Snow White And The Seven Dorks

Superb Six

                                                     CHAPTER-10

                                                       Superb Six

As I shimmied my car through the traffic ( I fail to understand how an hour was enough to convert the deserted street into a street overflowing with cars ) I thought about Yukiko . All we'd been through . All we'd said and done . Was it all fake ?

I parked my car in the garage and trudged to the front door . I turned in the key , entered the house and ran to what was Yukiko's room.

I pulled open her drawer . There was barely anything in it . Just a broken hair clip , a tissue paper and a business card .

Yukiko's business card . Thank God , she'd atleast left that back .

It was like any other business card . Plain white , with Jackson Sales Co. printed on top ,the official number below it . Towards the bottom right corner was Yukiko's phone number , and somewhere in the centre , the card bore Yukiko's name , with 'Regional Manager' printed below it .

I took a close look at the name of the company . That was when it dawned over me that the name

wasn't Jackson Sales Co. but Jacksan Sales Co. . The 'o' in Jackson was carefully converted into an 'a' . Anyone taking a casual look would read it as 'Jackson' . How could have I been so stupid so as to not have noticed it before ?

I tossed the counterfeit business card into the dustbin . As I was getting ready to sleep , I thought about how innocently blind I was when with Yukiko  . Had I taken care to notice the little things , such as her packing all her stuff for a so-called three months' business trip , her wishing all her friends good luck , her disappointingly indifferent behaviour at the airport and ,of course ,her fake business card , all this would have never happened .

Suddenly , an idea struck me and I called up Liam .

"Hello Ian . What's up ? "

"Ummm.. Liam, you told me that Yukiko was meeting you after returning from a business trip , right ?"

"Yes ."

"Which means that she was working in Australia ."

"Duh."

"And are you sure of that ?"

"Of course . I mean , Rheo was working in the same company as hers ."

"Bingo ! Why don't you find out her permanent address from the company ?"

" Ian ! " He screamed

.

"What ?"

"Dude , you've got brains !"

"I know . " I gave myself a mental pat on the back .

"Fine then , I'll catch up with you later ."

"Great . Bye ."

"Bye ."

I hung up , and sank into a delicious slumber . Finally , all this seemed to be leading somewhere .

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The next day , I was sitting in my cabin , cursing Tania for her ever-unwelcome intrudence and gazing at the ceiling .

"Ya ... and so she spilt coffee...my D&G dress...that bi-witch ... must be jealous ... "

I had my least-bothered look on , but Tania didn't seem to care . She droned on and on .

And then my phone rang . An unknown number .  My messiah .

Unknown , the saviour has called . Oh lord , I can't thank you enough .

"Tania , my phone . I'll talk to you later . Do tell me what happened next . I'm curious ." NOT.

"Yeah , right ." She reluctantly got up and left . I picked up the phone .

"Hello ?" A well bred voice called from the other end . "Am I speaking to Ian ? "

"Yes ."

"Hello Ian . Aryan here . Remember  ? Yukiko ?"

"Oh yes , " I sighed .So he , too , knew her as Yukiko.

Now , call me racist or whatever , but I did think that Indians have a funny accent . But this guy ...

well, he didn't .

" Yeah , so how do you know her ? " He asked suspiciously .

"We have been dating for six years . "

"Yeah... and why do you think I am going to believe you ? " He was evidently still sceptical .

"Because I can prove it . You want pictures of us ? You want me to tell you anything about her ? You want me to-"

" Whoa whoa boy , bring it down a few notches ."

He continued , this time , his voice more meek , "Actually I ,too,was dating her . And about eight months back , she ... she just left me without telling me anything . And what's more shocking is , we'd had no arguments , nothing at all before she'd left ."

Welcome to my world , Mr. Aryan Kapur.

"Would you tell me everything in detail ? "

"Yes , sure . I am a Maths teacher at a school in Delhi . Yukiko Akimoto was an English teacher in the same school . You see, she was half Japanese and half American . It had been just one month since she'd joined school when I asked her out and she'd said yes . She stayed in the school for about three months , after which it was announced that as part of an exchange programme , some teachers and students from Tokyo high school in Japan would be soon visiting our school . I did not see why it should bother us in the least , but I noticed that Yukiko looked very disturbed by this news . Soon , she resigned , and I had no clue about all this . We both then lost contact of each other ."

"Alright ."

"Wait , I am not done yet . As I mentioned , we had some Japanese taechers and students coming over . One of the teachers was Mr. Tatsuto Tanaka . He was about the same age as mine , nearly

twenty four . We became really good friends . We just ... you know , ... we somehow got along pretty well . And then , one day , " he paused for a quick breath  , " I realised that he was dating Yukiko too ."

"O-kay , " I said  , my voice full of doubt .

"I know it is hard to believe , but this is true ."

Right now , I could very much relate with him . His story was hard to believe ,true , but mine wasn't very credible either.

"Alright , Aryan . Thank you . By the way , could you pass me Tatsuto's contact number ?"

As he dictated the number to me , I quickly jotted it down .

"Thanks Aryan . I'll speak to you later ."

"Okay . Bye ."

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