The cars honked all around him in an endless cacophony, throbbing his ears. The young man held his head, rubbing his finger tips across his aching head. This was what he needed the least after another hectic day at work - a traffic jam gripping him since the past twenty minutes. And one that didn't seem to let go of him anytime soon. He rested his head back on the car with a sigh. This didn't seem to get any better.

The streets were packed with vehicles of all sorts almost sticking to each other like the pieces of a puzzle. Luckily, at least the evening weather was a pleasant one of November. So he rolled down the windows of the white car a bit. And as soon as he did, the soft breeze hit his forehead in the most gentle way, immediately making him feel better already. However, his next breath immediately made him frown and cough as the polluted grey air spread around the area found its way to the resting man.

Covering his nose, he rolled the thick glass sheet back up. Ugh. He was stuck here.

Tilting his head that lay on the headrest to his left, he saw the the cars and motorbikes almost clinging to each other, leaving no space even for air. The sight made his head ache even more. So he looked the other side. And something suddenly caught his attention beyond the vehicles there.

Yeah, perhaps a cup coffee could work now.

Somehow finding a way out of the car and the jammed street, he moved towards a small but appealing cafe located at the side of the road. Opening the glass doors, the air conditioned area finally bigger than the size of a shoebox he had been confined to since about half an hour already relaxed him.

It was a beautiful cafe. Pleasant to look at, tastefully decorated, few people inside. Well arranged plants lined up the stairs and window sills. That soothed him again. Finding a place at a corner of the room, he settled into a table meant for two.

"How may I help you, Sir?" A feminine voice greeted him a couple of minutes later.

Had he heard that voice before?

He looked up to see a young woman, probably in her early twenties, standing before him. As he looked up, the woman gave him a small smile through her faintly pink painted lips, before bowing her head a little to him.

The man was taken aback for a second by the sudden intruder. He didn't remember having a meeting here. Why couldn't he be left alone for a while?

He scanned her from head at toe. The lady wore a long, perfectly fitted black shirt with her sleeves rolled up to a little below her elbows. The shirt continued till her knees, after which her legs could be seen covered by a pair of black slacks. Her sleek hair was held together in a high pony tail. A silver watch was tied around her wrist, and a black coloured apron was tied on her waist.

Oh. An apron.

It was then when he realised the trespasser's identity.

"Any issues, Sir?" The lady asked politely, seeing his blank state. He noticed a small notebook in her hands.

He cleared his throat once before replying.

"None. I would like to have a Macchiato, please."

"Anything else, Sir?" That voice...

"No. Thank you."

The lady bowed to him again, before walking in the opposite direction.

He placed his head back on his chair, closing his eyes. He thought he was almost asleep when the light noise of crockery interrupted his silent surroundings. He lifted his lids to see the same waitress placing a brown cup on his table.

"Your Macchiato, Sir." The woman said softly.

"Are you spying on me?" The man now stated at her with narrowed eyes.

The girl furrowed her brows lightly before turning to him.

"I would have, had you been sitting here for long without ordering anything. But considering you asked for this Macchiato yourself and I didn't need to hide behind the bush nearby to hear it - no, I'm not." She smiled at him as she finished her words.

"That's bit too much of speaking for a petite girl like you." He said, raising a brow at her sharp response.

"Don't think I don't know you. Are you here to gather information about RK? You won't get anything by using such means." He stared at her with a serious look in his eyes.

The girl paused for a moment before replying.

"I know you too." She said nonchalantly. "Mr. Aryan Khanna. But that doesn't mean I'm obsessed with the thought of you stalking me whenever I see you, specially not at your workplace."

"Workplace? Really? You work here? Then why were you running with a microphone in your hand just hours ago?" He was very sure this woman was the same lady he had encountered earlier the same day. One among the many reporters who had come to interrogate RK. The woman with thick spectacles and a bold voice that counter questioned him almost everytime. How could he forget that voice?

"Why do you seem so interested in me?" She questioned back.

"I'm the journalist among us. Which reminds me, you said I won't be able to gather any information about RK by using such means. I didn't intend to run into you here or talk to you like I am doing right now. And certainly wasn't here for any information as such. But since you've said it yourself, is there really something about him you think I would want to collect?"

She raised her brows at him with a glint of curiosity in her eyes.

"What's all about RK the world doesn't know?"

"So now you come to your point of spying on me." Aryan smirked. The girl just tilted her head slightly with the same expressions as earlier on her face.

