She barged into his room, without knocking, as usual.
He sighed, and looked up from his file, suppressing his smile, trying to act as if her presence, her comming there did not affect him much.
When in reality, his heart was thumping hard in celebration.
........
Since they had gotten back from poin 1857, their equation had changed dramatically.
The way she looked at him, in complete adoration,worship even...
He had had a hard time maintaining his composure....
And finally, about a month ago.....comming back from the informal engagement party of Ali and Puja (second year cadets were allowed to go out to town after all!), completely high, she had confessed to him...that she loved him...
True, she did not meet his eyes for days afterwards....
She stopped comming up to talk to him on pointless matters...
Stopped trying to find ways to be with him...always turning red, and escaping...whenever she found herself even remotely alone with him
He was amused to see this shy version of his Cadet Singh...
Finally, after a week of running away from him, trying to act like she had said nothing and remembered nothing, he finally decided to do something abt it...
*Flashback*
She felt someone catch her hand, and before she could react, she was pulled inside a door, her hand trapped behind her...
Pushed against the wall, with him hovering so near....
He let go of her, to go n bolt the door, then turned back to face her, hands in his pockets.
She was fumbling...
Naina: S..sir...aap ye...aap ye kya kar rahe ho...
She said, feigning anger...
Raj : Cadet Singh, maine tumhe pichele ek hafte se 3 baar bulwaya...you did not seem to bother comming when I called you.
Kya mai puch sakta hu apne senior k summons answer na karne ki wajah kya hai?
She looked at him, then looked down again, still fumbling...
He chuckled to himself, outwardly maintaining the strict composure. He could literally hear her brain whirring, trying to find an excuse.
Naina : Wo sir...
Raj : Ha cadet Singh mai sun raha hu.
Naina : Wo sir..... shayad...shayad orderly mujhe kehna bhuk gaya hoga....mujhe kisi ne aake nahi bataya...
She said, lying through her teeth, looking here and there...
Raj stepped nearer, looking at her.
Her breath hitched, as he went abnormally close.
Raj (gently) : Naina....us raat jo hua...tumnr jo kaha...
Naina (with misty eyes, unable to avoid the subject now, as raj had directky gotten into it) : Sir....I...I am sry ....maine..maine nashe me....
(Wiping her own tears) : but sir...maine aap se kaha tha na...ki agar mujhe aapse pyaar ho gaya, to mai use aapke career k beech me nai aane dungi...
I promise sir...iss baat ka zikar kabhi nai karungi....aaj ke baad...
Saying this, still teary, she lightly pushed him and started leaving.
He caught her hand before she could take more than one step, pulled her back, and pinned her to the wall, holding her hand folded behind her back.
She gasped, looking at him with questioning eyes.
Raj : I love you too.
He said, simply, without any preamble or pretext, his eyes genuine.
To be continued. .....
