Chapter 21: Chapter 21

Akash’s POV

Hearing Ehan, I got utterly shocked. The Ehan I knew would never fall for a girl. He just loathed girls for some reason.

And that same arrogant guy, Ehan Sinha was asking for help and admitting himself that he was in love.

Since I knew him from childhood days, I could feel he wasn’t lying.

I wanted to help him as he was there for me when I needed him. He was my best friend. I gave him that dare with a girl and the girl turned out to be Naira.

I could have stopped him but I didn’t. I shouldn’t blame him only as I was the same or even more guilty in all this.

So giving it a good thought, I decided to help Ehan and forwarded to talk to Naira but deep in my heart, I was afraid of her reaction.

I stood in front of her room and uttered under my breath, “For my insecurity, I couldn’t get in their way when I got sure both of them were in love with each other.” and with this thought, I knocked on the door.

But to my utter surprise the door got wide open. Being confused, I entered the room only to find it empty.

It didn’t take much of time for me to understand where Naira could be now and forwarded towards the place.

The swimming pool lounge.

As expected she was there, her legs in water and she staring at the sky. I knew she was sad and remembering the past.

Her parents' accident was a dreadful incident of her life and then Ehan and his fake love just shattered her to the core.

I have noticed this few times. Around us, she became a smiling girl but alone the same broken girl.

I tried to be there for her but I couldn’t bring up the matter of Ehan being afraid.

Taking a deep breath, I got near her. Getting my legs under water, I sat beside her.

Both of us were silent until she spoke up, “Did you really know Ehan back then?”

I got paused for few moments though I was here to speak about the matter itself.

I heard myself uttering in lower tone, “He was my best friend.”

She gave me a confused look as she uttered, “Then why didn't I see you two together not even for once?”

I thought for a moment what to say then spoke up what the reason actually were..

“I didn’t want to let you know about us and besides I got busy with my project thesis. So we didn’t hang out often that time.”

She kept staring at me and I was getting mentally prepared to answer her next question which I thought she was about to shot at me.

But she didn’t rather getting me shocked, she got uttering, “That’s okay, brother. And in that case, you two should get along. I don’t have any problem with that. Because of me, you don’t have to end your friendship for me.”

She again looked at the sky and kept staring at it blankly making it difficult for me to get what was going on in her mind.

“Ehan is not that bad Naira. He was out of his mind for some moment then. But now he is sorry for the past time.” hearing me, Naira gave me an all shocked look and shot the question  which I expected earlier, “By any chance did you know about that dare?”

I got paused again. Getting hold of myself, I was about to utter something but got stopped as Naira got uttering, “I don’t want to discuss on this topic, Akash. Anyways I am feeling sleepy. I should get some sleep now.”

She got her legs out of the water and forwarded towards the entrance of the mansion leaving me all alone with my agony.

Naira’s POV

I could feel in what direction our conversation was going. Out of all the people, I didn’t think Akash would try to convince me about Ehan after knowing everything.

But it was too late. Neither I could forget the past, nor I could forgive him.

I got back to my room without dragging our conversation and getting changed, I got on the bed.

Soon sleep engulfed me since I was really tired and got me into a dream which I wanted the least.

The next day I got finished my work in the office before going for the meeting with Sinha group of industries because I wasn’t sure if I would be able to concentrate on my work after meeting him.

I didn’t know why but I was getting a strong vibe that Ehan was up to something to get things troublesome for me given the last day’s incident at my place.

I wasn’t sure of his intention nor did I cared to know.

Arriving his office, I found him in the meeting room already with his PA maybe.

Today I wasn’t accompanied by my whole team but just a one member, Derek. We were supposed to brief him about our marketing plan.

Through the all time of the meeting, Ehan was all formal and at last got uttering, "Okay then, thank you very much. You guys can take your leave."

I felt somewhat relieved as my assumptions got proved wrong. Derek and I both rose on our feet, intending to leave.

Only to get stopped as Ehan called my name, "No wait, Miss Claire."

I turned around and furrowed my brows.

"The list." His gaze moved to the file in front of him, "You didn't explain me the criteria. On what grounds you've selected the people in this list?"

He went on, "How about if you stay a little longer here and explain me the plan on behalf of your teammates?"

“Okay then. You stay here. I am going ahead.” I slightly nodded and Derek left from there.

My frown deepened as he looked at his PA and he left the meeting room also leaving me alone with Ehan in the meeting room.

He walked towards me and sat on the table at a little distance from me and spoke up, “Continue.”

Glaring at him, I spoke up, “What are you trying to do?”

Shrugging off my question, he shot one with a smiling face, “Are you busy this evening?”

I kept staring at him without answering and then spoke up, “I guess you already got cleared about the list. I should leave then. Parth is waiting for me.” His smile got faded away at my last sentence but I didn't care a bit. I stood up from my seat and forwarded to leave.

I lied as I thought he would give it a break hearing this but I got proved wrong as he uttered calmly, “That's a lie.”

Casting him a glare, I forwarded towards the door to leave.

Author’s P.O.V.

Ehan got the door closed with his one hand blocking Naira to get out from the meeting room.

Naira turned to him giving him a deadly glare which Ehan didn’t care a bit.

“You can't keep running away from me", Ehan said, his face was all serious as his eyes bored into Naira's.

Standing her ground, Naira uttered using her utmost effort to look confident, "I am not running away."

Ehan went on uttering all confidently, "Yes, you are. And eventually you're going to have to stop. And I'm going to be there no matter how far you go. Because I know"

At this point Naira blurted out sternly interrupting him, "Don't even think like you still know me well when actually you don't even have any idea about this new me."

Ehan's confused eyes met Naira's as she got uttering with an all blank face, "I have put back my pieces differently."

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