CHAPTER-15
ILLUSION
Dhilip’s POV
“I have been heavily depressed, crying from inside and smiling from outside, for the past four months, as I felt that Kavin and my love story remained incomplete. But, you taught me what love was. It's incredible to note that I lectured how love feels yesterday but didn’t realize it, myself! You’re seriously unique and great, Dhilip! I’m afraid I wouldn’t have earned this chance to feel how love was if I hadn’t met you in this lifetime!”, Rohini concluded.
I caught her pupils dilating as I felt my meek and hesitant eyes arresting themselves into hers.
We got up and headed towards the door. I swiped my ID, commanding the two triangular-shaped fancy doors, blue in color, to part from each other.
“Yo! Mine too!”, I heard her exclaim from behind me. I turned back and chuckled. I handed over my ID to her. She swiped. As soon as the little doors opened, she closed her eyes and rushed outside like a frightened child.
“Ooo, what happened?”, I chuckled, as we received our bags from the counter. The guard waved as I thanked him. We headed outside the library and stood, opposite the lifts, by the staircase.
“I don’t know why but I always feel like these doors will pierce through my leg muscles and smooch the inner bones. Eww, I’m scared!”
“Sexy! You will get accustomed to these secure doors soon…”
“Seriously? Secure? Do you really feel that way?”
I shrugged with my meek and hesitant eyes smiling along. She bulged her eyes and spanned them along with her head, on purpose. I chuckled. Aye! Why didn’t I catch your cute and funny side back then?
“Anyways, I feel as if a huge rock within me dissolved away nowhere in no time. Yes, I agree with you. Kavin perhaps just crushed me. I too perhaps crushed for quite some time but the trivial crush never took the form of love”, she shared. She further exclaimed, concluding, “I can’t imagine the relief within my heart right now.”
“Thank you! Thank you! Thanks a lot, Dhilip!!!”, she began jumping and thanking me. I threw my mouth open and placed the finger on my own lip, gesturing for her to stay quiet.
“Dhilippppp!”, she exclaimed, blushing and hugging me firmly. Sexy! What a tight hug! I was close to suffocating although she just arrested my hip and rested the side portion of her head and high ponytail, on my chest. “How are you so unique as your name suggests? Hmm, I could have saved many tears if you had counseled me before...How…”
I heard her words but blushed and stayed dumbstruck. I swallowed my tears as I recollected how Priya backed off, during my original life, during our first hug moment.
Her words: “See, that's why you need a boyfriend so that he can accompany you till midnight while you wish your bestie for her birthday…” Priya’s cunning face when she uttered the very words flashed in my mind. I looked up at the ceiling and sighed. Rohini was about to release herself. I wrapped my hands around her shoulders and hugged her back, resting my head upon hers; we were closer than ever before. I blushed, realizing that I felt special around her, for the first time, during my reliving journey.
I love you, Rohini. Yes yes, you were right during our real life, that none can love me more than you, my dear Rohini Medam.
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“Did you get the third question?”, texted I, sharing a file on WhatsApp with Rohini.
“Oh, where did you get the question bank from?”, she texted, asking back. Our third-semester examinations were almost coming to an end.
“Got it from section-A”
“Oh, nice. I haven’t started revising yet:) Watching shows and sitting xdd”
“Solve the third question. Try once and share noe, plz!”
“Ok, I will try and update you! Have you started your preparations? How were your other exams so far?”
“Yes yes all sexy! Just starting the DLC subject with this question bank.”
A couple of minutes later, she replied with a partially blurred picture shot with her tablet. I was able to refer to it and read my solution.
“Ooo, this method. I forgot the model.”
“Haha...Happens as there was exactly one question of this model discussed during the lectures too!” We sent a thumbs-up to each other.
Around a quarter of an hour later, I texted her once again.
“Yo Rohini! This seventh one, is it JK or SR flip-flop? Can you try the diagram?”
Pitch silence ruled the next couple of minutes, as I frowned at my notes, proceeding with the next problems and quickly switching tabs on my laptop to refer to module documents.
I agree that love is unanticipated. I also agree that the identity of our lover is a true mystery
until we feel the love!
Following the same lines, one thus ends up falling for a bad partner-the wrong love. It's fine!
