Chapter Five

"Two such as you with such a master speed cannot be parted nor be swept away from one another once you are agreed that life is only life forevermore together wing to wing and oar to oar."

- Robert Frost

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If asked, Shravan wouldn't able to put his feeling into words, he wouldn't be able to explain what he felt when she smiled at him, how her attentive eyes on him made him feel, or how soft her small hand felt in his large one, he just knew it made him feel lighter, happier, carefree. And that was what he was feeling as wordlessly, he tugged her beside him and she followed him. Side by side, they made their way out of the dining area to the hall.

As they sat on the large sofa, her phone rang, looking at the display, she let out a sigh of exasperation. It was Mr Mishra once again, the owner of the small print shop she had approached for the advertisement of PTC and ever since she had walked out his shop, he had been calling her to ask her how did she want the text or the colour and what not...

"What happened?" Shravan asked, noticing her odd reaction.

"This man is bothering me since morning," She ranted, glaring down at her mobile.

"What? Can anyone achieve that?" He asked with a teasing smile, amused.

"Ha-Ha. But really I don't know why he keeps calling me for every small detail, I mean, it's his work, how would I know which color would look better and what not? And why does it matter what my favorite color is?" She continued her rant, annoyed at the shop owner.

"Shall I talk to him?" He volunteered, somehow understanding the reason behind the constantly ringing phone.

"Please!" She pleaded as she handed him her phone.

"Hello, Suman ji!" A very chirpy said from the other side.

"Hello, Mr Mishra," Shravan greeted, pleasantly.

"Huh? Wrong number?" Mr Mishra muttered as he looked at the screen of his phone before continuing; "Sorry sir, I was looking for Suman ji," he said politely.

"Suman is in the kitchen, did you need something? You can tell me, I will help you!" Sharvan amusedly replied, once again amazed at her ability to attract the weirdest of the specimen.

"Who you are?" Mr Mishara asked, curious at the new entry in his love story with the beauty he had met in the morning, after waiting for her his whole life.

"What do you want, Mr Mishra?" He asked, annoyed at the audacity of the person on the other side.

"I lost Address, can you give me PTC's address?" Mr Mishra asked, a challenge in his voice.

"PTC's address?" He asked out loud, realizing he actually didn't know the address of the workplace of the girl sitting next to him, who was now hurriedly pulling out a pen and paper from her bag to write it down for him.

"Why? You don't know the address?" Mr Mishra mocked him in smugness, after all, he knew it!

"Mr Mishra, do you remember all the addresses? Your friend and girlfriend's workplace address too?" He asked with a smirk, knowing how his words would be interpreted by the man on the other side.

"Girlfriend?" Mr Mishra asked stuttering as all the will to fight off died within him.

"Yes!" He said, staking his claim as ignored the confused and curious glance the supposed girlfriend was throwing at him.

"Okay now, write down the address!" He said, taking the paper from her hand and recited the address out loud, memorizing it.

"Okay, good night, sir!" Mr Mishra said, ending the call with a heavy heart.

Shaking his head, Shravan handed her the phone with an amused smile on his face.

"What?" She asked with a frown.

"You attract weirdest people, Sumo!" He said with a teasing smile as he looked at her with fake pity.

"What the hell? How is that my fault?" She said with her eyes narrowed at him before huffing in her Sumo way.

With an amused glint in his eyes, he was coming up with a response when Ramu Kaka came and placed a small cooler on the table in front of them.

"Do you need anything else?" Ramu Kaka asked with an extra brilliant smile on his face, clearly very pleased with him for not destroying his beloved kitchen.

"No, thank you!" Shravan answered, amused and with a nod, Ramu Kaka turned around, walked away with a spring in his every step.

Letting out a chuckle, Shravan sat upright and moved closer to the cooler placed on the table before handing her the dessert.

"Kolfi?" She asked as she looked at him in shock as he handed her a bar of cold Kolfi.

"Yes? What were you expecting to have in the dessert? Tiramisu? And anyway, you can't deny that Kolfi is the best dessert!" He said as he narrowed his eyes at her, daring her.

"True that," she admitted quickly, knowing if she didn't, he would claim every bar of the delicious dessert as his.

"But no cheating this time around, half yours and half mine. Don't you dare to even think about stealing mine!" She warned him as she glared at him while he innocently smiled, the glint in his eyes giving away his intention.

"But you don't have to be slow because if you are slow in eating, Sumo, I will!" He responded to her with a challenge.

