Echoes of a Chance Encounter ~ A RuNak Five-Shot – Chapter 3

Misunderstandings

As the sun shined brightly in the early morning sky Aniruddh was woken up by the slow chirping of birds outside. When he opened his eyes, the first thing he got to see was Jhanak’s face innocently smiling in her sleep.  A smile passed on Aniruddh’s face when he saw that innocent smile thinking it was a beautiful dream. He was about to run his fingers onto Jhanak’s hair when all of a sudden he realized it was the reality and not a dream. He immediately got up from Jhanak’s lap waking her up. He asked her, “When did I fall asleep yesterday?” Jhanak signs him, “You started dozing off while seeing the photos” He asks her, “And why didn’t you wake me up when I fell onto your lap?” She signs him, “You were really tired by that time yesterday and you looked really peaceful on my lap as if you had never got such a peaceful sleep for days.” Aniruddh reminisces his peaceful moments of slumber last night and realized that Jhanak was indeed right, he had never been able to sleep so peacefully as he did last night on her lap. He was surprised at that very thought and looked quizzically at Jhanak, “What connection do I have with her? What is pulling me towards her? Why do I feel so good when I am with her?” (Ni..ni..sa..sa..ri…ga…ma…pa..ga.. Jhanak-Aniruddh romantic song plays in the background) As Aniruddh stared dotingly into Jhanak’s eyes pondering over these questions in his head, there was a sound of a door creaking. Jhanak signs to Aniruddh, “I think Shrabani Mashi has woken up, please go before she comes here.” Jhanak makes Aniruddh quickly stand on his feet and runs towards her big window to open it. She signs Aniruddh to exit fast. Aniruddh climbs through the window and jumps outside but before Jhanak could close the window, he catches her hand and asks, “Listen you didn’t tell me your name!! And when shall we meet next?” Jhanak was taken aback by the sudden oncoming of questions as she had never thought that Aniruddh Bose, the Aniruddh Bose would be interested to know who she was and when will they meet next.” Jhanak told herself, “I’m just an ordinary girl and there would be thousands of ordinary girls like me who would be his fans, then why is that he is so keen to know who I am and when will we meet next.” As Jhanak kept mulling over these things, she hears sounds of footsteps coming towards her room. She signs quickly to Aniruddh, “Today is my birthday!! Come back to my house in the evening. I will tell you everything.” On saying that, she closes the window immediately. Aniruddh lets out a smile saying, “Happy birthday dear fan!” and silently leaves from there. While on the other side, Shrabani Mashi had come to Jhanak’s room and affectionately hugged her saying, “Happy birthday my girl! You have turned 21 today!! Why are you still in these clothes? Go get ready fast!! Don’t we have to go to the temple?” Jhanak nods compliantly. Shrabani Mashi pats on her cheek and leaves from there. After Shrabani Mashi leaves the room, Jhanak slowly opened the window and looked outside. Aniruddh was already gone however Jhanak blushed reminiscing the moment he caught her hand and asked who she was and when they would meet next?” (Ni..ni..sa..sa..ri…ga…ma…pa..ga.. Jhanak-Aniruddh romantic song plays in the background) Does that mean Aniruddh Bose is interested in me?

Aniruddh’s residence

Aniruddh sneaks inside cautiously wearing a cap and a mask. He always kept safety measures with him in his blazer and pocket to hide from the public. Right then, someone catches his shoulder. Aniruddh jerks in fear and was relieved to find it was Ravi Dada. Ravi asks him, “Sir, where had you been last night? I searched for you everywhere but could not find you.” Aniruddh smiles reminiscing meeting Jhanak and spending those cute moments with her last night. Ravi Dada notices the smile on his face and asks him, “Sir, you are smiling? Then, surely there is something good which happened last night. What is it, Sir? Tell me!!” Aniruddh smiled blushingly and said, “Last night was an adventure Ravi Dada, a very sweet adventure.” Aniruddh was like a son for Ravi and when he saw that, Aniruddh was really cheerful about something, he felt really happy about it and wanted to know the reason. He asks Aniruddh, “Tell me about your sweet adventure Sir” Just at that time, Ravi’s phone beeps signaling receiving of a message. Aniruddh did not have his phone with him because last night when he went out of the car to talk to Arshi Mukherjee, he had left his phone in the car and could not take it as he was on the run. Ravi opens his phone to see the message and was shocked on seeing it. Aniruddh sees his shocked expression and asks him, “What is the matter Dada?” Ravi looks on.

