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Chapter 4: First Stop: Home!

The taxi stopped infornt of a tall silver building, which had 'MC' boldly paved on the giant window. Both Sanskaar and Lakshya stepped out, closing the doors afterwards and the driver drived off. Lakshya and Sanskaar look up, blinking at the building.

"Our home. . ." Sanskaar uttered, curling a smile as he began walking forward, Lakshya scoffed a smile, following Sanskaar towards the building.

"We have so many memories with this. . . It has me soft all the time. I wonder how I slept for 6 months without seeing this." Lakshya uttered in a soft tone, glancing at the entrance with soft expressions.

"Do you remember the struggles we had to go through just to set this up? We were laughed at and made fun of for naming our company Man Crush." Sanskaar reminded as he let a chuckle out of his mind and Lakshya reciprocated with a chuckle, remembering that time.

"Maheshwari Cartoons. . . Remember when someone used our initials to mock us."

"Maheshwari Cartoons." Sanskaar laughed, "Now that person became a cartoon, we outdid him after buying his shares. He's now on the roads, begging for money."

"I'll always be at peace for doing that to him." Lakshya happily smriked and Sanskaar was feeling glad.

Inside the building, a worker rushed desk to desk, shouting "They're here! They're here!" She was out of breath as soon as she reached the lift. "Oh gosh, they're here. . ." She sighed and entered the lift, pressing on floor 3, knowing floor 1 would tell floor 2.

**

"This is really yummy." Ragini complimented as she took a bite of the food offered by Sharmishta.

"Ragini is right, this Palak Paneer does taste really good." Janki agreed with Ragini, throwing a compliment at Sharmishta with a smile.

"Thank you." Sharmishta smiled, watching Ragini and Janki enjoying, feeling at peace.

"You join us too. . ." She nodded at Janki "I already ate with Swara." She replied and Janki nodded at her. "When will Swara be back?"

"I don't know, she's usually back before 11pm. This time her bosses are coming back after 6 months, which put extra pressure on her. She was off for the whole 6 months."

"Oh. . ." Sharmishta nodded at Janki. "Are her bosses nice people?"

"She makes them sound like flithy heartless jerks, but I have seen their interviews, they are a bit strict but really smart and stragistic."

"Maa, she hates them. She said they shout at her, make her do extra hours and insult her over small things." Ragini spoke, saying it as to how Swara told her.

"Why doesn't she quit?"

"She has an 8 months contract, it has only been 6 months since she joined the company. If she quits then she has to pay a fine and after 8 months, she is only allowed to leave if she has a valid reason." Sharmishta revealed and Janki curled a small frown over her lips.

"Poor Swara."

Ragini curled a small smile, glad to see Janki and Sharmishta talk to each other, not being awkward anymore. Their small bond that was building was encouraging her to stay with Swara and Sharmishta, not making her worry about her Maa being uncomfortable.

**

"Oh god. . ." The 3rd floor staff panicked as the news reached them, rushing towards their own desks and finding themselves something to do.

"I knew it. I just knew they would come here first!" The manager exclaimed, glad from within as he did not let his instincts die. As far as he knew Sanskaar and Lakshya, they treat their office as their home, so it wasn't wrong for the manager to feel as if the two would make their first stop here. He was relieved he managed everything just in time, now praying nobody messes up and disappoints them.

"Okay everyone, now focus! Drop dead silence! Only clicking of your mouse and keyboard, or the flicking through the files, should be heard!" He ordered, walking forward, inhaling a deep breath afterwards.

Swara took the file from an employee, her hands trembled and she swallowed her spit, opening the file afterwards. She glanced down at it while walking slowly and looked on.

"What is this. . ." Everyone looked at her and she stared away from the file with amusement.

"What?"

"This. . . You. . ." Before she could complete, the sound of the lift pinged, stopping everyone's breath. They all glanced at the lift in the distance and swallowed their spits, waiting for the door to open.

Instead of being pleased with the return of their bosses, they were more frightened, praying for them to not appear.

The doors opened, and they watched Sanskaar and Lakshya enter, hands in one pocket, stylishly walking inside, glancing at everyone and everything their eyes would catch.

**

"Why did you lie it was an accident?" Sujata asked as she blinked at Ram, Durga Prasad and Adarsh, swallowing her spit, feeling a lump in her throat. Yet she wasn't willing to give up until she got her answers.

