Raat ke baad hi to savera hota hai

Part 2

Yashasvi woke up in the middle of the night when he heard the sound of the tap running. Thinking it to be nothing unusual, he closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep, when he heard the sharp ting of a metal hitting a hard surface. That caught his attention, and he got up to investigate.

A quick look across the room revealed the door to the washroom was open, but the light was off. That was very unusual, because while he'd got significantly close to Shub bhaiya in the one month they shared rooms, they'd never use the washroom for anything other than just a quick hand wash without properly closing the door.

He turned on the light to find Shubman desperately trying to attach the closing valve to the tap, from where the water was flowing uncontrollably at full force. However what concerned him was the way his hands were shaking, and he was trembling all over. That was bad, because out of the two of them it was usually Shub bhaiya who had the stronger nerves.

He gently freed the valve from Shubman's tight grip, and guided him to sit on the nearby chair before proceeding to attempt to resolve the matter. After a bit of tinkering, he was able to fix it, and he closed the tap before heading back to the room.

On entering the room, he found Shubman curled up into a ball, trembling and shaking, biting down hard on his own hand to keep the distressing gasping sounds from escaping, but Yash heard them anyway, and it terrified him beyond words.

Finding his phone, Yash quickly dialed the number of Ishan bhaiya, hoping he'd be able to help. His own heart beat increased with every ring, and nearly jumped out of his skin when Ishan picked up the line to answer.

"Haan Yashu, bol" (Yeah Yashu, what's up?) Ishan mumbled sleepily, wondering why the kid had called at goddamn 2 in the morning, but having the inkling that it must have been important.

Yashasvi proceeded to describe everything that happened in the span of ten minutes, and Ishan's worry for his friend increased with each word. He wasn't blind, and saw the way his Shubhi seemed to go deeper and deeper into his shell with each match he didn't perform very well. He did expect something like that to happen sooner or later, the kid had a tendency to suppress his feelings until they exploded all of a sudden. However nothing could have prepared him for the current situation in his hands.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Ishan instructed Yashu to first take a deep breath, and then proceeded to talk him through helping his friend through what seemed like a really bad panic attack. He let out a breath he didn't know he was holding when Yash finally told him that Shubi was back to sleeping peacefully, away from all sharp or otherwise harmful objects. Poor Yashu seemed traumatized by what he witnessed, and he sounded on the verge of breaking down himself, so Ishan decided to put his worries to rest before letting go.

"Sun, Yashu. Tune abhi jo kiya na, sirf mai aur uski didi jante hai ye kitna difficult hai. Zyada chinta mat kar, wo achhe se soyega to subah tak thik ho jayega. Tu tab uske sath achhe se baat kar lena, aur ekbar use mere ko bhi call karne bolna, thik hai? Ab so ja, thik hai? Kal baat karenge" (Listen, Yashu. What you did now, only myself and his didi know how difficult it is. Don't worry too much, if he sleeps well, he'll be fine till morning. You can have a heart to heart with him then, and also ask him to call me once, alright? Now go to sleep, okay? We'll talk tomorrow) He said soothingly before cutting the call.

After one last worried glance towards his sleeping roommate, Yashasvi crawled back into his covers and went back to sleep when he saw no further signs of distress.

*

Next day, Shubman was woken up from his sleep by the sunlight directly hitting his face. He rubbed his eyes and sat up straight on the bed, wondering why everything was hurting so much.

"Good Morning, bhaiya! Kaisa lag raha hai?" (Good morning, bhaiya! How're you feeling?) Yashasvi asked, trying to feign cheerfulness, but Shubman could sense the worry behind his smile. That was when he remembered his freaking out last night, although anything after the tap's head coming off was a blank to him.

"Yash, kal raat ko kya hua tha? Mujhe bas yaad hai ki mujhe ek ghatiya sapna aya tha, aur mai pata nahi kaise tap kholne ki jagah pura uska sar khol diya tha..." (Yash, what happened last night? I can't remember anything except that I woke up from this horrible nightmare and somehow took off the tap's head while trying to open it...)

"Maine wo thik kar diya, bhaiya. Aap chinta mat kijiye. Ishan bhaiya ne bola k wo ek panic attack tha. Wo bahut hi zyada bura tha. Mai dar gaya tha, isliye unko phone kiya tha. Wo chahte hai ki aap aaj unko ekbar phone kar le" (I fixed it, bhaiya. Don't worry. Ishan bhaiya said it was a panic attack. It was bad, real bad. I was terrified, so I called him. He wants you to call him today) Yash informed meekly.

Shubman lowered his head and sighed. The kid was traumatized by his breakdown, and he didn't even know how to begin explaining.

"Sorry yaar, mujhe nahi pata itna kharab haal kaise ho gaya..." (Sorry dude, I have no idea how it got so bad...)

"Koi baat nahi, bhaiya, hota hai... Par aap abhi tak mujhe ye nahi bole aap kaise hai. Aap pura sahi nahi lag rahe..." (No worries, bhaiya, it happens...But you still didn't tell me how you're feeling, bhaiya. You don't look completely fine..)

"Mai thik hi hu, bas sar dukh raha hai..." (I'm alright, just have a headache...)

"Wo isliye kyuki aap kal raat ko kuch khaya nahi, bhaiya. Fresh hoke breakfast me jaiye, aadhe ghante me band hone wala hai." (That's because you didn't eat anything last night, bhaiya. Go freshen up and head to breakfast, it closes in half an hour) Yash deadpanned.

That caught Shubman's attention, and he opened his phone to check the time.

"10:30 baj gaye??" (It's 10:30??)

"Relax, bhaiya. Aaj practice se chhutti hai, aur aapko dekhke lag raha tha ki aapko wo extra rest ki bahut zarurat tha, isliye mai aapko nahi uthaya. Magar aap jab ab uth gaye hai, aapko jaake kuch kha lena chahiye" (Relax, bhaiya. We have the day off from practice, and you really seemed to need the rest, so I didn't wake you up. But now that you're awake, you should really go and have something.)

Shubman nodded, proceeding to freshen up before heading towards the breakfast area.