beautiful beyond this pain." She thinks while sighing as she sees him go.
ð¦ð¦
It is a nice sunny morning after yesterday's rain.
Aaira gets ready and comes down where she finds her family at the breakfast table, after wishing everyone good morning she sits with everyone.
" Papa, will you drop me to my internship place?" Aaira asks Neil to which Neil and Avni first look at each other and then at Aaira.
Well, at first Aaira felt very awkward about how to tell this to her father because at one time she had refused her father to drop her to college but today again she wants her father to drop her.
" Of course, you don't have to ask that." Neil tells her to which she smiles
But seeing Aaira smile, Neil smiles sadly when he realizes that her smile is not real, For the last 3 days, she has been behaving normally in the entire house, as if she is not having any problem with Reyansh not talking to her.
But they are also her parents, both of them understand how much pain she is in at the moment, well the pain of the heart is unbearable and they know this.
ð¦ð¦
" All the very best, Do your best." says Neil kissing Aaira on the forehead as he drops her off at her internship office.
After that Aaira gives a goodbye hug to Neil and goes inside and seeing her going inside Neil smiles while thinking something.
Aaira enters the office and after inquiring out the things she reaches the place where other trainees are already waiting to meet the office head.
" Has everyone arrived?" The head of the office asks everyone as soon as he arrives among them.
And everyone wishes him and the head's assistant checks and counts the names of all the trainees
" No sir, there is one student left....and..." He is unable to say anything further when the student himself reaches there and apologizes for coming late
" I'm sorry, I got a little late." He says but Aaira gets shocked to see that student because he is none other than Reyansh.
Whereas after saying sorry to the head, Reyansh turns his attention towards Aaira and their eyes meet where Aira's eyes automatically become moist, not believing her eyes that Reyansh is really in front of her.
After two full days she is seeing his face in front of her, that too smiling. Yes, there is a smile on his face.
" It's okay, you are not late, everyone else has just come a little early." The head says, to which Reyansh does not say anything further, just smiles slightly.
And then the head asks everyone for their introduction and starts explaining their work to them.
But Aaira still has her eyes on him, Aaira slowly brings her hand to her other hand and pinches herself and even after the pinch, when Reyansh is in front of her, she gets lost in thoughts as to how did he come here?
Reyansh notices her action of pinching herself and smiles and looks at her where their eyes meet again.
And Reyansh is able to understand the questions in her eyes very well, but he also knows that it is not difficult for Aaira to guess the answers to her questions.
Seeing him she can understand the answer to her question that how is he here, he is her happiness then how come her father doesn't give her her happiness.
It is Neil who stops Reyansh from going to Delhi and tries to rectify his mistake, the mistake due to which his daughter is unhappy.
Flashback
" So how long do you intend to keep my daughter sad?" This question is asked by Neil to Reyansh to which Reyansh looks at him but then he immediately lowers his eyes when he realizes that he does not have any answer to this question at the moment.
It is the day when Aaira met Reyansh 2 days ago, the very next day Neil decides to meet Reyansh when he doesn't see things improving between them and he also wanted to clear some things with Reyansh So that just like his daughter, if Reyansh too has any misunderstanding about him or his decision, then he can clear that misunderstanding from his side.
And Neil starts this conversation with this question because he is the reason behind the fight between them, So Neil asks Reyansh when he will fix things with his daughter.
And there, Ryansh has no answer to this question of Neil, because it is not that he does not want to talk to Aaira, He is dying to talk to her, only he knows how difficult it is for him not to be able to talk to her.
But still due to some reasons he has restrained himself.
However what he wanted happened, Aaira herself realized her mistake and he also knows that she will not do what she did again, but still he doesn't know why he is not able to talk to her now.
Somewhere this hesitation has also been brought between them by Aaira.
He never got angry with her no matter how things happened and today when he is a little angry he doesn't know how to be normal with her.
He has always been a expert with his words. He plays with his words and gets things right but today he has no words as to what he should say to remove this little hesitation that has come between them.
Seeing Reyansh silent and looking down at his question, Neil smiles slightly. At this time, both of them are sitting in a restaurant.
" Look, I know you probably don't feel comfortable talking about this topic because obviously it's a personal matter for both of you." Neil says just this much that Reyansh looks up and looks at him
" What are you saying, there is nothing like that....it just...." Reyansh is not able to say anything further when Neil cuts him off
" I know it is your personal matter, but whatever things have gone wrong is because of me... Mannat made you sad because of me, right? And that is why you are angry with her ?" Neil asks this question with a sad smile to which Reyansh looks at him but then lowers his gaze
" I am not angry with her for choosing you." He replies clearly to which Neil smiles upon hearing his reply.
" Then why are you angry with her ?" Neil asks him
"I am not angry, I just don't feel like talking to her after what she did, She always does this, thinks about useless things, if someone tries to explain something to her then she doesn't even listen, she just makes up a story of her own, She jumps to her own conclusions and makes the wrong decisions based on her own stupid thoughts, she always, always does that....and now, I....
