Tum Hi Ho

Chapter 16

Darshan ran a hand through his hair. He had started to realize that staying away from Paridhi was really much harder than he had thought. They had developed a good friendship. As a manager and as a friend, Paridhi was always going to stay near him. But he shouldn’t be weak. He had to do this. For the sake of his sanity and for sake of HER happiness.
As much as he wanted to hurt Paridhi, he knew he was not that type of person. Paridhi had never hurt him intentionally, hell she didn’t even know about his feelings or his attraction.
Yes…his feelings were the reason he was hurt. He decided to continue with his act of indifference and ignore Paridhi until a solution came up or he managed to stop loving her or at least stopped getting affected by her. He now became aware of the throbbing in his hand. As he tried to wash it and tied a bandage, it took his mind off Paridhi for a while.
Paridhi walked back to their room with Hardik and the team. She was torn between checking on Darshan to find out what was wrong and letting him cool off and rest for tomorrow. As she lingered near Darshan’s room, Hardik put a hand on her shoulder making her jump. This made Hardik withdraw his hand as Paridhi looked really uncomfortable.
“Don’t worry, I will check on him. I think you should give him time because once he gets angry, it takes a lot of time for him to cool down. If you tried to talk to him when he is angry, it might make matters worse. Trust me, just give it some time. Darshan is not someone to hold grudges for long. He will be back to normal soon.” Hardik assured Paridhi and she nodded, feeling slightly relieved.
“I think you are right. Alright then, go and sleep now. And wake up early tomorrow. We don’t want to miss the flight. Good night.” “Good night.” Though Paridhi decided to wait, it still made her feel uneasy. Why was Darshan angry at her?
Next morning, she woke up at 5 and woke everyone one. “Don’t take showers here, you can shower when you reach Kolkata. Just throw on your clothes, grab your stuff and come down.” She told everyone as they woke up, muttering sleepily and stumbling around to get ready.
She then knocked on Darshan and Hardik’s room, hoping that Darshan would have cooled down by now and if not, then Hardik would open the door. The second part of her wish came true. It was Hardik who opened the door, in process of pulling down a T-shirt. What’s with boys and naked bodies? How are they comfortable roaming in front of girls shirtless? She scowled, but got worried as soon as she saw Hardik’s solemn expression. “Something’s wrong.” Hardik told her. “Darshan has bandage over his right arm. I think the left wrist that had sprained yesterday is healed, but something has happened to his right hand. He wouldn’t tell me what happened. He just said that he got hurt and he didn’t want to talk about it. Also, I think you should stay away from him for a while now. He is really in a bad mood right now. I don’t want him to direct his anger at you. We will talk about this later.” He said as Darshan came out of washroom, shirtless. Really what’s with boys and their habit of being shirtless all the time? Even Nikhil roamed around in house shirtless on his off days.
Paridhi stared at him as he threw the towel on the bed and grabbed a T-shirt. She turned around and went out of the room after Hardik motioned her to go. Hardik had been with Darshan for 5 years and he had never seen Darshan in such mood ever. There was something serious going on, but he knew Darshan would never tell him if he didn’t want to. And he would definitely not talk to him in a bad mood.
Darshan always preferred to remain silent when he was angry so that he wouldn’t hurt anyone with rudeness or harsh angry words. Darshan had seen Paridhi standing with Hardik when he came out of the washroom, but he had chosen to not even look at her. If he wouldn’t look at her, she wouldn’t affect him. And fortunately for him, she had gone away before his resolve crumbled.
He knew he would have to face her sooner or later and she was definitely going to question his sudden cold and silent treatment, but if he was rude enough to her, maybe she would just stay away from him. Darshan got dressed and when it was time to go, he put on sunglasses so Paridhi wouldn’t notice the redness of his eyes or if he happened to glance at her, no one would notice.
He also changed his bandage after applying some ointment on his knuckles. He might be heartbroken, but he wasn’t careless. He had an image to maintain and he needed the knuckles to heal quickly without getting infected. He then wrapped a handkerchief around the bandage, making it look like a fashion statement. When everyone gathered in the lobby, waiting for the cars, Paridhi noticed Darshan’s hand, but even though she was worried she noticed that Darshan was still in a bad mood, so she didn’t ask him anything. He greeted the team with a curt good morning, but didn’t even spare a glance towards her. Four hours later, they were in Kolkata and as usual, Paridhi ran off to check arrangements after a quick shower while Darshan and his team settled in the rooms provided for them and got showered. Thankfully, the Kolkata crowd wasn’t as wild as Assam one and the concert was a success without any event.
They had a break next day, so everyone was relaxed and everyone talked at the dinner table about anything and everything. Darshan too was back in good mood, but he was still giving Paridhi cold treatment. He talked to everyone, except Paridhi. Paridhi made an attempt to talk to him once, during dinner. But he openly ignored her, causing the team to exchange looks. Seeing Paridhi’s embarrassment, Hardik decided to talk to Darshan that night. He gave Paridhi a reassuring nod and Paridhi nodded in silent agreement.