Jhanak’s home

Jhanak’s dressed elegantly comes to the living room to meet Shrabani Mashi. Shrabani was enchanted seeing Jhanak’s beauty and wards off all evil sight from her. Shrabani asks Jhanak, “What is the matter Jhanak? Today you are glowing all the more!!” Jhanak blushes recalling her moments with Aniruddh last night and tries to hide her emotions from Shrabani Mashi signing her, “It’s getting late, shouldn’t we go?” Shrabani nods and as they were all set to go to the temple; Shrabani receives a call from one of their neighbors. The neighbor informs Shrabani, “Check the news” Shrabani asks her, “Why what is the matter?” The neighbor, “Check the news, you will understand yourself.” Shrabani was confused but however switches on the Television to know what the matter was. Both Jhanak and Shrabani were astounded seeing the news. On every news channel were the photos of Aniruddh sleeping on Jhanak’s lap. Many news portal claimed that Jhanak was Aniruddh’s mistress, others claimed them to be in a secret relationship and there were stories so on and so forth flourishing from every news channel. Jhanak breaks down into tears on seeing all the uproar and tarnishing of her image with Aniruddh in the news channels. Shrabani hugs her gently and tells her, “Don’t worry Jhanak, I know you have done nothing wrong. We will surely come out of this situation.” Then she takes Jhanak’s face in her palms and asks her, “Now tell me how did this happen?” Jhanak is about to explain everything to her but before she could, there was a roar of news reporters at their doorstep. All of them wanted to speak with Jhanak and shouted out, “Miss. Jhanak Chaterjee what is your relationship with Aniruddh Bose? How long you both have been in a relationship? etc. etc. Jhanak gets nervous hearing those noises from the news reporters and hugs Shrabani even more tightly. Shrabani, however, excuses herself and goes towards the news reporters to calm them down. Jhanak cries more bitterly seeing Shrabani trying to tackle the situation and turns around to go to her room when she sees Aniruddh standing in front of her.

Aniruddh eyes had grown red in wrath. He catches her hand, pulls her and drags her into her room. Once they reach Jhanak’s room, he throws her onto her bed and starts screaming at her. “How dare you use my name?” Jhanak gets up from the bed and tries explaining to him in gestures that she is not responsible for all the mess but Aniruddh pays no heed to her. He angrily tells her, “I thought you are not like the other girls!! I thought you were different. I was attracted by the naivety on your face and felt that you held the same pain as mine of losing your loved and dear ones but I was WRONG!!! You are just like the other girls!!! You want to use the image of a star like me and become popular and congratulations to you there you are, you have got what you wanted!!” Jhanak clutches her throat and gestures swearing of her innocence but Aniruddh ignores all that and leaves from there saying, “I never want to see your face once again in my life ever. To hell to do with all those moments we shared last night, to hell to do with all the connection we felt for each other, to hell to do with every special emotion I felt for you. Goodbye forever!!” On saying that, he turns swiftly in anger and leaves from there. Jhanak was frozen fixed to her position.

Aniruddh comes out from the other door from the kitchen to avoid the media and as he is about to leave the vicinity, he gets a call from Arshi Mukherjee. He wonders, “Now what does this woman has to do with me?” As soon as he picks up the call, Arshi from the other side asks him, “How was my surprise?” Aniruddh, “Surprise? What surprise?” Arshi, “The news you are watching on the TV!!” Aniruddh was bewildered, “You created the whole chaos? But how did you know that I was in that house last night?” Arshi, “What did you think about Arshi Mukherjee? I keep my ears wide open to catch any news in town. Last night, when I was searching for you everywhere and could not find you even after searching for hours, I decided to give up and leave but at that moment, I saw one of the windows of that house open and saw the imprints of your shoes on it’s wall. I tried my luck and sneaked into that house and look what I had found “THE ANIRUDDH BOSE SLEEPING ON A STRANGER WOMAN’S LAP, Perfect way to break today’s news!!!” Aniruddh was thunderstruck and realized that he blamed and penalized Jhanak for a misunderstanding. He puts his phone down and runs inside. Arshi on the phone, “Hello, Hello, Are you there Aniruddh…” She hangs up the phone realizing there is nobody on the other side, rubs her nose and smiles craftily saying, “This is what you get when you play crooked with Arshi Mukherjee!!” (Arshi evil tone plays in the background)

Aniruddh rushes inside filled with remorse but by the time he reaches Jhanak’s room, she had fallen onto the floor gasping for breath. Jhanak had a panic attack when the man who she admires, her idol “The Aniruddh Bose” misunderstood her and behaved harshly with her. Aniruddh hurried inside to take Jhanak into his arms. Right at that very second, he hears a scream pronouncing “JHANAK!!!”. He turns around and was flabberghasted to see Shrabani Mashi pronouncing that name.

Aniruddh was dumbfounded on hearing that NAME because that name took him to that moment 3 years back when he wanted to end his life…that fatal moment which changed his life forever…

After all who was Jhanak in Aniruddh’s life?

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To be continued.