As the elevator rose and stopped almost immediately at the fourth floor, Hardik raised his head to ask, "Would you believe the coincidence?"
Jassi pulled Hardik's head down on his shoulder again, because he wasn't done with the hug yet.
The door opened.
"Er, Jass, maybe we could get out of the lift and—"
Jassi frowned as he finally conceded to breaking the hug.
"Is it a coincidence, though? The power going off and on exactly—"
"Oh, no—"
"VIRAT BHAIYA DID THIS!"
Panic-stricken by Jassi's tone, both of them looked around frantically.
"THEY ARE WATCHING US!" yelled Jassi.
"Shh, shh," said Hardik. "What if they are watching us? We weren't doing anything wrong—we were just hugging. We weren't kissing. Though that's not wrong for me anymore, since I am no longer married," he added with a sinister smile.
"Stop being dark and creepy," said Jassi, "and if it's Virat bhaiya—as I'm sure it was—let's plan a revenge. He can't get away with locking us in every time!"
Hardik's eyes brightened, before springing into alert-mode.
"Wait, can they hear us?"
"I hope not...and outside the lift, they can't possibly hear us..."
They stepped out of the lift which had started to beep with the door open that long, and made for Jassi's room, and locked the door before they sat to lay down their plan.
"Ideas?" asked Jassi. "Okay, let's start with how many times and where he has locked us in."
"Hotel rooms, dressing rooms, the terrace, an elevator today—"
"—and the prayer room of an airport once," added Jassi.
"Yes." Hardik nodded gravely. "I personally think locking him inside any of the above would be too kind. I suggest a broom closet."
Jassi wrinkled his nose. "Isn't that too, er, harsh?"
"Don't even go there. Nothing is too harsh for a person who locks his younger brothers in all the time."
"But he does it only when we're fighting, because he loves us and wants us to be friends," said Jassi uncertainly.
"We can put something nice in the broom closet," said Hardik dismissively. "Like candies or milk powder."
"Virat bhaiya hates candies and milk powder."
"Like a salad box, then."
"Good idea." Jassi thought a little. "And you know what? However nice Rohit bhaiya pretends he is, I think he has a hand in all these, too."
"He does?" asked Hardik, baffled.
"He listens to everything Virat bhaiya says. He knows of everything Virat bhaiya does anyway, and not objecting is as bad as being party to the plan. I say we lock them both in."
"You mean the messers become the messees!"
"Can't you be original?"
"On board," said Hardik solemnly, pretending he hadn't heard. "Then we have to throw in a few packets of milk powder, too."
They went on a reconnaissance of the hotel, and found a broom closet—which was a bit too clean, but it was a broom closet nevertheless.
"We can lure them in quite easily," said Hardik. "How long should we keep them?"
YOU ARE READING
In Every Story of Mine (A Jassi-Hardik story)
Fanfiction"When we look back And when we're old We'll see your footprints next to mine along the road." Jassi chose to spend the unpleasant two months of IPL '24 as isolated from the world and his team as would give him peace. He doesn't have an inkling why...