And that triggered between them a dessert race as they hurriedly finished bar after bar of cold Kolfi, without caring of the chilliness or how it had numbed their taste buds, after all, in the end, what to them had always mattered was them fighting over silly matters as they relived a part of their teens they missed the most; the carefree joy and the innocence of it that was only attainable to them when they were around each other...

As she whacked his hand and she snatched away the last bar of the Kolfi before he could attack it, he laughed out loud and laughed some more when he caught the sight of her hurriedly eating it with her eyes wide and on alert to avoid his next attack even though he had no intention of making an attempt to take away the last bar of Kolfi in her hand.

"Ha! I won!" She declared with pride before looking at him gazing at her, so tenderly that it took away her breath.

With a smile, he reached out and cupped her chin with his hand as he wiped the corner of her lips with his thumb while all she could do was blink her eyes as her heart started to beat irregularly and an uncharacteristic blush took over her cheeks.

As they continued to stare at each other, the air around them thickened, suddenly charged with electricity, making their breath heavy and their hearts beat faster. His fingers slowly moved up, caressing her skin all along. Marveling and fascinated at how her skin felt like velvet, he kept moving knuckles up and down on her cheek. He softly tucked her hair behind her ear before slipping his hand to the nape of her neck as his thumb kept caressing the side of her jawline, making her earring sway with every caress.

"Shravan..." She sighed breathlessly, her heart beats noticeably irregular under his fingerprints...

That breathless sigh after she whispered his name became another reason why he was sure that she was falling in love with him;

There has been always obliviousness - from her side - of the effect that her proximity had over him because then his presence didn't have the same effect on her. Years back, she never noticed how sometime after ruffling his hair, she would softly comb them with her fingers. She was never aware when she stepped too close to him, unaffected as she had been, nor she realized how whenever she would put her arm around his shoulders, she would pull him extra close to her. It was only he who would be dizzy with her close proximity, unable to hear her as she kept ranting about everything on earth. She didn't even pay attention to how he reacted awkwardly every time her body would clash with his during one of their chasing sessions or why he would fumble every time she caught him staring at her. She never noticed, back then...

Sometimes he had wished she had. He had wished it with such intensity that it had made his heart jump out his chest and confess it to her; Yes, you affect me! You, Suman Tiwari aka Sumo, you have power over me that no one ever would. Please, reciprocate!

There had been many times when he had wanted to ask her if there was a possibility for an 'us' between them. If she would ever feel the same way about him that he felt for her.

Would you ever be able to feel the same yearning? He had wanted to ask.

Would you ever feel as if you need me, the way I need you? He had wanted to know.

Would you stay by my side even when you would not need my help in doing your homework or to pass an exam? Or any other significant or insignificant things that you need me for? He wanted to ask her all of that.

There were countless times when he had been so close to yell: 'Am I around because my presence in your life is convenient? What am I to you?' But he never had. It was only he himself, whom he asked countless questions, wondered about it till it drove him crazy with the need to just ask her and end the torture. But he had never asked her any of it...

There had been so many things he had asked himself, even willed himself to ask her the same, but he couldn't. Sometimes it was the fear of losing her and sometimes it was her obliviousness that pushed him to keep his lips sealed.

There had been only one attempt from his side to ask her, a failed attempt. That day was, maybe always will be the darkest of his life. Not because she had rejected his love, but because she had rejected him, as a friend, as a human being. She had denied knowing him, his pain, his wounds, his whole existence. Because he hadn't mattered to her. That was added to the fact that he had been already devastated because he hadn't important enough for her to read the letter that he had written for her, she hadn't read it, nor she seemed to ever want to...

'Then! She didn't want to read it back then'.' His heart would remind him whenever he looked back these days.

Everything about her now reminded him thof e difference between the sixteen years old Sumo and the woman that was now looking back at him with the same intensity and longing he was sure were reflecting in his eyes...

There had been always an obliviousness - from her side - of the effects that her proximity has over him. She had never noticed before, but she did now...

He couldn't pinpoint when that had happened, maybe it has been there ever since the day they first meet after ten long years, maybe it happened only recently, or maybe it happened so slowly and steadily that neither of them noticed it until it became an integral part of their interaction.

But it was there...