Making a wrong decision is common among ordinary homosapiens like you and me.
However, correcting our blunder and returning to our right love is a worthy question whose
answer may either be a ‘YES’ or a ‘NO’ or sometimes a combination of both! There is only one
superpower that can answer this query: ‘TIME’
Sexy! A single tick clearly implies that my girl has gone offline. Aye! Have you lost it, Dhilip? How is she your girl? Urgh! Actually, I still don’t know…like…
“Dhilip saar!”, I heard Rohini. I turned back and threw my mouth open at her, in a black gown and sitting on the bed behind my study table. She chuckled and blushed, as she waved at me. I felt my pupils dilating and confused their color, between black and light brown, as witnessed on the opposite dressing mirror.
“Missing me? Wait, lemme come online…”, began she. I couldn’t stop adoring her soft lips painted in rich red, widening and moving as her amiable conversation continued. I blushed, letting my eyes capture her from the head to the feet; she glittered in a black gown just like a star in the pitch-dark night sky.
I stood up and looked around, swallowing my anxiety at my father’s footsteps.
“Moneh, this electricity bill…”, said he, entering my room.
“No, Dad. I don’t know anything. She..”, murmured I. My father laughed, with his eyes shrinking, as observed through his round glass spectacles. I shrugged and turned back to find none. What?! Where did Rohini go?
“Moneh, don’t keep studying. Take a break”, said he, leaving the thin and long electricity bill printed in the soft billing paper, on my study table. He left the room. I sat back on my chair and shook my head. I blushed and chuckled at myself in the mirror.
Hmm, would my story with Rohini have indeed been this beautiful? I peeped under the bed only to confirm that she hadn’t even been there. Was her recent presence in my bedroom a mere illusion?
But, was I waiting for her chat reply? No, no. Let her reply whenever she is available. I navigated to the Karnataka Electricity Board’s website and got on to pay the bill. My eyes happened to hover over my WhatsApp web notifications.
“Yo, Rohini!”, I chuckled, blushing at the notification of her messages.
“Wow, this topic is hard. The fifth module is always ignored.”
“I know, right? What to do?...”
We continued chatting, as I chuckled secretly.
“Done, right? I have been opening and closing my laptop every now and then as I have stored some solutions in a doc there…”
“Sexy! So, I’m making you study. See!”
“Yeah, thankssssssssss! DLC is dry and boring…”
That Saturday afternoon, I freaked her out by sending the seventh semester EC department’s Eco exam paper as we shared the same Economics syllabus.
“What! This is damn hard. I’m scared. What if we get such a tough paper? Not fair!”, she texted. I replied with a mixture of laughter and crying emoticons.
“So hard!”, added I. “As such, my internal is screwed in Economics with just thirty out of fifty. I feel bad. I have crossed forty-five in all the other subjects.”
“Oops, that's sad to hear.” I shared a crying emoji.
“And there are four pdfs each being as long as twenty pages in the fifth module of Economics. Look at how tough our last exam prep will be:(“, she texted.
“Oooo, let's get done with the DLC exam and then think about it. Leave!”, I texted.
“The best strategy is to switch on the read-aloud feature in pdfs. I’ll listen to every word uttered, understand, make a few pointers, and prepare off. That's my plan! Phew!”
“Sexy! If I do so, I will enable the voice option and go to bed right away. Can’t study!”
She replied with a series of laughter emojis. I rested my mobile aside and laughed alone.
“Moneh! Haha!...”, laughed my mom, entering my room and offering me a glass of hot milk. I laughed, receiving it, in my hands. As I began to sip, she continued laughing.
Ooo! Hardly have I been this happy ever before in this lifetime. Thanks for your love, Rohini! I looked up and sighed. Thank you, great heavens! My reliving journey has been more beautiful than my own real life so far. I smiled, handing the empty glass back to Mom, who kissed my forehead, massaged my hair, and wished me all the very best for my exams.
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“What’s your CGPA?”, texted I, asking Rohini. Our exams were done, followed by a two-week-long vacation, and finally, the results were out!
“You?”
“8.7”
“Cool! I haven’t received my results yet”, said she, sending out two sad emojis.
Is Dhilip falling for Rohini?
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