Naomi's POV
Tears flooded my eyes. I controlled before puking them out.
“Awww!Akshat sir is so sweet, indeed! I can’t believe that a guy did this much for a stranger girl”, whispered Vyomi, with tears of happiness.
I smiled at her. I commented with a cracked voice, accompanied by tears,” Not even a stranger. Even for a close friend, one wouldn’t have struggled to this extreme. He is sweeter than how sweet I expected him to be. That’s all I can say, dude!” I leaned on her and wept my heart out.
The revelation brought the same heap of guilt that the twenty rupees had brought at our very first meet, on the bus, when he had paid the cash for me. I was elated when he informed me about my admission. However, hardly did I know that he had fought a ‘transfer struggle’ for me!
I realized that he definitely deserved the kiss of gratefulness that he had been reminding me of; but, he stopped it a few days back. I felt that I was self-centered. I wished I could run and smooch his cheek to dilate his meek eyes.
“Oh, Akshat sir! But this is too much, I say. Who would roam up and down a hill for a mere student? Wait, she wasn't even your student back then...You were hardly a close friend of hers as well! Why else did you exercise your muscles for her?”, interrogated Shreyas.
“I did what I could, to help a studious student resume her degree. I felt restless without helping her. I wanted to try my best so that I do not repent about her matter in my future. All I wished for was to save her career and future. I had also promised her to trust me as her last hope. I had to ensure that I gave my best to secure Naomi’s studies”, justified Akshat, wiping his right hand with the towel.
“Come on, sir!”, continued Shreyas, closing his box and chewing the last bite,” No way! No student nothing! You are treating Naomi as if she were your family.”
Love is so blind that it just happens unexpectedly.
You may fall for anyone!
Would you let go of your policy if you fell for someone you shouldn't? What would you choose-your policy or your beloved?
Akshat chuckled at it, blushing a little. He requested him,” Sir, but at any cost, please do not tell Naomi or her friends about this. She will grow too stressed to be handled.” Shreyas chuckled and gestured the thumbs-up sign.
“Aww! Even now he is thinking about you more, dude!”, whispered Vyomi, crying in my ears.
As Shreyas came out of the cabin with his laptop and adapter, he bulged his eyes at us, standing at the door. Vyomi wiped her tears. I swallowed mine. We walked toward him for the signatures. He hurried and signed. He shrugged at Akshat and left.
Akshat's POV
Fuck! She exactly learnt what I never wanted her to know. When did my life become like a serial? What timing! Why on Earth did she have to arrive at the wrong time? Hmmm! She is gonna pour all her emotions into this poor guy now!
Naomi rushed to my table. I got up from my seat. I shook my head, blank on what to do or how to console the shocked girl. ” Naomi!”, I called her.
Alas! But, she knew that I was going to narrate a cock-and-crew story. She displayed her left palm, gesturing for me to stop.
She wept, whispering to me,” This is unfair, Kiku. Why did you not tell me all of this? When you informed me that I got a seat at the university, I was happy, thinking that Rishabh sir hadn’t actually meant to deny my request for transfer. I thought that you somehow convinced him to my seat. But, you had kept me in darkness the entire month. I didn’t know that you had struggled so much for me...I didn’t know...I am sorry, Kiku…I am sorry..”
I caught her hands and convinced her that I had set out all the way to Bangalore, not for her but instead because I loved traveling. I also added that I got an opportunity to roam in flight after quite a long time and thanked her for being the cause.
“Rubbish!”, interrupted she,” It would have cost you around twenty thousand to book flights to and fro, at the last minute, and also for the accommodation at a hotel in Bangalore for two nights and a half day.”
“Sexy! I appreciate your mental Math, Kiku!”, chuckled I, as I released her hands.
Naomi's POV
I looked around and saw that there were no professors around. I looked up at the ceiling to shrink my eyes at the light sources, to my left and to my right; not a single CCTV camera was in our vicinity.
I hugged him tighter than how one would adhere to the bars of the seats on a theme park’s ride which would take people from the ground to a great height and back to the floor, with great speed. I wept, without a break, and soaked his dark red formal shirt with saline fluid, originating from my eyes. He hugged me, in return and blushed.
I released him. ”Thank you very much for everything you had done to get me a seat here. Akshat sir, it means a lot to me”, said I, blushing back at him. I wished I could kiss him right away and finish my incomplete task. However, I was scared of the dire consequences. We were in the staffroom and most importantly, within our college premises. I had decided to kiss him my gratefulness which I owed for a long but I consoled myself by looking for the right time and the right place for the surprise.
The half-moon smiled and the fellow stars twinkled in the night sky. The cool breeze hit my face with my pony dancing to its rhythm. I sat by the window, on my bed, in the PG room. The dim yellow light from the bulb above me helped me copy Vyomi’s old notes. She was already fast asleep on the bed opposite mine. We were best friends and roommates as well.
I removed my reading glasses and rubbed my eyes for a minute’s break. The bulb went off and the fan stopped rotating. I looked around and worried. I patted Vyomi gently. She woke up and I asked her when the power would return. She sighed, yawning,” Dude!” and replying,” Power cuts are usual in this area.”
She switched on her smartphone and exclaimed the time,’ One thirty!’ She teased me to have been a nerd and asked me to doze off right then. ”No way! I must finish off and update my basics notes which I had missed before joining the college, today itself. Just ten more minutes but the current is gone!”
I kicked my slipper on the floor and it slid to the door.” Dude!”, yawned she, completing,” Study tomorrow, Nah!Simple!” She turned towards the wall, pulled her rug, and snored.
I switched on my laptop, placed my notes on the keyboard, and continued writing them. Thanks to this invention of man! The light from the laptop was sufficient enough for me to complete the remaining notes and finish studying the same as well! I set the alarm to seven for the next morning before sleeping at three that night.
Aww! Akshat was damn sweet. Did he do it all for Naomi just as a good lecturer or is there something beyond it? Let their time come to answer them...
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