#TejRan - The After Series

After the Confession

"It was hurtful to hear.."

"To me..."

"As somebody who's in love with you..."

It was a like a part from a novel. Karan has always scoffed when he read stuff like 'As soon as the hero heard the word love, his world stopped or his heart skipped a beat or the world shifted'. He has been in enough relationships to know that things don't happen that way. It's not a magic word, no matter what they try to make the readers believe.

Boy, was he eating his thoughts now?
"As somebody who's in love with you"
As somebody who's in love with me? Me? Karan?

Teja said "As somebody who's in love with you". Teja, Tejasswi is in love? With me? With Karan Kundrra? The guy who's been fighting with her for the past two days? For the love of God, he couldn't even remember what they were fighting about. His world actually shifted, his heart did skip a beat. He looked at her and realised she was still talking.

He pulled her into a hug and said "Okay Pause"

Teja hugged him back "Don't be scared, I'm not going anywhere"

He wanted to laugh, ofcourse not. Instead he said "I'm not scared. That's the last thing I am right now"

Teja didn't understand what happened, she thought he was scared of being away from each other. She assured him he was stronger than this and pulled away.

Karan let her go. He needed five minutes to himself anyway. He let her go make food for Rakhi and made his way to the washroom area. A smile has fixed itself on his face and wouldn't leave. He passed Nishant on the way who raised his eyebrows. Karan shook his head and kept going.

The magnitude of what had happened was hitting him in full force now. He came to the show a bad boy. Who had nothing to lose. He saw her and his first thought was, 'I need to know her'. It turned into a crush and slowly love. But never even for a second, he had allowed himself to think that she would reciprocate the feelings in the show. He thought it would take years. If at all. She likes him, he knew that. But love? What had he done to deserve this?

He felt guilty for how he had been treating her for the past few weeks. How hurt she would have been especially if she loved him. But she loved him? Him? He looked up at the sky and thanked his lucky stars. He was unable to contain his excitement and did a little happy dance. He wanted to go and confront her. He has never received a better Christmas gift.

He made his way to the bedroom with a skip in his shift. She was sitting on her bed eating and he sat on his bed next to her. He smiled at her and she looked confused. He must look crazy. Oh well.

Karan asked her "Do you know what you said? When you were going on about your break thing? You said you love me"

Her face froze and she said "Nahi" automatically. He knew she was going over her words. He knew the moment she remembered. Her eyes stooped down and she looked at her food. He knew she knew.

Her voice got defensive and she said "I didn't say it, nope. And I'm still adamant on my decision"

He wanted to hit her blushing cheeks, he got high on her reactions. He made his way over to her bed to sit closer. He heard 'Psycho' something from her and laughed. He didn't care. He wanted her in his arms now. He sat next to her, close.

His hands and lips had a mind on their own. His hands went to her waist as if it's a habit he had had his whole life. He bent down to kiss her shoulders, her arms, her necks and her cheeks. He knew  people were watching and he didn't give a damn.

Teja was absolutely flustered now and tried to deny that she said it. He kept teasing how she said it first, that too on national television. Before he could take it to the next level, the announcement about the cooking task came. And the bloody Rakhi decided to split them up.

.........................

Finally the party was over, dinner done and they were on their beds. Teja was upset that he didn't pay her attention and that he only goes to her when he wants to. He realised it was true to an extent. But he didn't want to think about that now. He was on a high and he didn't want it go down. He simply said "Let's sleep on it".

He pulled her to come to his bed. She did her skin routine and finally settled on his chest. He asked her in a low voice "Do you really? Love me?"

She didn't say anything for a minute. She looked up at him and into his eyes and said "Yes. I love you"

Tears escaped his eyes and hers. Why didn't he know that people could feel like this? What would his life be if he didn't meet Teja? He didn't even want to imagine. He held her tighter and whispered into her hair "I love you too. I have loved you for a while now."

She tightened her arms around him and buried her face in his chest. She gave him a kiss and he kissed her hair in return. If this is the minute world ends, he would have happily left. He didn't know what more he could ask for in life. He wanted to freeze this moment. He wanted to remember this feeling for the rest of his life. He had finally found love or rather love had found him. And he's never letting go.

They slept like that, their problems forgotten and pushed for the next day. Tonight they would feel the love and cherish and protect it.

.....................

Note : I know there's no steamy content in this one. But I wanted to write this badly so excuse me.