Heartbeat

Pulse Rate

Jimin returned his car to the rental company from where he hired it on a yearly lease. Yoongi and Jungkook went to drop him off at the airport by my car. I reminded Yoongi thrice that he had to give Jimin the box of cookies as soon as he got into the car so that they would together finish it by the time they reached the airport. Jimin called to say thank you.

***

Another extremely tiring day. Our jet project was being finalized by the high-ups and we were receiving improvising ideas daily. It was good because the project had to be successful and all of us had put our heart and soul into it. But it was getting frustrating now. Most of the teammates grumbled as soon as a mail popped up on our screens.

Spirits were high nevertheless.

Avantika asked me to wait in the canteen during the break while she finished her papers. I was seated on a far table near the window that had a view of the vast garden area, usually a beautiful scene but currently packed with people who felt suffocated to work inside the building day in and day out.

Three girls sat at the table a little distance away from mine. Vani Singh was one of them. She had joined the company a week ago and was an intern in the programming department. The other two were her friends from her department, I guess. I couldn't help but listen to their conversation, partly because I was getting bored and partly because they weren't exactly keeping it low.

"Why don't you get your hair straightened, Vani?" One of the girls with a sleek ponytail, scoffed.

"Yeah, you know, you look as if you were electrocuted in childhood," The other girl agreed and gave out a high-pitched laugh.

Vani didn't say anything. She sat facing me but wasn't looking up from her plate. Clearly, she was uncomfortable with the one-sided conversation. The other two girls didn't look like they were joking.

"Wait, were you actually electrocuted?" Miss ponytail said, I could hear a smirk in her voice, "Just kidding!" She continued laughing.

"You would have been more beautiful if you were fair, Vani," The other blonde girl said.

It was irritating and infuriating for me to listen to this conversation. It reminded me of my middle school days when I too was bullied under the tag of 'just kidding' for my curly hair and dark skin tone. 

It was a form of emotional abuse, to be clear. Surprisingly, very few people realized that.

I couldn't stop myself. I got up and walked to their table with the sweetest smile I could muster. "Hello," I said, without looking at Vani, "Can I join you, girls? You see my friend is stuck up with something and I was getting bored alone."

Miss Ponytail smiled and said, "Sure."

"I have seen you. A lot of interns in the structure design department talk about you!" The blonde exclaimed a smile lining on her face. "I hope we can get along well, didi."

"I don't think so," I said with a straight face.

"Huh?"

"I don't think we can get along well. I heard what you guys were saying to her." I pointed at Vani, "And I am not okay with this sort of attitude."

"We were just joking," Miss ponytail said.

"You should be able to see when the person in front of you is not able to enjoy your supposedly funny joke," I said. "What you guys were doing is a form of emotional bullying. Since you two fit in the socially accepted standards of beauty, you never really knew what bullying is like."

"It's not good to eavesdrop, didi." The blonde mirrored my expression while Miss Ponytail fell silent looking down at her plate.

"It wasn't eavesdropping, considering that you didn't really care about your volume," I said, "And judging by the way you took my monologue, I see you show no scope for improvement." I turned to address Vani, "You don't have to hang out with people like these even when they clearly break down your sense of confidence and self-respect, just because they look cool. You have just begun your professional life, you'll have to learn to block out negative people."