Priyanka turned in her bed, trying a millionth position to fall asleep. She huffed glancing at her clock. It gleamed 5:30 am.

Great. She had to get up anyway in an hour or so.

She cursed the shadow of whoever it was outside her window. She had been paralyzed in fear when she caught the man outside her window, but before she could move, he had dropped down suddenly into the dark cloud of leaves disappearing.

Ever since then all she did was pace around in her room conflicting between waking up the entire house and worrying them that maybe she had a stalker or to just sleep it off and try to figure this out herself. She had gone for the second option. She sighed, rubbing her face.

Who could it be? How did he get past the security? Was this the first time? How long had he been watching her? She curled to a side, panic settling heavily on her chest.

Did he see her see him? Was that why he ran away? More importantly why was he here?

She sat up, her heavy chest was making it hard for her to breath. Should she tell someone? She bit her lip. If she did tell she couldn’t imagine the chaos she would unleash, Dadi would run her through tons and poojas and homam insisting that the dark spirits will be chased away, while Jhanvi would worry herself to death.

Her dad and brothers would go berserk, issuing a police compliant and house arresting her not to mention their rage when they come to know of the previous two attacks where she had almost been killed if it weren’t for….. Arjun.

She reached under her pillow pulling out her phone. Her finger hovered over his contact. Should she call him? he was the only one who would understand. The only one who would spring into action to help her without much questions asked. A dull ache mingled with panic spread across her chest down to her tummy. What would he thi-

Her door creaked open, Prinku’s head snapped up in her phone slipping through her fingers and hands flew to her chest.

“Hey” Anika’s head popped through, “oh good you’re awake” she stepped in.

“Anika!” Prinku gasped “you scared the shit out of me!”

Anika stared at her, her face blank “sorry. I just wanted to drop this” she placed the sari on her bed.

Prinku blinked at the sari “wait. How did last night go?”

“Fine” Anika shrugged, Prinku frowned “fine? Just fine?”

She pulled up her hoodie “I have to go” she darted to the door.

“Where are you going now? It’s still dark outside!”

“For run” She hadn’t noticed Anika’s jogging suit until then.

“Hold on. I’ll come with you then” Prinku whipped away her blanket crawling to the edge.

“No. You stay put” Anika said flatly and broke into a jog.

“Wait!” she called after her pulling her jogger up frantically ‘god damn this girl’ she grumbled, running behind her with her lace untied.

Prinku panted as she ran to keep up with her. She was a good runner, Prinku could give her that much, she took long rhythmic strides and didn’t seem to be out of breath, a sharp contrast to her miserable state where she looked like she was going to pass out.

Prinku forced her legs to run and reached out grabbing Anika by the shoulder, pulling her to a stop.

“Stop. Please.” She wheezed holding onto Anika’s hoodie “stop for fuck’s sake”

Anika snickered, looking down at her “don’t you have any stamina? It’s a wonder how you manage to look so thin”

Prinku glared at her trying to catch her breath “I have good genes” she swallowed and straightened keeping a hand on her hoodie afraid she might sprint away again.

“Tell me what happened last night? Did you guys talk it out?”

Anika shook her off “did you follow me out here to ask me that?”

“Shut up and just tell me”

Anika sighed “fine can we jog at least while talking? I feel like an idiot standing in this jogging attire in a jogging park gossiping with a non-jogger”

Prinku gave her flat look “a non-jogger? Did you just come up with that?”

“Yeah, you inspired it”

“Am literally wearing a jogging attire too, just like you!”

“Nah, you ain’t fooling anyone” she gave her a disappointed once over “anyone can see that you are not cut out for this”

Prinku girted her teeth and broke into a jog. She heard Anika chuckle and follow her. They ran in silence for a few minutes, the warm morning sun rose turning everything golden.

“So are you going to tell me?” Prinku broke the silence.

“There’s nothing to tell”

“Anika…” Prinku started.

“He said that I shouldn’t misunderstand our trip into thinking that there is something between us!” she burst out, she stopped suddenly glaring at Priyanka, her chest heaving even though they’d run a very short distance.

Prinku’s mouth dropped open “he what!?”

“I feel like murdering him” Anika bit out, her cheeks turning red.

“Hey” Prinku held her shoulders “its ok”

Anika shook her off “no. It’s not ok! I can’t believe I went through so much for an ass like him, and am not even sad.” She let out a loud bizarre laugh “oh! Am done being miserable for his dumb ass. Now am mad and am so mad am gonna murder him!” she threw a fist into the air. Prinku looked at her bewildered.

“Am going to-“

Prinku grabbed her, pulling her off the track “Ok stop stop, people are staring at us.” she whispered glancing at the by passers throwing them weird looks.

Anika panted, before she groaned dropping down onto a bench “ am going crazy Prinku! How can he say stuff like that to me! Am I the lunatic!”

“You’re not, calm down”

“Why is all this happening to me” She wailed

Prinku sighed sitting down beside her “do you think he is doing it on purpose?”Anika raised her brows.