" And now you are tired of her behavior....aren't you?" Neil completes Reyansh's line
On seeing this Reyansh looks up at Neil and seeing Neil's smile he realises what he has done, he spoke ill of his daughter in front of him.
He curses himself for his stupid behavior, but it's okay, he was a little full so he took it out.
" I...I'm sorry, I....." Reyansh is unable to explain to Neil that he did not mean all that.
But before he can say anything in his defense, Neil interrupts him.
" Do you love my daughter? Right ?" Neil asks this question to Reyansh to which Reyansh looks at him silently.
" So since you have chosen to love her, add a little more patience than you already have because in this love, that patience will give you the courage to bear her antics and tantrums." Neil says to which Reyansh looks at him
" And I know that right now you are tolerating all her good and bad actions very well, it's just that she is one who does things over, isn't it?" Neil asks him
And Reyansh wants to answer this question with a yes that yes she does things over but still he does not answer.
" Look, I will not say much on this topic, but yes, I will ask one last question, what do you think of my and Avni's relationship?" Neil asks him
" Just one word, perfect, you both are perfect for each other, your relationship is the definition of a perfect love." Reyansh replies to which Neil smiles.
" Nice way of impressing me." Neil teases him to which Reyansh looks at him in shock.
No, he is not praising him and Avni's relationship to impress him, rather what he said is from his heart, what he feel about their relationship.
" Jokes apart.., so do you think we reached this perfect relationship just like that? Things have always been perfect between us?" He asks Reyansh to which he sees him silently
" You ask your mother how much Avni and I have fight to reach this perfect relationship." Neil tells her to which Reyansh looks at him.
" Because the other name of love is fight, where there is no fight, there can be no love, because then that relationship is run by the mind and not by the heart, and things that happen in a relationship run by the mind don't matter, but in a relationship run by the heart, we obviously get hurt...because obviously a person cannot be in a mood to tolerate all the time." Neil says this to which Reyansh looks at him
" And do you know why I am telling you all this, why I am telling you things about me and Avni?" He says to which Reyansh looks at him.
" Although you are very mature and sensible but I want to tell you one thing about my daughter, she is the exact replica of her mother in her younger self.
As mature as your Avni Maa, oops, my wife is your girlfriend na ?" Neil asks upon which Reyansh slightly smiles shyly
" So yes as mature as your girlfriend ( avni ) today, there was a time when she was exactly like this, thinking too much about things and complicating and spoiling them by thinking about them in her own way." Neil says this to which Reyansh gets a smile on hearing this, but his smile fades the very next moment when Neil speaks further
" Right now Mannat is asking for forgiveness from you, but I am telling you from experience, both mother and daughter are alike, Forgive her otherwise she will get angry herself and then you will have to run after her." Neil tells her to which Reyansh really gets a little scared.
Because only he knows how much effort he has put in to apologize to Aaira earlier, what if she gets angry again?
But this time it is her fault, isn't it?
" Are you explaining all this to me, or scaring me?" Neil smiles at this question of Reyansh
" you can understand what you want to understand but yes, as I said, both mother and daughter are alike, so as much as she is childish, she is equally mature. If she has made a relationship then she will maintain it.
No matter how much she troubles you, she will not leave you." Neil says
" And that is why you both should fight, because fighting is natural in love but please don't fight because of me from today onwards, I really have no problem with the relationship between you two.
If you ever felt bad about my behavior, I apologize for that, but because of me...." Neil is unable to say anything further when Reyansh interrupts him
" Papa please, don't apologize like this again and again." Reyansh says but Neil is surprised to hear him calling her Papa.
" What did you call me?" Neil asks him to which Reyansh smiles
Well, at this point Reyansh is really feeling more comfortable with Neil than he ever has, Today, the way Neil shared his thoughts with him, he knows that Neil has completely accepted him for Aaira, so when Neil has accepted him then why should he stop himself from calling him papa when he has always seen him that way.
" Papa, you called me son, so a son calls his father papa, right?" Reyansh tells him, which makes Neil emotional.
" And please don't apologize again and again like this, nothing has happened because of you, whatever you did was right.
If someone has the facility and power to keep their child close to them then why shouldn't they do that?
So whatever you did to keep your daughter close to you is not wrong at all.
And for that you don't need to give any explanation to anyone, no need to apologize." says Reyansh
And here with his wisdom Reyansh leaves Neil speechless, he doesn't understand what to say?
" And yes I did not say it till today, but since everyone has come to know about the things between me and Aaira and your objection to it, I have no problem with that either because I knew one day I would win your heart." Reyansh says to which Neil smiles hearing all his words silently
" I have heard how everyone teases you about your objection to Aaira and I's relationship, that you behave like fathers from old movies.
What is old and new? A father is a father." Reyansh says, on which Neil's eyes automatically become moist, Where no one was able to understand the feelings of her heart, this boy who is so young in age is able to understand it.
