#𝟏 𝐢𝐧 𝕮𝖍𝖊𝖗𝖎𝖘𝖍 𝓛𝓮𝓰𝓪𝓬𝔂 :
𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐚 𝐊𝐚𝐩𝐨𝐨𝐫 & 𝐀𝐝𝐡𝐢𝐤 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐚, growing up, fought like cats and dogs. They were always in each other's personal space, as if they were used to it.
But now, well they were growing up...
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𝗡𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗽𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗲'𝘀 𝗣𝗢𝗩,
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That dum-dum hadn’t shown up at school for two days now. She hadn’t even strolled into his family's restaurant, like she owned the place, in the past three days. Was she sick?
Seventeen-year-old Adhik wondered as he doodled carelessly on his desk, barely listening to the teacher droning on at the front. She couldn’t have gone anywhere; he’d seen Meena Aunty and Ankita Di in the market just yesterday.
The day would have gone so much better if he could have annoyed her, he thought. Where was she?
There was still no sign of her when he got home from school or when he went to the restaurant to help Kaushal Bhai in the late afternoon, the time she usually came by to bake her terrible yet oddly delicious cakes using their tools. He felt a rising irritation. Her presence annoyed him, but it seemed her absence annoyed him even more.
Sitting at the dining table, Adhik ate the food Ankita had prepared. Ankita was a sweetheart, the girlfriend of his older brother.
They were in love, anyone could see that. He remembered how it all began—they were 11 and 6 when he and Dum-Dum, Natasha Bedi, met as neighbours. That’s also when Ankita and Kaushal met. They were 14 and 18 then, and everyone could see the instant crush they had on each other by the way they behaved.
Ankita had always been a sweetheart, always helping his mother with the house chores and everything else around the house. She and Natasha had become like family to them—something they no longer had.
Their mother had died, and they no longer lived with their father. Their Maasi, Meena Aunty, had taken custody of them after proving that Ankush Uncle was a criminal responsible for Leela Aunty’s death.
Now, six years later, his brother had finally decided to propose to Ankita, and they were happier than ever before.
Adhik finally mustered up the courage to ask Ankita about Natasha.