“Like maybe he wants you to stay away from him for some reason? He is dramatic that way, thinks it’s better to suffer alone than logically explaining the situation to someone.”

Anika rolled her eyes “ I don’t care what his reason is, I just know that am officially over him”

She grabbed her hand pulling her into a jog “ from now on am going to focus on my carrer” Anika declared “ I am going to get in shape, hang out with my friends and-“

“You don’t have any friends” Prinku reminded her gently.

“I do too!”

“Who? Ritu the pregnant lady? Who else?”

“Moving on. And am going to do really well at my job” she finished grinning triumphantly.

Prinku giggled “sure sure, hold on I need to buy a new paper” they stopped at a small store.

Prinku hummed flipping through the paper as Anika paid “do you wanna get something to eat later?” Anika asked, Prinku nodded still looking at the paper.

“Woah. Watha hell?!” Anika suddenly gasped.

“What?” Prinku looked at her as she read the behind of the paper. “Look at this” Anika whispered grabbing the paper and pointing at an article, “missing girl’s body found in the outskirts of Mumbai” Prinku read it out loud “investigation underway”

“Fuck.” Anika murmured “it’s one thing to be missing, and another whole different thing to end up dead”

“Shit. I gotta go” Prinku sprang up, crumpling the paper inside her pocket

“Woah! What happened?” Anika dashed after her.

“There is something I have to check out!” she called behind her.

“By running?! Slow down!”

“I have to rush!”

“Let me at least drive you! I feel like my lungs are going to exploded”

Prinku barked out a laugh, skidding to a stop watching Anika wheeze beside her. “ non-jogger my ass” she snickered.

*** 

Om stepped into the elevator, holding back a grimace. It had been one whole week of him joining a new office but it felt like an entire year had passed.

It wasn’t like he was always occupied with work; in fact his team had done nothing in this whole week, apart from giving him awkward smiles whenever he walked into their workplace after being bored out of his mind sitting alone in his office with nothing to do.

Out of the corner of his eye he made out a lean figure running frantically towards the elevators, her arm outstretched. Their eyes met, and Om turned pressing the ‘close door’ button.

He watched her eyes widen as the elevator doors shut before she made it. He held back a smirk.

The doors binged open on his floor and he walked in, giving curt nods on his way to his office like every day. He sat in his chair and waited, watching the time tick, exactly after 60 seconds he heard hurried footsteps, he moved grabbing a random file and flipping through the pages as his office doors burst open and a very fazed Krishna stepped in, gasping for air.

“You’re late” Om stated without looking up “why?”. He looked up when silence answered him, to see her gaping at him.

He cocked an eyebrow “what?”

She opened her mouth, and then pressed it together into a thin line “am sorry sir” she bit out.

Om huffed, crossing his arms across his chest “I didn’t ask for your apologies I asked you what made you late? Your alarm didn’t go off? You missed your bus? Or was it that you couldn’t reach the elevator on time so you had to take the stairs? What is it?”

He watched her fists curl at her sides and his smirk got wider. “Because I woke up late sir” she ground out.

He clicked his tongue shaking his head slowly “when will you learn Krishna?”

“Won’t happen again sir”

“Sure. Now go get me a coffee” he looked back into his file, looking up after he heard his door closed. He pursed his lips watching her through the glass door.

He saw her run her hands angrily through her hair, pausing to take a deep breath before heading out. He chuckled. Well that felt nice.

A few minutes later she rushed in with a steaming mug and a smile plastered on her face, but Om could see the strain behind it.

“You’re coffee sir” she place his mug beside him “sir we have a new project to work on” she continued placing a file on his table “it’s modification of a hotel, I called-“

“This is too bitter” Om interrupted, sipping his coffee “add in some sugar” he handed her his mug.

She nodded and hurried off, she was back seconds later “sir” she gave him his cup he nodded “yeah what were you saying about the project?”

“Sir. They need us to do the entire interior redecoration of their hotel. It’s a big project and I called in-“

“Still too less” he handed her the cup, he held back a smile when he heard her exhale sharply.

She was back seconds later with his cup “yeah continue”

“I called in a meeting with them but they want to meet you only when u have the blueprints and the whole plan ready, they also-“

“Oh this is too sweet.” He pushed away his cup in disgust. Krishna stopped and stared at him “that’s way too sweet, I’ll be diabetic in no time if I drink that early in the morning”

Krishna straightened, her face clouding darkly, Om almost felt sorry for her. Almost.

“Too sweet?”

“Yeah” Om nodded, “I can’t believe you added so much sugar!”

“But you kept saying-“

“What? I kept saying what?” he challenged her, daring her to argue with him.

She breathed sharply through her nose, Om watched amused.

“Are you sure you can keep up with me? You arrive late for work and now you can’t even get a coffee right I don’t think-“

She grabbed his cup from his cup “I’ll just make you a new one” she whipped around stalking to the door, the second the door closed behind her, Om burst out laughing, chuckling till his stomach hurt. Maybe it wouldn’t be so boring after all.

A/N
Hey guys, back with another chapter. Stay tuned the story is really gonna take a turn. Enjoy🤗