" My family is always happy for me and Aaira because obviously they know, I am not going away from them but your concern, love, fear, your being emotional for Aaira is all justified because somewhere you feel that she will go away from you but trust me papa, I will never let her go away from you, I will really become a "ghar-jamai", don't worry, Aaira will stay with you." Reyansh says to which Neil smiles emotionally.
" You will become a "ghar-jamai", but what your mother will do to me after that, only she knows." Neil says and before Reyansh can say anything, Neil continues
" I appreciate your thinking but yes, leave all this aside and now I want to talk to you about something important.
I want to ask you something." Neil says to which Reyansh nods
"Can I make a decision for you...?" Neil asks him
" Not just one decision, you can take many decisions for me with all right, just like my father takes for me, because both of you are equal for me." Reyansh says and Neil smiles hearing his words.
" When you have given me so much respect, then listen to my decision, I am getting your internship done in Mumbai." Neil says this on which Reyansh gets shocked.
" Papa, no, you don't need to do this, you don't need to fulfill her insistence." Reyansh says, of course he knows he wants to do this for Aaira but no, this is wrong.
Sometimes she has to accept things as they are, things cannot happen the way she wants them to every time.
" Just now you said I can take any decision for you, and now this..." Neil questions him
" Papa, I stand by what I said, you have the right to take decisions for me but not this....I know why you are doing this but no, she has to accept things...and it's just for 2 months...so..." Reyansh says to which Neil looks at him
" And, I can't see my daughter sad for 2 months..." Neil says to which Reyansh looks at him
" And at this time I am bound by the oath given by her, that is why I cannot correct my mistake and get her internship back in Delhi but yes I can stop you..." says Neil to which Reyansh looks at him
" And you really don't know why I am doing this.
I am not doing this to fulfill her wish nor is there any other reason.
If you believe me, I had already thought of getting both of you an internship in Mumbai but obviously I had no right to take decisions on your behalf...but now that you have given me this right, please let me do it...Let me correct my mistake." says Neil to which Reyansh looks at him
" Papa I told you, you haven't made any mistake that you need to correct..." says Reyansh to which Neil smiles
" Ok as you say but please stop, let me take this decision for you." Neil says and after he repeats like this repeatedly, Reyansh is also not able to say anything further at which Neil smiles.
" And yes one last request, please forgive my daughter." Neil says
" I won't do that." He says.
well after so much talk, somewhere Reyansh becomes so comfortable with Neil that he gives this coy reply.
" Okay, then don't say later that I didn't warn you, if you don't forgive her now then you will have to run after her.
And yes, in love, no matter who is at fault, the man has to apologize because the woman is always right." Neil says this to which Reyansh pouts.
" No problem, from now on I will share all my sorrows with you if your daughter troubles me too much." Reyansh says.
" I will listen, and I won't even go and tell her anything." Neil tells him
" And I expect the same from you papa." Reyansh adds to which Neil smiles.
Nothing further, but Neil gets up and so does Reyansh and Neil hugs Reyansh to which Reyansh smiles.
Because finally after a long time Neil hugged him which he had stopped doing some time back.
Flashback End.
It is evening time.
At the xyz place.
Aaira and Reyansh complete their first day in the office today.
But still there is no conversation between them because obviously Aaira does not try today when she sees that Reyansh is not coming to talk to her.
Today, after the introduction of all the trainees, they learned some things under the guidance of their head.
But during all this, Aaira just looks at Reyansh with her furtive glance, who was already looking at her but Aaira doesn't try to talk as she doesn't want to create a scene here in the office.
She knows he is angry, and if she still goes to talk to him and he behaves like he did that day at his home then she is not ready for that. And when he did not reply to any of her calls or messages even in these three days then it is obvious that he needs more time, so she chooses to remain silent for now, giving him his time.
And also seeing him here, she has already guessed whose work it is, and she doesn't know how she will go home and thank her father for this.
The two men who love her so unconditionally, she has somehow hurt both of them very badly in the past few days and she will not be able to get over this guilt.
ð¦ð¦
In Reyansh's presence, and the pain of not being able to meet or talk to him even after being so close to him, she is barely able to control her emotions but controlling all her emotions Aaira stands outside the office building and calls Neil so that she can go back home with him.
But today for the first time it is happening with her that she is calling her father but her father is not picking up her call.
Well, on the other hand, Neil is deliberately not picking up her call as he knows why Aaira is calling him, but he knows, they both need to talk and Reyansh is there to drop him home.
" Why are you not picking my call Papa." Aaira mutters to herself while calling Neil again
But before she can say or do anything else, she feels a hand on her wrist and her heart beat suddenly becomes faster when she feels the recognition of that hand.
Her heart becomes heavy as she thinks that when he is angry with her and is not talking to her, then why is he holding her hand.
She turns to her left and sees Reyansh standing close to her holding her left hand.
Their eyes meet, where his eyes are soft, hers become moist.
To be continued.......