#TejRan - The After Series

After the Trip

"Sunny, tu theek hai na?", Teja asked for the hundredth time that day. They had just landed back in Mumbai from their Delhi trip. Karan had developed a fever on the day they left for Delhi and it had only gotten worse while they were there. Teja had been worrying over him the entire trip and insisting that they should go see a doctor. 

Karan had refused saying it's just a normal fever and that it will go on his own. He just wanted to go home and rest before work starts again tomorrow. They got into their car and Karan rested his head on Teja's lap on the ride back home. Once they reached, Teja made some soup for him to have and made him take a hot shower before sleeping to 'Wash off Delhi' whatever that meant. 

Karan fell asleep as soon as he hit the bed, but Teja was restless trying to get sleep. She finally gave up and decided to watch that week's episode of Naagin to spend time. She put on her headphones and turned the other way so that the light from her mobile doesn't disturb Karan. 

She had just gotten to the romance sequence between her and Simba and it honestly looked so funny to her, seeing herself with Simbuda. But the fans seemed to like it which is a surprise. She took a screenshot of the scene and sent it to Simbu with the text, "Simbudaa, look at this :D <3". She didn't realise that Karan was awake and was watching over her shoulder and at her smiling over the scene. He turned the other direction not saying anything and gave into sleep once more. 

Teja noticed instantly that something was off as soon she woke up and saw him making tea. First, he didn't wake her up. Second, he was not looking at her all excited as he usually does and a hundred other things that only she notices that to the rest of the world looks like normal behaviour. She went to him giving him an awkward hug and felt his forehead to check his temperature. It had gone down since last night thankfully. 

She got ready the uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach increasing with every minute. He was definitely acting distant and she had no idea why. He was fine when they went to sleep last night. Maybe he's cranky because of the fever. She knew that wasn't true but she chose to believe it anyways, because she didn't want to get into a fight in the morning when she had to go to work and can't finish the conversation. That would just mess her up for the whole day. 

So she gave him an awkward goodbye again and left for her shoot. It was a short schedule that day and she was hoping to get back soon and talk to him. Or even visit him on DDJ set to see him. It would be fun to meet the kids again at least. 

She was sitting on a chair going over her lines, Simba next to her when he received a call. Simba answered it and she managed to catch "I'm trending, why?" and then looked at her listening to the other side. He cut the call without saying anything and looked at Teja guiltily. 

"What happened Simbu? Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked him her mind already connecting the dots. Something had happened on that damn twitter and Simbu got dragged into the mess this time. 

"Karan bahi ne hum dono ko unfollow kiya twitter aur insta pe. I'm sorry Teju" he said and sounded sincere. 

Teja was lost for words which was a first for her and she finally managed to speak, "Arey, why are you sorry? I'm sure it's just some sort of prank. They do stuff like this all the time on DDJ. Chill"

Simba didn't look convinced but still gave her a comforting smile and squeezed her hand before leaving from there. 

Teja called Karan as soon as her shoot was over and he didn't pick up. She got into her car asking the driver to take her to DDJ sets and tried calling him again going unanswered. She went in to see they were shooting and silently took a seat backstage watching him hosting the show. Marzi was doing some mazak with him and she heard him say, "You can follow her back now". 

Teja breathed in relief and surprise that the option she had at 0.01% chances of being true has turned out to be right. He finally came back, saw her and walked over to her not saying anything. 

"Sunny, it was a prank? I got so scared and people noticed too. It's all over twitter. But why did you unfollow Simbuda as well? Bechara, he's feeling bad thinking we had some sort of fight because of him"

"You went on twitter?"

"Haa, someone called him to say he was trending. And he told me about it. So I went to see what people were saying. You were right, that place is a madhouse"

"Simbu getting dragged is what it takes for you to check twitter, right."

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing, what happened? Your shoot is over so soon? I am sure you have a lot of stuff to shoot together"

"Sunny, what the hell are you talking about?" she pulled him farther away from people to a quiet corner. "We already said we won't get possessive about each other's work. It will help us get nowhere. Where is this coming from suddenly?"

"Please, I am not possessive about your work? What? Do you think I'm new to this industry? I was sick last night and there you were next to me watching yourself romancing with another guy and sending it to him to do what? Share the joy?"

A small part of Teja breathed in relief that she finally knew what was bothering him. It was replaced by anger within a second though. "I was watching MY serial because I was worried about you and couldn't sleep. I sent it to Simba because it was so funny to me and we had 13 takes for that shot because both of us couldn't stop laughing. How about asking me stuff first instead of making up your own stories? You should put that over creative mind of yours to use somewhere more useful, you know?"

With that she stormed off from the set and pretended to be on the phone to escape talking to the paps waiting outside. Karan was left standing there realising this time he had acted a bit too fast. He took out his own phone to see what was happening on twitter and saw that people were trending for him again. Some of the tweets as usual were against Teja and his hatred for twitter just grew. Comments were blowing up on one of his tweets from 2012 and he liked and retweeted to show he appreciated his fans efforts to find his old tweets. 

He went back to work wondering how he was going to pacify her this time. 

Teja had stopped at a waffle store getting herself a set of assorted waffles and made her way to his house letting herself in and settling on the couch with the TV on. She was mad but he was still sick and she didn't want him to be alone. She went through the waffles in record time and snuggled in the couch under a comforter watching a random chick flick on the TV. 

It was a sleeping Teja on the couch that Karan found when he came  home that night. Every time he looks at her, he thinks he possibly couldn't love him anymore than he did at that point but she keeps proving him wrong. There she is, after a fight where he was clearly in the wrong, in his house waiting for him. He walked over to her and picked her up effortlessly moving her to his bed. 

He knew he had to apologise profoundly tomorrow to bring her temper down but for tonight he'll let himself look at her and feel the love radiating from her even when she was asleep. He placed a soft kiss on her forehead and whispered a soft "I'm sorry, Good night!".