THE FORGOTTEN COUPLE: ARHANA

EPISODE 13

Sorry for the late update. RajibkumarDeka you have asked me so many times for it, so it's specially for you.

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Aryan and Ranbir were on their way to Sarita ji's house as love-stricken Ranbir could not spend a day without visiting Prachi.

Ranbir was driving the car and bombarding Aryan with various methods of proposing Prachi which Ranbir wanted to try, while was thinking of how to find the lady. Suddenly, when they were just about to reach their destination, a taxi passed them. Aryan's attention was caught by it's passenger. 

She was the lady with those eyes!

Aryan was perplexed. He was sure that it was the same lady. He turned back to have a better look, but the taxi was gone by then. Aryan wondered if he had indeed seen the lady or he had imagined it. He didn't notice that now they were in front of Prachi's house.

"Aryan, are you planning to stay there?" Shahana's voice brought him out of his thoughts.

He looked outside to see Ranbir was already out and talking to Prachi while Shahana was staring at him curiously through the window.

"Where are you lost? I'm asking something." Shahana asked again, placing her hands on her hips and tilting her head a bit.

Cute! 

That's the word that came in Aryan's mind when he saw her. 

"What are you thinking, Aryan! She is not cute. She is irritating." Aryan scolded himself.

"What happened bro?" This time, it was Ranbir who had asked the question.

"Nothing. I was thinking why Prachi and Sahana are standing outside." Aryan lied.

"It's SHAHANA." Shahana corrected him.

"I don't know about Shahana, but Prachi was waiting for me, weren't you?" Ranbir winked at Prachi. 

"In your dreams. Actually our maasi had come and we were outside to see her off." Prachi glared at Ranbir.

Aryan's attention was caught by the information. He wondered if the lady he had seen was their maasi or not.

"Why are you standing outside? Please come in." Prachi said.

Ranbir and Prachi entered first. Shahana was about to follow them, when someone held her hand from behind. She turned around to find Aryan. She was about to scold him, but the somber expression on his face stopped her. 

"What happened, Aryan?" she questioned gently.

"I will ask you a question, but first promise me that you won't mention it to anyone even if it sounds trivial to you." 

Shahana was worried about Aryan's behavior. "I promise." she said solemnly.

"Please tell me what is the name of your maasi and do you have her picture?" Aryan asked.

The question perplexed Shahana even more. Why on earth was Aryan suddenly interested in their maasi?

"Umm.....The truth is that we neither know her name nor have her picture." Shahana replied.

"Why?" Aryan couldn't stop himself from questioning.

"It's kind of a mystery why she doesn't wants to click any pictures and we never found any necessity to know her name as we always address her as maasi." 

"Can you arrange for me to meet her?" 

"Sure. She doesn't visits us often, but the next time she comes, I will surely inform you." Shahana assured him.

Their talks was interrupted by Pragya who had came to find them after being informed by Prachi that they were standing outside.

"What are you doing here? Come inside and talk." Pragya said.

They went inside the house and saw Prachi and Ranbir discussing something.

"Aunty, can we please go out and enjoy today since the college will start from tomorrow?" Ranbir pleaded to Pragya with the best puppy eyes he could make.

'But, they have not fully recovered yet......" Pragya was worried for her children.

"I promise that Aryan and me will take full care of them. Please let us go." Ranbir pleaded as he wanted to spend time with Prachi.

Pragya took pity on his condition and said, "Ok you can take them, but return before it's too late."

"Ok, aunty!" 

As they were going out, Ranbir pulled Aryan aside.

"I want a favour from you, bro." Ranbir whispered to him.

"What is it now?" Aryan asked rolling his eyes as he knew something romantic must be cooking inside Ranbir's head.

"Nothing much. Can you please leave me and Prachi alone in my car while you and Shahana go together?" Ranbir requested.

"Are you mad or what? If you and Prachi go in the car, how will I and Shahana go? By walking or flying?" 

"Don't worry. I have requested driver uncle to bring your car here. You can go in that. See he is here."

"You already asked him to bring the car, without even asking if I will accept your proposal or not." Aryan gasped.

"I know you are my dear brother, my best friend. And you can never refuse me." 

Shaking his head, Aryan agreed as he knew it was impossible for him to refuse Ranbir.

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They were going to a place decided by Ranbir. The car was travelling through a road which had a beautiful scenery and lush green trees bordering it. The window was open and Shahana was lost in gazing outside. She had no idea that beside her, Aryan was having a hard time about how to initialize a conversation.

In the morning he didn't knew how to start a conversation and it was ten times difficult now that she was in front of him. Moreover he couldn't ask her about her day or health as he had already done so earlier.

"Do you mind if I listen a song?" Aryan asked.

Shahana glanced at him briefly and replied "yes".

She was busy in her thoughts. She didn't have much memory of her parents, but she could recollect some facts faintly like they used to go on road trips together and whenever she was hurt or performed well, her mother used to prepare her favourite dishes. Her heart felt heavy.

"What did you have for breakfast?" 

The abrupt question jolted her out of her thoughts. She turned to look at the terror-stricken face of Aryan who had realized that this was not the correct question to ask someone all of a sudden.

"Maasi had prepared Prachi's favourite kheer and puri." she replied.

"And...." Aryan urged her to continue?

"And what? Nothing we had kheer puri."

"Only kheer puri?" Aryan asked unbelievably. He had hoped that something of Shahana's favourite would also have been prepared as most people got their favourite things when they are unwell.

"What do you expect us to eat for breakfast then? Biriyani?" Shahana pretended to be angry and turned her face.

She was actually crying inside as she was reminded of her mother.

Suddenly the car stopped and Aryan got out.