Not Ours, Yet Ours

Jealousy? It can't be.

Suryansh leaned back in his chair, staring out of his glass office window. He could see Ujasha at her desk from this angle, and his eyes instinctively followed her movements as she gathered her belongings to leave for the day. She was laughing-again-with him. Rahul. His fingers twitched with irritation, though he couldn't exactly pinpoint why. It was unprofessional, he told himself, to feel this way about a colleague's interactions, but that reasoning didn't quite calm the unfamiliar churn in his gut.

And then it happened. Rahul's bike, parked at the far end of the office lot, had a flat tire. Of course, Suryansh had arranged it. A simple instruction whispered to the security guard when no one was around. Harmless, he had justified. It was just to delay Rahul for the day.

Rahul ran his hand through his hair and inspected the deflated tire, clearly annoyed. Ujasha, seeing his predicament, walked over and after a brief conversation, offered him a ride home. Suryansh could see them clearly from his screen, and something inside him boiled over. He watched as she handed her keys to Rahul and gestured for him to hop in her car. There was nothing particularly wrong with it- it was an act of kindness, after all-but still, the way they laughed together, the casual ease between them, gnawed at him.

He was about to turn away when Gauransh suddenly appeared in his office doorway. "Oh ho! Someone's not too pleased," Gauransh remarked, leaning casually against the door frame, arms crossed. His eyes twinkled with mischief, the same kind Ujasha's always held, the kind that drove Suryansh insane.

Suryansh's jaw clenched, but he didn't respond.

"I saw you bhai, by the way," Gauransh continued, pushing off the door and walking into the office. "You know, when you ordered the guard to 'accidentally' puncture Rahul's bike."

Suryansh shot him a withering glare. "I didn't do anything."

"Oh please, don't insult my intelligence," Gauransh said, dropping into the chair across from him. "You might be a control freak in the office, but this is beyond even you. You know what it looks like, right?"

Suryansh's brow furrowed as he focused intently on his desk, avoiding Gauransh's gaze. "What are you talking about?"

"You're jealous, bro," Gauransh said, not even bothering to hide his grin. "Jealous of Rahul, no less. Not even me- though I should be offended by that, considering I'm clearly the funnier and more charming Khurana."

Suryansh's denial was immediate. "That's ridiculous."

But Gauransh just laughed, thoroughly enjoying himself. "Come on, admit it. You punctured his bike, Suryansh. That's not the action of someone who's indifferent."

Suryansh opened his mouth to retort but found himself coming up short. Was Gauransh right? His gaze shifted back to the monitor, where Ujasha and Rahul were now getting into her car. His fingers tightened around the armrest of his chair, his frustration simmering beneath the surface.

"You're overthinking this," Suryansh finally muttered, standing up abruptly and walking toward the door. "I'm going home."

____________________________________________________________

Dinner at the Khurana mansion was an elaborate affair as always. Surashi sat at the head of the table, her graceful presence in the way that she commanded the room with a simple smile. Digvijay, as usual, was engrossed in some business update on his phone, but he still had a twinkle in his eyes that never left when his family was around.

Suryansh, however, was distracted. His mind kept replaying the image of Ujasha and Rahul, and Gauransh's teasing. Could he really be... jealous? It didn't make sense. There was nothing between him and Ujasha- nothing at all. She was his employee, a junior colleague at best, and any connection they shared was purely professional. It had to be if it wasn't as of now.