Back with another OS.

Scene created/ Idea credit : amita291

Moving on...💃💃💃

"Words in double quotes" - Talking

'Words in single quotes' - Thoughts

Timeline : Laksh's arrival to Kolkata. Ragini and he haven't met yet, and are strangers.

Strangers turned Friends...or More?

He woke up to the sounds of beeping and an odd scent.

'Oh I know what this smell is. Please, no!' Laksh cracked one eye open and groaned. "It had to be a hospital!"

"I see you're awake."

Laksh looked towards the door to find a girl standing there with some medicines. Her smile contrasted with the gloomy bedsheets of the room.

"Um, sorry but I don't recognize you."

She came in with her unfaltering smile and placed the bag of meds beside him on the table. "It's okay. We are strangers after all." she put forward her hand. "I'm Ragini Gadodia."

Laksh nodded. "Laksh."

"Ah young man! You're awake!" exclaimed the doctor, entering the room. "You should be thankful of Ragini. She saved you."

"Eh?" Laksh thought back hard. Only then, he remembered.

He was chasing a thief who pickpocketed his purse. While chasing, he accidentally came into the middle of the street. The honking of a car was the last thing he heard. "I...I was in an accident?"

The doctor nodded. "Yes. You hit your head hard. But she called the ambulance on time. It's been a day since you were admitted."

"Wow!" he turned to Ragini and nodded gratefully. "I can't thank you enough."

"It's alright."

"Just accept his gratefulness. Shy much?" the doctor teased.

Ragini chuckled, a blush gracing her cheeks. "You're welcome Laksh."

Laksh nodded with a smile. However, in his mind he was starting to despise her. 'She probably recognized me as Laksh Maheshwari. That's why she didn't even question me when I didn't reveal my surname. She helped me thinking I would give her money. Ugh! I know these selfish money diggers.' Laksh narrowed his eyes at her face. 'But why does it feel like I've seen her somewhere?'

"I'll leave you two to chat. I'll come later to check on you, alright?"

Ragini and Laksh nodded towards the doctor and watched him leave.

As he left, there was an awkward silence in the room.

Laksh cleared his throat. "So how should I sent it?"

"Huh? Send what?"

'The money which you'll demand no doubt.' he mentally scoffed. "The gift that you require for saving me."

"Gift?" Ragini blinked not understanding his motive.

Laksh rolled his eyes. "Stop acting dumb. You know what I mean."

"I do-" it clicked in her mind. "Ah! Got you."

"Yes. How mu-"

"You mean a card or something showing your appreciation, right? Haha...it's alright. I don't need anything. You said thanks, that's enough."

Laksh was taken aback by her words. "Card? I wasn't talking about that. I meant..." he hesitated. She was confusing him. Not to mention her reactions seemed too genuine to be untrue.

Ragini blinked innocently, titling her head to the side. "Meant what?"

As she kept looking at him with a clueless expression, he couldn't help but think it was...in one word.

Cute.

Laksh blushed and looked away. She was making his heart skip.

Suddenly, his eyes widened as he realized where he saw her.

*flashback*

Laksh had just got to Kolkata from the US. Unfortunately, he got robbed just after he came out of the airport.

"Stop! Get back here with my purse damn it!" Laksh shouted, chasing the thief. "Sto-oof!" he stumbled as he crashed into someone.

He glanced back to see a girl on the floor while her basket full of apples were on the ground. "Watch where you're going. Can't you walk straight?!"

The girl blinked back at him with a hurt expression and flinched at his harsh words. "So-sorry."

He sneered and continued his run after the thief, without stopping to help her.

*flashback end*

'Aish! She's that girl. Man, this is so embarrassing.' Laksh mentally slapped himself. "Um...you uh...you don't remember seeing me before, do you?"

Ragini stared for a moment. She then shook her head. "No."

Laksh let out a breath of relief. 'That's good. It would have made things awkward.' although, she said she didn't remember, it didn't help ease his guilt.

Here there was a girl he mistreated without any fault of hers, and she ended up saving his life. He felt like there was a big cap on his head with the word "Guilty" written in bold.