"You said Sanskaar was brain dead, then why was he clueless?" Annapurna asked, supporting Sujata, holding her tears back. "You said it was an accident, then why did Lakshya say it wasn't? What are you hiding from us?" Annapurna asked, demanding for answers.

"Just be quiet!" Durga Prasad roared in anger, scaring Uttara who was stood in the back. "Can't you see us stressed?"

"No, you two only want your answers!" Ram lashed out, not in a mood to reply to Sujata or Annapurna. "We don't feel obliged to answer any of you, if you want answers then ask your beloved sons."

With this, both Ram and Durga Prasad left from the hall, leaving upset Sujata, Annapurna and Uttara behind with an distraught Adarsh.

**

"Long time, no see. . ." Sanskaar trialled off and everyone stand up from their desks, bowing in front of the two, out of respect.

The manager and Swara give a small quick bow as soon as they made eye contact with them.

"How have you been?" The manager politely asked as soon as Sanskaar and Lakshya stopped in front of him.

Lakshya let a small scoff pass his mouth as he blinked at the manager. "Wouldn't 'why are you well and back' be the question?" 

The manager gave his attention to Lakshya, who was staring at him with a small smile now. He was confused with the question Lakshya had asked, not having the reasonable response to it, yet still managing to find polite words to reply with.

"We are really glad you two are back."

"You don't look glad." Lakshya uttered, making it awkward for everyone, as this is somewhat everyone is feeling within.

The manager lowered his head rather than arguing with him, not courageous enough to risk his job. "Sorry for making you uncomfortable sir."

"What's been happening so far?" Sanskaar asked keenly, only showing interest in the progress his team made in these 6 months.

"We successfully achieved 6 deals, two are still pending." The manager responded, still lowering his eyes.

"Which two are pending?"

"Korea."

"Why is it still pending?"

"Sir. . . They wanted see our test drive result before finalising it."

"Does this mean the test drive results were delayed?" His tone was stern as he questioned, making his everyone, expect Lakshya's heart skip a beat in fear. 

"6. . ." Lakshya trialled off, staring at the manager "Before we left, we had 10 pending deals. Why are we working on 8?" He questioned, tensing the atmosphere for everyone. The manager was frightened to the core, holding his shivering hand tightly as he silently swallowed. Lakshya was so sure they will win the two pending deals, that '8' confidently came out of his mouth.

"2 deals. . . Weren't agreeing. . . To our terms. So they backed off." The manager revealed, lowering his head even more.

"They weren't agreeing to our terms or you failed to present them?" Anger was clearly rising from Sanskaar's low tone, startling everyone's rapidly beating hearts.

"They. . ." The manager wasn't confident enough to reply, timid by the questions being thrown at him.

"They what?" Sanskaar waited for him to complete, slowly starting to feel irritated.

"They were asking us to change the terms, such as the price and name. We said we couldn't, so they said they wouldn't do the deal." One of the employee uttered instead of the manager, lowering his head after getting their attention.

"That's their loss." Lakshya uttered and Sanskaar nodded positively, now looking at Swara.

"What about the manufacturing?" He asked and Swara, who was clueless looked on.

"Who are the models you signed to advertise it?" Lakshya asked, blinking at Swara, unknowingly giving her a big hint.

"The manufacture is all done, and the model has been launched. The advertisement has also been shot."

"I asked, who the models were, not if the advertisement was shot." Lakshya made clear as he gives Swara serious look.

"Rohit Khandelwal."

"And?" Lakshya was now irritated due to Swara's slow and incomplete responses.

Hesitant to reply, Swara swallowed silently, afraid to say the name. Not ready to tolerate their sudden reactions.

Sanskaar observed Swara's face, scoffing afterwards. "Kavita Rane." Swara shockingly glanced at him, surprised to hear him guess it right.

Lakshya looked on, appalled to hear her name. "Kavita Rane is our main model?"

The manager nodded and so did Swara, he glanced around and every single employee nodded their heads positively, replying to Lakshya.

Swara shrunk her eyes in displeasure, seeing what was coming. She knew Kavita's name would anger them into loosing their calm minds.

T o B e C o n t i n u e d
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I'm putting this story On Hold for the time being. I'll promise to update as soon as I get time. For now I wanna focus on finishing my pending ones before I could go ahead with this fully.

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