Both the Roy and Kumar families had a very old friendship. Besides, the business was also the same. Both the families lived exactly like one family.
'Abhimanyu Roy', the uncrowned king of the business world and 'Shravani Kumar', the elder daughter o...
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After Abhimanyu and Shravani left, Aarohi closed the door again but didn’t move away from it. She stood leaning against the door and slowly slid down to sit on the floor. Her eyes were empty; there were no tears. In a lost voice, she said, "Yeah, I’m fine. Absolutely fine. Nothing happened to me. I’m happy. I’ve moved on from all of it."
Aarohi was silent for a while, then, with a faint smile, she said, "I've mastered this lie. For others and for myself. How can I tell Bhai and Bhabhi that… that I can never forget him for the rest of my life? Because he was my whole life. Now I’m just a living corpse, who looks like a simple, laughing, smiling girl, but all the feelings inside her have died. I will never tell anyone that I am not happy. I am very happy. Very happy. Very... ha..."
No more sound came from Aarohi's throat. There was a pain in her eyes that she could easily hide from everyone. Guys! We can only show our pain to others until we get used to it. As that pain dissolves within us, it gradually disappears from our faces. And once the pain fully merges within us, we hide it effortlessly from everyone, and all that people see is our laughter. That laughter, though false, is presented with full sincerity in front of our loved ones, so they do not see our pain, and seeing our pain does not hurt them. This was Aarohi's condition now. She had learned well how to hide her pain and laugh openly in front of others.
Meanwhile, in that room, Shravani was stunned looking at the date. It was the same date when Abhimanyu had rejected Shravani's proposal—her birthday. She immediately turned around and said, "Abhi! This date? This date… when you painted this on that same day, then why did you reject my proposal? Why did you lie to me, Abhi? Why did you break my heart? Tell me."
Abhimanyu was silent. He didn’t want to explain anything to Shravani. Shravani spoke again, "Tell me. Speak, Abhi! Why are you standing there quietly? I’m asking you something."
Breaking his silence, Abhimanyu said, "Shivi! You said you wouldn’t force me to tell the truth. I can't tell you. I'm sorry."
Shravani remembered something. She had promised Abhimanyu that she would never force him. Whenever he wanted, he would tell her, and she would wait for that day. Shravani calmed down. Abhimanyu came closer to her and, looking at the painting, with pain in his eyes, said, "Chindi! I can't tell you the truth, but I can certainly tell you about the emotions hidden behind this painting."
Looking into Abhimanyu's eyes, Shravani said, "You can share whatever you want. Today, I just want to listen to you, Abhi!"
Touching Shravani's face in the painting, Abhimanyu said, "Shivi, I painted this at 3 a.m. after coming back from your birthday party. At that time, my heart was so heavy with pain that I couldn't even breathe properly. That night, I was completely drunk. I had drunk so much alcohol. You know why? Because… people say that alcohol lessens your pain and suffering. I drank to escape my pain, but that pain was not something that could be lessened by alcohol that night. Despite being so drunk, I felt as if someone was pulling the life out of me. After painting this, I never allowed anyone into this room again because of your presence in this room, Shivi!"