"Would you like to have an apple?" she smiled and brought the tray nearby. "I kept these here thinking you might want them. This place has the most fresh and tasty apples in the entire Kolkata."

Could he just crawl under the bed sheets and die of his guilt? He had pushed her and her apples to the ground, but here he was being served the same with a smile.

The apples sat there, as if glaring at him saying. 'Bitch, you don't deserve us.'

Laksh sighed. "It's okay. You should have them."

"But these are so good! You must try them. If you think they're ruined because of yesterday, then you're wrong. Th-"

"So you do remember, don't you?"

Ragini's eyes widened as she realized her error. "I um..."

"Why were you lying?" Laksh questioned with a sigh. "Did you think I was that pitiful that I didn't deserve the truth?"

"What, no! I just thought that you should forget about it, since I did too."

"But I treated you so cruelly. And the fault wasn't even yours!"

Ragini smiled and stood up from her spot. She walked closer to Laksh and gave him a hug. "It's okay."

Laksh was surprised by her actions. He just sat there with wide eyes.

"I understand that you didn't mean it. We all have our own problems to deal with. Some days it's tolerable, some days it's not. And it was probably the second for you that day. We all have those. We all are human after all."

"But...I took out my frustration on you. That's not right."

Ragini moved back and shook her head. "It's okay. It didn't make me lose anything. But if it helped lessen at least a bit of your frustration, I'm glad."

Laksh looked at her with soft eyes. "If kindness had a face, I think it would be yours Ragini."

Ragini blushed at the praise. "That's too much." she involuntarily put a lock of hair behind her ear, out of habit.

'Cute.' the word rang again in Laksh's mind. He mentally smacked the mini smitten Laksh in his mind. 'Bad Lucky! Go away!'

"Ahahaha...sorry." Ragini giggled. "It's just that you were making some really weird expressions. Hehe..."

"I was not!" Laksh pouted, making Ragini laugh harder.

Laksh couldn't help his smile. Her laughter was contagious. It seemed to jingle like a bell for him. Beautiful, and clear.

Ragini turned serious suddenly. "Um...Laksh. I needed to ask you a favor."

"Sure. Go ahead."

"I need you to tell them I'm your cousin."

Laksh looked at her with wide eyes. 'Aha! So she was doing all this to trap me. She knows the Maheshwaris are rich.' Laksh paused in his thoughts. 'Don't jump to conclusions. You were already wrong once. Besides, she seems uncomfortable herself saying it.' he nodded with an open mind. "Can I ask why?"

"You see I came to this town to get the apples. Dadi is sick and is craving them. So I decided to get them myself since everyone home was busy. But I don't have any money to return."

"Didn't you bring enough to go back?"

"I did but..."

"But?"

Ragini looked down, biting her lip as if hesitating to reveal.

Then it clicked.

She admitted him to a hospital. And also bought him meds.

'Ah shit!' Laksh glared at her. "You idiot! You spent it all on me, didn't you? Aish! Don't spend everything on strangers. Think for yourself!"

"But you needed the money." she replied with a sad pout.

'Stop looking cute when I should be angry!' Laksh mentally smacked himself. "So what?!"

Laksh imagined Ragini helping other strangers selflessly. 'What if it's some handsome flirt? What if someone takes advantage? What if they try to seduce her?' he felt like going on a rampage thinking about someone sweet talking innocent Ragini into a kiss.

"If you say I am, they'll probably let me go with you in the ambulance for free. You can drop me off at the southern block. I have a relative ther-"

"Ah! You seem well." came in the doctor, interrupting her. "You can leave miss. We'll discharge him today."

Ragini gave up hope. It seemed she would have to walk to the southern block. Just when she was about to respond, she felt a hand around her waist.

"She'll be accompanying me Doc. After all..." he smirked at her. "I can't leave my girlfriend alone."

Ragini's eyes widened. 'Not cousin?!' she blushed hard, turning redder as his grip on her waist tightened.

Laksh's smile only widened. He was happy to see her blush because of him. 'And I'll be dammed if I let it be another!"

🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Hope it justifies as per you thought Amita. 🤗

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