Two days later

╰┈➤ Author's POV

The sky was painted in the hues of yellow and orange as the sun had almost set.

It was an ordinary evening, nothing special for the commuters who were all tired of their jobs and were returning home, but for him-it was another occasion to get a glimpse of her.

For the past two days, he had seen her at the station. He had been observing her-not in a creepy way, but in a curious manner.

He now knew that she would be more engrossed in her book world than she was ever present in the chaos around her. It seemed that the constant chirping around her would fade away as soon as she had her head buried inside a book.

The other times-when she didn't have a book-she would be talking to her friend, moving her hands in all directions. He found it adorable.

And the times when she was neither reading nor talking, she would be lost-in her own eerie of thoughts. That's what he concluded from the observations he made over the last two days. He tried to figure out what was going on in her mind by looking at her face, but each time, he found it impossible not to get lost in her brown eyes and the jet-black hair that would usually dance over her face to the beats of the pleasant gushes of wind.

As usual, she was sitting on a bench at a little distance-her attention was entirely on the book in her hand. A small tiffin bag lay beside her.

The train screeched into the platform and the sound of it alarmed Manjiri that it was her cue to put the book down. She immediately put the book inside her bag and made a run towards the ladies' compartment-her long-forgotten tiffin bag stayed on the bench.

Rahul noticed and made a quick run towards the bench and grabbed the bag. He quickly got into the nearest general compartment and stood by the door to see where she got off so that he could return the tiffin bag.

In his heart, he thought it was a great opportunity for him to talk to her. He had already begun rehearsing what he was going to say to her in his mind.

'Hello?' Too formal.

'Hey?' Too casual.

'Excuse me?' She will walk away without noticing.

'Ma'am?' Seriously, Rahul?

He kept rejecting all his conversation starters in his thoughts.

Aise toh karli fir tune baat unse! he thought.

His attention was now fixated on the door to see where she got off. Half an hour later, she got off at Dadar station.

As soon as he saw her getting off, he did the same and chased after her to return the tiffin bag.

"Suniye!" His voice went unheard.

(Listen)

"Hello? Madam?" Again, no response.

"Lambi choti wali madam?" Two heads turned around, none of them was the one he desired.

(Madam with a long brain?)

"Sorry, not you." He apologised and followed her out of the station. She walked past the flower market with him trailing behind her.

He had now jogged up to her and was about to close the distance when a strong gust of wind passed by, making her red dupatta fly over his head.

She held the other end of the dupatta, not letting it fly off completely. She pulled it back just in time, not letting it rest on his face for more than two seconds, but for him-the time had stopped. Violin played in the background while he stood there-awestruck.

Bilkul jaisa filmon mein hota hai.

She looked at him with an amused expression but then turned her back to him and began to walk away.

"Rukiye!" he said, as he finally came back to his senses.

(Wait!)

"Me?"

He nodded and jogged up to her again.

"Wo...ye, aapka tiffin bag."

"Oh my god. My mom would've been disappointed if I had lost her beloved Tupperware tiffin box," Manjiri said as she smiled, taking a sigh of relief but Rahul's mind didn't register a single word. He was still in a daze, unable to wrap his mind around the fact that he was actually talking to her.

"Um, can I...take it?" she asked, as he was still not letting the tiffin bag go.

"Yes-yes, I'm sorry," he finally let go of the bag.

"Thank you," she smiled in a polite way. He smiled back, and before he could say anything, a scooty rushed in their direction at full speed through the small road in the flower market.

Rahul's strong reflexes alerted him and he pulled Manjiri out of the way, close to him.

The sudden pull startled Manjiri, but then she realised that he had just saved her.

"Manjiri, are you okay?" her friend Megha asked her.

Manjiri. His heart skipped a beat as he learnt her name.

Manjiri nodded, trying to get away from him, but too bad-her jhumka was stuck to the button of his shirt.

She looked up and could practically hear his heart running marathons and so, to make it less awkward, she did what she felt was the best option-she pulled her head back with such great force that it had caused damage to both of them.

To him-the button of his favourite shirt was pulled out by her sudden jerk.

To her-her most favourite pair of jhumka was now broken.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled as he saw her face falling at the sight of her broken jhumka.

"Why are you saying sorry? I broke the button of your shirt."

"No problem, bade bade desho mein aisi choti choti baatein hoti rehti hai. Mere paas aur shirts hai," he said, quoting the famous dialogue from the recently released film DDLJ.

(Small things happen in big cities. I have more shirts.)

A small amused smile crept up on her face as she heard him quoting the famous SRK dialogue. But then her attention again went back to her favourite pair of jhumkas that were now broken. She looked like she would start crying any moment now.

"Don't cry over your broken jhumka. Instead, think about how you can still keep it close to you," he said, taking the jhumka from her and attaching it to the side of her bag like a keychain.

A small smile formed on her face. She removed the other jhumka that was perfectly fine and asked, "Ab iska kya karu?"

"Ye aap mujhe de dijiye," he said, taking the jhumka and putting it inside his pocket.

"Manjiri, it's getting late. We should rush back home," Megha reminded her.

"Yes, let's go," Manjiri tucked the strand of her hair behind her ear and mouthed 'thank you' to him and left.

Rahul, still dazed, kept waving until she was out of sight.

──── ୨୧ ────

As he started walking back to the station, he kept reminiscing about the small interaction he had with her.

He took out the jhumka from his pocket and just like he did with the other jhumka, he attached this one to his keys, turning it into a keychain too. He had a boyish grin on his face, all this while.

On his walk back to the station, he walked into his colleague Amar, with whom he was going to share a house.

"Hey man, what are you doing here? Ghar nahi jaana?" he asked.

(Don't you wanna go home?)

"Haan...wo jaa raha hu," came Rahul's reply.

(Yes....I'm going.)

Amar noticed that Rahul was completely lost.

"Kaun hai wo jiske khayalon mein khoye ho?" Amar

teased him.

(Who's she- the one whose thoughts have occupied your mind?)

He said with a dreamy sigh-"Mere khayalon ki mallika."

(The lady of my dreams.)

- ⋆˚࿔ Riii𝜗𝜚˚⋆