Now she didn't nonchalantly put her arm around his shoulders anymore. In fact, even the casual of touches between them made the both of them freeze, lost under the effect of the magic of each other's presence. Them. He wasn't alone anymore, she felt it too. She wasn't ignorant to the warmth and the ardor that her touch brought to him because she has started to feel the warmth and ardor in his touch. He could see how short her breaths were in his proximity, he had counted her heartbeats with his, discovering that her heart missed beats in the same way his heart did, and it happened whenever they were close.

It was thrilling, to know that whenever he would step too close, she would lose the track of the conversation they are having as if things become fuzzy when he stands near her, as if then to her nothing else mattered than the fact he was close to her, breathing in the same air as her. There were no words in which he could describe what he felt knowing he had an effect on her. That now he had the same power over her that she always had had over him, since forever...

"Sumo?" He whispered, his voice husky and breathless as it always was in her close proximity.

"Hmm?" She responded, incapable of thinking anything else, lost in the emotions the caress of his knuckles evoked in her as they softly kept moving up and down her cheek before softly tucking her hair away from her forehead.

"I have something that belongs to you, something that I have been preserving for more than a decade and I want to hand it over to you now," he whispered, willing himself to move away from her to fetch the letter so he can finally give it to her.

"What?" She asked, confused as he suddenly let his hand fall and moved away from her.

"Wait here, I will bring it!" He almost yelled as he sprinted toward his room, hurriedly climbing the stairs.

"Shravan!" She yelled in shock before standing up with the intention to follow him but was stopped in midway when with a loud noise, the main door opened and the Malhotra clan moved came in chattering happily, just to halt as soon as they spotted her standing near the staircase.

"Sumo?" Pushkar smiled at her, not at all surprised to find her there, after all, he knew his brother and his best friend couldn't stay away from each thother ese days.

"You here?" He asked as he moved towards her to pull her into a friendly side hug.

"Yes, where if not here?" Kamini chimed in eagerly, "Shravan and Suman can be found in the same place, always together. Such 'friends' they are, even though it's so late, they are still together," she reremarkedith a mocking smirk.

As soon as Shravan heard the voices coming from downstairs - an indication that his family members were back - he let out a frustrated sigh when he looked down at the book he was holding. Closing his eyes, he released a heavy sigh and dejectedly moved towards the door of his room with the book still in his hand. As he walked out of his room, he heard Kamini chachi's remark and started to climb down the stairs hurriedly before the woman could say something more.

"Chachi!" He almost yelled, interrupting her as soon as she once again opened her mouth.

"You guys are here, I thought you guys will come very late!" He said as came to stand near Suman and smiled at his family.

"Aree, Shravan puttar, your chachi and your papa, both were so worried that you would be alone here, they didn't even let me enjoy, you know Mr Mehra was drunk, chattering about whwhatnot Lalaji said with a hearty laugh in the middle of his rant, before continuing; 

"But Suman puttar, you did the right thing by keeping him company," Lalaji said as he smiled at Suman who moments before was standing awkwardly.

Smiling at him, Suman realized just how much she loved Lalaji who always said something so sweet that it worked as a perfect slave to his wife's sharp remarks.

"I must go now!" Suman said, smiling at the Malhotra clan before moving towards the door.

She didn't have to turn to look, she knew the one walking beside her was no other than him. With a smile when she turned and looked up at Shravan and found him staring down at the very familiar twelfth standard book in his hand with a very dejected expression on his face. As soon as she realized what he was about to do, her heart skipped a beat, shocked she looked up at him.

'He was about to give me the letter he had written for me,' her mind chanted again and again until the realization sunk in, making her lips to curve into a smile and her eyes shine in excitement...

'Shravan, I thought it would take you ages to trust me with it, but I had forgotten that between us, you have always been the kind one,' she thought as she looked up at him, trying to convey her words with her smile and eyes when he looked back at her.

She knew her message had been received when she saw a sudden change in his expression; the fire of determination in his eyes and the stubborn set of his jaw told her that he had no intention to give up so soon. And with that came the thought of having him handing her the letter and it made her dizzy with anticipation.

But as they neared the door, it suddenly opened and she came face to face with the one who walked in and the euphoria overwhelming her senses evaporated...

Because standing in front of her was non-other than Ramnaath Malhotra himself...

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A/N: Here! I apologize for the late update, I had a crazy month...But hopefully, you guys liked the chapter enough to overlook my tardiness... :)

Please let me know your thought, feelings and leave a comment or two... :)

Thank you for your sweet comments and encouraging words... :)

Thank you! :)

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