"Listen Miss Little Reporter, no matter how much you stalk me for your selfish motives, none of you will get anything about RK's life. Cuz there's nothing to hide." Aryan asserted sternly.

"That's nice. What are you worried about then?" She smirked at him this time. "If there's nothing, how does it matter even if I'm spying? Which, again, I'm not."

"So if you're not, how does it matter to you if I'm worried about anything or not then?" Aryan replied with the same tone as hers. He was still not convinced the woman was here for any other work but to keep an eye on him. He was the only person close to RK, after all. He couldn't just ignore a reporter showing up to him like this.

"Actually, it doesn't." She said after a pause.

"Enjoy your coffee, Sir." She smiled and bowed her head again, before leaving.

Aryan stared at her retreating figure for a while. Was she saying the truth? Since when had she been spying on him, if not? He needed to be more careful than he thought.

He then looked at the coffee kept before him. He no longer wanted to drink the beverage. Thanks to the waitress cum rude journalist to kill his remaining energy with her verbal war. He had already been exhausted at the end of the day, all he wanted to do was go to his bed and sleep now.

Thankfully RK was home long ago, he had asked Prachi. So Aryan could rest for the day now too. He called his chauffeur to confirm the situation of the traffic. And to his great pleasure, the roads were smooth by now.

Leaving the cup before him untouched, he left the cafe without seeing the waitress again, paying for his order on the way.

Miss Little Reporter. To think he got here to have a relief from a head ache. Only to be alerted by a spy behind him.

Ugh. Reporters! His head would explode someday.

Oh, well, Aryan just realised, though he was tired, he didn't actually have a head ache any longer. Thank heavens.

The waitress saw the man - Aryan Khanna - leave the cafe almost soon after she retuned from his table after the unplanned chitchat with him. Stalk him? Yeah, like she didn't have anything better to waste her day on. Mr. RK-Obsessed Manager.

"Shahana!" Someone called out to her from the counter, breaking her chain of thoughts. "Please check table number four once!"

"Coming." The girl replied before moving towards the assigned task.

---

Aryan climbed up the porch steps to find a silhouette standing near the wide open gates to the mansion. Frowning, he checked his watch - 20:25 - before stopping near the person.

"Miss Prachi? I thought your working hours were over?" Asked he, as soon as he caught her attention.

"They are, Sir. But since you weren't back yet, and RK Sir is pretty drunk, I was just waiting for you to return." She answered firmly.

Aryan was startled for a minute. She stayed here for around two hours just waiting for him, to leave?

"Sir?" Prachi's voice called him. "I must leave now that you're here."

"You were waiting for two hours after your working time?" Aryan asked, curious and unable to put a reason to it.

"I believe work might be tied to the clock, Sir. Responsibility isn't." She replied confidently.

Aryan was impressed at that. Even Prachi could see the slight smile on his features.

"Well, that's true. I hope you continue to work with the same diligence. You may return now."

Prachi nodded, and Aryan did too. Before he stepped inside the house.

The large living room was dark, with only the light from the golden chandelier above illuminating the room faintly. Aryan made his way towards RK's room to check on him. Then he would finally return to his bed.

"Where were you?" A voice halted his steps suddenly.

Aryan turned to the direction of the source to see his brother seated on the sofa that he had just walked past. He might have failed to recognise a person sitting there due to the darkness.

"RK?" Aryan moved towards him, his brows furrowed. "I thought you would be upstairs. I was just caught in a really bad traffic jam. I didn't know you'd be playing my girlfriend by waiting for me." Aryan tried to lighten the atmosphere between them after their last conversation.

"You do know." RK said, ignoring all of Aryan's attempts and choosing the direct way as usual. "You do know I did not mean anything-"

"I know." Aryan cut him off with a soft tone of his voice, sitting on the sofa next to his. "I know Ranbir. You don't have to say this. Out of all the people, I know what you really mean and what is just your anger speaking behind anything. Don't worry."

RK smiled at his friend lightly. What did he do to have a friend like him, in a world where literally no one else was his own?

"What?" Aryan spoke again, seeing his silence. "Did you think that I ran away cuz the fearsome RK scolded me?" He winked once at the last phrase.

"Nope. I know you too. I know you won't let me die peacefully by going anywhere any random day. You have to stay here and torture me like you do otherwise your life will be worthless, isn't it?"

Aryan smiled proudly at that. "Well, indeed. You do know me."

