Heart Rush🔞 | ✓

Chapter 5

A/n: Sometimes I wonder if star kids/teens read our fanfics secretly😅

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For about a week, Ishan just drifted.

He took a handful of interviews, but it was pretty obvious pretty quickly that he didn't know how to fit in with the rest of the world. He had gotten very good at reading faces, and each person he spoke to had the same look: 'What the fuck is wrong with this guy?'

So Ishan gave up, and that's how he ended up back at his corner.

And for another week, he didn't see Shubman. He got excited at the sound of an approaching car, but it was never the right one. He lingered late, showed up early, but he was never there.

It felt like there was a hole in his chest that ached and bled.

One client even called him a dead fish and demanded his money back. There was normally a no-refund policy, but Ishan just didn't care to fight with him.

Mayank never stopped asking about Shubman. Every time he got home, it was the same.

Did Shubman stop by tonight? No.

Have you heard from him? No.

Do you know how to get in touch with him? No.

In the end, he had broken his most sacred rule and had opened his heart only to discover that Shubman was just like every other guy. As soon as the fruit was no longer forbidden and hard to get, it lost all its taste.

Ishan refused to cry over it, though. He didn't wanna let Shubman take that last bit of dignity from him.

"Ishan?" Mayank asked over another silent dinner. "I'm really worried about you."

Ishan shrugged. "When aren't you?"

Mayank gave a little frustrated huff. "No, I mean, really worried. The lease on this place is up soon, and I think... I think we should move somewhere we can afford with just my job."

Ishan's appetite was replaced by something that twisted his stomach into a tight knot. "No. I'll get my shit together. It's just a temporary drag in business."

Mayank opened his mouth to say something else, but Ishan looked like he really didn't want to hear it. He stood up from the table and grabbed his phone on his way out the door.

He believed he could do this. The fuck was wrong with me? He thought. He was good at this. Ishan could sell any man any fantasy. In fact, maybe it wasn't him at all. Ishan just needed a new corner. Needed to get some new clientele-spice things up.

So he wandered aimlessly, watching the flow of traffic and trying to get an eye for any slow-rolling cars. For a moment, he considered trying the closest strip club, but he was not really much of a dancer.

His legs got tired of walking, so he rested against a brick half-wall and pulled out his phone. There wasn't much in the news that interested him, but he didn't have anything better to do, so he idly scrolled through the headlines.

Some celebrity got a botched nose job... A historic building burned down... 30% chance of rain on Saturday...

Footsteps approach and a relieved voice says, "There you are."