Tum Hi Ho

Chapter 15

October heat was really a bad here in Assam and even if it was almost 10 PM and everyone was hungry and exhausted, the first thing they wanted was a cold shower. But Paridhi wanted to make sure that Darshan and Hardik were not hurt, so she went and knocked their door.
After a couple of minutes it was opened by Hardik, who smiled when he saw her and invited her in. Paridhi stepped in and turned to look for Darshan.
“Are you ok Hardik? Are you hurt somewhere? And what about Darshan? I saw how those girls pulled him. He is fine na?” She asked worried as she couldn’t see Darshan anywhere.
Hardik shook his head. “None of us got hurt. We are fine. Darshan is just taking a shower.” Paridhi nodded at that. “Alright then. Come down at 10.30 sharp for dinner. We need to go to bed early as we have to leave tomorrow early in the morning.” She told him and he nodded.
Paridhi walked back to her room, relieved that Darshan was fine. She took a shower and walked down to the dining area. She spotted the group easily as there were only a few people in there and their group was the biggest and loudest.
All the boys were roaring with laughter at some joke Darshan had told them and she smiled automatically seeing the group like this. But as she sat down, she noticed Darshan glance at her, his smile vanishing and he looked somewhere else as she tried to smile at him. Paridhi frowned. This was odd. Normally Darshan always tried to talk to her to make her comfortable as she was the only girl in the group. He was always polite to her, respected her personal space and she always felt that he genuinely cared for her as a friend. He made her feel included. The entire group was nice for that matter, they never made her feel alone. They included her in their jokes, conversations, listened to her instructions and even included her in pranks.  But as they ordered and conversation flowed, Paridhi noticed that Darshan was giving her cold treatment, if not silent one.
He replied to her questions about whether he was hurt or not with short answers, but he didn’t make any other conversation at all. Confused, she decided to test if he was really angry at her or not.
At a point while they were eating, there was silence at the table as everyone was busy eating and no one had anything to say. This was a rare moment as the boys usually never shut up. She seized her chance and turned to Darshan.
“Hey Darshan, you never told us that you have a girlfriend.” She said it in a joking way and everyone understood that she was joking. But Darshan glared at her. He was about to say something when Hardik asked Paridhi, “Why? Tumko kisne bola Darshan ki girlfriend hai?” Paridhi shook with silent laughter and then narrated the incident of the odd girl she had met earlier at the concert. “She thought I was going to kidnap Darshan, she literally accused me of that and said that she was Darshan’s girlfriend and that I should behave with her politely or else I would lose my job.” Everyone laughed at that but Paridhi noticed that Darshan’s expression was full of rage.
There was loud noise as Darshan abruptly pushed his char back and suddenly stood up. “She was my fan. At least she loves me. You have no right to talk about her in this way. Be careful or you will really lose your job.” Darshan spat out, venom in his words and Paridhi could only stare at him in shock.
Everyone was frozen at the sudden outburst. Darshan was never one to get angry at all, let alone over such a trivial matter.
“Darshan..err….I…really….didn’t…mean…I was just…. It was just a joke, I didn’t mean to insult her.” Paridhi tried to explain, but Darshan stormed off, ignoring his team who called out his name. Hardik turned to Paridhi who sat there, color drained from her face.
“Did you say something to him that might have made him angry? I have noticed that he has been trying to ignore you for the whole day today. Kuch hua hai kya tum dono ke bich?” he asked. Paridhi was as confused as he was. She shook her head.
“I don’t know. I don’t think I have said or did something that might have offended him. Something is wrong, but I don’t….” She trailed off, trying to remember if she had really done or said something to offend Darshan. But she couldn’t remember anything.
The day had been normal and Darshan too had behaved normally in the morning, taking care of her and making her eat breakfast. It was after breakfast that he had started giving her the cold treatment.
Had something happened at the breakfast? Paridhi tried to remember, but she couldn’t come up with anything.

Flashback….
That morning, Darshan made Paridhi eat a heavy breakfast. He didn’t want her to faint again as he knew she had a lot of work that day, and the concert was going to be hectic to manage. After the breakfast, Darshan and team sat there sipping tea and Paridhi rose and went to check up the transportation for the sound check.
A few moments later, a phone rang from the seat she had just vacated and at the same time Hardik went, “Where’s my phone?” Darshan lifted the phone from Paridhi’s seat and saw that it was her phone, but he clearly remembered her picking up a phone from the table and walking away. It was always like this. He always noticed smallest things about her.
“I think Paridhi took your phone by mistake and left hers here.” Darshan told Hardik and Hardik looked at Paridhi’s phone. “Ohh, she might have mistaken my phone for hers. We have the same phone covers.” Hardik chuckled and started to rise. But Darshan stopped him.
“Bhai tu pehle kuch kha le. I will go, give her this phone and bring yours back. I am done, but you haven’t even eaten anything. We have to leave in 10 minutes.” Hardik nodded and turned towards food. Darshan started towards the elevator and suddenly the phone started to ring again. He glanced at the screen. It was Nikhil. He realized that this must have been the same person who had called just a few minutes ago. Was it related to concert? Could it be something urgent if he was calling repeatedly? As he was debating whether or not to receive the call, it started to slip out of his loose grip and he fumbled to catch it. As soon as he recovered it, he saw that the call had been answered accidently and he lifted it to his ears to tell the person about it when he heard the person speak and it froze him.
“Paridhi? I called to tell you that I will be talking to our parents about our marriage next week. I know I always told you to keep our relationship a secret, but just one week and you can tell everyone about us. I can’t wait to see you, when are you coming back?....Hello…Hello? Paridhi? ….Can you hear me? Is there a network problem?” Darshan suddenly ended the call. How could he be so stupid? Of course she would have been taken. She was beautiful, sweetest girl he had ever met.
Why did he even assume that she would be single? It was his fault that he had started falling for her. She hadn’t even given him any signals. It was all his fault. But now what was he supposed to do? She belonged to someone else and this thought alone made him want to go and kill that person. No, this was wrong. She affected him very badly and he couldn’t let this happen.
He had to stop this before he fell in love with her completely. He had to stay away from her. It would be hard, but he could do it, he HAD to do it. From this moment onwards, he would talk to her only when necessary and just maintain a professional relationship.
Flashback ends