It was not as if Aryan had remained unphased at the unintentionally said hurtful words earlier. But he knew and understood the reasons behind everything RK did and said, even when RK himself didn't. Such was their friendship of years. And that knowledge and understanding could not let him stay either hurt or mad at him for long. Right now, seeing RK waiting for him, any doubt about any of his previous words being true that would have been there, would have dismissed itself on its own. And there was none to begin with in the first place.

For them, they were all that family meant to each other. And that family, meant a lot to both of them. Even if RK didn't say or show, Aryan knew that. For that is what family ties are all about - understanding, caring and being back to each other no matter how much you annoy the other. Love surpasses all. And that place you're back at the end of the day, is family for you, covering or surpassing relations bound by ties of blood.

"Okay, let's have dinner then." Aryan suggested. His appetite lost in the cafe was back somehow, and even his exhausted self was feeling a lot better.

"I'm sure Mr. Girlfriend would have been waiting for me for that too, right?" He teased RK, standing to his feet.

"Look at your nerve." RK narrowed his eyes at him. "And to think I pitied on your loneliness and kept my food waiting for you."

"Can you walk?" Aryan asked, ignoring his previous remark, when he saw him standing.

"Don't you see my legs?" RK raised a brow, walking towards the dining table where Aryan now stood by.

"Actually, I was told you're 'pretty drunk' right now. So I honestly thought you would be passed out on your bed when I came." Aryan answered honestly.

RK let out a humourless chuckle at that.

"'You were told?'" He asked. "Am I being spied on now as well?"

"Not yet, don't worry. I just"

"I know, I know. I probably know your potential personal detective very well." RK cut him off. Then chose to cock his head slightly towards the entrance. There, just a few seconds later, he saw the shadow of a person walking away.

Prachi was about to leave after the arrival of Aryan, when RK's voice coming from inside the room had caught her attention. She thought he had been asleep there. Looks like she was wrong about that again. And the conversation that had unfurled after that between the brothers had somewhere softened the expressions on her face, not completely known to her. The matters between the brothers was none of her business. But she had been slightly amused at the harsh exchange they had earlier the day. So the same night, when a direct conversation about it occurred between them before her, she subconsciously stood there and watched it all. Perhaps, The Thankless Knight cared for at least one person in the world.

She then heard her name being brought up, and RK turning to her direction shortly. He knew she had been here all the while?

However, before she could actually catch his eyes, Prachi left from there without another exchange between any.

"What are you looking at?" Aryan held RK's attention again.

"Nothing." He replied, turning to him. "I- I'm fine. You know it's not that easy to overpower me. Even for alcohol."

With the words being almost the last exchanged the night, the two shared a peaceful meal, before retiring to their respective rooms.

---

"Congratulations, Sir!" Said the men one after the other, seated around the large table in middle of the huge room.

RK received all the wishes coming towards him with a straight face as the men in the meeting room congratulated him on the immense success of his last concert, the details of profits of which they had been discussing currently.

"I expect all of you to keep up with the quality of work you're doing. Congratulate yourselves. It's not me you're working for. It's for you yourselves." RK spoke, seated at the single head seat, and the men listened to him. Sometimes, their Boss really confused them about his true nature.

There was no denying he was an excellent leader, in all aspects. But the fact that 'The RK' famous for his coldness and temper could speak warm words as well, still came to them as a new feeling everytime.

"Cuz I don't tolerate mistakes. Not at all people committing those mistakes. So if you want to keep yourself clean and safe, it's you yourself you're working for. Congratulate yourselves for achieving that."

Oh, yes, he was The RK.

The meeting had concluded on a successful note with many 'Yes, Sir's and the men were ready to head back to their tasks when they heard RK again.

"Miss Arora." The men turned to the only women standing in the room.

On the mention of her name, Prachi, who had been silent since the meeting had started, turned to face RK's chair, which she was standing beside.

"Sit, sit." RK ordered the men who were getting ready to leave.

"Miss Arora." He called again.

"Is this your first time working for a company so big?" He asked in a calm tone, going through a file in his hand that had been handed to him by her at the start of the meeting, containing the records she had compiled of the budgets and incomes of the previous concert and comparisons with the ones before.

"Or is this your first time actually working for a company in the first place?" RK asked again, before she could have a chance to speak. His tone of voice was still calm, but something in it hinted otherwise and the men exchanged looks before turning their gazes back to him.

"Or is this your first time working?" RK now turned to her with a raised brow and a mock questioning look on his face.

