Riha slapped herself again and again. 

How low could she fall? How low even! 

She threw her shoes off, her luggages apart on the floor, and dropped her body on the thick bed. 

She silenced her phone and before that recorded a voice message " I am in London. I'm fine. Kindly don't call ", and placed the phone beneath the blanket. 

Throughout the ten hours in air, she had been under sedation. She didn't want to think about anything, nor cry or feel. She just wanted to sleep. She did. 

She landed in London an hour ago, the air was cold and heavy, and carried a monotony, a staleness. Maybe it was she who felt that more. Nobody else. Nowhere. 

And now she had landed into this inn, in a pre-booked suit. Luxury of all sorts, and yet everything seemed missing. 

Riha slowly sat up and picked her handbag that lay on the ground. She took out an envelope, opened it and brought out a blank card. 

She laughed with noise. 

Wow Riha!! You acted so well! Getting married in twenty days huh? 

Riha tore apart the thing bit by bit. Nah, she could not marry anyone. Ever now. 

What wondered her was how well she had known Mr Vivaan! She knew he wouldn't take the card. She knew he wouldn't open even. Ever.

And whatever she did was only to see how he reacted! And he did, exactly that way. Like a monument almost on the verge of demolition. 

Riha threw the pieces on the ground. 

Why Riha, why? WHY DID YOU DO THIS?  

A man who had received only pain throughout his life, how could you only add to that Riha? How could you? 

Riha sobbed, and then wailed. She knew how helpless Vivaan had been. She knew it very well that he was the most lost soul on earth right now

Because he wanted to love, but couldn't! 

And yet she only chose to return a pain he had unintentionally given her, through a blatant lie!!!

'Riha getting married to someone ...other than Vivaan' ...how could she even think of creating this story! 

And Raajiv, and maa...and baba, everyone just gave hands to her!!! Why the f**k? Why did they choose to hurt the loneliest soul on earth, just because she wanted to? 

Riha ducked her head into a pillow, and her tears soaked the bed.

 " I am sorry Vivaan. Riha remained just another someone of your life, who got involved and only chose to hurt you! I'm sorry Vivaan! I ...am...sorry! "

***

Riha didn't know she had slept off again when the intercom rang with a screeching sound. Riha slowly sat up, and reached for the phone on the bedside. 

" Hello, good evening ma'am! You have a guest in here. " 

" A guest? Sorry but, I know no one here. You must be mistaken. " , Riha almost murmured. 

" He says his name's Viv..an. " , the Brit pronounced with difficulty. 

" Viv Yan? I'm sorry but I don't know someone with that name sir! " , Riha hung up and was planning to lie down again, when something banged her head. 

She could feel that her whole body was shaking. She dialed back. 

" Is that Vivaan? "

" Yes ma'am! " 

Riha felt like she was fainting.

***

Vivaan drank coffee for the last half an hour, sip by sip, slowly without looking up at all. 

Riha supported herself on a wall and kept staring at him. The strange calm of her life had just stepped back, altogether. But Vivaan seemed extremely conscious and awkward and lost. So he better kept drinking. 

Riha broke the silence. 

" Ten long hours. I don't believe you spent that much for me. " , Riha couldn't believe that her words still hid bullets. Why girl..why? Vivaan was here, before her eyes, for her! And she couldn't even thank him! 

Vivaan didn't look up even now. 

Riha slowly walked towards the couch and sat next to him. Vivaan didn't stir. 

" I will be guilty, if you are here only to pacify me, or that my last words hit you because you are a human. And you chose to get back to become known-strangers again maybe. If that is so, I will be guilty of treachery. " 

Vivaan now looked at her, his brows together.

" You might be here just because you know I'm getting married to someone else, and that might just be a forced decision that would ruin my life, but the truth is... I am not getting married. I lied, just to hurt you for something I can't even explain. " 

Riha knew her eyes were watering. So she looked away. 

For a long time Riha felt his eyes remain fixed on her. And after a very long time he spoke first. 

" I believed that. Only. " 

Riha looked at him, her eyes showed questions. 

" I believed you ain't getting married to anyone else on earth, now or ever. " 

Tears wetted her cheeks and she wiped them off skillfully. Vivaan slowly took out a kerchief. 

" I promise to be your kerchief forever. " , he said and slowly placed it on her lap. 

Riha looked at it and then back at him.

Vivaan stood up and walked over to the window. 

London in the night looked beautiful. 

" I never thought I would step out of a country that gave me nothing remarkable though, except for...you maybe, but I did, that too for you." 

Riha silently looked on. She knew her words might interrupt something that is meant to be now. 

" Murphy's law, has been the truth of my life always. If something can go wrong, it will. And things went wrong, on and on...and...on!! Maybe because I never gripped the end of a rope that was slipping off, maybe I never screamed out loud,  STOOOPPP!!!! Stop hurting me you damn world! 

Never. I always kept on blaming myself, for everything.  " 

Riha got up slowly, her Vivaan needed her hands on his shoulder.  

" And henceforth...everything went just wrong! Because, wrong is easy Riha! Right is tough! " 

Riha placed her hand on his shoulder. She knew he would wipe off his own tears. He did. 

" Riha... I'm not that kind to sit on my knees before, and say, 'marry me!' though I wanted to do exactly that. 

But whenever I'm with you, everything gets too normal to be stressful ... and yet too different to be mainstream. I know I can't afford to lose you Riha, not to anyone else or that sorts...but...at all. " 

Riha sobbed ...and slowly hugged him. He hugged back this time. 

" I cannot say I'm totally out of the fear of losing you because I confessed my love to you, but maybe I could do that only because, I have decided, if Riha dies loving Vivaan, Vivaan too won't exist with a guilt forever. " 

Riha looked into his eyes ... boring him through and through, and Vivaan looked back ...Riha knew she had loved the best human in world, but today she knew the best human had loved her back, in the best possible way. 

" Love doesn't kill Vivaan. Love fills you with the strength of dying together if that be the fate. And I do believe in fates, but ain't afraid of them. Because my law is : If something can go right, it will. " 

" ...With you" , Vivaan added. 

The curtains to the window fell, as two long lost souls dipped their lips into each other for the first time, forgetting fear, forgetting agony, forgetting what would happen next and what could have been if not, forgetting existence and non existence, forgetting yin and yang...as if uniting forever!

" Kucch bhi nahi hai ye jahaan, 

Tu hai toh hai issmey zindagi! 

Abb mujhko jaana hai kahaan, ke..

Tu hi safar hai aakhri...!!"

********* THE END *********