Soul Swap!

The thankful normalcy

Virat followed Jinks into Hardik's room where Jinks was pulling open drawers and cupboards with bad grace.

"Why did you start with his room?" asked Virat.

Jinks ignored him and continued working. Virat joined him and started emptying the cupboards with Jinks.

"Jinks, Jinks, why are you taking this to heart, Mahi bhai keeps scolding all of us all the time--ok, I know he hasn't scolded you much but look at me or Kuliya or Hardik..."

Jinks narrowed his eyes and tried to zone out Virat's mosquito-buzz like rant, but Virat wouldn't stop.

"...amd even Ro will soon cool down, and look at how much Jaddu loved it, and..."

"Virat," said Jinks through gritted teeth. "Do you realise that it's thanks to you that we got caught?"

Virat looked horrified. "No!"

Jinks dropped all of Hardik's precious clothes that he had been holding and straightened up.

"First you trick me into a stupid prank like this. Then you go and give it away to Mahi bhai because Mahi bhai and Kuliya gave me a bit more attention for like 3 hours! What the hell is wrong with you?" he demanded.

"I didn't trick you into it!" After all, Jinks wasn't supposed to know, reasoned Virat.

"Vi, you know I'm not as stupid as you think I am," began Jinks patiently.

"Aren't you?" asked Virat with an air of surprise before he could stop himself.

Jinks looked seriously offended now.

"It's no use talking to you at all," he muttered, as he resumed the packing.

"I want to know why you're blaming me," said Virat, getting indignant himself. "You enjoyed it every bit as much as I did. What's my fault?"

"Practically owning up that it was a prank!" said Jinks, outraged. "That was your fault!"

"Why were you clinging to Mahi bhai so much anyway?" demanded Virat, promptly changing track.

"Because Vi, I was pretending to be you, and that's what you do," said Jinks slowly, like he was explaining addition and subtraction to a dumb toddler.

Virat couldn't think of an answer to that, so he said randomly, "You're impossible."

"Yeah right, I'm--"

"Are you two really fighting?" said an ecstatic voice at the door.

They both looked up and saw Rohit looking like Christmas had come early.

"Is this the first ever Virat-Jinksy fight?" Rohit asked the heavens above.

"No, it's not!" snapped Virat. "Jinks," he said remorsefully. "I've been an idiot, I know. Will you stop being mad?"

Jinks sighed.

They hadn't been fighting really, because Jinks couldn't stay mad at Virat for even 5 minutes.

"I'm not mad," said Jinks, and turned to Rohit. "And if you're done with speculating, come over here."

Rohit went to them and on impulse hugged the life out of both of them. It was so wonderful to hear Jinks' exasperated voice and Virat's random crap.

"You didn't tell me sorry even once," he reminded Virat.

"That's because I'm not sorry," said Virat at once.

"He's such a spoilt brat, isn't he, Jinks?" asked Rohit.

"Of course he is," said Jinks matter-of-factly.