One day later…9 PM, evening…
Anamika knocked on the door of Aditya's cabin.
Aditya wasn't in his cabin at the time, so Anamika kept knocking, but there was no response from inside!
She slowly opened the door and peeked in. Not seeing Aditya there, she started walking toward Ruhi’s cabin.
Ruhi was checking some reports. Anamika was lost in thought, so seeing the door already open, she walked in without knocking and sat on the chair opposite Ruhi.
Seeing her, Ruhi jokingly said, “Yes, Teacher Ma’am… what brings you here now?”
Hearing this, Anamika looked at Ruhi and asked, “Has Aditya left?”
There was a strange calmness in Anamika’s voice, which made Ruhi reply more seriously, “Yes… I mean, he hasn’t gone home, but a client had invited him for dinner, so he went there!! I didn’t have much to do there, so I stayed back to finish some other work. Anyway, was there something you needed?”
Hearing this, Anamika stood up and said with a sweet smile, “No! Nothing important!! Actually, Saaniya’s here to pick me up, so I was going home. Thought I’d give today’s work update before leaving.”
Ruhi, with a confused expression, said, “Are you sure?!”
While leaving the cabin, Anamika said, “Yes! Sure! By the way… finish your work soon and come over to my place like yesterday! I’ll teach you the second lesson on portrait drawing tonight!”
Ruhi smiled and said, “Yes! I’ll finish my work and come soon!”
After Anamika left, Ruhi’s expression changed. She said to herself, “Even Aditya sir looked upset when he left… and now Anu…!! Did something happen between them?! But as far as I remember, they didn’t even meet today… and nothing special happened either!! Then…?!”
Meanwhile, Anamika came downstairs.
Saaniya was waiting with the car right outside the building. Seeing Anamika, she waved and said, “Hey…!! How was your day today?”
Anamika replied with a faint smile, “It was fine.”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Saaniya opened the back seat door, and Anamika got in.
Saaniya sat in the driver’s seat and started the car, heading toward home.
Anamika was quietly staring out of the window, lost in thought.
Saaniya noticed this in the rearview mirror. It felt strange to her.
Anamika usually liked drawing or listening to music in the car, but today, she was sitting silently.
Seeing this, Saaniya asked, “Anu… is there something you want to tell me?”
Still looking out the window, Anamika said, “No!! Nothing happened today, so what would I even tell you?!”
Saaniya: “So… do you wish something should have happened?”
To this, Anamika replied very calmly, “Don’t know!”
Saaniya found her behavior odd but didn’t say anything further — because she understood that Anamika wasn’t in the mood to answer anything right now.
Once they reached home, Anamika went straight to her room and Saaniya to the kitchen.
Saaniya began preparing dinner. After a while, Anamika joined her in the kitchen to help.
She was unusually quiet today.
Though Anamika was always quiet in front of the world, at home she was never like that.
Sometimes, Saaniya even had to bribe her with something to get her to shut up.
Saaniya quietly kept observing this change but didn’t say a word.
Around 10 PM, Ruhi also arrived at Anamika’s house.
She brought some pastries along, because last night, while joking around, Anamika had mentioned she loved sweet things — and now that she was teaching Ruhi to draw, Ruhi felt she should bring her something sweet in return.
Once everyone sat down to eat, Ruhi gave the pastries to Anamika and said, “Here’s your ‘guru dakshina’ from your student… please accept it!”
Anamika again gave a faint smile and said, “No! I don’t feel like eating sweets today!! Keep it in the fridge… If I feel hungry at night, I’ll eat it. Otherwise, I’ll have it in the morning.”
Hearing this, Ruhi’s excitement faded, but with a forced smile, she said, “Okay!! Anyway… yesterday we only learned the basics, but since we don’t have much time, I thought we should start with the main part.”
Hearing this, Saaniya asked, “What do you mean?”
To this, Ruhi smiled, pulled out her phone from her pocket, showed a photo of Aniket, and said, “I was thinking… why not start drawing Aniket sir directly? We can learn the basics along the way! After all… we don’t have much time!”
At that, Anamika, lost in thought, said, “Yeah… we don’t have time.”
Hearing this, Ruhi quickly added, “Exactly!! Two days have flown by in a blink! Now how will we manage in just five days?”
Anamika stood up and said, “You’re right…!”
Saaniya saw this and said, “Anu… finish your food!”
While walking to her room, Anamika said, “I’m done. I can’t eat anymore.”
And with that, she left for her room.
Seeing her walk away, both Saaniya and Ruhi were confused — and a little worried too.
Anamika had barely touched her food.
Saaniya asked Ruhi, “Did anything happen at the office?”
Ruhi replied, “Nothing much! Anu was in her cabin the whole day!”
Saaniya: “Did Aditya go to her cabin?”
Ruhi narrowed her eyes and said, “No!! And what do you mean by that?! Are you trying to say Anu’s mood is off because of Aditya sir…?”
Without expression, Saaniya said, “Yes, exactly! That’s what I want to know!!
By the way… don’t call her Anu. Only I call her that!”
Hearing this, Ruhi smiled and replied, “Nope!! Anu herself told me I can call her Anu!!
And one more thing… even if Aditya sir had met her, so what? He can never do anything that would hurt someone — especially Anu!!”
Saaniya took a deep breath and said, “First of all, I don’t agree with that!! Anu may have given you respect, but I haven’t… so don’t call her Anu!!
And secondly… well, I may not agree with you completely on that either, but it doesn’t bother me as much!!”
Ruhi was about to say something, but Saaniya stopped her, “Anyway, I’ll argue with you later about whether you can call her Anu or not!!
For now, I want to focus my energy on figuring out what exactly is bothering her!”
Ruhi made a face and said, “Fine!! Our debate is postponed for now.
By the way… even I was wondering the same — what exactly happened to Anu?!”
Hearing “Anu” again from Ruhi’s mouth, Saaniya turned and glared at her.
Ruhi just smiled to tease her.
Still… despite that, both were worried about the same thing.
What happened to Anamika?
Why is she upset?
Will Saaniya and Ruhi be able to figure it out?