No, he still didn't shout. His tone was still calm. But the atmosphere of the room wasn't anymore.

The men looked at him worried and scared at the same time, with profound silence covering the room for a while after that. This was one of the tones they were scared of. It wasn't a silence before the storm, it was a silent storm in itself.

Prachi looked on at him with slight confusion in her otherwise unaffected features.

"Miss Think-You're-Equal-To-RK, is this your first time working?"

"No, Sir." Prachi replied with a bold voice.

"Well, it looks so to me." RK immediately shot back.

"Her guts think she's equal to me." RK spoke in a louder voice, still turned to Prachi.

"And your tiny, feminine brain doesn't even know how to compile details properly?"

Prachi looked at the men seated before RK, to find some of them looking back at her with worried glances, some watching her with a mocking expression, while some appeared to supress their smiles at the interesting scene going on before them.

"Is this the way you work?" RK stared straight at her. "Do you just wish to waste my time here? You think you're equal to me, and so you can do anything you want to?"

Looking at her silently for a few seconds, RK turned to the cup of coffee kept near him on the table. Lifting the cup, he poured the hot liquid on the open file kept before him in a swift motion.

"Miss Think-You're-Equal." He said, turning to her again. "Can you do this?"

"Cuz this is exactly what this work of yours deserves. Not my time for sure."

"I don't think my work had any issues, Sir." Prachi finally spoke, looking directly at him. The men around them widened their eyes.

What does this lady think she was doing?! Wasn't she aware of the 'just apologise and move away' policy with RK?!

"And I don't think I care about what you think, Miss Arora." RK's voice was still calm as he stood from his chair now, followed by the employees around. "I am not the one bound to do that."

"I said the files are not appropriate, means they aren't. Get that straight to your head in the first go. Otherwise there are many other things which I can do, and you can't." He said the last part in a lower voice, just to her.

"Like I said, Sir." Prachi began. "I don't think there are any issues about my work. But if you don't find it up to the mark, I'll try my best to initiate the necessary changes."

"You better do." RK said calmly. "Your 'best' will never be good enough for RK, but I want that thing ready by this evening." Ordered he in the same calm yet stern before leaving the room.

Prachi looked at the wet file on the table once, then left to follow him without another word, leaving behind her the talking men to their own.

---

Nights have always been a source of peace to the soul. Perhaps, it was something about the lonely moon hanging there that compelled people to appreciate even the darkness that came along with it.

RK stood in the greener areas surrounding his mansion, his eyes closed as he felt the cool breeze gently brush against his face. It had already been dark, and he had ordered the guards not to move around him for a while.

He just stood there motionless for a long while, no thoughts occupying him at the moment - his definition of perfect peace - when he felt light tickles of something on his face. It was only a minute before the night could be seen bringing with it a sudden downpour from the heavens.

The soft trickles quickly acquired the form of a heavy rainfall and drenched everything that came their way, touching them with the cold sensations of the November winds mingled with them.

And so they fell on RK, who still stood there with his lids shut like he had been earlier. He was not an ardent fan of the rains. Some parts of him were even disgusted by them. But some parts of him refused him to move and shun this sudden, unexpected form of tranquility that seemed to come to him with every drop of the rains.

He didn't know how long he had been standing there, but he was sure it hadn't stopped raining yet. Why couldn't he feel the waters anymore then?

RK finally lifted his lids, the downpour still continuing before his eyes. However, at a distance. For he felt the presence of something around himself preventing them from contacting him. Sensing the presence of someone beside him, he turned his head to look at the person, only to find Prachi standing there looking straight at him, an umbrella in her hands, covering their heads.

RK looked blankly at the woman for a minute, who looked back at him in a similar manner. He then turned his body towards the woman. Taking a step towards her, he stood closer to her.

"I want you to spy on someone." RK said through his wet lips in a low, husky voice.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Author's Note -

Hey, dear readers!

Quick this time :)
Long too!

So, here's the #JusticeToAryan! after the last update. Hope you liked it. Lol.

And looks like a girl has made her way towards him too ;)

So, what was your favourite dialogue from today? ;) 

Who or what do you think RK's talking about at the end?

And, what do you think about a rain scene here?

Would love to know your thoughts about the same, if you want the chapters quicker!

Not proofread.

Really hope you liked it. Waiting for your feedbacks. Constructive criticism is welcomed as well.

Thank you for reading. Lots of love to all of you :)

-Your Author