ARRANGED BY DESTINY [CHOI SEUNGCHEOL]

CH: 27

Nishita

I saw him walking out of the room after his mom left, more like she’s my mother from now on as well. If I asked myself why did I cry the moment she kissed my forehead, even I don’t know. Everything felt so foreign because I never felt that, and I was never treated that way. No one ever asked the reason for my cries and never made me feel like this, overwhelmed. The way she was showing care for me, kissing my forehead, asking me if Seungcheol was the one who made me cry, taking my side, feeding me because I couldn’t stop crying, all these things made me feel so different, as if I was never built for this and that’s why everything was making me so overwhelmed. All these changes at once was making me scared and overwhelmed.

I was thinking about bua’s words again and they weren’t leaving me alone.

‘I can’t believe what’s going to happen once she becomes the daughter-in-law of our house?’

I looked at my chunri and realized, I was still wearing that red lehenga. I got up slowly, I needed to change, I felt like I could barely function, I was confused. Was I mentally tired or physically tired because of crying.

I walked towards the dressing table, because I needed to take off my jewelry and let my hair down. The moment I sat infront of the dressing table and I saw my reflection in the mirror. The girl standing there felt so different than me, I wasn’t just wearing a red lehenga, there were additions to that, I was wearing sindoor and there was a bit of sindoor on tip of my nose and mangalsutra which made me different, which made everything different. The reflection didn’t feel like me, I wasn’t just Nishita Das, I was someone’s wife, someone’s daughter-in-law, and someone’s sister-in-law.

I was Seungcheol’s wife

I tried taking off everything bit by bit, I took off my earrings first then, one after one I was slowly taking off the jewellery. Once done with jewelry, I did my hair and not wanting to get lost in my reflection, I took my nightwear and got inside the washroom. The moment I got inside the washroom, I saw my reflection again.

I heaved a sigh not knowing what to do, I wanted to take a shower and sleep. Taking a shower helps me get better sleep and that was very much needed right now.
I took a shower and the warm water helped me relax my tensed muscles a bit, I was feeling better. I almost forgot about everything for that moment of time and I didn’t realize how long I was inside the bathroom. After wearing my nightwear, I refused to look at my reflection, because I knew it would make me feel more complicated feelings which I didn’t want to deal with right now.

I stepped out of the washroom and I saw Seungcheol, taking out his clothes, and he was probably startled because of the sound of my payal, I was holding my lehenga in one hand his gaze was holding me. He looked taken aback and confused and neither did I know what I had to say or should I not say anything.

“Do you-”
“Are you-”

Both of us stopped midway, not knowing what to say anymore, he motioned me to speak first but I refused, “You go first” and after a few seconds, Seungcheol spoke, “Do you feel better, now?” I nodded slowly, he took a deep breath, he was holding his clothes, and started walking towards me, he was still in his sherwani. “Are you going to take a shower as well?” he nodded and went inside the washroom.

I went to fold my lehenga carefully and kept it on the chair near the bed. I was about to drink water and then it again reminded me of the whole incident. I closed my eyes and then drank water, I needed to forget that whole incident. I looked at the bed, and sighed.

Everything was feeling foreign, everything even the presence of-

I heard the door open and saw Seungcheol coming out of the washroom; he looked at me. We were just looking at each other and then I followed his gaze which shifted from me to the bed and it suddenly hit me, we were in the room together, married and there was only one bed and considering I never shared a bed with a guy or anyone except for Noor and Ayushi and that was also when we had sleepovers. It was starting to feel awkward and I had no idea what to say, and I had no idea how was he feeling about this. I know we were married and sharing a bed was more than normal but my feelings and mind were a mess as well, and I wanted to get out of this situation, without thinking twice, I spoke whatever was inside me, “I can’t go out right now and sleep in other-” I thought I was messing up and sounded rude so I took a breath, “You can sleep-

“Nishi” he cut me off and walked towards me, he looked calm and I couldn’t read his expression. He kept his sherwani on the bed and walked towards me, “None of us can go out right now and we don’t have a couch here or else I would’ve taken it for tonight.” He took a pause and yet he looked so calm while talking to me, “I know this might be weird for you and it is for me as well, since I also don’t share my bed but we can do one thing. We can keep pillows between us if you’re okay with it.” I was just looking at him, “That way your space won’t be disturbed and you can sleep without any thought. And we do have an extra blanket if you want, so don’t worry too much. I won’t make you feel uncomfortable at any cost and if anything makes you uncomfortable just let me know, I will fix it.”

I looked at him, feeling so many emotions, for that time I think I almost forgot how it feels to be taken care of and how it feels when someone takes care of your personal space and doesn’t make you uncomfortable.

“So, what do you say, Nishi?” I thought about it and I didn’t see any harm in that, I nodded slowly and I saw him smiling at me. “Let me just fix the whole thing and then you can sleep.” before I could say anything, he went to keep his sherwani on top of my lehenga on the chair and he brought the extra pillows and started placing them on the bed, I was about to pick up one pillow to help him but he stopped, “Nishi, you need rest, let me do this” he took the pillow and placed it making it look like a boundary, “which side do you want?”
“Huh?”

“Which side you want to choose or…” he trailed off, I could see a goofy smile forming on his face, “I’m gonna choose one side and you will have to choose the side I don’t want” and somehow it made me smile.

“What? Why are you smiling like that?” I realized I was smiling and Seungcheol was smiling more, “I used to do this Heesung and tonight it’s you, so would you be choosing or-

He didn’t give me one more second to think and I heard him saying, “I am choosing this side, so you gotta take that side” he chose the side we were standing on. Then slowly I also realized he was trying to lighten the mood and the awkwardness in the air. “Okay, I am going to take that side” and smiled at him.

I walked to the other side and sat on the bed, I turned to look at Seungcheol who was looking at me, “I know you must be feeling a lot of things right now, and trust me, neither I am used to this, everything feels new and it would take a bit of time to adjust because we are used to living alone just fine. And I said, I would try to fix everything and anything that makes you uncomfortable so please just let me know.” I took a deep breath and nodded, “Get into the covers, I will go switch off the lights”

“Okay”

I got into the covers and when he turned off the lights, I lied down on the bed. I was not used to this bed, it felt different and without any of my soft toys it was weirder, I wanted to feel like my own bed but I just couldn’t, I knew sleeping tonight would be tough knowing all the events happened in my life tonight. Suddenly I felt the weight on the bed, which made me aware that Seungcheol was inside the covers already.

“Hope you get some sleep Nishi, goodnight”
“Goodnight Seungcheol” it was almost a whisper before I tried sleeping. I closed my eyes but my body was fully aware of Seungcheol, the way it was dead silent and I could almost feel his breathing. It was making me aware of everything, even trying to sleep wouldn’t work I just knew, that I was not getting any sleep tonight.

Author’s Note:

SO FINALLY BACK HERE!!!

So your author completed her post-grad and totally free so I will keep on updating until I get my writer’s block hehe, and thank you for waiting so much, it took me a bit longer than I expected, but here I am.

Happy reading :)